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27th International Conference on
Passive and Low Energy Architecture
ARCHITECTURE
& SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
Magali Bodart
Arnaud Evrard
Editors
> Proceedings vol. 1
ORGANISED BY ARCHITECTURE & CLIMAT
PRESSES
UNIVERSITAIRES
DE LOUVAIN
UCL
PLEA 2011
ARCHITECTURE
& SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
Magali Bodart
Arnaud Evrard
Editors
Volume 1
Conference Proceedings
of the 27
th
International Conference
on Passive and Low Energy Architecture
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
PLEA 2011
ARCHITECTURE
& SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
Volume 1 of (2)
Conference Proceedings
of the 27
th
International Conference
on Passive and Low Energy Architecture
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011

Presses universitaires de Louvain, 2011 Registration of copyright : D/2011/9964/18
ISBN : 978-2-87463-276-1
ISBN download version (pdf) : 978-2-87463-278-5
Printed in Belgium All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, adapted or translated, in any form or by
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PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
(VOLUME 1)
FOREWORD .................................................................................................................................................................10
Magali Bodart, arnaud Evrard
PLEA YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW ..........................................................................................................13
JEffrEy Cook, SiMoS yannaS
PRACTICE INTERACTION BETWEEN ACTORS
Toward Sustainable Architecture ...................................................................................................................................21
kriStEl dE MyttEnaErE
Towards More Sustainable Neighbourhoods: Are Good Practices Reproducible And Extensible?
A Review of a Few Existing Sustainable Neighbourhoods..........................................................................................27
annE-franoiSE MariquE, Sigrid rEitEr
Tracking Design and Actual Energy Use: CarbonBuzz, an RIBA CIBSE Platform ........................................................33
Judit kiMpian, SophiE ChiSholM
Identity of Sustainability: from Technique to the Sensory and Experiential ...................................................................39
nEvEEn haMza
Designing For Only Energy: Suboptimisation ................................................................................................................45
ronald rovErS, katlEEn dE flandEr, lEo goMManS, WEndy BroErS.
EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
Multidisciplinary Master Zero Energy Building - Design Project based on Workshops for Professionals .....................53
WiM zEilEr
Sustainable Environmental Design Consultancy: Practices Informed And Practical Outcomes ...................................59
MiChaEl SMith-MaSiS, JorgE rodriguEz, Maria MEna-dEfErME
What Do Young People Tell Us About Sustainable Lifestyles When They Design Sustainable Schools? ....................65
andrEa WhEElEr, dino BoughlagEM, MaSoud MalEkzadEh
Academic Advocacy: Teaching Outside The Academy ..................................................................................................71
aliSon kWok, WaltEr grondzik, BruCE haglund
Is Solar Design a Straitjacket for Architecture? .............................................................................................................77
tiffany otiS
Designing for Sustainability: Pedagogical Challenges and Opportunities ....................................................................83
andrEW giBSon, SErgio altoMontE, pEtEr ruthErford
Teaching Vernacular Architecture and Rehabilitation in Relation to Bioclimatic Design Elements ................................89
Maria philokyprou
Cooperative Design in a Postgraduate Distance Learning Scheme in Brazil :
A Case Study on a more Sustainable Low-cost Housing Proposal ...............................................................................95
M. a. SattlEr, l. M. S. andradE, r. r. M. p. BarroS, g. S. tEnorio
New Opportunities in Teaching Sustainability in Spain by Competences ....................................................................101
Maria lopEz dE aSiain, pilar pErEz dEl rEal, JaiME lopEz dE aSiain
A Prototype from the Solar Decathlon Competition Becomes an Educational Building in Sustainable Architecture ...107
M. Carolina hErnndEz-MartinEz, CSar BEdoya, alfonSo garCia-SantoS, JaviEr nEila, EStEfania CaaMao
Passive and Low Energy Architecture in Education of Contemporary Architecture ....................................................113
BarBara WidEra
Dissemination of the Brazilian Code for Building Energy Effciency Labeling Through a Distance Course
in a Virtual Learning Environment ...............................................................................................................................119
fErnando o. r. pErEira, aliCE C. pErEira, raphaEla W. fonSECa, fErnando C. pirES , luza C. CaStro,
Mary a. yaMakaWa
Actively Teaching Passive Heating & Cooling .............................................................................................................125
thoMaS a. gEntry
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ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability Indicators in Buildings - Identifying Key Performance Indicators ..........................................................133
lonE fEifEr
Do Current Environmental Assessment Methods Provide a Good Measure of Sustainability?
Or what should be a Good Measure for Green Building Standard? ............................................................................139
Edna Shaviv
Urban Sustainability Assessment Systems - How Appropriate are Global Sustainability Assesment System? ..........145
diMitra kyrkou, MEliSSa taylor, SofiE pElSMakErS, roland karthauS
Assessment of Sustainable Buildings - A case for Enabling Post Occupancy Verifcation ..........................................151
JuliE gWilliaM
What is the Relationship between Design Excellence and Building Performance?
With Particular Reference to Education Buildings .......................................................................................................157
yanti ChEn, daniEla BESSEr JElvES, Brian ford
Sustainable Architecture And Sustainable Design Assessment Tools .........................................................................163
WiM zEilEr
Analyzing the Application of Energy Effciency Labelling to Hotel Buildings ...............................................................169
MyrthES MarCElE fariaS doS SantoS, luCiana haMada, riCardo WargaS dE faria
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
A Pattern Langage Design Tool for Water Effcient Gardens - A Knowledge Based Computer-Aided Design
(KBCAD) tool for Water Effcient Landscape Design ...................................................................................................177
daphna drori, Edna Shaviv
Urban River Microclimates ..........................................................................................................................................183
aBigail athWay, StEvE SharplES
Design Alterations in Urban Self-built Houses in Campinas, Brazil:
Analysis of their Effects on Ventilation Through CFD ..................................................................................................189
MariEla olivEira, luCila laBaki, paulo vatavuk
Microclimate in Urban Forest Fragments ....................................................................................................................195
ChriStianE daCanal, luCila ChEBEl laBaki
Local Adaptation Processes to Climate Variability, Towards Living with Floods in the Padma River Bank Areas:
The Case of Bangladesh .............................................................................................................................................201
aMrEEn ShaJahan, youSuf rEJa
Towards Resilient Urban Ecosystems .........................................................................................................................207
hugo Soriano
Sustainable Urban Planning of High Density Cities by Urban Climatic Mapping
An Experience from Kaohsiung, Taiwan ......................................................................................................................213
Chao rEn, ka lun lau, kaM po yiu, EdWard ng
Urban Climatic Map and STEVE Tool for Sustainable Urban Planning in Singapore ..................................................219
StEvE kardinal JuSuf, nyuk hiEn Wong, Chun liang tan
City Planning With Urban Wind in Complex Coastal Cities An Experience of Hong Kong ......................................227
EdWard ng, Xipo an
Suburban Neighbourhood Adaptation for a Changing Climate
Developing Climate Change Scenarios for Suburbs ...................................................................................................233
raJat gupta, MatthEW grEgg
Urban Morphology And Temperature Mapping Comparative Study - Case Study: Singapores Commercial Aera .....239
nyuk hiEn Wong, StEvE kardinal JuSuf, roSita SaMSudin, MarCEl ignatiuS
Trees And Heat Fluxes: How Much do they Contribute to the Energy Balance at Urban Spaces? ............................245
loydE viEira dE aBrEu, luCila ChEBEl laBaki
Forecasting Carbon Emissions of the UAE Residential SectorA Case Study of Abu Dhabi .......................................251
haSSan radhi, StEvE SharplES
Environmental Design of a Building - Climatic Context ...............................................................................................257
CharlinE WEiSSEnStEin, JEan-ClaudE Bignon
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Interdisciplinary Methodological Approach for Urban Water Management in Densely Urbanized Areas
Within Brussels - Geology, History and Architectural Engineering ..............................................................................263
valriE Mahaut, kEvin dE Bondt, Chlo dElignE
Field Survey on Water-saving Effciency of Roof Rainwater Harvesting System in Taiwan .......................................269
ruEy-lung hWang, han-hSi liang, ruEi-ling ChEn, Shiu-ya ShuE
Analysis of Seasonal Differences in Microclimate Formed in a Local Small City of Paddy Field Areas
A New Approach using Airborne Remote Sensing and CFD Simulation .....................................................................273
takaShi aSaWa, akira hoyano, taMon yoShida, MaSahito takata
Rethinking the Green Roof - A proposal of Grey Water Phytodepuration System ......................................................279
alBErto gMEz gonzlEz, inMaCulada Morgado BaCa, Mariana ChanaMpa, CSar BEdoya frutoS,
ConSuElo aCha roMn, JaviEr nEila gonzlEz.
Measuring the Effects of Urban Form on Urban Microclimate .....................................................................................285
MatthiaS irgEr
PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY
(IN AND BETWEEN CITIES)
Improving Areas Around Railway Stations to Promote Changes in the Mode of Transportation .................................293
yvES hanin, vroniquE ClEttE, aMliE daEMS, thoMaS daWanCE, Martin grandJEan, vroniquE rouSSEauX
Creating a Sustainable Transport System - a Study of the Comprehensive Mobility Plan, Issues thereof
and Policies Adopted in Pune Urban Region in India ..................................................................................................297
JayaShrEE dEShpandE
Urban Mobility at the City of Joinville, Brazil, Focusing on Bicycle Integration with Public Transportation .................301
ana MirthES haCkEnBErg, MarCio liSBoa, gEorgE hEnriquE rangEl CoSta, EdSon MurakaMi,
fErnando huMEl lafratta
The Signifcance of Gauging Stakeholder Interests in Energy Saving and Environmental Management
n Green Hospitals ........................................................................................................................................................307
phanChalath Suriyothin, WannEE Wattanapailin
The Code of Sustainable Homes As a Viable Driver Towards a Zero Carbon Future in UK .......................................313
hEBa ElSharkaWy, pEtEr ruthErford, roBin WilSon
A Model for Transdisciplinary Design in Passive Illumination ......................................................................................319
SaSCha BohnEnBErgEr, lEannE zilka, Jordi BEnEyto-fErrE, david E. MainWaring
MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Straw Bale Construction; a Solution for Low Cost Energy Effcient Rural Housing in the Earthquake
Affected Regions of Central Southern Chile? ..............................................................................................................327
ChriStophEr J. WhitMan, daniEla fErnndEz holloWay
An Environmental Assessment of Insulation Materials and Techniques for Exterior Period Timber-frame Walls .......333
hanS valkhoff
The Thermal Behaviour of Cross-Laminated Timber Construction and its Resilience to Summertime Overheating ..339
oWEn JoWEtt
PCM Analysis as a Strategy in Passive Thermal Conditioning in Floors .....................................................................345
iSaBEl CErn, M. Carolina hErnndEz-MartinEz, CarMEn MontEJo, JaviEr nEila
New high-performance insulation materials:Aerogels. Case study: new Munch Museum in Oslo ..............................351
Maria MEizoSo, JoSE CarloS gonzalES
Application of Cool Materials on Solar Protection Devices to Reduce Energy Consumption and
Improve Thermal Comfort Conditions in Residential Buildings ...................................................................................357
MiChElE zinzi, EMiliano CarniElo, StEfano agnoli
The Future Life Cycle of Intelligent Facades ...............................................................................................................363
Craig lEE Martin, Craig Stott
Hemp Lime Bio-composite in Construction - A study into the Performance and Application
of Hemp Lime Bio-composite as a Construction Material in Ireland ............................................................................369
patriCk daly
Impact of Buildings Wall Lifespan on Greenhouse Gas Index According to the Technical Solutions Chosen ............375
MarC Mquignon, luC adolphE, frEdEriC BonnEaud
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Waste Management - Various aspects in city of Pune, India.......................................................................................381
arti patil
The Application of Techno-mud In Residential Buildings In Chile - A Critical Review ...............................................387
MirEntXu ulloa, BEnSon lau
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
The Representative Day Technique in the Analysis of Thermal Comfort in Outdoor Urban Spaces ...........................397
roBErta CoCCi grifoni, giovanni latini, SiMonE taSCini
An optimized model for a thermally comfortable Dutch urban square .........................................................................403
Sanda lEnzholzEr
Exploring Outdoor Climates and Urban Design in a Historic Square in Dublin ...........................................................409
gota SzCS, gErald MillS
Thermal Comfort in Urban Public Spaces: Case Studies in Pedestrian Streets
in Cities of Sao Paulo State, Brazil ..............................................................................................................................415
Maria SolangE gurgEl dE CaStro fontES, CriStianE daCanal, Carolina lotuffo BuEno-BartholoMEi,
MarialEna nikolopoulou, luCila ChEBEl laBaki
Elaboration of a Methodological Guide of Sound Ambiences to Evaluate Urban Soundscapes:
the ASTUCE Research Project....................................................................................................................................421
CathErinE SEMidor, hEnry torguE, JaCquES BEauMont, alinE BarlEt, JuliEn dElaS, CCilE rEgnault, flora gBEdJi
Adaptive Outdoor Comfort Model Calibrations for a Semitropical Region...................................................................427
MatE thitiSaWat, kaSaMa polakit, JEan-Martin CaldiEron, gianCarlo MangonE
Proposal of an Outdoor Thermal Comfort Index: Empirical Verifcation in the Subtropical Climate ............................433
lEonardo MarquES MontEiro, MarCia pEinado aluCCi
Evaluation of Comfort Conditions and Sustainable Design of Urban Open Spaces in Crete ......................................439
Marianna tSitoura, MiChailidou Marina, thEoChariS tSoutSoS
Urban Heat Island Study on Building Morphology related with Micro-climate Condition
and Energy Consumption within Singapore Commercial Area ....................................................................................445
nyuk hiEn Wong, StEvE kardinal JuSuf, MarCEl ignatiuS
The Infuence of Occupation Modes on Building Heating Loads: the Case of a Detached House Located
in a Suburban Area ......................................................................................................................................................451
tatiana dE MEEStEr, annE-franoiSE MariquE, Sigrid rEitEr
A Review of Thermal Comfort Criteria for Naturally Ventilated Buildings in Hot-Humid Climate
with Reference to the Adaptive Model .........................................................................................................................457
doriS hooi ChyEE toE, tEtSu kuBota
Comfort Temperatures And Comfort Range In Low Cost Dwellings In Arid Climate ...................................................463
luiS CarloS hErrEra, gaBriEl gMEz-azpEitia, pavEl ruiz, adolfo goMEz
Occupant Behaviour and Energy Performance in Dwellings: A Case Study in the Netherlands .................................469
MErvE BEdir, EvErt haSSElaar, laurE itard
Occupant Interaction with the Interior Environment in Greek Dwellings During Summer ...........................................475
aikatErini drakou, ariS tSangraSSouliS, aStrid roEtzEl
Exploiting Adaptation and Transitions - Learning from Environments beyond the Boundaries of Confort ..................481
natalia kafaSSiS
Financial Motivation to Improve Thermal Comfort and Reduce Carbon in Offce Buildings ........................................487
JoShua katES
The Summer Performance of the BASF House ..........................................................................................................493
luCElia rodriguES, Mark gillot
Green School: Environmental Performance and Perception - A Post Occupancy Evaluation
of Two Singapore Schools ...........................................................................................................................................499
nurul ain Saadon, BEng-kiang tan
Importance of Occupants Adaptive Behaviour for Sustainable Thermal Comfort in Apartments in India ...................505
Madhavi indraganti
The Climate/Comfort Comparison And The Basis Of Sustainable Design
Impact of Climate Change and Technological Development .......................................................................................511
luCa finoCChiaro, Mark Murphy, torE WigEnStad, annE grEtE hEStnES
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Delivering Quality Indoor Environment in Houses - The Potentials and Impact of Building Materials
for Facade Design in Cairo ..........................................................................................................................................517
WaEl ShEta, StEvE SharplES
Developing Sustainable School Design in Iran - A thermal comfort survey of a secondary school in Tehran .............523
Sahar zahiri, StEvE SharplES, haSiM altan
A Case Study into the Relation Between Temperature and Work Productivity in Offces in the UK ............................529
laura JonES, piEtEr dE WildE
Fading Shades of Green Perceptions and Responses to Working in a Sustainable Offce ........................................535
ida g. MonfarEd, StEvE SharplES
Defnition of Occupant Behaviour Patterns with Respect to Ventilation: An Approach to the Summer
Thermal Comfort of Apartments from the Real Estate Market in Santiago de Chile ...................................................541
fElipE EnCinaS pino
Thermal Comfort Temperature in Outdoors for Extreme Warm Dry Climate ...............................................................547
gonzalo BoJrquEz-MoralES, gaBriEl gMEz-azpEitia, rafaEl garCa-CuEto, pavEl ruiz-torrES, anBal luna-lEn
Thermal Comfort in Hospital Environments .................................................................................................................553
la y. doBBErt, dEMStEnES f. Silva filho, CriStianE daCanal, ClEidE a.M. Silva
Performance of Outdoor Thermal Comfort and Indoor Heat Flux of Rooftop Lawn Greening
in the Subtropical Climate............................................................................................................................................559
kuo-tSang huang, Chuang-hung lin, han-hSi liang
Redefning Pavilions:
Improving Upon Outdoor Comfort Conditions A Performance Study of London Pavilions ..........................................565
EllEn CaMEron, MilEna StoJkoviC, konStantina Saranti, olga Conto
Thermal Strategies for Economical Dwellings in Warm Dry Climates in Mexico .........................................................571
irEnE MarinCiC, JoS ManuEl oChoa, Maria guadalupE alpuChE
Subjective Thermal Comfort in Urban Spaces in the Warm-humid City of Guayaquil, Ecuador .................................577
Erik JohanSSon, MoohaMMEd WaSiM yahia
Comparison of the EN 15251 and Ashrae Standard 55 Adaptive Thermal Comfort Models in the Context of a
Mediterranean Climate ................................................................................................................................................583
aStrid roEtzEl, ariS tSangraSSouliS, aikatErini drakou, guStavo dE SiquEira
The Infuence of Environment on Peoples Thermal Comfort in Outdoor Urban Spaces in Hot Dry Climates
The example of Damascus, Syria................................................................................................................................589
MoohaMMEd WaSiMyahia, Erik JohanSSon
Statistical Model Evaluation and Calibrations for Outdoor Comfort Assessment in South Florida ..............................595
JEan-Martin CaldiEron, MatE thitiSaWat kaSaMa polakit, gianCarlo MangonE
Adaptive Principles for Thermal Comfort in Dwellings From Comfort Temperatures to Avoiding Discomfort ..............601
noortJE aldErS, StanlEy kurvErS, EriC van dEn haM
HVAC, EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN)
Investigation of Space-heating Strategies in Very Low-energy Houses Using Dynamic Simulations Case
of Decentralized Wood Stoves Approaches ................................................................................................................609
laurEnt gEorgES, CathErinE MaSSart
Hybrid Ventilation as an Energy Effcient Solution for Low Energy Residential Buildings ...........................................615
pEtEr foldBJErg, thorBJrn fring aSMuSSEn, karStEn duEr
Design Strategies for Community-Scale Renewable Energy Solutions ......................................................................621
liSa d. iulo, rohan r. hakSar, SEth BluMSaCk
Technologies and Sustainable Policies for Decreasing Energy Consumption in Buildings in Greece ........................627
n. papaManoliS, M. Mandalaki
Building Regional Intelligence .....................................................................................................................................631
ChriStophEr doMin, larry MEdlin, BrEnt d. vandEr WErf
Development of the Solar Cooling in the Mediterranean Area ....................................................................................639
franCESCo patania, antonio gagliano, franCESCo noCEra, aldo galESi
Methodological development of seasonal cooling energy needs by introducing ground-cooling systems ..................645
Marta olivEira pano, hEldEr gonalvES
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Building Integrated Micro- generation Systems for Cooling, Heating, and Dehumidifcation in hot and Humid
Climate Zones .............................................................................................................................................................651
thoMaS SpiEgElhaltEr
Approach to Classifcation and Evaluation of Naturally Cooled Buildings ...................................................................659
gianluCa Cadoni
Passive & Hybrid Cooling for Production Single-Family Housing................................................................................665
thoMaS a. gEntry
BUILDING PHYSICS (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
The Infuence of Thermal Properties of The Envelope Components on the Thermal Performance
of Naturally-ventilated Houses.....................................................................................................................................673
EnEdir ghiSi, ana gaBriEla S.a. CardoSo
Effect of two Exterior Louver Systems on Solar Transmittance and Indoor Thermal Conditions: Experiment and
Simulations ..................................................................................................................................................................679
aBEl taBlada dE la torrE, dirk SaElEnS, Staf roElS
Hygrothermal Performance of Vegetation on Cladding and Translucent Faade Systems .........................................685
JaviEr alonSo, franCESCa oliviEri, JaviEr nEila, CSar BEdoya
Housing Beyond The Technical, a Social Realisation - a Comparative Examination of Energy Effcient Housing ......691
phillipa MarSh
Turn the Gas off
Zero-energy Achievement Based on Free Floating Internal Conditions Between Health-related Limits .....................697
gEoffrEy van MoESEkE
Thermal Performance Evaluation of Four Low Cost Houses in Santa Maria - Brazil ..................................................703
gianE grigolEtti, rEnata rotta, SMila MullEr
Performance of Shading Device in Classrooms of Zero Energy Building in Singapore ..............................................709
nyuk hiEn Wong, Erna tan
Solar Chimney System of Zero Energy Building in Singapore - Ventilation Performances in Classroom ...................715
nyuk hiEn Wong, alEX yong kWang tan
Delayed Gratifcation: Interseasonal Heat Storage, as a Carbon-Neutral Refurbishment Strategy
for 19th Century Dwellings ..........................................................................................................................................721
grEg kEEffE
Residential Buildings with Green Walls - Advantages, Disadvantages and Symbols Evoked by the Use
of Ficus pumila and Parthenocissus tricuspidata Species...........................................................................................727
MariEnE valESan, BEatriz fEdrizzi, MiguEl aloySio SattlEr
Energy Effciency of a Pre-vegetated Modular Facade Prototype ...............................................................................733
Maria iSaBEl touCEda, franCESCa oliviEri, JaviEr nEila
Passive Strategies for Roofng Design in Costa Rica - Shading, Form and Materiality ..............................................739
MiChaEl SMith-MaSiS
The Application of Passive Downdraught Evaporative Cooling in Hot and Dry Climate of China ...............................745
huang Xuan, Brian ford
Evaluation of Passive Cooling in Low Energy Police Offce ........................................................................................751
hildE BrEESCh, BraM dE MEEStEr, ralf klEin, alEXiS vErSElE
Sustainability And Heritage Conservation
Assessment of Environmental Performance and Thermal Comfort Conditions Of Historic Churches ........................757
Magdalini MakrodiMitri, JaMES W. p. CaMpBEll
BUILDING PHYSICS (DAYLIGHTING)
Daylight Performance Assessment and Design Strategies in the Adjoining Spaces of Atrium Buildings ....................765
Jiangtao du, StEvE SharplES
Daylight and Solar Control in Building: A New Angle Selective See-thorough PV-faade for Solar Control ...............771
franCESCo frontini
A Method for Integrating Visual Comfort Criteria in Daylighting Design of School ......................................................777
BEatriz pidErit, Magali Bodart, toMaS noraMBuEna
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A Novel Louver System for Increasing Daylight Usage in Buildings............................................................................783
kEvin thuot, MarilynE andErSEn
The Evaluation of Solar Energy Potential and Energy needs for Heating and Lighting Using LIDAR Data
Applications on two Real Built Up-Areas .....................................................................................................................789
virginia gori, Carla BaloCCo, Claudio CarnEiro, gillES dESthiEuX, EugEnio MorEllo
An Interactive Performance-Based Expert System for Daylighting Design .................................................................795
JaiME M. l. gagnE, MarilynE andErSEn, lESliE k. norford
A Comprehensive Method to Determine Performance Metrics for Complex Fenestration Systems ...........................801
ShrEya davE, MarilynE andErSEn
Balancing the Energy Savings and Daylighting Performance of External Perforated Solar Screens
Evaluation of Screen Opening Proportions .................................................................................................................807
ahMEd ShErif, hanan SaBry, aBBaS El-zafarany, raSha arafa, tarEk rakha, MohaMEd anEES
The Performance Evaluation of an Advanced Daylighting System in Multi-story Offce Buildings:
Measurement and Simulation ......................................................................................................................................813
JianXin hu, Jiangtao du, WaynE plaCE
Investigation of 3D Projection for Qualitative Evaluation of Daylit Spaces ..................................................................819
CoraliE CauWErtS, Magali Bodart
The Potential Daylight Penetration in Deep Plan Offces ............................................................................................825
viktoria lytra
Decision Making in Selecting the best Matching Hybrid Lighting System ...................................................................831
MohaMMEd MayhouB, david CartEr
Comparative Analysis of Admitted Luminous Flux and Daylight Spatial Distribution in Openings with Solar Control
Devices ........................................................................................................................................................................837
aMilCar J. Bogo, fErnando o. r. pErEira, andErSon Claro
The Light Comfort Zone of Micro-landscape Plant community from the Viewpoint of Occupancy Environment .......843
Chuang-hung lin, ChiEn-yuan han, ruEy lung hWang
The Visual Environment in t he Vernacular Dwellings at Mount Pelion, Greece .........................................................849
natalia SakarEllou-touSi, BEnSon lau
The Poetics of Contemplative Light in the Church of Notre-Dame-du-Haut designed by Le Corbusier ......................855
diMitriS kaiMakliotiS, BEnSon lau
The Poetics of Civic Light in Le Corbusiers Assembly Building at Chandigarh. .........................................................861
SauraBh BardE, BEnSon lau
Architectural Light in Contemporary Religious Buildings .............................................................................................867
iSha anand
The User Intervention on the Environmental Delight of the BASF Research House at University of Nottingham ......873
dinEShkuMar SEkar, BEnSon lau, JyothSna durga giridhar
Design Tools for Architects: The Meaning of Solar and Daylight Access Information in Design .................................879
iSaaC guEdi CapEluto
Daylight Evaluation of Retroftting Methods: Conversion of the Spierer Tobacco Warehouse in Volos, Greece. ......885
polytiMi ilia
Effectiveness of Dynamic Daylighting - Post Occupancy Evaluation of a Higher Ed Building ....................................891
Judy thEodorSon, Julia day
Solar Control Mechanisms: Effects on Daylight & Thermal Performance
An Experimental Study on a Public Library .................................................................................................................897
karl Borg, vinCEnt Buhagiar
Strategies for Improving Thermal Performance and Visual Comfort in Offce Buildings of Central Chile ...................903
Waldo BuStaMantE g., fElipE EnCinaS, alan pino, roBErto otarola
AUTHOR INDEX .........................................................................................................................................................909
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FOREWORD
The 27th PLEA conference PLEA2011 - Architecture and Sustainable Development marks the 30th
anniversary of PLEA. The topics of the conference tackle a broad range well beyond the subject of
energy :
Examples of sustainable architecture and urban design
Briefng and programmatic requirements of mixed-use multi-purpose buildings
Urban Renewal and Refurbishment
Education in sustainable design
Comfort (indoors / outdoors)
Design tools and methods
Building Science (hygrothermal, daylighting, acoustics)
Materials (environmental impact and health aspects)
Complementary HVAC equipment and controls
Waste management
Rainwater collection and biodiversity
Mobility (within and between cities)
Following from the last PLEA conference that was held in Quebec in 2009, we want this celebratory
PLEA 2011 in Louvain-la-Neuve to provide a special meeting ground for architects, engineers and
researchers to debate the theme of sustainable architecture and the different aspects of sustainable
development that range from the scale of the city to those of materials and components. To animate
these discourses our PLEA members were invited to nominate what they felt to be the most impor-
tant issues for discussion and debate. Three main themes were selected by the PLEA 2011 Orga-
nizing Committee out of those put forward and a number of experts were invited to address each of
these themes. The invited experts will present their views in the course of three forums that will be
held over the three days of the conference to launch debates we would like to see as open and rich.
The three themes to be addressed are :
the collaboration between architects, engineers and researchers- the fusion of art and tech-
nique, from theory to practice;
education for sustainable architecture;
do current environmental assessments methods provide a good measure of sustainability ?
Each of these topics will be also addressed by papers presented in the conference technical ses-
sions to be held prior to those forums.
This book of Proceedings presents the latest thinking and research in the rapidly evolving world of
architecture and sustainable development through 255 papers which were selected out of more than
750 abstracts that were proposed by authors coming from over 60 countries.
All papers were read and commented on by the members of the technical committee whose critical
comments and recommendations enabled the selection of 125 oral presentations and some 130
poster presentations (supported by short oral presentations) that will be held at the conference. In
each technical session the order of oral presentations has been chosen so as to begin with a rela-
tively general exposition, fnishing the session either with a conclusion or with a provocative paper
addressing the session topics in an original way. Both oral and poster papers are included in this
book of proceedings. The PLEA 2011 Proceedings are also available on a USB key provided to all
participants of the conference and on the PLEA website www.arct.cam.ac.uk/PLEA/home.aspx
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Acknowledgements
We wish to thank the members of the International Technical Committee of PLEA2011 listed below
for their participation in the selection and critical review of the 750 abstracts and 340 papers sub-
mitted for this conference. Their contribution has ensured the quality of the fnal papers. We would
like to thank them especially for complying with the very tight schedules imposed by the Organizing
Committee.
Dr. Rajendra Adhikari Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Dr. Sergio Altomonte University of Nottingham, UK
Prof. Servando Alvarez University of Sevilla, Spain
Prof. Marilyne Andersen Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Switzerland
Arch. Shady Attia Universit catholique de Louvain, Belgium
Dr. Magali Bodart Universit catholique de Louvain, Belgium
Dr. Frdric Bonneaud University of Toulouse, France
Dr. Vincent Buhagiar University of Malta, Malta
Prof. Waldo Bustamante Catholic University of Chile, Santiago, Chile
Prof. Paula Cadima Architectural Association Graduate School, London, UK
Prof. Andr De Herde Universit catholique de Louvain, Belgium
Prof. Kristel de Myttenaere Universit Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
Arch. Arnaud Deneyer Belgium Building Research Institut, Belgium
Prof. Denise Duarte University of So Paulo, Brasil
Dr. Emmanuel Dufrasnes School of Architecture of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
Arch. Felipe Encinas Universit catholique de Louvain, Belgium
Dr. Arnaud Evrard Universit catholique de Louvain, Belgium
Prof. E. de Oliveira Fernandes University of Porto, Portugal
Prof. Brian Ford University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
Prof. Joana Goncalves Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil
Architectural Association Graduate School, London, UK
Dr. Elisabeth Gratia Universit catholique de Louvain, Belgium
Prof. Dean Hawkes University of Cambridge, UK
Prof. Arnold Janssens Ghent University, Belgium
Prof. Ken-ichi Kimura International Research Institute on Human Environment, Japan
Dr. Louis Laret SECO, Brussels, Belgium
Dr. Maria Lopez de Asiain Seminario de Arquitectura y Medio Ambiente, Sevilla, Spain
Dr. Jaime Lopez de Asiain Seminario de Arquitectura y Medio Ambiente, Spain
Dr. Valrie Mahaut Universit de Montral, Canada
Prof. Isaac A. Meir University of the Negev, Isral
Dr. Nicolas Morel Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Switzerland
Prof. Edward Ng The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong
Prof. Fernando O. R. University of Santa Catarina, Bresil
Arch. Dana K. Raydan RMJM Ltd
Prof. Juan Reiser Pontifcia Universidad Catlica del Per, Per
Prof. Sigrid Reiter University of Liege (ULg), Lige, Belgium
Prof. Emmanuel Rey Ecole polytechnique fdrale de Lausanne, Switzerland
Arch. Hans Rosenlund CEC Design, Olofstrm, Sweden
Prof. Miguel Sattler Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Bresil
Dr. Rosa Schiano-Phan Architectural Association Graduate School, London, UK
Prof. Gianni Scudo Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Prof. Catherine Semidor ENSAP Bordeaux, France
Prof. Roels Staf Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Arch. Sophie Trachte Universit catholique de Louvain, Belgium
Ir. Geoffrey Van Moeseke Universit catholique de Louvain, Belgium
Mr. Willi Weber Energtique du btiment, Chne-Bougeries, Switzerland
Prof. Simos Yannas Architectural Association Graduate School, London, UK
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We would also like to thank the authors of all the submitted and accepted papers who have shared
with us their experience and research results and who are the most important contributors to this
conference. Last but not least, we wish to thank all those who have helped with the organization of
this event.
Although we have made, under the supervision of the International Technical Committee, every effort
to ensure that the work presented here is correct and absent of factual errors, the contents and opi-
nions expressed in the papers are the sole responsibility of the authors.
Magali Bodart,
Arnaud Evrard
Co-chairs of PLEA2011
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PLEA
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
The Origins of PLEA : 1980 - 1987
PLEA, Passive and Low Energy Architecturea unique network organisationwas conceived,
nurtured, and propelled almost single-handedly by Arthur Bowen (1926-1987), when he was
Professor of Architecture at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA. At the begin-
ning of the 1980s he understood a particular and timely need for sharing professional and
technical knowledge on a global basis, especially in the face of an emerging stylistic irres-
ponsibility in American architecture called post-modernism .

As a practising architect, Bowen was appalled by both the performance and aesthetic direction of
recent building design, whether in the United States or the United Arab Republics. He regarded the
potential of bioclimatic architecture as an untapped root that could renew and redirect the feld. Well
established building science knowledge, as well as the collaborative interests of consulting engi-
neers and research scientists were being ignored, together with the lessons of nature and of indige-
nous architecture. To him, this was a mission of social responsibility that had a revolutionary sense
of urgency. Since no existing organisation was prepared to deal with the administrative, political,
and fnancial intricacies of such a bold program, to say nothing of the philosophical commitment, he
responded by single-handedly leading the charge.
The emergence of PLEA and the sequence of successful international PLEA conferences grew
out of the synergetic series of two Expert Group Meetings commissioned by the US Department of
Energy and organized by Bowen to initiate the federal passive cooling program in the USA in 1980.
The frst Group Meeting of ffteen invited foreign experts and three Americans had heavy double as-
signments of regional monographs plus specialist topic papers. A similar assignment for the second
meeting of ffteen American experts also held in Miami, Florida added to this substantial body of
existing knowledge to be shared. Unfortunately, the proceedings of these impressive interchanges
were never published.
In contrast, the subsequent International Passive Cooling Conference of 1981 in Miami Beach,
chaired by Arthur Bowen and sponsored by the American Solar Energy Society and the US De-
partment of Energy, resulted in a defnitive Proceedings : Passive Cooling. This frst and only Inter-
national Passive Cooling Conference proved the desirability of global exchanges on such funda-
mental concepts. But especially because of the international aspect, the idea was not attractive to
its U.S. sponsors. Thus, the inception of a new international amalgam, frst called Passive and Low
Energy Alternatives, met off American soil at Bermuda in September 1982. Thereafter, the PLEA
monogram referred to Architecture, not alternatives. PLEA was no longer an alternative choice!
Succeeding conferences capitalized on the Miami information bases and synthesized internatio-
nal networking by continuing the pattern of commissioned technical position papers and regional
monographs. Within this backbone, refereed papers provided the meat of PLEA meetings. PLEA
Proceedings were regularly published through Pergamon or the national host organisation. Al-
though sponsorship and fnancial support came through complex networking, delicate diplomacy,
contributions from friends and from unexpected sources, these early PLEA conferences were
partly fnanced out of Arthurs own pocket, as they were driven by his heart.
PLEA welded together fresh alliances, professional as well as personal, across many nations. Each
conference was held in a fresh location and season that would inspire and inform bioclimatic resear-
chers. Local culture, cuisine, and building traditions would be featured. International input and partici-
pation was encouraged in many ways, starting with paid travel for key researchers. In addition, each
PLEA conference would recognize some fgure of international leadership by a conference award to
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identify the critical contributions to the emerging new feld of Passive and Low Energy Architecture.
A list of PLEA locations and awards illustrates the richness of this evolutionary program : 1982, Ber-
muda E. Maxwell Fry and Jane B. Drew; 1983, Crete John I. Yellott; 1984, Mexico City Harold
Hay; 1985, Venice James Marstan Fitch; 1986, Pcs, Hungary Aladar and Victor Olgyay. There
was no international PLEA Conference in 1987 because of Arthurs death in July.
In retrospect, the frst PLEA conference held on an idyllic island in the middle of the Atlantic was
like a surprise party - well known international names were associated with faces and personalities.
There was the mutual discovery of global kindred spirits. At Crete in 1983, PLEA became introspec-
tive with enthusiastic discussions, not just about eco-techniques but also about self-organization
and prospects for continuity. At Mexico City in 1984 these prospects were confrmed with over 1 000
participants. Support by SEDUE and INFONAVIT assured a substantial attendance and venue. With
both English and Spanish in simultaneous translation and several volumes of Proceedings published
in both languages, the theme of Eco-techniques Applied to Housing was discussed long into the
nights, and the impact lasted many years.
Venice in December 1985 was dark and moody. But the PLEA meetings with a small group of spe-
cialists on Regionalism were held in a brilliant palace, Ca Loredan. Because of the proximity to
Hungary, a delegation of their political and technical leaders drove to Venice to confrm the arrange-
ments that the next PLEA meeting would be held behind the Iron Curtain. PLEA 86 with the theme
of Passive and Low Energy Architecture in Housing was held at Pcs. It attracted a diverse par-
ticipation from many countries, as well as leading architects of Hungary.
Reshaping PLEA 1987-1995
The master plan for meetings established at PLEA Pcs proposed that beginning in 1988 there
would be two PLEA conferences held each year, one in each hemisphere, and each with a more re-
gional focus. Thus, PLEA 88 held in July in Porto, Portugal with its focus on Mediterranean climates,
had already been initiated before Bowens death. The Porto theme was Energy and Buildings for
Temperate Climates and PLEA founder Arthur Bowen (1926-1987) was honored posthumously. At
Porto, the challenging issue of the continuity of PLEA without Bowen was frst addressed.
The PLEA idea was slowly reshaped by a self-initiated Working Group of participant leaders and
synthesized into a broad-based organization to continue its already well established record and
idealism. By accident, the Working Group also represented a broad geographic and professional
spectrum. In addition to Eduardo de Oliveira Fernandes, the chairman of the Portugal 1988 confe-
rence, the Working Group included Sergio Los and Natacha Pulitzer of Italy, Janos Szasz of Hunga-
ry, Simos Yannas of the UK, Ken-ichi Kimura of Japan, and Jeffrey Cook of the USA. Thus educators
and scientists, architects and engineers were brought together globally.
At the PLEA 1989 conference at Nara, Japan, Steve Szokolay of Australia was honored, thus embra-
cing two other continents. The theme Global Environment and Architecture of the Post-Industrial
Age anticipated the global issues of the 1990s that emerged at Rio and at Kyoto. Already an
agreed PLEA charter was published.
At PLEA 90 Halifax, Canada, the theme was Bioclimatic Design in Architecture and Planning .
As at Nara, it was also held adjacent to a national or international solar energy conference. Donald
Watson of the USA was honored and the tradition of a private Experts Roundtable was continued.
Thereafter, PLEA would have annual meetings of substantial size and independent of the meetings
of other organizations.
In 1990 the book Regionalismo dell Architettura was published in Italy under the editorship of Sergio
Los. Guest chapters were based on major papers presented at the PLEA conference focusing on
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regionalism held at Venice in December 1985 since those Proceedings were not published. In 1991,
the book Passive and Low Energy Architecture was published in Tokyo as Process Architecture
98. With editors Yuichiro Kodama, Simos Yannas, and Jeffrey Cook, its 160 colored pages in both
Japanese and English illustrated works built globally in all climates.
PLEA 91, held at Seville, Spain, anticipated the 1992 Seville World Expo in its theme of Architec-
ture and Urban Space, where appropriately Baruch Givoni was honored. Finally, here the Working
Group agreed an arrangement of rotating Directors who would serve for staggered six-year terms,
including three offcers. Thus, a self-continuing, non-membership organisation was established
based on participation in events and subscription to the PLEA Charter, open to all.
A PLEA conference held in Auckland, New Zealand in September 1992 has slipped from some
memories because the Proceedings were not published. The theme Architectural Responses to
Climate Change was already a response to the United Nations Rio conference and the emergence
of Agenda 21.
Under contract from the Commission of the European Communities for Energy, PLEA, in association with
the Academy of Athens, produced the Symposium on Solar Energy and Buildings , 8-10 December
1993 in Athens. Invited papers were presented to a live audience in front of video cameras. The Procee-
dings as a series of professional videotapes were distributed throughout the European Community.
The 1994 PLEA Architecture of the Extremes held at the Dead Sea, Israel in July, lived up to its
promise of extremes. Harry Tabor, the solar physicist, was honored with the PLEA award. The Dead
Sea also was the seedbed for TIA, Teaching in Architecture, a sister organization related to PLEA
ideals. The frst international TIA conference was held in September 1995, and the second in Octo-
ber 1997, both at Universita Degli Studi di Firenze, Italy.
The move to a venue in an under-industrialized region was a three-day event in New Delhi, India,
in April 1995. Supported by the British Council and hosted by the Centre for Advanced Studies
in Architecture of the School of Planning and Architecture, the design workshop was in Climati-
cally Responsive Energy Effcient Architecture . Immediate publications included a Database of
the Indian Context Volume, as well as the invited papers in a Design Handbook. These materials
were synthesized and reissued as an impressive reference text, Climatic Responsible Architecture,
a Design Handbook, 410 pages plus a disc of Temperature Radiation Data was published by Tata
McGraw Hill in 2001.
PLEA and Sustainability 1996-2002
In the latter part of the 1990s, PLEA activities surged in industrialized countries based in part on the
growing understanding of how buildings and human environments are critical to global climate and
resources. The growing politically acknowledgment of integrated design as a key to sustainability rein-
forced the PLEA Charter. At Louvain-La-Neuve in Belgium in July 1996, national and European Com-
munity sponsorship was refected in the theme of Building and Urban Renewal . Honored by the
PLEA Award were the Italian team of Sergio Los and Natacha Pulitzer.
In January of 1997 at Kushiro, Hokaido, the northern-most city of Japan, the PLEA theme was Sus-
tainable Communities and Architecture--Bioclimatic Design in Cold Climates . A two-day ocean
voyage from Tokyo through winter seas intended especially for students included a full day workshop
with lectures and bioclimatic exercises. The substantial support of OM Solar (www.omsolar.com), a
well commercialized heating system born out of the diverse climates of Japan, included participation
by several hundred of their national organization. A model OM Solar house at Kushiro, and hand-
some publications, including a three volume Proceedings, extended the PLEA agenda. Architect and
researcher Ken-ichi Kimura was honored for his extensive contributions internationally.
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The PLEA goal of Environmentally Friendly Cities was the theme in June 1998 at Lisbon, Portu-
gal. Benefting from co-sponsorship with Lisboa Expo 98, PLEA participants had special access to
new energy effcient apartment models, as well as the Expo itself. The World Fair was a frst-hand
demonstration of the effcient refurbishment and redevelopment of a 350 hectare heavily polluted
and degraded industrial site. Continuing the tradition of the PLEA award to a distinguished scientist
or practicing architect for their contributions, both were honored : Architect Alexandros Tombazis
of Athens, and Dr. J. Douglas Balcomb of the Los Alamos Scientifc Laboratory and the National
Renewable Energy Center of the USA.
PLEA 99 was conceived as a continuing Australian event starting at Melbourne, with a stop at Syd-
ney to look at the new green Olympic facilities and then to Brisbane and to Cairnes, locations sepa-
rated by 10 degrees of latitude. But the main feature was the technical conference at Brisbane where
Sustaining the Future was the theme for a truly international meeting. Brenda and Robert Vale
of New Zealand were honored.
The capstone conference for the old century was PLEA 2000 at Cambridge, UK, in July where Dean
Hawkes was honored. It was followed in a week by the third TIA, Teaching in Architecture, confe-
rence at Oxford where Baruch Givoni was recognized. The TIA theme of Sustainable Buildings for
the 21st Century: teaching issues, tools and methodologies for sustainability was again supported
by the European Commission. At Cambridge, in illustrious Kings College, the 17th PLEA meeting
addressed Sustainable Design in Architecture, City, and the Environment at the Turn of the Millen-
nium in one of the most progressive historic towns of Europe.
With the 18th PLEA Conference in November 2001 in Florianpolis, Brazil, the new century began
on the ffth continent for PLEA. Convened at a nature friendly resort overlooking the Atlantic, the
focus appropriately was on Renewable Energy for a Sustainable Development of the Built Environ-
ment. Honored was Roberto Oscar Albistar Rivero of Montevideo, Uruguay, whose book Archi-
tecture and Climate is used by most of the schools of architecture in South America.
Toulouse, France is host for the 19th PLEA Conference in July 2002 when Design with the Environ-
ment is again examined as a mandatory condition for urban and architectural quality .
Through its global network, the PLEA idea has been spread through conferences, workshops, expert
group meetings, competitions, and consultancies, as well as Proceedings and other publications.
Especially noteworthy is the series of PLEA Notes: six monograph texts on technical subjects deve-
loped through the University of Queensland, Australia (PLEA Notes). The most complete PLEA Ar-
chive is in the Special Collections of the College of Architecture and Environmental Design, Arizona
State University in Tempe, Arizona, USA.
In the preface to the two-volume proceedings of PLEA 99, the conference chairman, retired PLEA
President Steve S Szokolay, wrote, It has no formal structure or membership. It lives by the
dedication of individuals. Its main activity is the organization of annual conferences. Con-ference,
in the literal sense; bringing together (con-ferre) of the knowledge, the thoughts and fndings of
those in the area .
Jeffrey Cook, Regents Professor
Arizona State University, School of Architecture
Tempe, Arizona, 85287-1605 USA
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Update by Simos Yannas
PLEA 2003, the 20th PLEA Conference, was devoted to the memory of Jeffrey Cook. Held in Santi-
ago, Chile in November 2003, it took on the topic of Rethinking Development - Are we producing a
people oriented habitat ? and recognised the work of architect Glenda Kapstein Lomboy.
Returning to Europe, PLEA 2004, the 21st PLEA Conference on Built Environments and Environ-
mental Buildings was hosted at the academic surroundings of the Technical University of Eindhoven,
The Netherlands, in September 2004. The work of architects Jon & Riet Kristinsson-Reitsema was
recognised with the PLEA Award.
PLEA 2005, the 22nd PLEA Conference held in Beirut, Lebanon, in November 2005 took on the
theme of Environmental Sustainability - the challenges of awareness in developing societies.
Jacques Liger-Belair was honoured with the PLEA Award. The feeling of optimism conveyed by brief
glimpses of the citys reconstruction will stay in memory despite the unimaginable destruction that
was to follow.
PLEA 2006, the 23rd PLEA Conference, called for Clever Design, Affordable Comfort - a challenge
for low energy architecture and urban planning. Held in September 2006 in Geneva, Switzerland, its
two volumes of Proceedings comprise some 350 papers totalling over 2000 pages. The architectural
offce of Metron AG received the PLEA Award. In a frst of a new series of PLEA Round Tables, the
conference panel and audience linked successfully by video conference with representatives of the
American Institute of Architects in the US for a debate on converting theory into practice.
PLEA 2007 Sun, Wind and Architecture, the 24th PLEA Conference was hosted by the National
University of Singapore 22-24 November 2007. It offered an exhibition on zero energy buildings
and coincided with the Singapore 1:1 Island exhibition, a unique opportunity to view the evolution of
architecture and urban design trends on the island over the last forty years. There was discussion
of the environmental cost of international conferences. PLEA would make the proceedings of confe-
rences available online and delegates would be able to present by video conferencing. Prof. Tay
Kheng Soon was the recipient of the PLEA Award in recognition of his pioneering efforts in promoting
good design and sustainable architecture in Singapore.

PLEA 2008, the 25th PLEA Conference Towards Zero Energy Buildings was organised by the Uni-
versity College Dublins Energy Research Group and was held at UCDs OReilly Hall, 22-24 October
2008. It was attended by some 400 participants from 47 countries providing lively discussion and
debate in the course of the conference proceedings which encompassed some 150 oral presenta-
tions and 110 posters.
PLEA 2009, the 26th PLEA Conference Architecture, Energy and the Occupants Perspective was
held in Quebec City, Canada 22-24 June 2009 and organised by the Groupe de Recherche en
Ambiances Physiques (GRAP) at the Universit Laval. A Manifesto was drafted during the confe-
rence and signed by all the participants at the closing session. It is a call for the rehumanisation of
architecture through the provision of adaptive opportunities for its inhabitants. G.Z. Brown was the
recipient of the PLEA Award for his longstanding contribution to teaching and research. PLEA Kids a
special workshop for youngsters was a welcome and memorable initiative.
PLEA celebrates its 30th anniversary in Louvain-la-Neuve Belgium, 12-15 July 2011.
Simos Yannas
PRACTICE
INTERACTION BETWEEN ACTORS
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PRACTICE - INTERACTION BETWEEN ACTORS 21

Toward Sustainable Architecture.
Kristel De Myttenaere.
BATir, Universit Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium.
ABSTRACT: Before being a question of the right choice of material or system, sustainable architecture is a
question of attitude in the design process. The philosophy behind the concept of Sustainable Development can
help us to define this question of attitude. This paper proposes to go back to the core principles of a Sustainable
Development and to analyze them in order to confront them with contemporary architectural practice. This
methodology leads to the 3 questions a design process should address in order to qualify the resulting architecture
by the adjective sustainable.

How architecture can conciliate the human being with its natural environment (Sun Water Soil Air) on
a quantitative level as well as on qualitative and symbolic one?

How architecture can articulate the different scales of the human being, respecting its individual scale as
well as its collective one?

How architecture participates to transmit to the future generation the structures it has inherited from the
past while living in its present time?

Keywords: Architecture, Sustainable Architecture, Sustainable Development, Design Principles, Inhabitant.

1. INTRODUCTION
Assessing sustainability pushes ourselves to
question contemporary architectural practice and can
help us to refocus our design abilities behind ethical
principles. But in order to achieve that goal, it is about
assessing a design that makes sense at the local
scale as well as suits criterias dictated by the global
one. And more than that, if we want to qualify
architecture by the adjective sustainable, it is
important that we assess also the architectural
qualities of the design.

The whole concept of sustainable development
can guide us to understand what our practice is
putting at stakes and to establish design principles to
comprehend the global and the local scale without
forgetting to integrate the architectural dimension.

This paper proposes to go back to the core
principles of a sustainable development in order to
understand how its ethical principles can enlighten
our contemporary practice. More than a to do list,
we owe our designers some inspiration. This paper
aim at proposing design principles that could help us
architect to qualify our architecture by the adjective
sustainable. These principles do not pretend to be the
only ones possible to define this approach. They just
state certain issues that are relevant in terms
sustainable architecture but that could be rephrased
in another way. We hope this paper could help other
architects to deepen their understanding of this
approach to propose their own vision of it, as relevant
and exhaustive as possible.
2. THE TOOLS
If certain tools help us architects to contextualise
our projects by analysing its interactions with its
environment
1
and sometimes simulate it, they are
generally to focus on one dimension and only to
guaranty the optimal result at the large picture.
Another generation of tools, more recently developed
by our national scientific and technical construction
centres, propose to focus on the large scale and list a
number of criterias a project has to fulfil in order to be
qualified by the organisation. These tools tend to fail
to integrate specific dimensions related to the context
or to architectural qualities. Being developed in a
specific context, it is important to understand what
they can and what they fail to assess in order to
understand their limits. Being general by definition,
these tools have to be used in parallel to more
specific ones in order to guaranty that global and local
stakes are integrated in the design process.

But even when a project fulfil all these criteria and
has been developed using all the tools available to
propose the most appropriate solution to the specific
context of the project, there is no guaranty that it
could be named and qualified as sustainable
architecture. Analyzing what has been developed until
now, we can conclude that tools do not address direct
questions of architectural design and tend to limit the
field of expertise to techniques and materials when
they could extend it to the different scales of the
spatial dimension as well as of the urban one.

This paper proposes to explore the concept of
Sustainable Development in order to extract
principles that could enlighten a design process. What
is at stakes with the concept of sustainable
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22 PRACTICE - INTERACTION BETWEEN ACTORS
development is more than just a question of
engineers; it is also a question of architects and
architectural engineers. As the past thought us that
the best architecture has been designed when real
questions on society, on the economy, on art, on
materials or systems, etc. were addressed to
architects, we believe that the concept of sustainable
development offers a lot of important and serious
stakes that can inspire our design practice.

The following graph (figure 1) proposes to analyse
these different tools and to place them consider what
they aim for. We can see that the core of the triangle
is the definition of principles as proposed in this
paper. We would like to remind the reader that this is
our vision of the problematic. We only propose an
analyse of the different tools available to help us
qualify and name our design by sustainable
architecture hoping this could help other architects to
define their own approach. We see the different tools
and lists of criteria as methods to help us bring in our
design considerations related to global stakes of a
sustainable development as well as local stakes of
the context in which our design is interacting. The
cognitive, analytical and empirical tools belong to this
second category when the different lists of criterias,
whether quantitative, qualitative or contextual, belong
to the first one. On top of these, different architect
have proposed to interpretate the notion of
sustainable architecture through more esthetical,
technical or functional dimensions. This can be
analysed through the Vitruvius principles to define
architecture: beauty, technique and function. If so, the
different dimensions as approached by architects are
complementary although sometimes paradoxical.
Sustainable architecture has to be defined at the
crossing of these dimensions in order to be named
architecture. But in order to be qualified as well by the
adjective sustainable, it has to integrate in its design
the different tools available to contextualise its design
and the different lists of criterias in order to the global
stakes of a sustainable approach.

We can then set a first conclusion. Sustainable
architecture is not just a question if using the right set
of tools or list of criterias. These can help the
designer to deepen his approach and precise his
design, but if the project is not sustained by certain
design principles, there will be no guaranty that the
right direction and the right development will follow.

What is proposed in this paper is to define a
methodology that could help us to understand how
the concept of sustainable development can influence
architectural practice and how to define principles that
could help us to sustain our design by integrating
local and global stakes at the same time.


Figure 1: The Tools.
3. THE METHODOLOGY
In order to see how this concept of sustainable
development can influence architectural practice, we
have studied it through the different official texts
2
,
researches on the topic
3
and at the light of different
authors such as Augustin Berque or Edgar Morin to
put it into perspective.

We have come to the conclusion that the five
principles as proposed by the Plan Federal Office of
Belgium
4
can summarize the all concept in its
generality, its complexity and its specificities. We then
have proposed to put this analyse into the perspective
of architectural design to see if, and if so, how the
concept of sustainable design can influence it.

The five principles as proposed by the PFO are
the following:
The principle of integration: integrating the
economical, social, political and environmental
dimension;
The principle of inter and intra generational equity;
The principle of precaution;
The principle of responsibility;
The principle of participation.

The first principle is telling us that by integrating
the economical, social, political and environmental
dimension together, we can optimise the solution
proposed. This implies a drastic change of mind.
Instead of separating these disciplines and consider
that they do not interact with the other dimensions, we
analyse the solution considering their interactions with
their context. Instead of looking to maximise only one
dimension, we are looking for an optimum for all the
dimensions together, considering the local and global
scale at the same time. The theory of complexity, as
studied and developed by the French philosopher
Edgar Morin
5
, can help us to fully comprehend this
principle, its implications and the difference between
looking for the maximal or the optimal. His field of
expertise reflects grandly on us architects as we have
to work on a daily base with knowledge and
specialists from a large field of disciplines, from more
technical aspects to psychological and sociological
perspectives. His theory of complexity can help us to
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
PRACTICE - INTERACTION BETWEEN ACTORS 23


deal with the collateral contradictions of such an
approach. He is proposing that every stake should be
analysed in order to identify its level of interactions
with the other parameters of the project. Through a
scaling system, his method proposes to solve the
contradictions by optimizing the benefit of an action at
the global scale without neglecting the local one. If we
take a simple example to illustrate the method: We all
know that speed bumps help to slow down the speed
and thus the number of people run over by cars. But
at the same time, the slowing down and increasing
the speed right after increases the fuel consumption
responsible for the increase of CO2 emissions in the
atmosphere. When the concentration of CO2 in the
atmosphere reaches a certain level, people suffering
breathing problem for all sort of reason might
experience severe problems leading in certain cases
to death. If we can evaluate how much this cause of
death would increase by increasing the fuel
consumption for a security measure, and how many
people it could save in comparison, then and then
only, we can take the right decision.

The second principle of inter and intra
generational equity is putting into perspective the
notion of individuality. Augustin Berque
6
proposes to
understand the scales of our humanity as being
inseparable. This leads us to be an individual with its
own needs at the same time as we are part of a
family, part of a neighbourhood, part a society and
part of a civilisation, and each scale with its own
needs. This question reflects a lot for us architects as
through architecture we propose a certain hierarchy
of organisation and relations between these different
scales. If we work for a client, we are at the same
time responsible for other people. Certain
orientations in the design will lead to different modes
of relations between the inhabitants, inside and
outside the borders of the project. The concept of
sustainable development proposes us to design
buildings that will naturally lead to behaviours in
favour of better equity, within and throughout the
different generations.

The third principle is the principle of precaution.
This principle sets goals way higher than the one of
prevention. We can prevent that something bad
happen but more than that we can make sure to take
all precautions needed in order to protect as well from
the non predictable. This could seem impossible
without the lightening of Morins theories. Again, the
scaling system can shed some clarity into this
impossibility. Morin states that in every analysis there
is a certain amount of more or less unpredictable
mistakes. He proposes that these mistakes are the
collateral damages of the way the project has
interacted over the time with its context. But he also
suggests that there is a certain degree of correlation
between the amount and consequences of the
mistakes and their timeframe of influence. This
principle is certainly one of the most important one
when we apply it to our practice. It helps us to
understand how our milieu is constantly influencing
our human being as much, if not more, than we
human try to influence our milieu
7
. But more than that,
it proposes that the bigger the scale of influence is,
whether we talking about time or space, the more we
should use the principle of precaution and only act on
what we can guaranty as beneficial in the specific
context. Lets hope this will teach certain individuals
we have in our profession who justify their actions on
their only intuitions or personal if not egocentric
desires. But before all, it helps to understand that
everything in a building has different life time
expectancy before having to be restored, replaced or
destroyed. Steward brand proposes to analyse
buildings and their evolution throughout time. What
we can conclude from the lecture of his book
8
is that if
certain aspects in a building could, so thus, should
last long, other should be chosen and integrated in
the construction considering its shorter time spent.

The fourth principle is the one of responsibility.
Through the first and the second principle, we accept
our responsibility towards the earth as well as
towards humanity. This principle makes us
responsible as professional, respons-able. In other
words, as architect, we are respons-able to address
issues within the local scale in regards to the global
stakes
9
.

The fifth principle is the one of participation. If we
go back to the first and second principles, we
understood that nature and culture should not be
dissociated, that the natural environment has an
influence on the human being at least as important as
the human can influence its natural environment. The
principle of participation should then not been seen as
only the participation of people inside the project but
also the one outside the project and the participation
of the milieu in which it takes places. This is where
the architect can have an influential role by designing
solutions that will integrate the vision of the local
population as well of his understanding of the milieu
in which he is interacting.

This methodology helped us to deepen our
understanding of the concept of sustainable
development and to understand what it puts at stakes
in contemporary architecture. We can already
conclude that sustainable architecture is not just a
question of using the right set of tools or list of criteria
in the design process. The ethic behind the concept
of sustainable development implies a change in our
practice that can be summarized under these five
topics:

Architecture should be a media to help reducing the
gap between what we consider natural environment
as we see the suburb and artificial or cultural
environment as we see our towns10. If we manage to
propose a connection to our natural environment in
an urban context, we can hope to decrease to
influence of the population exodus to the suburbs. But
more than that, we can hope that this connection will
participate to peoples awareness to the ecological
cause. Combined with techniques improving the
performance of the buildings, at the technical scale as
well as the spatial and urban one, we can hope for a
development is more than just a question of
engineers; it is also a question of architects and
architectural engineers. As the past thought us that
the best architecture has been designed when real
questions on society, on the economy, on art, on
materials or systems, etc. were addressed to
architects, we believe that the concept of sustainable
development offers a lot of important and serious
stakes that can inspire our design practice.

The following graph (figure 1) proposes to analyse
these different tools and to place them consider what
they aim for. We can see that the core of the triangle
is the definition of principles as proposed in this
paper. We would like to remind the reader that this is
our vision of the problematic. We only propose an
analyse of the different tools available to help us
qualify and name our design by sustainable
architecture hoping this could help other architects to
define their own approach. We see the different tools
and lists of criteria as methods to help us bring in our
design considerations related to global stakes of a
sustainable development as well as local stakes of
the context in which our design is interacting. The
cognitive, analytical and empirical tools belong to this
second category when the different lists of criterias,
whether quantitative, qualitative or contextual, belong
to the first one. On top of these, different architect
have proposed to interpretate the notion of
sustainable architecture through more esthetical,
technical or functional dimensions. This can be
analysed through the Vitruvius principles to define
architecture: beauty, technique and function. If so, the
different dimensions as approached by architects are
complementary although sometimes paradoxical.
Sustainable architecture has to be defined at the
crossing of these dimensions in order to be named
architecture. But in order to be qualified as well by the
adjective sustainable, it has to integrate in its design
the different tools available to contextualise its design
and the different lists of criterias in order to the global
stakes of a sustainable approach.

We can then set a first conclusion. Sustainable
architecture is not just a question if using the right set
of tools or list of criterias. These can help the
designer to deepen his approach and precise his
design, but if the project is not sustained by certain
design principles, there will be no guaranty that the
right direction and the right development will follow.

What is proposed in this paper is to define a
methodology that could help us to understand how
the concept of sustainable development can influence
architectural practice and how to define principles that
could help us to sustain our design by integrating
local and global stakes at the same time.


Figure 1: The Tools.
3. THE METHODOLOGY
In order to see how this concept of sustainable
development can influence architectural practice, we
have studied it through the different official texts
2
,
researches on the topic
3
and at the light of different
authors such as Augustin Berque or Edgar Morin to
put it into perspective.

We have come to the conclusion that the five
principles as proposed by the Plan Federal Office of
Belgium
4
can summarize the all concept in its
generality, its complexity and its specificities. We then
have proposed to put this analyse into the perspective
of architectural design to see if, and if so, how the
concept of sustainable design can influence it.

The five principles as proposed by the PFO are
the following:
The principle of integration: integrating the
economical, social, political and environmental
dimension;
The principle of inter and intra generational equity;
The principle of precaution;
The principle of responsibility;
The principle of participation.

The first principle is telling us that by integrating
the economical, social, political and environmental
dimension together, we can optimise the solution
proposed. This implies a drastic change of mind.
Instead of separating these disciplines and consider
that they do not interact with the other dimensions, we
analyse the solution considering their interactions with
their context. Instead of looking to maximise only one
dimension, we are looking for an optimum for all the
dimensions together, considering the local and global
scale at the same time. The theory of complexity, as
studied and developed by the French philosopher
Edgar Morin
5
, can help us to fully comprehend this
principle, its implications and the difference between
looking for the maximal or the optimal. His field of
expertise reflects grandly on us architects as we have
to work on a daily base with knowledge and
specialists from a large field of disciplines, from more
technical aspects to psychological and sociological
perspectives. His theory of complexity can help us to
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
24 PRACTICE - INTERACTION BETWEEN ACTORS
better architecture in the future with a lower ecological
footprint for the people living in them.

Architecture should be a media to improve the
relations between the different inhabitants of the
project. By inhabitants, we consider the people living
in the building as well as neighbours, citizens, visitors
or simply people.

Architecture should integrate in its process the fact
that all its components will not have the same life time
spent. Sustainable architecture can thus not be
defined by the utopia of lasting neither by the one of
versatility. Sustainable architecture should propose
solutions that can be easily adapted in the more or
less near future considering the foreseen life
expectancy of either the technique or the function.

Architects should face their respons-abilities towards
the earth as well as towards the human being.

Architects should consider the milieu in which their
design will take place. The milieu should be seen in
regards of the theories of Augustin Berque and
should be understood as the interactions the
environment, both natural and cultural, have with the
human being. A sustainable architecture makes the
milieu participate to the contextualisation of the
project while integrating the stakes at the global
scale.
4. THE RESULTS
Analysing the concept of sustainable development
in order to underline what is at stakes in our
contemporary architectural practice helped us to
propose our vision on what could be one definition of
sustainable architecture.

Sustainable architecture can then be defined at
the crossing of three main questions every design
should address in one way or another. These
questions are the following:

How architecture proposes to conciliate the human
being with its natural environment?

How architecture proposes to articulate the different
scales of our humanity?

How architecture proposes to transmit to the future
generations what they have inherited from the past
ones?

These questions will not guaranty that the design
proposed can be qualified as sustainable at the same
time as named as architecture. But if these questions
are not addressed, we can suspect that some
dimensions will not be considered at their proper
degree of importance and relevance and that the
resulting design will have difficulties to be named and
qualified as sustainable architecture.

What is proposed in this paper, as the result of the
research, is one way to look at the complex question
of sustainable architecture. We do not have the
pretention to believe it is the only way to look at it. We
just hope that this methodology proposed can help
other architects to define their own approach to it.
What we can ensure is that this approach has helped
us in our profession as architect as well as of
professor and researcher to integrate the sustainable
dimension.

The first question is addressed to limit the global
ecological footprint of our buildings. It states that our
environment has as much influence on us human
being as we human can influence our environment. In
order to reduce the environmental footprint, we
should consider all consumptions related to the
building performance as well as the collateral
consumption related to the usage of the building. It is
then the global context of the project that is evaluated
in regards of its ecological footprint. It implies all
questions related to the right choice of materials or
systems as to the right choice of spatial design
solutions. The objective is to reduce as much as
possible the ecological footprint of our buildings,
taking into consideration the consumptions and
pollutions related to the performances of the building
as well as the collateral consumption related to the
location of the building, its integration into a mix urban
context, and finally, the consumptions related to the
behaviour of its inhabitants. The design should
apprehend quantitative dimensions as well as
qualitative and symbolic ones. If the energy
performances of our buildings have increased over
the past years, the energy consumptions figures have
not exactly shown to follow that trend. There is a
strong need today to invent solutions to reduce the
consumptions and pollutions associated to living in a
building at the same time as participate to the
awareness of its inhabitants to the ecological cause
thus influencing the global consumption of that
building. If we do not start to integrate the qualitative
and symbolic approach, we might never fight what is
so called the rebound effect.

The second question is addressing the social
dimension. This second question is related to the first
one. It is stated that if we want to reduce our global
ecological footprint, we should stop building our
suburbs but start renovating our towns. And if we
want to develop our towns, we should consider how
we want people to live together and what kind of
relations will they be able to maintain in that context.
The objective is to reconsider the conditions that are
necessary in order to provide comfortable dwellings
for people to feel free to develop themselves. In order
to do so, we should respect peoples multi
dimensionality
11
. We all are individuals at the same as
part of a family, of a neighbourhood, of a city, etc. We
should provide some spaces where one can feel his
own individuality and other where one can feel part of
a group, of something bigger. This way, if people feel
comfortable to live in more dense areas, we can hope
to reduce our general ecological footprint and have a
real effect on all sectors of consumption. But more
than that, we should strike for that the renovation-
reconstruction process integrates the principle of
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
PRACTICE - INTERACTION BETWEEN ACTORS 25


conciliation. It means that it should improve the
interactions between the inhabitant and its
environment. At the same time, the renovation-
reconstruction process should prioritize areas that
can provide all services of centres in terms of public
transports and commerce accessibility but also a
possible connection to the environment, both natural
and cultural.

The third question is addressing the inheritance
dimension. It states that if we start taking into
consideration the ecological footprint of our buildings
sites, there is a lot of waste and energy consumed
that could be saved if we dispose more wisely of what
we have at our disposal. It does not mean we should
not strike for adapting our structures to our actual
needs nor for improving the performance of our
buildings. This question states that we should be able
to design spaces based to a certain extend on what
we already have
12
. We should adapt our program and
considerations in order to find a compromising
solution that will include both aspects. But we should
do this work at the same as considering what is going
to happen next when the future generations will
inherit our spaces. We should thus work so to make it
is possible for the future generations to understand
the spaces we have ourselves inherited and so that is
possible for them to also appropriate the spaces we
are passing and this should be done at the smallest
environmental and economical costs. The objective is
here to analyse every action we intend on our
buildings and spaces in order not only to minimize
their negative aspects but to optimize their positive
ones. We should thus integrate the principle of
precaution to analyse the different components of the
buildings and adapt their choices and their
combinations considering their lifetime spent and the
impact of their exchangeability.


Figure 2: Axes of Sustainable Architecture.

As shown on the graph (figure 2), these three
questions are interrelated. If we want to reduce our
general ecological footprint, we should not only look
at the performances of the building, we have to
consider as well in which context it is located and how
much impact the renovation-construction process will
generate. If we want to improve the density of our
territory to an optimum level in regards to the
ecological footprint, we have to consider what will
provide a comfortable place for people to live. It is
then important to look not just at the performance of
the building but before all the comfort it will provide.
We have to change focus from building to people
since they are the one responsible for the final
consumption of the building within its level of
performance. It is also important to look at all the
transition scales between the private sphere and the
public one. We have to look at how we can improve
the relation between the inhabitants and their
environment, both natural and cultural. And if we want
to improve the density of our territories, we should
start with the already denser areas to see how we can
improve their density in order to optimize their
ecological footprint. It is then crucial to limit the
renovation-development process to the minimum so
to limit the waste and the consumption of materials.
But in order to answer to this third question in a
sustainable way, we should also integrate the first
question and see how the renovation-development
process can improve the inter-actions between the
inhabitants and their environment. The second
question should also be addressed and it should help
improving the relations between the different
inhabitants of the project, inside its borders as well as
outside.
5. CONCLUSIONS
We can conclude that the question of sustainable
architecture is not just of a question of using the right
set of tools or list of criteria. This paper shows that if
using these tools and lists can help developing a
design in a more sustainable direction, they will not
be enough to guaranty that the solution proposed will
be named and qualified as sustainable architecture.
We cannot pretend to propose a methodology that will
guaranty the sustainability of architecture, but we can
propose to identify questions that every design should
address appropriately if it claims to sustainability of
architecture. As acknowledged earlier in the paper,
we do not pretend the methodology here proposed
will talk to everyone but we hope it will at least help
some architecture to identify their own questions,
related to their own practice and its own context,
when it comes to sustainable architecture.

The questions are the following:

How architecture proposes to conciliate the human
being with his natural environment? After having
analysed the principle of sustainable development,
we came to the conclusion than architecture is a good
media to help improving the interactions between the
human environment and the natural one. In order to
do so, the interactions have to work on a quantitative
level as well as a qualitative and symbolic one.
Augustin Berque helped us to understand that the
human being has as much influence on his
environment, both natural and cultural, as our
environment has influence on us. And although the
performances of our buildings have increase over the
past years, it does not show in the statistics. If we
better architecture in the future with a lower ecological
footprint for the people living in them.

Architecture should be a media to improve the
relations between the different inhabitants of the
project. By inhabitants, we consider the people living
in the building as well as neighbours, citizens, visitors
or simply people.

Architecture should integrate in its process the fact
that all its components will not have the same life time
spent. Sustainable architecture can thus not be
defined by the utopia of lasting neither by the one of
versatility. Sustainable architecture should propose
solutions that can be easily adapted in the more or
less near future considering the foreseen life
expectancy of either the technique or the function.

Architects should face their respons-abilities towards
the earth as well as towards the human being.

Architects should consider the milieu in which their
design will take place. The milieu should be seen in
regards of the theories of Augustin Berque and
should be understood as the interactions the
environment, both natural and cultural, have with the
human being. A sustainable architecture makes the
milieu participate to the contextualisation of the
project while integrating the stakes at the global
scale.
4. THE RESULTS
Analysing the concept of sustainable development
in order to underline what is at stakes in our
contemporary architectural practice helped us to
propose our vision on what could be one definition of
sustainable architecture.

Sustainable architecture can then be defined at
the crossing of three main questions every design
should address in one way or another. These
questions are the following:

How architecture proposes to conciliate the human
being with its natural environment?

How architecture proposes to articulate the different
scales of our humanity?

How architecture proposes to transmit to the future
generations what they have inherited from the past
ones?

These questions will not guaranty that the design
proposed can be qualified as sustainable at the same
time as named as architecture. But if these questions
are not addressed, we can suspect that some
dimensions will not be considered at their proper
degree of importance and relevance and that the
resulting design will have difficulties to be named and
qualified as sustainable architecture.

What is proposed in this paper, as the result of the
research, is one way to look at the complex question
of sustainable architecture. We do not have the
pretention to believe it is the only way to look at it. We
just hope that this methodology proposed can help
other architects to define their own approach to it.
What we can ensure is that this approach has helped
us in our profession as architect as well as of
professor and researcher to integrate the sustainable
dimension.

The first question is addressed to limit the global
ecological footprint of our buildings. It states that our
environment has as much influence on us human
being as we human can influence our environment. In
order to reduce the environmental footprint, we
should consider all consumptions related to the
building performance as well as the collateral
consumption related to the usage of the building. It is
then the global context of the project that is evaluated
in regards of its ecological footprint. It implies all
questions related to the right choice of materials or
systems as to the right choice of spatial design
solutions. The objective is to reduce as much as
possible the ecological footprint of our buildings,
taking into consideration the consumptions and
pollutions related to the performances of the building
as well as the collateral consumption related to the
location of the building, its integration into a mix urban
context, and finally, the consumptions related to the
behaviour of its inhabitants. The design should
apprehend quantitative dimensions as well as
qualitative and symbolic ones. If the energy
performances of our buildings have increased over
the past years, the energy consumptions figures have
not exactly shown to follow that trend. There is a
strong need today to invent solutions to reduce the
consumptions and pollutions associated to living in a
building at the same time as participate to the
awareness of its inhabitants to the ecological cause
thus influencing the global consumption of that
building. If we do not start to integrate the qualitative
and symbolic approach, we might never fight what is
so called the rebound effect.

The second question is addressing the social
dimension. This second question is related to the first
one. It is stated that if we want to reduce our global
ecological footprint, we should stop building our
suburbs but start renovating our towns. And if we
want to develop our towns, we should consider how
we want people to live together and what kind of
relations will they be able to maintain in that context.
The objective is to reconsider the conditions that are
necessary in order to provide comfortable dwellings
for people to feel free to develop themselves. In order
to do so, we should respect peoples multi
dimensionality
11
. We all are individuals at the same as
part of a family, of a neighbourhood, of a city, etc. We
should provide some spaces where one can feel his
own individuality and other where one can feel part of
a group, of something bigger. This way, if people feel
comfortable to live in more dense areas, we can hope
to reduce our general ecological footprint and have a
real effect on all sectors of consumption. But more
than that, we should strike for that the renovation-
reconstruction process integrates the principle of
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
26 PRACTICE - INTERACTION BETWEEN ACTORS
want to fight this rebound effect, we architects have to
design buildings that will improve the interactions
between the inhabitants and their environment. If we
want to reduce our ecological footprint and propose
measures that will have an impact on all sectors of
consumption, architectural design should integrate
quantitative measures as well as qualitative and
symbolic ones. Sustainable architecture is then an
architecture that proposes to improve the interactions
between the inhabitants and their environment, both
natural and cultural.

How architecture proposes to articulate the different
scales of our humanity? After having analysed the
concept of sustainable development, we came to the
conclusion that architecture is a good media to
improve the connections between people and their
good relations. In order to do so, we should as
architects work at every scale of our design to
question the transition scales between the different
spaces of the project, from the public one to the
private one. Edgar Morin helped us to understand that
we, as human being, belong also to different scales of
humanity: we belong to a family, a neighbourhood, a
city, a civilisation. Every scale of this humanity has its
own needs that we as architects have to integrate and
deal with its paradox. If the architect is responsible
towards his clients, his before all responsible towards
his indirect clients, society. But if we want to reduce
the ecological footprint of our dwellings and fight the
des-urbanisation that is costing us on an
environmental level as well as on a social and
economical one, we have to improve the interactions
the inhabitants can have with their environment as
well as the neighbourhood relations that our spaces
will influence. Sustainable architecture is then an
architecture that is respons-able towards his clients
inside and outside the borders of the project and
proposes interesting modes of connections between
these different inhabitants.

How architecture proposes to transmit to the future
generations what they have inherited from the past
ones? After having analysed the principle of
sustainable development, we came to the conclusion
that architecture is a good media to integrate different
temporalities together. In order to do so, we should as
architects analyse the needs of our present time and
confront them to the structures and spaces of the past
in order to integrate their constraints as well as their
benefits in the design proposed. This should be done
considering the ecological footprint every action is
having. But this should not be done without
considering how the future generations will inherit
what we are transmitting them and how they will be
able at their turn to adapt them to their own needs at
minimal environmental and economical costs. This
implies a certain ethic in the design process.
Sustainable architecture is then an architecture that
integrates the needs of the present in the structures
and the spaces of the past without compromising the
future generations to adapt them to their own needs.

These tree questions are inter-related. If we want to
reduce our global ecological footprint and improve the
density of our towns in order to reach an optimal
level, environmentally, economically and socially, we
have to work on improving the relations between the
different people living in and outside the project in
itself as we have to work on improving the
interactions between the inhabitants and their
environment, both natural and cultural. Considering
the different structures and infrastructures we already
have as a stock of materials and energy, working with
our patrimony, whether older or newer, should be on
of our priority.

We can thus conclude on the proposition that
sustainable architecture can be defined by core ethic
principles. These principles can guide our design by
helping us to question in our project the kind of
interactions between the inhabitants and their
environment is proposed, the kind of connections
between the people inside and outside the project is
involved and the kind of relation to the patrimony we
have inherited and we are transmitting to the future
generations is implied.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper proposes the main conclusion of a
research that has been conducted for the Wallonia
Region within the international research framework of
the task 28 of the International Energy Agency on
Sustainable Solar Housing.
7. REFERENCES

[1] Architect's Council of Europe, Green Vitruvius:
Principles and Practice of Sustainable Architectural
Design, James & James, 1999.
[2] Brundtland Gro Harlem, Our Common Future: the
World Commission on Environment and
Development, Oxford University Press, 1987.
[3] Zacca Edwin, Le dveloppement durable:
Dynamique et constitution d'un projet,P.I.E. Peter
Lang, 2002.
[4] http://www.plan.be/
[5] Edgar Morin, Seven Complex Lessons in
education for the future, UNESCO PUBLISHING,
1999.
[6] Augustin Berque, Etre humain sur Terre,
Gallimard, 1996.
[7] Augustin Berque, Ecoumne, introduction ltude
des milieux humains, Belin, 1999.
[8] Stewart Brand, How buildings learn, what happens
after theyre built, Penguin, October 1995.
[9] Conseil Europen des Architectes, Larchitecture,
mdiatrice des tensions urbaines, Extraits du colloque
europen, Unesco, Paris, 1999.

[10] Youns Chris et al., Ville contre-nature, La
dcouverte, 1999.
[11] Benasayag Miguel, Le mythe de l'individu, La
Dcouverte, 1998.
[12] Choay Franoise, Lallgorie du Patrimoine, Le
seuil, 1992.
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PRACTICE - INTERACTION BETWEEN ACTORS 27
Towards more sustainable neighbourhoods: are
good practices reproducible and extensible?
A review of a few existing sustainable neighbourhoods
Anne-Franoise MARIQUE
1
, Sigrid REITER
1
1
Local Environment: Management & Analysis (LEMA), University of Lige, Lige, Belgium
ABSTRACT: Several urban neighbourhoods built or retrofitted from the 1990s have become renowned for their
sustainability and are often presented as good practices, as far as sustainable development and low energy
architecture are concerned. Although these sustainable neighbourhoods receive a great deal of media
coverage, they seem to stay single experiments and are rarely repeated in other territories or at larger scales.
This paper first discusses the European context, which fostered the development of these pilot experiments. It
then proposes a rereading of eight famous sustainable neighbourhoods in an analytic way that is more than
descriptive to highlight good practices to repeat and weaknesses to avoid and question the reproducibility of
these experiments. The settings grid, which describes the achievement conditions and some common
characteristics of these urban projects, highlighted through this analysis, is compared with a Belgian dwelling
project, and this comparison allows us to explain why it can be difficult to extend these concepts more widely.
Finally, the paper proposes several guidelines to promote energy efficiency and sustainability at the urban scale
in order to support the planning of more sustainable urban projects.
Keywords: sustainable neighbourhoods, urban sustainability, best practices
1. INTRODUCTION
The world is undergoing the largest wave of
urban growth in history. In 2008, for the first time,
more than half of the worlds population (that is to
say 3.3 billion people) lived in urban areas. By 2030,
this number will swell to nearly 5 billion [1]. As cities
and towns are now known to be responsible for the
majority of greenhouse gas emissions [2] and energy
consumption, it becomes urgent to reduce their
environmental impact and to identify how to improve
existing and new urban neighbourhoods and how to
make them more sustainable.
These causes for concern were expressed for the
first time in 1987 in the famous Bruntland report [3],
which introduced the concept of sustainable
development. From then on, the need for more
sustainable urban forms has been treated in several
successive European texts and charters that
recognise the role of European cities and towns in
pursuing sustainability [4] and the importance of
cooperation and local actions in achieving a more
sustainable future [5, 6]. In this European framework,
budgets were granted to demonstrate, in real
conditions, how to improve the sustainability of new
and existing urban districts and how to foster the
transfer of knowledge and best practices in the field
of urban planning, for example, through the
European Urban Knowledge (EUKN) and Energy
Cities Networks.
Several pilot urban neighbourhoods, often set
themselves up as sustainable, were developed or
retrofitted in this context. They received significant
media coverage, and they were widely praised as
best practices in terms of sustainable urban planning
and low energy architecture. However, these case
studies are often presented in a descriptive way, and
they are not analytic enough to allow one to compare
these neighbourhoods, learn from them, disseminate
knowledge and turn to good account these
experiments. In this context, the paper proposes a
rereading of 8 well-known examples of sustainable
urban design in an analytic way that is more then
descriptive. The approach adopted is intended to
identify invariants in the diversity of practices to
facilitate the comparison between case studies and
to highlight achievement conditions and common
characteristics that could be reproduced to improve
current and future urban projects. Every urban
project is, in fact, strictly linked to its context, and
systematisation or simply the copy-pasting of a
project from one context to another is not the aim [7].
2. SUSTAINABLE NEIGHBOURHOODS
2.1. The district scale
The sustainable neighbourhood can be
considered the meeting point between the individual
sustainable building and the management of a
sustainable city, which are two fields in which actors
have evolved independently for a long time [8]. Thus
far, this intermediate scale has been mostly
neglected in building energy analyses, whereas
decisions made at the neighbourhood scale have
huge consequences on the performances of
individual buildings and the transportation habits of
the inhabitants [9]. Moreover, collective infrastructure
(e.g., heating networks) is often more efficient and
less expensive than equipment intended for
individuals [10]. The neighbourhood is more
homogeneous than the city and constitutes the ideal
scale at which to experiment with new technologies
and methods to improve urban sustainability [11].
want to fight this rebound effect, we architects have to
design buildings that will improve the interactions
between the inhabitants and their environment. If we
want to reduce our ecological footprint and propose
measures that will have an impact on all sectors of
consumption, architectural design should integrate
quantitative measures as well as qualitative and
symbolic ones. Sustainable architecture is then an
architecture that proposes to improve the interactions
between the inhabitants and their environment, both
natural and cultural.

How architecture proposes to articulate the different
scales of our humanity? After having analysed the
concept of sustainable development, we came to the
conclusion that architecture is a good media to
improve the connections between people and their
good relations. In order to do so, we should as
architects work at every scale of our design to
question the transition scales between the different
spaces of the project, from the public one to the
private one. Edgar Morin helped us to understand that
we, as human being, belong also to different scales of
humanity: we belong to a family, a neighbourhood, a
city, a civilisation. Every scale of this humanity has its
own needs that we as architects have to integrate and
deal with its paradox. If the architect is responsible
towards his clients, his before all responsible towards
his indirect clients, society. But if we want to reduce
the ecological footprint of our dwellings and fight the
des-urbanisation that is costing us on an
environmental level as well as on a social and
economical one, we have to improve the interactions
the inhabitants can have with their environment as
well as the neighbourhood relations that our spaces
will influence. Sustainable architecture is then an
architecture that is respons-able towards his clients
inside and outside the borders of the project and
proposes interesting modes of connections between
these different inhabitants.

How architecture proposes to transmit to the future
generations what they have inherited from the past
ones? After having analysed the principle of
sustainable development, we came to the conclusion
that architecture is a good media to integrate different
temporalities together. In order to do so, we should as
architects analyse the needs of our present time and
confront them to the structures and spaces of the past
in order to integrate their constraints as well as their
benefits in the design proposed. This should be done
considering the ecological footprint every action is
having. But this should not be done without
considering how the future generations will inherit
what we are transmitting them and how they will be
able at their turn to adapt them to their own needs at
minimal environmental and economical costs. This
implies a certain ethic in the design process.
Sustainable architecture is then an architecture that
integrates the needs of the present in the structures
and the spaces of the past without compromising the
future generations to adapt them to their own needs.

These tree questions are inter-related. If we want to
reduce our global ecological footprint and improve the
density of our towns in order to reach an optimal
level, environmentally, economically and socially, we
have to work on improving the relations between the
different people living in and outside the project in
itself as we have to work on improving the
interactions between the inhabitants and their
environment, both natural and cultural. Considering
the different structures and infrastructures we already
have as a stock of materials and energy, working with
our patrimony, whether older or newer, should be on
of our priority.

We can thus conclude on the proposition that
sustainable architecture can be defined by core ethic
principles. These principles can guide our design by
helping us to question in our project the kind of
interactions between the inhabitants and their
environment is proposed, the kind of connections
between the people inside and outside the project is
involved and the kind of relation to the patrimony we
have inherited and we are transmitting to the future
generations is implied.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper proposes the main conclusion of a
research that has been conducted for the Wallonia
Region within the international research framework of
the task 28 of the International Energy Agency on
Sustainable Solar Housing.
7. REFERENCES

[1] Architect's Council of Europe, Green Vitruvius:
Principles and Practice of Sustainable Architectural
Design, James & James, 1999.
[2] Brundtland Gro Harlem, Our Common Future: the
World Commission on Environment and
Development, Oxford University Press, 1987.
[3] Zacca Edwin, Le dveloppement durable:
Dynamique et constitution d'un projet,P.I.E. Peter
Lang, 2002.
[4] http://www.plan.be/
[5] Edgar Morin, Seven Complex Lessons in
education for the future, UNESCO PUBLISHING,
1999.
[6] Augustin Berque, Etre humain sur Terre,
Gallimard, 1996.
[7] Augustin Berque, Ecoumne, introduction ltude
des milieux humains, Belin, 1999.
[8] Stewart Brand, How buildings learn, what happens
after theyre built, Penguin, October 1995.
[9] Conseil Europen des Architectes, Larchitecture,
mdiatrice des tensions urbaines, Extraits du colloque
europen, Unesco, Paris, 1999.

[10] Youns Chris et al., Ville contre-nature, La
dcouverte, 1999.
[11] Benasayag Miguel, Le mythe de l'individu, La
Dcouverte, 1998.
[12] Choay Franoise, Lallgorie du Patrimoine, Le
seuil, 1992.
PLEA 2011 - 27
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28 PRACTICE - INTERACTION BETWEEN ACTORS
Finally, the urban fragment is large enough to
guarantee the transversality that constitutes the core
of the sustainable development and is small enough
to more easily mobilise inhabitants and gain their
participation in the project.
2.2. The case studies
The paper focuses on six new and two retrofitted
sustainable districts to allow a range of development
situations to be explored. These case studies are
chosen for one main reason: the literature available
(mostly through websites and information centres)
and the publicity surrounding them, which tends to
highlight their exemplary nature as far as urban
sustainability is concerned. These case studies were
built 10 or 15 years ago, which gives us enough time
to assess the mid-term effects. Due to the restricted
length of the paper, only the main characteristics of
the projects (context, number of dwellings and area)
are summarised below. More detailed information will
be included in the presentation / poster:
- [BO] BO01 in Malmo (S) is a new urban district
built in the framework of the European Building
Exhibition (City of Tomorrow). It comprises, in the
first stage, around 600 dwellings on 9 hectares.
New technologies are used to demonstrate
expertise and change the reputation of the city.
- [HS] Hammarby Sjstad in Stockholm (S) is a
200-hectare former harbour transformed into a
sustainable neighbourhood (10,000 dwellings) in
the outskirts of Stockholm that lacked new high-
quality dwellings.
- [BZ] BedZed in Sutton (UK) is a new very low
energy-consuming mixed-use community (2 ha,
82 dwellings and offices) built in the outskirts of
London by a private developer and an architect
involved in environmental topics.
- [KR] Kronsberg in Hanover (D) is a new district
built for the 2000 World Exposition to promote
high environmental quality and demonstrate new
technologies. It comprises about 6,000 dwellings
as well as shops and offices on 150 hectares.
- [FR] Vauban in Fribourg (D) is one of the most
famous sustainable districts. It comprises, in the
first stage, around 5,000 inhabitants and 600 jobs
(38 hectares). The project aims to build a city
district in a co-operative, participatory way and in
line with ecological, social, economical and
cultural requirements.
- [EL] Eva-Lanxmeer in Culemborg (NL) is a new
green neighbourhood initiated by a foundation
active in environment. It comprises around 250
houses (14 ha). Its main originality is to promote
the constant involvement of the inhabitants.
- [VS] Vesterbo is a retrofitted neighbourhood in
Copenhagen (DK). Environmental techniques are
particularly advanced in the Hedebygade urban
fragment (280 dwellings) that was very dense
and socially disadvantaged.
- [AU] Augustenborg in Malmo (S) is a retrofitted
social district (1,800 dwellings) built in the 1950s
and mainly inhabited by disadvantaged sections
of the population. The main aim is to promote a
better quality of life to the inhabitants without
increasing the rent.
In the rest of the paper, these neighbourhoods
will be identified by the two capital letters in square
brackets to facilitate readability.
3. ANALYSIS AND MAIN RESULTS
The analysis focuses on production processes
more than on detailed facts and figures to identify the
main barriers to expansion and to highlight
characteristics and conditions that could foster and
generalise the development of more sustainable
projects. This analysis is organised around five main
topics: the urban context and favourable conditions,
the objectives in terms of sustainability, the
achievement conditions, the financial arrangement
and commercialisation and, finally, the environmental
performance, its evaluation and its monitoring.
3.1. The context and the favourable conditions
Cities that developed sustainable districts were
not necessarily very active in pursuing environmental
policies before the beginning of the project, even if
some of them were already involved in European
networks or were implementing Local Agenda 21, as
Fribourg, Copenhagen and Malmo did. The
sustainable neighbourhood is thus not the
operational implementation of former and ancient
policies; instead, it is often used as a starting point to
initiate, develop and communicate new sustainable
local policies.
Several districts were initiated and developed in
the scope of a worldwide event ([BO], [HS], [KR],
[VS]). This showcase is mobilised to foster the
adherence of private developers, future inhabitants
and especially financiers and to widely demonstrate
national or regional expertise.
The sustainable neighbourhood is mobilised to
promote a region but also to change the image of a
city, or at least a part of it. That is the reason why
several projects were developed on former
Brownfield (former army barracks in [FR], harbour
Brownfield in [BO] and [HS], colliery in [BZ], [VS] and
[AU] suffered from a bad reputation). The
neighbourhood is thus expected to become a driving
force in the citys overall development as a
sustainable city and in thwarting urban sprawl. The
high quality of the dwellings and public spaces is
presented as a breaking point with the past.
However, the sites on which these sustainable
neighbourhoods are developed, even Brownfield,
present strong potentialities: the level of accessibility
is good or has been improved before the building of
the district, particularly due to tramway routes ([FR],
[HS], [AU]). Neighbouring districts are used to supply
services, jobs or shops. Even if the mix of functions
is often emphasised, activities located in the new or
retrofitted districts are only dedicated to their
inhabitants (local meeting centres, laundry, etc.).
The most important point is that land property is
public (except in [EL], which is a private initiative),
which enables public authorities to more easily force
private developers to respect their conditions as far
as density, energy and environmental performances
and public space are concerned. Finally, this land
property policy enables a sum of money to be
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PRACTICE - INTERACTION BETWEEN ACTORS 29
available quickly when the fields are sold and to use
this money to partly finance infrastructure works,
including transportation and urban networks.
3.2. The objectives in terms of sustainability
The objectives in terms of sustainability are
ambitious, especially as far as energy consumption
is concerned; the sustainable neighbourhood aims to
vastly reduce consumption and greenhouse gas
emissions in comparison with neighbouring districts
(60% in [KR] or 50% in [BZ] and [FR]), to supply the
energy needs of the community using local
renewable resources (up to 100% in [BO]), or to
become self-sufficient in [EL], even in terms of the
production of food.
There is a huge will to demonstrate new
competences and to break with traditional practices.
Consequently, the environmental approach is
pluralistic and mainly concerns energy but also water
waste (up to 12 different kinds of waste collected in
[BO] or [VS]), mobility and transportation, biodiversity
and materials, among others. Low technologies and
high technologies are mobilised to fulfil the
objectives as well as to demonstrate and test new
technologies in real conditions. To systematise
technical solutions for the whole project is not an aim
in these sustainable neighbourhoods.
The economic and social points of view are often
neglected in new developments, most likely because
European and national grants were mainly oriented
towards environment in the nineties [12]. Although
the social dimension of a sustainable project cannot
be reduced to the question of the affordability of the
dwellings, a minimum percentage of social dwellings
is imposed in the specifications. Renovation projects
seem to pay more attention to disadvantaged
population even if gentrification cannot be avoided.
The will to break with traditional practices is also
obvious in the urban forms promoted: collective
dwellings, urban linear blocks oriented toward the
south or open housing blocks, high density mixed
together with large green spaces, the repartition of
private and public spaces, green flat roofs, the use of
colour or the visibility of the water cycle, among other
elements. This very specific urban form is developed
to create a new offer, it is easily identifiable, and it is
used as a marketing argument to facilitate its
promotion and to differentiate it from more traditional
urban projects. The sustainable district is thus
mobilised as a marketing argument, and the
environmental aspects help to produce economic
value and social valorisation.
3.3. The achievement conditions
The break between traditional practices and the
sustainable district is also carried out as far as
achievement conditions are concerned. Three
specific kinds of processes can be highlighted. On
one hand, in a top-down approach, public
authorities have the leadership and manage the
project ([BO], [KR], [HS], [VS], [AU]). On the other
hand, Fribourg and Eva-Lanxmeer have adopted a
bottom-up approach initiated by citizens involved in
the development of their own districts ([FR], [EL]). In
those two cases, a group of future inhabitants
develops the main lines of the project and then tries
to interest public authorities and private developers
to gain financial help, subsidies and building
authorisations. More rarely, the sustainable
neighbourhood is initiated and managed by a private
developer [BZ].
The operation arrangements are more complex,
and the number of actors rises in comparison with
traditional urban projects. Experts and future
inhabitants are often mobilised as active actors in the
arrangements to gain their adherence and legitimise
the project. Network developers are also involved in
the early stages of the project, because numerous
new technologies are used. This is also a new
challenge for construction professionals, who are
confronted with new constructive techniques or
materials. To generate professionals and to control
quality is thus crucial in guaranteeing good execution
and desired performance.
Existing regulations are not adapted to these new
types of developments. Several dispensations were
needed to build these districts, particularly as far as
the urban form is concerned. Again, the
environmental exemplarity of the districts is used by
the developers to gain dispensations. New tools are
developed and used to accompany the
developments. For example, a quality charter was
developed in [BO], and developers who intervened
had to respect at least 10 of the 35 environmental
points proposed to guarantee urban density,
architectural diversity together with high
environmental quality and biodiversity. In Hanover
[KR], a general plan defined the main goals chosen
for the neighbourhoods future development. On this
basis, a precise tool was used to gather specific
objectives and requirements applicable to private
developers, land buyers and future inhabitants.
The turnaround time to complete a sustainable
neighbourhood is comparable to standard urban
projects (from 7 to 10 years between the first
contacts and the completion of the project).
However, due to the complexity of the operation
arrangements, the high number of actors involved in
the process and the innovation carried out by the
project, time is used differently. Preliminary talks,
dialogue and elaboration phases that intervene
before the construction take more time and are
crucial to guarantee the quality of the development,
define new norms and standards and to perpetuate
agreements in the long term. Beginning negotiations
early in the process is also common in the
Netherlands and the United Kingdom, whereas in
France and Belgium, especially in the Walloon
Region, negotiations and redirecting tend to occur
later, even as late as the building stage [13]. If this
specificity allows the gaining of a large consensus
and guarantees the projects higher quality before
the building of the district, it can also lead to defects,
especially if, as in [BO], the building phase is
shortened to adhere to an overall time limit. To avoid
long turnaround times, several stages (operational
and financial arrangements, incidences evaluation,
etc.) were conducted simultaneously in [KR]
Finally, communication is a key element in the
production process of a sustainable neighbourhood.
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30 PRACTICE - INTERACTION BETWEEN ACTORS
term. Solar panels in [AU] were removed after a few
years because they were out of service. The
cogeneration and water treatment devices in [BZ]
were over-dimensioned and are no longer functional.
Finally, we can highlight that, even if innovation
and high quality are promoted, simulation tools were
not used to improve the conception of buildings or to
anticipate energy requirements.
3.6. What is reproducible and how?
The analysis presented in the previous section
allows us to highlight three kinds of reproducibility in
the production process of a sustainable district.
The first type is a step-by-step reproducibility
within a specific neighbourhood; innovations are
tested in one phase and then improved and
reproduced in the following phase by trial and error
(e.g., the four-phase building process in [EL] or the
resolution of the thermal bridges in [KR]). This
learning is important in building knowledge,
especially in a field experiencing much innovation.
The second type of reproducibility is the
adjustment; the management is adapted and
adjusted during the evolution of the project according
to the experience gained and the external conditions.
The last type of reproducibility is learning, and it
can take three different forms: the duplication of a
practice from one neighbourhood to another (the
experience gained in [FR] has been used to develop
a second sustainable neighbourhood in the city), the
sectional diffusion of an innovation (the ENVAC
sustainable waste collection system tested in [BO]
and [HS] is now used in other European cities) or the
duplication of a model (the BedZed model developed
and tested in the United Kingdom should be
implemented in emerging countries).
This analysis confirms the iterative and adaptive
nature of the production processes of sustainable
neighbourhoods [16] and can also be applied, at a
larger scale, to every innovative process in the field
of urban planning.
We can finally highlight a more particular form of
diffusion of the sustainable neighbourhood. The pilot
experiments are sometimes mobilised by citizens as
a means of applying pressure on public authorities to
better account for environmental quality and
sustainable development in a particular local urban
project (e.g., Rungis ZAC in Paris).
4. APPLICATION OF THE SETTINGS GRID
This section aims to collate the production
processes of the studied neighbourhoods with the
reality of a Belgian dwelling project through the
settings grid highlighted from the previous analysis.
4.1. The case study
The case study is the Baviere housing project. It
comprises about 600 new dwellings built on an urban
site (4 hectares) located close to the centre of Lige
(Belgium), in the Outremeuse neighbourhood. The
site was former occupied by a hospital and has been
a Brownfield for several decades, because even if
several urban projects mainly oriented towards
services were studied, opposition or financial
arrangements led to the abandonment of the
projects.
In 2005, the public authorities, with the
agreement of the land owner (private society),
decided to organise a competition to find a team able
to develop a new project on the site. At the end of
the process, Himmos project was selected.
This case study has been chosen because it
presents several common characteristics with the
studied neighbourhoods: a programme mainly
oriented towards housing, high-quality public spaces
and a few services, a clear dedication to sustainable
development (as written in the specifications edited
by the public authorities), a desire to create a new
reputation, achievement in several stages, a call for
investors and planners, an urban form promoted in
the winning project and a pluri-disciplinary team,
among others. Finally, even if the project has been
delayed indefinitely since the last economic crisis in
2009, large urban projects are fairly rare in the
Walloon region.
Information about this project was gathered
through interviews with the main actors of the project
(public local and regional authorities, neighbours,
architects, etc.) and the analysis of legal texts
(specifications, legal notices, etc.).
4.2. The comparison
The comparison between the sustainable districts
and the Baviere project allows us to highlight points
of convergence and divergence.
Convergence mainly deals with two themes: the
characteristics of the site on which the district is
planned (good accessibility, Brownfield to redevelop,
etc.) and the urban form promoted (in rupture with
traditional urban forms met in Lige). The private
developer, who was already active in the
Netherlands and in Flanders, used this new urban
form to construct a new high quality picture to
facilitate the projects commercialisation. Together
with the public authorities attention to sustainable
development and the project proposed by the
architects (energy consumptions in the project are,
for example, lower than the legal requirements),
conditions were gathered to produce a new district
more aware of environmental quality than traditional
urban projects, even if developing a sustainable
neighbourhood was not an aim.
Unfortunately, points of divergence explain why it
was not the case. The project is currently stopped
because of the last economic crisis. However, if
financial sources had been more diversified or if
subsidies had been gained, the financial
arrangements would have been more robust and
would perhaps have weathered the crisis. Moreover,
information and communication about the project,
even if it were somewhat more pronounced than the
legal requirements in the Walloon region of Belgium,
did not lead to a large public consensus around the
project, nor did it stabilise the process. Finally,
existing regulations are not adapted to new
technologies; for example, using rain water in the
toilets requires a dispensatory, the resale of the
energy produced in the district is not already a
common practice, and a fixed number of parking
Forums [FR], foundations [EL] or communication
centres ([VS], [KR]) are opened to create a link
between the different categories of actors and to
build a picture or common representation of the
project, which is useful in gaining the adherence of
private developers and future inhabitants. Four types
of communication can be highlighted: information for
the public, which is legally mandatory; the
consultation (citizens are consulted but public
authorities have no obligation to take the results into
account); the dialogue (public authorities gather the
public opinion in a more participative process,
improve the project and re-submit it to the public)
and, finally, the co-decision or co-production in which
public authorities invite the public to participate in the
design of the project.
After the completion of the project, forum and
information centres are created to inform citizens and
future buyers, to heighten public awareness and to
form the inhabitants to their future dwelling. Indeed,
new technologies are used in those neighbourhoods
and must be clearly explained to the inhabitants to
be used correctly.
3.4. The financial arrangement and
commercialisation
The cost of the sustainable districts is high. The
question of how to finance the overinvestment is
therefore crucial and must be settled in the first
stages of the procedure. The return on investment is
longer than usual, which is not compatible with the
short-term logic of private developers. The studied
projects are thus dependent upon public subsidies,
which reduce the reproducibility of these experiments
(up to 95% of public money in [VS], 16 millions
from the city and 32 from the state in [BO]) and
question the social equity of these strategies (is it fair
to concentrate so much money on limited projects?).
The strategy adopted consists of first obtaining
subsidies labelled as having high environmental
quality. They provide an environmental identity to the
project and facilitate additional financing. European
funds, even if limited, are also important to legitimise
the project. The final arrangements are thus
extremely complex because they are based on
multiple sources. This complexity has repercussions
on the technologies used in the project because
subsidies are often thematic and directed to solar
energy, urban networks or energy savings.
Another solution to finance the overinvestment
and reduce the non-commercialisation risk in the
sustainable districts is to propose high-standing
types of dwellings or to develop a new offer
dedicated to a few privileged people (very large
dwelling, numerous high-quality external spaces,
high-tech equipment, etc.) that can be sold at higher
prices but reduces the social balance in the district.
This overinvestment also has repercussions for the
environmental quality of the project. Indeed, private
developers considered these new products to be
risky as far as non-commercialisation is concerned.
and even if the partnership and the financial
intervention of public authorities reduced this risk,
they insisted on reducing expected environmental
performances. The maximum heat consumption
proposed in [KR] was increased by 10% (55
kWh/m.year instead of 50). Several environmental
targets proposed in the [BO] charter were
abandoned at private developers request.
Finally, we have identified a last type of additional
cost in the sustainable district: the management
costs. The numerous public spaces must be
maintained, and the new technologies need more
attention than traditional ones; this constitutes an
additional cost. This cost may be monetised, or it
may not be; for example, inhabitants may be asked
to spend a few hours each month to maintain public
spaces ([EL], [FR]).
3.5. The performances and their evaluation
Several types of quality controls were used
during the building stages. In Hanover [KR], quality
controls were decided, planned and formalised early
in the process and set with very precise and detailed
specifications. On the contrary, the quality charter
used in [BO] only imposed 10 of the 35
environmental specifications but did not provide any
sanctions in the case of non-adherence. In [EV],
inhabitants, helped by experts, were in charge of
quality control during the building phase.
Monitoring the performance of the neighbourhood
during its use is also important in checking the
adequacy between initial requirements and
measured results. Sensors and personal meters are
thus used in several neighbourhoods, which allow
the household to follow, in real time, the evolution of
energy and water consumption. Indicator systems
are developed and used. Unfortunately, these
procedures need time and money and, in many
cases, the monitoring of these systems is abandoned
several months or years later because of the lack of
money dedicated to this task.
Moreover, even if the measured performance
following the completion of the studied projects is
better than standard requirements, it is not always as
positive as expected because the behaviour of the
occupants was not accounted for in the previous
forecasts [14]. In [BZ], for example, measured
consumption varies from 1 to 6 according to the
household [15]. In Hammarby, the high level of the
equipment (especially in the kitchen) that is furnished
to the inhabitants to improve the quality of the
dwellings leads to huge energy consumption, even if
heating loads are reduced. Finally, new technologies
are sometimes difficult to understand and difficult for
inhabitants to assimilate, which can reduce the
expected performance. This is especially true in
retrofitted projects because inhabitants are not
always looking for changes in their habits or in
neighbourhoods aiming at very high quality; these
projects also attract wealthier people more interested
in the neighbourhoods proposed quality of life than
in its sustainable aspects. On this subject,
neighbourhoods promoting a bottom-up approach
([FR] and [EV]) present better performance because
inhabitants have been involved since the beginning
and have chosen this kind of neighbourhood
specifically for its environmental quality.
Another trend highlighted by the experiments is
that performance is difficult to maintain in the long
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term. Solar panels in [AU] were removed after a few
years because they were out of service. The
cogeneration and water treatment devices in [BZ]
were over-dimensioned and are no longer functional.
Finally, we can highlight that, even if innovation
and high quality are promoted, simulation tools were
not used to improve the conception of buildings or to
anticipate energy requirements.
3.6. What is reproducible and how?
The analysis presented in the previous section
allows us to highlight three kinds of reproducibility in
the production process of a sustainable district.
The first type is a step-by-step reproducibility
within a specific neighbourhood; innovations are
tested in one phase and then improved and
reproduced in the following phase by trial and error
(e.g., the four-phase building process in [EL] or the
resolution of the thermal bridges in [KR]). This
learning is important in building knowledge,
especially in a field experiencing much innovation.
The second type of reproducibility is the
adjustment; the management is adapted and
adjusted during the evolution of the project according
to the experience gained and the external conditions.
The last type of reproducibility is learning, and it
can take three different forms: the duplication of a
practice from one neighbourhood to another (the
experience gained in [FR] has been used to develop
a second sustainable neighbourhood in the city), the
sectional diffusion of an innovation (the ENVAC
sustainable waste collection system tested in [BO]
and [HS] is now used in other European cities) or the
duplication of a model (the BedZed model developed
and tested in the United Kingdom should be
implemented in emerging countries).
This analysis confirms the iterative and adaptive
nature of the production processes of sustainable
neighbourhoods [16] and can also be applied, at a
larger scale, to every innovative process in the field
of urban planning.
We can finally highlight a more particular form of
diffusion of the sustainable neighbourhood. The pilot
experiments are sometimes mobilised by citizens as
a means of applying pressure on public authorities to
better account for environmental quality and
sustainable development in a particular local urban
project (e.g., Rungis ZAC in Paris).
4. APPLICATION OF THE SETTINGS GRID
This section aims to collate the production
processes of the studied neighbourhoods with the
reality of a Belgian dwelling project through the
settings grid highlighted from the previous analysis.
4.1. The case study
The case study is the Baviere housing project. It
comprises about 600 new dwellings built on an urban
site (4 hectares) located close to the centre of Lige
(Belgium), in the Outremeuse neighbourhood. The
site was former occupied by a hospital and has been
a Brownfield for several decades, because even if
several urban projects mainly oriented towards
services were studied, opposition or financial
arrangements led to the abandonment of the
projects.
In 2005, the public authorities, with the
agreement of the land owner (private society),
decided to organise a competition to find a team able
to develop a new project on the site. At the end of
the process, Himmos project was selected.
This case study has been chosen because it
presents several common characteristics with the
studied neighbourhoods: a programme mainly
oriented towards housing, high-quality public spaces
and a few services, a clear dedication to sustainable
development (as written in the specifications edited
by the public authorities), a desire to create a new
reputation, achievement in several stages, a call for
investors and planners, an urban form promoted in
the winning project and a pluri-disciplinary team,
among others. Finally, even if the project has been
delayed indefinitely since the last economic crisis in
2009, large urban projects are fairly rare in the
Walloon region.
Information about this project was gathered
through interviews with the main actors of the project
(public local and regional authorities, neighbours,
architects, etc.) and the analysis of legal texts
(specifications, legal notices, etc.).
4.2. The comparison
The comparison between the sustainable districts
and the Baviere project allows us to highlight points
of convergence and divergence.
Convergence mainly deals with two themes: the
characteristics of the site on which the district is
planned (good accessibility, Brownfield to redevelop,
etc.) and the urban form promoted (in rupture with
traditional urban forms met in Lige). The private
developer, who was already active in the
Netherlands and in Flanders, used this new urban
form to construct a new high quality picture to
facilitate the projects commercialisation. Together
with the public authorities attention to sustainable
development and the project proposed by the
architects (energy consumptions in the project are,
for example, lower than the legal requirements),
conditions were gathered to produce a new district
more aware of environmental quality than traditional
urban projects, even if developing a sustainable
neighbourhood was not an aim.
Unfortunately, points of divergence explain why it
was not the case. The project is currently stopped
because of the last economic crisis. However, if
financial sources had been more diversified or if
subsidies had been gained, the financial
arrangements would have been more robust and
would perhaps have weathered the crisis. Moreover,
information and communication about the project,
even if it were somewhat more pronounced than the
legal requirements in the Walloon region of Belgium,
did not lead to a large public consensus around the
project, nor did it stabilise the process. Finally,
existing regulations are not adapted to new
technologies; for example, using rain water in the
toilets requires a dispensatory, the resale of the
energy produced in the district is not already a
common practice, and a fixed number of parking
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places must be planned when a new development is
built, which is not necessarily compatible with
mobility aims.
5. MAIN RECOMMANDATIONS
The following main recommendations are
highlighted from the previous analyses and could
help to build more sustainable urban projects:
- Information, formation and public awareness are
crucial to mobilise citizens to promote sustainable
development and to gain their adherence to this
aim.
- Social quality and economical viability are also part
of sustainability and must not be neglected.
- The overinvestment linked to more sustainable
project is a reality but must not be reported to the
final buyer thought the high quality of the dwellings.
- Thinking in terms of global costs is useful because
the reduction in charges quickly compensates for
the overinvestment. Public-private partnerships can
also help to better split the risk. Green loan, third
investors, etc., exist and should be investigated
- The legal framework and requirements need to be
adapted to new technologies and goals. A more
proactive attitude must be adopted by the public as
far as sustainable development is concerned.
Public authorities must take leadership in urban
projects (namely, through land ownership) and
impose more strict requirements on private
developers by putting them on concurrence to
improve the quality and environmental performance
of a project.
- Environmental requirements should be added to the
specifications, which must specify clear objectives
and expected consumptions.
- Controls are necessary to ensure that initial
requirements are respected. It is better to initiate
quality upstream and to control it downstream.
6. CONCLUSIONS
In conclusion, our study of the main
characteristics and conditions that allowed the
achievement of several sustainable neighbourhoods
in Europe and the confrontation with a Belgian
housing project has highlighted the demonstration
nature of these projects. It has emphasised
fundamental qualities to promote more sustainable
urban districts and faults to avoid (social aspects,
high prices, etc.).
Reproducing exiting pilot experiments is difficult
because of the exceptional conditions that were
gathered (especially as far as the financial
arrangements are concerned). However, these
experiments are useful because they have proved
that it is technically possible to retrofit and build more
sustainable urban projects. The challenge is now go
out the exception logic carried out by these
experiments and to put the knowledge gained to
good use for our current and future urban projects.
Urban sustainability must become the rule and
not the exception and must be reached at more
affordable prices because technical solutions exist
and have proven their appeal. However, the most
crucial goal seems to simultaneously heighten public
awareness of the importance of our lifestyles and
behaviours. It is only by combining innovation,
technology, good governance and citizens sensible
behaviour that it will be possible to draw a more
sustainable future and to provide an appropriate
response to the global challenge of climate change.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This paper is based on a masters thesis carried
out in the Advanced Master in Urban and Regional
Planning (University of Lige, Belgium). We thank
the professors who monitored and evaluated it.
8. REFERENCES
[1] UNFPA United Nations Population Fund ,
New York, The State of World Population, 2007.
[2] D. Robinson and C. Quiroga, Sustainable
masterplanning in practice. Proc. CISBAT
Conference, Lausanne -Switzerland (2009), 397.
[3] WCED United Nations World Commission on
Environment and Development Annex to
General Assembly document A/42/427, 1987.
[4] European Conference on Sustainable Cities &
Towns, Aalborg, Denmark, May 1994.
[5] Commission of the European Communities,
Green paper on the urban Environment,
Commission to the Council and Parliament,
Brussels, June 1990.
[6] UNFCCC United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change Rio, 1992.
[7] M. Roseland, Sustainable community develop-
ment, Progress in Planning 54 (2000), 73.
[8] P. Lefvre and M. Sabard, Les coquartiers,
Editions Apoge, Mayenne, 261p.
[9] E. Popovici and B. Peuportier, Using life cycle
assessment as decision support in the design of
settlements. Proc. of the 21th PLEA Conference,
Eindhoven, (2004).
[10] C. Hanson, The cohousing handbook. Building a
place for a community, Hartley & Marks
Publishers, USA, 1996, 255p.
[11] C. Charlot-Valdieu and C. Emlianoff, Les
apports de la dmarche Agenda 21 local
travers deux thmes danalyse, Rapport pour
lADEME et le CSTB, 2000.
[12] M. Lemonier, Eco-quartiers; Les pionniers font
cole, Diagonal 178 (2008), 41.
[13] B.Glasson, P. Booth, Negotiation and delay in
the development control process: case studies
in Yorkshire and Humberside, Town Planning
Review 63-1 (1992), 63.
[14] C. Bech-Danielsen, Ecological Reflections in
Architecture. Architectural design of the place,
the space and the interface. The Danish
Architectural press, Copenhagen.
[15] F. Faucheux, Proc. Mise en oeuvre et valuation
des coquartiers, Fondaterra, Paris (2009).
[16] CEAT Communaut dtudes pour
lamnagement du territoire Lausanne (2008).
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PRACTICE - INTERACTION BETWEEN ACTORS 33
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
Tracking Design and Actual Energy Use:
CarbonBuzz, an RIBA CIBSE platform
Judit KIMPIAN
1
, Sophie CHISHOLM
2
1&2
Aedas, London, UK
ABSTRACT: CarbonBuzz is a collaborative research project between the Chartered Institution of Building
Services Engineers (CIBSE) and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) to engage industry and
government with closing the gap between forecast and actual building CO2 emissions. It is the result of joined-up
thinking between architects, engineers, professional bodies, policy makers and academics. Its aim is to improve
the awareness of building performance indicators amongst those who play a major role in the design and
construction of buildings.
Keywords: Design tools and methods, sustainability benchmarks, energy use, carbon reduction, unregulated
1. INTRODUCTION
As one of the largest UK architectural practices,
we have introduced annual carbon audits of our
projects and operations with the aim of setting
practice-wide carbon emissions targets. The process
of tracking the energy consumption of our projects
from design to operation has highlighted a prevalent
industry gap between expectations and outcomes. In
response we have set in motion a host of research
initiatives including CarbonBuzz.
In partnership with University College London
(UCL), the Building Research Establishment (BRE),
Aecom, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCBS) and
XCO2Energy, we set up a joint research programme
between the Royal Institute of British Architects
(RIBA) and the Chartered Institution of Building
Services Engineers (CIBSE) in 2007.
Now an RIBA|CIBSE platform, this project seeks
to make meaningful energy consumption data
available in the public domain to support live
benchmarking and analysis of the effectiveness of
carbon-reduction measures. The platform also allows
users to visualise the energy consumption of
buildings in such a way that it draws attention to the
end uses that are responsible for the gap; the worst
offenders being the end uses that are not included in
the compliance calculations and are therfore often
overlooked in design.
The Partner Group was awarded a three-year
match funding grant in 2009 and is currently working
to broaden the reach of the platform to professional
bodies representing the interests of landlords,
tenants, surveyors, facilities managers as well as
local and central government bodies. CarbonBuzz
Steering Group, formed over 2010, comprises over
15 member organisations spread across these
interest groups (see Fig.1). The role of this group is
to review the platform development to ensure that
the data management and analysis is seamless
across sectors and disciplines. Currently, energy use
information is collated across a confusing range of
reporting standards throughout a buildings life-
cycle. The current discrepancy between different
types of energy certification (Energy Performance
Certificates & Display Energy Certificates), planning
criteria, building regulations and carbon taxation has
been identified as a fundamental barrier to achieving
low-carbon performance in use. [1] As an easy-to-
use dissemination channel for low-carbon case
studies, CarbonBuzz is becoming an authoritative
database for detailed energy use information to
support an evidence-based approach to investment
in low-carbon solutions. CarbonBuzz is publishing
data gathered through the Carbon Trusts Low
Carbon Buildings Programme [2] and Low Carbon
Buildings Accelerator [3] as well as the Technology
Strategy Boards Building Performance Evaluation
programme.
The platform will help inform investment in
management and design measures tailored to
address actual consumption by providing feedback to
users as to the effectiveness of a broad range of low-
carbon measures in use. In doing so it will open up a
vast range of opportunities for designers to address
occupant behaviour and user satisfaction.
The website will also offer tools to manage
portfolios and demonstrate year-on-year carbon
savings. By inviting platform users to go beyond
compliance estimates, CarbonBuzz helps
organisations address unregulated energy use
occupancy-related consumption that can account for
well over 50% of a buildings energy use.
The platform, www.carbonbuzz.org currently
enables users from all construction sectors to
benchmark and track project energy use from design
to operation, through a visually engaging online
interface. It also encourages users to share
emissions data in the public domain. Forecast and
actual energy use estimates can be compared
against industry benchmarks as well as live data
from other users projects anonymously.
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2. BACKGROUND
UK buildings represent some 45% of the UKs
total delivered energy consumption. [4] There has
been some progress in achieving carbon reduction
however it is difficult to pinpoint what measures to
attribute this to; economic decline, changes in policy,
something else or a combination of drivers. It is also
necessary to analyse which measures in a low
carbon case study have been the most effective. A
more thorough understanding of all of these will allow
for better forecasting. Lack of real world data is the
major barrier. By hosting such data and
communicating trends in the database, CarbonBuzz
can provide much needed evidence to support policy
as well as design and portfolio decisions.
A major influence on the project has been the
work carried out by the Usable Buildings Trust (UBT)
on the mapping of energy consumption of buildings
in use (PROBE) [5] as well as the methodology
behind CIBSEs Energy Use Benchmarks (TM46).
The former provides robust evidence of the gap
between design estimates and operational energy
data which has been recorded to be 2 or 3 times
greater. [6] The latter forms the backbone of the UKs
Display Energy Certification (DEC) which is the only
currently mandated metric in the UK that relates to a
buildings actual CO2 emissions. Applicable to all
non-domestic public buildings above 1000m
2
since
2008, there is a gathering momentum to extend
these to the full non-domestic, commercial building
stock in the coming years. Linking other reporting
mechanisms to the DEC system and referencing the
DEC methodology into design has been a key
challenge for CarbonBuzz. DECs are the post-
completion relative of the Energy Performance
Certificate(EPC). Based of the Part L calculation, the
EPCs are a record of a buildings asset rating NOT
its estimated energy consumption, often resulting in
confusion. The huge discrepancy between these two
documents provides yet more evidence of the
problem the CarbonBuzz seeks to address. The
source of the confusion is that mandatory design
calculations required for compliance with Building
Regulations and EPCs currently measure a
percentage improvement against a notional target,
but these calculations do not fully address factors
relating to building occupation and operation. With
these calculations providing the bulk of design stage
forecasts the result is that design calculations
appear optimistic when compared to actual
consumption.
Display Energy Certificates measure actual
consumption i.e. all the energy used in a building.
This mismatch between reporting design and actual
performance is not only unhelpful to track
performance; it also means that mandatory design
calculations do not highlight operational risks to
energy consumption at the design stage, increasing
the risks of higher than expected consumption.
Figure 2 is a summary of design vs. actual energy
consumption data by sector from the platform.
Figure 1: CarbonBuzz diagram including Steering
Group members.
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xx.x SECTION NAME 3
With many new buildings and refurbishments
falling short of low carbon expectations there is a
need to develop more robust methods of
understanding actual performance at the design
stage, which take into account operational factors.
To develop this, the industry needs up-to-date data
and feedback from new buildings as well as
refurbishments. The CarbonBuzz CIBSE|RIBA
Platform invites users to estimate some of the
operational risks at design stages and collects and
hosts detailed CO2 emissions data. Funded jointly by
industry and the Technology Strategy Board it is
developing an online interface to provide better
feedback on the impact of occupants on building
performance.
CarbonBuzz provides a framework for the
compilation of energy use and CO2 emissions data
reporting standards spanning acquisition to operation
and facilitates their broad brush comparison. The
disparity between these standards Planning, Part
L, EPC, DEC, Carbon Reduction Commitment,
BREEAM - presents a major challenge to the
construction industry due to the countless metrics
they employ to describe energy consumption and
carbon emissions. As regulatory mechanisms and
broadly recognised design standards they must be
traversed in order to realise a project. Carbonbuzz
provides the interface for their easy alignment.
3. DESIGN VS. ACTUAL CONSUMPTION
The biggest and arguably most onerous
misnomer is the term design forecast calculation.
According to feedback received from CarbonBuzz
users and via the Stakeholder Engagement
interviews, Part L (Building Regulations) calculations
are widely regarded as forecasts. As the only
mandatory calculation carried out by a design team
this leads to obvious misrepresentations. Part L
calculations only describe likely annual CO2
emissions based on fixed occupancy and operating
hours and do not take into account a broad range of
factors affecting actual consumption. This issue has
been highlighted in other reporting standards across
the Globe. Global sustainability standards, such as
LEED and BREEAM have been criticised for
rewarding building designs that do not have to
demonstrate how they address the operational risks
of low-carbon performance. The diagram below
(Fig.3) is the first cross-disciplinary description of
what is missed at design stage when using only
compliance calculations; coined unregulated energy
consumption because they are beyond the reach of
current UK Building Regulations.
First and foremost is increased energy
consumption due to differences in as-designed and
as-built which could be caused by a number of
things, not least the installed envelope performance,
product replacements or other cost engineering
measures. The remainder of the energy consumption
gap consists of four sections that are dictated by the
way a building is inhabited; appliances and IT, extra
occupancy and operating hours, the quality of the
facilities management and any special functions
integrated into the building such as trading floors,
server rooms or special equipment such as kilns and
furnaces. The consequences of these unregulated
energy loads vary. IT and appliance loads present a
high risk if coupled with poor building management
which often means that equipment is left on 24
hours. Extra occupancy in itself represents a
relatively low risk but when related higher equipment
loads are not managed well they can result in high
consumption. A buildings operating hours and the
facilities management act as multipliers across the
buildings energy consumption as a whole including
fixed building services such as heating, cooling and
ventilation.
Based on data gathered in the CarbonBuzz
platform, school/education projects are particularly
Figure 2: Design vs. Actual data by sector from the
CarbonBuzz database
Figure 3: CarbonBuzz energy bar highlighting the gap
between regulated and unregulated energy
consumption.
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Figure 5: CarbonBuzz energy dashboard for Stockley
Academy
optimistic about likely consumption with the median
for actual consumption being approximately five
times of what is stated during design.
There are a myriad of safety nets that are
employed from building acquisition through to
occupancy that can decrease this gap, beginning
with a detailed brief that takes into account true
habitation of the building. This is a difficult task in the
commercial sector where developers often have to
cater for a number of unknown occupiers. If this
exercise is performed properly, it will minimise the
risk of unexpected consumption from the appliances
and IT and the special functions sections of the
energy bar. Predicted energy consumption
calculations must be constantly adjusted throughout
any minor amendments to the design and throughout
the construction stage. This will account for the
design versus as-built extra energy consumption.
Building management needs attention at all
stages of the process. Correct sizing of building
services and systems based on full energy and
energetics calculations and thorough consideration
and implementation of user controls are imperative.
The exercise that is often overlooked under tight
programmes is the Soft Landings process. [7] During
a dedicated commissioning period building managers
are trained to use the installed equipment and guided
through the initial period of use to fine tune the
systems and eliminate inevitable teething problems.
Following handover Soft Landings monitors building
performance and engages occupants to gain a
greater understanding of their new environment. This
encourages ownership and results in a greater
likelihood of the building being used according to
design intent.
CarbonBuzz draws attention to these factors by
gathering information on energy use and building
performance based on how energy is actually spent
in a building i.e. according to end uses. (Fig.4) By
representing this as a simple bar diagram during
design and following completion means that a very
quick assessment of unexpected energy
consumption areas can be made and measures can
be taken to address this.
For example, in the case of Stockley Academy in
West London, the buildings forecast heating
consumption was actually higher than the achieved
outcome (figures 5 & 6). This indicated that the
Thermodeck system in place was working better than
expected. This was supported by interviews with
facilities managers and building occupants who felt
comfortable during the winter months and who
confirmed that the systems were easy to manage.
However, all the carbon savings were used up by the
excessive electrical energy use, as reported by the
electricity bills. Nevertheless, without the end use
breakdown we at Aedas could not verify whether the
excessive consumption arose from unexpected use
of lighting or appliances. Whilst this is a very
common occurrence, only the prompt monitoring of
Building Management Systems (BMS), good sub-
Figure 4: Energy bar diagram showing end use
breakdown.
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xx.x SECTION NAME 5
metering or a detailed building energy survey can
identify this.
This diagram illustrates the earlier point; if the
appliance schedule changes from design to
operation, the unregulated section of the energy bar
will grow. However, when the operating hours are
extended beyond their standard benchmark, the
heating, hot water, lighting, cooling & plant and
unregulated sections of the energy bar will be
affected.
Part L2 of the Building Regulations for England
and Wales sets out a requirement for 90% of a
buildings end-use energy consumption to be
submetered. In practice this is not implemented or
enforced. In the rare cases it is carried out, the setup
is installed with only compliance in mind as opposed
to being designed for useful data-harvesting. As
users become involved in the CarbonBuzz platform,
there is a growing realisation about the drivers for
this piece of legislation.
The inconsistent implementation of submetering
has led to a situation where gathering and monitoring
consumption requires specialist expertise and
regular site visits, is therefore perceived as costly
and is rarely carried out. The connection between
design quality, occupant comfort, metering and bills
is therefore often overlooked by designers who
traditionally do not receive feedback on how a
building performs in use, unless there is a serious
problem. In providing a visual feedback of potential
consequences of these factors CarbonBuzz not only
helps designers reduce risk but gathers data on the
scale of this risk over time. Current methods of actual
energy consumption monitoring do not cross-
reference the data with other measures. This results
in missed opportunities to expand our energy
reduction arsenal and our understanding of the
efficacy of investment in renewable energy
generation.
Over the next two years, CarbonBuzz will
develop increased capability to track these changes
from design to occupancy and compare the relative
energy bars. This functionality will be developed
hand-in-hand with the ability to perform a sensitivity
analysis on a project, where users will enter building
information and identify risk factors to energy
consumption outcomes. The higher the level of
confidence that appropriate steps have been taken to
address occupant-related consumption, the lower the
risk of unexpected energy consumption is going to
be. The importance of this feedback is three-fold and
is summarised best by Leaman, Stevenson and
Bordass 2010 as contributing to the improvement of:
the studied building, the services of those who
provided it and the wider knowledge base. [6]
4. CONCLUSIONS
By providing fast visual feedback of the
consequences of briefing and design decisions on
likely outcomes, CarbonBuzz is drawing designers
attention to the need to improve design integration
with a buildings mechanical systems. It also
highlights the importance of considering how
occupants will interact with the building from the very
start of a project. In this way the platform draws
occupant behaviour, an often overlooked driver, into
the realm of design.
Whilst energy consumption is only one aspect of
a successful building, the experience of the Aedas
team has been that using the CarbonBuzz workflow
tends to improve design integration it allows clients
and architects to ask the right questions from
engineers while engineers can rapidly demonstrate
the consequences of design decisions. With over
340 member organisations and over 240 projects
entered, the CarbonBuzz platform has become a
notable resource for the construction and property
sector in the UK.
Figure 6: Stockley Academy, Aedas
Figure 7: Example sensitivity analysis.
Top bar: Appliance and equipment loads defined.
Uncertainty over occupancy, facilities management and
design execution.
Middle bar: Appliance schedules and more detailed
occupancy information. Level of facilities management
still uncertain.
Bottom bar: Level of facilities management confirmed.
Possibility of extra occupancy.
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5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Craig Robertson, UCL / Aedas.
6. REFERENCES
6.1. References
[1] Kimpian, J., Response to Energy performance
of buildings evidence and feedback by Lord
Marland of Odstock and Andrew Stunell MP,
Aedas, London, 21 December 2010
[2] www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.uk
[3] www.carbontrust.co.uk/emerging-
technologies/current-focus-
areas/buildings/pages/buildings.aspx
[4] The Chartered Institute of Building Services
Engineers (CIBSE), CIBSE Guide F Energy
Efficiency in Buildings, London, (2004), 260pp
[5] www.usablebuildings.co.uk
[6] Bordass, B. Leaman, A., and Stevenson, F.
Building evaluation: practice and principles,
Building Research and Information, (2010) (38)
5, pp. 564-577
[7] www.bsria.co.uk/services/design/soft-landings
6.2. Bibliography
[8] Bordass W., Setting the Scene: Energy and
carbon reporting, communication and
benchmarking. Discussion notes for the CIBSE
steering group meeting, The Usable Buildings
Trust, London, 25 November 2009, 10pp
[9] Bordass W., Why Display Energy Certificates
make sense in commercial buildings, The
Usable Buildings Trust, London, No date, 1pp
[10] Bordass W., Onto The Radar: How energy
performance certification and benchmarking
might work for non domestic buildings in
operation, using actual energy consumption,
Discussion Paper, The Usable Buildings Trust,
London, (2005), 14 pp
[11] Bordass W., Standeven M. and Brown P.,
Improving the Energy Performance of Rented
Buildings: Bridging the Landlord Tenant Split,
Presentation, The Usable Buildings Trust and
British Property Federation, London
[12] CIBSE (2008). Energy and Carbon Dioxide
Benchmarks CIBSE Draft Version 3y, CIBSE,
2008
[13] Bordass, B., Bunn, R., Field, J., Jones, P.
(1998). Improving Effectiveness of Energy
Assessment and Benchmarking

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ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
Identity of Sustainability: from technique to the
sensory and experiential.
Neveen HAMZA
School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University,UK
ABSTRACT: This research argues that sustainable architecture is part of a nuance of evolution in buildings that
aspires to provide a narrative of a local responce to people and climate. An architecture that combines ethical
aspirations, building performative aspects of integration of renewables and passive design fusing to create an
experiential building. Work Places have been at the centre of this evolution, with arsing concern that the
alignment of climate and energy concerns, the knowhow of using sophisticated renewables and solar shading
systems are only a technical issue that will lead to an extension of a globalized industrial and technical image of
the corporate. The corporate image is often linked to an image of environmental seclusion spread by the
ideologies wrongly linked to the American and European export of the Modern to the world. Here, it is argued
that the rules of thumb underlying the 20
th
century earlier building designs have now moved on to use more
sophisticated tools in which building performance and human comfort can be predicted at design inception
stage. The case studies chosen share an agenda of sustainability based on a BREEAM excellent rating but
also highlight an attempt for experiential sustainable architecture. The research analyzes how these corporate
aspirations moved on from buildings with no location into an architectural specific to its genius loci reflecting
sustainability as a sensory and experiential experience for its occupants.

Keywords: sustainability, building facades, the corporate image, sensory, experiential
1. INTRODUCTION
Canizaro [1] warns that theorists constructing the
discourse of sustainability in architecture have rarely
built a connection between the past historical
practices of building and sustainability. Like many
developments in the modern era, sustainability has
been seen and promoted primarily as something
new, progressive, and future oriented...the result is a
discourse and practice dominated by technical
solutions to mostly technically framed problems. He
advocates regionalists as architects and theorists
concerned with the manifestation of realness of
places and people who live in them leading to an
historical thread of concern that calls for a more
environmentally responsive practice giving attention
and awareness of the local place experientially,
ecologically and to the local social and cultural
constructs.
This paper argues that designing for sustainability
goes beyond regionalism and bio-regionalism, critical
regionalism to a more site specific response,
capturing the genius loci in an attempt to provide a
sensory and experiential environment to its
occupants, while responding to local climate, site,
using renewables and complying with building
regulations.
Case studies represented, layers the building
envelope to reflect discourse that contextualizes
connectedness to place, reflect sustainability by the
use of art as a built cultural message, and
technology as a vehicle for environmental
performance and responsiveness. This notion
moves away from the mere concept of technique of
the modern, or the sacred fictitious geographic
boundary that determines the history and
characteristic of its inhabitants, and from picturesque
follies promoted by regionalism. The case studies
present a global aspiration for sustainability but a
local interpretation relevant to its site and comfort of
its occupants, and hence a glocal expression that
highlights the experiential facet of sustainable
architecture.
2. THE 20
TH
CENTURY, THE CORPORATE
IMAGE AND SUSTAINABILITY
The rise of office buildings as multi-storey icons
in the late 19
th
century is attributed to the changing
corporate and business needs and a plethora of
technological advancements, the introduction of new
construction methods such as steel frames, the lift,
air-conditioning systems and artificial lighting. The
seminal buildings that follow all offer a continuous
trajectory and evolution in principles underpinning
human productivity and well being, and the corporate
image. It is argued in the following case studies that
realizing the corporate image is underpinned by
sustainability aspirations led to a developed strong
visual message that aspires to achieve a sensory
experience for its occupants as well as its outside
viewers.
However, it is the corporate image as reflected in
the modern style that brought with it a
misinterpretation of many of the movements
architectural values. The Seagram building, and
Sears towers among others were used as an icon of
detachment from their environments. The Seagram
building in 1958 was seen as representative of the
Seagram Corporation, its role in markets and
contemporary life. However these facade treatments
were meant to create the changing reflections from
these glazed surfaces and a preoccupation with
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expressing their construction technology while
moving around the buildings [2] The emphasis being
on an external experience of the monumentality of
the building rather than a preoccupation with what
happen behind the skin. By exposing steel members
that reflect the modular construction of the curtain
wall that has no function for structural or indoor
environmental moderation. By current standards a
practice that under a sustainability lens can today be
argued against, as decorative and a wastrel use of
resource.
With the need to export this building function to
other localities came the need to transfer the image.
However, case studies here will demonstrate how
corporate agendas are pushing sustainability with its
three pillars to the fore while emphasizing the
sensory and changing experiences indoors for its
occupants.
The practices attached to the modern movement
had consciously disregarded its protagonists
philosophies to respect the local environment, the
genius loci and cultural values. The role of the
building envelope as an environmental moderator or
a cultural message or both has been contested
during the Modern movement. The flexibility of
construction behind curtain walls, the technique,
flexibility of large open spaces and the economic
rental values superseded the original intentions and
philosophies. Hitchcock and Johnson [3] in
promoting modern views that in the 1920s it was
maintained that modern architecture should follow
the same principles regardless of location or region
a notion that Walter Gropius and Siegfried Gideon
were eager to dispel. Gropius stated that
architecture should not be conceived as a mere
practical product but has to deliver aesthetic
satisfaction to the human soul [4]. Gideon [5] goes
further to call on the building envelope to deliver a
new monumentality in which it springs from the
eternal need of people to create symbols for their
activities and for their fate or destiny, for their
religious belief and for their social convictions.
[demanded] respect for the way of life to be studied
with reverence. However, the international style is
seen as lacking stimuli, over dependence on a
technological expression of construction technology
and that it became a commodity reflecting an
imported corporate image as in the blind
transportation of image of glass curtain walls in hot
regions such as the Arabian Gulf.
The works of TeamX in the post-war era reflects
a preoccupation with the expression of the curtain
wall to the outside environment, its modularity and
offsite construction. The Battlebridge, London by
Alison and Peter Smithson (1972-74) follows a
statement that the buildings position on the basins
edge procures a smooth continuum of wall screen
into mirror image in the water, the building responds
to this calmness of untroubled repose by presenting
a single skin of stainless steel and glass; the layered
dimension of the sky and the buildings opposite are
ever changing, responding to season, weather and
time [6]. It is argued that the occupants experience
and how the building skin moderates rather than
separates the external environment is still unrealized
although there is an attempt to look into the genius
loci of the site.
In the early seventies, Dutch structuralists hoped
to overcome reductive aspects of functionalism.
Herzbergers well cited Centraal Beheer in Holland
1974, presented an exploration that focused on
human interaction and workflow indoors to create a
built form while ignoring the local outdoor context.
Still daylight being introduced from the top level of an
atrium like space, created in the architects own
words a bunker-like labyrinth the building was
introverted and the company had to put up sings so
people can find its entrance.
Norberg-Schulz [7] goes from there accusing
those who got stuck with the early images of a green
city and standardized form, were the epigones and
vulgarizeres of modern architecture. He alluded to
the function of the building envelope as a visual
message and a layer where dealing with the external
environment takes a distinctive character. He
laments the loss of The character of the present day
environments is usually distinguished by
monotony...the presence of new buildings is very
weak, very often curtain walls are used which have
an unsubstantial and abstract character. Most
modern buildings exist in a nowhere; but live their
life in an abstract life in a kind of mathematical-
technological space. He goes on to warn of an
environmental crisis in which buildings dont offer
any meaningful or indeed intentional variation in
engagement with its environment. The quest for an
architecture that addresses all senses still carries on
in Pallasmaas writings [8] in his pursuit for an
architecture that engages all human senses, that
seems to warn against the globalization of bland
environments to address Qualities of space matter
and scale which are measured equally by the eye,
ear, nose, skin, tongue, skeleton and muscle.
However, the question still remains unanswered;
will architects responses to a sustainability agenda
follow suit of the functionalist and globalized
architecture? Will architecture present renewables as
an alternative to the aesthetic of the module and
prefabrication reflecting a commitment to technique?
The building envelope is where a visual statement of
commitment to place and people is exhibited.
Therefore it is critical to move forward from the
process of renewables as an add-on afterthought to
an integral visual engagement and a design
language that is naturally very specific to the genius
loci. It is dangerous for public acceptance of these
technologies to be projected as techno-centric and
sustainability bling. Sustainable buildings have to
reflect a deeper expression of an engaging and
memorable building experience that manifests the
climatic specific context of the building, clients
sustainability aspiration and a sensory message that
enhances the well-being of occupants. It is
acknowledged that delivering a sustainable building
is a holistic concept that integrates the building and
its services. The buildings envelope has a longer life
cycle than its supporting mechanical systems and
based on the plan depth can contribute to about 30-
40% of building energy demand [9]. The paper
presents case studies with an underlying
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commonality; they all achieved an environmental
performance on a Core and shell principle achieving
a BREEAM rating of very good or Excellent. This
means that it is generally expected that once these
buildings are occupied by different users with
different technology demands that the energy
performance of the building will vary and exceed the
predicted performance. These buildings seem to
share a rational anticipation of circumstantial
contingencies changing internal use and layout, but
still aspiring to convey a message of responsiveness
and responsibility towards the environment
Figure 2; the DEFRAs Lion House 2009,
Anwick, UK by Gibberd architects could be seen as a
common expected aesthetic for a building with many
renewable add-ons. The design architect, Raymond
Gill says: We have designed a modest building,
whose aesthetic is derived from our aspirations to
make it environmentally sound. We have maximised
its passive sustainable potential and integrated
active measures, like the PVs, to make the very best
use of them in multiple ways.

Figure 2; the DEFRAs Lion House 2009, Anwick,
UK, A BREEAM excellent building.

The aesthetic appearance gives an expected
message of many inclinations to present sustainable
buildings as an energy saving machine with as many
renewables added to its building envelope. True that
photovoltaic cells are also a visual message of a
buildings orientation to the South but danger here is
falling into the traps of reflecting sustainability as a
set of PV cells and a wind turbine on functional core
and shell buildings that could presumably be
constructed anywhere! The same messages that
even the pioneers of the modernist movement
warned against.
3. SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE, AN
EXPERIENTIAL SENSORY APPROACH
Sustainable architecture, Performative
architecture, low-carbon design are all terms used to
describe an intention to use current construction and
environmental technologies in designing the building.
The increasing computational power to predict the
performance of a building not only in terms of energy
reduction but also its impact on occupants and its
site. Aided by a thrust in the development of building
performance regulations, Building Performance
Simulation Tools found an increasing role in the
design phase of buildings to demonstrate regulatory
compliance. This led to a tangible collaboration
between the architects and their consultants in very
early stages of the project inception [10]. However,
Leatherbarrow [10] rejected the notion that the
development of new instruments and methods of
predicting a buildings structural or environmental
behaviour will radically redefine architectural
practices or theories. But that attention to
performance will contribute to new understanding of
the ways buildings are imagined, made and
experienced. Thus calling for a holistic human and
technical interpretation of performance to avoid an
inadequate reductive and an uncritical reaffirmation
of pure functionalist ideology.

3.1. Experiencing renewables in building skins
A positive relationship was established the
integration of the PV array by Studio-E in their design
for the Doxford Solar Park, Sunderland, UK (2000),
Figure 3.

Figure 3: The PV array as an integrated feature of the
South elevation.

The intention to present the renewable aspect
of the facade was influenced by the environmental
simulation of indoor environments leading to
extending the facade higher than the building to deal
with the heat stratification behind the facade from the
glazed areas and from heat generated from the
transparent 532 sq.m PV arrays (Figure 4). The PV
array produces 75kWp with surplus feeding into the
grid. The building is estimated to generate quarter to
one third of its electricity demand [12].

Figure 4: Computational Fluid Dynamics CFD simulation of
heat stratification behind the PV array and in atrium space
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It is noticeable how the choice of the PV system
and using the atrium as a buffer created a distinctive
architectural language and internal indoor
environments (Figure 5). To reduce infiltration into
the atrium there are no windows on the PV
integrated facade, all ventilation is supplied from
windows from the office space facing other
orientations. The costs of the PV array were obtained
from a European Union funding as this alone would
have exceeded the buildings budget.
Here the building reflected a commitment to the
performance aspect responding to the clients brief
and the architects vision of translating sustainability
in the building brief. As an early example the exterior
is inclined towards the technical although the
interior is an accidental experiential.
Figure 5: interior of Building with its varied shadaows and
light from PV arrays and transparent areas
3.2. The responsive skin and corporate image
During the 1980s, the greenhouse effect was
linked to the increase in CO2 emissions from the built
environment. In office buildings the heavy utilization
of energy to provide comfortable indoor
environments was found to be at a profligate level of
five to six times higher in a conventionally sealed
envelope office environment than a naturally
ventilated and lit one [13].
The following case studies are a broader
translation to clients requiring buildings to reflect their
sustainability policies, to providing a sensory and
experiential experience through responsive and
dynamic building skins integrated in a holistic
performance
The Devonshire building was established as
flexible lab and research accommodation in the
University of Newcastle Upon Tyne by Dewjoc
architects in 2004 (currently Devereaux architects)
Figure 6. Newcastle University (as the client) was
aiming for BREEAM excellent to reflect the
universitys commitment to sustainability in its
research and societal responsibility. This was
achieved by designing for the inclusion of many
renewable systems including a PV array on the roof,
an atrium with roof lights to introduce natural
daylight, rainwater harvesting systems for toilet
flushing and an automatic motorised Brise Soleil to
the south elevation incorporates horizontal aerofoil
blades. The control of the blades operates from an
integral sensor automated control system. This
intelligent programme allows the blades to track the
suns azimuth so as to eliminate the direct solar
glare. High quality internal environment, with all
internal spaces designed as mixed mode systems to
take advantage of natural ventilation with additional
mechanical cooling and heating during summer and
winter.
The PV array with its 184sq.m and estimated
output of 25KW creates a visual message of
commitment to sustainability. No real data of its
contribution to building consumption could be
released and unfortunately the manufacturers had to
change the whole array in 2010 as the PV cells were
de-laminated. The attempt to create an experiential
visually engaging environment by the automated
louvers, which close completely on a sunny day to
prevent glare which prevents a view out on the few
sunny days in the North East of England.
Automatically controlled natural ventilation was
disengaged to allow for more occupants control by
floor level. The curved facade was created to
improve pedestrian air movement and a visual vista
to avoid a claustrophobic visual experience from the
imposing buildings surrounding the site.
Figure 6: the Devonshire Building completely closed in
response to a sunny day.
However, it is important that these buildings are
seen as successful experiments that underpin the
development in current knowledge and future
thinking underpinning improvements in building
performance. The building facade provides a strong
message of commitment to building sustainability
and responds to the corporate image of a university
that is positioned as a leader in research on
sustainability in technology and social research
Another example, The client ThyssenKrupp AG
wanted their new headquarter (Q1) building (figure 7)
to reflects their commitment as a company to:
innovations, sustainability, openness and
Knowledge sharing[13] to be constructed on an 200
year old steel manufacturing site in Essen-Germany,
JSWD Architecten and Chain & Morel et Assoils won
the competition in 2008. The building was occupied
in June 2010. The primary energy consumption of
the new buildings in the complex is estimated to be
20 to 30 % lower than the statutory requirements.
There are currently only very few buildings in
Germany. 1,000 square meter geothermal field on
the site the loops extend to a depth of 100 meters
below the earths surface.
The geothermal ground loops utilize the heat and
cold stored in the earth are used to reduce the
buildings energy demand for heating, while passive
measures of natural ventilation and solar shading
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systems are used to further reduce demand on air-
conditioning systems. A 10 storey high atrium
introduces natural ventilation and has neither heating
nor cooling. Throughout the Quarter rainwater will be
collected on the roofs of the buildings an area of
25,000 square meters. After removal of impurities the
water will be fed into the lake of the Krupp Park.


Figure 7: changing daylight levels in Q1 (top), Facades of
Q1 (bottom)

The facade design is not only about providing a
stainless steel mesh that traces the sun movement
but also serves to give the building a distinctive skin
that changes its performance in response to natural
daylight levels. The electrical lighting systems are
connected to sensors that dim the lights according to
availability of daylight from the facade.
In both cases, the interactive building skin has
shading systems that are considered part of the
intelligent facade systems and treatment. Their
performance is measured by their ability to respond
to unforeseen and changeable external climatic
conditions to ameliorate their adverse effects on the
indoor environments and occupants. The richness of
expression is mostly created by the variable
movement of light on these systems that creates
indoor variability of opacity, reflectivity, transparency
and colour. These variations create engagement and
appreciation of these systems but, in most cases, are
an accidental delightful surprise after the building is
constructed.
Reservations on extensive automation of the
various automated skin parts have to be considered.
The inherent vulnerability of these systems respond
to conflicting needs of changing climate conditions
on the various parts of the facade and has to
respond to varying occupants needs indoors. The
various parts will experience varying stresses, use
and maintenance requirements.
But apart from the technical reservations the
experiential quality of the buildings and their
reflections of their genius loci is a promising
precedent.
3.3. Increasing facade layers, Double Skin
Facades as a passive measure and a
cultural message
Double skin facades are increasingly deployed
in architectural applications, offering a passive
climatic buffer zone to the building that can be
utilized effectively to introduce natural ventilation
indoors for higher floors while reducing noise
propagation indoors and has potential of reducing
mechanical ventilation loads even in hot arid climates
[14]. Natural buoyancy drives out heat stratified in
the gap between the two facade layers.
Deployed in Willis, Faber and Dumas building
(Foster and Partners, 1975), Occidental Chemical
Centre in New York (Canon Design 1980) Commerz
bank (Fosters and Partners, 1991-1997, Strador in
Dusseldorf (Petzinka, Pink and Partners), Swiss Re
Building in London (2002-Fosters and Partners) and
the Leicester John Lewis Store (Foreign Office
Architects, 2008).
It is the later that points out to a new emerging
trend of romanticism in reflecting the sustainability
agenda of the corporate image and its intention to
respect local history.
John Lewis Partnerships sustainable
construction policy aims at reducing its carbon
footprint stated that Our current target is to reduce
CO2 emissions as a percentage of our sales by 10
per cent by 2010 (against a 2001/02 baseline) and to
improve energy efficiency by 10 per cent by 2013
(against a 2003/04 baseline). An expanding business
can't avoid rising energy consumption. Our sales
have risen by 28% over the last five years, but we've
managed to contain the Partnership's absolute CO2
emissions to 19% over the same period (sustainable
construction framework) [15]
Figure 8: The Leicester John Lewis facade morning (left)
and night (right) facade expressions.
The Highcross complex in Leicester includes a
multi-screen cinema and a 4 storey John Lewis
Store. The stores facade uses a fabric analogy
expressed as a series of pleats and the patterns
swirls found from an archived piece of fabric in John
Lewis pays tribute to Leicesters textile
manufacturing history. However, the use of a double
skin facade here might provide a bonus
environmental performance rather than an integrated
intentional performance. The two layers have the
printed pattern directly aligned and are lit by night
producing an engaging changing facade. But as the
depth of the shop floor reduces the effect of both
daylight and thermal transmittance from the double
skin facade, this facade is performing as a decorative
drape rather than an environmental moderator. It
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4 xx.x SECTION NAME

It is noticeable how the choice of the PV system
and using the atrium as a buffer created a distinctive
architectural language and internal indoor
environments (Figure 5). To reduce infiltration into
the atrium there are no windows on the PV
integrated facade, all ventilation is supplied from
windows from the office space facing other
orientations. The costs of the PV array were obtained
from a European Union funding as this alone would
have exceeded the buildings budget.
Here the building reflected a commitment to the
performance aspect responding to the clients brief
and the architects vision of translating sustainability
in the building brief. As an early example the exterior
is inclined towards the technical although the
interior is an accidental experiential.
Figure 5: interior of Building with its varied shadaows and
light from PV arrays and transparent areas
3.2. The responsive skin and corporate image
During the 1980s, the greenhouse effect was
linked to the increase in CO2 emissions from the built
environment. In office buildings the heavy utilization
of energy to provide comfortable indoor
environments was found to be at a profligate level of
five to six times higher in a conventionally sealed
envelope office environment than a naturally
ventilated and lit one [13].
The following case studies are a broader
translation to clients requiring buildings to reflect their
sustainability policies, to providing a sensory and
experiential experience through responsive and
dynamic building skins integrated in a holistic
performance
The Devonshire building was established as
flexible lab and research accommodation in the
University of Newcastle Upon Tyne by Dewjoc
architects in 2004 (currently Devereaux architects)
Figure 6. Newcastle University (as the client) was
aiming for BREEAM excellent to reflect the
universitys commitment to sustainability in its
research and societal responsibility. This was
achieved by designing for the inclusion of many
renewable systems including a PV array on the roof,
an atrium with roof lights to introduce natural
daylight, rainwater harvesting systems for toilet
flushing and an automatic motorised Brise Soleil to
the south elevation incorporates horizontal aerofoil
blades. The control of the blades operates from an
integral sensor automated control system. This
intelligent programme allows the blades to track the
suns azimuth so as to eliminate the direct solar
glare. High quality internal environment, with all
internal spaces designed as mixed mode systems to
take advantage of natural ventilation with additional
mechanical cooling and heating during summer and
winter.
The PV array with its 184sq.m and estimated
output of 25KW creates a visual message of
commitment to sustainability. No real data of its
contribution to building consumption could be
released and unfortunately the manufacturers had to
change the whole array in 2010 as the PV cells were
de-laminated. The attempt to create an experiential
visually engaging environment by the automated
louvers, which close completely on a sunny day to
prevent glare which prevents a view out on the few
sunny days in the North East of England.
Automatically controlled natural ventilation was
disengaged to allow for more occupants control by
floor level. The curved facade was created to
improve pedestrian air movement and a visual vista
to avoid a claustrophobic visual experience from the
imposing buildings surrounding the site.
Figure 6: the Devonshire Building completely closed in
response to a sunny day.
However, it is important that these buildings are
seen as successful experiments that underpin the
development in current knowledge and future
thinking underpinning improvements in building
performance. The building facade provides a strong
message of commitment to building sustainability
and responds to the corporate image of a university
that is positioned as a leader in research on
sustainability in technology and social research
Another example, The client ThyssenKrupp AG
wanted their new headquarter (Q1) building (figure 7)
to reflects their commitment as a company to:
innovations, sustainability, openness and
Knowledge sharing[13] to be constructed on an 200
year old steel manufacturing site in Essen-Germany,
JSWD Architecten and Chain & Morel et Assoils won
the competition in 2008. The building was occupied
in June 2010. The primary energy consumption of
the new buildings in the complex is estimated to be
20 to 30 % lower than the statutory requirements.
There are currently only very few buildings in
Germany. 1,000 square meter geothermal field on
the site the loops extend to a depth of 100 meters
below the earths surface.
The geothermal ground loops utilize the heat and
cold stored in the earth are used to reduce the
buildings energy demand for heating, while passive
measures of natural ventilation and solar shading
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
44 PRACTICE - INTERACTION BETWEEN ACTORS
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
6 xx.x SECTION NAME
allows considerable daylight levels while reducing
the direct solar penetration discolouring fabrics) as
the external pattern is covered with a reflecting layer.
The exact alliance of the two patterns on the glass
reflects direct solar radiation and direct vision to the
interior as it is viewed tangentially. The facade does
not provide any natural ventilation indoors which is
completely air-conditioned. The facade is structurally
suspended from the top of the building to reduce the
supporting structural members and a distracting
appearance behind the double skin. To cover the
structural system the increase in its height above the
buildings roof allowed the stratified hot air to be kept
away from the top floor of the building. However, all
this appears to be an accidental bonus rather than a
planned for integration. This building was awarded a
BREEAM very good and can be seen as a new
landmark to lead the way into thinking of layering a
cultural message within a performative framework
4. CONCLUSIONS:
This paper argues that reflecting sustainability of
the building as an experiential and sensory
experience found its roots in ancient civilizations and
its delivery still is an ongoing aspiration.
Although the first generation of the modern
movement advocated a site specific architecture, the
misinterpretations of the early thinking underpins a
global wide spread corporate image of buildings that
are misconceived environmentally. The building fully
glazed and sometimes bland facades treatment as a
curtain wall that acts as a climatic separator reflects
a pre-occupation with technique rather than the
experiential quality of the occupants inside the
building . The simulation tools available for architects
today (illustrated here by the Doxford solar building)
is becoming common practice and creates an
opportunity to predict with a level of accuracy the
indoor environments at design stage
As new corporate sustainability agendas develop
realizing that a sensory and experiential sustainable
building improves employees well being and
increase productivity. This will move sustainability
aspirations from a reductive performative notion;
treating buildings as a mere optimized machine to
look deeper into human experiences of housing
experiences rather than housing functions.
The corporate image seeks to find a surface
treatments that reflect its commitment to its location
and climate but also to offer an engaging urban and
indoor sensory and experiential statement about its
commitment to sustainability All case studies
presented whether with an integrated renewable
energy, moveable responsive facades or double skin
are uneconomical solutions compared to traditional
single skin configurations. These investments reflect
a willingness to achieve a higher perception of
sustainability and use it as means of engaging with
the site and its environment.
This paper doesnt attempt to discuss how these
facade technologies lead to real reductions in
building carbon footprint as the original assessments
using BREEAM were based on a shell and core
principle which means that the building with its
changing technologies and occupancies will naturally
lead to variations in the targeted reductions from
both passive and active measures.

5. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Personal thanks to Prof. Adam Sharr for valuable
insights and comments on the arguments presented
in this paper.
6. REFERENCES
[1] V.B. Canizaro, Regionalism, Place, Specificity, and
Sustainable Design, in Pragmatic Sustainability:
Theoretical and Practical Tools, S.S. Moore (Ed),
Routledge (2010)150-167
[2] D. Leatherbarrow and M.Mostafavi, Surface
Architecture, MIT (2002), 200-203
[3] H.R. Hitchcock, P. Johnson, The international Style,
New York (1932).
[4] W. Gropius, The New Architecture and the Bauhaus,
London (1935)p.18
[5] Geidion, Architecture You and Me, Cambrige Mass
(1958)
[6] A. Simthson and P.Smithson, The Charged Void:
Architecture, The Monacelli Press (2001)
[7] C. Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci, Towards a
Phenomenology of Architecture, Rizzoli, New York
(1980), 194-195
[8] J. Pallasmaa, The eyes of the skin, John Wiley&sons
(2005)
[9] N.Hamza, Dudek S, Elkadi H, Impacts of changing
face configurations on office building energy
consumption, in proceedings of CLIMA 2000, Naples
Italy (2001)
[10] N. Hamza and D. Greenwood, Hamza N, Greenwood
D. Energy conservation regulations: Impacts on design
and procurement of low energy buildings. Building and
Environment 2009, 44(5), 929-936
[11] D. Leatherbarrow,Architectures unscripted
performance, B.Kolarevic and A.Malkawi (Ed) in
Performative Architecture, Spon Press (2005)
[12] B. Evans, Solar Power Gets Serious, Architects
journal, (1997) 205(24)pp44-45
[13] D.Jones, Architecture and the Environment,
Bioclimatic Building Design, The Overlook Press
(1998)
[14] N. Hamza, Double versus single skin facades in hot
arid areas. Energy and Buildings 2008, 40(3), 240-
248.
[15] John Lewis Partnership, Sustainable construction
Framework, (2007) available online-www.
Johnlewispartnership.co.uk accessed 10/11/2010




PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
PRACTICE - INTERACTION BETWEEN ACTORS 45
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx. x SECTION NAME 1
Designing for only energy: suboptimisation
RONALD ROVERS
1
, KATLEEN DE FLANDER
1
LEO GOMMANS
1
WENDY BROERS
1
1
RiBuilT, Research Institute Built environment of Tomorrow, RiBuilT/Zuyd University, Heerlen, The Netherlands
ABSTRACT: Renewable energy is based on using a direct route from solar radiation to consumption, as an
efficiency improvement from a long term route via fossil fuels. Both routes put a claim on space ie land and the
time of use of that land/space to intercept and convert it to useful forms. With of course renewable energy routes
far more effective as fossil routes.
However, the same solar radiation is needed, to produce materials in a similar change from fossil materials to
renewable materials, and the materials needed as well to produce the conversion devices for renewable energy.
Similar processes take place in the realising sustainable buildings, especially 0-energy buildings: there is space
time involved to generate the renewable energy, but also to generate for instance the renewable material based
insulation materials, or the wooden construction.
From research into exergy strategies, the starting points for such a building evaluation have been developed,
and translated in a tool to evaluate buildings for their energy and mass performance together. A few first pilot
buildings have been evaluated with this method, and show that in some cases its not energy reduction or efficiency
that has the first preference, but materials input becomes the decisive parameter. Among other we find that
insulation material from renewable sources like hemp or flax, face a maximum: there is a point where renewable
energy input to heat the house is more environmentally effective then to add extra insulation.
On a larger scale, for instance districts or neighbourhoods, the land involved to produce renewable energy , will
compete with land needed for food and renewable materials production, which leads to other choices in design lay
outs of buildings. In fact , to reach 0-energy (existing) districts in future, it could imply that life styles have to be
changed, in the form of heating only part of the house in stead of the whole house to be able to provide a balanced
resource use for materials and energy together, within the evaluated system.
Several houses have been assessed this way, and the implications of the land needed are visualised to show
the effects of energy and mass together. In fact this relates to the design and architecture of future buildings, but
also to future landscapes: These will change adopting renewable energy devices, but at the same time become
productive material landscapes. Partly this is already happening, with rapeseed, windturbines, PV solar fields, and
production forests developing in countries in Western Europe, like Germany and Austria.
The paper will address the evaluation of buildings for (renewable) energy and mass together, as well as the
expected changes in architecture and landscaping.
Keywords: 0-impact, exergy, embodied land, sustainable design, land use
1. INTRODUCTION
A main focus today is on the CO2 emissions from
our activities, and especially buildings. In some ways
this is a strange approach, from different point of
views. Firstly its a end of pipe approach,. We dont
solve the problem, we just continue and try to hide the
negative impact, by storing CO2 emissions for
instance. But especially for buildings this is a non-
sense making approach, since we are already
creating 0-energy buildings, and will only do so with
the new EPBD regulation (EU) coming up. A (near)
0-energy building, which generates the total need of
energy by renewable sources on site, [1] has no CO2
emissions anymore from operational energy. So why
still bother about CO2 calculations?
Of course there are other issues at stake. What
about the embodied energy/ CO2 in construction for
instance, and producing the energy conversion
devices? In fact the to address the impacts from
materials will become far more important then the
effects of operational energy.[2] Although there is
hardly substantial attention for this.
In this paper we will explore the consequences of
this development, and explore the relation of energy
and materials use in buildings , and the
consequences if we try to establish a system of
closing cycles for both.
.
2. SOLAR RADIATION
The use of Renewable energy is in fact based on
using a more direct route from solar radiation to
consumption, as an efficiency improvement from a
long term route via fossil fuels ( which are renewable
as well via biomass sedimentation routes) . In depth
analyses shows that both routes put a claim on
space/land and the time of use of that land/space to
intercept and convert it to useful forms of energy.
With of course so called renewable energy routes
far more effective as fossil routes. : A exploring
calculation shows that to produce oil all land on earth
has been involved , over million of years, to produce
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
6 xx.x SECTION NAME
allows considerable daylight levels while reducing
the direct solar penetration discolouring fabrics) as
the external pattern is covered with a reflecting layer.
The exact alliance of the two patterns on the glass
reflects direct solar radiation and direct vision to the
interior as it is viewed tangentially. The facade does
not provide any natural ventilation indoors which is
completely air-conditioned. The facade is structurally
suspended from the top of the building to reduce the
supporting structural members and a distracting
appearance behind the double skin. To cover the
structural system the increase in its height above the
buildings roof allowed the stratified hot air to be kept
away from the top floor of the building. However, all
this appears to be an accidental bonus rather than a
planned for integration. This building was awarded a
BREEAM very good and can be seen as a new
landmark to lead the way into thinking of layering a
cultural message within a performative framework
4. CONCLUSIONS:
This paper argues that reflecting sustainability of
the building as an experiential and sensory
experience found its roots in ancient civilizations and
its delivery still is an ongoing aspiration.
Although the first generation of the modern
movement advocated a site specific architecture, the
misinterpretations of the early thinking underpins a
global wide spread corporate image of buildings that
are misconceived environmentally. The building fully
glazed and sometimes bland facades treatment as a
curtain wall that acts as a climatic separator reflects
a pre-occupation with technique rather than the
experiential quality of the occupants inside the
building . The simulation tools available for architects
today (illustrated here by the Doxford solar building)
is becoming common practice and creates an
opportunity to predict with a level of accuracy the
indoor environments at design stage
As new corporate sustainability agendas develop
realizing that a sensory and experiential sustainable
building improves employees well being and
increase productivity. This will move sustainability
aspirations from a reductive performative notion;
treating buildings as a mere optimized machine to
look deeper into human experiences of housing
experiences rather than housing functions.
The corporate image seeks to find a surface
treatments that reflect its commitment to its location
and climate but also to offer an engaging urban and
indoor sensory and experiential statement about its
commitment to sustainability All case studies
presented whether with an integrated renewable
energy, moveable responsive facades or double skin
are uneconomical solutions compared to traditional
single skin configurations. These investments reflect
a willingness to achieve a higher perception of
sustainability and use it as means of engaging with
the site and its environment.
This paper doesnt attempt to discuss how these
facade technologies lead to real reductions in
building carbon footprint as the original assessments
using BREEAM were based on a shell and core
principle which means that the building with its
changing technologies and occupancies will naturally
lead to variations in the targeted reductions from
both passive and active measures.

5. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Personal thanks to Prof. Adam Sharr for valuable
insights and comments on the arguments presented
in this paper.
6. REFERENCES
[1] V.B. Canizaro, Regionalism, Place, Specificity, and
Sustainable Design, in Pragmatic Sustainability:
Theoretical and Practical Tools, S.S. Moore (Ed),
Routledge (2010)150-167
[2] D. Leatherbarrow and M.Mostafavi, Surface
Architecture, MIT (2002), 200-203
[3] H.R. Hitchcock, P. Johnson, The international Style,
New York (1932).
[4] W. Gropius, The New Architecture and the Bauhaus,
London (1935)p.18
[5] Geidion, Architecture You and Me, Cambrige Mass
(1958)
[6] A. Simthson and P.Smithson, The Charged Void:
Architecture, The Monacelli Press (2001)
[7] C. Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci, Towards a
Phenomenology of Architecture, Rizzoli, New York
(1980), 194-195
[8] J. Pallasmaa, The eyes of the skin, John Wiley&sons
(2005)
[9] N.Hamza, Dudek S, Elkadi H, Impacts of changing
face configurations on office building energy
consumption, in proceedings of CLIMA 2000, Naples
Italy (2001)
[10] N. Hamza and D. Greenwood, Hamza N, Greenwood
D. Energy conservation regulations: Impacts on design
and procurement of low energy buildings. Building and
Environment 2009, 44(5), 929-936
[11] D. Leatherbarrow,Architectures unscripted
performance, B.Kolarevic and A.Malkawi (Ed) in
Performative Architecture, Spon Press (2005)
[12] B. Evans, Solar Power Gets Serious, Architects
journal, (1997) 205(24)pp44-45
[13] D.Jones, Architecture and the Environment,
Bioclimatic Building Design, The Overlook Press
(1998)
[14] N. Hamza, Double versus single skin facades in hot
arid areas. Energy and Buildings 2008, 40(3), 240-
248.
[15] John Lewis Partnership, Sustainable construction
Framework, (2007) available online-www.
Johnlewispartnership.co.uk accessed 10/11/2010




PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
46 PRACTICE - INTERACTION BETWEEN ACTORS
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
2 xx. x SECTION NAME
the current oil ( and gas and coal) stocks. A rough
calculation learns that this is in the order of output of
14000 litre of oil per day globally ( which would be the
balanced use of it) This implies a averaged
production (of coal oil and gas) of 0,00173 kWe / ha-
year. (That is the resulting output from 1 ha via
biomass-sediment-fossil fuel-electricity route)
Compare this with Solar radiation via PV to electricity
route: 1 million kWhe/ha-year
This illustrates the relation with space and time for
energy generation. ( So far the storage issue has not
been addressed in this research. Further research will
have to clarify how much land is involved with this)
.
3. MATERIALS
With a 0-energy building, the non renewable
energy input is limited to the production of materials
for the energy conversion devises, and the production
of materials for construction: In both cases its
materials that become the decisive parameters for
environmental performance. And since materials itself
become scarce as well in many fields [3], and require
large amounts of ( so far) fossil energy to produce, a
next step is to change for renewable materials, similar
as for energy: This avoids huge energy consumption
in the production of current materials ( and shift to
mainly solar energy in the agro based production) and
is, when balanced used, a way to avoid depletion of
resources as well..
Of course in attempt to operate in a closed cycle
the only option is to use renewable materials, non
renewables by definition deplete. In a first exploration
it has been investigated in how far reduction of
materials, and change to renewable materials in
buildings is possible. [4].
One of the calculated buildings was a 5-level new
style canal house in Amsterdam, made of prefab
timberframe with straw bale filling/insulation, and
other features.(ill 1) The house was from the start
designed to perform for renewable materials, and
ended up even 20 % cheaper as neighbouring
houses of the same size. In this case the weight per
m2 living area dropped to 550 kg, and the fraction of
renewable materials was 43%.
The next step is to try to bringing the renewable
materials fraction to a 100 % percent, in that case a
material neutral building would have been
established.: a building that only uses renewable
sources, imported from outside the building site This
is similar to a energy neutral Building. However with
0-energy building the renewable resources are
produced on site. Therefore, a 0-materials building
should do so as well: (re-)generate the materials on
site.
This will require to identify a crop specific
production rate , and calculate the amount of m2 to
be incorporated in the building site to grow the
resources. ( in fact, also in the neutral case and when
imported, they still require land and time to develop
and should be appointed for that)
This leads to the notion thats its no longer
embodied energy as the interesting figure, but
embodied land. Literally the ha-year calculation for
generating energy and materials.
This provides a new systematic approach to
evaluate whats the most interesting option to
develop, or the option with the least embodied land ,
and make an integrated energy/mass evaluation
possible. Since both develop from the same source:
Solar radiation, and the space- time involved to
generate.
This however is not the same as a Footprint
method: The Footprint methods calculates all
impacts of human action into land needed to
compensate this. Here is a more direct route chosen:
If one works with closing cycles, side effects are
hardly important anymore, and the direct land need to
generate resources is calculated.
done automatically when using the proper styles.
4. EMBODIED LAND
The above described approach has been
combined with studies into the exergy of buildings [5]
, and leading to similar conclusions, that primary
exergy is a principle based on fossil fuelled society,
but that in the end Solar ( radiation) energy is the real
originating reference, and as a result, the m2 land
over a certain time as the parameter to measure. In a
project at RiBuilt, the research institute for the Built
environment of Tomorrow,.
From research into exergy strategies, the starting
points for such a building evaluation have been
developed, including a draft database of yields per
hectare, for most general crops ( according to local
climate) and translated in a tool to evaluate buildings
for their energy and mass. performance together. (ill
2) A few first pilot buildings have been evaluated with
this method, and show that in some cases its not
energy reduction or efficiency that has the first
figure 1: Ijburg 3, a mainly renewable materials based
house in Amsterdam, one of the calculated buildings
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
PRACTICE - INTERACTION BETWEEN ACTORS 47
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
xx. x SECTION NAME 3
preference, but materials input becomes the decisive
parameter.
5. CASE IJBURG
In the pilot we have calculated two cases, a Dutch
average house, the formal defined governmental
reference building , and the Ijburg-3 case, the canal
house described before. For the purpose of this
paper we will concentrate on Ijburg3 .
The general approach is to calculate the
embodied land for generating the materials, as well
as the land required to generate the embodied
energy in materials as well as the land for
operational energy.
We explored two cases: the use of fossil energy,
and the 100 % change for renewable energy, also for
production of materials. Ill model
5.1. Materials embodied land
In the case of Ijburg , the production of (43%
renewable) materials require 916 m2-year to produce
, per m2 of living area. This can be produced in 1 year
on 916 m2, or , if we take the lifecycle of a house as
50 years, on 18.3 m2 for the continuous period of 50
years. The space time occupation of embodied land
significantly drops when lifetime of the house
increases.
There is still a fraction of non renewable materials
involved. So far we have not defined embodied land
for this fraction,. A follow up study has to explore this
further, however only important as long as we still use
some non-renewable sources, in the end, like
renewable energy its not relevant anymore.
5.2. Energy embodied land
To calculate the land involved in generating
energy for production and transport the ICE database
on Embodied energy was used [6]
This has been recalculated for both fossil based
energy and renewable based energy.(ill 4) To
produce the energy for materials production by
fossils, a land use of 43 million m2 per m2 of living
area is involved ( on a 50 year regeneration basis!)
. A huge amount, of course. To do so with modern
biomass energy generation 2,16 m2 is needed, and
via PV panels 0,06 m2.( both in 50 years) ( only
direct energy, not including yet indirect energy, for
storage for instance) But it shows already the
immense difference in effectivity whether fossils or
renewables are used.
For operational energy similar calculations are
made: for Ijburg-3 0,08 m2 per m2 living area is
needed. (solar generated, or 57 million m2 when
fossils are used)
From this point on its already clear that in the case
of a change to renewable materials , with still using
fossil fuels as energy source, the last one is by far the
most devastating to our land use :
A 100 million m2 for EE and OE per m2 living
area, compared to 18.33 m2 for materials ( the 43%,
maybe twice as much for a 100 pct renewable
materials house)
However, if we include the fact that we have to
change for 100% renewable energy, the picture is
completely turned upside down:
0,14 m2 for EE and OE compared to 18,33 m2 for
the materials fraction ( on a 50 year calculation, but
the relation remains the same) .
This already shows that design decisions
Figure 3 Yields for different construction materials: the
average yearly useful output per ha land. It shows that
for instance wool and cork are a highly land consuming
crop. Yields vary greatly in literature, and due to
differences in location, climate, quality selection etc. .
More research is needed.
Figure 4: the m2 calculation for different routes and
functions
Figure 2 the methodology: schematic model of the
calculations; the conversion to m2 land for crops, energy
harvests, and water ( later to be added)
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
2 xx. x SECTION NAME
the current oil ( and gas and coal) stocks. A rough
calculation learns that this is in the order of output of
14000 litre of oil per day globally ( which would be the
balanced use of it) This implies a averaged
production (of coal oil and gas) of 0,00173 kWe / ha-
year. (That is the resulting output from 1 ha via
biomass-sediment-fossil fuel-electricity route)
Compare this with Solar radiation via PV to electricity
route: 1 million kWhe/ha-year
This illustrates the relation with space and time for
energy generation. ( So far the storage issue has not
been addressed in this research. Further research will
have to clarify how much land is involved with this)
.
3. MATERIALS
With a 0-energy building, the non renewable
energy input is limited to the production of materials
for the energy conversion devises, and the production
of materials for construction: In both cases its
materials that become the decisive parameters for
environmental performance. And since materials itself
become scarce as well in many fields [3], and require
large amounts of ( so far) fossil energy to produce, a
next step is to change for renewable materials, similar
as for energy: This avoids huge energy consumption
in the production of current materials ( and shift to
mainly solar energy in the agro based production) and
is, when balanced used, a way to avoid depletion of
resources as well..
Of course in attempt to operate in a closed cycle
the only option is to use renewable materials, non
renewables by definition deplete. In a first exploration
it has been investigated in how far reduction of
materials, and change to renewable materials in
buildings is possible. [4].
One of the calculated buildings was a 5-level new
style canal house in Amsterdam, made of prefab
timberframe with straw bale filling/insulation, and
other features.(ill 1) The house was from the start
designed to perform for renewable materials, and
ended up even 20 % cheaper as neighbouring
houses of the same size. In this case the weight per
m2 living area dropped to 550 kg, and the fraction of
renewable materials was 43%.
The next step is to try to bringing the renewable
materials fraction to a 100 % percent, in that case a
material neutral building would have been
established.: a building that only uses renewable
sources, imported from outside the building site This
is similar to a energy neutral Building. However with
0-energy building the renewable resources are
produced on site. Therefore, a 0-materials building
should do so as well: (re-)generate the materials on
site.
This will require to identify a crop specific
production rate , and calculate the amount of m2 to
be incorporated in the building site to grow the
resources. ( in fact, also in the neutral case and when
imported, they still require land and time to develop
and should be appointed for that)
This leads to the notion thats its no longer
embodied energy as the interesting figure, but
embodied land. Literally the ha-year calculation for
generating energy and materials.
This provides a new systematic approach to
evaluate whats the most interesting option to
develop, or the option with the least embodied land ,
and make an integrated energy/mass evaluation
possible. Since both develop from the same source:
Solar radiation, and the space- time involved to
generate.
This however is not the same as a Footprint
method: The Footprint methods calculates all
impacts of human action into land needed to
compensate this. Here is a more direct route chosen:
If one works with closing cycles, side effects are
hardly important anymore, and the direct land need to
generate resources is calculated.
done automatically when using the proper styles.
4. EMBODIED LAND
The above described approach has been
combined with studies into the exergy of buildings [5]
, and leading to similar conclusions, that primary
exergy is a principle based on fossil fuelled society,
but that in the end Solar ( radiation) energy is the real
originating reference, and as a result, the m2 land
over a certain time as the parameter to measure. In a
project at RiBuilt, the research institute for the Built
environment of Tomorrow,.
From research into exergy strategies, the starting
points for such a building evaluation have been
developed, including a draft database of yields per
hectare, for most general crops ( according to local
climate) and translated in a tool to evaluate buildings
for their energy and mass. performance together. (ill
2) A few first pilot buildings have been evaluated with
this method, and show that in some cases its not
energy reduction or efficiency that has the first
figure 1: Ijburg 3, a mainly renewable materials based
house in Amsterdam, one of the calculated buildings
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
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4 xx. x SECTION NAME
regarding materials have far more impact then those
related to energy, in a renewable resources based
world. As we will see later more in detail.
A next step is to calculate for instance how many
houses would fit in a new to develop district,
including embodied land. Suppose we have one
hectare of new housing area, if we develop this as a
0- energy neighbourhood, and as well as a 0-
materials neighbourhood, therefore including
generation of all resources, we see that the ijburg 3
building ( 267 m2 total) requires nearly 5000 m2 of
land, of which only two fit in a ha.
For a more average house of a 100 m2 , its only a
density of 5/heactare that should be allowed ( ( and
still only 43% of materials are calculated as
renewable) ( And both with a50 year lifetime.
Of course density for other reasons could be
increased, with enough land dedicated to the area to
re-produce the resources.
5.3. Urban Harvest+
We used these findings in a second project, where
we analysed if a existing district could produce its
own resources, for the energy consumption as well as
for new construction and maintenance. [7] Apart from
the details, at a certain point it was obvious that we
lacked land to install all energy devices as well as to
produce additional renewable materials. This raise
conflicts of interest as for instance with the energy
calculation which started from the assumption that
all house should be renovated up to passive house
standards, reducing operational energy significantly.
However, in this area of 6000 house s that would
require a additional 135 hectares of materials
production continuously, to produce the materials for
renovation and maintenance. Another calculation was
made in how far extra land was needed in case we
did not insulate the existing hoses : to heat the
houses that would require only 17 hectares of solar
collector heat. Its obvious that that is far more
effective, ie: the strategy should be not to insulate
houses anymore. It would be sub optimising, and
ineffective....
Of course, in a detailed analyses, it will show that
somewhere there is an optimum between on
insulating, a little insulation and passive standard, in
terms of land use involved, for energy and materials
together. [8]
This has still to be more researched. But the
general conclusion remains, only looking at energy in
the classic way will bring us into problems.
On a larger scale, for instance districts or regions,
the land involved to produce renewable resources ,
will compete with land needed for food which will
force even other optimisation decisions.
All these needs transferred into time related land
use, will change the current way of decision-making,
and as a result landscaping, building design and city
management.
6. DESIGN
The broader approach of these findings are the
notion that in the end its m2 available land that will
decide whats possible and whats not: all resources,
are related to solar radiation ( food, mass and energy)
and our ability to convert the radiation into useful
resources. Design on a small scale as well as on a
large scale, will take into account the optimal use of
m2, to make these productive. That counts for roofs,
but also for land, gardens, roads etc, in order to
maintain a high level of resource availability, once
fossil fuels run out and some resources deplete or are
to energy intensive to produce.
In fact , to reach 0-energy (existing) districts in
future, it could imply that reduction is not established
by insulation but that life styles have to be changed,
in the form of heating only part of the house in stead
of the whole house to be able to provide a balanced
resource use for materials and energy together, within
the evaluated system.
6.1. Changes
In fact these changes are already happening ,
though mostly unnoticed. What was free available
Figure 6 changes already visible in the landscaping
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xx. x SECTION NAME 5
once, is becoming managed, planned and
land(space) based. Take for instance fish farming:
due to lack of fish, fish farming is fastly taking over
wild fish. Including the ( managed and controlled )
land use( water surface) involved with this. Similar
with FSC wood, or sugarcane crops for ethanol fuels
in Brazilian cars.
Not to speak about energy, rape seed fields,
large wind turbine fields, solar panel fields arising
around us. On roofs, but also taking virgin land (
which is not wise of course) .
And this will continue to grow.
In architecture we see similar changes . The shift
for renewable materials has already had its take off.
Since the fire risks were under control early this
decade, the Scandinavian countries on a large scale
construct multifamily houses in timber frame
construction. Up to 9 levels has been realised, in
Sweden and lastly London. Now a Austrian firm has
launched the plans to construct a 20 floor apartment
building to set the record. Plans for a 12 storey have
already been licensed in Berlin. [9]
In the District of Tomorrow, a demonstration
project , these changes are a leading ambition:
Students are mandatory to design a highly ambitious
plan for their graduation, with performance criteria in
energy water and materials for instance. The best
design is selected by a jury and constructed a year
later in the demonstration site in Heerlen,
Construction by the way is by students of construction
schools, as a training environment.
The first house had a ambition to be 0-energy and
25 % from renewable materials(ill 6) , the second
design energy plus and 50% of renewable
materials,(Ill 7) the third design, just selected this
year, 75% renewable materials and the design for
2011 requires 100% renewable materials. Which will
most probably fail, think of glass and hinges for
instance, but students are challenged to go as far as
possible. At the same time these resources have to
be generated, which will be included in the
demonstration area.
7. CONCLUSIONS
In a world opting for 0-energy buildings, materials
become by far the part of construction with the
highest impact, whether fossil fuels or renewable
energy is involved. In a complete change to
renewable resources, both in energy as in materials,
its the growing of materials itself which will be the
main design parameter regarding environmental
performance. The explorations made in the research
underlying this paper, contain however still many
issues to investigate, and to confirm findings with in-
depth and focussed research.
But this does not conflict with the main conclusion
that building design and landscapes will face a major
change, with every m2 becoming productive, and the
development of material landscapes around buildings
as part of a 0-material building approach probably
developing the coming years. The trend to develop 0-
energy buildings will show to be a suboptimal and
ineffective way of approach, unless we re-interpreted
this as 0-exergy buildings, in which energy and mass
calculations are combined in a Embodied land
approach .
Figures 7 and 8 First house under construction: a passive
house, and design for the second building, with productive
roof
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6 xx. x SECTION NAME
8. REFERENCES
[1] Rovers, R., Rovers V., 2008 0-energy or Carbon
neutral? Systems and Definitions, Discussion
paper, not publishes, see
www.sustainablebuilding.info
[2] Sartori I. , et all , 2006, Energy use in the life
cycle of conventional and low-energy
buildings:Department of Architectural Design,
History and Technology, Norwegian University of
Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim,
Norway
[3] EU natural resources 2005
[4] Rovers,R. 2009, Material-neutral building: Closed
Cycle Accounting for building Construction, paper
SASBE conference, Delft, The Netherlands 2009
[5] SREX : Long term research program financed by
Dutch Government, exploring the exergyprinciple
for Spatial planning. Universities of Groningen,
Delft , Wageningen and Heerlen,
reports.http://www.exergieplanning.nl/
[6] ICE database, Inventory of Carbon and Energy,
version 1.6a, prof G.Hammond and Craig Jones,
Bath University, Availanle from:
www.bath.ac.uk/mech-eng/sert/embodied/
[7] Urban Harvest +, case Kerkrade West, a
exploration into 0-impact district re-development,
2010, RiBuilT Research institute Built
Environment of Tomorrow, Heerlem NL,
download at: www.ribuilt.eu
[8] Gommans, L. J. J. H. M. (2009). "The use of
material, space and energy from an exergetic
perspective." Proceedings Sasbe 2009
Conference on Smart and Sustainable Built
Environments.
[9] Rhomberg H. 2010, A life cycle tower for a better
future. In book: Towards 0-impact buildings and
built environments, Technepress NL, edited by
R.Rovers.isbn 978-90-8594-028-9
EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
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EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 53

Multidisciplinary Master Zero Energy Building
Design Project based on Workshops for
Professionals
Wim ZEILER
Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Eindhoven, Netherlands


ABSTRACT: Building industrial practice a design approach is increasingly being asked besides specialist
engineering skills. This leads to new demands for the educational programmes to prepare the engineering
student for these new demands. One initiative in our University is the so called multidisciplinary master project
Integral Design. In this project architectural students and engineering students participated. As basis for this
project served a learning-by-doing workshop approach, developed and tested with/on experienced professionals
in series of two days learning-by-practice workshops which was developed and tested in practice with
collaboration of Institute of Dutch Architects (BNA) and the Dutch Association of Consulting Engineers (NL
Ingenieurs). This is one of the few educational projects in which the experience from practice is transferred
directly into the educational academic program; normally this is done the other way around. Quite remarkable is
that these workshops by themselves became part of the permanent professional educational program of the
BNA. The results of a comparison between the multidisciplinary master project and the experiences of the
professional are discussed.
Keywords: workshop, professionals, students
1. INTRODUCTION
The product which has the biggest impact on
sustainability of humans are their buildings. The built
environment uses 40% of all our energy for
conditioning the buildings and 8 % of all our energy
to be built. Building designs need to provide
solutions for sustainability issues ranging from
flexible use of renewable energy, energy reduction
measures while maintaining and even increasing
comfort level of the users. Sustainability is a crucial
issue for our future and architecture has an important
role to direct sustainable development [1].However
there is a mixed performance in the realization of
sustainability objectives, there are a number of key
barriers hindering progress and as a result the
process became more complex [2]. As complexity of
design processes of buildings increase, traditional
approaches may no longer suffice [3]. New
approaches are needed to bridge the gap between
Art (Design) and Science (Engineering) worlds, in
case of the building design specifically between
architects and consulting engineers (structural,
building physics and building services). Education
has a vital role to play in developing sustainable
development: Development which meets the needs
of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs [4]
This led to the development of Zero Emission
Buildings: a building which emits virtually 0 (zero)
carbon dioxide [5]. However this new target in
building design, ZEB, requires totally different
approach from conventional building in terms of
design, construction and operation [5, 6]. That goal is
very ambitious for the moment [7] and can only be
realized by applying renewable energy source and
an extreme low energy use of the building. Such
complex design tasks requires early collaboration of
all design disciplines involved in the conceptual
building design. Architects and engineers need to be
able to handle the challenges imposed by the new
design goals. Models are needed to bridge the gap
between the worlds of Design Methodology and
Reflective Practice, and to look at designing as a
process in which the concepts of function, behaviour
and shape of artefacts play a central role [8]. This
can eventually lead to an integral process, team and
method [9]. Design education needs to help
engineering students and architectural students to
develop the necessary skills to successfully handle
design tasks [10] and so give them the knowledge
and ability to realise this aim is the main intention of
the multidisciplinary masters project Integral design.
To test our ideas for a new educational approach
experiments were done in a situation as close to
design practice as possible: in workshops for
professionals [11]. Education should prepare
students to become professionals therefore it is of
importance to look into the appreciation of the
proposed design tool within building design practice.
The professional workshop formula was used to start
the students master project integral design team
work.
The methodology, the used design method and
its main tool, the morphological overview, are
described in section 2. Section 3, describes the
workshops for architects and engineers. Our Master
project Integral design uses the same concept as a
start-up for the project. In section 4 the results are
given of the different questionnaires that were held to
gain insight in the appreciation of different aspects of
the design tool used in the workshops. Especially a
comparison is made between the results of
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54 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
professionals and those of the students. After a short
discussion in section 5 conclusions are given about
whether or not both students and professionals think
the integral design method is useful for them.
2. METHODOLOGY

Integral Design [12] was chosen as a starting
point of development. Based on methodical design a
well known design method in the Netherlands [13],
Integral Design is a design process model; the cycle
(define/analyze, generate/synthesize,
evaluate/select, implement/shape) forms the
sequence of design activities that take place [14].

Figure 1: Four-step pattern of Integral Design

A distinguishing feature of Integral Design is the
intensive use of morphological charts for design
steps in the design process [15,16]. In the first step
the designer list his interpretation of the most
important aspects and functions that have to be
fulfilled based on the design brief in the first column
in the chart.
In the second step of the process the designers
adds possible part solutions to each aspect or
function in the rows after the specific function or
aspect, see Fig. 2.



Figure 2: Morphological charts as part of the Integral
Design method, step 1 and step 2.

Each participant of a design team develops a
morphological chart from their own specialist point of
view. These individual discipline based
morphological charts can be combined to one overall
so called morphological overview. The morphological
overview of an integral design team process is
generated, by combining in two steps the different
morphological charts made by each discipline.
Putting the morphological charts together enables to
put on the table the individual perspectives from
each discipline about the interpretation of the design
brief and its implications for each discipline. This
enables, supports and stimulates the discussion on
and the selection of functions and aspects of
importance for the specific design. In step one the
functions and aspects are discussed and decides
with are placed by the team in the morphological
overview. After this in step 2 all participants of the
design team can come up with their solutions for
these functions and aspects, see Fig. 1 & 2.


Figure 3: Two steps to come from the morphological
charts to the morphological overview: step 1


Figure 4: Step 2 to come from the morphological charts
to the morphological overview.

It is important to divide the process leading to the
morphological overview into two steps to structure
the discussion between the different disciplines
about the most important functions and aspect in
relation to the design brief. After the important first
step the solutions by all the different disciplines can
be added. The result is a transparent and clear
overview of the interpretation of the design brief by
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EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 55


the design team as well as an overview of the known
possible sub solution by the members of the design
team.
3. EXPERIMENTS
Since 2005 we organized 5 series of workshops with
professionals, architects and engineers, voluntarily
applying to participate [15,16]. The integral design
method with its use of morphological charts and
morphological overviews was tested in these series
of workshops organized in cooperation with BNA
(Dutch Royal Society of Architects) and NL
Ingenieurs (Dutch Association of Consulting
Engineers). The only selection criterion used for
selecting the participants is the requirement to be a
member of either BNA or NLIngenieurs. The
participants are randomly assigned to design teams,
which ideally would consist out of an architect, a
building physics consultant, a building services
consultant and a structural engineer. The
experiences of workshops series led to step by step
adjustments resulting in a final setup workshop which
was used in series 4 and 5 [15], see Fig. 4.

Figure 5: Session of workshops series 4 & 5, four design
sessions with different set ups of participants and use of
Morphological Charts (MC) or Morphologic Overviews
(MO) in two days

During two days there are four different design
sessions during which the team has to perform a
specific design task. The design tasks during these
two days are on the same level of complexity and
have been used in all workshops. After each design
session the participants present the results to each
other and get feedback from the organizers. The
participants are rearranged after each design
session so that no one works together with someone
else more than once, this to avoid a learning effect in
the teams during the different design session.
The workshops start with a lecture introducing
Integral Design and are followed with other
supportive lectures about sustainable energy
systems, the use of morphological overviews and
overall feedback of the results to all participants. The
workshops typically include around twenty
participants.
In this final configuration of the workshop series
(Fig. 5) stepwise changes to the traditional building
design process, in which the architects starts the
process and the other designer join in later in the
process, are introduced in the design sessions.
Starting with the traditional sequential approach
during the first design session on day 1, this provides
the participants a kind of reference experience so in
session 2 they can get the understanding how the
process changes by letting all disciplines start
working simultaneously from the very beginning of
the conceptual design phase.
After the first day the application of the integral
design model / morphological overview is introduced
during the third design session to demonstrate to the
participants the effect of using morphological
overview: transparent structuring of design
functions/aspects on the amount of generated (sub)
solution proposals. At the end of the third session
the participants receive feedback about their
applying the morphological charts and morphological
overview. The third session provides one full learning
cycle regarding the use of morphological overviews.
After this third learning session the participants can
apply the morphological in the intended way. So in
design session 4 the design teams really can
experience the effect of the integral design method
and its tools, morphological charts and morphological
overview. During the second day of the design
workshops the sessions allows simultaneous
involvement of all design disciplines on a design
task, aiming to influence the amount of considered
design functions/aspects by giving the teams tools of
Integral Design; morphological chart and
morphological overview.

1
st
design session, parasite pavilion as an
example for sustainable building as design task
In design session 1 each architect was given the
task to design a parasite structure to be placed on
the building the workshop was taking place in. For
full description of the design task see [13]. Initially, in
the first design session, which lasted approximately
30 minutes, the architect worked alone on the
design. After the initial part of design session I, the
other team members met in the second part of the
design session, to discuss the design and work
together further on it.
2
nd
design session, energy neutral office as
design task
The task was to design an energy neutral office.
All participants started together at the same moment
with the design process but in mono disciplinary
groups. After this first part of the design session 2
the participants were divided into new multi
disciplinary teams. In this 2
nd
part of design session 2
all participants started together with the same
information about the project in contrast with the 2
nd

part of design session 2. First, representatives of the
individual disciplines explained the results of their
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56 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
work from the mono-disciplinary team in the 1
st
part
of design session 2. After these individual
explanations, team discussion ensued. The focus of
this discussion was on fitting sub solutions into a final
design.

3
th
design session, renovation zero energy roof
apartments as design task
The task was to design a zero energy apartments
on the top floor of the building (roof). The participants
were given an introduction on Integral Design and an
explanation on how to use the tools of Integral
Design, the morphological chart and the
morphological overview. The design teams started
as multidisciplinary teams working with the
morphological charts and morphological overview.
Design session 3 represented a learning-by-doing
opportunity for the individual disciplines and the
design teams. The ideal outcome would be that each
team could clearly demonstrate successful use of the
design tools during the design process. However, as
a key part of learning is feedback, after the teams
completed tasks set in session 3, time was given to
compare and appraise the teams work and to
answer any questions that arose [13].
4
th
design session, energy neutral school as
design task
The task was to design a school with healthy and
sustainable environment for children. The same
location and overall demands as for zero energy
office design task was used. Design session 4
represents the very last stage in the cycle of
research in this research project. All of the individual
interventions that were used in the earlier research
stages are combined so that in session 4 the ID-
method can be tested. To be explicit, the elements
that have been combined are: design team, design
model, design tool and design session.
4. RESULTS
Interaction between practice, research and
education forms the core of our integral design
approach. Therefore we implemented the integral
design workshop for professionals set up within the
start-up workshop of our multidisciplinary master
project integral design. Students from architecture,
building physics, building services, building
technology and structural engineering were offered
the opportunity to participate. Because of the
intensive coaching not more than six teams were
formed. The procedure for the start-up workshop for
the students project was the same as for the
professional workshops; the only criterion for
participation was the membership of the master
students group. The students of each discipline were
randomly assigned to design teams, with the aim to
have all disciplines represented in each team. This
makes it possible to compare the student workshops
with the results from the workshops for professionals.

1
st
design session, parasite pavilion sustainable
building as design task
In order to demonstrate what occurred in design
session 1, the work and analysis of one team is
presented below, while the work of the other teams
can be found in [15].
After the initial part of design session I, in which
the architect worked alone, all team members met in
part 2 of the design session, to discuss the design.
Here, the architect led the discussion. The analysis
of each teams work started with the translation of
the architects explanation of the initial proposal at
the beginning of second design session is into a
table of aspects and sub solutions, see table 1.
This resulting sequential list is then structured in
the architects morphological chart. Then, on the
basis of a review of the videotaped session, a table
of aspects and sub solutions considered by the
design team is structured in the design teams
morphological overview.
The analytically derived morphological overview
of team 1 from the explanation of the architect to the
other team members, is presented in Fig. 6. The
aspects/functions and sub solutions originally
brought to the table by the architect can be found as
{A} in Fig. 7. After the discussion with the designer of
other disciplines the team decided to work on those
aspects and functions were they all agreed on
leading to the morphological overview of Fig. 7,
which represents the final result of the first design
session. Through the discussion and selection of
aspects and functions as well as the related sub-
solutions, the team members manage the
consistency of the solutions. Inconsistent sub-
solutions are either improved to become consistent
or left out.

Table 1. Transcript of functions/aspects and subsolutions
mentioned by the architect.


Figure 6: Architects morphological chart, design session
1, part 1.
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EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 57
5


Figure 7: Design teams morphological overview, design session 1, part 2


2
nd
design session, energy neutral office as
design task
The analysis of the second design sessions of
the second workshop design session is based on
videotaped design team activities. The resulting table
of aspects and sub solutions considered by design
teams during session II is structured into the design
teams morphological overview.
3
th
design session, renovation roof apartments
as design task
Design session 3 represented a learning-by-
doing opportunity to work with the specific design
tools for the individual disciplines and the design
teams. The ideal outcome would be that each team
could clearly demonstrate successful use of the
design tools during the design process. However, as
a key part of learning is feedback, after the teams
completed tasks set in session 3, time was given to
compare and appraise the teams work and to
answer any questions that arose.
4
th
design session, energy neutral school as
design task
Design session 4 represents the very last stage
in the cycle. All of the individual interventions that
were used in the earlier research stages are
combined so that in session 4 the ID-method could
be tested. To be explicit, the elements that have
been combined are: design team, design model,
design tool and design session. In this session, all of
the design teams proposed sub solutions were
recorded directly on morphological overviews.
The results of the workshops in their final form
held for professionals and students are compared. In
the compared final two workshops series 38
professionals participated, average age 42 and on
average 12 years of design practice experience. In
the two parallel workshops for students 42
participated, average age 23 and no design
experience from practice. Direct at the end of the
workshops the participants were asked to fill in a
questionnaire about the use of morphological
overviews during the design sessions and about the
concept of the workshops themselves. The results of
the comparison are given in Fig. 8 and 9 on a scale
from 1 to 10.
The results of the questionnaires indicate that the
participants thought the use of morphological
overviews increases the insight in other disciplines,
helps the communication and increases the number
of relevant alternatives within the design process.
Surprisingly there is a rather small relative difference
between the appreciations of professionals as
compared to that of students see Fig.9.

Figure 8: Comparison results questionnaires the later
series workshop of two days for professionals and
students, rating on a scale from 1-10.

Based on the workshop a more compact for of the
workshops was developed and introduced in the
Master project Integral design for students from
architecture, building technology, structural design,
building physics and building services. Instead of 4
design session within two day the workshops were
reduced to one afternoon session on day 1 and one
morning session on day 2. On day 1 the students
had to perform the design task 1 of the former
workshops in teams of two and design task 2 of the
former workshops series in team of 4 students. In the
teams were always different disciplines combined.
After this during the morning of the second day they
had to perform design task 3 together with one
professional expert in each group. This made it
possible to connect professional experience with the
approaches by the students. After session 3 the
participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire
which made it possible to compare the outcome of
students and professionals, see Fig. 9.
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58 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

Figure 9: Results comparison professionals students
2011
5. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
In this paper we discussed the connection
between building industry and university by
multidisciplinary workshops for professional
(architects and engineers). Traditionally a design
method is developed at a university where it is tested
on students and then implemented in practice. In our
case we choose to change this; the testing was done
as near to practice as possible with professionals
and then implemented at the university. The result
was that, were normally the evaluation of the design
method and its tools by practitioners lead to a lower
appreciation than that by students; in this case the
situation was reverse. The practitioners thought the
design method and its tool of more value than the
students.
So we presume that by using our integral design
workshops with the use of morphological overviews,
we prepare our students well for the practice with its
multi-disciplinary design problems they have to face
when designing zero energy buildings.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was done with the help of the
Royal Institute of Dutch Architects (BNA) and the
Dutch Association of Consulting Engineers (NL
Engineers). The Foundation for promoting Building
Services (PIT), supported the research financial.

7. REFERENCES
[1] Taleghani , M., Ansari, H.R., Jennings, P.
2010, Renewable energy education for
architects: lessons from developed and
developing countries, International Journal of
Sustainable Energy, vol.29, No.2, June
2010:105-115
[2] Williams, K., Dair, C. 2007, What is stopping
sustainable Building in England? Barriers
experienced by stakeholders in delivering
sustainable developments, Sustainable
Development, Vol.15, Issue 3, May/June
2007:135-147
[3] Aken J.E. van, 2005, Valid knowledge for
professional design of large and complex design
processes, Design Studies, 26(4), pp 379-404.
[4] WCED, 1987, Our Common Future, World
Commission on Environment and Development,
Oxford University Press, Oxford.
[5] Kang H.J., Lee S., Rhee E.K., 2010, A Study on
the Design Process of Zero Emission Building,
Proceedings Clima 2010-10th REHVA World
Congress, 9-12 May, Antalya, Turkey
[6] Ritter V., Assessment of the guidelines for zero-
emission architectural design, Proceedings
Clima 2010-10th REHVA World Congress, 9-12
May, Antalya, Turkey
[7] Opstelten I.J., Bakker E.J., Sinke W.C., de Bruijn
F.A., Borsboom W.A., Krosse L., 2007,
Potentials for energy efficiency and renewable
energy sources in the Netherlands, WSED2007
Energy Future 2030, Wels.
[8] Vermaas P.E., Dorst K., 2007, On the
conceptual framework of John Geros FBS-
model and the prescriptive aims of design
methodology, Design studies, 8(2), 133-157
[9] Seppnen O., Steenberghe T. van & Suur-Uski
T., 2007, (editors), Energy Efficiency in Focus
REHVA workshops at Clima 2007, REHVA
Report No.2.
[10] Adems R.S, Turns J. & Atman C., 2003,
Educating effective engineering designers: the
role of reflective practice, Design Studies 24
(2003) 275-294.
[11] Savanovic P., Zeiler W., 2007, Integral Building
Design Workshops: A concept to structure
communication, 4th DEC symposium, Las
Vegas, DETC2007-34377
[12] Zeiler W., Savanovic P., Quanjel E., 2008,
Integral Conceptual Building Design Workshops,
Proceedings TMCE2008, April 21-25, Izmir
[13] Blessing L.T.M., 1994, A process-based
approach to computer supported engineering
design, PhD thesis Universiteit Twente.
[14] Zeiler W., Savanovi P., 2009, General Systems
Theory based Integral Design Method,
Proceedings ICED09, 24-27 August, Stanford,
USA
[15] Savanovi P., 2009, Integral design method in
the context of sustainable building design, PhD
thesis, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
[16] Zeiler W., Savanovi P., 2009, Reflection in
building design action: morphology, Proceedings
ICED09, 24-27 August, Stanford, USA


PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 59


Sustainable Environmental Design Consultancy:
Practices informed and
Practical outcomes.
Michael SMITH-MASIS, Jorge RODRIGUEZ, Maria MENA-DEFERME
1
SAA International
ABSTRACT: SAAI is an international sustainable environmental consultancy firm with offices in U.K., Greece,
Mexico, Costa Rica, Thailand, China, Spain and Australia, focused on sustainable architectural design research.
This paper aims to present a series of practical outcomes obtained from experience of working with local
practices in four continents as a guide to inform design decisions.
Keywords: sustainable design, consultancy, design strategies.
1. INTRODUCTION
The past economic crisis revealed clear
opportunities in the direction of a revitalized global
sustainable design agenda. The construction
industry was deeply affected, and clearly projects
were on hold or even stopped, and only a few stayed
on course, but with solid economic arguments that in
many cases, sustainability was an important part of
its consistency. In fact energy consumption, carbon
emissions and comfort assessments were targeted
into a profitable way. Conversely in the past decades
we exceed our planet bio-capacity in 35% and
buildings deeply affected this figures, e.g. 50% of
UKs energy consumption is accounted to artificially
conditioned buildings. Even in countries where
energy comes from renewable resources (e.g. hydro
plants), buildings are designed to operate artificially;
leading to poor energy consumption routines and
weak interpretations upon life quality and
comfortable conditions. Thus the industry and real
state markets started to look upon sustainability as a
perfect complement to develop just the appropriate
product. According to the U.S. Green Building
Council new studies and reports point to green
building as one of the growing bright spots for the
U.S. economy.
Economic experts call for a recovery plan
focused on green jobs and infrastructure, as
consumers developed a sense of economical
awareness to live in sustainable environments, as
businesses strive to cut operating costs. The US so
called Green buildings aimed to strongly
incorporate renewable energy resources against
pressing challenges to change the way we view the
building industry [5]. The sustainable design
paradigm changed from being a misconception of an
added value, towards being an intrinsic part of every
design act and living.
As green buildings help companies cut
costs and buildings solved financial situations, the
Center for American Progress [September 2008]
study, shows how such green investments on a wide
scale can ignite the economy a nation as a whole [5].
Among other aspects, SAAi merges from
this particular scenario as a Global outsourcing
consultancy firm, seeking to complement and
enhance architectural qualities of design practices.
However sustainability is by far, a complex and
ample concept aiming for equilibrium from which
architecture can contribute into very specific
manners.
Depending on the projects complexity, an
specific multi disciplinary team is assembled in order
to face each task according to its individual need,
complementing in this way the architectural area with
energy specialist, acoustics engineers,
environmental engineers and any other professional
necessary to full fill the project objectives from the
conceptual and design stage, up to the construction
phase.
This paper aims to present a set of design
recommendations and outcomes resulting from
worked examples developed with local practices in
four continents. First the work methodology and
design brief will be introduced, followed with common
analytical tasks and practical outcomes achieved
during the various processes to inform early design
decisions. Ultimately the outcomes will illustrate
recommendations in terms of design ratios, base
case to parametric studies, diagramming to visualize
performance, the implementation of analytical tools
to virtual models, empirical data to environmental
measurements, not to simulate reality but to
encourage pre-design studies informed with
fundamental design criteria. Finally the most relevant
part comes along from the process of applying
theoretical concepts into practical skills for any given
multidisciplinary team.
2. LINKING SUSTAINABILITY AND
MULTIDISCIPLINARY
Sustainable design has taken over. In the
last years, a great deal of architectural practices has
strived to improve the environmental response of
their designs. Whether market driven or truly
committed, it certainly aroused an interest in the
establishment of new collaboration frameworks with
other disciplines. On the other hand, the over-
regulated context has undermined the role of the
architect to some extent. The romantic idea of
inspiration and talent as driving agents of the design
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
60 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN


process often collide with statutory complexity and
technical limitations. This led to a paradoxical
situation where technical consultants are seen as the
needed evils.
However, new targets bring new
opportunities. Architects aiming to deliver sustainable
designs are open to the inputs from experienced
advisors. Sustainability is a new communication
channel and a common ground from which better
collaboration could be built up. It is therefore
necessary to establish this new collaboration
framework in order to maximize the potential of a
multidisciplinary approach towards the achievement
of better and more sustainable environments.
3. EMPHASIS AND DESIGN LAYERS

Figure 1: Layers of appropriate design

Identifying particular issues for each project
is critical to inform early design decisions, however a
common working frame is necessary to ultimately
personalize each project. The premise is to minimize
energy demand and if there is any high demand, it
has to be confronted by using alternative and
renewable energies. Finally if energetic needs are
outstanding, the most efficient systems must be
incorporated. However, the later usually leads to a
poor notion of green design or even green wash,
when latest technological trends are defined as the
main driven forces; more like an image rather than
truly environmental sustainable design.
Therefore the green project merges from
the latest renewable energy trends (e.g. PV, wind
turbines), intelligent buildings, high technological
louvers, green roofs, among others; which from the
first place could be highly questionable or even
avoided if a clear understanding of the projects
context, typology, form and materiality is considered.
A scheme for any project needs to strive a
series of chronological considerations or design
layers; starting from simple principles up to
assessing complexity gradually; informed upon
particular design requirements.
The first consideration is climate and site
understanding. Then form, typology and orientation
to articulate fundamental bioclimatic design criteria
within onsite observations. In most projects both
initial layers can clearly indentify and resolve
environmental problems. Then facades and materials
should be considered to complement solutions in
terms of form and materiality. Ultimately if there are
any outstanding problems left, technologies and
systems maybe a feasible option as for any specific
control strategy. It is important to say that after
covering each layer, the process become iterative.
Figure 1 illustrates such working scheme.
4. WORK METHODOLOGY TOWARDS A
DESIGN BRIEF
Embarking on any sustainable environmental
consultancy process requires a cumulative
methodology, building up information along the
process. Obtained experience from several projects
points out the necessity to identify at least 4
chronological working stages; Must, Basic, Broad,
and Specialized. Each one evolves to acquire greater
depth and complexity. Every phase is a requirement to
the one that follows.
Each analytical phase aims to establish and inform
design decisions in terms of the overall building
performance; hence simulations, diagnosis, design
principles and recommendations are assessed.
Must Phase is related to site and climate analysis,
microclimate patterns, field studies, empirical data and
environmental measurements. All the studies are
comprised with diagnosis diagrams based on hourly
climatic data, building typology studies, and the
definition of relevant design parameters to evaluate
comfort and performance. This stage is prerequisite to
all others, and perhaps is the most important because
defines the practice basis.
Basic pursues to inform early design decisions
with diagrammatic recommendations and practical
opportunities upon fundamental bioclimatic design
criteria. A diagnose is given within floor plans, sections
and facades of the predetermined idea.
Broad works as an extended performance
evaluation and Specialized amplifies details and
develops parametric studies, hence assessing building
performance, visual and thermal comfort, and solar
geometry among others. A wide variety of digital tools
are used to simulate environmental conditions.
Finally Post design services are offered to
support technical execution, onsite inspections, post
occupancy evaluations and certification processes
requirements. Identifying particular issues for each
project is critical to inform early design decisions,
however a common working frame is necessary.
5. PRE-DESIGN: ANALYTICAL TASKS TO
INFORM EARLY DESIGN DECISIONS.
Pre-design refers to determine environmental
features and parameters that can be studied to
achieve a desirable performance. The first approach
is to establish comfort targets and building
requirements for the design brief. Then a
morphological synthesis of the project starts taking
shape from cero or even if the design has already
been started. The model synthesis is informed from
environmental parameters to be studied with
physical, analytical or numerical tools.
Base case to parametric studies. The main
idea is to work upon spatial graphs, which can
illustrate the dimension of the problem and
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 61


requirements. Thus a simplified version of the project
comes along, usually related to generic forms or
primitive solids to evaluate performance and verify
fundamental design criteria. Starting from there, a
base case is determined and grows in detail and
complexity by adding information and parameters to
give an approximation to the final outcome.


Figure 2: Isla Verde Hotel; performance targets and
requirements. For Rodrigo Carazo Arquitectos San Jose,
Costa Rica.

Figures 2,3,4 illustrates this process for a hotel
project in San Jose, Costa Rica, which intended a
naturally ventilated atrium within an urban context.
First performance targets and building type
requirements were integrated with architectural-
graphical interpretations of the space. The base case
looked upon design principles to capture prevailing
winds and optimize ventilation during occupational
patters. Several scenarios were studied and
gradually ventilation performance was enhanced
without active means. Conversely the process
started from revising AC requirements that over
dimensioned the problem. At the end a mixed mode
was designed and AC cost reduced up to 50% with a
clear definition of comfort, responsiveness and
adaptive behaviours contained by a healthy
environment.
Empirical environmental measurements
Every project needs to starts from a clearly
understanding of the context, climate and
microclimatic particularities. Even though hourly data
gathered from meteorological stations is reliable, a
deeper interpretation of the site has to be taken into
account with onsite observations and empirical
measurements. Despite the fact of just having a few
samples as contrast to year-hour information, such
measurements amplify a deeper sense of place,
hence to understand microclimatic phenomena or
distinctive behavioural patterns of the environment.
At this juncture the main objective is to
collect and observe environmental data for further
analysis. For every site, representative points are
selected to measure wind speed & direction, DBT,
relative humidity and surface temperatures among
others. For diagnosis purposes, each sample is
compared with ISO comfort standards such as PPD
or PMV. Additionally visual angles, build and natural
elements are documented and ultimately comprised
in diagrams that illustrate findings (figure 5).

Figure 3: Isla Verde Hotel; base case definition


Figure 4: Isla Verde Hotel; Atrium CFD parametric
studies. For Rodrigo Carazo Arquitectos San Jose, Costa
Rica.

Visualization: Environmental diagrams and
performance
Diagrams play a key role to communicate
findings in multidisciplinary work. They become
vehicles to comprise criteria into architectural notion
of space for any given qualitative and quantitative
research. Recent software developments has proven
this fact, thus powerful platforms aim to link
performance parameters with outstanding 3D
visualization outputs; rather than relying just on
numerical tables.


process often collide with statutory complexity and
technical limitations. This led to a paradoxical
situation where technical consultants are seen as the
needed evils.
However, new targets bring new
opportunities. Architects aiming to deliver sustainable
designs are open to the inputs from experienced
advisors. Sustainability is a new communication
channel and a common ground from which better
collaboration could be built up. It is therefore
necessary to establish this new collaboration
framework in order to maximize the potential of a
multidisciplinary approach towards the achievement
of better and more sustainable environments.
3. EMPHASIS AND DESIGN LAYERS

Figure 1: Layers of appropriate design

Identifying particular issues for each project
is critical to inform early design decisions, however a
common working frame is necessary to ultimately
personalize each project. The premise is to minimize
energy demand and if there is any high demand, it
has to be confronted by using alternative and
renewable energies. Finally if energetic needs are
outstanding, the most efficient systems must be
incorporated. However, the later usually leads to a
poor notion of green design or even green wash,
when latest technological trends are defined as the
main driven forces; more like an image rather than
truly environmental sustainable design.
Therefore the green project merges from
the latest renewable energy trends (e.g. PV, wind
turbines), intelligent buildings, high technological
louvers, green roofs, among others; which from the
first place could be highly questionable or even
avoided if a clear understanding of the projects
context, typology, form and materiality is considered.
A scheme for any project needs to strive a
series of chronological considerations or design
layers; starting from simple principles up to
assessing complexity gradually; informed upon
particular design requirements.
The first consideration is climate and site
understanding. Then form, typology and orientation
to articulate fundamental bioclimatic design criteria
within onsite observations. In most projects both
initial layers can clearly indentify and resolve
environmental problems. Then facades and materials
should be considered to complement solutions in
terms of form and materiality. Ultimately if there are
any outstanding problems left, technologies and
systems maybe a feasible option as for any specific
control strategy. It is important to say that after
covering each layer, the process become iterative.
Figure 1 illustrates such working scheme.
4. WORK METHODOLOGY TOWARDS A
DESIGN BRIEF
Embarking on any sustainable environmental
consultancy process requires a cumulative
methodology, building up information along the
process. Obtained experience from several projects
points out the necessity to identify at least 4
chronological working stages; Must, Basic, Broad,
and Specialized. Each one evolves to acquire greater
depth and complexity. Every phase is a requirement to
the one that follows.
Each analytical phase aims to establish and inform
design decisions in terms of the overall building
performance; hence simulations, diagnosis, design
principles and recommendations are assessed.
Must Phase is related to site and climate analysis,
microclimate patterns, field studies, empirical data and
environmental measurements. All the studies are
comprised with diagnosis diagrams based on hourly
climatic data, building typology studies, and the
definition of relevant design parameters to evaluate
comfort and performance. This stage is prerequisite to
all others, and perhaps is the most important because
defines the practice basis.
Basic pursues to inform early design decisions
with diagrammatic recommendations and practical
opportunities upon fundamental bioclimatic design
criteria. A diagnose is given within floor plans, sections
and facades of the predetermined idea.
Broad works as an extended performance
evaluation and Specialized amplifies details and
develops parametric studies, hence assessing building
performance, visual and thermal comfort, and solar
geometry among others. A wide variety of digital tools
are used to simulate environmental conditions.
Finally Post design services are offered to
support technical execution, onsite inspections, post
occupancy evaluations and certification processes
requirements. Identifying particular issues for each
project is critical to inform early design decisions,
however a common working frame is necessary.
5. PRE-DESIGN: ANALYTICAL TASKS TO
INFORM EARLY DESIGN DECISIONS.
Pre-design refers to determine environmental
features and parameters that can be studied to
achieve a desirable performance. The first approach
is to establish comfort targets and building
requirements for the design brief. Then a
morphological synthesis of the project starts taking
shape from cero or even if the design has already
been started. The model synthesis is informed from
environmental parameters to be studied with
physical, analytical or numerical tools.
Base case to parametric studies. The main
idea is to work upon spatial graphs, which can
illustrate the dimension of the problem and
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
62 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN



Figure 5: Capris Warehouse; Field measurements and
comfort assessments. For FCB architects San Jose, Costa
Rica.

Architectural environmental diagrams are
powerful tools, which generate visualization triggers;
hence a clearly understanding of the spatial notion
phenomenon. In practice it is recommended to
consider diagrams which:
-Identify distinctive architectural characteristic of
the space and are kept as consistent references for
every analysis.
-Correlate environmental data with a sense of
space, temporality and occupational patters.
-Useful diagrams are always synchronized with
basic design guidelines such as rules of thumb.
-It is recommended to define the same graphical
code for all documents. Line types and chromatic
scales are important to present information and
emphasize particular situations.

Figure 6: Capris Warehouse; Project environmental

synthesis. For FCB architects San Jose, Costa Rica.

Figure 7: Isla Verde Hotel; Atrium Daylight Rules of thumb.
For Rodrigo Carazo Arquitectos San Jose, Costa Rica.

Figure 8: Isla Verde Hotel; Atrium Aperture: Faade

recommended ratios. For Rodrigo Carazo Arquitectos San
Jose, Costa Rica.

-3D visualisations have proven a clearer

understanding of the project rather than typical 2D
sections. In fact, identifying the appropriate 3D
section of the space has to be a consistent argument
for any profound environmental analysis. Once
selected overlapping output layers may enhance this
Approach.

Assessments & fundamental design criteria
At the end, recent experience has proven that the
best way to translate final results for an easy
understanding of the multidisciplinary team has to be
given as a set of rules of thumb. A sense of
proportion needs to be graphically explained to
inform design decisions. Thus ratios are worked
again as diagrammatic examples; giving
recommendations and design parameters to
manipulate the buildings envelope, plan, form and
materiality. Into some extend all recommendations
are based on relevant literature, personal experience
and the revision of best possible practice.
6. COMMON RESEARCH TOPICS A
BIOCLIMATIC APPROACH
Each project has its own research agenda but
some topics are consistently present throughout. A
systematic methodology can help to accumulate
precedents and extrapolate findings from a project to
the next one. Merging empirical experience and
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 63


theoretical knowledge is the vehicle to predict
environmental performance of each design with
rigour and precision.
-Ventilation. The first thing to determine when
addressing ventilation is to define its role in the
project. To avoid confusion, ventilation studies are
initially divided in three sections: air quality,
ventilative cooling and comfort cooling. Depending
on the climate and building function, the demand for
each type of ventilation will differ and the design
response will be a compromise among these three
approaches and energy efficiency.
After initial studies, the research can go
deeper on specific agendas. In recent projects, the
existing dichotomy between open and closed spaces
was explored. Strategies for hermetic and
permeable schemes were foreseen under an interior-
exterior function. In these cases, the buildings skin
played a fundamental role to obtaining comfortable
conditions.
-Solar geometry and shading. It has been
noticed that this is a field were designers feel more
comfortable and the interaction with the
environmental advisor is more fruitful. The close
cause-effect relation and the opportunity to
undertake empirical observations facilitate
communication. Solar geometry studies starts
already with the climate analysis, but it is not just
confined to latitude and orientation. The study of the
context is the second step to get finally to the specific
building layout. According to our transnational
experience, architects who work in the tropics are
normally conscious about the importance of solar
control whereas in temperate regions this awareness
is very little. When solar geometry is analyzed from
the outset of the project, it becomes a useful an
inspiring force.
A recent project consisted on a consultancy
for a competition for an office building in Spain. A
different opening configuration was devised for each
faade in order avoid overheating in warm periods
while maximizing solar gains and minimizing heat
losses during the rest of the year. This simple
statement was followed throughout the design
process. The final result was building with a
character on its own which was awarded with the
second prize on that competition.


Figure 9: Campo DaFeira; Solar Geometry & Shading
studies. For Carmen Mazaira Architetcs Partovia, Spain.

-Daylight. It is understood that daylight is one of

the most valuable assets on architectural design. In
this multidisciplinary collaboration framework,
daylight is addressed from two different perspectives;
quantity and quality. Daylight quantity refers to the
minimum levels to carry out the typical tasks within
the space (as diverse as reading, painting, or
walking) comfortably. The aim is to provide enough
natural light for as long as possible without
disturbance from glare or other undesired effects.
The preliminary information for the design team
comes in the form of graphic material showing
effective window to floor ratios, potential window
distribution and window height to depth proportions.
Further analysis will evaluate daylight performance in
proposed spaces and if necessary improvement
proposals are put on the table.
Daylight quality is not about statutory
requirements but space and perception. Studies start
with the setting out of the architectural intentions;
sketching the intended effect with the architects
could do this. In principle, daylight quality is
subjective and unquantifiable. However there are
lessons about materials, proportions and sources of
light that can extract from built precedents. Findings
from built precedents are translated to the current
project by means of computer tools and physical
models which are then exposed to the heliodon.
Hands on methods and the use of tools, which are
closer to the architect, facilitate cooperation.
7. ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN TOOLS:
ANALYTICAL TO VIRTUAL MODELS
Analytic tools have a double function. On
the one hand, they allow systematization of the
calculation and evaluation processes. Complex
analysis can be performed instantaneously and
results are reliable when the inputs are correct. On
the other hand they serve as communication catalyst
between architects and environmental consultants.
Paradoxically, although it seems obvious that an
analytic tool is primarily intended to perform analysis,
the second function outweighs the former in many
cases, mainly in simple projects where past
experience can be extrapolated and simulations and
virtual models are only needed to confirm and
illustrate expected tendencies and patterns.
Only in the most innovative projects there is
some margin for unpredictability. In all the others,
the analysis is orientated towards a clear target, and
the answers to the found are to confirm an initial
hypothesis. Good calibrations as well as a good
understanding of the processes and mathematics
and behind the software are essential to get reliable
and accurate results. Rigour and experience are then
fundamental to interpret and process those results.



Figure 5: Capris Warehouse; Field measurements and
comfort assessments. For FCB architects San Jose, Costa
Rica.

Architectural environmental diagrams are
powerful tools, which generate visualization triggers;
hence a clearly understanding of the spatial notion
phenomenon. In practice it is recommended to
consider diagrams which:
-Identify distinctive architectural characteristic of
the space and are kept as consistent references for
every analysis.
-Correlate environmental data with a sense of
space, temporality and occupational patters.
-Useful diagrams are always synchronized with
basic design guidelines such as rules of thumb.
-It is recommended to define the same graphical
code for all documents. Line types and chromatic
scales are important to present information and
emphasize particular situations.

Figure 6: Capris Warehouse; Project environmental

synthesis. For FCB architects San Jose, Costa Rica.

Figure 7: Isla Verde Hotel; Atrium Daylight Rules of thumb.
For Rodrigo Carazo Arquitectos San Jose, Costa Rica.

Figure 8: Isla Verde Hotel; Atrium Aperture: Faade

recommended ratios. For Rodrigo Carazo Arquitectos San
Jose, Costa Rica.

-3D visualisations have proven a clearer

understanding of the project rather than typical 2D
sections. In fact, identifying the appropriate 3D
section of the space has to be a consistent argument
for any profound environmental analysis. Once
selected overlapping output layers may enhance this
Approach.

Assessments & fundamental design criteria
At the end, recent experience has proven that the
best way to translate final results for an easy
understanding of the multidisciplinary team has to be
given as a set of rules of thumb. A sense of
proportion needs to be graphically explained to
inform design decisions. Thus ratios are worked
again as diagrammatic examples; giving
recommendations and design parameters to
manipulate the buildings envelope, plan, form and
materiality. Into some extend all recommendations
are based on relevant literature, personal experience
and the revision of best possible practice.
6. COMMON RESEARCH TOPICS A
BIOCLIMATIC APPROACH
Each project has its own research agenda but
some topics are consistently present throughout. A
systematic methodology can help to accumulate
precedents and extrapolate findings from a project to
the next one. Merging empirical experience and
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
64 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN




Figure 10: Isla Verde Hotel; Atrium daylight studies per
space. For Rodrigo Carazo Arquitectos San Jose, Costa
Rica.
8. CONCLUSIONS FROM THE PROCESS AND
PRACTICAL OUTCOMES
Specific threats and opportunities have
been identified from the accumulated experience in
different projects and working with different design
teams around the world:
-Technical support in environmental design is
needed from the very early stage of the process. The
most efficient contribution to design development is
given during the design concept stage. In this way,
the project can be fashioned by informed decisions
from the outset. Late additions are costly and difficult
to integrate with the architectural concept.
-Multidisciplinary design is not a linear but an
iterative process. Feedback loops and sequential
stages are needed so as to contrast contributions
from the different areas of expertise. The quality and
robustness of the final design depends on how well
the different inputs have been integrated.
-Communication is the key factor. Lack of
understanding has been clearly identified as the
main barrier between the architect and the
environmental consultant. Complex and prescriptive
pronouncements result opaque and of limited use for
the design team. Rationalization and graphic
processing of parametric analysis facilitates
communication and opens new paths for the
architect to find the optimum solution for each design
decision.
The build environment is an interpretive task
highly influenced by our ability to read spaces.
Environmental data is not by definition the ultimate
performance indicator. Recent experience has
proven that such values are just triggers to develop
communicative skills that can be translated into
representative parts of the project, hence to generate
performative maps ready to evolve according to the
projects necessities.
Finally it is highly recommended for
sustainable environmental consultancies to establish
a cumulative working frame, which builds up the
project in knowledge. It is critical to clarify this with
clients so the appropriate process starts and builds
upon solid basis.
9. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We will like to acknowledge all Saai Associates
and collaborators from around the globe. Especially
to Costa Rica: MA. Juan Carlos Sanabria, Arch.
Esteban Zamora and Arch.Laura Morelli, Thailand:
Ekachai Sophornudornporn. Greece: Mania Abatzi
and Leonidas Beis. China & Australia: Raymond Li.
We will also like to acknowledge ITESM Campus
Leon (Mexico) and Universidad VERITAS (Costa
Rica) for their support along the process.
10. REFERENCES
[1] Baker, N. and Steemers, K. (2000). Energy and
Environment in Architecture. E & FN Spon
Publishers, London.
[2] Yannas, S. (2007) Environmental Design
Support Tools . Lecture at the Environment &
Energy Studies Programme. Architectural
Association Graduate School
[3] Yannas, S. (2007) Myths & Theories of
Sustainable Architecture. Dispelling myths,
assessing theories and practice. Lecture at the
Environment & Energy Studies Programme.
Architectural Association Graduate School.
[4] Boude, K. (2007) Environmental Design working
Models, Case studies 1. Lecture at the
Environment & Energy Studies Programme.
Architectural Association Graduate School
[5] USGBC (2009) Sustainability Facility press
article.
[6] Szokolay, S.(2004) Introduction to Architectural
Science: the basis of sustainable design.
Architectural Press, London
[7] McMullan, R. (2002). Environmental Science in
Building. Palgrave, London.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 65
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
What do young people tell us about sustainable
lifestyles when they design sustainable schools?
Post-Occupancy Evaluation of New Schools with the
Participation of Children
Andrea WHEELER
1
, Dino BOUGHLAGEM
1
, Masoud MALEKZADEH
1

1
Department of Civil and Building Engineering, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, United Kingdom
ABSTRACT: The UK government created a unique educational opportunity with the recent school building
programme. Its aims were described as transforming learning and embedding sustainability into the life
experience of every child. However, how do young people understand these aims, and the concepts of
sustainable lifestyles and sustainable communities, now they have begun to be translated into school design?
This paper reports on the recently suspended programme and discusses the value of Post Occupancy
Evaluation (POE) as a way of capturing successes and failures of what has been implemented so far. POE
provides an opportunity for young people to critically engage with why our energy use and our relationship with
the natural environment has to change. POE can also examine the gap between predicted and actual energy
performance of a building and human behaviour is key in such investigations. The focus on innovative
technologies is in danger of ignoring the human factors involved in reducing our impact on the environment.
Current approaches used in Education for Sustainability can also ignore the complex social aspects of
encouraging sustainable lifestyles. This paper describes an emergent POE approach developed and used to
carried out research with young people in the UK using this method. It examines reoccurring themes across
case studies and describes young peoples experience with contradictory adults behaviours. If we are to meet
the needs of future generations, we will all have to be able to design for ourselves albeit in negotiation with
others environments in which we can live in different ways. Participatory post-occupancy assessments hence
have multiple benefits, whilst for architects, they provide feedback on the performance of buildings; for young
people they are also creative opportunities to begin to explore sustainable development, with all the
philosophical and political complexities this entails, and to begin to rethink and redesign their lifestyles.
Keywords: energy, participation, post-occupancy assessment, children, schools

1. INTRODUCTION
Developing initiatives that allow children to
engage with architects and designers to design their
own schools and to think critically about sustainable
lifestyles, is an educational opportunity that can drive
change in schools: innovative, collaborative and art-
based research activities are ways to explore more
authentic relationships with the environment. Ways
that not only develop an understanding of energy
efficient and sustainable architecture, or how
architects design, but also to develop a critical
relationship with some of the complex global and
ethical issues of sustainability. The potential benefits
for schools are both educational and environmental:
children can discover their own sense of a
relationship to the world and others and at the same
time rethink and rewrite their own lifestyles. The
approach developed within a workshop environment,
which this paper examines, demonstrates the ease
with which children can be inspired to both critical
engagement with the problems of sustainability and
to creative alternative designs of their environments.
This contradicts common knowledge that children
and young people lack motivation or interest in the
problems of sustainable development; and suggests
an approach which may have significant impact in
determining the difference between the predicted
and actual energy performance of buildings
1.1. Building Schools for the Future
Building Schools for the Future (BSF) was
launched in 2004 to rebuild or refurbish every
secondary school in England over a 15-20 years
period. Local authorities would enter into public-
private partnerships, known as Local Education
Partnerships (LEPs), with private sector companies.
Funding for BSF came from PFI and government
funds, and was targeted at local authorities, with the
most deprived schools first, through a standard
formula using GCSE results and free school meal
uptake.
The environmental ambitions of the programme
and its holistic intentions were evident from the
outset [1]. However, in July 2010 it was announced
that the 55 billion 20 year BSF programme was to
be cancelled as part of a series of cuts by the new
coalition government. Only schools that had already
signed contracts would go ahead with their
construction phases. At the point when the
programme was cancelled, 185 schools had received
BSF funding.




Figure 10: Isla Verde Hotel; Atrium daylight studies per
space. For Rodrigo Carazo Arquitectos San Jose, Costa
Rica.
8. CONCLUSIONS FROM THE PROCESS AND
PRACTICAL OUTCOMES
Specific threats and opportunities have
been identified from the accumulated experience in
different projects and working with different design
teams around the world:
-Technical support in environmental design is
needed from the very early stage of the process. The
most efficient contribution to design development is
given during the design concept stage. In this way,
the project can be fashioned by informed decisions
from the outset. Late additions are costly and difficult
to integrate with the architectural concept.
-Multidisciplinary design is not a linear but an
iterative process. Feedback loops and sequential
stages are needed so as to contrast contributions
from the different areas of expertise. The quality and
robustness of the final design depends on how well
the different inputs have been integrated.
-Communication is the key factor. Lack of
understanding has been clearly identified as the
main barrier between the architect and the
environmental consultant. Complex and prescriptive
pronouncements result opaque and of limited use for
the design team. Rationalization and graphic
processing of parametric analysis facilitates
communication and opens new paths for the
architect to find the optimum solution for each design
decision.
The build environment is an interpretive task
highly influenced by our ability to read spaces.
Environmental data is not by definition the ultimate
performance indicator. Recent experience has
proven that such values are just triggers to develop
communicative skills that can be translated into
representative parts of the project, hence to generate
performative maps ready to evolve according to the
projects necessities.
Finally it is highly recommended for
sustainable environmental consultancies to establish
a cumulative working frame, which builds up the
project in knowledge. It is critical to clarify this with
clients so the appropriate process starts and builds
upon solid basis.
9. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We will like to acknowledge all Saai Associates
and collaborators from around the globe. Especially
to Costa Rica: MA. Juan Carlos Sanabria, Arch.
Esteban Zamora and Arch.Laura Morelli, Thailand:
Ekachai Sophornudornporn. Greece: Mania Abatzi
and Leonidas Beis. China & Australia: Raymond Li.
We will also like to acknowledge ITESM Campus
Leon (Mexico) and Universidad VERITAS (Costa
Rica) for their support along the process.
10. REFERENCES
[1] Baker, N. and Steemers, K. (2000). Energy and
Environment in Architecture. E & FN Spon
Publishers, London.
[2] Yannas, S. (2007) Environmental Design
Support Tools . Lecture at the Environment &
Energy Studies Programme. Architectural
Association Graduate School
[3] Yannas, S. (2007) Myths & Theories of
Sustainable Architecture. Dispelling myths,
assessing theories and practice. Lecture at the
Environment & Energy Studies Programme.
Architectural Association Graduate School.
[4] Boude, K. (2007) Environmental Design working
Models, Case studies 1. Lecture at the
Environment & Energy Studies Programme.
Architectural Association Graduate School
[5] USGBC (2009) Sustainability Facility press
article.
[6] Szokolay, S.(2004) Introduction to Architectural
Science: the basis of sustainable design.
Architectural Press, London
[7] McMullan, R. (2002). Environmental Science in
Building. Palgrave, London.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
66 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 3
2.2. The Zero Carbon Schools Taskforce
The Zero Carbon Schools Task Force was
established in early 2008 by the Secretary of State
for Children, Schools and Families, with the remit to
advise on what needs to be done to reach the goal
that all new school buildings will be carbon neutral by
2016. (The work of the group came to an end in
December 2009). For the Zero Carbon Schools Task
Force, the five steps necessary to achieving a zero
or low carbon school also include behavioural
change. Described as the Carbon Hierarchy, these
are: engagement with school communities; reducing
demand (assisted by engagement leading to
behaviour change); driving out waste by better
design (which will need more knowledge and skills in
the design and construction industries);
decarbonising school energy supplies; and
neutralising any residual emissions [6]. The final
report from the group argues that low and zero
carbon will only be achieved if action is taken across
a range of fronts including technical, financial and
social. Whilst the Task Force was reporting during a
period of intensive new building, it did also comment
on the importance of reviewing use and demand in
schools. In a climate governed by cuts in public
funding this becomes even more significant: retrofit
have a far greater impact than new build.
Further recommendations include: that the
Partnership (the delivery body for the Building
Schools for the Future programme) develops a post-
occupancy evaluation (POE) process for all schools
within BSF and a methodology for an in-depth
energy study which is applied annually to a sample
of schools [Recommendation 25]. Other
recommendations include: the gathering and
publication of performance data to monitor progress
[Recommendation 26]; a targeted programme of
energy reducing refurbishment work (linked to
behaviour change) to cut emissions in existing
schools [Recommendation 27]; and education and
engagement initiatives for staff, students and
communities [Recommendations 3, 4, 5] [6].
The group suggest the active engagement of
students and staff, a programme of behavioural
change and a POE process for all new schools. But
the limitation in time and scope of the work of the
taskforce, means that there is no realistic suggestion
on how this can be achieved in practice, or any
mention of the barriers that the context and school
culture can present. The apparently contradictory
directions of behavioural change and technological
innovation influencing policy and individual behaviour
only demonstrates where the complexity lies.
2.3. Predicted and Actual Energy Use in
Buildings
A focus on the technological features in
sustainable schools will not provide the answer to
realising sustainable schools. Energy efficient
building technology and ICT in new schools often
does the opposite of what it should Presence
detection in corridors can force lighting to come on
during the day (children are first to demonstrate
these contradictions to us). Bunn [9] argues for a
sustainable design which is ergonomic and
democratic, design solutions that truly meets users'
needs - not designers beliefs or what teachers ought
to have (whether or not they really want it or need it).
For example, he writes: "Hand-held remotes have
been given to school-appointed eco-warriors to
control lights. Pupil power can be as powerful as
BEMS when it comes to truly intelligent lighting
control" [9]. There is increasing acknowledgment of
the need to provide integrated approaches that
address both technical performance and occupant
behaviour [10]. And like many advocating behaviour
change, Vale and Vale suggest a focus on facilitating
change in occupants lifestyles driven by ethical
principles rather than just changing building design
[11]. For Leaman, Stevenson and Bordass, however,
the future also lies in evidence-based qualitative and
quantitative feedback as a routine part of their
services and responsibilities [12]. Post-occupancy
assessment methods are significant in that they
provide such means to explore both qualitative and
quantitative dimensions, and examine the human
factors including the values of users contributing to
the energy performance of buildings. However, using
POE methods to work with the culture of
organisations and investigate people's values and
beliefs does also raise not just opportunities, but also
methodological issues. POE methodologies can
allow an examination of the physical, technical and
management factors influencing the actual
performance and they can also allow, in principle, an
assessment of attitudes and perceptions determining
the energy performance of buildings, providing the
potential for an integrated approach. Whilst they are
by definition methods that involve users of the school
buildings being assessed, POE is yet to explore the
problems and potential of methods focused on
children within the context of sustainable school
buildings. It is after all, one thing to advocate for the
inclusion of childrens perceptions in POE, but quite
another to develop an approach which is both
suitable and appropriate for their age and
experience, and which allows them to engage
critically with the problems of sustainable design and
lifestyle change.
3. RESEARCHING WITH CHILDREN
Those experienced in working with children
suggest the importance of involving them in design
and the legal imperative [15]. However, working with
children can be a challenging experience for many
and the entry of child actors into what is often
generally understood as adult responsibilities and
influence can be somewhat threatening. Adrian
Leaman even argues that their role in post-
occupancy evaluations can be limited [13]. Moreover,
there is a wealth of literature to suggest that children,
and even teachers, have limited knowledge of
sustainability. Nevertheless, Chernley and Flemming
advocate that involving children in consultations with
architects when the opportunity arises has
significant educational value. Central to their own
research, was the observation that children and
young people can engage with architects and other
building professionals to explore the role of natural
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
2 xx.x SECTION NAME
George Osborne, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, argued that the scrapping of the BSF
programme will help to reduce the cuts that would
have otherwise been necessary to teaching budgets,
Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, commented
that the impact of the Spending Review on schools,
would ensure money was spent more efficiently [2].
Nevertheless, the UK Government still require
buildings to meet carbon emission reduction targets.
Policy imperatives are still driving the need for
accurate and holistic means of evaluating building
performance and there is significant difference
between the predicted and actual performance of the
newly built schools.
This paper argues that it is the school culture,
demonstrated in the relationship between the ethos
of the school and community values that plays the
most pivotal role in determining the factors
contributing to this difference. Working with children
is a way not only to explore this school culture, but
also to transform it. If architects are genuinely to
build sustainable schools (putting aside for a moment
the problem of what this actually means or indeed
how we might measure it), we need integrated
approaches to school design which include attention
to the role school culture plays in determining
behaviours and influencing the actual energy
performance of schools.
2. THE SUSTAINABLE SCHOOL
Today school buildings contribute around 2% of
UK greenhouse gas emissions, roughly the same as
all the energy and transport emissions of
Birmingham and Manchester combined. This is
equivalent to 15% of the country's public sector
emissions [6]. The Sustainable Development
Commission's carbon footprint for the schools estate
has estimated that in England, the sector emits 9.4
million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. Energy
use in school buildings represents 37% of this. The
recent UK Zero Carbon Schools Taskforce, set up to
identify how to create low carbon and energy efficient
schools, has identified many problems with the
design of new sustainable schools. Equally, within
the educational context, the government's aim that
every school would be a sustainable school by
2010 has been described as over ambitious [3]. It
has been argued that whilst the framework for
sustainable schools extends the school's
commitment to include care for people at a distance,
to future generations and to the rest of the living
world, the current drive towards greater
individualism, illustrated through testing and
competition contradicts and erodes this ambition [4].
An integrated approach to Education for
Sustainability in the Sustainable Schools programme
on the other hand, suggests that: thought needs to
be directed to what and how students are taught
(exploring sustainability through the curriculum); how
the school campus is managed and led (through
exemplar buildings and grounds); and how the
school can act as catalyst for change in the wider
community (through engagement with the
community). These educational goals are constantly
being undermined: by new buildings that are often far
from exemplary in terms of their environmental
performance; by parents travelling long distances by
car; and by the schools themselves eroding an
integrated approach by the privatisation of school
catering and avoidance of locally sourced food [4].
There is a real lack of clear thinking about
creating sustainable schools both in terms of
architecture and education. There is also a worrying
decline in attention to educational purpose within the
educational policy context which shows a rise in the
use of spatial language (and an interest in the effect
of environment on learning), and a shift in emphasis
from the activities of the teacher to the activities of
the student. The concepts of environments for
learning or learning spaces are examples [5].
What is evident is lack of clarity in the meaning of
zero-carbon and even sustainability. What does
behavioural change, and a consequent change in
school culture, entail? However, the benefit of using
the adapted POE method we developed is that it
allows us to explore these questions with children
and in so doing examine the performance of the
environment in which this happens. This, we argue,
addresses a significant need in understanding how to
involve children and as a result demonstrates a
demand children were enthusiastic to take on.
2.1. The Value of Post-Occupancy Evaluation
Methods
It is commonly known that discrepancies exist
between predicted/optimised and actual performance
of buildings, resulting in additional redesign and
refurbishment costs. Whilst some of the causes of
the performance shortfalls can be attributed to the
inherent limitations associated with the use of
simulation tools, other causes are related to less
easily determined factors that come into effect during
the construction, operation and influence by users
(including children) of the building. It is evident that
delivering and operating highly efficient buildings is a
process that requires a holistic view of the building
process [7]. Bill Bordass [8] argues that good
building performance in practice requires: a good
client; a good brief; a good team; specialist support;
a good robust design; enough time and money; an
appropriate specification; a good contractor; a well-
built well-controlled building with post-handover
support; and. management vigilance to achieve a
truly energy efficient environment. Within each of
these requirements we could add sustainable.
However, new sustainable schools are uniquely
problematic because, as Bordass states, the fabric
performance is not as good in practice, the building
systems and controls are too complicated; the
response to patterns of use is poor - leading to
avoidable waste; and, importantly policy factors
driven by educational objectives are mandating more
intensive use of energy [8]. The need for a holistic
perspective towards the design of sustainable
schools does seem obvious and engaging people in
the problem could significantly reduce this demand.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 67
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 3
2.2. The Zero Carbon Schools Taskforce
The Zero Carbon Schools Task Force was
established in early 2008 by the Secretary of State
for Children, Schools and Families, with the remit to
advise on what needs to be done to reach the goal
that all new school buildings will be carbon neutral by
2016. (The work of the group came to an end in
December 2009). For the Zero Carbon Schools Task
Force, the five steps necessary to achieving a zero
or low carbon school also include behavioural
change. Described as the Carbon Hierarchy, these
are: engagement with school communities; reducing
demand (assisted by engagement leading to
behaviour change); driving out waste by better
design (which will need more knowledge and skills in
the design and construction industries);
decarbonising school energy supplies; and
neutralising any residual emissions [6]. The final
report from the group argues that low and zero
carbon will only be achieved if action is taken across
a range of fronts including technical, financial and
social. Whilst the Task Force was reporting during a
period of intensive new building, it did also comment
on the importance of reviewing use and demand in
schools. In a climate governed by cuts in public
funding this becomes even more significant: retrofit
have a far greater impact than new build.
Further recommendations include: that the
Partnership (the delivery body for the Building
Schools for the Future programme) develops a post-
occupancy evaluation (POE) process for all schools
within BSF and a methodology for an in-depth
energy study which is applied annually to a sample
of schools [Recommendation 25]. Other
recommendations include: the gathering and
publication of performance data to monitor progress
[Recommendation 26]; a targeted programme of
energy reducing refurbishment work (linked to
behaviour change) to cut emissions in existing
schools [Recommendation 27]; and education and
engagement initiatives for staff, students and
communities [Recommendations 3, 4, 5] [6].
The group suggest the active engagement of
students and staff, a programme of behavioural
change and a POE process for all new schools. But
the limitation in time and scope of the work of the
taskforce, means that there is no realistic suggestion
on how this can be achieved in practice, or any
mention of the barriers that the context and school
culture can present. The apparently contradictory
directions of behavioural change and technological
innovation influencing policy and individual behaviour
only demonstrates where the complexity lies.
2.3. Predicted and Actual Energy Use in
Buildings
A focus on the technological features in
sustainable schools will not provide the answer to
realising sustainable schools. Energy efficient
building technology and ICT in new schools often
does the opposite of what it should Presence
detection in corridors can force lighting to come on
during the day (children are first to demonstrate
these contradictions to us). Bunn [9] argues for a
sustainable design which is ergonomic and
democratic, design solutions that truly meets users'
needs - not designers beliefs or what teachers ought
to have (whether or not they really want it or need it).
For example, he writes: "Hand-held remotes have
been given to school-appointed eco-warriors to
control lights. Pupil power can be as powerful as
BEMS when it comes to truly intelligent lighting
control" [9]. There is increasing acknowledgment of
the need to provide integrated approaches that
address both technical performance and occupant
behaviour [10]. And like many advocating behaviour
change, Vale and Vale suggest a focus on facilitating
change in occupants lifestyles driven by ethical
principles rather than just changing building design
[11]. For Leaman, Stevenson and Bordass, however,
the future also lies in evidence-based qualitative and
quantitative feedback as a routine part of their
services and responsibilities [12]. Post-occupancy
assessment methods are significant in that they
provide such means to explore both qualitative and
quantitative dimensions, and examine the human
factors including the values of users contributing to
the energy performance of buildings. However, using
POE methods to work with the culture of
organisations and investigate people's values and
beliefs does also raise not just opportunities, but also
methodological issues. POE methodologies can
allow an examination of the physical, technical and
management factors influencing the actual
performance and they can also allow, in principle, an
assessment of attitudes and perceptions determining
the energy performance of buildings, providing the
potential for an integrated approach. Whilst they are
by definition methods that involve users of the school
buildings being assessed, POE is yet to explore the
problems and potential of methods focused on
children within the context of sustainable school
buildings. It is after all, one thing to advocate for the
inclusion of childrens perceptions in POE, but quite
another to develop an approach which is both
suitable and appropriate for their age and
experience, and which allows them to engage
critically with the problems of sustainable design and
lifestyle change.
3. RESEARCHING WITH CHILDREN
Those experienced in working with children
suggest the importance of involving them in design
and the legal imperative [15]. However, working with
children can be a challenging experience for many
and the entry of child actors into what is often
generally understood as adult responsibilities and
influence can be somewhat threatening. Adrian
Leaman even argues that their role in post-
occupancy evaluations can be limited [13]. Moreover,
there is a wealth of literature to suggest that children,
and even teachers, have limited knowledge of
sustainability. Nevertheless, Chernley and Flemming
advocate that involving children in consultations with
architects when the opportunity arises has
significant educational value. Central to their own
research, was the observation that children and
young people can engage with architects and other
building professionals to explore the role of natural
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
2 xx.x SECTION NAME
George Osborne, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, argued that the scrapping of the BSF
programme will help to reduce the cuts that would
have otherwise been necessary to teaching budgets,
Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, commented
that the impact of the Spending Review on schools,
would ensure money was spent more efficiently [2].
Nevertheless, the UK Government still require
buildings to meet carbon emission reduction targets.
Policy imperatives are still driving the need for
accurate and holistic means of evaluating building
performance and there is significant difference
between the predicted and actual performance of the
newly built schools.
This paper argues that it is the school culture,
demonstrated in the relationship between the ethos
of the school and community values that plays the
most pivotal role in determining the factors
contributing to this difference. Working with children
is a way not only to explore this school culture, but
also to transform it. If architects are genuinely to
build sustainable schools (putting aside for a moment
the problem of what this actually means or indeed
how we might measure it), we need integrated
approaches to school design which include attention
to the role school culture plays in determining
behaviours and influencing the actual energy
performance of schools.
2. THE SUSTAINABLE SCHOOL
Today school buildings contribute around 2% of
UK greenhouse gas emissions, roughly the same as
all the energy and transport emissions of
Birmingham and Manchester combined. This is
equivalent to 15% of the country's public sector
emissions [6]. The Sustainable Development
Commission's carbon footprint for the schools estate
has estimated that in England, the sector emits 9.4
million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. Energy
use in school buildings represents 37% of this. The
recent UK Zero Carbon Schools Taskforce, set up to
identify how to create low carbon and energy efficient
schools, has identified many problems with the
design of new sustainable schools. Equally, within
the educational context, the government's aim that
every school would be a sustainable school by
2010 has been described as over ambitious [3]. It
has been argued that whilst the framework for
sustainable schools extends the school's
commitment to include care for people at a distance,
to future generations and to the rest of the living
world, the current drive towards greater
individualism, illustrated through testing and
competition contradicts and erodes this ambition [4].
An integrated approach to Education for
Sustainability in the Sustainable Schools programme
on the other hand, suggests that: thought needs to
be directed to what and how students are taught
(exploring sustainability through the curriculum); how
the school campus is managed and led (through
exemplar buildings and grounds); and how the
school can act as catalyst for change in the wider
community (through engagement with the
community). These educational goals are constantly
being undermined: by new buildings that are often far
from exemplary in terms of their environmental
performance; by parents travelling long distances by
car; and by the schools themselves eroding an
integrated approach by the privatisation of school
catering and avoidance of locally sourced food [4].
There is a real lack of clear thinking about
creating sustainable schools both in terms of
architecture and education. There is also a worrying
decline in attention to educational purpose within the
educational policy context which shows a rise in the
use of spatial language (and an interest in the effect
of environment on learning), and a shift in emphasis
from the activities of the teacher to the activities of
the student. The concepts of environments for
learning or learning spaces are examples [5].
What is evident is lack of clarity in the meaning of
zero-carbon and even sustainability. What does
behavioural change, and a consequent change in
school culture, entail? However, the benefit of using
the adapted POE method we developed is that it
allows us to explore these questions with children
and in so doing examine the performance of the
environment in which this happens. This, we argue,
addresses a significant need in understanding how to
involve children and as a result demonstrates a
demand children were enthusiastic to take on.
2.1. The Value of Post-Occupancy Evaluation
Methods
It is commonly known that discrepancies exist
between predicted/optimised and actual performance
of buildings, resulting in additional redesign and
refurbishment costs. Whilst some of the causes of
the performance shortfalls can be attributed to the
inherent limitations associated with the use of
simulation tools, other causes are related to less
easily determined factors that come into effect during
the construction, operation and influence by users
(including children) of the building. It is evident that
delivering and operating highly efficient buildings is a
process that requires a holistic view of the building
process [7]. Bill Bordass [8] argues that good
building performance in practice requires: a good
client; a good brief; a good team; specialist support;
a good robust design; enough time and money; an
appropriate specification; a good contractor; a well-
built well-controlled building with post-handover
support; and. management vigilance to achieve a
truly energy efficient environment. Within each of
these requirements we could add sustainable.
However, new sustainable schools are uniquely
problematic because, as Bordass states, the fabric
performance is not as good in practice, the building
systems and controls are too complicated; the
response to patterns of use is poor - leading to
avoidable waste; and, importantly policy factors
driven by educational objectives are mandating more
intensive use of energy [8]. The need for a holistic
perspective towards the design of sustainable
schools does seem obvious and engaging people in
the problem could significantly reduce this demand.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
68 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
4 xx.x SECTION NAME
daylight, natural ventilation, insulation, reducing
energy demand and renewable energy technology in
sustainable design [14]. Hence, whilst researchers in
Childrens Studies have developed ways of working
with children in the context of designing a
sustainable school [16]. Others have questioned
some of these approaches and researchers potential
complicity in a simply political agenda: young people,
are eager to absorb other peoples preoccupations
and prejudices; and (in a criticism of activities to use
children as motivators of change) are not there to
cure parents bad habits [17]. Involving children as
researchers in projects towards school change does,
nevertheless, appear already to have a proven
transformative potential [18, 19]. Frost argues that in
pursuing an educational assessment, through what
she calls an emergent collaborative action research
methodology, knowledge generated was less partial,
more contextualised and hence more valuable [20].
3.1. The Method
Based on a review of existing methods for POE
research, and from those suggesting researching
with children or co-research (and other broadly
action research based methods) the authors devised
an adapted POE method for schools. POE methods
are fundamentally multi-modal and approaches
may include a single or a number of different ways to
collect data, such as: pre-visit questionnaires;
gathering technical data to establish construction,
systems, etc.; semi-structured interviews with key
stakeholders (client, designer, contractor, occupant,
manager); field observations during walk-through
visits; predicted and actual resource cost information;
physical monitoring where necessary, including
thermal imaging. One of these methods is free open
questioning bringing out hidden factors and tacit
knowledge not revealed by structured
questionnaires, important we felt for our own
research [10]. However, this raises some difficulties
when working with children. Childrens studies
researchers have, for example, challenged the use of
focus groups as inappropriate [21]. Those working
with children tend to use more art-based methods
[22]. Nevertheless, Watson and Thomson describe a
participatory walk-through method which we felt
could be appropriately adapted (with the addition of a
video camera) to allow for open discussion and
creatively engage children [23]. The use of open
discussions, walk-throughs and art based methods
adopted, formed the basis of our emergent
participatory post-occupancy assessment
methodology. The walk-through interview provided a
spatial agenda and a performance opportunity to
respond to a chance to make a documentary with
the video. This strongly contextualised the research
results. Open discussion was also opportunity for
storytelling and for critical engagement with some of
the design problems in building sustainable schools.
A final design task was added to give children a
chance to reflect on the research exercise and to do
being an architect. Conversations during activities,
whether walk-throughs or during the drawing/design
task were recorded, and selected dialogues
transcribed. Analysis took the form of a fairly simple
content analysis but the use of broadly action based
research methods meant that the transformative
aspect of the research project also played an
important role in motivating engagement.
Hence, our method consisted of the use of video
making to facilitate the deeply context based
discussion, the capture of these conversations which
formed the basis of our analysis, and final drawings
which produced by children, supported the findings.
We discovered that childrens story-telling was also
often used as a way of explaining others energy
behaviours or to convince others about a new
knowledge or a new concept. Narratives attempted
to describe complex issues and often persuade
others. Hence, we also attached particular
importance to stories told by the children about their
new school environment and energy behaviours.
This was seen as a first crucial step in providing
ways to productively engage with the issues and
concerns of sustainability.
Our nascent approach to post-occupancy
assessment research is being developed to provide
an integrated understanding of energy use in
buildings. The dialogue of children and other users of
the building provide essential clues to the factors
contributing to the difference between the actual and
predicted performance of new buildings. However,
the methods we are developing also offer the
potential for much more than this, they are
opportunities: to explore childrens relationship with
their environment and to transform this relationship;
and to provide the foundation for an integrated
approach to building a sustainable school.
Feedback methods are by their very nature ways
to continuously learn about the performance of
buildings and to understand peoples behaviours
within to those buildings. Adapted feedback methods
also provide ways to begin to change those
behaviours.
3.2. Results
In all the case study schools children expressed
some criticism of circulation routes and crowding.
They had significant problems with the lunchtime
experience, (many of the schools had been designed
for different sittings to reduce the space needed in
dining halls and yet the school programme had
changed post-occupancy to allow for only one).
Problems of littering also forced students to stay in
crowded eating areas inside and not take lunch to
the playing field or any other areas of the building.
Children did not use the showers provided in the
changing room (this was communicated as problems
with privacy and time). Some of the toilets in all case
studies were locked to prevent vandalism (some of
the children reported that they never used the toilets
in school time). Lights were left switched on at night
time when the school was unoccupied and those in
classrooms were used when deemed unnecessary
by the children. Corridors and stairs were also
observed to have artificial lights unnecessarily
switched on during daylight hours. Computers and
whiteboards were left on stand-by as a school rule.
Many of the windows were being locked shut making
opening them for natural ventilation difficult for
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 69
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 5
teachers and often prohibited for students. Automatic
controls were commonly either not working or used
incorrectly. Questioned on comfort one year 8 pupil-
participant stated: In my Maths class Mr Smith
[name changed] normally leaves the windows wide
open and its really cold all the time [but] I'm quite
warm on the left. That's because of the radiators...
He puts the radiators on then has the window open.
The PFI arrangement was also observed to have a
significant impact on the culture of the schools
depending, to a greater or lesser extent, on the
nature of the school leadership and relationship with
the management company. In a discussion about the
prohibition over drawings being stuck to the walls,
which was described by pupils as a rule of the
building management company, one Year 9 (13 year
old) said: Its like living in a council house where you
cant do anything to it. Other stories that emerged
from children focused on a convoluted system in
place to maintain the building, the office to
telephone was perceived as a great distance away
Liverpool, Manchester, Cornwall and Scotland: The
changing rooms smell a lot because the drains get
blocked and if something happens it means you have
to ring up Liverpool to put it on the caretakers list that
the drains need fixing because thats where
Headquarters are (Year 11 participant). Even the
control of the temperature of the building in one
instance was understood as dependent on the
weather in Manchester, the reason why it was
particularly unresponsive to the actual temperature
outside. Hence, rules and regulations about the
school environment were determined not only by
teachers but by the higher authority of the building
owners and care eroded to an enforced
responsibility for the others property.
The school rules and regulations were a constant
source of stories, but there was a tendency in the
case study schools visited for schools to impose
what was seen by the children as irrational rules and
regulations and which were in fact adopted to restrict
charges imposed for additional cleaning or repair, by
closing the toilets, for example. Restricting the
playground and other spaces during lunch and break
times, was seen as stupid by children.
Nevertheless, childrens own initiatives were also
often frustrated by others: ...there are these
recycling bins that after a year and a half we finally
got in the school but there isnt really enough of them
round the school for people to know that they are
there and use them (Year 11 participant).
3.3. Discussion
With the new wave of school building and with an
ongoing need to retrofit old buildings, children will
grow up within architectural environments which pay
significant attention to the idea of reducing energy
consumption. Whilst many of the more hidden
energy efficient design strategies architects use often
go unnoticed in schools by children and adults alike,
children are, nevertheless, quick to point out many of
the more obviously wasteful energy behaviours
happening in otherwise energy efficient schools:
They are telling us to be energy efficient but... They
stand there in science and say you need to save
energy and then I say well turn your lights off... they
are always banging on about it. They are always
telling us to save energy but why not them (Year 9
participant). Asking children why adults are like this,
is often met with idea of habit or set ways. When
asked if we should care more about the energy the
school uses and be less wasteful, one participant
states: I think we should but we have gotten used to
everything and don't want to go back to basics (Year
7 pupil). However, just by the nature of their new
environments, different ideas towards energy
efficiency will emerge and it is important that schools
act to reinforce emerging lifestyles, and be more
critical of adults old ways. Whilst an increased
motivation to care for a building and its environment
could be seen as a positive contribution to a
sustainable school and an element of a more
sustainable lifestyle, it is important to note that where
this is driven by rules and by penalties imposed on
school budgets; and perceived as prohibiting the
proper use of the building by children; it prevents
children establishing their own authentic
relationship to the environment and thereby a deep
or lasting critical perspective on the problems of
sustainable development.
Involving children in POE provides architects
with: highly contextualised information about how a
school is used; information about how to improve the
quality of childrens experience in school, both social
and educational; information about how the school
community is contributing to the energy performance
of the school; and detailed and highly context
dependent information about the factors contributing
to the difference between predicted and actual
energy performance. Adapted POE methods can
also provide opportunities (and for some schools and
some children these many be the only opportunities)
to explore and reformulate the values and norms
impacting on energy behaviours. The future potential
this offers is significant. As the Zero Carbon
Taskforce for Schools have recognised, it is only with
a combined effort of design and behaviour that low
carbon schools can be achieved.
4. CONCLUSION
This paper argued that integrative approaches to
the design of the built environment, whether new
build, retrofit or maintenance, is essential if we are to
genuinely approach the problem of building low
carbon schools. Effective education for sustainability
has to be participatory, inclusive and grounded in
non-prescriptive, culturally sensitive and context
dependent understandings of sustainability.
Innovative POE methods are one such way to
include children and school communities in shaping
their environments and changing lifestyles. This
research is part of an ongoing project and further
case study workshops are planned. We will be
returning to case study schools to explore and
monitor potential changes in attitudes and
behaviours as improvement take effect.


.
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
4 xx.x SECTION NAME
daylight, natural ventilation, insulation, reducing
energy demand and renewable energy technology in
sustainable design [14]. Hence, whilst researchers in
Childrens Studies have developed ways of working
with children in the context of designing a
sustainable school [16]. Others have questioned
some of these approaches and researchers potential
complicity in a simply political agenda: young people,
are eager to absorb other peoples preoccupations
and prejudices; and (in a criticism of activities to use
children as motivators of change) are not there to
cure parents bad habits [17]. Involving children as
researchers in projects towards school change does,
nevertheless, appear already to have a proven
transformative potential [18, 19]. Frost argues that in
pursuing an educational assessment, through what
she calls an emergent collaborative action research
methodology, knowledge generated was less partial,
more contextualised and hence more valuable [20].
3.1. The Method
Based on a review of existing methods for POE
research, and from those suggesting researching
with children or co-research (and other broadly
action research based methods) the authors devised
an adapted POE method for schools. POE methods
are fundamentally multi-modal and approaches
may include a single or a number of different ways to
collect data, such as: pre-visit questionnaires;
gathering technical data to establish construction,
systems, etc.; semi-structured interviews with key
stakeholders (client, designer, contractor, occupant,
manager); field observations during walk-through
visits; predicted and actual resource cost information;
physical monitoring where necessary, including
thermal imaging. One of these methods is free open
questioning bringing out hidden factors and tacit
knowledge not revealed by structured
questionnaires, important we felt for our own
research [10]. However, this raises some difficulties
when working with children. Childrens studies
researchers have, for example, challenged the use of
focus groups as inappropriate [21]. Those working
with children tend to use more art-based methods
[22]. Nevertheless, Watson and Thomson describe a
participatory walk-through method which we felt
could be appropriately adapted (with the addition of a
video camera) to allow for open discussion and
creatively engage children [23]. The use of open
discussions, walk-throughs and art based methods
adopted, formed the basis of our emergent
participatory post-occupancy assessment
methodology. The walk-through interview provided a
spatial agenda and a performance opportunity to
respond to a chance to make a documentary with
the video. This strongly contextualised the research
results. Open discussion was also opportunity for
storytelling and for critical engagement with some of
the design problems in building sustainable schools.
A final design task was added to give children a
chance to reflect on the research exercise and to do
being an architect. Conversations during activities,
whether walk-throughs or during the drawing/design
task were recorded, and selected dialogues
transcribed. Analysis took the form of a fairly simple
content analysis but the use of broadly action based
research methods meant that the transformative
aspect of the research project also played an
important role in motivating engagement.
Hence, our method consisted of the use of video
making to facilitate the deeply context based
discussion, the capture of these conversations which
formed the basis of our analysis, and final drawings
which produced by children, supported the findings.
We discovered that childrens story-telling was also
often used as a way of explaining others energy
behaviours or to convince others about a new
knowledge or a new concept. Narratives attempted
to describe complex issues and often persuade
others. Hence, we also attached particular
importance to stories told by the children about their
new school environment and energy behaviours.
This was seen as a first crucial step in providing
ways to productively engage with the issues and
concerns of sustainability.
Our nascent approach to post-occupancy
assessment research is being developed to provide
an integrated understanding of energy use in
buildings. The dialogue of children and other users of
the building provide essential clues to the factors
contributing to the difference between the actual and
predicted performance of new buildings. However,
the methods we are developing also offer the
potential for much more than this, they are
opportunities: to explore childrens relationship with
their environment and to transform this relationship;
and to provide the foundation for an integrated
approach to building a sustainable school.
Feedback methods are by their very nature ways
to continuously learn about the performance of
buildings and to understand peoples behaviours
within to those buildings. Adapted feedback methods
also provide ways to begin to change those
behaviours.
3.2. Results
In all the case study schools children expressed
some criticism of circulation routes and crowding.
They had significant problems with the lunchtime
experience, (many of the schools had been designed
for different sittings to reduce the space needed in
dining halls and yet the school programme had
changed post-occupancy to allow for only one).
Problems of littering also forced students to stay in
crowded eating areas inside and not take lunch to
the playing field or any other areas of the building.
Children did not use the showers provided in the
changing room (this was communicated as problems
with privacy and time). Some of the toilets in all case
studies were locked to prevent vandalism (some of
the children reported that they never used the toilets
in school time). Lights were left switched on at night
time when the school was unoccupied and those in
classrooms were used when deemed unnecessary
by the children. Corridors and stairs were also
observed to have artificial lights unnecessarily
switched on during daylight hours. Computers and
whiteboards were left on stand-by as a school rule.
Many of the windows were being locked shut making
opening them for natural ventilation difficult for
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
70 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
6 xx.x SECTION NAME
5. REFERENCES
[1] Blair, T. (2004), PM Speech on Climate Change
14th September 2004.
[2] Vaughan, R. (2010), Osborne blueprint sees
schools sigh with relief. TES, 22 October.
[3] Scott, W. (2009), Critiquing the Idea of a
Sustainable School as a model and catalyst for
change. Transforming Our Schools [Lecture
series]. The University of Nottingham.
[4] Huckle, J. (2010), Sustainable schools:
Teaching beyond sustainable consumption.
[Online] School Design Futures: Seminar 2, 27th
- 28th April 2010 2010, UKERC The Meeting
Place, Available at: <
http://www.ukerc.ac.uk/support/tiki-
index.php?page=1004_MP_SchoolDesignFuture
s > [Accessed 14 November 2010].
[5] Biesta, G. (2009), Creating spaces for learning
or making room for education? Transforming
Our Schools [Lecture series]. The University of
Nottingham.
[6] DCSF, (2009), The Road to Zero Carbon. The
Final Report of the Zero Carbon Schools
Taskforce. Available online at:
http://publications.education.gov.uk
[7] Bordass, W. (2009), Passivhaus schools: The
route to low-energy schools in the UK? [Lecture]
RIBA, London, 11 December. Presentation
slides available online at: <
http://www.usablebuildings.co.uk/Pages/UBEven
ts.html> [Accessed 14 November ]
[8] Bordass, W., Leaman, A. & Ruyssevelt, P.,
(2001), Assessing building performance in use
5. Building Research & Information, 29 (2), 144-
157.
[9] Bunn, R. (2009), Sustainable Schools: Defining
the Issues, [Lecture] RIBA, London, 11
December. Available online at: <
http://www.usablebuildings.co.uk/Pages/UBEven
ts.html > [Accessed 14 November 2010].
[10] Stevenson, F. (2008), Post-occupancy
evaluation of housing. Power Point presentation
available online at:
www.usablebuildings.co.uk/Pages/UBEvents.ht
ml < > [14 November 2010].
[11] Vale, B and Vale, R. (2010), Domestic energy
use, lifestyles and POE: past lessons for current
problems, Building Research & Information, 38:
5, 578 588
[12] Leaman, A , Stevenson, F. and Bordass, B.
(2010), Building evaluation: practice and
principles, Building Research & Information, 38:
5, 564 57
[13] Leaman, A. (2008), Unpublished interview by
author.
[14] Chernley, F., & Flemming, P., (2010), Engaging
Pupils in the Design of Low Energy Building.
CIBSE, 15
[15] United Nations, (1989), Convention on the
Rights of the Child. Geneva, UN
[16] Barratt-Hacking, E. (2009), Listening to Children:
developing the sustainable school.,
Transforming Our Schools. [Lecture series]. The
University of Nottingham. Available online at:
<http://uilapech01.nottingham.ac.uk:8080/ess/ec
ho/presentation/c6b73ad5-ac51-4765-8035-
256063d8132c/media.mp3> [Accessed 14
November 2010].
[17] Scott, W. (2010), The Sustainable School:
examining assumptions about young people's
motivations, interests and knowledge. School
Design Futures. Seminar 2, 27 - 28th April 2010
[Video]. Available online at:
<http://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/ouce/ukerc/lect
ures/william-scott-UKERC-medium-video.mp4>
[Accessed November 14 2010]
[18] Fielding, M, & Bragg, S. (2003), Students as
Researchers: Making a Difference. Cambridge,
Pearson Publishing.
[19] Somekh, B. (2004), Inhabiting each others
castles: towards knowledge and mutual growth
through collaboration. Educational Action
Research, 2 (3), 357 - 381.
[20] Frost, R. (2009), The HCD Student Partnership:
Learning from Young Leaders of Research. In
Fielder, J. & Posch, C. (eds.), Yes they can!
Children Researching their Lives. Germany,
Verlag.
[21] Vogel, S. (2009), Focus groups with Children
In Fielder, J. & Posch, C. (eds.), Yes they can!
Children Researching their Lives. Germany,
Verlag.
[22] Hall, C. Jones, K, & Thomson, P. (2011),
Snapshots, illustrations and portraits: re-
presenting research findings. In: Thomson, P. &
Sefton-Green, J. (eds.) Researching Creative
Learning: Methods and issues. London,
Routledge.
[23] Watson, C. & Thomson, K. (2005), Bringing
Post-Occupancy Evaluation to Schools in
Scotland. Evaluating Quality in Educational
Facilities. OECD Available online at:
http://www.oecd.org
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 71
1
Academic Advocacy: teaching outside the academy
Alison KWOK
1
, Walter GRONDZIK
2
, Bruce HAGLUND
3
1
University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA
2
Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA,
3
University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA
ABSTRACT: The transformation of our built environment to a low-energy, low-carbon-emissions future will rely
on skilled teachers and professionals steeped in the knowledge of passive systems, building performance, and
renewable technologies that can shape a beautiful and sustainable architecture of the future.
For more than a decade the authors have collaborated to develop and conduct building performance workshops
for a variety of audiences beyond the boundaries of their individual academic institutions. The motivation for
conducting these workshops has been to transform the practice of architecture from the bottom up by training
professors, practitioners, and graduate students (future professors and practitioners) to teach and design with
building performance in mind. This paper describes the several types of workshops offered and provides a
retrospective analysis of their effectiveness through anecdote, attendee evaluations, and workshop outcomes.
The primary teaching workshops presented include the Agents of Change project workshops, which aimed to
instruct teachers and their graduate assistants in hands-on methods of building performance evaluation and
curriculum enhancement with a focus on performance issues; Tool Days, which engage various building sector
professionals in hands-on building performance evaluation methodologies facilitated by graduate assistants who
are refining their professional and teaching skills; and Zero Net Energy design charettes conducted with mainly
professional audiences in architecture and engineering to enhance their understanding of the role of design in
reducing building energy use, thus making zero net energy buildings possible. These workshops have been
given to a wide variety of audiences in domestic and international venues. All of the workshops have produced
tangible results and have been evaluated by the participants, but until now no comparative or holistic evaluation
has been done. This paper offers analysis of the workshops and speculates on the way forward.
Keywords: energy, carbon, comfort, building performance, pedagogy
1. INTRODUCTION
Todays students are the decision makers of the
future. Beginning with the Vital Signs Curriculum
Materials project [1] in 1992, the authors have
adopted a charge to arm teachers and future
practitioners of architecture with skills, tools, and
experiences to document successful (and less than
successful) stories of the built environment [2]. These
early efforts spawned three trajectories that are
reported in this paper. One effort, the Agents of
Change project, expanded upon the Vital Signs
Project by training faculty, and their teaching
assistants (future architectural educators and critical
practitioners), to assess building performance
through on-site investigations. The Tool Day concept
was formulated in a brainstorming session following
an early Agents of Change workshop. While Agents
of Change workshops focused on post-secondary
architectural education, Tool Days were offered to a
wide audience of design professionals (architects,
engineers, building owners, consultants) and
capitalized on the fun and intensity of learning from
hands-on evaluations of exceptional buildings. Since
2001, Tool Days have been held annually in
conjunction with the ASES solar conference and in
other diverse locations, including Japan, Korea,
Hong Kong, and the U.K. In addition to the
practitioners being targeted by Tool Days, educators
were encouraged to participate and experienced
teaching assistants were recruited to serve as
facilitators for the investigating teams. The third area
of education in the community includes a series of
Zero Net Energy Design charettes launched in 2008
and presented by the authors with various
colleagues to an audience of practitioners who deal
with the built environment. These were developed
and offered with the goals of addressing the targets
of the Architecture 2030 Challenge [3] and the
imminent need to design and build zero-energy,
zero-carbon buildings.

2. AGENTS OF CHANGE
2.1. Workshop intent
The Agents of Change (AoC) project expanded
the approach of the Vital Signs efforts by training
teams of faculty and their teaching assistants from
various schools to assess building performance
through on-site investigations. The Agents of Change
project was funded from 2000-2005 by the U.S.
Department of Education Fund for the Improvement
of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) to better
prepare students as future teachers, architects, and
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
6 xx.x SECTION NAME
5. REFERENCES
[1] Blair, T. (2004), PM Speech on Climate Change
14th September 2004.
[2] Vaughan, R. (2010), Osborne blueprint sees
schools sigh with relief. TES, 22 October.
[3] Scott, W. (2009), Critiquing the Idea of a
Sustainable School as a model and catalyst for
change. Transforming Our Schools [Lecture
series]. The University of Nottingham.
[4] Huckle, J. (2010), Sustainable schools:
Teaching beyond sustainable consumption.
[Online] School Design Futures: Seminar 2, 27th
- 28th April 2010 2010, UKERC The Meeting
Place, Available at: <
http://www.ukerc.ac.uk/support/tiki-
index.php?page=1004_MP_SchoolDesignFuture
s > [Accessed 14 November 2010].
[5] Biesta, G. (2009), Creating spaces for learning
or making room for education? Transforming
Our Schools [Lecture series]. The University of
Nottingham.
[6] DCSF, (2009), The Road to Zero Carbon. The
Final Report of the Zero Carbon Schools
Taskforce. Available online at:
http://publications.education.gov.uk
[7] Bordass, W. (2009), Passivhaus schools: The
route to low-energy schools in the UK? [Lecture]
RIBA, London, 11 December. Presentation
slides available online at: <
http://www.usablebuildings.co.uk/Pages/UBEven
ts.html> [Accessed 14 November ]
[8] Bordass, W., Leaman, A. & Ruyssevelt, P.,
(2001), Assessing building performance in use
5. Building Research & Information, 29 (2), 144-
157.
[9] Bunn, R. (2009), Sustainable Schools: Defining
the Issues, [Lecture] RIBA, London, 11
December. Available online at: <
http://www.usablebuildings.co.uk/Pages/UBEven
ts.html > [Accessed 14 November 2010].
[10] Stevenson, F. (2008), Post-occupancy
evaluation of housing. Power Point presentation
available online at:
www.usablebuildings.co.uk/Pages/UBEvents.ht
ml < > [14 November 2010].
[11] Vale, B and Vale, R. (2010), Domestic energy
use, lifestyles and POE: past lessons for current
problems, Building Research & Information, 38:
5, 578 588
[12] Leaman, A , Stevenson, F. and Bordass, B.
(2010), Building evaluation: practice and
principles, Building Research & Information, 38:
5, 564 57
[13] Leaman, A. (2008), Unpublished interview by
author.
[14] Chernley, F., & Flemming, P., (2010), Engaging
Pupils in the Design of Low Energy Building.
CIBSE, 15
[15] United Nations, (1989), Convention on the
Rights of the Child. Geneva, UN
[16] Barratt-Hacking, E. (2009), Listening to Children:
developing the sustainable school.,
Transforming Our Schools. [Lecture series]. The
University of Nottingham. Available online at:
<http://uilapech01.nottingham.ac.uk:8080/ess/ec
ho/presentation/c6b73ad5-ac51-4765-8035-
256063d8132c/media.mp3> [Accessed 14
November 2010].
[17] Scott, W. (2010), The Sustainable School:
examining assumptions about young people's
motivations, interests and knowledge. School
Design Futures. Seminar 2, 27 - 28th April 2010
[Video]. Available online at:
<http://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/ouce/ukerc/lect
ures/william-scott-UKERC-medium-video.mp4>
[Accessed November 14 2010]
[18] Fielding, M, & Bragg, S. (2003), Students as
Researchers: Making a Difference. Cambridge,
Pearson Publishing.
[19] Somekh, B. (2004), Inhabiting each others
castles: towards knowledge and mutual growth
through collaboration. Educational Action
Research, 2 (3), 357 - 381.
[20] Frost, R. (2009), The HCD Student Partnership:
Learning from Young Leaders of Research. In
Fielder, J. & Posch, C. (eds.), Yes they can!
Children Researching their Lives. Germany,
Verlag.
[21] Vogel, S. (2009), Focus groups with Children
In Fielder, J. & Posch, C. (eds.), Yes they can!
Children Researching their Lives. Germany,
Verlag.
[22] Hall, C. Jones, K, & Thomson, P. (2011),
Snapshots, illustrations and portraits: re-
presenting research findings. In: Thomson, P. &
Sefton-Green, J. (eds.) Researching Creative
Learning: Methods and issues. London,
Routledge.
[23] Watson, C. & Thomson, K. (2005), Bringing
Post-Occupancy Evaluation to Schools in
Scotland. Evaluating Quality in Educational
Facilities. OECD Available online at:
http://www.oecd.org
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
72 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
stewards of the built environment. Over five years
and two consecutive grants, the project conducted
seven training sessions, and directly impacted more
than 170 faculty and teaching assistants from more
than 50 architecture programs. Participants were
introduced to the skills and equipment needed to
conduct investigations of actual buildings, carry out
post-occupancy surveys, and develop curricular
materials to implement in coursework at their home
institutions. AoC generated a library of exemplar
case studies [8] still shared on the Internet. The
project also surveyed over 1,000 architecture
students to ascertain changes in their attitudes,
perceptions, and knowledge resulting from the AoC
curricular infusion. Agents of Change has increased
the pool of qualified architectural technologists and
motivated graduate students to enter the teaching
ranks; helping further the goal of training future
generations of designers to create buildings that
provide for human health and well-being while using
energy responsibly [4, 5, 6, 7].
2.2. Berkeley, California
The initial AoC workshop, held at the University
of California Art Museum in Berkeley, was a two-day
event that set the format for the six workshops that
followed (as summarized in Table 1). An over-
whelming success, it involved graduate students and
their professors, invited from nearby universities,
using the Art Museum as inspiration and training
ground for teaching and learning the nuances of a
buildings environmental performance. This
workshop was conducted as a proof-of-concept
exercise to the funders (U.S. Department of
Education), which fortunately did prove the case.
2.3 Ensuing AoC workshops
In response to the trial run at Berkeley, the
workshop format was expanded to three days to
ensure adequate time for training, exploration, and
reflection on workshop methodologies. The AoC
imperative was to introduce methods of investigation
that could be integrated into curricula in many
universities in a range of formats. Curricular building
studies could be as short as the AoC workshops
themselves or as long as a full university quarter or
semester.
Table 1: Agents of Change Workshops
Month Year Location
Nov 2000 Berkeley, CA
Jan 2001 Milwaukee, WI
Jan 2003 Portland, OR
Aug 2003 Oberlin, OH
Jan 2004 Phoenix, AZ
Oct 2004 Falmouth, MA
Aug 2005 New Smyrna Beach, FL
Extensive information on the Agents of Change
workshops, artefacts, and case studies can be found
on the Agents of Change web site [8].

2.4 Agents of Change reflections

Do we know more about buildings than we did
ten years ago? Yes and no. In the last ten years, the
US Green Building Council launched the LEED rating
systems and put in place requirements for
commissioning. We are moving closer and closer to
long term commissioning as a way of ensuring high
performing systems. Agents of Change continues to
provide a path for students (and faculty) to go into
actual buildings, carry out an in-depth investigation
on a topic of interest, and embed results into their
long-term memory. The authors have found that
students have better comprehension of the concepts
and principles explored during their case studies
than they did on quizzes and exams. In fact, this
long-term memory boost has proven applicable to
studio situations, where certain concepts and
strategies are actively referred to in studio projects.
A number of graduate students trained at one or
more of the training workshops have entered
academia as facultya direct indicator of success.
One participating junior faculty expressly benefitted
from the curricular experiencevia an expanded
network of contacts and by sharing teaching stories.
There continues to be a need for training outside
of the academy, not simply because of an infusion of
new low-cost equipment (e.g. micro-dataloggers,
infrared cameras, light meters) but in terms of setting
up the investigation, stating a hypothesis, and
developing an appropriate methodology for problem
solving. Whether finding the amount of moisture in a
wall, infiltration rates, lighting levels, or occupant
comfort, methodologies need to be carefully
structured and tailored to each specific situation.
3. TOOL DAYS
Tool Days offer the experiences of the Agents of
Change (AoC) workshops, condensed to a single-
day event tailored for practitioners to allow them to
learn selected building performance investigation
methods quickly and efficiently. We found this
intense experience, conducted in an interesting
building, to be very effective in inspiring learning and
accomplishment because of the real-time, onsite
learning [9, 10, 11]. See presentations from various
Tool Day teams that are archived on the Tool Day
web site [12].
3.1. Washington, DC
The long-running series of annual SBSE/ASES
Tool Days began at the National Building Museum
on April 22, 2001. The event was organized by the
authors under the auspices of the AoC project,
National Building Museum (NBM), and Society of
Building Science Educators (SBSE) and held in
conjunction with the American Solar Energy
Societys (ASES) Annual Solar Conference. Five
investigating teams of five to six participants were led
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EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 73
3
by faculty/student duos. The teams were largely
composed of students and faculty with one or two
practitioners. The days activities began with a tour of
the museum led by Martin Moeller, NBM Executive
Vice President, and an introduction to the hand-held
instruments and methods of investigation to be used
later in the day. During a working lunch each team
formed a hypothesis and methodology to guide their
afternoons investigation of the building. Late in the
afternoon each team had the opportunity to present
its results to the whole group.
The workshop was enthusiastically received. The
teams conducted their investigations while the
museum was open to the public, adding a bit of
theatre to the day, exemplified by the team that used
a dozen helium balloons to raise a string of HOBO
data loggers to the ceiling of the museums great
atrium (to the great delight of children). This success
inspired us to continue to offer annual Tool Days in
buildings of interest to integrated professional and
academic audiences in cities across the country over
the following decade as summarized in Table 2 and
detailed at reference 12.
Table 2: SBSE/ASES Tool Days
Year Subject Building Attendance
2001 National Building Museum,
Washington, DC
29
2002 Patagonia Service Center,
Reno, Nevada
22
2003 UT Solar Decathlon House,
Austin, Texas
40
2004 The Brewery Blocks,
Portland, Oregon
35
2005 Florida Solar Energy Center,
Cocoa, Florida
19
2006 REI Store,
Denver, Colorado
32
2007 Cleveland Environmental
Center, Cleveland, Ohio
18
2008 UCSD SAS Facility, San
Diego, California
19
2009 Market Arcade,
Buffalo, New York
14
2010 Cronkite School of
Journalism, Phoenix,
Arizona
19
In 2005 after four successful SBSE-sponsored
events, we offered Tool Day as an official ASES
workshop in an attempt to attract more non-
academic participants. The overall number of
attendees decreased, but a more diverse audience
participated. We continued to thrust graduate
teaching assistants from schools of architecture into
the role of workshop facilitator to help them gain
teaching experience and accelerate their learning
through greater responsibility for the hands-on
teaching/learning situation.
3.2. Tool Day reflections
We have conducted participant evaluations of the
Tool Days in order to determine their effectiveness. A
sample of 41 attendees at the San Diego, Cleveland,
Buffalo, and Denver Tool Days revealed that all rated
the hands-on experience as either very or
moderately effective. A vast majority (78%) reported
that they felt capable of passing on their knowledge
of tools and methods to others49% in their
practice, 37% to train others, 29% to their students,
24% to effect change in architectural or engineering
education, and 20% for their personal use. Such
evaluation feedback imparts confidence that our goal
of improving both teaching and practice is being
effectively addressed by Tool Day workshops.
4. ZERO NET ENERGY CHARETTES
4.1. Portland, Oregon
The first zero net energy charette conducted by
this group was held in Portland, Oregon on March
21, 2009 [13]. The charette was underwritten by the
Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliances BetterBricks
program, Northwest Natural Gas, and the Van Evera
Bailey-Oregon Community Foundation Faculty Award
via the University of Oregon Department of
Architecture. Twenty-five architects and twenty-five
engineers from professional firms in Portland were
invited to participate, allowing the formation of inter-
disciplinary teams (much as would occur in an
integrated design project setting).
Several collaborating facilitators were actively
involved along with the authors: Nicholas Rajkovich
(Pacific Gas and Electric) and Michael Utzinger
(University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) provided work-
shop content and charette structure and Bruce
Dobbs (Northwest Natural) assisted with attendee
and site coordination.
This first zero net energy charette began with a
series of short presentations intended to provide an
introduction to zero net energy buildings and their
design. This introduction was followed by a
description of the projectan 1860 m
2
(20,000 ft
2
)
urban office building for a design firm. Attendees
were assigned to teams (around five per team) and
each team was assigned a climate (Atlanta, Georgia;
Los Angeles, California; Minneapolis, Minnesota;
New York, New York; and Portland, Oregon).
Individual team members were asked to assume the
roles of owner and facility manger; architect and
structural engineer; mechanical, electrical, and
energy engineer; civil engineer and landscape
architect; and contractor and subcontractor.
Following the workshop introductions, the
program transitioned into a working charette session
that culminated in the presentation of a design
proposal by each team. The facilitators served as
resource personnel for the teams as they developed
their respective design solutions. Discussion of the
design implications of a zero net energy performance
target was an integral part of the presentation
process.
The fundamental difference between this design
situation and a conventional (moderate energy
PLEA 2011 - 27
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74 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
performance) design situation was the expected
outcomea zero net energy building. To accomplish
this objective the design teams had to balance
annual energy consumption (as a result of heating,
cooling, lighting, and plug loads) with annual on-site
energy production (almost universally from a PV
array). Load reductions translated to smaller PV
arrays. Increased PV size allowed less aggressive
load reduction. The design teams were responsible
for both building energy consumption and production.
Numerous solutions were presented, but none were
conventional. Getting to zero net energy in this
size/type project proved to be possible, but not easy.
4.2. San Francisco, California
The second zero net energy design charette was
held in San Francisco, California, on April 29, 2009 in
conjunction with the national AIA Convention.
Offering this charette as a continuing education
workshop via the American Institute of Architects
changed the attendee dynamics. The workshop was
attended almost exclusively by architects, reducing
the interdisciplinary character experienced in the
Portland workshop.
In addition to the authors, facilitators for the San
Francisco program included Nicholas Rajkovich,
Muscoe Martin (practitioner from Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania), and Bill Burke and Anna LaRue (both
with the Pacific Energy Center). The charette was
held at the Pacific Energy Center, which eased
logistics and provided access to useful resources
(including the Internet).
The structure of this workshop was very similar to
that of the Portland workshop. Teams were formed
and climates assigned. Discussion was an integral
part of the team presentations that concluded the
chartette.
The results of the Portland and San Francisco
charettes are published in reference 5. Subsequent
to these workshops, University of Oregon
architecture students analysed the results with
Design Builder software [14]. The students found that
the designs didnt meet the zero net energy goal, but
were all between EPA Target Finders 50% and 90%
energy reduction goals [15]. As an example, the
target and modelled energy utilization indices (EUI)
for the four Portland, Oregon designs are shown in
Figure 1. Remember that the designs were
accomplished in a few hours without the aid of
modelling tools to test assumptions and tweak
enclosure and environmental systems. These are
good preliminary outcomes.
4.3. Miami Beach, Florida
The groups third zero net energy charette was
held in Miami Beach, Florida on June 9, 2010. This
charette was a follow-up to the workshop held in San
Francisco and was also conducted as a continuing
education offering under the auspices of the AIA
Convention. Attendee demographics were similar to
those of the previous AIA workshop and the structure
was similaralthough a discussion of plug loads was
added to the introductory presentations.
Anna Maria Orru (practitioner from the
UK/Sweden) and Margot McDonald (Cal Poly San
Luis Obispo) joined as facilitators. Alison Kwok and
Nicholas Rajkovich were unable to participate. As
with the previous two charettes, this workshop was
sold out (although attendance in each charette was
limited to fifty due to the hands-on nature of the
effort).

Figure 1: EUIs for schematic designs for Portland,

Oregon, compared to EPA Target Finder Goals for energy
reduction [13, 15].
4.4. Charette reflections
The zero net energy charettes are intense. They
focus on performance outcome paradigms that are
new to most participants. Because of the limited time
available, the performance of team solutions is not
verified by computer simulations. Design decisions
must be made by informed intuition and the
proposed solutions are evaluated by the collective
experience of the facilitators. Although somewhat
disconcerting to some participants, this mode of
decision making and reflection is not unreasonable
and mirrors what might be done in many firms not yet
engaged in an integrated design practice.
Passive solutions are of particular value in a zero
net energy projectas they displace purchased
(non-renewable) or expensive site-produced energy,
which is essentially the name of the game.
Daylighting plays a particularly important role in the
passive systems line-up. Success or failure in
rationally reaching zero net energy status lies in the
first 30-minutes or so of this design charette as the
building massing and orientation are established.
This is not the norm for a design process that
depends upon technological solutions appended
during design development.
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EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 75
5
In general, participant evaluations for the three
charettes have been quite good. A fair degree of
frustration with the scope and novelty of the problem,
however, can be read between the lines of the
feedback. Upon reflection these concerns are likely
inevitable with a time-constrained, complex, novel
design problem. Although a two-day workshop
format would ease time concerns and provide more
opportunities for reflection, such a time commitment
is not very palatable to professionals or compatible
with the venues used to date. Use of computer
simulations would likely assuage doubt about the
accuracy of energy performance results, but there is
no software program that could be taught and run in
the time frame available. We believe that the intent of
the charettes has been accomplishednamely
providing designers with a window to an emerging
new world of design expectations and the confidence
to not shy away from the view.
All of the authors have offered zero net energy
courses in their home university settings. Results
from these semester-long offerings (both studio and
elective seminar formats) mirror those seen in the
professional workshops. Additionally, the workshop
was given to a group of 20 students and
professionals in Quito, Ecuador (using Quito and
Portland climates) with equal acclaim and similar
results. The topic and presentation format are quite
robust, appealing to a diverse worldwide audience.
5. CONCLUSIONS
Agents of Change demonstrated that a lot can be
learned from focused investigations of occupied
buildings. Simple instrumentation can yield valuable
insights into building performance. Development of a
hypothesis to guide investigations is important. A
hypothesis limits random wanderings and musings
which is in fact good as an investigation develops.
Probably half of the hypotheses developed by case
study teams have been incorrectproven false by
the teams own investigation. This is both great
(learning is occurring) and important to note (the
hypotheses are often an extension of intuition about
how things work, and intuition is quite often proven
wrong).
Tool Days, as an ongoing series of Agents of
Change studies, present essentially the same
findings. Using real occupied buildings as
laboratories for understanding building performance
is a brilliant ideathank you Vital Signs.
As the newcomer to our array of advocacy
offerings, the lessons from the Zero Net Energy
workshops are still being digested. What we have
seen so far is that without need of radically different
tools or skills designers can develop high
performance buildings; a fair amount of
encouragement is necessary to convince many
designers of their capability to engage zero net
energy; we need better schematic design phase
energy modelling tools; aspects of building
performance (such as plug loads) that have
historically been beyond the scope of design cannot
be ignored by the design team.
The arc of our advocacy has responded to the
realization that the climate change scenario
demands an ever more immediate response. Initially,
Vital Signs (our roots) focused on training those who
were already teaching to understand the nuances of
building performance and to pass this understanding
on to their students who would influence practice
years down the road. Agents of Change expanded
the breadth of the Vital Signs effort to include both
current and future teachers (and future practitioners)
so that more future educators and practitioners
would be advocating a greener future. Tool Days
allowed us to reach out to those already practicing,
while also engaging future teachers and practitioners
in the learning process. Finally, the Zero Net Energy
design charettes were aimed directly at those
empowered to make changes happen in practice.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We acknowledge the enthusiasm and support of
the many organizations, a legion of colleagues, and
thousands of people who have funded, facilitated,
and participated in the delivery of these extra-
curricular academic services from Agents of Change
to Tool Days to Zero Net Energy. You know who you
are and we thank you profoundly!
7. REFERENCES
[1] The Vital Signs project www site:
http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/vitalsigns/.
[2] Grondzik, W., B. Haglund, and A. Kwok, From
Vital Signs to Practice: A Technology Transfer
Case Study, Proceedings Building Envelopes
IX Conference, Clearwater Beach, FL 2004.
[3] The Architecture 2030 www site:
http://www.architecture2030.org/.
[4] Kwok, A., W. Grondzik, B. Haglund, and T.
Peters, The Agents of Change Project:
Changing Perceptions of Building Performance,
Proceedings of 28th National Passive Solar
Conference, 2003.
[5] Kwok, A., W. Grondzik, and B. Haglund,
Infusing POE into Architectural Education,
Proceedings Closing the Loop Conference,
Great Windsor Park, UK, 2004.
[6] Kwok, A., et al, The Agents of Change Project:
The Power of Peer-to-Peer Teaching,
Proceedings ASES National Solar Conference,
Portland, OR, 2004.
[7] Kwok, A. and N. Rajkovich, Agents of Change:
Training Future Teachers, Architects, and
Stewards of the Built Environment, in Case
Studies Starter Kit, AIA/ACSA Teachers Institute
at Cranbrook, July 10, 2004.
[8] The Agents of Change project www site:
http://aoc.uoregon.edu/.
[9] Haglund, B. and D. Wilson, Workplace
Performance Monitoring: Analysing the
Combination of Physiological and Environmental
Sensory Inputs, Proceedings IEE Wearable
Computing Conference, 2003.
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76 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
Is Solar Design a Straitjacket for Architecture?
Tiffany OTIS
1
1
Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
ABSTRACT: This paper seeks to investigate whether the precision of design tools used to meet solar
requirements, in particular those related to the heating potential of sunlight, act as a straitjacket on architectural
form. In order to determine this, two groups of students were asked to design massing models satisfying a set of
physical and solar criteria, for one particular site. The first, Group A, had no recourse to solar design tools, while
the second, Group B, were trained to use the site specific solar design tools that were developed in this paper.
These comprise of a diagram showing the intensity of solar radiation incident on vertical surfaces facing all 360
degrees on a site and interactive images showing the amount of time different parts of a model are in shade.
The models from both groups were evaluated based on their adherence to solar criteria and geometrical
diversity. Group B models showed a lower proportion of solar design deficiencies compared to Group A models,
while also demonstrating more geometrical creativity. The fact that the Group B models did not converge onto
an optimal solution, they were more diverse than the Group A models, shows that the use of more precise solar
design tools actually helps to broaden the range of architectural form.
Keywords: solar, constraints, massing, design, tools.
1. INTRODUCTION
This paper explores the question of whether the
precision of the solar design tools used by architects
at the building massing stage significantly constrains
the range of forms available to the designer, or if
they in fact may broaden architectural expression
through the relative ease with which they allow for
experimentation and rapid validation of uncommon
geometries.
When considering sunlight and architecture, the
implications are vast, however, this investigation
limits its scope to the heating potential of sunlight as
it relates to architecture. In order to evaluate how
solar design tools may affect form, an experiment is
conducted wherein architecture students are each
asked to create a massing model for a particular site.
The model has a set of geometric and solar
requirements and the students are divided into two
groups: the first, Group A, which must design using
their personal knowledge of solar strategies, and the
second, Group B, who are provided with two solar
design tools and taught how to use them in order to
create a massing model. The models were then
evaluated for adherence to solar criteria and
geometric diversity. The presence (or absence) of
formal variation in the Group B design models
compared to Group A models will show whether or
not additional precision in solar design can act as a
straitjacket on basic architectural massing.
2. TOOLS PROVIDED FOR GROUP B
2.1. Polar Radiation Diagram
The polar radiation diagram (Fig.1) provides
information regarding the particular solar conditions
found on a site. It takes into account the effects of
local cloud cover, surrounding buildings and
landscape features on the intensity of solar radiation
and attempts to illustrate, in one image, the variation
of this contextual radiation over the course of the
year. The form of the diagram is inspired by Olgyay's
axial charts [1] which plot radiation in a circular
manner, while the data synthesizes ideas of
regionalism, as propounded by Frampton [2] and
time as explored by Kleindienst, Bodart and
Andersen in their temporal maps [3].
The values shown on a polar radiation diagram
are the sum of the direct, diffuse and reflected
components of the sun at a particular site. The
diagram shows the intensity of solar radiation
incident on vertical surfaces facing all 360 degrees
(like a wind rose), which is more relevant for early
building massing and orientation than a single
horizontal value.
Figure 1: Polar radiation diagram recorded at 3m, overlaid
on its corresponding site. Inner ring=winter, centre
ring=spring/fall, outer ring=summer, dotted line=
3000Wh/m
2
/day reference value
The average seasonal daily radiation values
(winter, summer and shoulder) calculated at fifteen
degree intervals are obtained through a Daysim [4]
simulation, and plotted on a circular diagram overlaid
on a plan of the building site. The points are joined
through a curve, and each season is thus
represented by a circular shape. The magnitude of
[10] Haglund, B., The Workplace Performance
ProjectsA Case Study in Research
Collaboration, Proceedings ARCC/EAAE
Research Conference, Dublin, IE, 2004.
[11] Haglund, B., W. Grondzik, and A. Kwok, Tool
Days: Translating Architectural Education
Research into Practice, Proceedings
ARCC/EAAE Research Conference, Dublin, IE.
2004.
[12] The Tool Day www site:
http://www.sbse.org/toolday/.
[13] Kwok, A., Zero Net Energy Workshop and
Design Charrette, Lulu Enterprises, Inc.
http://www.lulu.com/product/file-download/zero-
net-energy-workshop-and-design-
charrette/5093775.
[14] DesignBuilder www site:
http://www.designbuilder.co.uk/.
[15] U.S. EPA Energy Star Target Finder www site:
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=new_bld
g_design.bus_target_finder.

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th
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EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 77
Is Solar Design a Straitjacket for Architecture?
Tiffany OTIS
1
1
Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
ABSTRACT: This paper seeks to investigate whether the precision of design tools used to meet solar
requirements, in particular those related to the heating potential of sunlight, act as a straitjacket on architectural
form. In order to determine this, two groups of students were asked to design massing models satisfying a set of
physical and solar criteria, for one particular site. The first, Group A, had no recourse to solar design tools, while
the second, Group B, were trained to use the site specific solar design tools that were developed in this paper.
These comprise of a diagram showing the intensity of solar radiation incident on vertical surfaces facing all 360
degrees on a site and interactive images showing the amount of time different parts of a model are in shade.
The models from both groups were evaluated based on their adherence to solar criteria and geometrical
diversity. Group B models showed a lower proportion of solar design deficiencies compared to Group A models,
while also demonstrating more geometrical creativity. The fact that the Group B models did not converge onto
an optimal solution, they were more diverse than the Group A models, shows that the use of more precise solar
design tools actually helps to broaden the range of architectural form.
Keywords: solar, constraints, massing, design, tools.
1. INTRODUCTION
This paper explores the question of whether the
precision of the solar design tools used by architects
at the building massing stage significantly constrains
the range of forms available to the designer, or if
they in fact may broaden architectural expression
through the relative ease with which they allow for
experimentation and rapid validation of uncommon
geometries.
When considering sunlight and architecture, the
implications are vast, however, this investigation
limits its scope to the heating potential of sunlight as
it relates to architecture. In order to evaluate how
solar design tools may affect form, an experiment is
conducted wherein architecture students are each
asked to create a massing model for a particular site.
The model has a set of geometric and solar
requirements and the students are divided into two
groups: the first, Group A, which must design using
their personal knowledge of solar strategies, and the
second, Group B, who are provided with two solar
design tools and taught how to use them in order to
create a massing model. The models were then
evaluated for adherence to solar criteria and
geometric diversity. The presence (or absence) of
formal variation in the Group B design models
compared to Group A models will show whether or
not additional precision in solar design can act as a
straitjacket on basic architectural massing.
2. TOOLS PROVIDED FOR GROUP B
2.1. Polar Radiation Diagram
The polar radiation diagram (Fig.1) provides
information regarding the particular solar conditions
found on a site. It takes into account the effects of
local cloud cover, surrounding buildings and
landscape features on the intensity of solar radiation
and attempts to illustrate, in one image, the variation
of this contextual radiation over the course of the
year. The form of the diagram is inspired by Olgyay's
axial charts [1] which plot radiation in a circular
manner, while the data synthesizes ideas of
regionalism, as propounded by Frampton [2] and
time as explored by Kleindienst, Bodart and
Andersen in their temporal maps [3].
The values shown on a polar radiation diagram
are the sum of the direct, diffuse and reflected
components of the sun at a particular site. The
diagram shows the intensity of solar radiation
incident on vertical surfaces facing all 360 degrees
(like a wind rose), which is more relevant for early
building massing and orientation than a single
horizontal value.
Figure 1: Polar radiation diagram recorded at 3m, overlaid
on its corresponding site. Inner ring=winter, centre
ring=spring/fall, outer ring=summer, dotted line=
3000Wh/m
2
/day reference value
The average seasonal daily radiation values
(winter, summer and shoulder) calculated at fifteen
degree intervals are obtained through a Daysim [4]
simulation, and plotted on a circular diagram overlaid
on a plan of the building site. The points are joined
through a curve, and each season is thus
represented by a circular shape. The magnitude of
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
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78 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
the daily radiation falling on a surface facing a
particular direction is represented by the distance
from the point on the curve that intersects the normal
of this direction to the centre point of the diagram.
Effects of surrounding buildings on a building site
and ideas about optimal orientations for different
seasons can be gleaned quickly from this diagram.
2.2. Ecotect Shadow Range Images
The built in shadow range module in Ecotect [5]
produces hourly shadow images (Fig.2) which are
rich in information for designers. On these images,
each hour that a surface is in shade is represented
by one tone of grey. Thus, the depth of the shade of
grey on a given area represents the fraction of time
that this area is in shade. From a solar perspective, if
the goal is to avoid solar radiation on a buildings
facade, then any white or light grey surfaces signal
problem areas. (Note that amount of shade is not to
be confused with amount of solar radiation; although
two equally coloured surfaces receive the same
amount of hours of direct light, they do not
necessarily receive the same amount of solar
radiation.)
With these images, the general massing of a
building as well as the sizing of architectural
elements can be tested rapidly to determine if they
are too large, too small, oriented in the wrong way,
and so forth, and then adjusted by eye until the
desired effect is reached.
Figure 2: An Ecotect shadow range image for June 21st
3. THE DESIGN EXPERIMENT
3.1. Massing Model Guidelines
Guidelines for the massing models to be created
by the two groups are: a volume of approximately 75
000m
3
, within a maximum buildable envelope of 30m
x 77m x 64m, meaning that the building volume will
end up filling approximately 50% of the buildable
envelope. Additionally, an exterior space or courtyard
of at least 200m
2
is required. The building's shape
must contribute to fulfil the following solar
requirements: maximize the amount of sunlight
incident on facades and the designated exterior
space during the winter, while minimizing the amount
of sunlight incident on facades and the designated
exterior space during the summer.
3.2. Methodology
Students having completed or who are currently
in the process of completing a masters of
architecture degree were each asked to build a
massing model on a particular site according to the
guidelines outlined above. Group A, the control
group, were asked to complete the massing model
using only a stereographic diagram and their own
knowledge of best solar design practice. This group
represents the typical solar designer. Group B, the
experimental group, received brief training in order to
be able to complete their massing models using the
polar radiation diagram and Ecotect shadow range
analysis images. (In brief, this involves sketching
initial ideas on the polar radiation diagram, building a
rough 3D model based on these ideas and
evaluating performance vis--vis the design goals
using Ecotect shadow range images, and modifying
the model as much as necessary until results are
judged satisfactory.) In order to keep designs on an
equal footing, all participants were asked to complete
their models within half an hour.
3.3. Hypothesis
It is expected that the models produced by the
Group A will be similar in their formal strategies
whereas Group B will exhibit a broad array of
arrangements and approaches. The reasoning is that
the design tools will provide Group B participants
with feedback rendering them more confident in the
performance of their models and thus comfortable
with straying from the 'tried and true' south facing
courtyard form.
3.4. Evaluation Method
Before being evaluated, each submitted model is
checked for meeting volume and other basic criteria.
Then, evaluation proceeds on two faces: the
evaluation of solar performance with respect to the
guidelines (maximize solar radiation in winter and
minimize solar radiation in the summer on both
facades and the designated outdoor space) and the
evaluation of geometric diversity (facade orientation,
orthogonality and courtyard orientation) between
Groups A and B.
4. RESULTS
4.1. Solar Performance Evaluation
Ecotect shadow range images spanning from
7:00 to 19:00 with one shadow cast every hour are
taken of the primary solar facades (east, south, west)
and of the designated outdoor space on December
21st and June 21st. They are used to visually
evaluate the solar performance of the massing model
submissions based on the four performance criteria
listed in the guidelines: maximization of sun on
facades in winter, maximization of sun on an exterior
space in winter, minimization of sun on facades in
summer, and minimization of sun on an exterior
space in summer. Each model is given a score of -1,
0 or +1 to describe their performance in each
category. In the two winter categories, where the
length of day is just under 9 hours, a score of -1
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EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 79
(unsatisfactory) is given for a predominance of 6-9
hours of shade, 0 (successful) for 3-5 hours of shade
and +1 (superior) 0-2 hours of shade. While in the
summer categories, with a day length of just under
16 hours, a score of -1 is given for a predominance
of 0-3 hours of shade, 0 for 4-7 hours of shade and
+1 for 8 or more hours of shade.
The scores from the model performance analysis
were tallied and are reported for Group A models
(Fig.3) and for Group B models (Fig.4). Compared to
Group A models, Group B models have both a lower
proportion of unsatisfactory designs (3.6% vs. 20%)
and a higher proportion of superior performance
(32% vs. 20%).
Figure 3: Group A performance graph
Figure 4: Group B performance graph
4.2. Geometry Analysis
The orientation of model facades in terms of two
default categories was quantified: facades parallel
to site boundaries and facades facing south/north.
(Note that on this site, street orientation does not
correspond to north/south orientation). In these
measurements, one unit of facade corresponds to
one length of the site. Thus, a model whose four
sides are parallel to the site boundaries receives a
count of four. Facade orientation in Group A models
(Fig.5) is spread, but there is a strong preference for
building parallel to the site boundaries. The opposite
is true for Group B, where there are no models with a
4.0 designation (Fig.6).
Figure 5: Group A facade orientation
Figure 6: Group B facade orientation
Next, models were analyzed visually and their
relative orthogonality graphed. Models which, in
plan view, possessed no right angles received the
designation none. Those which were formed
exclusively of right angles received the designation
all. The models which fell in between these two
groups were categorized as having either few
(under 50%) or many (over 50%) orthogonal faces.
Group A models (Fig.7) show a strong tendency
towards orthogonality, while Group B models (Fig.8)
are less conventional.
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80 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
orientations converging onto one or several key
orientations with the Group A orientations being
more disperse throughout the range. Since this is not
the case, it is clear that there are a variety of ways to
design for the sun on a specific site. Hence, given
the proper design tools, solar design is not a
straitjacket for architecture.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you to all of the students who participated
in the model building exercise and to Christoph
Reinhart for his support and guidance throughout.
7. REFERENCES
[1] Olgyay, V. (1973). Design with Climate:
Bioclimatic Approach to Architectural
Regionalism. Princeton: Princeton University
Press.
[2] Frampton, K. (1987). Ten Points on an
Architecture of Regionalism: A Provisional
Polemic. In: Architectural Regionalism: Collected
Writings on Place, Identity, Modernity and
Tradition. New York: Princeton Architectural
Press.
[3] Kleindienst, S. Bodart, M. & Andersen, M.
(2008). Graphical representation of climate-
based daylight performance to support
architectural design. Leukos. 5 (1) p.39-61.
[4] Graduate School of Design, Institute for
Research in Construction and Fraunhofer
Institute for Solar Energy Systems (2010).
Daysim 3.0 (beta). [WEB]
[5] Autodesk (2009). Ecotect Analysis 2010. [WEB]
Autodesk Inc.
Figure 7: Group A orthogonality
Figure 8: Group B orthogonality
Model facades are further analyzed in terms of
their specific orientation. The area of facade area
facing in any given direction is tallied and presented
as a percentage of the total facade area of the
models in the group. By expressing results as a
percentage, differences in total surface area between
groups A and B do not affect the results. Group A
(Fig.9) and Group B models (Fig.10) both favour
orientations which are parallel to the street. The
orientation of Mode B models is, however, more
spread out over the range.
Figure 9: Group A angular facade orientation
Figure 10: Group B angular facade orientation
The range of orientations from which each
exterior space or courtyard could receive sunlight
was measured. This information was tabulated along
with courtyard performance and whether the space
was open to the elements or sheltered by an
overhang. Both Group A and Group B results show
the same preference for openings ranging from
south-east to south-west.
5. CONCLUSION
Do solar design tools, in their ability to allow
architects to be rather sophisticated in regard to
massing buildings for sunlight, in fact significantly
limit the geometric diversity of the architecture that
can be produced on any one site?
The results show Group B models outperforming
Group A models on all counts. The solar
performance of Group B models is superior to Group
A models on all points in an evaluation of four solar
design criteria, showing that the tools are in fact
effective. Group B models are also more creative
from a geometrical perspective. They orient
themselves in a variety of ways in order to optimize
solar control and rarely accept the default parallel to
road condition that was most often adopted by
Group A models. The more unconventional
geometries of Group B models (not parallel to road /
not facing north or south) are also due to the fact that
the design sequence, especially the Ecotect shadow
range images, allows one to confirm with great
speed whether or not an unconventional move
works.
With such large discrepancies between Group A
and B models, in both geometry and performance, it
can be concluded that a blind eye approach to
sunlight design, using general rules of thumb without
any recourse to visualizations, is limiting in terms of
the array of forms that the architect feels comfortable
using, while the instantaneous and highly visual
approach of Group B, which provides site and model
specific feedback, results in not only better overall
performance, but in the tendency to experiment with
form. Most important is the fact that the facade
orientations of Group B models are actually more
diverse than Group A models. If there were an
optimal solution for this exercise, one would expect
the exact opposite result: with the Group B
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EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 81
orientations converging onto one or several key
orientations with the Group A orientations being
more disperse throughout the range. Since this is not
the case, it is clear that there are a variety of ways to
design for the sun on a specific site. Hence, given
the proper design tools, solar design is not a
straitjacket for architecture.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you to all of the students who participated
in the model building exercise and to Christoph
Reinhart for his support and guidance throughout.
7. REFERENCES
[1] Olgyay, V. (1973). Design with Climate:
Bioclimatic Approach to Architectural
Regionalism. Princeton: Princeton University
Press.
[2] Frampton, K. (1987). Ten Points on an
Architecture of Regionalism: A Provisional
Polemic. In: Architectural Regionalism: Collected
Writings on Place, Identity, Modernity and
Tradition. New York: Princeton Architectural
Press.
[3] Kleindienst, S. Bodart, M. & Andersen, M.
(2008). Graphical representation of climate-
based daylight performance to support
architectural design. Leukos. 5 (1) p.39-61.
[4] Graduate School of Design, Institute for
Research in Construction and Fraunhofer
Institute for Solar Energy Systems (2010).
Daysim 3.0 (beta). [WEB]
[5] Autodesk (2009). Ecotect Analysis 2010. [WEB]
Autodesk Inc.
Figure 7: Group A orthogonality
Figure 8: Group B orthogonality
Model facades are further analyzed in terms of
their specific orientation. The area of facade area
facing in any given direction is tallied and presented
as a percentage of the total facade area of the
models in the group. By expressing results as a
percentage, differences in total surface area between
groups A and B do not affect the results. Group A
(Fig.9) and Group B models (Fig.10) both favour
orientations which are parallel to the street. The
orientation of Mode B models is, however, more
spread out over the range.
Figure 9: Group A angular facade orientation
Figure 10: Group B angular facade orientation
The range of orientations from which each
exterior space or courtyard could receive sunlight
was measured. This information was tabulated along
with courtyard performance and whether the space
was open to the elements or sheltered by an
overhang. Both Group A and Group B results show
the same preference for openings ranging from
south-east to south-west.
5. CONCLUSION
Do solar design tools, in their ability to allow
architects to be rather sophisticated in regard to
massing buildings for sunlight, in fact significantly
limit the geometric diversity of the architecture that
can be produced on any one site?
The results show Group B models outperforming
Group A models on all counts. The solar
performance of Group B models is superior to Group
A models on all points in an evaluation of four solar
design criteria, showing that the tools are in fact
effective. Group B models are also more creative
from a geometrical perspective. They orient
themselves in a variety of ways in order to optimize
solar control and rarely accept the default parallel to
road condition that was most often adopted by
Group A models. The more unconventional
geometries of Group B models (not parallel to road /
not facing north or south) are also due to the fact that
the design sequence, especially the Ecotect shadow
range images, allows one to confirm with great
speed whether or not an unconventional move
works.
With such large discrepancies between Group A
and B models, in both geometry and performance, it
can be concluded that a blind eye approach to
sunlight design, using general rules of thumb without
any recourse to visualizations, is limiting in terms of
the array of forms that the architect feels comfortable
using, while the instantaneous and highly visual
approach of Group B, which provides site and model
specific feedback, results in not only better overall
performance, but in the tendency to experiment with
form. Most important is the fact that the facade
orientations of Group B models are actually more
diverse than Group A models. If there were an
optimal solution for this exercise, one would expect
the exact opposite result: with the Group B
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 83


Designing for Sustainability: Pedagogical
Challenges and Opportunities
ANDREW GIBSON
1
, SERGIO ALTOMONTE
1
, PETER RUTHERFORD
1
1
Department of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
ABSTRACT: Sustainability has belatedly become a seemingly ubiquitous presence within formal educational
institutions. The scale of the threat to life systems of the Earth, international directives concerning the pursuit of
sustainable development, and growing professional imperatives, have all contributed to this state of affairs.
Furthermore, it is widely recognised that educators, practitioners and students within the built environment play a
key role in engaging with the sustainability agenda. However, the concept is inherently imprecise and largely
defies consensus beyond a relatively shallow one. It seems clear that any ambition to promote a really deep
engagement with questions of designing for sustainability is confronted by appreciable and multi-layered
pedagogical challenges. Educators need to understand the complexities of student motivation and negotiate with
its multiple dimensions. Logistical factors and attitudinal approaches equally impact upon effective teaching and
learning of sustainability. At the broader curriculum level, it is frequently argued that educating, and indeed
designing, for sustainability, is best tackled and understood within a more fully integrated, multi/inter/trans-
disciplinary framework. This paper will consider developments in this area looking at the challenges and
potentially rich opportunities for pedagogical development in order to better face the challenge of designing for
sustainability. This serves as a framework for the research carried out during the initial stages of a PhD project.
Keywords: sustainability, pedagogy, interdisciplinarity, design, built environment
1. INTRODUCTION
Education in architecture can be ascribed a
vanguard role in promoting sustainable development;
for example, in helping to develop the skills and
attitudes necessary to engage with its environmental,
economic and social dimensions [1].
Moreover, architecture professionals, educators
and students are surely compelled to confront how
best to respond to the challenge brought by climate
change and resource depletion. Recent drivers for
change at national level in the United Kingdom
include the Government Sustainable Development
strategy (2005), with its stated aim of producing
sustainability literate professional graduates, and the
earlier ARB/RIBA Criteria for Validation (2002) which
laid particular stress upon the goal of an integrated,
studio-led understanding of environmental
sustainability [2].
However, such necessary attempts to promote
deep, critical engagement with environmentally
responsible architecture and, indeed, to integrate
sustainability issues within architectural curricula,
meet with a raft of pedagogical challenges. For
example, there is a long recognised split in
architectural education between the technical and
theoretical domain and the creative practice of the
design studio [3]. Educationalists and architects are
increasingly considering if the size and nature of this
physical and cultural gap requires a pedagogical
overhaul, not just in terms of tools and strategies but
in methodology and models of curricular structure [4,
5]. It is also being increasingly recognised that
engaging with the complexities and multiple
dimensions of sustainability invites, and arguably
demands, that teaching and learning take place
beyond, and overtly transcends traditional,
disciplinary silos. However, any serious attempt to
embed sustainable principles and practices into an
architectural education must also address the impact
of ethos and motivation; this involves questions of
how and why students learn.
Designing a curriculum for sustainability therefore
faces stiff challenges; but simultaneously it can be
argued there are rich pedagogical opportunities that
are informing practice and stimulating further
research and collaboration between educators
involved in schools of architecture. In positing the
title designing for sustainability there are many
possible conceptions and interpretations of the
terms, which at times may lead to misunderstanding.
This paper will suggest that designing for
sustainability can legitimately focus upon
pedagogies that seek to more effectively engage with
sustainability issues and principles and integrate
these into architecture curricula.
2. DESIGNING FOR SUSTAINABILITY
The act of designing can be ascribed a broad
remit, in part justified by the complex and multi-
faceted nature of the central concept and driver: the
sustainability context expands the boundary of what
design is, what it does and who is involved [6].
The design project is here considered as being
located within Higher Education Institutions and all
parties involved in critically examining and reflecting
upon educating for sustainability: indeed, all
occupations engaged in converting actual to
preferred situations [may be said to be] concerned
with design [7].
The substance of such conversion in this regard
is inevitably a matter of profound controversy and
beyond the ambitions of this paper. However, it will
be concerned with pedagogies and curriculum
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84 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN


initiatives which aim to better integrate sustainability,
facilitate critical thinking and foster creativity in
integrated environmental design teaching [8].
It is also clear that designing for sustainability will
need to make connections, understand processes
and pool skills and expertise which cut across what
have sometimes been considered rather sacred
disciplinary boundaries. In this sense, design is an
act of synthesis to be informed and shaped by
multi/inter/trans-disciplinary research.
3. SUSTAINABILITY AS A PROBLEMATIC
CONCEPT
Before discussing multi/inter/trans-disciplinary
possibilities, it is worth unpicking the central,
problematic concept.
It is generally agreed that sustainability within
architectural curricula must confront social and
economic, as well as environmental dimensions.
However, sustainability remains a slippery, imprecise
concept and should, indeed, be immediately
recognised as a social construct [9].
The inherent lack of conceptual clarity raises
concerns and can lend itself to a shallow consensus
regarding the potentially prescriptive aims of
educating for sustainability [10]. It may also be felt
that there is a level of contradiction between the wide
scope for interpretation and the project to develop a
sustainability literacy which is strongly promoted by
educationalists and echoed by increasing numbers of
employers and practitioners [11, 12]; after all, we
generally think of literacy as developing a facility with
a common language which, whilst fluid, is
nevertheless grounded in particular rules and codes.
Equally concerning is the very word
sustainability, which conveys an impression of
continuously carrying on; this, in itself, obscures the
qualitative dimension of that which is to be sustained,
or the extent to which it is to be gauged by such
equally subjective measures as justice, and equity.
Nevertheless, the various associated ambiguities
and inconsistencies need not be solely considered
as a source of weakness, and several educators
have identified in sustainability a singular opportunity
to analyse and negotiate competing knowledge
claims, from different academic disciplines, and
thereby stimulate critical thinking and effective
learning [13, 14].
Approaching sustainability in a non-prescriptive
manner is not just a pedagogical imperative but
should be considered integral to architectural design
and education. The challenge lies not so much in an
illusory pursuit of agreement upon precise goals but
in the ability to appreciate situationally specific
contexts and embrace multiple interpretations of a
sustainable architecture informed by place and a
sense of history [15].
Nevertheless, both teachers and students are
faced with the task of negotiating a clear path that
embraces robust, yet pluralist, conceptions of
sustainability. In this context, critical thinking is the
desired learning process and outcome, whilst
avoiding the self-defeating trap that sustainability
becomes whatever one considers it to be. [16]
4. THE PROBLEM OF INTEGRATING
SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES
The ambition of fully integrating environmentally
responsible design, and sustainability issues, in the
pedagogical progression towards professional
practice, is gradually becoming widely recognised
within schools of architecture worldwide; but as yet
this aspiration remains largely elusive.
The heart of the challenge was pinpointed in -
amongst other literature - CEBEs 2002
commissioned report of the Sustainability Special
Interest Group: how can we ensure that
sustainability knowledge and skills become a natural
component of the architects mindset and underpins
their value system? [17]. Of course, this statement
begs further questions for tutors concerning how they
might effectively explore and negotiate with those
values that already inform each students particular
understanding of sustainability.
The scale of the integration challenge should not
be underestimated and research already undertaken
gives a salutary warning that official recognition of a
universitys sustainability teaching credentials is no
guarantee that architectural design students will
consistently and critically engage with sustainability
[18]. One fundamental and well documented
impediment concerns the degree of separation that
exists between the acquisition of theoretical and
technical knowledge, and its creative application in
the design studio. Indeed, this may be said to
constitute the traditional pedagogical model but it is
clearly in tension with a holistic view of architecture
and sustainability.
Gelernter (1988), drawing upon earlier research
into cognitive development, argues that the
challenge of reconciling lectures and studios has
first to confront a curriculum constructed around a
misconceived idea of how knowledge is acquired,
constructed and applied. In effect, a pedagogical
assumption is made whereby students enter a
course of learning with a series of empty folders and
that the role of the lecturer is to fill these folders - for
example labelled environmental design, tectonics,
structures, etc - with the requisite information and
principles. Having done this, the lecturer carefully
places the filled file in the students virtual filing
cabinet for him or her to retrieve later, for example,
when grappling with a design problem in the studio.
This model of learning makes the highly
questionable assumption that knowledge is acquired
and applied sequentially; consequently, knowledge
[is being] offered in advance of any attempt to apply
it [and so] cannot find a conceptual schema [or
model of relationships] in the students mind in which
to reside [19]. Students are consequently left
floundering when a design problem is not matched
by their first attempt to retrieve a solution from the
filing cabinet. Furthermore, this model of teaching
and learning misses a vital opportunity to open a
dialogue with student preconceptions which inform,
or perhaps misinform, their initial approaches to
design problems [20].
In contrast, Levys ideas for Total Studio (1980)
[21] where the design studio is conceived as an
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EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 85


ideal model for fusing technical and creative design
knowledge and practice - have strongly influenced
curricula structure paradigms in schools of
architecture [22]. Clearly this model meets with
substantive limitations beyond the obvious tutor-
student ratio and it should not be assumed that
studio tutors are willing or equipped to facilitate the
integration of sustainability in architectural design.
On the other hand, it is recognised that design
studio tutors have indeed the capacity to assume the
role of hegemonic overlord and thus could inhibit
or, at least, strongly influence - the independent and
creative faculties of the student according to their
own pedagogical agenda [23].
Looking briefly beyond pedagogical models, an
engagement with sustainability is also bound to fail if
user well-being and quality of design is in any way
compromised or diluted in pursuit of essential,
environmental aims. Hence, students, teachers and
professionals have the responsibility of striving to
balance technical skills and environmental
responsibility and integrate these within a creative
design discourse [24].
5. EDUCATING BEYOND DISCIPLINES
Recent years have witnessed a growing body of
advocates for a multi/inter/trans-disciplinary
approach which, it is argued, is most appropriate and
conducive to meeting the challenge of educating for
sustainability. It is equally evident that despite the
many persuasive arguments put forward, various
institutional, cultural and attitudinal impediments
remain. Consequently, there is a palpable mismatch
between the level of interest in the relationship
between multi/inter/trans-interdisciplinarity and
sustainability in research and the degree to which
this truly informs pedagogy.
The case for designing an integrative framework
which transcends disciplinary boundaries is
sometimes articulated within a discourse
characterised by ambiguities and a lack of precision.
This is worthy of note, not least because the
assumption that overcoming disciplinary domains
confers a sense of innovation and the undertaking of
cutting-edge teaching and research has induced a
tendency to make exaggerated or over-ambitious
claims for the extent to which disciplines have
actually been crossed or conjoined [25]. It seems
helpful, therefore, briefly to offer clarification of some
of the terminology, with reference to three of the
typologies - deployed by those developing curriculum
initiatives that aim better to integrate approaches to
sustainability issues in schools of architecture.
The most common form of teaching and learning
beyond disciplines may be considered as multi-
disciplinary, where participants work in parallel to, or
sequentially from, disciplinary-specific bases to
engage with common problems [26]. However, some
commentators regard such endeavours with caution,
viewing multi-disciplinary approaches as additive
rather than genuinely integrative as participants
remain ensconced within their traditional domains of
knowledge [27].
More ambitious in scope but certainly less typical,
despite rhetoric suggesting the contrary, are inter-
disciplinary approaches whereby participants work
from a shared perspective that transcends discipline
boundaries. In one particularly creative interpretation
of distinctions, inter-disciplinarity is made analogous
to a kaleidoscope in which components of a picture,
or perhaps, even, approaches to specific educational
domain such as environmental design, are shaken
and stirred beyond individual recognition [28].
Finally, it is worth considering trans-disciplinarity,
in which knowledge is generated by participants
working together from a shared conceptual
framework; ultimately, their interactions hold out the
possibilities of producing a new paradigm [29].
More research is needed in order to consider fully
how viable such pedagogical approaches are in the
context of schools of architecture.
Educating for sustainability has undoubtedly
raised profound questions concerning how
knowledge is acquired and applied and the limits to
discipline-based pedagogies. Indeed, this central
concept, with its underlying social economic and
ecological dimensions, has been considered too
complex to be accommodated by disciplinary
reduction [30]. By contrast, it is argued that
multi/inter/trans-disciplinary studies have the capacity
to bring much needed intellectual synergies, so vital
in addressing future-oriented but profoundly
contested goals, and thus confound traditional
knowledge hoarding by experts which stifles
innovation [31]. However, it would be wrong and
counter-productive to underestimate the challenge of
restructuring curricula and pedagogy around
multi/inter/trans-disciplinarity. Tutors may feel
protective of what they consider to be the integrity of
traditional disciplines and not easily be convinced
that the contestable and imprecise goals of
sustainability are compatible with maintaining
requisite technical rigour [32].
More often than not, tutors lack experience of
work beyond disciplinary boundaries and so not
surprisingly anticipate the journey across disciplinary
divides with apprehension and possibly mistrust.
It may be argued, therefore, that tutors - but also
administrators, particularly course directors - have a
vital, ethical role to play in championing pedagogical
initiatives within their universities, so as to
communicate sustainability issues to students within
multi/inter/trans-disciplinary structures [33, 34].
6. PEDAGOGICAL OPPORTUNITIES AND
CHALLENGES
It has been frequently argued that educating for
sustainability affords rich opportunities, in theory at
least, for profoundly re-designing curriculum
structures and introducing initiatives that orientate
teaching and learning towards collaborative,
experiential and problem-solving activities, whilst
simultaneously stimulating critical thinking and deep
reflection.
Also, designing for sustainability holds out the
intriguing possibility of challenging the traditional
privileging of product by elevating the importance of
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86 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN


process, which should be attributed equal
importance within the design studio. Such an
approach has the potential to give students greater
control over design decisions and thus rejuvenate
their critical faculties [35].
Further scope is offered by other initiatives calling
into question the traditional architectural pedagogy,
with its technical-creative fissure. In this sense, the
sustainability agenda demands that educational
approaches, which transcend disciplinary mindsets,
be actively and innovatively pursued. This, in turn,
opens the door to deep learning as a core
pedagogical strategy for approaching an education
for sustainability. This particular context, with its
attendant complexities, is felt to be in alignment with
key characteristics of deep learning, such as the
elevation of principles and concepts over known
facts. In the process, students are encouraged to
take active control over the cognitive processes of
planning, monitoring problem-solving tasks and
evaluating progress. A sustainability education
therefore places high-level demands upon the ability
to offer holistic insights and strive for coherence from
the management and assimilation of disparate
information sources [36].
Deep learning strategies therefore hold many
possibilities for advancing a rich and meaningful
dialogue with sustainability issues, but educators first
need to consider carefully how best to gauge and
exploit their students prior knowledge and level of
commitment in addressing these issues. Ensuring
that learning is made personally meaningful and that
a variety of teaching and learning styles are
addressed, will help address motivation and promote
student agency, without which young people are
unlikely to pose [the] significant questions, which
effective educating for sustainability demands [37].
As well as considering the design and
implementation of particular teaching and learning
strategies, effective integration of sustainability
requires that attention to be given to ethos and
motivation, both of which form potentially challenging
barriers to be overcome.
6.1. Ethos
Broadly defined, ethos refers to the distinctive set
of values and character of an institution (such as a
university), group (potentially a school of
architecture) or individual [38]. In the context of
sustainability, an ethos might draw inspiration from
David Orrs advocacy of the need to develop a well-
informed, democratically engaged citizenry [39].
The holistic, linked-systems nature of
sustainability, calling for collaboration and the
pooling of skills and knowledge beyond disciplinary
boundaries, means that a total overhaul of the
curriculum deserves to be given serious
consideration; progress in this direction, it is
recognised, would require the participation of the
entire department or faculty [40].
However, the active collaboration of all needs to
be bolstered by careful promotion of sustainability
issues researched and undertaken in the form of
design projects within schools of architecture.
Furthermore, it needs to be appreciated that
sustainability ought to be embedded within the whole
curriculum so that all subjects contribute towards
providing a holistic approach to core and urgent
questions and solutions.
Research has exposed a number of
misconceptions relating to the teaching and learning
of sustainability in Higher Education; for example,
that it is too broad and abstract to be effectively
taught. Such misunderstandings, and perhaps
underlying scepticism on the part of some staff, still
pose a significant challenge. To this end, universities
might need to consider more robust systems of
training in sustainability issues - not only for tutors
but also administrators - in order to try and enhance
the management of positive change [41].
Nevertheless, it is rightly acknowledged that such
an endeavour places a great onus, and perhaps
over-reliance, upon individual staff dedication; no
insignificant matter when the faced with the
pressures of increasing student numbers, volume of
assessment and government targets for examination
success. It is therefore evident that ethical
commitment and clear, determined leadership needs
to be supported within a robust system of institutional
support for the effective integration of sustainability
within architectural curricula and pedagogy.
6.2. Motivation
As well as considering ethos, researchers and
educators interested in basic questions about how
and why students learn must consider the role of
motivation.
Seeking to understand and address motivation is
integral to an education for sustainability which
places great demands upon critical engagement but
also the willingness to reflect upon and challenge
values and behaviour. At the most general level of
distinction, motivation is usually considered as being
either intrinsic or extrinsic and both realms reveal
particular pedagogical opportunities and challenges
in the context of educating for sustainability.
Intrinsic motivation is internally generated and
can be related to the need to fulfil an interest [42]. It
can originate from a challenge, a determination to
succeed in a task or, conversely, a fear of failing it
[43]. In relation to teaching and learning styles,
intrinsic motivation aligns with a desire for autonomy,
involvement in and a degree of control over the
learning task and curiosity [44]. Therefore, curriculum
initiatives that are designed to promote such
strategies as process-oriented design, collaborative,
applied, or problem-based learning, are consciously
tapping into a students need for fulfilment and
facilitating the development of vital, critical skills
underpinning lifelong learning.
However, it can be argued that these approaches
make certain assumptions upon the level of maturity
and time-management abilities necessary for
successful student-centred-learning [45].
It is further argued that intrinsically motivated
students are more likely to engage in deep learning
as they seek to understand the reasoning and
principles underlying their study. Whilst this bodes
well for critical engagement with sustainability issues,
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 87


it needs to be questioned to what extent summative
assessment within university curricula actually
reward deep learning and a students self-
determination [46].
In contrast, extrinsically motivated students are
motivated by a need for recognition, praise, or
reward; for example that which accompanies grade
attainment. Such motivation, usually linked with
surface learning an performance goals, is
inevitably a powerful driver in a competitive
environment and society, but understanding this
could perhaps inspire a reassessment in how best to
reward robust participation in learning tasks and
projects; for example those engaging with
sustainable design, not just in terms of products but
equally underlying processes. Providing constructive,
individually targeted and timely feedback may also
be considered an aspect of extrinsic motivation [47].
In view of the high student-tutor ratio and ever-
increasing diversity of assessment, this observation
makes a clear link to the commitment of individual
educators and the need for solid support systems
from the institution concerned.
Finally, external factors for motivation can be
related to culture and context. There is strong
research support demonstrating that individuals are
powerfully influenced by their immediate peers, as
well as their tutors, and seek to adapt behaviour in
order to fit in [48]. In theory, peer groups can be
harnessed to articulate debate, review learning and
even to reinforce attitudes conducive to sustainable
values and lifestyles. Conversely, research can be
found to suggest that the culture of the design studio,
with its emphasis upon crits, can have a
disproportionately negative impact upon the
motivation of some students, increasing their sense
of vulnerability and alienation [49].
Effective education for sustainability must strive
to be as participatory and inclusive as possible. It is
therefore imperative that the curriculum, institution
and individual educators actively contribute towards
a positive ethos that seeks to maximise motivation.
7. CONCLUSION
This paper has argued that further research is
needed into designing pedagogies which can more
consciously and effectively integrate sustainability
issues within architectural curricula. Indeed, this
paper should be considered as part of an on-going
work in the early stages of a 3 year PhD project.
Many valuable curricula interventions and
multi/inter/trans-disciplinary sustainable design
projects have been undertaken to attain this goal but
it is clear that they meet with significant challenges
along a number of fronts.
The complex, conceptually slippery, nature of
sustainability is simultaneously a challenge and an
opportunity. It demands critical engagement but
pedagogical approaches and curriculum
developments must be grounded in non-prescriptive,
pluralist understandings of sustainability issues that
are culture and context sensitive.
The integration of sustainability into architecture
curricula must continue to explore and critique ways
of narrowing the gap between the technical and
creative domains. Solutions seem bound to
challenge the traditional lecture structure in order to
allow knowledge acquisition and application to
become more closely synchronised.
New pedagogical approaches also need to
navigate tensions arising between the reality of
studio tutor power and the goals of enhancing
autonomy and decision-making which ought to
accompany any orientation toward process-focused,
student-centred learning.
It is also clear that current research into
educating for sustainability forces educators to
confront the traditional compartmentalisation of
knowledge within disciplines and calls out for
multi/inter- and potentially trans-disciplinary teaching
and learning. This has the potential to stimulate
greater creativity and offer a holistic pedagogy more
conducive to tackling not just the environmental but
also the social and economic dimensions of a
sustainability education.
Finally, the task of embedding sustainability
within architecture curricula needs to be supported
by a determined institutional ethos and continuously
review how the commitment and motivation of all
involved in the educational process can be enhanced
and positively channelled.
8. REFERENCES
[1] UNESCO (2010) Education for Sustainable
Development, [Online], Available:
http://www.unesco.org/en/esd/
[2] Fowles, B., Cocoran, M., Erdel-Jan, L., Iball, H.,
Roaf, S.,Stevenson, F.(2003), CEBE SIG Report
- Sustainable Design in Architecture. Centre for
Education in the Built Environment, Cardiff
University, pp.1-55, [Online], Available:
http://www.cebe.ltsn.ac.uk.
[3] Schn, D. (1991), The reflective practitioner:
how professionals think in action, 2nd ed.
Aldershot: Ashgate.
[4] Altomonte, S. (2009), Environmental Education
for Sustainable Architecture, Review of
European Studies, 1 (2).
[5] EDUCATE (2010), Environmental Design in
University Curricula and Architectural Training in
Europe, IEE Programme, [Online] Available:
http://www.educate-sustainability.eu
[6] Fletcher, K. & Dewberry, E. (2002), Demi: a
case study in design for sustainability, Int.
Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 3
(1), 38-47.
[7] Schn, D. (1991), op. cit.
[8] Rutherford, P. and Wilson, R. (2006), Educating
environmental awareness: creativity in
integrated environmental design teaching,
Proceedings of the 40th annual conference of
the Architectural Science Association ANZAScA,
Adelaide School of Architecture.


process, which should be attributed equal
importance within the design studio. Such an
approach has the potential to give students greater
control over design decisions and thus rejuvenate
their critical faculties [35].
Further scope is offered by other initiatives calling
into question the traditional architectural pedagogy,
with its technical-creative fissure. In this sense, the
sustainability agenda demands that educational
approaches, which transcend disciplinary mindsets,
be actively and innovatively pursued. This, in turn,
opens the door to deep learning as a core
pedagogical strategy for approaching an education
for sustainability. This particular context, with its
attendant complexities, is felt to be in alignment with
key characteristics of deep learning, such as the
elevation of principles and concepts over known
facts. In the process, students are encouraged to
take active control over the cognitive processes of
planning, monitoring problem-solving tasks and
evaluating progress. A sustainability education
therefore places high-level demands upon the ability
to offer holistic insights and strive for coherence from
the management and assimilation of disparate
information sources [36].
Deep learning strategies therefore hold many
possibilities for advancing a rich and meaningful
dialogue with sustainability issues, but educators first
need to consider carefully how best to gauge and
exploit their students prior knowledge and level of
commitment in addressing these issues. Ensuring
that learning is made personally meaningful and that
a variety of teaching and learning styles are
addressed, will help address motivation and promote
student agency, without which young people are
unlikely to pose [the] significant questions, which
effective educating for sustainability demands [37].
As well as considering the design and
implementation of particular teaching and learning
strategies, effective integration of sustainability
requires that attention to be given to ethos and
motivation, both of which form potentially challenging
barriers to be overcome.
6.1. Ethos
Broadly defined, ethos refers to the distinctive set
of values and character of an institution (such as a
university), group (potentially a school of
architecture) or individual [38]. In the context of
sustainability, an ethos might draw inspiration from
David Orrs advocacy of the need to develop a well-
informed, democratically engaged citizenry [39].
The holistic, linked-systems nature of
sustainability, calling for collaboration and the
pooling of skills and knowledge beyond disciplinary
boundaries, means that a total overhaul of the
curriculum deserves to be given serious
consideration; progress in this direction, it is
recognised, would require the participation of the
entire department or faculty [40].
However, the active collaboration of all needs to
be bolstered by careful promotion of sustainability
issues researched and undertaken in the form of
design projects within schools of architecture.
Furthermore, it needs to be appreciated that
sustainability ought to be embedded within the whole
curriculum so that all subjects contribute towards
providing a holistic approach to core and urgent
questions and solutions.
Research has exposed a number of
misconceptions relating to the teaching and learning
of sustainability in Higher Education; for example,
that it is too broad and abstract to be effectively
taught. Such misunderstandings, and perhaps
underlying scepticism on the part of some staff, still
pose a significant challenge. To this end, universities
might need to consider more robust systems of
training in sustainability issues - not only for tutors
but also administrators - in order to try and enhance
the management of positive change [41].
Nevertheless, it is rightly acknowledged that such
an endeavour places a great onus, and perhaps
over-reliance, upon individual staff dedication; no
insignificant matter when the faced with the
pressures of increasing student numbers, volume of
assessment and government targets for examination
success. It is therefore evident that ethical
commitment and clear, determined leadership needs
to be supported within a robust system of institutional
support for the effective integration of sustainability
within architectural curricula and pedagogy.
6.2. Motivation
As well as considering ethos, researchers and
educators interested in basic questions about how
and why students learn must consider the role of
motivation.
Seeking to understand and address motivation is
integral to an education for sustainability which
places great demands upon critical engagement but
also the willingness to reflect upon and challenge
values and behaviour. At the most general level of
distinction, motivation is usually considered as being
either intrinsic or extrinsic and both realms reveal
particular pedagogical opportunities and challenges
in the context of educating for sustainability.
Intrinsic motivation is internally generated and
can be related to the need to fulfil an interest [42]. It
can originate from a challenge, a determination to
succeed in a task or, conversely, a fear of failing it
[43]. In relation to teaching and learning styles,
intrinsic motivation aligns with a desire for autonomy,
involvement in and a degree of control over the
learning task and curiosity [44]. Therefore, curriculum
initiatives that are designed to promote such
strategies as process-oriented design, collaborative,
applied, or problem-based learning, are consciously
tapping into a students need for fulfilment and
facilitating the development of vital, critical skills
underpinning lifelong learning.
However, it can be argued that these approaches
make certain assumptions upon the level of maturity
and time-management abilities necessary for
successful student-centred-learning [45].
It is further argued that intrinsically motivated
students are more likely to engage in deep learning
as they seek to understand the reasoning and
principles underlying their study. Whilst this bodes
well for critical engagement with sustainability issues,
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
88 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-
15 July 2011

6

[9] Guy, S. and Farmer, G. (2001), Reinterpreting
sustainable architecture: the place of
technology, Journal of Architectural Education,
54 (3), 140-148.
[10] Wals, A. and Jickling, B. (2002), Sustainability
in higher education: from doublethink and
newspeak to critical thinking and meaningful
learning, Int. Journal of Sustainability in Higher
Education, 3 (3), 221-232.
[11] Dale, A. and Newman, L. (2005), Sustainability
development, education and literacy, Int. Journal
of Sustainability in Higher Education, 6 (4), 351-
362.
[12] de Eyto, A., McMahon, M., Hadfield, M. and
Hutchings, M. (2008), Strategies for developing
sustainable design practice for students and
SME professionals, Special EJEE Issue on SD
in Engineering Education.
[13] Wals, A. and Jickling, B. (2002), op. cit.
[14] Warburton, K. (2003), Deep learning and
education for sustainability, Int. Journal of
Sustainability in Higher Education, 4 (1), 44-56.
[15] Guy, S. and Moore, S. (2007), Sustainable
architecture and the pluralist imagination,
Journal of Architectural Education, 60 (4), 15-23.
[16] Corcoran, P. and Wals, A. (2004), Higher
Education and the Challenge of Sustainability:
Problematics, Problems and Practice, Hingham,
Kluwer Academic Publishers.
[17] Fowles, B. et al (2003), op. cit.
[18] Mackie, M. and Kagawa, F. (2007),
Opportunities and challenges for students and
tutors integrating sustainability into design studio
teaching, Proc. Built Environment Education
Conference.
[19] Gelernter, M. (1988), Reconciling Lectures and
Studios, Journal of Architectural Education, 41
(2), 46-52.
[20] Rutherford, P. and Wilson, R. (2006), op. cit.
[21] Levy A. (1980), Total Studio, Journal of
Architectural Education, 34 (2), 29-32.
[22] EDUCATE (2010), op. cit.
[23] Roberts, A. and Yoell, H. (2009), Reflectors,
converts and the disengaged: a study of
undergraduate architecture students
perceptions of undertaking learning journals,
Education in the Built Environment, 4 (2), 74-93.
[24] Graham, P. (2003), Building Ecology: First
Principles for a Sustainable Built Environment,
Oxford, Blackwell.
[25] Klein, J. (1990), Interdisciplinarity: History,
Theory and Practice, Detroit: University Press.
[26] Mitchell, P. (2005), What's in a name?
Multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and
transdisciplinary, Journal of Professional
Nursing, 21 (6), 332-334.
[27] Klein, J. (1990), op. cit.
[28] Wood, G. (2010), Problems Dont Come in
Disciplines [lecture], Innovation in Built
Environment Education conference, Sheffield.
[29] Mitchell, P. (2005), op. cit.
[30] Shmidt, J. (2008), Towards a philosophy of
interdisciplinarity an attempt to provide a
classification and clarification, Poiesis Praxis,
Springer, 5, 53-69.
[31] Chapman, D. (2009), Knowing our places?
Contexts and edges in integrating disciplines in
built environment education, Education in the
Built Environment, 4 (2), 9-28.
[32] Fenner, A., Ainger, C., Cruickshank, H, and
Guthrie, P. (2005), Embedding sustainable
development at Cambridge University
Engineering Dep., Int. Journal of Sustainability in
Higher Education, 6 (3), 229-241.
[33] Smith, R. (2009), Guidelines for the Design of a
Sustainable Curriculum in Architecture and
Architectural Engineering, MEng Disseration,
University of Nottingham.
[34] EDUCATE (2010), op. cit.
[35] Salama, A., (2005), A Process Oriented Design
Pedagogy: KFUPM Sophomore Studio, CEBE
Transactions, 2 (2), Sept 2005, pp 16-31.
[36] Warburton (2003), op. cit.
[37] Greene, M. in Darder, A., Baltodano, M., and
Torres, R. (eds.) (2003), The Critical Pedagogy,
London: Routledge.
[38] Smith, R. (2009), op. cit.
[39] Orr, D. (2003), Four Challenges of Sustainability,
[Online]. Available:
http://www.uwstout.edu/profed/sustainability/upl
oad/4CofS.pdf
[40] Wright, J. (2003), Introducing sustainability into
the architectural curriculum in the United States,
Int. Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education,
4, (4), 100-105.
[41] Leal Filho, W. (2000), Dealing with
misconceptions on the concept of sustainability,
Int. Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education,
1 (1), 9-19.
[42] Savage, N. and Birch, R. (2008), An evaluation
of motivation in engineering students, employing
self-determination theory, Innovation, Good
Practice and Research in Engineering
Education, EE2008.
[43] Smith, R. (2009), op. cit.
[44] EDUCATE (2010), op. cit.
[45] Douvlou, E. (2006), Effective teaching and
learning: integrating problem-based learning in
the teaching and learning of sustainable design,
CEBE Transactions 3 (2), 22-37.
[46] Savage, N. and Birch, R. (2008), op. cit.
[47] Skinner, B.F. (1953), Science and Human
Behaviour, New York: Macmillon.
[48] Harris, J. (1998), The Nurture Assumption,
London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
[49] Datta, A. (2007), Gender and Learning in the
Design Studio, Journal of Education in the Built
Environment, 2 (2), 21-35.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 89

Teaching Vernacular Architecture and
Rehabilitation in Relation to Bioclimatic Design
Elements
Maria PHILOKYPROU
Department of Architecture, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus
ABSTRACT: Traditional settlements are by definition sustainable in relation to their environmental context
and available resources. The study and detailed investigation of the vernacular architecture of Cyprus and its
rehabilitation with special reference to its individual bioclimatic elements, constitute the main subject of an
undergraduate course in the Department of Architecture at the University of Cyprus. Students are trained to
realize the consciousness of the environmental behaviour of vernacular architecture and to identify the different
factors and parameters that contribute to a pleasant environment and thermal comfort within the buildings and
their surroundings, through the exploration of different parameters (traditional strategies for heating, shading and
ventilation). Theoretical teaching approaches as well as practical ones including in situ observations and
investigation of selected traditional settlements are incorporated. Theory and design practice are combined and
critical thinking and research skills are developed. Taking into consideration the sustainability of vernacular
architecture, the students acquire the skills for environmentally-friendly approaches to the built environment,
which will benefit society as a whole.
Keywords: sustainability, energy, thermal comfort, environment, vernacular
1. INTRODUCTION
The traditional settlements have always
constituted an important part of the cultural heritage
of every country and are by definition sustainable in
relation to their environmental context and available
resources (local materials, minimum waste of
resources). They are harmonized with their
surroundings, respond to the actual needs of people
and incorporate many features friendly to the
environment (structure, forms, layout). In addition to
the historical, aesthetic and social value, the
environmental value and particularly the
sustainability of these settlements are of utmost
importance. Vernacular architecture is a fundamental
expression of the culture of a community, of its
relationship with its territory and the worlds cultural
diversity. Traditional settlements are examples of
unique urban setting and architectural creation,
incorporating many bioclimatic elements. Their
essence depends not only on the fabric of buildings,
structures and spaces, but also on the ways in which
they were used and appreciated, as they create
pleasant environmental and comfortable living
conditions (Icomos Charter on the built Vernacular
heritage -1999).
The previous romanticised attitude towards the
study of vernacular architecture that considered only
its aesthetic and morphological values have recently
changed dramatically. Vernacular architecture is now
being appreciated in regard to its environmental
principles, structural and bioclimatic values. In this
way, its study is useful for new designs and
applications [1]. Vernacular architecture is not
studied any more as an historic document, but as a
model for sustainable design [2] and as a
contribution to new methods, solutions and
achievements for the future built environments [3].
In addition, the rehabilitation of vernacular
buildings constitutes by itself an important
sustainable attitude towards the existing built
environment as this incorporates the conservation of
non-renewable sources. It is thus obvious that the
study and the conservation of such traditional
settlements are essential in architectural education.
The study and detailed investigation of vernacular
settlements of Cyprus with special reference to their
individual bioclimatic elements and the identification
of the factors that contribute to a pleasant
environment and thermal comfort within the buildings
and their surroundings, are included in an
undergraduate course in the Department of
Architecture at the University of Cyprus.
Cyprus offers an excellent case for the study and
analysis of vernacular architecture as it is a small
island which incorporates many different types of
dwellings and numerous features. It has
mountainous as well as plains and coastal areas with
a variety in forms of dwellings in relation to date,
layout, materials and construction methods. The
typology often changes within a short distance in
relation to the immediate environment depending
also on the materials availability [4,5].
2. THE AIMS OF THE PAPER
In this paper there will be an effort to demonstrate
how teaching vernacular architecture and its
conservation helps the students create a bioclimatic
attitude towards the built environment, as through its
study, they learn how man and environment interact,
and also how the previous builders had incorporated
bioclimatic elements into their designs very
successfully. Additionally, in this paper, the creation
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-
15 July 2011

6

[9] Guy, S. and Farmer, G. (2001), Reinterpreting
sustainable architecture: the place of
technology, Journal of Architectural Education,
54 (3), 140-148.
[10] Wals, A. and Jickling, B. (2002), Sustainability
in higher education: from doublethink and
newspeak to critical thinking and meaningful
learning, Int. Journal of Sustainability in Higher
Education, 3 (3), 221-232.
[11] Dale, A. and Newman, L. (2005), Sustainability
development, education and literacy, Int. Journal
of Sustainability in Higher Education, 6 (4), 351-
362.
[12] de Eyto, A., McMahon, M., Hadfield, M. and
Hutchings, M. (2008), Strategies for developing
sustainable design practice for students and
SME professionals, Special EJEE Issue on SD
in Engineering Education.
[13] Wals, A. and Jickling, B. (2002), op. cit.
[14] Warburton, K. (2003), Deep learning and
education for sustainability, Int. Journal of
Sustainability in Higher Education, 4 (1), 44-56.
[15] Guy, S. and Moore, S. (2007), Sustainable
architecture and the pluralist imagination,
Journal of Architectural Education, 60 (4), 15-23.
[16] Corcoran, P. and Wals, A. (2004), Higher
Education and the Challenge of Sustainability:
Problematics, Problems and Practice, Hingham,
Kluwer Academic Publishers.
[17] Fowles, B. et al (2003), op. cit.
[18] Mackie, M. and Kagawa, F. (2007),
Opportunities and challenges for students and
tutors integrating sustainability into design studio
teaching, Proc. Built Environment Education
Conference.
[19] Gelernter, M. (1988), Reconciling Lectures and
Studios, Journal of Architectural Education, 41
(2), 46-52.
[20] Rutherford, P. and Wilson, R. (2006), op. cit.
[21] Levy A. (1980), Total Studio, Journal of
Architectural Education, 34 (2), 29-32.
[22] EDUCATE (2010), op. cit.
[23] Roberts, A. and Yoell, H. (2009), Reflectors,
converts and the disengaged: a study of
undergraduate architecture students
perceptions of undertaking learning journals,
Education in the Built Environment, 4 (2), 74-93.
[24] Graham, P. (2003), Building Ecology: First
Principles for a Sustainable Built Environment,
Oxford, Blackwell.
[25] Klein, J. (1990), Interdisciplinarity: History,
Theory and Practice, Detroit: University Press.
[26] Mitchell, P. (2005), What's in a name?
Multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and
transdisciplinary, Journal of Professional
Nursing, 21 (6), 332-334.
[27] Klein, J. (1990), op. cit.
[28] Wood, G. (2010), Problems Dont Come in
Disciplines [lecture], Innovation in Built
Environment Education conference, Sheffield.
[29] Mitchell, P. (2005), op. cit.
[30] Shmidt, J. (2008), Towards a philosophy of
interdisciplinarity an attempt to provide a
classification and clarification, Poiesis Praxis,
Springer, 5, 53-69.
[31] Chapman, D. (2009), Knowing our places?
Contexts and edges in integrating disciplines in
built environment education, Education in the
Built Environment, 4 (2), 9-28.
[32] Fenner, A., Ainger, C., Cruickshank, H, and
Guthrie, P. (2005), Embedding sustainable
development at Cambridge University
Engineering Dep., Int. Journal of Sustainability in
Higher Education, 6 (3), 229-241.
[33] Smith, R. (2009), Guidelines for the Design of a
Sustainable Curriculum in Architecture and
Architectural Engineering, MEng Disseration,
University of Nottingham.
[34] EDUCATE (2010), op. cit.
[35] Salama, A., (2005), A Process Oriented Design
Pedagogy: KFUPM Sophomore Studio, CEBE
Transactions, 2 (2), Sept 2005, pp 16-31.
[36] Warburton (2003), op. cit.
[37] Greene, M. in Darder, A., Baltodano, M., and
Torres, R. (eds.) (2003), The Critical Pedagogy,
London: Routledge.
[38] Smith, R. (2009), op. cit.
[39] Orr, D. (2003), Four Challenges of Sustainability,
[Online]. Available:
http://www.uwstout.edu/profed/sustainability/upl
oad/4CofS.pdf
[40] Wright, J. (2003), Introducing sustainability into
the architectural curriculum in the United States,
Int. Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education,
4, (4), 100-105.
[41] Leal Filho, W. (2000), Dealing with
misconceptions on the concept of sustainability,
Int. Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education,
1 (1), 9-19.
[42] Savage, N. and Birch, R. (2008), An evaluation
of motivation in engineering students, employing
self-determination theory, Innovation, Good
Practice and Research in Engineering
Education, EE2008.
[43] Smith, R. (2009), op. cit.
[44] EDUCATE (2010), op. cit.
[45] Douvlou, E. (2006), Effective teaching and
learning: integrating problem-based learning in
the teaching and learning of sustainable design,
CEBE Transactions 3 (2), 22-37.
[46] Savage, N. and Birch, R. (2008), op. cit.
[47] Skinner, B.F. (1953), Science and Human
Behaviour, New York: Macmillon.
[48] Harris, J. (1998), The Nurture Assumption,
London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
[49] Datta, A. (2007), Gender and Learning in the
Design Studio, Journal of Education in the Built
Environment, 2 (2), 21-35.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
90 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
of a critical attitude in the students with regard to the
evaluation and the methods of rehabilitation of
vernacular architecture will be demonstrated. All of
the above will be presented through the description
of an undergraduate course on analysis and
rehabilitation of vernacular architecture.
3. THE COURSE
3.1. Objectives of the course
One of the main objectives of teaching vernacular
architecture is to provide the undergraduate students
of architecture with basic knowledge and efficient
tools to understand, analyse and appreciate any
vernacular building or settlement and recognize all
the bioclimatic elements and the sustainable
behaviour of these buildings. The students are
assisted in acquiring skills for the study of the various
parameters of vernacular buildings (existing fabric
and layout) which improve their energy efficiency.
They are helped to understand how man and
environment interact, and the consciousness of the
environmental behaviour of the vernacular
architecture.
The students are guided in learning to respect
vernacular architecture and the sustainable
development of the settlements, identifying the
factors that contribute to a pleasant environment and
thermal comfort within the buildings and their
surroundings. Teaching vernacular architecture aims
at acquiring a scientific methodology strongly linked
to the study and critical analysis of traditional
buildings.
Teaching of this subject also aims to stimulate
consciousness of the potential conservation and
reuse of the existing buildings as a component of
incorporating sustainability in architectural education.
Another motivation concerns the assignment of
general knowledge on certain technical aspects of
the intervention so as to maintain and enhance the
existing bioclimatic elements - appropriate materials,
construction methods, techniques and design
principles (architectural and typological data). This
investigation helps students to find new sustainable
solutions which would also be applicable to
contemporary structures a new field of
investigation, under the umbrella of the recently
established attitude for environmentally friendly
buildings. Therefore, students create new
architectural approaches for the rehabilitation of
traditional buildings, respecting the bioclimatic
elements of existing structures which would also be
applicable to new structures.
The overall objective of this course is to teach the
students new approaches and knowledge skills
which will contribute to the sustainable development
of the urban environment, "encouraging the
sustainable use of resources and strengthening
synergies between environmental protection and
development (National Reform Program for Lisbon).
3.2. The interdisciplinary approach and the
necessity of the course
The study of the bioclimatic elements of
vernacular architecture and their preservation
requires an interdisciplinary approach to problem
solving, including knowledge of technology, materials
and construction methods. Theory, analysis and
creative design practice are combined and critical
thinking and research skills are developed.
Teaching a methodology of evaluation and
rehabilitation of vernacular architecture is important
today as many countries like Cyprus are
characterized by the presence of an incredible
number of vernacular settlements, landscapes and
sites that constitute an important part of the cultural
heritage. These potential assets for the future
sustainable development of the built environment
have made the study of these settlements a
necessity.
It is worth mentioning that in a society which
aspires to be sustainable, the efficient use and reuse
of built resources becomes a stronger reality as time
goes on. Sustainable development is very important
in the field of architecture in general. Sustainability
and heritage conservation are closely linked together
as conservation incorporates the preservation of
non-renewable resources.
In addition, studies and interventions in the field
of restoration of traditional buildings until very
recently have taken into consideration parameters
referring mainly to the enhancement of the aesthetic
values of traditional architecture and the
maintenance of the morphological unity. Bioclimatic
design principles and elements, although generally
appreciated as basic characteristics of the islands
traditional architecture, have not as yet been
exploited enough, with negative results to the energy
efficiency of the restored vernacular buildings. This
attitude leads to direct dependence of buildings on
standard industrial air conditioning and heating
systems, with disastrous environmental
consequences. Through this course the students
knowledge of sustainability and environmental
friendly approaches will be reinforced and society as
a whole will benefit.
3.3. Description of the course
In this course, an in depth study on the
typological and construction elements of the
vernacular buildings and settlements is carried out
through theoretical teaching approaches as well as
practical ones with emphasis on the bioclimatic
elements including in situ observations and
investigation (surveying, historic and in situ
investigation, recording, documentation, research). In
addition to the analytical approaches, the course also
covers synthetic and creative matters, methodologies
of evaluation and rehabilitation of the vernacular
settlements, principles of conservation and design
intervention with special emphasis on matters of
sustainability.
Teaching Vernacular Architecture and
Rehabilitation includes many different subjects that
can be divided into two thematic areas (fig. 1):
Basic knowledge concerning the existing
vernacular buildings as well as urban traditional
areas of Cyprus (historic, social, urban
development, morphology, construction,
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 91


typological analysis with special reference to
their bioclimatic elements).
Elements of theory of conservation and
rehabilitation as well as technical and
methodological aspects concerning structural
problems aiming to preserve and reinforce the
bioclimatic elements.
Figure 1. Diagram of the structure of the course
3.3.1. Analysis of vernacular architecture
The close investigation of vernacular architecture
covers the exploration of different parameters such
as:
Arrangement and combination of closed and
semi-open spaces around a central yard, their
orientation and their inter-relations and
communications.
Relationship of buildings to their immediate built
or natural environment (moisture, temperature,
location in the urban core -nucleus, proximity to
other buildings).
Type, material and quality of the shell (wall and
roof construction, natural insulation, use of
color, mass, impermeability) as well as possible
storage elements of energy (mass, etc.).
Traditional strategies for heating and shading
(sun penetration, adjustable elements, planting
deciduous trees, shading devices, pergolas,
etc.).
Traditional strategies for ventilation and cooling
(sizes/dimensions, orientation, arrangement and
location of openings, air movement, ventilation,
multiple openings, cooling by upper
evaporation).
More specifically, the arrangement and
orientation of the rooms around a central yard is very
carefully studied in this course as this constitutes a
very important bioclimatic element of the vernacular
layout. This outside space (yard) creates a perfect
microclimate for the house, serving the inter-relations
and communications between separate rooms (fig.
2). It is the central and dominant feature of the
dwelling and at the same time an intermediate buffer
space between public streets and private rooms.
Volumes are arranged around the yard in such a way
as to create shadow, which improves the cooling and
ventilation of the house. The central courtyard has its
roots in prehistoric and historic periods of antiquity in
Cyprus and other Mediterranean countries due to
their hot dry climate.

Figure 2. The central yard (students work).
Special reference is given to the semi-open
spaces (illiakoi, porches, galleries) very often
arranged in front of the south side of the building in
close relation with the yard [6,7] . They serve as a
connection passage of the house giving at the same
time shadow and protection of the facade and the
openings from the direct rays of the sun. They offer a
comfortable intermediate living space for mild and
hot days.

Figure 3. Relationship between buildings and street
(students work)
The way the traditional buildings are successfully
integrated into their immediate environment is also
studied in this course. They are closely built with
common walls, thus protecting the external wall
surfaces from direct sun rays. In mountainous areas
of a critical attitude in the students with regard to the
evaluation and the methods of rehabilitation of
vernacular architecture will be demonstrated. All of
the above will be presented through the description
of an undergraduate course on analysis and
rehabilitation of vernacular architecture.
3. THE COURSE
3.1. Objectives of the course
One of the main objectives of teaching vernacular
architecture is to provide the undergraduate students
of architecture with basic knowledge and efficient
tools to understand, analyse and appreciate any
vernacular building or settlement and recognize all
the bioclimatic elements and the sustainable
behaviour of these buildings. The students are
assisted in acquiring skills for the study of the various
parameters of vernacular buildings (existing fabric
and layout) which improve their energy efficiency.
They are helped to understand how man and
environment interact, and the consciousness of the
environmental behaviour of the vernacular
architecture.
The students are guided in learning to respect
vernacular architecture and the sustainable
development of the settlements, identifying the
factors that contribute to a pleasant environment and
thermal comfort within the buildings and their
surroundings. Teaching vernacular architecture aims
at acquiring a scientific methodology strongly linked
to the study and critical analysis of traditional
buildings.
Teaching of this subject also aims to stimulate
consciousness of the potential conservation and
reuse of the existing buildings as a component of
incorporating sustainability in architectural education.
Another motivation concerns the assignment of
general knowledge on certain technical aspects of
the intervention so as to maintain and enhance the
existing bioclimatic elements - appropriate materials,
construction methods, techniques and design
principles (architectural and typological data). This
investigation helps students to find new sustainable
solutions which would also be applicable to
contemporary structures a new field of
investigation, under the umbrella of the recently
established attitude for environmentally friendly
buildings. Therefore, students create new
architectural approaches for the rehabilitation of
traditional buildings, respecting the bioclimatic
elements of existing structures which would also be
applicable to new structures.
The overall objective of this course is to teach the
students new approaches and knowledge skills
which will contribute to the sustainable development
of the urban environment, "encouraging the
sustainable use of resources and strengthening
synergies between environmental protection and
development (National Reform Program for Lisbon).
3.2. The interdisciplinary approach and the
necessity of the course
The study of the bioclimatic elements of
vernacular architecture and their preservation
requires an interdisciplinary approach to problem
solving, including knowledge of technology, materials
and construction methods. Theory, analysis and
creative design practice are combined and critical
thinking and research skills are developed.
Teaching a methodology of evaluation and
rehabilitation of vernacular architecture is important
today as many countries like Cyprus are
characterized by the presence of an incredible
number of vernacular settlements, landscapes and
sites that constitute an important part of the cultural
heritage. These potential assets for the future
sustainable development of the built environment
have made the study of these settlements a
necessity.
It is worth mentioning that in a society which
aspires to be sustainable, the efficient use and reuse
of built resources becomes a stronger reality as time
goes on. Sustainable development is very important
in the field of architecture in general. Sustainability
and heritage conservation are closely linked together
as conservation incorporates the preservation of
non-renewable resources.
In addition, studies and interventions in the field
of restoration of traditional buildings until very
recently have taken into consideration parameters
referring mainly to the enhancement of the aesthetic
values of traditional architecture and the
maintenance of the morphological unity. Bioclimatic
design principles and elements, although generally
appreciated as basic characteristics of the islands
traditional architecture, have not as yet been
exploited enough, with negative results to the energy
efficiency of the restored vernacular buildings. This
attitude leads to direct dependence of buildings on
standard industrial air conditioning and heating
systems, with disastrous environmental
consequences. Through this course the students
knowledge of sustainability and environmental
friendly approaches will be reinforced and society as
a whole will benefit.
3.3. Description of the course
In this course, an in depth study on the
typological and construction elements of the
vernacular buildings and settlements is carried out
through theoretical teaching approaches as well as
practical ones with emphasis on the bioclimatic
elements including in situ observations and
investigation (surveying, historic and in situ
investigation, recording, documentation, research). In
addition to the analytical approaches, the course also
covers synthetic and creative matters, methodologies
of evaluation and rehabilitation of the vernacular
settlements, principles of conservation and design
intervention with special emphasis on matters of
sustainability.
Teaching Vernacular Architecture and
Rehabilitation includes many different subjects that
can be divided into two thematic areas (fig. 1):
Basic knowledge concerning the existing
vernacular buildings as well as urban traditional
areas of Cyprus (historic, social, urban
development, morphology, construction,
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
92 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN


new scientific knowledge. It is well known that any
treatment to an existing structure is not likely to be
the last. This course does not try to impose a
particular view on the students, but rather to develop
habits of critical thinking.
3.3.3. Practical project
In parallel with the theoretical teaching, a
practical project divided into an analytical and a
synthetic part is carried out. In the first part of the
project students are dealing with a selected
traditional settlement, followed by an analytical study
of a chosen building or group of buildings. This
project includes urban as well as typological,
morphological and structural analysis of the
traditional settlements and the dwellings (types of
houses and rural layouts - detached system,
arrangement around the central yard, orientations,
inter-relations, communications, materials etc.) with
emphasis on the bioclimatic elements. Additionally,
the daily habits of the residents are recorded in order
to investigate how these habits contribute to the
creation of appropriate living conditions (opening
windows during the night, closing of them during
noon etc.). Survey methods and architectural
analysis are applied to a real case-study.
The in situ visits and observations of real
buildings help the students to acquire a personal
experience of the vernacular settlements and the
internal climatic conditions of old buildings and feel
with their own senses the living conditions and
comfort resulting from the use of appropriate building
materials and forms.


Figure 6. Students sketches of traditional buildings
Thus, the students can realize how comfortable
the traditional space is. They are encouraged to feel
the interaction between people and buildings and
how the buildings serve peoples needs using simple
methods and tools. This deep understanding helps
students initiate rehabilitation and design decisions
in a resourceful and responsible way respecting the
environment and climate of each region.
Through the surveying of vernacular buildings,
students will acquire the practical architectural skills
for site analysis (measuring, observing, sketching
etc.) that are essential for their studies and their
future professional practice (fig. 6).
The survey and detailed analysis is followed by
the second part of the project that includes graphic
proposals for the reuse of vernacular buildings using
contemporary and traditional methods. The students
are invited to recover and refurbish the traditional
buildings and to explore small architectural design
proposals inside and outside the existing fabric and
to choose materials and techniques autonomously in
order to preserve and reinforce their bioclimatic
elements. This part of the project includes detailed
architectural drawings as well as 3D graphic models
(fig. 7). Students develop the first part of the project
(analysis) on an individual basis and their design
projects on a team basis and have weekly micro-
studio criticisms.




Figure 7. Students design intervention proposals
Working on a specific traditional building, the
students are invited to develop their personal
choices of intervention, using mainly new materials
with proper structural behaviour which are
compatible with the authentic ones. The design
interventions incorporated are developed through a
holistic approach, taking into serious consideration
all the values of the buildings and especially the
bioclimatic elements of vernacular architecture (fig.
4). Therefore, students create new architectural
approaches for the rehabilitation of traditional
buildings which would also be applicable to new
contemporary structures, converging with the
solutions reached by traditional architecture through
centuries of trials and errors far away from
picturesque or historic conservative approaches. As
vernacular architecture does not rely on high-tech
energy consuming systems for heating, cooling and
ventilation, the students are encouraged to think
about passive sustainable systems in design
projects.
The combination of theoretical teaching,
assignments and projects is a pedagogical approach
and an implemented educational strategy which
leads to an overall knowledge of the subject and to
the acquisition of essential practical tools. The
theoretical and practical parts of the course are
a vertical layout is created where very often the top
of a house serves as a veranda for the level above.
Thus, nature, climate and topography are important
parameters that play a significant role in the design.
Streets are very narrow surrounded by one or two
storey dwellings that offer shading to the passage
way (fig. 3).


Figure 4. Building materials (studentss work)
A special issue of the course is the study of the
thermal insulation of the buildings which is achieved
by using materials with a high thermal transfer
coefficient and with good thermal inertia (fig. 4). The
walls are built of stone or mud bricks or a
combination of the two, depending on the region. For
ceilings and roofs, thermal insulation is provided by
successive layers of clay, twigs and straw laid at the
top of the main beams. Small roof overhangs are
acting as shading devices in the hot summer,
keeping rain water from walls and windows during
winter (fig. 4).
Shading and ventilation constitute two very
important parameters that are investigated in detail in
many different stages of the course. Shading of the
houses and especially of the south walls is achieved
through plantation of deciduous trees and
scafoldings supporting deciduous vines. Thus
plantation is used as a sunshine moderating factor
preventing direct sunshine rays during summer and
admitting sunlight in winter (fig. 5). The main facade
of the dwellings is oriented towards the south,
whereas the north facade is usually opaque and
completely closed. Ventilation is mainly achieved
through the various openings of the houses and
especially through their cross arrangement. They are
sized and placed proportionally in order to allow the
required amount of light and air circulation and to
provide comfort. Windows are often minimized to be
consistent with interior requirements. Smaller
openings (arseres) located above these windows
(just below the roof) serve for ventilation purposes,
allowing the warm air to escape and at the same
time providing daylight to the maximum depth
possible and serving ventilation needs when the
house is not occupied.



Figure 5. Shading with deciduous trees (studentss work)
3.3.2. Rehabilitation principles
Another very important part of the theoretical
teaching is the analysis of the different charters and
declarations concerning conservation involving the
great diversity of values of vernacular architecture.
Through the study of these charters, issues
concerning integration of missing parts, elimination of
additions, compatibility, retreatibility and reversibility
of materials and structures are covered. These
principles include the idea of sustainability as they
enable future treatments to be carried out based on
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 93


new scientific knowledge. It is well known that any
treatment to an existing structure is not likely to be
the last. This course does not try to impose a
particular view on the students, but rather to develop
habits of critical thinking.
3.3.3. Practical project
In parallel with the theoretical teaching, a
practical project divided into an analytical and a
synthetic part is carried out. In the first part of the
project students are dealing with a selected
traditional settlement, followed by an analytical study
of a chosen building or group of buildings. This
project includes urban as well as typological,
morphological and structural analysis of the
traditional settlements and the dwellings (types of
houses and rural layouts - detached system,
arrangement around the central yard, orientations,
inter-relations, communications, materials etc.) with
emphasis on the bioclimatic elements. Additionally,
the daily habits of the residents are recorded in order
to investigate how these habits contribute to the
creation of appropriate living conditions (opening
windows during the night, closing of them during
noon etc.). Survey methods and architectural
analysis are applied to a real case-study.
The in situ visits and observations of real
buildings help the students to acquire a personal
experience of the vernacular settlements and the
internal climatic conditions of old buildings and feel
with their own senses the living conditions and
comfort resulting from the use of appropriate building
materials and forms.


Figure 6. Students sketches of traditional buildings
Thus, the students can realize how comfortable
the traditional space is. They are encouraged to feel
the interaction between people and buildings and
how the buildings serve peoples needs using simple
methods and tools. This deep understanding helps
students initiate rehabilitation and design decisions
in a resourceful and responsible way respecting the
environment and climate of each region.
Through the surveying of vernacular buildings,
students will acquire the practical architectural skills
for site analysis (measuring, observing, sketching
etc.) that are essential for their studies and their
future professional practice (fig. 6).
The survey and detailed analysis is followed by
the second part of the project that includes graphic
proposals for the reuse of vernacular buildings using
contemporary and traditional methods. The students
are invited to recover and refurbish the traditional
buildings and to explore small architectural design
proposals inside and outside the existing fabric and
to choose materials and techniques autonomously in
order to preserve and reinforce their bioclimatic
elements. This part of the project includes detailed
architectural drawings as well as 3D graphic models
(fig. 7). Students develop the first part of the project
(analysis) on an individual basis and their design
projects on a team basis and have weekly micro-
studio criticisms.




Figure 7. Students design intervention proposals
Working on a specific traditional building, the
students are invited to develop their personal
choices of intervention, using mainly new materials
with proper structural behaviour which are
compatible with the authentic ones. The design
interventions incorporated are developed through a
holistic approach, taking into serious consideration
all the values of the buildings and especially the
bioclimatic elements of vernacular architecture (fig.
4). Therefore, students create new architectural
approaches for the rehabilitation of traditional
buildings which would also be applicable to new
contemporary structures, converging with the
solutions reached by traditional architecture through
centuries of trials and errors far away from
picturesque or historic conservative approaches. As
vernacular architecture does not rely on high-tech
energy consuming systems for heating, cooling and
ventilation, the students are encouraged to think
about passive sustainable systems in design
projects.
The combination of theoretical teaching,
assignments and projects is a pedagogical approach
and an implemented educational strategy which
leads to an overall knowledge of the subject and to
the acquisition of essential practical tools. The
theoretical and practical parts of the course are
a vertical layout is created where very often the top
of a house serves as a veranda for the level above.
Thus, nature, climate and topography are important
parameters that play a significant role in the design.
Streets are very narrow surrounded by one or two
storey dwellings that offer shading to the passage
way (fig. 3).


Figure 4. Building materials (studentss work)
A special issue of the course is the study of the
thermal insulation of the buildings which is achieved
by using materials with a high thermal transfer
coefficient and with good thermal inertia (fig. 4). The
walls are built of stone or mud bricks or a
combination of the two, depending on the region. For
ceilings and roofs, thermal insulation is provided by
successive layers of clay, twigs and straw laid at the
top of the main beams. Small roof overhangs are
acting as shading devices in the hot summer,
keeping rain water from walls and windows during
winter (fig. 4).
Shading and ventilation constitute two very
important parameters that are investigated in detail in
many different stages of the course. Shading of the
houses and especially of the south walls is achieved
through plantation of deciduous trees and
scafoldings supporting deciduous vines. Thus
plantation is used as a sunshine moderating factor
preventing direct sunshine rays during summer and
admitting sunlight in winter (fig. 5). The main facade
of the dwellings is oriented towards the south,
whereas the north facade is usually opaque and
completely closed. Ventilation is mainly achieved
through the various openings of the houses and
especially through their cross arrangement. They are
sized and placed proportionally in order to allow the
required amount of light and air circulation and to
provide comfort. Windows are often minimized to be
consistent with interior requirements. Smaller
openings (arseres) located above these windows
(just below the roof) serve for ventilation purposes,
allowing the warm air to escape and at the same
time providing daylight to the maximum depth
possible and serving ventilation needs when the
house is not occupied.



Figure 5. Shading with deciduous trees (studentss work)
3.3.2. Rehabilitation principles
Another very important part of the theoretical
teaching is the analysis of the different charters and
declarations concerning conservation involving the
great diversity of values of vernacular architecture.
Through the study of these charters, issues
concerning integration of missing parts, elimination of
additions, compatibility, retreatibility and reversibility
of materials and structures are covered. These
principles include the idea of sustainability as they
enable future treatments to be carried out based on
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
94 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
developed simultaneously. Thus, in situ building
surveys, analytical studies and design interventions
run parallel to the theoretical lessons. Through this
course, the students will develop skills regarding
bioclimatic and other important elements of
vernacular architecture, acquiring a holistic
understanding of the existing built environment.
Figure 8. Sketches of students surveying
The results of the analytical and synthetic parts of
the projects show that the students acquire the
essential skills for documentation, recording (fig. 8
and fig. 9) and analysis of vernacular architecture,
recognising and preserving its bioclimatic elements
and incorporating them during their design
interventions.


Figure 9. Construction details (students work)
4. CONCLUSION
Many architects have today turned to traditional
architecture for answers even to modern problems,
observing its forms, and use, analysing its rules and
patterns and studying its physical and social
structure. Good architecture understands the past,
rescues still-standing values and combines these
values with contemporary techniques that allow the
development of an energy efficient up-to-date
architecture [8]. Thus, the importance of vernacular
architecture does not lie on its study as a past
tradition, but as a contribution to new methods,
solutions and achievements for the future built
environment.
Architectural education today focuses not only
on the buildings themselves, but also on more
complex social issues, such as links between
environmental quality and human equality, requiring
a new pedagogy which sees students developing
skills and competencies for participation and action
[9]. A systematic knowledge of traditional
architecture and building technologies is the basis for
supporting stable, balanced and sustainable socio-
economic development and promoting conservation
and rehabilitation of vernacular architecture.
A deep and meaningful engagement with
vernacular architecture and the rehabilitation process
can inspire creative designs that sustain the
productive life of the existing environment. If all the
undergraduate students in architecture schools
become familiar with vernacular architecture and its
bioclimatic elements, they will be ready to develop an
attitude of sustainability towards the environment.
5. REFERENCES
[1] A. Rapport, Vernacular Design as a Model
System in Vernacular Architecture in the
Twenty-First Century: Theory Education and
Practice, ed. by L. Asquith and M. Vellinga
(2006).
[2] A. Heal, C. Paradise and W. Forster, The
Vernacular as a Model for Sustainable Design,
Proc. 23th Conference on Passive and Low
Energy Architecture, Geneva Switzerland
(2006).
[3] L. Asquith and M. Vellinga, Introduction,
Vernacular Architecture in the Twenty-First
Century: Theory Education and Practice (2006)
[4] Sinos, S., A Review of the Vernacular
Architecture of Cyprus. Athens (1976).
[5] Ionas, J., La Maisone Rurale de Chypre. (XVII-
XXe sicle). Aspects et Techniques de
Consturction, icosie Publications of the
Science Research Centre. Nicosia. Cyprus
(1988)
[6] Papacharalambous, G., The Cypriot Dwelling.
Publications of the Cyprus Research Center II.
Nicosia (1968).
[7] Sinos, S. Types of Rural Dwellings in Cyprus, in
Acts of the International Archaeological
Symposium Cyprus Between the Orient and the
Occident, Nicosia, 8-14 September 1985, pp.
520-533.
[8] C. Ganem, A. Esteves and H. Coch, Traditional
climate-adapted typologies as a base for a new
contemporary architectural approach, Proc. 23th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy
Architecture, Geneva Switzerland (2006).
[9] C. S. Hayles and S. E. Holdsworth, Curriculum
Change for Sustainability, Journal for Education
in the Built Environment, Vol.3, Issue 1, July
2008, 25-48.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 95


Cooperative Design in a Postgraduate Distance
Learning Scheme in Brazil:
A case study on a more sustainable low-cost housing proposal
M. A. SATTLER
1
, L. M. S. ANDRADE
2
, R. R. M. P. BARROS
3
, G. S. TENORIO
2

1
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul-UFRGS, Porto Alegre, Brasil, e-mail: masattler@gmail.com
2
University of Brasilia-UnB, Brasilia, Brasil, e-mail: lizaandrade@uol.com.br; gabi@unb.br
3
State University of Campinas-UNICAMP, Campinas, Brasil, e-mail: rpaulabarros@gmail.com
ABSTRACT: This paper describes a successful experience on distance learning in a postgraduate course in
architectural and urban environment rehabilitation, as required by the urgent need to work on education in
sustainability, in a larger scale and counting on contemporary non-conventional approaches. Students from five
geographical regions all over Brazil, with a range of cultural and climatic characteristics, were organized into
groups and asked to consider the specificities of their local realities, when presenting solutions for a low-cost
more sustainable housing project. The design was to be based on eco-construction techniques, permaculture
principles, sustainability strategies and humanizing concepts. The interaction between students was mainly
through discussion forums and chats on the web, and the final product was formatted on a Wiki. The South
group was one among those that reached a fairly high level of quality, when regarding at the incorporation of
sustainability issues. Its work showed a thorough understanding of socioeconomic and environmental
constraints, especially in terms of bioclimatic issues. Thus, it was selected to be described in more depth. This
paper aims at illustrating how the group applied the design method, showing that distance learning is enabling
interesting results also in the area of sustainable architecture and urban planning.
Keywords: distance learning, sustainability education, ecological architecture design, eco-construction
1. INTRODUCTION
The expressive degeneration of the built
environment in recent decades, aligned with the
current economic system, has been concerning a
growing number of people. It is unquestionable the
urgent need for rethinking the human habitat,
especially of low-income communities, with models
of sustainability consistent with a civilization that has
reached its apogee in science and technology, but
has given so little attention to systems for preserving
life.
The awakening of environmental awareness and
its implications for the practice of architecture,
engineering and related fields has been increasingly
valued by Brazilian academic programs. However,
due to the countrys continental dimensions and
developmental disparities among its geographical
regions, opportunities for accessing information and
for construction of knowledge are not the same for
everyone. Distance education initiatives aim at
overcoming this difficulty by bringing students and
teachers closer, making possible the exchange of
expertise and the building of advances together, both
in practical applications and research. Distance
learning network tools allow for previously
unimaginable levels of interaction, which add not
only to those involved in the areas of knowledge
construction but, above all, to the field of education in
general.
The present paper describes the experience of a
challenge presented to students of the Diploma
Course on Sustainable Architecture and Urban
Environment Rehabilitation shortened as Reabilita
(in Portuguese) - connected to the discipline of Eco-
constructions, one of the Diploma Course modules.
This course was created and is hosted by the
Laboratory of Sustainability from the School of
Architecture and Urban Planning of the University of
Brasilia (UnB), with support from the University of
So Paulo (USP) and Federal University of Rio
Grande do Sul (UFRGS). Its goal is to train
professionals, mostly architects, to rehabilitate the
architecture and urban structures as well as to
convey concepts and values which may be employed
even in situations that require the development of
new projects. The modules of Reabilita make an
attempt to enable students to deal with the various
scales of sustainability (from the regional scale down
to that of the building), under different approaches
(from passive environmental control techniques to
recycling and management of derelict sites).
The course is structured on the Moodle virtual
learning environment (moodle.org) and centers the
learning process on the student, stimulating his/her
autonomy. Students share experiences, provide
contents, discuss, and participate in the growth of the
whole group. This interaction is neither mandatory
nor scored on evaluations. It is intended to be
spontaneous and is stimulated by all who come to
realize that this type of construction of knowledge is
also an important component of true sustainability.
Hence it is a system where a great variety of
information is managed, where each one realizes the
importance of the parts in the making of a meaningful
whole, in which the pleasure of communicating and
cooperation is encouraged and where there is no
hierarchy in the interaction. Every student
manifestation, either positive or negative, about the
developed simultaneously. Thus, in situ building
surveys, analytical studies and design interventions
run parallel to the theoretical lessons. Through this
course, the students will develop skills regarding
bioclimatic and other important elements of
vernacular architecture, acquiring a holistic
understanding of the existing built environment.
Figure 8. Sketches of students surveying
The results of the analytical and synthetic parts of
the projects show that the students acquire the
essential skills for documentation, recording (fig. 8
and fig. 9) and analysis of vernacular architecture,
recognising and preserving its bioclimatic elements
and incorporating them during their design
interventions.


Figure 9. Construction details (students work)
4. CONCLUSION
Many architects have today turned to traditional
architecture for answers even to modern problems,
observing its forms, and use, analysing its rules and
patterns and studying its physical and social
structure. Good architecture understands the past,
rescues still-standing values and combines these
values with contemporary techniques that allow the
development of an energy efficient up-to-date
architecture [8]. Thus, the importance of vernacular
architecture does not lie on its study as a past
tradition, but as a contribution to new methods,
solutions and achievements for the future built
environment.
Architectural education today focuses not only
on the buildings themselves, but also on more
complex social issues, such as links between
environmental quality and human equality, requiring
a new pedagogy which sees students developing
skills and competencies for participation and action
[9]. A systematic knowledge of traditional
architecture and building technologies is the basis for
supporting stable, balanced and sustainable socio-
economic development and promoting conservation
and rehabilitation of vernacular architecture.
A deep and meaningful engagement with
vernacular architecture and the rehabilitation process
can inspire creative designs that sustain the
productive life of the existing environment. If all the
undergraduate students in architecture schools
become familiar with vernacular architecture and its
bioclimatic elements, they will be ready to develop an
attitude of sustainability towards the environment.
5. REFERENCES
[1] A. Rapport, Vernacular Design as a Model
System in Vernacular Architecture in the
Twenty-First Century: Theory Education and
Practice, ed. by L. Asquith and M. Vellinga
(2006).
[2] A. Heal, C. Paradise and W. Forster, The
Vernacular as a Model for Sustainable Design,
Proc. 23th Conference on Passive and Low
Energy Architecture, Geneva Switzerland
(2006).
[3] L. Asquith and M. Vellinga, Introduction,
Vernacular Architecture in the Twenty-First
Century: Theory Education and Practice (2006)
[4] Sinos, S., A Review of the Vernacular
Architecture of Cyprus. Athens (1976).
[5] Ionas, J., La Maisone Rurale de Chypre. (XVII-
XXe sicle). Aspects et Techniques de
Consturction, icosie Publications of the
Science Research Centre. Nicosia. Cyprus
(1988)
[6] Papacharalambous, G., The Cypriot Dwelling.
Publications of the Cyprus Research Center II.
Nicosia (1968).
[7] Sinos, S. Types of Rural Dwellings in Cyprus, in
Acts of the International Archaeological
Symposium Cyprus Between the Orient and the
Occident, Nicosia, 8-14 September 1985, pp.
520-533.
[8] C. Ganem, A. Esteves and H. Coch, Traditional
climate-adapted typologies as a base for a new
contemporary architectural approach, Proc. 23th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy
Architecture, Geneva Switzerland (2006).
[9] C. S. Hayles and S. E. Holdsworth, Curriculum
Change for Sustainability, Journal for Education
in the Built Environment, Vol.3, Issue 1, July
2008, 25-48.

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96 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN


course is recorded. Every manifestation tends to be
spontaneous, collaborative and not hierarchical.
The challenge proposed to students during the
2009 Eco-construction module was to design a More
Sustainable Low-Cost Housing Development that
would incorporate a set of more sustainable
techniques in the production of the desired built
environment. More sustainable is here referred as a
little step in the direction of sustainability as we do
not believe in achieving something really sustainable
in the next generations foreseeable future. The aim
was of encouraging the development of alternatives
for more sustainable human settlements which could,
in turn, inspire students and professionals, as well as
the public sector, in committing themselves to
offering better standards of living for those
economically less favoured. The principles for the
development of the projects, their elaboration
dynamics and the commented results shall be
presented here. A final analysis of the process and
product close the report.
In order to carry out the activity, the students
were divided into 9 groups of 8 to 11 people,
representing a variety of regions of Brazil: North (2
groups), Northeast, Southeast, South and Midwest (4
groups). For each group an open forum and a chat
room were created, which remained available
throughout the whole activity. These would be the
proper place for exchange and interaction.
Furthermore, the students were informed that all
discussions would be recorded and could be
retrieved later. The groups had the autonomy to
choose their chat schedule, to decide about the
design location, to prepare all the guidelines and to
divide the design tasks among each one of their
group components. This division, in most cases,
happened almost naturally, and resulted from the
emergence of multiple leaderships, arising from the
affinity with the subject or from a manual skill or a
technical expertise. At the end, all groups got deeply
involved in the development of their specific product,
understanding the meaning - the group participation
in a project of major importance, and the possibility
to work with a real life case study (even considering
all the limitations involved) where to apply the
principles of sustainable design learnt in the module.
Making an appraisal of the process, the teachers
found the results both revealing and surprising:
networks were formed that enabled the groups to
achieve their goals. Regarding the products, some
proposals reached a high level of design, as far as
the incorporation of issues of sustainability are
concerned. One of the groups henceforth named
South Group, as they were from a southern region
of Brazil - showed a thorough understanding of
socioeconomic and environmental constraints,
especially in terms of bioclimatic issues. This is one
of the reasons why it was chosen to be presented
here in more detail.
2. DESIGN AND EVALUATION CRITERIA
The strategies for more sustainable human
settlements were previously presented to the
students of the discipline Eco-constructions -
presenting concepts and methods of design and
construction. These focused on aspects ranging from
the urban to the building scales, such as low
environmental impact building materials, bioclimatic
design, use of sustainable energy sources,
management of household and construction wastes,
local food production, sustainable mobility, water
management, among others. The innovative
proposal of the Eco-construction module was to
promote and encourage the students to work
cooperatively through a Wiki, on a distance
education scheme.
The students were then asked to identify an area
of about one hectare (10,000 sq.m.) in their own
cities. This area should be attractive and appropriate
to carry out the activity: providing easy access and
availability of information about their social,
economic and environmental context, both on digital
and graphical form. The area should be designed to
accommodate a proposal (at a preliminary study
level), for a more sustainable low-cost housing
scheme. The potential degenerative impacts which
could occur should have to be anticipated and
mitigated, and the students should envisage
qualifying both the built and the natural environment.
2.1. Guiding principles for the design of more
sustainable settlements
There is interdependence among environmental
challenges, which must be overcome when aiming at
a more sustainable world. The major ones lie on the
social and environmental spheres and include: the
loss of biodiversity; deforestation of areas for
growing grains and cattle (many times by fire, which
severely increase gas emissions); growing scarcity of
fossil fuels, deterioration of hydric resources (in many
cases leading to shortage), both in quantity and
quality; and the increase of social inequalities.
However, when analyzed in the light of the General
Systems Theory, it is possible to notice that they are
all related to the form in which settlements are
configured, both in urban and rural areas. Although
cities occupy only 2,5% of the Earths surface, they
consume 75% of all its resources.
The way we build places to live shape the way
we live [1]. According to the author, "the construction
builds", and if the physical structure of the city and
his organization are not taken into account, we will
not be able to solve all the problems of disintegration
of the planet and ecosystems. What is built creates
possibilities and limitations to the way we live, at the
same time as it educates those who live in the city on
true values and real concerns.
In order to better understand how to design
human settlements in balance with nature, in such a
way that is also economically viable and creating
pleasant places to live, a study [2] was conducted on
how ecological principles can turned into guidelines
for building more sustainable communities. The
author proposed the use of the principles of
environmental sustainability for the design of urban
settlements. These principles are based on some
authors [3, 4, 5, 6, 7] who suggested the use of the
ecosystemic approach to human settlements and
cities.
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EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 97


The direct application of ecological sciences in
reshaping the foundations of our communities
through green projects is a way to overcome the
barrier that separates the human ecosystems from
the ecologically sustainable systems of nature [3].
The principles of ecological design reflect the
principles of organization of nature, such as
networks, cycles, solar power, alliances, diversity
and dynamic balance. These principles offer a set of
guidelines for building more sustainable
communities.
Sustainable education can be achieved through a
planning system aiming at creating more sustainable
human environments [8]. This is the goal of
permaculture, according to Bill Mollison and David
Holmgren, that in the 70s created its foundations, as
a methodology for creating productive, sustainable
and ecological environments, which enable man to
inhabit the Earth without destroying it. Permaculture
works with three basic principles: Earthcare,
peoplecare and fairshare. This theory is based in the
ideal model of sustainable culture: food security,
water, energy and technology, communication and
culture, ecosystems and local species and economy.
Guiding principles for the construction of more
sustainable places [9] are proposed in alignment with
the following themes: economic and educational
issues, urban settlements, energy, construction,
materials, food production, water and waste. The
design of more sustainable places must also be
concerned with the education of people on how to
can live more sustainably: how to be more efficient in
terms of energy and water consumption and how to
use materials with less embodied energy or near
zero carbon emissions, such as sustainably
managed wood. In addition, the users of such
settlements should also learn how to deal with the
waste produced, avoiding the reckless dumping of
toxic material and composting organic wastes; how
to preserve of the natural surrounding environment
along with its biodiversity, and on the possibility of
producing food on site, in harmony with communal
spaces.
Deriving from these guidelines, a methodological
strategy was proposed for the design of more
sustainable places that included: principles of
permaculture [4] and eco-construction techniques [9];
environmental sustainability strategies applied to
urban design [2]; humanizing concepts within the
categories of urbanity and dwelling [10], in line with
Christopher Alexanders patterns [11].
The principles of permaculture [4] and of eco-
techniques [9] were organised as follows:
-Materials: use of local and non-toxic materials that
are culturally accepted and have a small footprint.
-Buildings (in and around): use of adequate
openings, for ventilation and lighting; fruit trees and
deciduous trees, for shading; herbs in and around;
areas improving habitability and respect for regional
architecture characteristics.
-Energy: use of renewable and alternative energy
sources, including biodigestion, to produce biogas
and fertilizers.
-Water: use of rainwater for domestic use, irrigation
and toilet flushing; complementary water collection
and retention basins, for irrigation and food
production.
-Waste: recycling of organic and inorganic wastes;
composting; wastewater treatment with the aid of
aquaculture ponds; biodigestors; dry toilets; water
reuse.
-Food: local production; productive landscaping;
diversity of cultures; infiltration channels; crop
rotation systems; chicken tractors (Permaculture);
mulch and trailing plants for soil protection; organic
farming; gardening with organic standards.
-Site-planning: fitting to the topography; re-use of
tires, debris, and stones for the buildings; winding
routes (roads and paths) giving priority to
pedestrians; permeable paving; intensive use of
vegetation, to improve the local climate; organic
architecture; adaptation to local climate; zoning of
cultures, according to intensity of use.
-Socioeconomic issues: nurseries run by
communities; community center to suit different
activities; open areas, for recreation and social
interaction; commercialization of food surpluses and
inorganic waste; income generation through in
housing work spaces.
Principles of environmental sustainability [7] were
translated into strategies and techniques for the
design process [2]. These are attributes or principles
associated with urban morphology that can directly
guide the deployment and recovery of urban
communities, bringing significant and long-range
impacts in the economic development and social and
environmental health. The suggested techniques and
strategies are as follows:
-Environmental protection (biodiversity):
environmental assessment and surveying of
environmental legislation in the area and law
enforcement and recovery plans for watersheds or
forests.
-Urban Infill: avoiding urban sprawl, to restrain the
urban occupation of agricultural land; increasing the
sense of community and reducing emissions of
carbon dioxide by minimizing commuting.
-Urban Regeneration: restoring urban areas in
order to increment the use of existing infrastructure;
aiming at living cities, attracting new residents,
commerce and activities into neighbourhoods in
revitalized derelict areas.
-Establishment of neighbourhood centers:
commerce within walking distances -Local
economic development: establishment of l
strategies for the development of local economy,
-Implementation of sustainable transport:
provision of bicycle lanes, made agreeable and
confortable by vegetation, interconnected with
streets or public transport networks; creation of
attractive pedestrian connections and speed
bumps;; encouragement to walking or riding
bicycles, which promotes the reduction of CO2.
Narrowing streets; reduction of impermeable
surfaces;
-Affordable houses: along with urban design, such
as inclusive zoning, density bonuses and money for
land, encouraging economic housing; diversity and
mixed social standards, with a variety of housing of
different costs.
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98 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN


-Communities with a sense of neighbourhood
(habitable): providing opportunities for sociability and
community facilities -Alternative wastewater
treatment and natural drainage: treatment of
wastewater with plants (root zones) or wetlands.
-Integrated water management: compacting
developments; use of roof gardens and permeable
parking lots and roads; cisterns, for reuse of
rainwater or local treatment of wastewater;
-Alternative energy: using energy from renewable
sources, such as solar, wind and biomass energy;
-Policies based on the 5R's (Reflect, Reduce,
Reuse, Recycle, Refuse): including reuse and
recycling of buildings and construction wastes.
Humanizing concepts [10] incorporate about 65
design parameters and aim at structuring a
humanizing knowledge base to support a better
fulfilment of an ample spectrum of human needs in
multifamily housing. The patterns of Christopher
Alexander [11] were translated and interpreted as
design parameters in order to emphasize its content
and propositional character, especially considering
the prescriptive character commonly associated to
the term pattern in Portuguese. The concepts require
an effective compatibility among the different
possibilities individually suggested by the design
parameters. The two main categories Sense of
Urbanity and Sense of Dwelling respectively
focused more directly on the territorial arrangement
and on the building scale and dwelling units
themselves - are considered equally fundamental to
design quality as a whole and are here briefly
described. The conceptual category Sense of
Urbanity aims to provide urban vivacity to
settlements that requires avoiding rigid zoning, social
segregation and difficulty of locomotion. Other aspect
to be considered is the enabling of the perception of
a sense of place in tune with the surrounding
environment, from the arrangement and articulation
of outdoor spaces, which enhances psychological
functions of orientation and identification. A
sensibility to the existing built and natural
environment allied to specific spatial attributes and
social sustainability parameters valuing household
mix, diversity of income, mixed use, pedestrian
circulation all contributing to spatial connectivity,
legibility and identity. The conceptual category
Sense of Dwelling attempts to provide, beyond
basic needs of environmental comfort and use, a
sense of inhabiting that fulfils the necessities of
refuge, isolation, conviviality, order and variety. They
focus on the following issues: (1) impact of site
planning and units joining possibilities to aspects of
environmental comfort and privacy; (2) relation
between physical structure and social spaces so that
form and dimensional proportions of spaces prioritize
the fulfilment of varied human needs and not a
simplistic constructional rationality; (3) indoor
arrangements and transition zones aiming at an
efficient, legible and permeable intimacy gradient; (4)
character and attributes of natural and artificial
lighting, finishing materials and roof; (5) offer of
housing options to diverse household types and its
implications to construction system, maintenance,
adaptability and expansion.
2.2. Evaluation criteria for the design activity
The work was supposed to be accomplished in
teams and the team itself should define (and justify!)
the chosen design guidelines (or guiding concepts):
density, number of dwellings and maximum
population, characteristics of the occupation, land
use, additional equipment, integration with the
environment etc. All the principles above described
were to be implemented and would serve as guiding
parameters to the assessment of the students
works. In addition, the evaluation would consider:
characterization of the area in various fields:
consistent design guidelines; adequacy of the
solutions to the context of sustainability and
established guidelines; creativity and uniqueness of
solutions; and graphic and textual quality of the
proposal. The proposals were evaluated with basis
on the criteria shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Evaluation criteria for Eco-Construction activities.
EVALUATION
CRITERIA
ECO-CONSTRUCTION
ACTIVITIES
P
R
O
C
E
S
S
Participation 1.Foruns; 2.Chats; 3.Wikis
Analysis 1.Environmental restraints;
2.Social economical situation;
3.Urban context; 4.Repertoire
P
R
O
D
U
C
T

Sustainability
principles
applied to
urban design
1.Environmental protection;
2.Density; 3.Sense of
neighbourhood; 4.Urban
rehabilitation; 5.Economic
development and commercial
centers; 6.Natural drainage;
7.Low impact sewage treatment;
8.5Rs Policy; 9.Renewable
energy; 10.Integrated water
management; 11.Mobility and
accessibility; 12.Affordable
housing
Eco-techniques
and
permaculture
1.Materials; 2.Housing;
3.Energy; 4.Wastes; 5.Food
production; 6.Site-planning;
7.Water; 8.Socio economic and
educational issues
Humanizing
concepts and
design
parameters
(patterns)
Sense of Urbanity: 1.Sensibility
to the built and natural
environments; 2.Connectivity,
legibility and social
sustainability; 3.Identity
Sense of Dwelling: 1.Spatial
harmony: relation between
environmental comfort and
privacy; 2.Sense of home;
3.Options and flexibility

The final submission was expected to be a text
collectively built, using the Wiki software (similar to
the one used by Wikipedia), where anyone would be
able and entitled to edit a regular text. This text
should contain the presentation of the target area
and its characterization (product analysis and
evaluations); illustrations of the target area,
descriptive text, illustrated with technical drawings
and schematic volumetric perspectives in such a way
to allow the proposal to be understood (settlement
and housing units). Within a five-week period for the
whole module, the students were given three weeks
for accomplishing the design assignment. Teachers
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EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 99


and project coordinators were aware of time
constraints, but believed possible the satisfactory
completion of the activity at the end of this period.
3. THE CASE STUDY
The Design Proposals for a More Sustainable
Low-Cost Housing Development developed by the
students were considered as achieving a fairly high
standard, with regard to the incorporation of
sustainability issues into design. From the nine
students groups involved in the challenge, three
achieved the expected standard, two were
considered as achieving an intermediate level, and
the remaining works fell below the expectations.
Preceded by a short description of the South Group
chosen area, a design analysis summing up the
teachers evaluations of the design product is
presented and followed by their proposal in Figure 1.
Located not far from a large rural zone of rice
cultivation, the area chosen by the South Group was
in the midst of an urbanized neighbourhood named
Bairro do Meio, in the city of Joinville, up North in the
State of Santa Catarina, South of Brazil, close to a
mountain range and not far from the sea. The land
has a 10% slope and almost no vegetation. The local
climate is characterized by four well-defined
seasons, with short dry periods. Temperature ranges
from monthly averages of about 26C to 19C with
prevailing winds come from East and Northeast (in
summer) and from the South in winter. The teachers
appraisal of the Groups work was as follows:
a) Sustainability principles applied to urban
design: Excellent understanding of the
socioeconomic and environmental constraints,
especially in terms of bioclimatic issues. The only
missing topic was the detailing of the environmental
impacts of the settlement on the Morro do Meio
basin. The area could hold a higher density and the
connections with the city could be better established
by paths, commercial and service areas (such as the
proposed community center), along pedestrian and
bicycle paths that surround the area and cross the
central axis leading to the housing units. b) Eco-
techniques: The chosen materials fit well within the
specified region, as well as the strategies for comfort,
wastes treatment, recovery and reuse of water and
permaculture techniques. The large convivial central
axis is the community meeting point, the space for
enjoyment, meeting, stay. It was provided with green
areas with sitting spaces, pergolas supporting
shading plants, creepers, flowers and bushes. Sitting
areas with playing tables, as well as playgrounds,
green areas, kiosks for barbecue making and
provided with hammocks, tables for eating in groups,
turn this space into the central artery of the
settlement, with it vitality derived from meetings,
access to dwellings and access to playing areas.
Next to the dwellings a vegetable garden was
proposed, for every two houses, besides the
collective gardening area in the higher plot in the
housing settlement. c) Humanizing concepts:
Sense of Urbanity: Building improving land with
careful consideration of environmental constraints.
Good intertwining of building and place and views.
The proposal could be improved with the inclusion of
positive external spaces and connected buildings, as
well as with increased users diversity. Design of the
community center is underdeveloped and seems
disconnected from the housing units. Sense of
Dwelling: Units elevated from the ground enjoy
privacy and natural ventilation. Design prioritizes
natural light for different rooms and positions;
bedrooms to the east. Good intimacy gradient. There
is an entrance transition, entrance room and
openings gradient. The units allow expansion.


Figure 1: South Group design proposal. Design team:
E.O. Beck, A.R. Beine, B.M. Guimares, R.B. Martins,
F.K.R. Mingotti, C.C. Rothen, M.C. Scharnik and E.O.
Soares.
4. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
This paper describes a successful experience in
distance teaching and learning, as far as interpreted
by the authors. First, due to the students
involvement in a rewarding in their own words
and sustainable process of cooperation in the
development of their final work. This process
enabled them to put into practice what they learned,
not only during the module of the Eco-construction
discipline, but also during the whole Reabilita
Course. The Internet discussion forums, chats and
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100 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN


even mutual consulting among themselves brought
into close contact students, from several different
Brazilian regions, some several thousand miles apart
,almost as they where collaborating in the same
office. Although some students, mostly those deeply
involved in their day-to-day activities and having little
time to interact, referred that it was hard to work this
way, others felt very motivated and even
demonstrated their enthusiasm with the learning and
the achieved results.
Something similar was also felt on the teachers side.
The whole team of teachers (authors of this paper),
tutors and course coordinators was not sure of what
could result from this experience and what would be
the students response. As far as we know it was the
first experience of the kind in Brazil. The whole
evolution of the design process was documented,
step by step, in a way that enabled assessing each
student individually, and not, as is the usual in
traditional teaching, where just the final work is
presented and assessed.
The overall assessment made by the teachers
directly involved in the process was that the Eco-
Construction module demanded them intensely in
the first issue of this experience. It can be said that
three stages were clearly distinct: the first, that was
the creative step leading to the conception of the
activity and the process itself; the second, by far the
most demanding, as it required an almost continuous
presence of, at least, one member from the teaching
team on the Moodle platform; and the last, requiring
the final formatting of the texts associated to the
Wikis and those connected to the students tasks
assessment. It must be recognized that not all
achieved products, the design ideas proposed by the
students, for a More Sustainable Low Cost Housing
Development, were considered achieving a high
standard, mainly with regard to what was the main
aim: sustainability issues being incorporated into
design. The authors evaluation was that, from the
nine groups involved in the challenge, three achieved
the expected standard, two were considered as
achieving an intermediate level, and the remaining
works fell below the expectations.
The experience, new both to students as to the
teachers, should constitute a new reference, at least
inside Reabilita Course, towards teaching/learning
processes. First, due to its highly inclusive outcome:
counting with students from 24 different Brazilian
States (out of a total of 26 Brazilian Federative
States) and the Federal District, with students as far
apart as 5.000 km and that ordinarily would be
unable to attend a post-graduate course. Secondly,
due to the diversity of sustainability dimensions
challenging the participating students: environmental,
economical, social, cultural, spatial, among others.
The most noticeable advance in teaching and
learning was its participatory characteristics in the
emerging network. It is understood that the process
showed such richness that new studies will be
stimulated trying to formulate what, maybe, could
lead to a new path to educating in a more
sustainable way: An Education in Sustainability in the
Areas of Architecture and Urban Planning in the
Wikis Era.
5. REFERENCES
[1] Register, R. Ecocities, building cities in balance
with nature. Berkeley: Berkeley Hills Book, 2002.
[2] Andrade, L.M.S. Agenda verde x Agenda
marrom: Inexistncia de princpios ecolgicos
para o desenho de assentamentos urbanos.
Dissertao (Mestrado) - Faculdade de
Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de
Braslia. Braslia, 2005. Available at:
<http://www.unb.br/fau/pesquisa/sustentabilidad
e/pesquisadores/Alberto/curr%EDculo%20liza/P
arte1.pdf>
<http://www.unb.br/fau/pesquisa/sustentabilidad
e/pesquisadores/Alberto/curr%EDculo%20liza/P
arte2.pdf> [accessed 10 January 2008]
[3] Capra, F. As conexes ocultas, cincia para um
vida sustentvel. So Paulo:
Pensamento/Cultrix, 2002.
[4] Mollison, B. Introduo permacultura. Braslia:
Fundao Daniel Efraim Dazcal, 1998.
[5] Rueda, S. Modelos e indicadores para ciudades
ms sostenibles. Barcelona: Departament de
Medi Ambient de la Generalitat de la
Catalunya/Fundaci Forum Ambiental, 1999.
[6] Rogers, R. and Gumuchdjiam, P. Cidades para
um pequeno planeta. Barcelona: Editorial
Gustavo Gilli, 2001.
[7] Dauncey, G. and Peck, S. 12 features of
sustainable community development: social,
economic and environmental benefits and two
case studies in sustainable community
development in Canada. Available at:
<http://www.peck.ca/nua/> [accessed 15
October 2009]
[8] Legan, L. A Escola Sustentvel, eco-
alfabetizando pelo ambiente. 2a edio
atualizada e revisada - So Paulo, Imprensa
Oficial do Estado de So Paulo, Pirenpolis,
GO: Ecocentro IPEC, 2007.
[9] Sattler, M.A.. Habitaes de Baixo Custo mais
Sustentveis: a Casa Alvorada e o Centro
Experimental de Tecnologias Habitacionais
Sustentveis. Coleo Habitare/ FINEP. Porto
Alegre, 2007. Available at:
<http://www.habitare.org.br/pdf/publicacoes/arqu
ivos/colecao9/livro_completo.pdf> [accessed 10
January 2008]
[10] Barros, R.R.M.P. Habitao coletiva: a incluso
de conceitos humanizadores no processo de
projeto. Tese (Doutorado) - Faculdade de
Engenharia Civil, Arquitetura e Urbanismo,
Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas,
2008. Available at:
<http://libdigi.unicamp.br/document/?code=0004
34038> [accessed 10 March 2009]
[11] Alexander, C., Ishikawa, S., Silverstein, M.,
Jacobson, M.; Fiksdahl-king, I.; Angel, S. A
pattern language: towns, buildings, construction.
New York: Oxford Univ., 1977.
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EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 101
NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN TEACHING
SUSTAINABILITY IN SPAIN BY COMPETENCES
Mara LPEZ DE ASIAIN
1
, Pilar PREZ DEL REAL
1
, Jaime LPEZ DE ASIAIN
1
,
1
SAMA, S.C. SEMINARIO DE ARQUITECTURA Y MEDIOAMBIENTE
C/ Placentines, 29 - 41004 Sevilla
Tel / Fax +34 954 56 00 66 - Email: info@arquitecturaymedioambiente.es

ABSTRACT: This article presents a reflection regarding the new opportunities that have arisen for the new
Spanish architecture curricula adapted to Bologna. Beginning with the study of the new curricula structures and
modules in the different schools of architecture and following with the environmental and sustainability related
competences[1] and skills an architect should acquire, it presents a proposal of integration of those skills in the
curricula in a transversal way. The curricula of two different schools of architecture have been studied in depth, the
curriculum of Seville and A Corua, due to their particular structures based on a workshop module where technical
knowledge and design skills are developed in an integrated way. The specific competences that could be
integrated in these special workshop modules are developed and the possible methodologies that could be used
are proposed. The possible further diffusion and useful integration of these strategies in some other Spanish and
European architecture curriculum are studied and proposed as well. These research belongs to the EDUCATE
European Project [4] that aims to integrate the environmental sustainability issues and methodologies into the
European architecture curriculums.
Keywords: education, sustainability, sustainable architecture, competences, learning skills
1. STATE OF THE ART OF
ENVIRONMENTAL TEACHING IN SPAIN
Spain is currently delved in the process of
discussing the powers granted to architects as
practitioners. The Ministry of Education, the
universities and the National Chamber of
Architects of Spain are trying to reach an
agreement that does not imply a change of the
powers that architects have nowadays in Spain,
and also that make sure these functions are not
transmitted to other professionals. Within this
frame, the Schools of Architecture throughout
Spain are working on the adaptation of their
syllabuses to the Bologna process. Very few
Architecture schools have actually adapted to
this protocol and many syllabuses are being
developed and therefore are still not accredited
nor validated by the Ministry.
Due to this situation, in Spain it is difficult to
find examples where environmental contents in
teaching have been developed and tested, both
at undergraduate and graduate level. However,
the organizational and methodological structures
proposed by some syllabuses show the potential
opportunities that they can develop. This is the
case of La Corua and Seville, as we will
comment later on.
On the other hand, we find some examples
consolidated to certain extent- at the
postgraduate level which specifically work on
environmental issues,
although only at the theoretical level. As
environmental contents are virtually inexistent in
the syllabuses at the graduate level, in
postgraduate studies it is impossible to
introduce practical issues, for the focus is set on
the change of mentality and raising of
awareness as well as in developing theoretical
aspects unknown to the students. These
postgraduate studies are the following: Masters
in Environmental City and Architecture,
University of Seville; Masters in Renewable
Energies: Architecture and Urban Planning. The
sustainable City 2009, International University of
Andalusia (UNIA); Architecture and
Environment: Integration of Renewable Energies
in Architecture, Polytechnic University of
Catalonia (UPC); Urban Environment and
Sustainability, Polytechnic University of
Catalonia (UPC); Masters in Bioclimatic
Architecture, Polytechnic University of Madrid
(UPM).In Spain, some environmental contents
are found in the graduate syllabuses of the
Schools of Architecture of Barcelona and Valls
(Polytechnic University of Catalonia), La
Corua, Granada, Madrid, San Sebastin,
Seville and Valencia. The case of the new
syllabus of La Corua yet to be implemented
is particularly interesting. The degree consists
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102 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
of 300 credits and it ends with the presentation
and advocacy of a Final Project. The credits of
the syllabus are distributed in four-month
subjects, each of which corresponds to a
module. Teaching is approached through the
WORKSHOP as a learning tool. The Workshop
is a working space to exchange knowledge and
has been conceived to facilitate the confluence
of contents of the different subjects around the
architectural design project. The aim for this is to
ensure optimization of teaching resources and
rationalization of student work. This workshop
may be the most appropriate space to work on
environmental issues to be introduced.
The School of Architecture of Seville is
introducing a similar workshop in its new
syllabus supported by six teachers who teach
simultaneously different architectural disciplines-
, promoting interchange and an integral
approach very suitable to deal with transversal
aspects to architectural knowledge such as
environmental issues.
2. ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN IN THE
ACADEMIC CURRICULUM OF THE
SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE OF
SEVILLE
Since the 1980s, this school has hosted a
research group initially called Seminar of
Bioclimatic Architecture and later Seminar of
Architecture and Environment which has been
developing environmental issues and applying
them in the teaching methods of the module on
Architectural Composition.
With the gradual introduction of the 1998
curriculum, the modules "Architecture and
Environment" and "Planning and Environment"
are created, being elective 1 semester modules
of the 4th and 5th year respectively. The
theoretical content and methodology of the
practical classes of these modules is as follows:
Architectural Composition: Knowledge and
understanding of the architectural fact in all its
complexity from a scientific, environmental,
hermeneutic or formal approach.
The environment is considered one of the
main variables to be taken into account in the
architectural and urban project, thereby
occupying a prominent place in the program.
Conceptual issues are addressed, and
examples of environmental architecture and
urban design are studied. Students are asked to
include these issues in their practical work.
Architecture and Environment: Ecological
and scientific fundamentals of dwelling.
The program proposes a structure and
treatment of key issues to be considered when
undertaking an architectural project and also
approaches a design methodology that includes
energy-environmental criteria in the
development of the architectural project. The
student is asked to do an in-depth practical work
on a research topic of their choice among the
contents of the module.
Environmental Planning: Planning and
Sustainability. This module considers the
relationship between the city and the territory
from a sustainability perspective. Urban
planning in used and developed as a basic tool
for the protection of natural areas and proper
management and planning of land in general. It
addresses the design of the urban space from a
planning methodology that uses sustainability
indicators. The students share a common
practical work in which, without losing the overall
perspective, different groups of students cover a
specific topic or a particular field in both the
gathering and analysis of information and in the
design process. The groups show their work to
one another periodically.
We should also point out that many modules
clearly address environmental issues without
actually considering them specifically
environmental. Some examples are Physics II,
Theory of Architecture, Solar Geometry,
Construction III, Construction V, Other
Technologies, Organization and Management of
Works, Installations, Architectural Design III, IV
and V and Solar Energy Installation in
Architecture. Moreover, it has to be pointed out
that many teachers of this school have shown
interest in the gradual introduction of
environmental issues, many of whom have been
gradually introducing them in different modules
of the academic curriculum.
Considering that environmental issues are
intrinsic to architecture, it is necessary to
include, increase and emphasize environmental
contents currently present (and those to be
included) in core and obligatory modules, so that
they are part of the basic training that any
architect with a Bachelor degree should acquire.
The new syllabus that is now beginning to be
developed and taught in its first year, is a great
opportunity to work on, specially into the new
courses developed as workshops supported by
six teachers who teach simultaneously different
architectural disciplines.
3. ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN IN THE
ACADEMIC CURRICULUM OF THE
SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE OF A
CORUA
The syllabus the School of Architecture of La
Corua has generated -within its marked
structure of annual and semester modules- a
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EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 103
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workshop space in which students study the
relationships between the different disciplines
around architectural design. This transversal
approach to architectural learning - in which
different modules show common aspects- helps
students understand architectural design as an
exercise of consistency between the different
architectural aspects at stake. This facilitates the
integration of sustainability issues from every
possible angle: technological, social or from a
design point of view.
During the first year, workshops 1 and 2 will
integrate environmental competences regarding
the program of needs in architectural design
through the architectural design modules. This
way, when they establish a program of needs,
students will start considering both the needs of
the client and the new social environmental
requirements.
In the second year, architectural design
modules deepen into the environmental and
sustainability criteria introduced in the previous
year. While in the first semester the student
begins to develop of urbanization and gardening
projects, in the second semester they are
provided with the necessary knowledge for the
accomplishment of environmental and
landscaping studies that can produce measures
of protection against environmental impact.
In the third year, both workshops of the first
and second semester integrate design modules
with construction modules, allowing the
confluence of contents of both subjects around
the architectural project, thus rationalizing the
students work.
The workshop coordinator, before the
beginning of the semester, will define the topics
and projects that students will do. This way,
students will have access to the description of
the topics, locations, educational aims and
workshop requirements from the beginning, as
well as to the plans that will be used in the
different modules.
In the fourth year the workshop is extended
and the module of architectural design -which
has always been demanding on environmental
adequacy - is interrelated with Urban Planning
IV, which incorporates ecology and sustainability
criteria, environmental solutions of conditioning,
structures, and installations.
The last school year students find in both
semesters three obligatory modules and some
elective ones to choose from. Among the
elective modules we find Landscape and
Sustainable Habitat, a very important one
because of its special relevance in the
environmental curriculum of the architect. This
module deals with environmental adequacy
issues, conditioning projects, ecology and
sustainability. It will introduce the student to
environmental land and landscape planning.
This way, students will be able to relate the
theory behind design issues oriented towards
the scale and rural problematic- with
environmental values, concepts, land and urban
planning techniques. The module deals with
aspects related to habitat and landscape from a
sustainability point of view in its three facets:
economic, social and environmental. This is
carried out through a practical workshop
exercise supported on theory lessons, so that
the student goes deep into environmental
planning. In order to do this, students will have
to become familiar with some aspects and
documents of their professional competence
such as the study of strategic environmental
evaluation, environmental impact projects, or
intervention projects in areas of great
environmental and landscape value with social
and economic complexity.
Final Degree Project. The fundamental
requirement for the presentation and defence of
the Final Project is that the student should have
already completed the 300 ECT credits. Then,
after they have successfully completed the final
project workshop and have a favourable report
from the Evaluation Committee, they can submit
the Final Degree Project to be assessed by an
examining board.
This analyzed syllabus has been recently
approved and this is one of the reasons why one
of its main educational aims is developing
abilities related to the architects responsibility
towards society and care of environmental
problems.
On the other hand Students are not
encouraged to study environmental matters in
depth as they are always approached in a
tangential way in the core modules, and there is
little choice of elective subjects to specialize. For
the correct teaching of the environmental
contents it is necessary to ensure that the
teachers have the capacity to integrate the
theoretical and technical knowledge in the
architectural project proposals, that is, with
specific knowledge in fields like scientific,
technological, and instrumental development.
We find very important in this case to work with
teachers in deep about their responsabilities
regarding to competences and learning skills to
adquire by students in order to be sure that they
improve their approach to sustainability by
working on their courses programs. In this sense
the knowledge base propose by EDUCATE
research and the environmental competences to
be developed by SAMA in next stages of our
investigation would be core opportunities to
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104 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
confirm this environmental approach of the
syllabus.
This proposal can surely take advantage of the
different opportunities this syllabuse offer us,
such as:
The workshop as the work space for several
modules is the perfect environment for students
to become aware of the intimate relationships
between the factors that affect sustainability in a
design project: design, urban planning,
materials, constructive typologies, installations,
etc. The workshops structure established is
perfect to improve relations between
departments and to harness the criteria and
general aims in an organized way.
The proposed structure allows students to
see from the first year how architectural design
consists of multiple factors, sustainability being
present in almost all of them.
As environmental issues are approached in
workshops from the first year, sustainability
becomes a regular factor when it comes to
designing, and the student assumes it as one of
the key points that they should take into account
from the very beginning of any design or urban-
planning project.
The insistence upon sustainability issues in
architectural design throughout the five teaching
years makes the future professional more
conscious of their responsibility towards
environmental questions, both economic and
social.
4. DISCUSSION WITH RELEVANT
INSTITUTIONS
In order to have a more precise knowledge of
major professional initiatives about sustainability
in Spain, the CHAMBER OF ARCHITECTS OF
SPAIN, CSCAE and SAMA (Seminario de
Arquitectura y Medioambiente) openned a
nationwide discussion forum. As a result, two
meetings were convened attended by
representatives of various associations. Some of
the final conclusions of these meetings
encorage the proposal developed further down.
The most important final conclusions in relation
to our aproach are:
It seems very important the empowerment of
social perception, spreading the need to apply
the concept of sustainability in architecture and
urbanism and facilitate customer access to
these issues not intended as an extra cost to the
budget.
The importance and urgent need for the
Council and the Architect Institutes to conduct a
massive social diffusion of the values of
sustainable architecture and urbanism and its
tremendous influence and impact on energy
consumption and climate change is
emphasized.
The Green Visa is a service that COAM[2] is
developing to offer to society to demonstrate a
degree of commitment of certain works with the
environment. That means in practice that those
projects or buildings with the Green Visa have
demonstrated a higher level of sustainable
design quality . It is not a compulsory command,
but the possibility of having a useful service that
will increase the objective value of our
productions in the building market.
Furthermore, it is desirable to align the
numerous courses and masters programs with a
common basic framework, in line with Bologna
guidelines for integration into Europe. This is a
great opportunity to unify the groups,
institutions, people interested in these topics to
research and development level and keep them
informed and interrelated.
The Continuing Professional Development is
particularly urgent when we consider that there are
currently 50,000 practitioners in Spain, plus
another 50,000 who will graduate in the next 5
years. These professionals have no specific
knowledge to deal with sustainable matters from
these parameters. Therefore we need to
address a continental system based on
University-based training.
5. NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN TERMS OF
COMPETENCES AND LEARNING
SKILLS
The current European regulations support all
kinds of educational improvements related to the
introduction of energy and environmental issues
in architecture, although it is not actually
demanded by these regulations. The current
Spanish regulations permit the proposed
necessary change and even promote it by
demanding teaching methods which are more
appropriate for the needs of todays architectural
practice, which undoubtedly include
environmental and sustainability issues.
The interest shown at the Escuela Tcnica
Superior de Arquitectura of Seville by students
and teachers alike regarding issues related to
the natural environment and architecture allows
and fosters de creation of an environmental
curriculum that includes this kind of knowledge
in the teaching of architecture. The Escuela
Tcnica Superior de Arquitectura of Seville is
currently immersed in the process of creating a
new syllabus adapted to Europe, which means
this is a great opportunity to introduce
environmental contents in the structure of the
curriculum.
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In this sense, the headship of the school is
working on the introduction of some
methodological changes of the curriculum in
order to get closer to the proposals developed
by the Bologna Process.
One of the most important initiatives of the
headship is to promote the translation of the
syllabus of each module into competences and
learning skills that students should acquire,
instead of contents to be learned. This way,
several projects are being carried out with the
purpose of encouraging teachers participation
in this task in an in-depth and personalized way.
The aim of these projects is to involve the
biggest number of teachers possible in the
development of the competences and learning
skills of the modules they teach, which would
ensure in the medium and long term a real and
clear development of such competences in
terms of professional knowledge acquired.
We believe that, from the perspective of the
EDUCATE project, we can take advantage of
these initiatives to work on the introduction of
environmental and sustainability issues starting
from the development of competences and
learning skills. This can be the base for the
transversal transference of such competences
and learning skills to the complete syllabus of
the Architecture School.
This way, the process to be followed would
be the following:
Development of specifically environmental
and sustainability competences that an architect
should acquire throughout the different
university teaching levels undergraduate,
graduate and postgraduate. For this purpose, a
study parallel to the EDUCATE project will be
carried out by means of the knowledge base,
which provides and ensures all competences
and learning skills linked to environmental and
sustainability aspects. This project is also
supported by the National Chamber of
Architects of Spain, which considers possible
that such competences can be evaluated in a
later stage as a requisite for attaining the
necessary qualifications of an architect.
Once the competences are developed, we
will work on the syllabus of the Architecture
School and the teachers will be encouraged to
incorporate in their syllabuses those
competences which are specifically
environmental.
A group of interested teachers will be
selected to work on an in-depth introduction and
development of sub-competences for their
modules.
Once all competences and sub-competences
are developed (sub-competence is understood
as a competence or learning skill which
develops in great detail a specific skill linked to a
specific module), we will work with the teachers
in the shaping of their syllabuses for the
following year. We will then test the usefulness
of the knowledge base to provide teachers with
the relevant tools to carry out this task.
This process of incorporating the
environmental and sustainability aspects in the
syllabus of the School of Architecture of Seville
can be potentially applied to all architecture
schools in Spain. Particularly, the schools of A
Corua and Madrid are interested in getting
involved in the project. The Seminar of
Architecture and Environment (SAMA) intends
to work on the proposal for the University of
Seville and, depending on the results obtained,
to work in a later stage with the other two
mentioned universities.
6. REFERENCES
[1] Competence (k m p -t ns) n. a. The state or
quality of being adequately or well qualified;
ability. b. A specific range of skill, knowledge, or
ability.
[2] Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid,
Chamber of Architects of Madrid, depending on
the Chamber of Architects of Spain, CSCAE
[3] Lopez de Asiain Alberich, M. La formacin
medioambiental del arquitecto: hacia un
programa de docencia basado en la arquitectura
y el medio ambiente. (Environmental Training of
Architects: towards a teaching syllabus based on
Architecture and the Environment). Doctoral
thesis at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia
(UPC) within the programme Energy and
Environment Research Fields within
Architecture. 2006.
[4] AV. La Enseanza de la Arquitectura y el Medio
Ambiente. Programa Life. Comisin Europea.
Direccin General XI. Medio Ambiente.
[5] Lpez de Asiain Alberich, Mara. La energa en la
educacin medioambiental arquitectnica. Tesis
de Maestra del programa: VI Maestra en
Energas Renovables : Aplicaciones en la
Edificacin . Universidad Internacional de
Andaluca.
[6] Lpez de Asiain Alberich, Mara. Extrapolation of
European Experiences in Environmental
Architecture Teaching Programmes. International
Conference on Engineering Education in
Sustainable Development, EESD2004. D. Ferrer-
Balas, K. F. Mulder, J. Bruno and R. Sans (Eds.).
CIMNE and UPC Barcelona, 2004
[7] Lpez de Asiain Alberich, Mara y Cruz Lpez,
Yazmin. Curriculum Greenin; For or against the
obsolete faculty? 11th Annual International
Sustainable Development Research Conference
Helsinki, Finland, 6-8, June.

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106 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
[8] Lpez de Asiain, Mara, Cuch Burgos, Albert.
Implications of the Term Sustainability in
Architecture. Teaching Tools for Lecturers. A:
Environmental sustainability. The Challenge of
Awareness in Developing Societies. Notre Dame
University Press, 2005, p. 821-824.
[9] Lpez de Asiain, Mara; Echave, Cynthia;
Fentanes, Karla. A Methodological Approach to
the Transference of Knowledge. A:
Environmental sustainability. The Challenge of
Awareness in Developing Societies. Notre Dame
University Press, 2005, p. 979-983.
[10] Lpez de Asiain Alberich, Mara. Reflections on
the Meaning of Environmental Architecture in
Teaching. A: Plea proceedings: Built
environtments and environmental buildings. M de
Witt / Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, 2004,
p. 163-168.
[11] EDUCATE Project financed by the European
Project INTELLIGENT ENERGY EUROPE (IEE)
- CALL CIP- IEE 2008. http://www.educate-
sustainability.eu

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EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 107
1
A Prototype from the Solar Decathlon Competition
becomes an Educational Building
in Sustainable Architecture
M. Carolina HERNNDEZ-MARTNEZ
1
, Csar BEDOYA
2
, Alfonso GARCA-SANTOS
1
,
Javier NEILA
1
, Estefana CAAMAO
2

1
Department of Construction and Technology in Architecture, School of Architecture,
Universidad Politcnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
2
Instituto de Energa Solar, Universidad Politcnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
ABSTRACT: In 2008, the City Council of Rivas-Vaciamadrid (Spain) decided to promote the construction of
Rivasecopolis, a complex of sustainable buildings in which a new prototype of a zero-energy house would
become the office of the Energy Agency. According to the initiative of the City Council, it was decided to recreate
the dwelling prototype Magic-box which entered the 2005 Solar Decathlon Competition. The original project
has been adapted to a new necessities programme, by adding the necessary spaces that allows it to work as an
office. A team from university has designed and carried out the direction of the construction site. The new Solar
House is conceived as a testing building. It is going to become the space for attending citizens in all questions
about saving energy, energy efficiency and sustainable construction, having a permanent small exhibition space
additional to the working places for the information purpose. At the same time, the building includes the use of
experimental passive architecture systems and a monitoring and control system. Collected data will be sent to
University to allow developing research work about the experimental strategies included in the building. This
paper will describe and analyze the experience of transforming a prototype into a real durable building and the
benefits for both university and citizens in learning about sustainability with the building.
Keywords: sustainable architecture, solar energy, education, professional training
1. INTRODUCTION
The Solar House-Energy Office building is based
and inspired in the Project Magic Box, developed
by the Universidad Politcnica de Madrid (UPM) to
enter the international competition Solar Decathlon
2005 in Washington, D.C. [1] This competition was
promoted by the Department of Energy of the United
States of America, with the main aim of promoting
possibilities of combining good practice with a
reasonable use of energy by means of passive and
active use of solar energy and efficient technologies.
The proposal of the UPM team consisted of the
design, construction and operation of a single house
of around 70m2. The participation of the UPM was
an extraordinary multidisciplinarian experience on
research and education. Teachers and students from
different disciplines collaborated together in order to
achieve sustainability by means of combining
bioclimatic architecture, use of solar technologies
and domotics.
The principal objective of the proposal was
developing a small electrical self-sufficient dwelling. It
was immediately evident that it represented a very
broad and ambitious goal; even so the UPM Solar
Decathlon team understood the proposal as a global
challenge in terms of habitability, pollution, energy,
natural resources, materials and sustainability. The
project, called Magic-Box, desired not only being
electrically self-sufficient but also bioclimatic, and full
of European, Mediterranean and pure Spanish spirit.
The team understood the local regionalism as a
different way of aesthetically experiencing the
architectural space, physical construction and life
inside the house.
The dwelling was open to surprise, movement,
continuous exploration and enjoyment. A great many
layouts were possible, since a number of movable
walls allowed the occupants to unify or
compartmentalize its interior space. Faades
followed a modular scheme yet each was designed
according to direction and time of solar radiation. The
roof was independent of the livable volume yet
preserved a compositional role, extending its
appealing wavy shape to the remainder of the lot and
the external pieces of furniture.

Figure 1: Original Magic-box prototype
The main features of the MAGIC BOX were:
passive design; the application of traditional
strategies for winter and summertime, day and night,
commonly used in Spanish vernacular architecture,
although they were implemented by means of new
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108 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
technologies, materials and systems; and the rational
use of architectonical elements, such as porches,
greenhouses, green roofs, vegetation, eaves,
louvers, sliding panels, and even a folding patio. All
of these were employed to manage comfort
conditions, light and air quality, to control solar
penetration, ventilation and thermal storage, as well
as to define formal composition and to treat light and
color. Electricity came from photovoltaics and heat
storage was made possible through passive or active
solar heating from evacuated tube solar collectors
and free cooling at night in the summer. All indoor
devices were operated through an integrated
domotic system.
The building was set out to be bioclimatic to the
highest degree. In this instance, the term
bioclimatic refers to the relation of climate and life,
both in the natural and man-made environment.
Consequently, great importance was given to air
quality and ventilation, to necessary levels of thermal
comfort and humidity and to an adequate distribution
of temperature in the rooms.
The house was characterized by simplicity,
versatility, layout consistency, easy use in both the
inside and the outside. Such relation with the
environment not only highlights its visual and spatial
aspects, but also fosters efficient consumption of
materials, resources and energy, together with the
minimizing of the production of waste.
One of the aims of the Solar Decathlon
competition is to raise societies awareness of the
need to use energy responsibly which is coincident
with the City Council of Rivas-Vaciamadrid general
aim in sustainability.
The idea of reproducing the Magic-Box house as
a new building is an initiative of the City Council of
Rivas-Vaciamadrid, adapting to a new necessities
program to house the Energy Agency office. It is
intended to be a space for attending citizens for
everything related to saving energy, energy
efficiency and sustainable construction. The house
will be visited by people, fully accessible to fulfill a
didactic objective, holding also a permanent
exhibition space and workstations for the information
office.
The Solar House-Energy Agency building is
integrated in the Plaza Ecpolis project. It is a new
space for the city which houses a park and
playground surrounded by a kindergarten, an
exhibition hall focused on energy and the Solar
House-Energy Agency office.

2. DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROJECT

2.1. The educational and training experience
In 2005, the Solar Decathlon UPM Team was a
real example of multidisciplinary content, with
institutions having proven experience in Education,
R&D within the fields of Photovoltaics, Architecture
and Domotics. A total of 40 students and 8 faculty
members was coordinated by the Institute of Solar
Energy of the UPM.[2]
The common aim was to involve the university
community as much as possible. Three different
groups were created specializing in the main areas:
architecture, energy systems and domotics. Besides
these, other small sub-groups were created for
specific purposes such as communications, logistics
and sponsor funding. Project planning was structured
according to five subsequent phases running for 25
months:
1) Conceptual design, market & regulations analysis
and, web-site setup.
2) Architectural design & schematic energy analysis.
3) House construction & equipment.
4) Final house preparation & tests.
5) Solar Decathlon event & evaluation.
After the competition, the Magic Box was
shipped back to Spain, where it was rebuilt and fully
equipped in its final site at the UPM premises. The
2005 prototype was installed in the University
Campus and became a laboratory for the University.
For information, there is a further copy of the
house reproduced in Beijing, representing Spain in
the Future House exhibition.
The UPM team maintained R&D activities on the
concepts addressed by Magic Box until 2007,
within a project co-financed by the Spanish National
R&D Plan. The aim of this project was to analyze, in
detail, the house energy behaviour, as well as to
propose modifications to adapt its design and
systems to different Spanish climate conditions,
house typologies and environments (grid-connection
with backup).
Since then, the house has been periodically
shown to students, scientists and the general public
with great success: overall, more than500 people
see the house every year.
The authors can also say with pride that this
experience inspired later participations of UPM in the
Solar Decathlon competition in 2007 and 2009 [3], as
well as profiting from the previous practice and
achieving a deep experience that allowed the
University to be part of the organization of the first
edition of the Solar Decathlon Europe, held in Madrid
in June 2010.
In 2009 a new team was created to face the new
challenge of rebuilding the Magic Box. It was formed
by people from ABIO Research Group (Bioclimatic
Architecture in a Sustainable Environment),
researchers from the IES (Institute of Solar Energy)
and members of the TISE Research Group
(Innovative and Sustainable Technologies in
Building), and all three of them from the UPM. The
group was made up of architects, urban planners,
engineers and industrial designers a very broad
range of practitioners.[4] In essence people from
different backgrounds were obliged to work together
cooperatively, and in this respect the project mirrors
real life.
The ABIO office became a professional
architecture office without disrupting the normal
research and teaching activities. The Project
Planning had at this time a single phase: to start and
to finish in only two intensive months.
There has been again a multidisciplinary group of
architects and engineers collaborating in a small but
very special project. The team integrated
undergraduate, master and PhD students as well as
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3
faculty members. Only approximately 10% of the
team was part of the 2005 original team.
Difficulties presented when adapting the
prototype to comply with building regulations without
compromising the original style and appearance.
Hence, some of the materials used in 2005 were not
manufactured or sold any more. The biggest difficulty
was that the budget available was insufficient for
affording some parts of the original design as
expensive pieces of furniture had been funded or
donated for the original Solar Decathlon competition.
At this point, workers from the Energy Agency and
Technology Department of the City Council of Rivas-
Vaciamadrid were involved as part of the design
team, working together to convince companies to
donate material and appliances to the project. The
Telecommunications Department of the City Council
was also involved in decision making and design for
the way citizens were going to be informed about the
building performance when it would be finished.
2.2. Taking up again the original prototype
When the opportunity to rebuild the house
occurred, it was necessary for a full revision of the
2005 project, mainly designed and built according to
the American Building Code. It was also necessary
to adapt it to the Spanish Building Technical Code,
published in 2007, after the initial design.
First decisions taken that essentially changed the
original project:
In terms of construction:
Deep foundation by pilots according to
new characteristic of the ground that do
not allow supporting big loads.
Steel structure instead of light-weight
steel and timber structure.
Concrete cellular insulating blocks
instead of steel and timber enclosures.
Building services:
Ground source heat pump and fan coil
system. The house must be fully
efficient all the year round and in
extreme winter and summer conditions
of continental climate passive strategies
may not cover all necessities.
To improve the design and performance
of the passive energy storage system
PCM based.
Solar energy:
The new building is not a stand-alone
PC system but a grid connected system.
Architectural design:
The new office spaces would be
connected to the house on the north
side, with 3 work stations.
The hinge piece would be a wide
corridor holding a building services room
for solar inverters and office storage
use, and a handicapped accessible
bathroom. The new faade rain screen
of this module would be a green wall.
The disappearance of the living-movable
room to avoid safety problems in a
public building
Figure 2: Floor plan of the Magic-Box original
prototype
Figure 3: Floor plan of the Solar House-Energy Agency
office building in Rivas-Vaciamadrid
Since agreement was established, the
architecture office tasks have been completed in
record time to allow the City Council to arrive, before
the deadline, to participate in the benefits granted in
the Plan E for the Incentive of Economy and
Employment. This Spanish Government plan
established the possibility of funding a large quantity
of local projects in order to promote employment in
the construction sector hardly damaged during the
present days global economical crisis.
The construction site has been developed during
2009 and 2010. The Solar House-Energy Office
building, together with the other two buildings of the
Plaza Ecopolis was inaugurated in September 24
th
.
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110 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
3. THE BUILDING AND ITS BIOCLIMATIC
DESIGN
The building seeks to illustrate an example of
sustainable construction according to the objectives
promoted by the City Council and the Energy Office.
It is a building that demonstrates that sustainability
and self-sufficiency are possible, showing with clarity
and simplicity how to achieve it.
The renewable energy produced by the building
is more than its energy consumption. It is not only a
zero energy building but a building that introduces
renewable energy to the electrical grid. In the same
way, it can be considered a non carbon emission
building because the surplus of produced energy
allows compensating the emissions produced during
the manufacturing process of materials used in the
building construction. Besides, most of those
materials have been selected according to the Life
Cycle Assessment methodology, choosing materials
with a low electrical energy consumption during
manufacturing process or recycled materials, as the
outside external spaces and windows framing.
Renewable materials have been also considered as
wood fiber insulation. In addition, the use of green
roof as a drain of CO
2
and two green walls panes
allows us to reduce the global balance of the
building, already converted in a zero emissions
building.
The building produces electrical energy by means
of photovoltaic generators, hot water by evacuated
tube solar collectors and energy for conditioning
mainly by means of a passive system. The passive
system incorporated in the building should cover
most of comfort necessities during summer, and a
major percentage during many hours in winter time.
When it is not covered by the passive system, the
thermal source pump with high energy efficiency will
contribute to supplement the shortfall in energy.
The passive system is mainly a collecting and
storing energy system to allow using it for 24 hours a
day and to be a mechanism of distribution to the
different parts of the building. A storage system is
essential in any building that collects energy during
very short hours during the day time and that should
distribute it during the remaining parts of the day.
The system installed is a collection of devices that
contain phase changing material (PCM) settled at
23C. The PCMs store or release energy during the
phase changing, when solidify by storing cold, and
storage heat while becomes liquid. The PCM used is
paraffin based [5].
These substances are located in the raised
technical floor and this is the place where energy is
going to be stored. A part of the PCMs are inside
cylindrical recipients settled in EPS moulds located
under every piece of the raised floor. Every metallic
cylinder facilitates the exchange of energy with the
air forced to circulate between them. The flooring tile
is on a metallic mould also filled with PCM. [6]

Winter conditioning system is based on solar
radiation and internal loads (the heat generated by
occupants, lighting and any electric equipment
working inside the house.) In order to collect solar
radiation two big window panes forming small
greenhouses occupy 2/3 of the south faade. Every
single green house has a double skin: the first single
glass pane to facilitate solar radiation collection and
the second one to isolate and avoid heat loss. A
great quantity of radiation passes through the
greenhouses and directly heats the floor. A part of
this heat is retained in the green house that, in case
of necessity, may pass into the house by the tilt
bottom hung motorized opening of a single window
pane.
Figure 4: Winter time: bioclimatic performance.
Summer time conditioning system is based on
taking advantage of the night cool that in Madrids
climate is under the comfort temperature established
as 25C in this period of the year. Cool air is
collected in the north faade passing through a
garden zone to allow an evaporative cooling and
conducted under the external flooring. It is forced to
circulate through the raised technical floor as far as
the south faade. Once it has given its energy to the
PCMs located there, goes out through the grates
located in the greenhouse floor whose external glass
skin should be folded and acting only as vertical
shading.
There is a conventional supporting system that
allows re-circulating air inside the building. It is made
up of the ground source heat pump mentioned
before, that works when the passive system does not
cover all conditioning necessities and a fan coil that
transfers the energy produced by the pump to the
rest of the building.
Once the air is pumped to the office area, it goes
through the grates located on the floor and some
fans facilitate it to circulate through the technical floor
passing between the recipients with the PCM. During
this journey, the air is charged with the energy
accumulated in the paraffins, i.e. heat in winter and
cool in summer. This air goes out through the south
facade grates, on the internal side of the glass
enclosure in winter and on its external side in
summer.
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EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 111

5
Fi
gure 5: Summer time: bioclimatic performance.
Not any single one of these conditioning systems
would be efficient enough if the building would not
perfectly conserve its energy by means of reducing
its necessities. Insulation levels of faades, floor and
roof have been raised beyond those minimums
established in building regulations. All possible
thermal bridging has been carefully studied and
solved.
All the design has been refined to create a quasi
adiabatic envelope, reducing to the minimum the
exchange of energy between the building and the
environment.
The air recirculating in the house has been taken
from the outside in the south green houses in winter
and at night directly to the raised floor plenum in
summer. Thus, before entering the house, the air has
been favorably modified between 5 and 10C. The
expenses on ventilation have been also minimized.
4. SOLAR HOUSE + ENERGY AGENCY
OFFICE BUILDING
4.1. Visiting the Energy Agency office
The Energy Agency is a city public service
depending on the Urban Planning, Sustainable
Development and Maintenance Department of the
City Council. It was created in July 2008 with the aim
of converting the city to an example of efficiency,
saving energy and citizens commitment to the
present crisis of the energy model. The Energy
Agency promotes a new way of looking at energy, of
using natural resources and responsible
consumption.
The main objective is assessing citizens and
companies based on Rivas-Vaciamadrid in all issues
related to saving energy and energy efficiency, clean
and renewable energies, sustainable transport,
ecological footprint, etc.
The Energy Agency will also manage the project
Rivas Solar that works to extend the generation of
thermal and photovoltaic solar energy throughout the
city.
The Energy Agency coordinates and promotes
the project RIVAS ECPOLIS [7] whose target is to
transform all the city of Rivas Vaciamadrid to become
more sustainable. Rivasecopolis has been conceived
as a city project, absolutely integrated in the City
Council structure
All citizens who go to the Energy Office will be
able to visit the house according to an educational
and didactic aim. Posters and explicative panels will
allow then to obtain detailed information about every
single system working in the building as well as
explanations from the people working in the Agency.

Figure 6: The Energy Agency office building. External and
internal views
The house is completely furnished and working
(fully equipped kitchen, appliances, bathroom, etc)
as an ordinary house.
Two screen displays located in the living room
will illustrate and explain the performance of the
building. Simultaneously, there is the possibility of
observing the energy produced by other public
buildings also controlled by the City Council. In the
same way, the values from the Solar House-Energy
office can be remotely checked by visitors to those
other public city buildings.
4.2. Collected data for research
In order to obtain data to develop research, all
the Energy Office building is being monitored.
The control system is registering data available
for 3 different targets:
1. The property (the City Council) is obtaining
data on consumption and energy saving,
2. The citizens can observe and learn about
the building performance. There is a net
established between some public buildings
in the city and it is possible to check the
energy production of all them from every
single building.
3. The University is receiving the data lists to
compare with the results considered in
hypothesis and with the data obtained in the
laboratory tests with the results while the
real system is working.
A weather station and a PV calibrated cell have
been installed in the roof. Thermostat and different
temperature and humidity sensors and located in
every single space of the building as well as under
the raised technical floor.
All the instant values obtained are shown in the
displays located in the living room area of the house.
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112 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
Table 1: Parameters being controlled and monitored in the
building
BUILDING
SYSTEM
PARAMETER
PV System Instantaneous production
Cumulated production per day
Cumulated production per month
Cumulated production per year
Electrical consumption per day
Electrical consumption per month
Electrical consumption per year
Conditioning Outside temperature

Inside temperature in every space
of the building
Fan-coil. In-take air temperature
Fan-coil. Egress air temperature
Ground source
heat pump
Instant energy production
Energy production per year
Instant energy consumption
Energy consumption per year
Energy storing
raised floor
Temperature of entering air

Air temperature inside the technical
floor
Temperature of egress air
PCM material temperature
Hatchs position open / close
Air fans on / off
Green walls Water consumption
Green roof Water consumption

Data will be regularly sent to University to allow to
quantify and to characterize the results. For instance,
simultaneously a sample of the prototype of the
passive energy storing system integrated in the
technical floor is already being monitored in
University laboratories.
5. CONCLUSION
The Solar House- Energy Agency building is an
example of sustainable construction because in
global quantification it does not consume energy,
neither the building itself nor taken from the electrical
net. Renewable energy generated by the building
itself is greater than the energy consumed. Hence, it
is not only a zero-energy building but a building that
incorporates energy into the electrical grid. As a
shared objective with the Solar Decathlon
Competition, the building intends clearly showing that
solar houses can be built without sacrificing energy
efficiency or comfort, and that they can be both
attractive and affordable.
The benefits of the experience of entering the
Solar Decathlon Competition are unquestionable for
a University. From an educational perspective, the
experience initiated with "Magic-Box" has been
unique. Students could learn what a real project is
and the need to integrate several disciplines in
building-related projects. Professors also found the
project very stimulating and rewarding
The experience has been reinforced when having
the opportunity of reconsider about the proposal,
redesign and convert the prototype into an absolute
real building. For some of the students involved in
the experience, it has been the first approach to
professional practice while being undergraduate
students. They have had the opportunity of working
on design, budget planning, specifications as well as
construction management.
The holistic view of the experience reveals a
double immediate benefit in education in
sustainability: the building itself is a real clear and
tangible demonstrator for citizens visiting the office
and house and at the same time it allows access to a
real scale testing sample for university students.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We are grateful to the Solar Decathlon UPM
2005 Team for their generous effort and dedication.
The first prototype would never have seen the light of
day without their support.
The Energy Agency building has been
constructed with the financial support of the city
council of Rivas-Vaciamadrid and the Government of
Spain, in the framework of the Plan E for the
Incentive of Economy and Employment.
Many thanks are given to the City Council of
Rivas-Vaciamadrid for being interested in our
prototype and for the aim to promote sustainable
architecture and encourage their citizens to live in a
sustainable attitude.
7. REFERENCES
[1] Caamao, E. et al. Viviendas solares
autosuficientes: participacin de la Universidad
Politcnica de Madrid en el concurso Solar
Decathlon. Informes de la Construccin, 2004,
Vol. 56, p. 35-46.
[2] Caamao, E. et al. Spanish participation in the
Solar Decathlon 2005 competition: new
proposals for zero-energy houses. Proc. 20
th

European Photovoltaic Solar Energy
Conference, Barcelona Spain (2005), 2587
[3] www.solardecathlon.upm.es
[4] Derome, D. Pearl, D. and Athienitis, A. Engaging
Engineering and Architectural Students in the
Integrated Design Process (IDP) for a
competition Entry Demonstration House the
Solar Decathlon. Proc. 21
st
PLEA conference,
Eindhoven - The Netherlands (2004)
[5] Hernndez-Martnez, M.C. et al. Phase change
material capsules for thermal storage purposes
in housing. Proc. SEEP 2009, 3rd International
conference in Sustainable Energy and
Environmental Protection, Dublin Ireland
(2009), 350.
[6] Cern, I. et al., this conference.
[7] http://www.rivasecopolis.org
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EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 113


Passive and Low Energy Architecture in Education
of Contemporary Architecture

Barbara WIDERA
Faculty of Architecture, Wroclaw University of Technology, Wroclaw, Poland
ABSTRACT: At the beginning of XXI century climatic and sustainable design has been the most actual topic of
contemporary architecture. Education of young architects in this area of knowledge should become as advanced
as possible. Showing clearly that passive and low energy architecture is not a temporary fashion but the new way
of thinking and does not have to be connected with any particular current should become one of the most
important goals for the educators. The rich and original exemplification is very important in the teaching process.
It helps student understand how sustainable design works in practice. In consequence they are more open for
new challenges and creative solutions. Theory and practical experience should be connected in the whole
education process. International cooperation, conferences, workshops and practices as well as students contests
are highly recommended so that the good examples can be followed and the young generation of architects will
promote the worldwide campaign for passive and low energy architecture of the future.
Keywords: education, architecture, energy, bioclimatic, sustainable
1. INTRODUCTION
At the beginning of XXI century climatic and
sustainable design has been the most actual topic
of contemporary architecture. Education of young
architects in this area of knowledge should become
as advanced as possible. Nevertheless teaching
practice seems to stay behind the science and
technology. Certain efforts to change this fact have
been undertaken. It is vital to diversify the
educational process and to follow the theoretical
knowledge with practical works. It is also essential
to raise students consciousness that the
architecture safe for the environment has been an
unavoidable need of our times on one hand, but on
the other hand does not result with any limitation of
individual style nor creativeness of the author.
2. THE NEW APPROACH TO ARCHITECTURAL
DESIGN
2.1. Common Philosophy, Any Style is
Welcome
XXI century should start with the radical change
of typical but old fashioned approach presented in
the polemic between Peter Eisenman and Leon
Krier My ideology is better than yours (Eisenman,
Krier 1989) [1]. Many designers believe that climatic
architecture has been a part of Eco-Tech movement
which they regard to be nothing but the evolution of
High-Tech logic. For the opponents that kind of
design does not leave enough space for the
creativeness, imagination and personal style of the
designer. Showing clearly that passive and low
energy architecture does not have to be connected
with any particular current should become one of
the most important goals for the educators.
Villa A (Fig. 1), located on the slope of the
Poestling Berg, a mountain in Linz, Austria,
designed by Najjar & Najjar Architects (2010),
represents the example of low energy building. On
the southern and western side of the house the roof
cantilevers beyond the terraces to provide en
efficient sun protection in the summer while in the
winter the low sun angle allows controlled entry of
the natural light into the interior space.
Fig. 1: Villa A, Linz, Austria, designed by Najjar & Najjar
Architects (2010) represents an example of low energy
building. Manfred Seidl.
Fig. 2: Villa A, Linz, Austria, Najjar & Najjar Architects
(2010). Daylight can enter through the openwork roof and
terrace glazing. Manfred Seidl.
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114 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN


The large scale glazing have been supported
with reflections from the pool near the house as well
as from white walls, pavements and other interior
surfaces, in purpose to reduce using the electric
light during the whole year (Fig. 2). Daylight can
also enter through the roof glazing between the
lower floor and the upper terrace (Fig. 3). It has
been combined with the shape of the openwork
roof. This implementation of passive energy concept
has been followed by the recuperator in the ground
and photovoltaic panels on the roof (Najjar, Najjar
2010) [2]. Natural ventilation has been also
provided. Indoors and outdoors space blurs
smoothly and the idea of green architecture has
been connected with individual style which resulted
with contemporary, elegant forms.
This is very important to take care about esthetic
and cultural side of the sustainable projects
because, as it has been pointed out by James
Wines, sometimes the enthusiasts of advanced
technology try to present it as a very complicated
challenge and the reproachable character of their
comments may discourage persons who do not
accept the technological forms. As Wines notes
people are often attracted by apocalyptical visions
and fantastic project of salvation but they do not
really see anything particularly interesting in
photovoltaic panels or low-emissivity coatings
(Wines 2000) [3].
2.2. Not another fashion
Though environment protection must be
understood by this generation as the crucial
condition of surviving for our planet and the whole
humankind, still many people think that sustainable
design is just a new fashion. They emphasize high
costs of climatic buildings, believing that with the
time architects will simply change they mind and
step into another style, leaving the investors with
expensive edifices. It is vital to convince students
during the education process, that the low energy
architecture is based on logical solutions, does not
always have to be so expensive and the idea will
not change next season.
The good example of passive energy but also
low cost building can be observed in Hanover,
Germany. Postfossil Ecowoodbox Kindergarten,
designed by Despang Architekten (2007), replaced
an old, prefabricated structure and, as Van Uffelen
points out, covered almost the same area so that
the existing soil sealing and elements of the building
could be reused (Van Uffelen 2010) [4].
As shown in Phaidon Atlas of 21.st Century
World Architecture (2008) [5] light wooden structure
and highly insulated timber cladding create natural
look of the building, making it a promising exception
from a nearby architecture of a 1950s suburban
area of the city. Solar energy gained through the
curved triple-glazed south facade has been used to
heat the rooms (Fig. 4).
Providing natural light and contact with the
nature is a necessity in this kind of facility (Fig. 5).
Nevertheless in this particular case Despang
Architekten paid special attention to educational
aspect of the project. The young generation not only
should enjoy the building to grow happily and have
fun, but also should learn here. Helping children to
understand ecological tasks and to meet them in the
most positive way is an important goal, emphasized
by the architect (Despang 2007) [6].
Fig. 3: Villa A, Linz, Austria Najjar & Najjar Architects
(2010). Daylight enters through the roof glazing between
the lower floor and the upper terrace. Manfred Seidl.
Fig. 4: Postfossil Ecowoodbox Kindergarten in Hanover,
Germany, designed by Despang Architekten (2007). South
facade. Photography courtesy of Martin Despang.
Fig. 5: Postfossil Ecowoodbox Kindergarten, Hanover,
Germany, Despang Architekten (2007).Curvilinear facade
maximizes solar exposure. Photography courtesy of Martin
Despang.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 115


2.3. Underwater Architecture
When we think about sustainable design we
often stress its self-sufficiency. Some attempts to
create underwater habitual space for human had
been undertaken both in 20-th and 21-st century. In
this case the aspect of self-sufficiency became
natural. On the other hand when people try to
inhabit the new, underwater environment, they
seem to have a little bit more respect for the nature.
Presentation of these ideas could be an interesting
diversification in educational process, especially
because it has not been connected with particular
architectural style or current. In many cases it helps
students to open for new challenges and in
consequence to look for completely new, creative
solutions in the field of architectural design.
From many projects and research undertaken in
20-th century the most famous ones were those
carried out by Jacques Cousteau. The series of
experiments known as Conshelf (Continental Shelf
Station) proved that it is possible for the man to live
and work in specially designed underwater houses
without coming out to the surface.
Today some visions for aquatic cities have been
proposed by architects like Jacques Rougerie or
Vincent Callebaut. In most of cases contemporary
ideas concern rather floating than underwater
objects. In Lilypad project (2008) Callebaut
emphasizes the fact that this amphibian city could
grant the housing for future climatic refugees from
places like Polynesian atolls. The sustainability and
self-sufficiency became one of the main objective of
the author (Callabaut 2008) [7].
The multifunctional program of Lilypad has been
organized around the artificial fresh water lagoon,
collecting and purifying rain water but also ballasting
the whole city. Creating the harmonious coexistence
between man and nature has been the main goal in
this territory, dedicated to nomadism and urban
ecology in the sea.
The idea of the floating city has been inspired by
the aquatic plant, the great Amazonian lilypad. The
double skin is made of polyester fibers and covered
with titanium dioxide which by the photocatalytic
effect helps absorbing the atmospheric pollution.
The structure is entirely self-sufficient and
recyclable, with zero CO2 emission. Usage of all
renewable energies (solar, thermal and
photovoltaic, wind, hydraulic and osmotic energy)
has been proposed in the project. The whole system
is supported by tidal power station as well as
phytopurification and biomass, so that the city can
effectively produce oxygen and electricity without
causing any pollution or other harm to the ocean or
its inhabitants.
Although this kind of project may be perceived
as an utopian vision, still it opens new way of
thinking and stimulates students imagination.
3. EDUCATION BASED ON SHOW-EXPLAIN-
ENCOURAGE SCHEDULE
3.1. Teaching process
It has been repeated for ages that the teaching
process should start with the basics. Nevertheless
the understanding of basics tends to change
constantly. Nowadays ability to create passive and
low energy should commence to be an absolute
standard for the young architects.
It is necessary to start their professional
education with simple projects where students use
basic knowledge about sustainable technology.
After having faced these problems for the first time,
students should continue with the seminary to have
an opportunity to discuss, together with the
moderator, some interesting contemporary
solutions, developed for the climatic architecture.
Parallelly they should join the group, working on
another project, in purpose to meet more advanced
requirements of sustainable design and to deal with
some real, not only theoretical questions.
This way theory and practical experience should
be connected in the whole education process, so
the students really understand the environmental
issue and start to believe enough in themselves. In
consequence they will not try to escape from these
problems in their future architectural practice.
Fig.6: Lilypad project of sustainable self-sufficient floating
city, Vincent Callebaut (2008). Drawing, based on
Callabauts model, by Barbara Widera.
Fig. 7: Ecohouse, Hill End, Australia, Riddel Architecture
(2010) is located on the narrow riverfront side and has
been opened to the landscape wherever it was possible.
Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones.



The large scale glazing have been supported
with reflections from the pool near the house as well
as from white walls, pavements and other interior
surfaces, in purpose to reduce using the electric
light during the whole year (Fig. 2). Daylight can
also enter through the roof glazing between the
lower floor and the upper terrace (Fig. 3). It has
been combined with the shape of the openwork
roof. This implementation of passive energy concept
has been followed by the recuperator in the ground
and photovoltaic panels on the roof (Najjar, Najjar
2010) [2]. Natural ventilation has been also
provided. Indoors and outdoors space blurs
smoothly and the idea of green architecture has
been connected with individual style which resulted
with contemporary, elegant forms.
This is very important to take care about esthetic
and cultural side of the sustainable projects
because, as it has been pointed out by James
Wines, sometimes the enthusiasts of advanced
technology try to present it as a very complicated
challenge and the reproachable character of their
comments may discourage persons who do not
accept the technological forms. As Wines notes
people are often attracted by apocalyptical visions
and fantastic project of salvation but they do not
really see anything particularly interesting in
photovoltaic panels or low-emissivity coatings
(Wines 2000) [3].
2.2. Not another fashion
Though environment protection must be
understood by this generation as the crucial
condition of surviving for our planet and the whole
humankind, still many people think that sustainable
design is just a new fashion. They emphasize high
costs of climatic buildings, believing that with the
time architects will simply change they mind and
step into another style, leaving the investors with
expensive edifices. It is vital to convince students
during the education process, that the low energy
architecture is based on logical solutions, does not
always have to be so expensive and the idea will
not change next season.
The good example of passive energy but also
low cost building can be observed in Hanover,
Germany. Postfossil Ecowoodbox Kindergarten,
designed by Despang Architekten (2007), replaced
an old, prefabricated structure and, as Van Uffelen
points out, covered almost the same area so that
the existing soil sealing and elements of the building
could be reused (Van Uffelen 2010) [4].
As shown in Phaidon Atlas of 21.st Century
World Architecture (2008) [5] light wooden structure
and highly insulated timber cladding create natural
look of the building, making it a promising exception
from a nearby architecture of a 1950s suburban
area of the city. Solar energy gained through the
curved triple-glazed south facade has been used to
heat the rooms (Fig. 4).
Providing natural light and contact with the
nature is a necessity in this kind of facility (Fig. 5).
Nevertheless in this particular case Despang
Architekten paid special attention to educational
aspect of the project. The young generation not only
should enjoy the building to grow happily and have
fun, but also should learn here. Helping children to
understand ecological tasks and to meet them in the
most positive way is an important goal, emphasized
by the architect (Despang 2007) [6].
Fig. 3: Villa A, Linz, Austria Najjar & Najjar Architects
(2010). Daylight enters through the roof glazing between
the lower floor and the upper terrace. Manfred Seidl.
Fig. 4: Postfossil Ecowoodbox Kindergarten in Hanover,
Germany, designed by Despang Architekten (2007). South
facade. Photography courtesy of Martin Despang.
Fig. 5: Postfossil Ecowoodbox Kindergarten, Hanover,
Germany, Despang Architekten (2007).Curvilinear facade
maximizes solar exposure. Photography courtesy of Martin
Despang.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
116 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN


3.2. Exemplification
Teaching how to create sustainable and climatic
architecture becomes more and more common in
designing practice. At the same time very little effort
to implement the idea into history and theory of
contemporary architecture education has been
undertaken.
For many students sustainable design looks
attractive but too complicated. To deal with this
point of view academic teachers should spend some
time showing examples of well designed buildings
and whole complexes, explaining how they work
and encouraging students to develop their own
ideas based upon presented objects.
It is also very important to make clear the fact
that some of the solutions may be used and pay off
not only in huge, governmental or corporate
buildings, but also in really small and totally various
projects, like village shops, nursery schools, dance
studios or private houses. Examples from different
regions should be chosen to illustrate how
ecological architecture may work and deal with
various climatic, social and cultural conditions.
Riddel Architecture, the authors of Hill End
Ecohouse in Hill End, inner Brisbane, Australia
(2010) demonstrate how the private residence could
replace an old house, be constructed in 80% from
materials recycled from the previous building and
occupy the same footprint. To the top of that all
additional materials were locally sourced and have
undergone rigorous assessment of their
environmental, social and economic sustainability
credentials.
Ecohouse is located on the narrow riverfront
side and has been opened to the landscape
wherever it was possible (Fig. 7). Robert Riddel and
his team: David Gole, Emma Scragg and Simon
Boundy explaine that large openings help to capture
cool breezes and daylight to reduce need for
artificial lighting and to provide natural ventilation
(Riddel 2010) [8]. Open plan allows an easy access
of fresh air and natural light into the rooms and
simultaneously creates informal, relaxed
atmosphere (Fig. 8). Light-colored finishes maximize
reflection of daylight. For optimum efficiency LED
and compact fluorescent lamps have been used.
The house is fully self sufficient in both water
and power and has a monitoring system to measure
the use of energy, gas and water as well as
temperature and humidity. The north-facing roof has
3kW photovoltaic panels. The suns energy is
captured to provide hot water and grid-connected
electricity to supply the whole house's needs. An
efficient gas fire provides winter heating to the
southern living space, where, in Australian
conditions, solar heating is not possible.
The house has recycled polyester bulk insulation
and timber frames to reduce heat transfer. Eaves
and awnings give sun and rain protection. A drop
down louver to the River Terrace provides shading
from the morning sun while the north balcony has
been sheltered by a trellis with deciduous vines.
60,000L of rainwater storage supplies the whole
house and garden. House rainwater is pre-filtered,
heated by solar panels and stored in a well-
insulated tank. To reduce water waste, a hot water
recirculation unit reheats cold water and greywater
is treated and recycled on site.
Fig. 8: Ecohouse, Hill End, Australia, Riddel Architecture
(2010). Open plan allows an easy access of fresh air and
natural light into the rooms and creates informal
atmosphere. Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones
Fig. 9: Ecohouse, Hill End, Australia, Riddel Architecture
(2010). Terrace has been open both to south and east.
Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones
The swimming pool is minimal in size and uses
an efficient pump/filter system. It is filled and topped
up with rainwater and lit with locally-made LED
lights.
The house has been a good example of an
interesting and original architecture where the
authors take maximum advantage of specific
location with the benefit both for the residence
owners and the environment.
3.3. How to use the examples
The teaching experience has proved that well
chosen examples can be remembered for a long
time with very positive effects. In the preceding
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 117


paragraph the specific example had been used to
put attention on the buildings orientation. In Europe,
that is in the northern hemisphere, south-facing
windows require some external protection to prevent
overheating during the summer and to control glare.
North-facing windows do not require shading, but
they are not suitable for solar heating. Naturally in
the southern hemisphere it has been opposite.
European students of architecture, accustomed
to northern conditions, were for the first moment
surprised with the fact that in Ecohouse southern
part of the building needed supporting heating
system, while the trellis had been located from the
north. Very soon they realized that we were talking
about the southern hemisphere, which they missed
for the first moment. Once having focused on the
orientation topic they have also discussed the article
in which the experts from Labs for the 21st Century
(2003) claim that East- and west-facing windows
are not recommended for daylighting because it is
difficult to control glare and heat gain, especially on
the west side (Laboratories for the 21st Century:
Best Practices 2003) [9].
3.4. Helpful Inferences
Exemplification is an important part of teaching
process since it helps to remember how sustainable
ideas work in practice. Nevertheless it is very
profitable to spend a little bit more time and ask
students to form inferences and to sum up some
best features of the buildings they have been shown
during the classes. In consequence they will
understand given examples and remember their
own conclusions much better.
4. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
It has been a common truth that what people
really do speaks much louder than what they say.
Though it is very important that students and young
architects can meet they older colleagues from
other countries and find out that the sustainable and
climatic design became a regular practice in
architectural offices.
Competitive approach also has been a good
idea. During contests students motivate each other
and the result is usually much better. The Solar
Decathlon Competition is one of such contests. In
this international competition various college and
university teams compete to design, build and
operate the most attractive, effective and energy-
efficient solar-powered house (U.S. Department of
Energy Solar Decathlon 2010) [10].
Silo House, designed by students from Cornell
University, New York, has been one of the most
interesting project presented during the competition
in 2009. The original idea is based upon the three
living cylinders, organized around central
courtyard with the rectilinear array of photovoltaics,
floating above the entire structure (Fig. 10).
Bedroom, kitchen and the living room, situated in
separate cylinders, can be totally opened to the
central part with the usage of operable glass wall
system (Fig. 11).
The authors inspiration for the cylinders came
from industrial agricultural materials (Cornell
University Solar Decathlon, Silo House 2009) [11].
They used a CorTen corrugated steel cladding and
exposed steel beams on the interior (Fig. 12).
Fig. 10: Silo House by Cornell University Team (2009).
Three living cylinders are organized around central
courtyard. The photovoltaic panels are floating above the
structure. Photography by Chris Goodney
Fig. 11: Silo House by Cornell University Team (2009).
Living spaces can be totally opened to the central part with
the usage of operable glass wall system. Photography by
Chris Goodney.
Fig. 12: Silo House by Cornell University Team (2009).
Steel construction has been exposed but sustainably
forested hardwood provide light and natural look.
Photography by Chris Goodney.
The electric system of the house is composed of
photovoltaic panels, grid-tied inverters and a smart
load panel. Silo House has fully-functioning kitchen,
home theater PC with eco-friendly LCD, 1 GB
network and even electric toilets. Excess power
generated in the house is sold back to the grid.
Solar gain from the steel envelope through an
innovative skin-integrated solar thermal system has
been used to pre-heat hot water. Additional light
diffusion and stack ventilation have been allowed


3.2. Exemplification
Teaching how to create sustainable and climatic
architecture becomes more and more common in
designing practice. At the same time very little effort
to implement the idea into history and theory of
contemporary architecture education has been
undertaken.
For many students sustainable design looks
attractive but too complicated. To deal with this
point of view academic teachers should spend some
time showing examples of well designed buildings
and whole complexes, explaining how they work
and encouraging students to develop their own
ideas based upon presented objects.
It is also very important to make clear the fact
that some of the solutions may be used and pay off
not only in huge, governmental or corporate
buildings, but also in really small and totally various
projects, like village shops, nursery schools, dance
studios or private houses. Examples from different
regions should be chosen to illustrate how
ecological architecture may work and deal with
various climatic, social and cultural conditions.
Riddel Architecture, the authors of Hill End
Ecohouse in Hill End, inner Brisbane, Australia
(2010) demonstrate how the private residence could
replace an old house, be constructed in 80% from
materials recycled from the previous building and
occupy the same footprint. To the top of that all
additional materials were locally sourced and have
undergone rigorous assessment of their
environmental, social and economic sustainability
credentials.
Ecohouse is located on the narrow riverfront
side and has been opened to the landscape
wherever it was possible (Fig. 7). Robert Riddel and
his team: David Gole, Emma Scragg and Simon
Boundy explaine that large openings help to capture
cool breezes and daylight to reduce need for
artificial lighting and to provide natural ventilation
(Riddel 2010) [8]. Open plan allows an easy access
of fresh air and natural light into the rooms and
simultaneously creates informal, relaxed
atmosphere (Fig. 8). Light-colored finishes maximize
reflection of daylight. For optimum efficiency LED
and compact fluorescent lamps have been used.
The house is fully self sufficient in both water
and power and has a monitoring system to measure
the use of energy, gas and water as well as
temperature and humidity. The north-facing roof has
3kW photovoltaic panels. The suns energy is
captured to provide hot water and grid-connected
electricity to supply the whole house's needs. An
efficient gas fire provides winter heating to the
southern living space, where, in Australian
conditions, solar heating is not possible.
The house has recycled polyester bulk insulation
and timber frames to reduce heat transfer. Eaves
and awnings give sun and rain protection. A drop
down louver to the River Terrace provides shading
from the morning sun while the north balcony has
been sheltered by a trellis with deciduous vines.
60,000L of rainwater storage supplies the whole
house and garden. House rainwater is pre-filtered,
heated by solar panels and stored in a well-
insulated tank. To reduce water waste, a hot water
recirculation unit reheats cold water and greywater
is treated and recycled on site.
Fig. 8: Ecohouse, Hill End, Australia, Riddel Architecture
(2010). Open plan allows an easy access of fresh air and
natural light into the rooms and creates informal
atmosphere. Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones
Fig. 9: Ecohouse, Hill End, Australia, Riddel Architecture
(2010). Terrace has been open both to south and east.
Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones
The swimming pool is minimal in size and uses
an efficient pump/filter system. It is filled and topped
up with rainwater and lit with locally-made LED
lights.
The house has been a good example of an
interesting and original architecture where the
authors take maximum advantage of specific
location with the benefit both for the residence
owners and the environment.
3.3. How to use the examples
The teaching experience has proved that well
chosen examples can be remembered for a long
time with very positive effects. In the preceding
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
118 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
1
DISSEMINATION OF THE BRAZILIAN CODE FOR
BUILDING ENERGY EFFICIENCY LABELING
THROUGH A DISTANCE COURSE IN A VIRTUAL
LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
Fernando O. R. PEREIRA
1
, Alice C. PEREIRA
2
, Raphaela W. FONSECA
1
, Fernando C.
PRES
1
, Luza C. CASTRO
1
, Mary A. YAMAKAWA
1

1 Labcon Laboratory of Environment Comfort, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianpolis, Brazil*
2 HiperLab Hypermedia Laboratory, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianpolis, Brazil*
ABSTRACT: The Energy Efficiency Quality Level Technical Regulation of Commercial and Public Services
Buildings - RTQ-C is an evaluation mechanism to classify the level of energy efficiency of buildings, developed
in response to the Brazilian Policy for Conservation and Rational Use of Energy. It is recognized that the effects
of such a regulation on improving the sustainability of the built environment in Brazil can only happen through
building design decisions. Accordingly, this article describes the development of a distance learning course,
mediated by virtual learning environment, aiming to disseminate the process of Building Labeling, based on RTQ
prescriptive method. The course was created in an environment called Virtual Learning Environment in
Architecture and Design (VLE-A). Contents are available through hyperbook, and are divided into seven
teaching units and the course is expected to last for eight weeks. The virtual learning environment represents an
important opportunity for additional training to students and professionals, reaching a large number of people
and effectively promoting the knowledge dissemination about the guidelines for applying the energy efficiency
regulation. Several classes are in progress and it is expected to contribute for the professionals updating and to
ease the development of voluntary labeling of the energy efficiency level in commercial and public services
buildings.
Keywords: distance learning, virtual learning environment, energy efficiency, building labeling
1. INTRODUCTION
The Energy Efficiency Quality Level Technical
Regulation, also called as the Code for Building
Energy Efficiency Labeling is the evaluation
mechanism for classifying the energy efficiency level
of buildings. It was created in 2001 through the Law
No 10.295, which introduces the National Policy for
Conservation and Rational Use of Energy [1].
Initially, it was created the Energy Efficiency Quality
Level Technical Regulation for Commercial, Services
and Public Buildings (RTQ-C) and its complementary
documents, such as: Regulation for evaluating the
Conformity of the Energy Efficiency Level and the
Manual for applying the regulation [5].
The RTQ-C aims to qualify and quantify the
electric energy consumption of buildings in Brazil and
was launched in 2008 by Eletrobrs, the major
company in the electric energy sector in Latin-
America and controlled by the Brazilian government.
The proposal is to specify the technical
requirements and the methods for classifying
commercial, services and publics buildings according
to its energy efficiency. It is expected that the
regulation helps reducing the energy consumption by
demanding a minimum energy efficiency level, which
is evaluated through prescriptive or simulation
methods.
The creation of an energy efficiency label to be
used in new buildings is an initiative that can help
consumers to demand more energy-efficient
buildings than the minimum required by regulation
and more savings in operational costs. The
regulation covers three aspects of the buildings: the
envelope, the artificial lighting and air conditioning
systems [5].
Considering the relevance of such regulation, the
Laboratory of Environmental Comfort/ARQ/UFSC in
association with the Hypermedia for Learning
Environment Lab/EGR/UFSC, have developed a
distance learning course as a contribution for
disseminating the knowledge for the application of
regulation guidelines.
The distance course was the chosen medium for
the task due to the new challenges presented by
technological, organizational and management
transformations, in particular in educational
institutions. The Distance Education (DE) is a
teaching method that uses a particular way to
generate, promote and provide conditions for
learning. The differential aspect is the media
coverage of relations among teachers and students.
Essentially, this means replacing the conventional
relationship for one in which teachers guide students
through information and non-conventional situations,
spaces and times that they do not share [4].
Although it is not a recent theme, it has gained new
impetus from the current technological advances,
provided mainly by information and communication
technology.


through the operable Velux skylights, two in each
cylinder.
Materials were chosen locally with strong
environmental conscience and much care to utilize
sustainable, regenerative and environmentally
benign materials. Black locust, ash and beech
hardwoods, also locally sourced and sustainably
forested provide natural and light look inside the
house. Only zero off-gassing finishes have been
used.
It is worth noting that the team did not just
finished the house and forget the project but the
organization has been constantly active. Team
members run the website, update the information
and even arrange trips, so that the other people
may see their works and understand how the
sustainable buildings can operate in practice
(Cornell University Sustainable Design 2010) [12].
5. CONCLUSION
Even after a perfect presentation and the most
logical argumentation some students tend to ask
who cares. It is finally time to say We care in as
many languages as possible. That is why constant
education, international conferences, workshops
and practices are so important. Hopefully the good
examples will be followed and the young generation
of architects will promote the worldwide campaign
for passive and low energy architecture of the
future.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author wishes to thank the architects and
photographers of presented buildings who not only
allowed their permission to publish but also offered
amazing support and many helpful comments.
7. REFERENCES
[1] Eisenman P versus Krier L (1989), My
Ideology is Better than Yours, Architectural
Design, no. 9-10.
[2] Najjar K, Najjar R 2010, viewed 15 October,
2010, http://www.najjar-najjar.com
[3] Wines J 2000, Green Architecture, Taschen,
Kln, p. 64.
[4] Van Uffelen C 2009, Ecological Architecture,
Braun Publishing, Berlin, p. 152.
[5] Postfossil Ecowoodbox Kindergarten, in
Phaidon Atlas of 21.st Century World
Architecture, Phaidon, London 2008, p. 424.
[6] Despang M 2007, viewed 10 October, 2010,
http://www.despandarchitekten.de
[7] Callebaut V 2008, viewed 17 October, 2010,
http://www.vincent.callebaut.org
[8] Riddel R 2010, viewed 12 October, 2010,
http://www.rara.net.au
[9] Laboratories for the 21st Century: Best
Practices 2003, viewed 17 July, 2010,
http://www.labs21century.gov/pdf/bp_daylight
_508.pdf
[10] U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon
2010, viewed 15 October, 2010,
http://www.solardecathlon.gov
[11] Cornell University Solar Decathlon, Silo House,
2009, viewed 15 October, 2010,
http://cusd.cornell.edu/silo
[12] Cornell University Sustainable Design 2010,
viewed 15 October, 2010,
http://cusd.cornell.edu







PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 119
1
DISSEMINATION OF THE BRAZILIAN CODE FOR
BUILDING ENERGY EFFICIENCY LABELING
THROUGH A DISTANCE COURSE IN A VIRTUAL
LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
Fernando O. R. PEREIRA
1
, Alice C. PEREIRA
2
, Raphaela W. FONSECA
1
, Fernando C.
PRES
1
, Luza C. CASTRO
1
, Mary A. YAMAKAWA
1

1 Labcon Laboratory of Environment Comfort, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianpolis, Brazil*
2 HiperLab Hypermedia Laboratory, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianpolis, Brazil*
ABSTRACT: The Energy Efficiency Quality Level Technical Regulation of Commercial and Public Services
Buildings - RTQ-C is an evaluation mechanism to classify the level of energy efficiency of buildings, developed
in response to the Brazilian Policy for Conservation and Rational Use of Energy. It is recognized that the effects
of such a regulation on improving the sustainability of the built environment in Brazil can only happen through
building design decisions. Accordingly, this article describes the development of a distance learning course,
mediated by virtual learning environment, aiming to disseminate the process of Building Labeling, based on RTQ
prescriptive method. The course was created in an environment called Virtual Learning Environment in
Architecture and Design (VLE-A). Contents are available through hyperbook, and are divided into seven
teaching units and the course is expected to last for eight weeks. The virtual learning environment represents an
important opportunity for additional training to students and professionals, reaching a large number of people
and effectively promoting the knowledge dissemination about the guidelines for applying the energy efficiency
regulation. Several classes are in progress and it is expected to contribute for the professionals updating and to
ease the development of voluntary labeling of the energy efficiency level in commercial and public services
buildings.
Keywords: distance learning, virtual learning environment, energy efficiency, building labeling
1. INTRODUCTION
The Energy Efficiency Quality Level Technical
Regulation, also called as the Code for Building
Energy Efficiency Labeling is the evaluation
mechanism for classifying the energy efficiency level
of buildings. It was created in 2001 through the Law
No 10.295, which introduces the National Policy for
Conservation and Rational Use of Energy [1].
Initially, it was created the Energy Efficiency Quality
Level Technical Regulation for Commercial, Services
and Public Buildings (RTQ-C) and its complementary
documents, such as: Regulation for evaluating the
Conformity of the Energy Efficiency Level and the
Manual for applying the regulation [5].
The RTQ-C aims to qualify and quantify the
electric energy consumption of buildings in Brazil and
was launched in 2008 by Eletrobrs, the major
company in the electric energy sector in Latin-
America and controlled by the Brazilian government.
The proposal is to specify the technical
requirements and the methods for classifying
commercial, services and publics buildings according
to its energy efficiency. It is expected that the
regulation helps reducing the energy consumption by
demanding a minimum energy efficiency level, which
is evaluated through prescriptive or simulation
methods.
The creation of an energy efficiency label to be
used in new buildings is an initiative that can help
consumers to demand more energy-efficient
buildings than the minimum required by regulation
and more savings in operational costs. The
regulation covers three aspects of the buildings: the
envelope, the artificial lighting and air conditioning
systems [5].
Considering the relevance of such regulation, the
Laboratory of Environmental Comfort/ARQ/UFSC in
association with the Hypermedia for Learning
Environment Lab/EGR/UFSC, have developed a
distance learning course as a contribution for
disseminating the knowledge for the application of
regulation guidelines.
The distance course was the chosen medium for
the task due to the new challenges presented by
technological, organizational and management
transformations, in particular in educational
institutions. The Distance Education (DE) is a
teaching method that uses a particular way to
generate, promote and provide conditions for
learning. The differential aspect is the media
coverage of relations among teachers and students.
Essentially, this means replacing the conventional
relationship for one in which teachers guide students
through information and non-conventional situations,
spaces and times that they do not share [4].
Although it is not a recent theme, it has gained new
impetus from the current technological advances,
provided mainly by information and communication
technology.


through the operable Velux skylights, two in each
cylinder.
Materials were chosen locally with strong
environmental conscience and much care to utilize
sustainable, regenerative and environmentally
benign materials. Black locust, ash and beech
hardwoods, also locally sourced and sustainably
forested provide natural and light look inside the
house. Only zero off-gassing finishes have been
used.
It is worth noting that the team did not just
finished the house and forget the project but the
organization has been constantly active. Team
members run the website, update the information
and even arrange trips, so that the other people
may see their works and understand how the
sustainable buildings can operate in practice
(Cornell University Sustainable Design 2010) [12].
5. CONCLUSION
Even after a perfect presentation and the most
logical argumentation some students tend to ask
who cares. It is finally time to say We care in as
many languages as possible. That is why constant
education, international conferences, workshops
and practices are so important. Hopefully the good
examples will be followed and the young generation
of architects will promote the worldwide campaign
for passive and low energy architecture of the
future.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author wishes to thank the architects and
photographers of presented buildings who not only
allowed their permission to publish but also offered
amazing support and many helpful comments.
7. REFERENCES
[1] Eisenman P versus Krier L (1989), My
Ideology is Better than Yours, Architectural
Design, no. 9-10.
[2] Najjar K, Najjar R 2010, viewed 15 October,
2010, http://www.najjar-najjar.com
[3] Wines J 2000, Green Architecture, Taschen,
Kln, p. 64.
[4] Van Uffelen C 2009, Ecological Architecture,
Braun Publishing, Berlin, p. 152.
[5] Postfossil Ecowoodbox Kindergarten, in
Phaidon Atlas of 21.st Century World
Architecture, Phaidon, London 2008, p. 424.
[6] Despang M 2007, viewed 10 October, 2010,
http://www.despandarchitekten.de
[7] Callebaut V 2008, viewed 17 October, 2010,
http://www.vincent.callebaut.org
[8] Riddel R 2010, viewed 12 October, 2010,
http://www.rara.net.au
[9] Laboratories for the 21st Century: Best
Practices 2003, viewed 17 July, 2010,
http://www.labs21century.gov/pdf/bp_daylight
_508.pdf
[10] U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon
2010, viewed 15 October, 2010,
http://www.solardecathlon.gov
[11] Cornell University Solar Decathlon, Silo House,
2009, viewed 15 October, 2010,
http://cusd.cornell.edu/silo
[12] Cornell University Sustainable Design 2010,
viewed 15 October, 2010,
http://cusd.cornell.edu







PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
120 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
2
Given the continental dimensions of Brazil, DE
helps promote social integration and disseminating
knowledge [3].
The teaching-learning process has the potential
to become more active, dynamic and personalized
through Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs).
These media, in evolution, use cyberspace to
promote distance interaction and collaboration
among the actors of the educative process and the
interactivity with the content to be learned [6].
Besides are increasingly being used in the academic
and corporate fields as a technological option to
meet the educational demand.
One of these environments is the Virtual Learning
Environment in Architecture and Design (VLE_AD),
being developed by the Laboratory of Hypermedia
for Learning Environments for (Hiperlab/EGR/UFSC),
since 2002 [7]. So, the process of labeling buildings
takes the advantage of the ability to disseminate
information of distance education as an instrument to
bring this knowledge to the most distant populations.
2. OBJECTIVE
This paper aims to describe the development of a
distance learning course based on a virtual learning
environment in order to disseminate the process of
labeling energy efficiency of buildings. The course is
based on the Prescriptive Method of the Energy
Efficiency Quality Level Technical Regulation for
Commercial, Services and Public Buildings (RTQ-C).
3. METHODOLOGY
3.1. Processing course development
The course was developed through the Virtual
Learning Environment in Architecture and Design
(VLE_AD). Its content was prepared following
recommendations from Contextualized Instructional
Design field. It is organized in modules and explores
the virtual tools to create learning situations where
students have the opportunity to build their own
evolutionary process. The main structure of the
course consists of a set of hyperbooks
1
, which
contains theoretical material, definitions and
concepts, practical examples and exercises.
The process of preparing the material in the VLE-
AD involved a multidisciplinary team effort, formed by
professionals from different fields of knowledge. The
team worked closely integrated so that was
guaranteed consistency between strategies and the
final product. Among the professionals involved in
the elaboration of didactic material stands out:

1
Hyperbook is a mean to produce and broadcast
content. Like a book, is organized by pages, chapters and
subchapters, but brings from its digital nature the
opportunity to follow nonlinear paths and has many natural
web resources, such as, links and animations. Through it,
content and activities can be organized and made available
in a practical and functional way to users (PIRES &
PEREIRA, 2009).

architects and undergraduate students, graphic
designer, programmer and educator.
The methodology was divided in six steps:
I. Understanding the regulation RTQ-C: this
was done through readings, workshops and training
with the several procedures included in the building
labeling regulation. An overall understanding of the
material was fundamental for every people in the
team.
II. Dominating the VLE-AD: several short
courses were offered and regular meetings have
been realized by the Hiperlab in order to support the
team to getting acquainted and to dominate the
virtual learning environment
(http://www.avaad.ufsc.br).
III. Producing and organizing the course
material: initially, the regulation content was split in
three parts: building envelope, lighting system and
HVAC system, and each part was assigned to a
small group of members team. Each group was in
charge to develop didactic material, which consists of
the theory and the several exercises for content
fixing and for student evaluation. All the material was
revised by two team members, who were trained in
the regulation during special facing courses offered
by Eletrobrs, the Brazilian company in the electric
energy sector responsible by the application of the
regulation.
IV. Inserting the course material in the VLE-
AD: to enter all the material developed in VLE-AD
was essential the assistance of Hiperlab for the
hyperbook programming and creation. Given the
large volume of material, the members from LabCon
were trained to assist in this procedure. The
theoretical material has been inserted into
hyperbooks and interactive exercises on the course
main page; as well as forums for questions, access
links to additional information and the videos.
Pedagogical orientation was important at this stage;
V. Visual and graphic development: animations
and graphic design, including icons, exercises and
the hyperbooks were done by a graphic designer.
VI. Pilot course application: a pilot course
proved to be an important step in order to test the
whole system, check bugs and train the tutorial
activity.
4. RESULTS ANALYSIS
4.1. EtiqEEE Course Structure
The course has a loose structure in order to allow
the participant to follow their own path and rhythm of
work (see Figure 1).
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 121

3

Figure 1: EtiqEEE Course front page.
The course program has been divided into 7
units, detailed as follows:
Unit I Getting familiar with the Virtual
Environment, Energy Efficiency and Sustainability: In
this unit the student will have a time to focus and to
master the virtual environment and to have access to
general information on the topic of Energy Efficiency
and Sustainability. The content is mainly arranged in
the form of texts and videos;
Unit II Definitions, Symbols and Units: basic
concepts and terms used by the regulation are
addressed in this unit. It can be accessed by the
student in every hypertext chapter by using a link at
the right side of the screen;
Unit III Introduction: this unit addresses the
basic information available in the RTQ-C document;
Unit IV Envelope: addresses basic information
related to the building envelope evaluation in RTQ-C;
Unit V Lighting System: addresses basic
information related to the artificial lighting system
evaluation in RTQ-C;
Unit VI Air-conditioning System: addresses
basic information related to the air-conditioning
system evaluation in RTQ-C;
Unit VII Applying the Regulation: this unit
shows information on how to produce the final
determination of energy efficiency, and the
procedure for obtaining the label. Ends with an
exercise and a questionnaire to evaluate the course
and the accompanying tutors
The content has been divided into two
hyperbooks, both being developed in the Moodle
platform, organized as e-books, with pages, chapters
and sub-chapters.
The first hyperbook, "EtiqEEE - First words," is
available in the initial topic and contains basic
information about the course, such as: the origin of
the course, objectives, participants, methodology,
evaluation and timetable (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Hyperbook EtiqEEE First words.
The second hyperbook, "Regulation EtiqEEE"
has its information divided into 6 parts, according to
the distinct study stages: initial definitions,
introduction, building envelope, artificial lighting
system, air conditioning system, and energy
efficiency and its determination. Its access will only
be released to students enrolled on the course (see
Figure 3).

Figure 3: Hyperbook EtiqEEE Regulation.
All units have specific links to access the second
hyperbook, as well as the videos, background
materials, forum questions and exercises related to
each theme. The icon with the example building is
also available in all hyperbooks in order to ease
users' access.
The exercises and activities were planned in
different ways to keep the student motivation. Were
used both playful exercises, e.g.: crosswords (see
Figure 4) and single choice questions (see Figure 5),
True or False or numerical calculations
2
Given the continental dimensions of Brazil, DE
helps promote social integration and disseminating
knowledge [3].
The teaching-learning process has the potential
to become more active, dynamic and personalized
through Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs).
These media, in evolution, use cyberspace to
promote distance interaction and collaboration
among the actors of the educative process and the
interactivity with the content to be learned [6].
Besides are increasingly being used in the academic
and corporate fields as a technological option to
meet the educational demand.
One of these environments is the Virtual Learning
Environment in Architecture and Design (VLE_AD),
being developed by the Laboratory of Hypermedia
for Learning Environments for (Hiperlab/EGR/UFSC),
since 2002 [7]. So, the process of labeling buildings
takes the advantage of the ability to disseminate
information of distance education as an instrument to
bring this knowledge to the most distant populations.
2. OBJECTIVE
This paper aims to describe the development of a
distance learning course based on a virtual learning
environment in order to disseminate the process of
labeling energy efficiency of buildings. The course is
based on the Prescriptive Method of the Energy
Efficiency Quality Level Technical Regulation for
Commercial, Services and Public Buildings (RTQ-C).
3. METHODOLOGY
3.1. Processing course development
The course was developed through the Virtual
Learning Environment in Architecture and Design
(VLE_AD). Its content was prepared following
recommendations from Contextualized Instructional
Design field. It is organized in modules and explores
the virtual tools to create learning situations where
students have the opportunity to build their own
evolutionary process. The main structure of the
course consists of a set of hyperbooks
1
, which
contains theoretical material, definitions and
concepts, practical examples and exercises.
The process of preparing the material in the VLE-
AD involved a multidisciplinary team effort, formed by
professionals from different fields of knowledge. The
team worked closely integrated so that was
guaranteed consistency between strategies and the
final product. Among the professionals involved in
the elaboration of didactic material stands out:

1
Hyperbook is a mean to produce and broadcast
content. Like a book, is organized by pages, chapters and
subchapters, but brings from its digital nature the
opportunity to follow nonlinear paths and has many natural
web resources, such as, links and animations. Through it,
content and activities can be organized and made available
in a practical and functional way to users (PIRES &
PEREIRA, 2009).

architects and undergraduate students, graphic
designer, programmer and educator.
The methodology was divided in six steps:
I. Understanding the regulation RTQ-C: this
was done through readings, workshops and training
with the several procedures included in the building
labeling regulation. An overall understanding of the
material was fundamental for every people in the
team.
II. Dominating the VLE-AD: several short
courses were offered and regular meetings have
been realized by the Hiperlab in order to support the
team to getting acquainted and to dominate the
virtual learning environment
(http://www.avaad.ufsc.br).
III. Producing and organizing the course
material: initially, the regulation content was split in
three parts: building envelope, lighting system and
HVAC system, and each part was assigned to a
small group of members team. Each group was in
charge to develop didactic material, which consists of
the theory and the several exercises for content
fixing and for student evaluation. All the material was
revised by two team members, who were trained in
the regulation during special facing courses offered
by Eletrobrs, the Brazilian company in the electric
energy sector responsible by the application of the
regulation.
IV. Inserting the course material in the VLE-
AD: to enter all the material developed in VLE-AD
was essential the assistance of Hiperlab for the
hyperbook programming and creation. Given the
large volume of material, the members from LabCon
were trained to assist in this procedure. The
theoretical material has been inserted into
hyperbooks and interactive exercises on the course
main page; as well as forums for questions, access
links to additional information and the videos.
Pedagogical orientation was important at this stage;
V. Visual and graphic development: animations
and graphic design, including icons, exercises and
the hyperbooks were done by a graphic designer.
VI. Pilot course application: a pilot course
proved to be an important step in order to test the
whole system, check bugs and train the tutorial
activity.
4. RESULTS ANALYSIS
4.1. EtiqEEE Course Structure
The course has a loose structure in order to allow
the participant to follow their own path and rhythm of
work (see Figure 1).
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
122 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
4

Figure 4: Crosswords exercise.

Figure 5: Objective question.
For a better understanding of the concepts and
calculations presented in the examples throughout
the course, a model of a building example was
developed. It is a building of shops and office
activities, with a total area of 1000 square meters
distributed in four floors. It has a rectangular shape
and facade in red and white, with reflectances of
50% and 80% respectively. Its front facade is
oriented to the south and the building is located in
the city of southern Brazil.
The building is available in the second hyperbook
and can be viewed through a video and drawings
(plants, elevations and views). The example building
is also used to solve some exercises for the topics of
the envelope, lighting system, air conditioning
system and final application (see Figure 6)


Figure 6: Building example.

4.2. EtiqEEE course methodology
The course is designed accordingly to the
following methodology:
- The first unit of the course is to familiarize
the student with the Virtual Learning
Environment in Architecture and Design;
- The introduction to the subject of study is
conducted through videos and texts related
to the subject;
- The course content follows with six units,
which can be accessed randomly or
progressively driven by course schedule;
- In each unit, the contents are exposed
through hyperbooks that contains
theoretical material and practical examples,
besides definitions and concepts;
- Additional material, such as texts, videos,
links and forums are available at any time;
- At the end of each unit the student should
apply the content covered in exercises in
order to steady the concepts studied and
have their performance assessed;
- The assessment is based on exercises that
can be redone as many times as it is
convenient;
- During the course, the users are
encouraged to make brief reports of their
learning and point out the aspects
considered relevant;
- Students who have doubts about the
content displayed can send their questions
to the forums opened for each topic; tutors
will be answering them within 48 hours.

Learner assessment is continuous and interactive
through the proposed activities on each topic.
Students who complete the course within the
prescribed period and achieve a minimum score of
70% will receive a certificate of approval of the
course.
The course is developed to be followed in
distance mode. The expected duration is
approximately 8 weeks, with a dedication average of
6 hours per week, resulting in the total of 48 hours.
However, interested participants can do in less time,
either by a greater dedication, or by an improved
performance (see Figure 7).
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 123

5

Figure 7: Schedule for course duration.

4.3. Pilot Course
The pilot course was scheduled to test the
developed material. It was initially designed to last
for five weeks, but due to some problems in the AVA-
AD platform was necessary to extend the deadline
for 8 more weeks.
The first group, consisting of 15 persons, was
selected among graduate students, postgraduate
students and also teachers, so that they could
contribute and evaluate the course. Upon course
completion an evaluation was conducted for
necessary improvements and adjustments.
The tutoring was developed by the whole course
development team, having to relay the tutors in order
to ensure that all questions were answered within 48
hours.
It should be noted that the tutoring of regular
courses should be made by persons with appropriate
knowledge of the RTQ-C and specially trained in the
context of the EtiqEEE course.
The results have shown that the initially proposed
deadline for completion of the course (6 hours /
week) is appropriate, providing conditions for
students with different levels of knowledge on the
subject are able to develop it. The proposed
exercises have been solved satisfactorily by the
students when looking at the aspect of
understanding the content. However, there were
small problems of programming in the assembly of
some exercises, which were solved by the team as
they were identified.
5. CONCLUSIONS
This work points to the use of virtual learning
environments as a complement to training students
and professionals, regarding building energy
efficiency.
More specifically, the distance learning course -
EtiqEEE mediated by VLE-AD, can effectively
reach large numbers of people and promote the
knowledge dissemination about the guidelines for
applying the energy efficiency regulation. The
training and upgrading of professionals should create
conditions for the development of voluntary labeling
of the level of energy efficiency of commercial and
public services buildings
It is worth mentioning that each time the course is
offered, it is performed a complete evaluation in
order to give a feedback for a continuous
improvement process.
Finally, the development of a distance learning
course in an online virtual learning environment,
requires a significant financial and team effort,
especially generating teaching materials and
developing high quality virtual environments.
However, in a medium and long term, the cost is
significantly reduced when one considers the
reduced need for physical infrastructure and
displacement of either teachers or students, and the
possibility to offer the course to a large number of
people and / or getting sponsor institutions.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To CNPq and Eletrobrs for financial support.
And for those who took part in the course
development.
7. REFERENCES
[1] BRAZIL. Law N
o
10295, 17th of October of
2001. Provides for The National Policy for
Conservation and Rational Use of Energy (in
Portuguese). The Government Gazette, Braslia,
2001a. Available in:
<www.inmetro.gov.br/qualidade/lei10295.pdf>.
Accessed in: 20/03/2008.
[2] BRAZIL. Act N
o
4.059, 19th of December of
2001. Regulates the Law no 10.295 (in
Portuguese). The Government Gazette, Braslia,
2001b. Available in:
<www.mme.gov.br/ministerio/legislacao/decreto
s/Decreto%20n%204.059-2001.html>.
Accessed in: 20/03/2008.
[3] LIBRELOTTO, L. I. & FERROLI, P. C. M.,
Distance learning and sustainability: a proposal
for ENSUS (in Portuguese). ENSUS: II
Conference on Sustainability in Design. Vale do
Itaja, 2008.
[4] LITWIN, E., Distance Education (in Portuguese),
Ed. Artmed, Porto Alegre, 2001, 100p.
[5] MINING AND ENERGY MINISTRY. The Energy
Efficiency Quality Level Technical Regulation of
Commercial and Public Services Buildings -
RTQ-C (in Portuguese), 2009. Available in:
<http://www.eletrobras.com>. Accessed in:
03/09/2009.
[6] PEREIRA, A. T. C., SCHMITT, V., DIAS, M. R.
A. C. Virtual Learning Environments (in
Portuguese) Ed. Cincia Moderna. Rio de
Janeiro, 2007.
[7] PIRES, F. C., PEREIRA, A, T. C. The multiple
functions and possibilities of a VLE: an
experience with the VLE-Architecture and
Design (in Portuguese). CONAHPA National
Congress of Learning Hypermedia Environment,
Florianpolis, 2009.
4

Figure 4: Crosswords exercise.

Figure 5: Objective question.
For a better understanding of the concepts and
calculations presented in the examples throughout
the course, a model of a building example was
developed. It is a building of shops and office
activities, with a total area of 1000 square meters
distributed in four floors. It has a rectangular shape
and facade in red and white, with reflectances of
50% and 80% respectively. Its front facade is
oriented to the south and the building is located in
the city of southern Brazil.
The building is available in the second hyperbook
and can be viewed through a video and drawings
(plants, elevations and views). The example building
is also used to solve some exercises for the topics of
the envelope, lighting system, air conditioning
system and final application (see Figure 6)


Figure 6: Building example.

4.2. EtiqEEE course methodology
The course is designed accordingly to the
following methodology:
- The first unit of the course is to familiarize
the student with the Virtual Learning
Environment in Architecture and Design;
- The introduction to the subject of study is
conducted through videos and texts related
to the subject;
- The course content follows with six units,
which can be accessed randomly or
progressively driven by course schedule;
- In each unit, the contents are exposed
through hyperbooks that contains
theoretical material and practical examples,
besides definitions and concepts;
- Additional material, such as texts, videos,
links and forums are available at any time;
- At the end of each unit the student should
apply the content covered in exercises in
order to steady the concepts studied and
have their performance assessed;
- The assessment is based on exercises that
can be redone as many times as it is
convenient;
- During the course, the users are
encouraged to make brief reports of their
learning and point out the aspects
considered relevant;
- Students who have doubts about the
content displayed can send their questions
to the forums opened for each topic; tutors
will be answering them within 48 hours.

Learner assessment is continuous and interactive
through the proposed activities on each topic.
Students who complete the course within the
prescribed period and achieve a minimum score of
70% will receive a certificate of approval of the
course.
The course is developed to be followed in
distance mode. The expected duration is
approximately 8 weeks, with a dedication average of
6 hours per week, resulting in the total of 48 hours.
However, interested participants can do in less time,
either by a greater dedication, or by an improved
performance (see Figure 7).
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 125

Actively Teaching Passive Heating & Cooling
Thomas A. Gentry
1

1
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
ABSTRACT: Thirty years ago, interest in passive heating and cooling briefly moved into the mainstream of
American culture and the curricula of architectural education because of two separate energy crises; however,
this interest all but disappeared by the end of Ronald Reagans first term as president. Recently, interest in the
subject reappeared with increasing concerns about the environmental impact of buildings. What is significant for
architectural education is what happened in the years between the mid 1980s and the recent past. During this
period most architectural programs in the United States provided limited, if any, instruction on passive heating
and cooling; and, the majority of architecture faculty members teaching today received their education and
developed their specialties. This has resulted in architecture programs across the United States facing the
problem of how to include passive heating and cooling into their curricula. Getting faculty members who lack a
working knowledge of the subject to integrate it into a core curriculum is difficult. Relegating the subject to a few
faculty members to teach in a collection of courses outside of the core curriculum diminishes the influence of the
subject in the curriculum. This paper outlines a solution to this dilemma.
Keywords: passive solar, passive cooling, teaching
1. INTRODUCTION
In the 1970s, the United States experienced two
energy crises when the supply of oil from the Persian
Gulf region was disrupted. In response to these
events, President Jimmy Carter (1977 - 1981)
promoted the development and utilization of solar
energy as one means for reducing the countrys
dependence on foreign oil. As interest in passive
solar heating developed in American culture so did
the availability of books on solar architecture. Titles
like, Designing & Building a Solar House: Your Place
in the Sun by Donald Watson (1977), and The
Passive Solar Energy Book by Edward Mazria (1979)
were readily available in neighborhood bookstores.
In the world of academia, the design of solar
buildings was being incorporated into architecture
curricula. Simply stated, the country was on the
verge of having solar energy become a primary
energy source. But, early in his first term in office
(1981 - 1985), President Ronald Reagan redirected
public attention away from solar energy and the
transition never occurred. Today, interest in solar
energy is on the increase once again; however, this
time it is just one facet in a multi-faceted
environmental agendum.
2. SKILL SET SCARCE IN ACADEMIA
In the 30 years between the presidency of Jimmy
Carter and today, two events have occurred in
academia that have made the skill set for designing
solar architecture scarce.
2.1. Interest in Passive Solar Spiked
In the United States, interest in passive solar
peaked in the late 1970s, waned by the mid 1980s,
and is to this day limited. This is reflected in the
number of articles about solar thermal that have
appeared in the leading architectural trade journals
of the past three decades Architectural Record,
Architecture, and Progressive Architecture. In 1978
Progressive Architecture published 20 articles on the
subject, which equals the number of articles all three
journals published from 1981 to 1985, and surpasses
by six the number of articles published from 1986 to
present. It is worth noting that interest in passive
solar in the late 1970s was spurred by federal tax
credits and rebates; whereas, increasing natural gas
prices due to deregulation sustained the interest
through the early 1980s.
Today, most of the articles published focus on
solar electric (photovoltaic), rather than solar thermal.

Figure 1 - Thermal Solar Articles
2.2. Faculty Turnover & Specialization
Given that young graduates from masters and
doctoral programs reach retirement in roughly 40
years, three-quarters of college faculty teaching
today began their careers after interest in passive
solar peaked, assuming the age distribution among
the faculty is uniform. Couple this with the fact
faculty specialize in a wide range of subjects, of
which passive solar is just one, and the reality is that
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
126 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
significantly more than three-quarters of the faculty
teaching today have had no, or only limited exposure
to passive solar design. This is a critical problem in
architectural education because faculty charged with
teaching environmentally sustainable design
routinely neglect passive solar design in favor of
systems they perceive as easier to access. Case in
point, under the pretence of environmentally
sustainable design students are routinely allowed to
pursue solutions that make extensive use of
photovoltaic arrays but contain no passive solar
heating. The question that seldom gets asked is,
When you have a heating load, why are you using a
system that utilizes less than 20 percent of the solar
energy falling on a given area when passive solar
heating can utilizes 80 percent of the solar energy
falling on the same area?
3. CIRICULAR DILEMMA
As architecture programs across the United
States increase their efforts to teach the design of
environmentally sustainable architecture the question
of how it is manifested in the curriculum becomes
more difficult. It is particularly true for subjects that
offer a rich set of interlacing strategies, like passive
heating and cooling. Getting faculty members who
lack a working knowledge of the subject to integrate
the information into the core curriculum is difficult.
Relegating the subject to a few faculty members to
teach in a collection of courses outside of the core
curriculum diminishes the influence of the subject in
the curriculum. What is needed is a rudimentary
method for designing passively heated and cooled
building that can be easily mastered by faculty and
students.
4. RUDIMENTARY METHOD
The balance of this paper outlines one
rudimentary method that can be easily mastered by
faculty members with a limited working knowledge of
designing with passive heating and cooling. The
method first inventories all the strategies, by
mapping them within Earths energy budget. Next, it
prioritizes the viable strategies. Finally, it identifies
the various systems available for executing each of
the chosen strategies. With this information in hand
the design process proceeds much as it normally
would to produce designs that are richer and more
environmentally sustainable.
4.1. Inventory the Strategies
While there are many good resources available for
learning about the details of passive solar heating
and passive cooling, what is missing is a graphic
resource that provides an overview. Imagine being
unfamiliar with the overall shape of Europe and the
arrangements of the countries. Now imagine what it
would be like to construct in your mind the shape of
Europe and the physical relationships between each
country having only individual country maps, or
worse yet, text only descriptions. Lastly, imagine
what it would be like to plan a trip with several
destinations scattered throughout Europe.
Designers who do not have a good understanding of
passive solar heating and passive cooling face a
similar situation. Without a clear overview of the
various routes for reaching their destinations the
paths they chose are often suboptimal. For this
reason the author developed a map a chart.



Figure 2 - Passive Heating & Cooling Chart (Actual chart is 48 x 30 and in full color)
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 127

Predicated on Earths energy budget, the chart is
subdivided into three horizontal bands, with the top
band representing the space of the universe, the
middle band representing Earths atmosphere, and
the bottom band representing all the terrestrial
substances of Earth, including plants, animals and
people. The Sun is the primary energy source,
space is the primary energy sink, and the
atmosphere and Earth are secondary sources and
sinks. Using arrows that are proportional, the chart
inventories all the paths for energy to flow from the
sources to the sinks; and, it explains the physics that
drives the flow and how the flow can be manipulated.
The chart also graphically represents the how solar
and terrestrial radiation, air temperature and
movement, and moisture effect thermal comfort.
With this information, a designer can understand
the energy relationships of passive heating and
cooling much in the same way a map of Europe
allows a traveler to understand the spatial
relationships between countries and cities. But, just
as the map is not a travel plan, the chart is not a
design program. The traveler must first select the
destinations, and the designer must prioritize the
strategies.
4.2. Prioritize the Strategies
One of the easier ways to prioritize passive
heating and cooling strategies is to plot on a
psychrometric chart with expanded comfort zones
the daily temperature and relative humidity for
multiple days throughout the year. Two well
established tools for doing this are:
The psychrometric chart in, Design with Climate:
Bioclimatic Approach to Architectural
Regionalism by Victor Olgyay, (Reprints of the
chart are available in, Mechanical and Electrical
Equipment for Buildings, 11
th
Edition by Walter
Grondzik and others, The Architects Portable
Handbook, 2
nd
Edition by Pat Guthrie, and
several other texts.) [3, 4]
The interactive computer psychrometric chart in
Climate Consultant 5.0 developed by the
Department of Architecture and Urban Design at
the University of California, Los Angeles.
(Figure 3 shows a screen shot of the chart
produced in Climate Consultant 5.0 for Chicago,
Illinois.)

Figure 3 - Climate Consultant 5.0 Psychrometric Chart
One of the advantages of the plots produced in
Climate Consultant 5.0 is they list the percentage of
the time and the number of hours for the period being
modeled that each design strategy is feasible. For
example, in Chicago, Illinois natural ventilation is an
effective cooling strategy for 11.1 percent (970
hours) of the year.
Prioritizing the various strategies is just a matter
of ranking them from most to least effective. Once
the strategies have been ranked is possible to
determine which are appropriate for the specific
project. Getting back to the travel analogy, it is like
ranking destinations for a tour based on information
obtained from a guide book. Once the destinations
have been selected it is possible to determine how
many are viable within the schedule and budget.
4.3. Identify the Systems
There are multiple systems for implementing
each passive heating and cooling strategy. For
example, natural ventilation can be implemented
using wind induced ventilation or stack effect
ventilation; but, wind induced may be more
appropriate for one project while stack effect is more
appropriate for another project. This is where the
skill of the designer is tested.
A good designer has an extensive catalog of
systems to draw from and tools for analysis.
Resources for cataloging systems include
precedence studies and books such as, Climatic
Building Design: Energy-Efficient Building Principles
and Practice by Donald Watson and Kenneth Labs.
Fortunately, these types of resources are easily
shared, so faculty and students who are just learning
to design with passive heating and cooling are only
limited by the number of systems they become
familiar with.
With programs like Ecotect and DesignBuilder
being relatively easy to learn, the most commonly
used tool for analysis is computer simulation;
however, physical modeling and onsite data
collection are still invaluable tools that should not be
overlooked.
One of the more reliable and easier physical
modeling tools to use is a sun chart/protractor, like
the one shown in figure 4. Used in conjunction with a
physical model, a designer can accurately and
quickly assess solar gain throughout the year.

Figure 4 - Climate Consultant 5.0 Sun Chart
significantly more than three-quarters of the faculty
teaching today have had no, or only limited exposure
to passive solar design. This is a critical problem in
architectural education because faculty charged with
teaching environmentally sustainable design
routinely neglect passive solar design in favor of
systems they perceive as easier to access. Case in
point, under the pretence of environmentally
sustainable design students are routinely allowed to
pursue solutions that make extensive use of
photovoltaic arrays but contain no passive solar
heating. The question that seldom gets asked is,
When you have a heating load, why are you using a
system that utilizes less than 20 percent of the solar
energy falling on a given area when passive solar
heating can utilizes 80 percent of the solar energy
falling on the same area?
3. CIRICULAR DILEMMA
As architecture programs across the United
States increase their efforts to teach the design of
environmentally sustainable architecture the question
of how it is manifested in the curriculum becomes
more difficult. It is particularly true for subjects that
offer a rich set of interlacing strategies, like passive
heating and cooling. Getting faculty members who
lack a working knowledge of the subject to integrate
the information into the core curriculum is difficult.
Relegating the subject to a few faculty members to
teach in a collection of courses outside of the core
curriculum diminishes the influence of the subject in
the curriculum. What is needed is a rudimentary
method for designing passively heated and cooled
building that can be easily mastered by faculty and
students.
4. RUDIMENTARY METHOD
The balance of this paper outlines one
rudimentary method that can be easily mastered by
faculty members with a limited working knowledge of
designing with passive heating and cooling. The
method first inventories all the strategies, by
mapping them within Earths energy budget. Next, it
prioritizes the viable strategies. Finally, it identifies
the various systems available for executing each of
the chosen strategies. With this information in hand
the design process proceeds much as it normally
would to produce designs that are richer and more
environmentally sustainable.
4.1. Inventory the Strategies
While there are many good resources available for
learning about the details of passive solar heating
and passive cooling, what is missing is a graphic
resource that provides an overview. Imagine being
unfamiliar with the overall shape of Europe and the
arrangements of the countries. Now imagine what it
would be like to construct in your mind the shape of
Europe and the physical relationships between each
country having only individual country maps, or
worse yet, text only descriptions. Lastly, imagine
what it would be like to plan a trip with several
destinations scattered throughout Europe.
Designers who do not have a good understanding of
passive solar heating and passive cooling face a
similar situation. Without a clear overview of the
various routes for reaching their destinations the
paths they chose are often suboptimal. For this
reason the author developed a map a chart.



Figure 2 - Passive Heating & Cooling Chart (Actual chart is 48 x 30 and in full color)
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
128 EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
Continuing with the travel analogy, being able to
identify as many systems that can fulfill each strategy
is analogous to knowing several methods for
reaching each destination. Relying solely on
automobile transportation to reach every destination
may limit the richness of the tour, given that travel by
air reduces the time between destinations, travel by
rail accommodates sightseeing and socializing, and
travel by bicycle enriches the experience of place.
With multiple modes of transportations, a guide
book to identify destinations, and a map to relate the
destinations to one another, it is possible to plan a
truly enjoyable tour.
With multiple systems for implementing passive
heating and cooling strategies, analysis tools to
prioritize of strategies, and a chart to relate the
strategies to one another it is possible to produce a
richly developed design.
5. EXAMPLE
The task is to design a passively cooled house
for Tucson, Arizona. Looking at the chart there are
numerous strategies for cooling. Shading and the
use of high albedo (solar reflectance) materials are
two defensive strategies for reducing solar radiation.
Mass effect cooling is a strategy that uses terrestrial
substances as secondary sinks to draw off thermal


Figure 5 Cooling portion of chart
energy. Strategies for enhancing the transfer of
thermal energy from the house to the atmosphere
include direct evaporative cooling, high thermal mass
with night flushing, and natural ventilation. There is
also the opportunity to transfer thermal energy
directly from to house to space by increasing the
emissivity of the surfaces oriented towards space.
Looking at the psychrometric chart to prioritize
design strategies the order is:
1. Sun shading,
2. Evaporative cooling,
3. High thermal mass w/ and w/o night flush, and
4. Natural ventilation.
Using these strategies will provide thermal comfort
for more than a third of the year.

Figure 6 - Tucson Design Strategies [5]
Possible systems for sun shading include
ramadas (shade structures) and vegetation. Two
methods for enhancing the performance of the
ramadas is to use high albedo materials to reflect
solar radiation away from the house, and to provide
an open configuration to prevent heat from
accumulating underneath.
While two stage evaporative cooling can provide
more hours of cooling than direct evaporative
cooling, the number of direct evaporative cooling
systems is greater. Two stage evaporative cooling is
limited to mechanical systems, but direct evaporative
cooling includes misting, fountains, plant
transpiration, as well as mechanical systems.
The use of high thermal mass dates back to
earliest human settlements in the region, with earth
and stone being the dominant building materials.
These materials are still viable today, as well as
brick, concrete, containerized water, and phase
change materials (PCMs).
Natural ventilation comes in fourth on this list of
four, but still it provides thermal comfort for more
than a tenth of the year. When it is coupled with high
thermal mass in the form of night flushing it provides
additional hours of thermal comfort. There are
several systems available for natural ventilation
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
EDUCATION OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN 129


wind induced cross ventilation of interior spaces
using windows with and without wing walls, wind
enhanced ventilation of outdoor living spaces with
building openings, thermal chimneys, and wind
towers. Many of these systems can be coupled with
direct evaporative cooling systems to provide greater
thermal comfort.
Knowing what systems are available to implement
the appropriate strategies, and knowing how the
strategies relate to one another, it is now possible to
move forward in the design process to address all
other issues while producing a more environmentally
sustainable solution.

6. CONCLUSION
The majority of architectural faculty members
teaching design studios today lack the insight to
teach passive heating and cooling, but choosing to
relegate the teaching of passive heating and cooling
to non-studio courses that are taught by a handful of
knowledgeable faculty members does not give the
students the opportunity to fully explore the subject.
The only satisfactory solution is to give all faculty
members the resources they need to adequately
teach the subject in the studios; and, to have the
more knowledgeable faculty members advance the
students understanding of the subject with non-
studio courses. The required resources for the full
faculty are:
1. The chart, Passive Heating & Cooling:
Managing Energy in Microclimates & Buildings
to develop a good overview and to provide an
inventory of all of the possible design strategies.
2. A psychrometric chart showing the expanded
comfort zones associated with each passive and
heating and cooling strategy to help prioritize the
design strategies, and
3. An extensive catalog of systems to draw from
and tools for analysis.
With these three resources and a limited amount of
instruction every faculty member can take an active
role in teaching passive heating and cooling.
7. REFERENCES
[1] Watson, D. Designing & Building a Solar House:
Your Place in the Sun. Garden Way Publishing:
Charlotte VT, 1977.
[2] Mazria, E. The Passive Solar Energy Book.
Rodale Press: Emmaus, PA, 1979.
[3] Olgyay, V. Design with Climate: Bioclimatic
Approach to Architectural Regionalism.
Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ, 1969.
[4] Grondzik, W. Mechanical and Electrical
Equipment for Buildings, 11
th
Edition. John Wiley
and Son: New York, NY, 2009.
[5] Climate Consultant 5.0, Department of
Architecture and Urban Design University of
California, Los Angeles.

Continuing with the travel analogy, being able to
identify as many systems that can fulfill each strategy
is analogous to knowing several methods for
reaching each destination. Relying solely on
automobile transportation to reach every destination
may limit the richness of the tour, given that travel by
air reduces the time between destinations, travel by
rail accommodates sightseeing and socializing, and
travel by bicycle enriches the experience of place.
With multiple modes of transportations, a guide
book to identify destinations, and a map to relate the
destinations to one another, it is possible to plan a
truly enjoyable tour.
With multiple systems for implementing passive
heating and cooling strategies, analysis tools to
prioritize of strategies, and a chart to relate the
strategies to one another it is possible to produce a
richly developed design.
5. EXAMPLE
The task is to design a passively cooled house
for Tucson, Arizona. Looking at the chart there are
numerous strategies for cooling. Shading and the
use of high albedo (solar reflectance) materials are
two defensive strategies for reducing solar radiation.
Mass effect cooling is a strategy that uses terrestrial
substances as secondary sinks to draw off thermal


Figure 5 Cooling portion of chart
energy. Strategies for enhancing the transfer of
thermal energy from the house to the atmosphere
include direct evaporative cooling, high thermal mass
with night flushing, and natural ventilation. There is
also the opportunity to transfer thermal energy
directly from to house to space by increasing the
emissivity of the surfaces oriented towards space.
Looking at the psychrometric chart to prioritize
design strategies the order is:
1. Sun shading,
2. Evaporative cooling,
3. High thermal mass w/ and w/o night flush, and
4. Natural ventilation.
Using these strategies will provide thermal comfort
for more than a third of the year.

Figure 6 - Tucson Design Strategies [5]
Possible systems for sun shading include
ramadas (shade structures) and vegetation. Two
methods for enhancing the performance of the
ramadas is to use high albedo materials to reflect
solar radiation away from the house, and to provide
an open configuration to prevent heat from
accumulating underneath.
While two stage evaporative cooling can provide
more hours of cooling than direct evaporative
cooling, the number of direct evaporative cooling
systems is greater. Two stage evaporative cooling is
limited to mechanical systems, but direct evaporative
cooling includes misting, fountains, plant
transpiration, as well as mechanical systems.
The use of high thermal mass dates back to
earliest human settlements in the region, with earth
and stone being the dominant building materials.
These materials are still viable today, as well as
brick, concrete, containerized water, and phase
change materials (PCMs).
Natural ventilation comes in fourth on this list of
four, but still it provides thermal comfort for more
than a tenth of the year. When it is coupled with high
thermal mass in the form of night flushing it provides
additional hours of thermal comfort. There are
several systems available for natural ventilation
ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 133
Sustainability Indicators in Buildings
Identifying Key Performance Indicators
Lone FEIFER
1 2
1
Aarhus School of Architecture, Aarhus, Denmark
2
VELUX Group, Hoersholm, Denmark
ABSTRACT: What makes a building sustainable, or green and how is the one better than the other? This
paper aims to investigate a method on how to identify a sustainable building in an overview, looking into possible
measures and targets by method of performance indicators as a benchmark system. Is it viable to obtain a result
which can be communicated on several levels, also to decision makers being laymen? A common
understanding of indicators system and terminology within sustainable construction could form a platform for
navigation and communication of degrees of sustainability. An investigation of the categories and indicators of
the upcoming international standard CEN TC 350 is performed. A methodology is elaborated into a system and
with an output usable for levelled communication, thus sourcing a common awareness of sustainability in the
particular building. As illustration, indicators are set up in an overview, and a case study is performed. .
Keywords: Key performance indicators, communication, stakeholders, triple bottom line
1. INTRODUCTION
Buildings represent a major troubleshooter in regards
to solving the imminent task of decreasing carbon
emissions. Consuming more than 40% of the energy
spent in industrialized countries, the building sector
is an obvious place to look for leverage on the three-
part challenge to minimize energy consumption and
carbon emissions, secure political independency of
energy availability and create economical growth
through incentives and innovations in the building
sector. Buildings are not consumers of energy - the
users of buildings are. Who are these consumers,
and thus the stakeholders?
The stakeholder landscape when discussing
buildings is very broad, with multiple interests, -
some private interests, some professional, some
short-term, some long-term, all depending on the
individual approach. There is one overshadowing
common interest for all, namely the public interest of
leveraging the huge potential of buildings into a tool
solving some of the global challenges. This paper
seeks to investigate which indicators are available to
count and account for sustainable buildings, for the
public stakeholder in this matter. The approach taken
is deliberately banal, inspired by the Albert Einstein
citation you do not really understand something
unless you can explain it to your grandmother. If we
are going to be able to address and handle the
challenge, we need common denominators that can
be understood and handled by peers, professionals,
policy makers, politicians and the public in general.
Today all designs are sustainable and with
environmental focus at least allegedly. Ever since
green became the new black, the building sector is
as struck by the desire to go green - and the claim to
be sustainable has become as well a claim to fame.
The term green is in substantial risk to become a
mainstream hygiene factor, addressing the subject
only on a superficial level, and not necessarily
reflecting the long-term effects or actual impacts.
Is there today such a thing as a public common
denominator within indicators of sustainability? This
paper wishes to investigate and discuss appropriate
tools, knowledge and awareness for ordering,
expecting and using sustainable buildings, as well as
discuss the motive of sustainability as such.
2. INDICATORS OF TODAY
2.1. Terminology green and/or sustainable
A green building covers measures like limiting
consumption of non-renewable fuels, water, land,
materials, emissions of greenhouse gas and other
emissions; minimizing impacts on site ecology, solid
waste or liquid effluents, improving indoor air quality,
natural lighting and acoustics and securing
maintenance of performance. A sustainable building
features all of the same measures, and in addition
addresses longevity, adaptability and flexibility of the
object, accounts for the efficiency of resources spent,
addresses safety and security, includes social and
economic considerations and regards urban and
planning issues [1].
Sustainability is the capacity to endure, to
sustain. In regards to ecology, the term describes
how biological systems remain diverse and
productive over time, examples of sustainable
biological systems are long-lived and healthy
wetlands and forests. In regards to humans,
sustainability is the potential for long-term
maintenance of well being, which has environmental,
economic, and social dimensions. So when
discussing buildings, the core issues are long-term
maintenance and well being of the users, seen under
the aspects of environmental, economic, and social
dimensions.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
134 ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY
2.2. Dimensions, standards and schemes
Environmental, economic and social
dimensions are used as protection components of
sustainable development introduced at the first
Conference of the Parties (COP) in Rio 1992 [2].
These three dimensions are subsequently used as
interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars of
sustainability. An approach agreed by the ICLEI
Local Governments for Sustainability in 2007 uses
the Triple Bottom Line - also known under the
abbreviation of TBL or 3BL. The dimensions of
environmental, economic and social are popularised
into "people, planet, and profit". The TBL uses the
very same pillars in the attempt to capture an
expanded spectrum of values and criteria for
measuring organizational (and societal) success:
economic, ecological and social.
The Technical Committee CEN/TC 350, under
the EU Commission, is preparing a suite of standards
for a system to assess buildings using a lifecycle
approach, known as Sustainability of construction
works. The standards provide principles,
requirements, methodologies and calculation rules
for the environmental, economic and social
performance of buildings taking technical
characteristics and functionality of a building into
account. The series of standards aims for the
assessment of environmental, social and economic
performance of a building, to be made on an equal
footing, on the basis of the same technical
characteristics and functionality of the object of
assessment. The standards are not yet released.
Performance Indicators are quantifiable
performance measurements used to define success
factors and measure progress toward the
achievement of business goals. The measures are
typically referred to as KPIs (Key Performance
Indicators and used within a balanced scorecard as a
method of consolidations.

A comparison between the two main European
assessment schemes, DGNB and BREEAM within
the three dimensions, outlines that the priority and
weighting from one scheme to another can be
substantially different [3]. One calculation tool for
assessments, the iisBEE calculation tool [4],
overcomes national barriers by refraining from the
use of absolute values, leaving this up to the final
users to discuss and implement. The tool is open-
source and global, with an approach to meet different
ambition levels within sustainability from 0 as
acceptable practice to 5 as best practice. Each
project using this tool can discuss and assess which
level is to be met, and in the final output see this
reflected in 7 performance categories. Some of the
categories are close to the TBL dimensions also
used in the CEN/TC 350, however split further into
categories, and the aspect of culture and heritage
has been added.
2.3. Illustrative field study
Two British researchers - H. Alwaer and D.J.
Clements-Croome [5] performed a field study on key
performance indicators in assessing sustainable
intelligent buildings. The research made first a study
on identifying the key issues related to sustainable
intelligent buildings (environmental, social, economic
and technological factors) and to develop a
conceptual model for the selection of the appropriate
KPIs; secondly the research performed a critical test
to stakeholders perceptions and values of selected
KPIs intelligent buildings. 20 stakeholders of the
construction industry were invited to review and
score the 115 individual indicators. The indicators
were derived from the most frequent UK systems
(BREEAM, DQI, SPeAR), supplemented with major
international schemes (LEED, CASBEE, AIIB, SBC
and HK-BEAM), and additional indicators related to
health and well being and their effects on productivity
and well being of users, as well as automation,
intelligence and user control of the indoor
environmental quality, air quality, temperature,
daylighting and sound in the buildings were included.
In order to test an objectively optimal model, the
researchers developed a conceptual Sustainable
Built Environment Tool, which was then tested in
practice on the very same stakeholders.

3. INDICATORS OF TOMORROW
3.1. A levelled approach
Is it possible to outline a set of common
denominators which can serve as a future basic KPI
tool? The assumption is tested on the general
principles of sustainability in building construction
described in ISO 15392:2008. The objectives of an
assessment being: to determine the impacts and
aspects of the building and its site, and to enable the
client, user and designer to make decisions and
choices that will help to address the need for
sustainability of buildings [6]. The basis of the study
is formed by the CEN TC 350 standards, using the
structure of TBL in combination with the LCA
principle [6d]. The - not yet released - standards
outline content and a set of suggested framework
indicators for environmental performance [6b], social
performance [6c] and economic performance [6d].
The framework of the three dimensions in a brief
outline:
Economical dimension contains four general
indicators, covering the cost of a building up front
and seen over years, maintenance and costs for
operations, suitability for conversions and number of
refurbishment cycles. The social dimension covers
five indicators, mainly the impacts of a building
related to its occupants, expressed by quantifiable
indicators. There are 3 general indicators within the
environmental dimension, limited to the assessment
of environmental impacts and aspects of a building
on the local, regional and global environment. The
quantifiable indicators are expressed mainly as a life
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 135


cycle assessment (LCA) and with some additional
quantifiable environmental information.
The indicators have a further level of information
and grouping around the indicators from 1 to 15
different numbers. The values of each informative
indicator add up to the general indicator level. See
Table 1 for example on one category.
Table 1: Setup of the Environmental Category with
indicators and informative indicators
Indicator Informative
Environ-
mental
Impacts

Abiotic depletion potential
Acidification of land and water
resources;
Destruction of the stratospheric
ozone layer;
Eutrophication;
Formation of ground-level ozone;
Global warming potential;

Resource
Input
Use of non-renewable primary
energy;
renewable primary energy;
secondary materials;
secondary fuels;
freshwater resources

Additional
Environ-
mental
Information
Components for reuse;
Materials for recycling;
Materials for energy recovery;
Non-hazardous waste to disposal;
Hazardous waste to disposal ;
Radioactive waste to disposal
Exported energy


The output of the score is a radar / spider web
format, used in several assessment schemes e.g.
DGNB, SPeAR and iisBE Tool. .
3.2. Case study
Finally, a case analysis was performed, where
the LCA calculation of the Model Home 2020 project
LichtAktiv House, a modernisation of a German
Settlers House, was matched against the suggested
CEN/TC 350 indicator scheme system.

As basis for the environmental assessment, the
report on LCA from TU Darmstadt was for the
environmental impact category [7], for the other
informative indicators the general project information
was the outline. The values used in the scheme are
subjective and based on a very general assumption
of practice parameters. The social and environmental
categories are exemplified in figures 1 & 2.
4. RESULTS
The results of the various schemes and scales
show a large variation. Some focus on a single
indicator, leaving out the long-term consequences,
some refrain from considering the expected service
life. The research paper by Alwaer and Clements-
Croome [5], which first groups the indicators of main
schemes, and then test a conceptual model with
broad indicators, evidently shows, that categories
and indicators turn out with very different weightings,
even amongst peers placed in the same skill group.
Different individuals of the same skill group (e.g.
architects) give different weightings based on their
preferences and experiences of buildings. Even by
taking the average between the stakeholders, the
aggregated results give different weightings which
could skew the final assessment results. Also, it is a
clear result that the different test persons interpret
the priority levels very differently and open, leading
to a large variation in the assigning of scores, also
within the same system [4]. The general result is a
degree of inconsistency about the relative
importance of different KPIs across stakeholders.
The evaluations are skewed with a subjective
judgement, because there is no consensus-based
knowledge on the sustainability indicators. As a fact,
there are very different, even contradictory estimates
and views about the sustainability indicators amongst
the professionals.



2.2. Dimensions, standards and schemes
Environmental, economic and social
dimensions are used as protection components of
sustainable development introduced at the first
Conference of the Parties (COP) in Rio 1992 [2].
These three dimensions are subsequently used as
interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars of
sustainability. An approach agreed by the ICLEI
Local Governments for Sustainability in 2007 uses
the Triple Bottom Line - also known under the
abbreviation of TBL or 3BL. The dimensions of
environmental, economic and social are popularised
into "people, planet, and profit". The TBL uses the
very same pillars in the attempt to capture an
expanded spectrum of values and criteria for
measuring organizational (and societal) success:
economic, ecological and social.
The Technical Committee CEN/TC 350, under
the EU Commission, is preparing a suite of standards
for a system to assess buildings using a lifecycle
approach, known as Sustainability of construction
works. The standards provide principles,
requirements, methodologies and calculation rules
for the environmental, economic and social
performance of buildings taking technical
characteristics and functionality of a building into
account. The series of standards aims for the
assessment of environmental, social and economic
performance of a building, to be made on an equal
footing, on the basis of the same technical
characteristics and functionality of the object of
assessment. The standards are not yet released.
Performance Indicators are quantifiable
performance measurements used to define success
factors and measure progress toward the
achievement of business goals. The measures are
typically referred to as KPIs (Key Performance
Indicators and used within a balanced scorecard as a
method of consolidations.

A comparison between the two main European
assessment schemes, DGNB and BREEAM within
the three dimensions, outlines that the priority and
weighting from one scheme to another can be
substantially different [3]. One calculation tool for
assessments, the iisBEE calculation tool [4],
overcomes national barriers by refraining from the
use of absolute values, leaving this up to the final
users to discuss and implement. The tool is open-
source and global, with an approach to meet different
ambition levels within sustainability from 0 as
acceptable practice to 5 as best practice. Each
project using this tool can discuss and assess which
level is to be met, and in the final output see this
reflected in 7 performance categories. Some of the
categories are close to the TBL dimensions also
used in the CEN/TC 350, however split further into
categories, and the aspect of culture and heritage
has been added.
2.3. Illustrative field study
Two British researchers - H. Alwaer and D.J.
Clements-Croome [5] performed a field study on key
performance indicators in assessing sustainable
intelligent buildings. The research made first a study
on identifying the key issues related to sustainable
intelligent buildings (environmental, social, economic
and technological factors) and to develop a
conceptual model for the selection of the appropriate
KPIs; secondly the research performed a critical test
to stakeholders perceptions and values of selected
KPIs intelligent buildings. 20 stakeholders of the
construction industry were invited to review and
score the 115 individual indicators. The indicators
were derived from the most frequent UK systems
(BREEAM, DQI, SPeAR), supplemented with major
international schemes (LEED, CASBEE, AIIB, SBC
and HK-BEAM), and additional indicators related to
health and well being and their effects on productivity
and well being of users, as well as automation,
intelligence and user control of the indoor
environmental quality, air quality, temperature,
daylighting and sound in the buildings were included.
In order to test an objectively optimal model, the
researchers developed a conceptual Sustainable
Built Environment Tool, which was then tested in
practice on the very same stakeholders.

3. INDICATORS OF TOMORROW
3.1. A levelled approach
Is it possible to outline a set of common
denominators which can serve as a future basic KPI
tool? The assumption is tested on the general
principles of sustainability in building construction
described in ISO 15392:2008. The objectives of an
assessment being: to determine the impacts and
aspects of the building and its site, and to enable the
client, user and designer to make decisions and
choices that will help to address the need for
sustainability of buildings [6]. The basis of the study
is formed by the CEN TC 350 standards, using the
structure of TBL in combination with the LCA
principle [6d]. The - not yet released - standards
outline content and a set of suggested framework
indicators for environmental performance [6b], social
performance [6c] and economic performance [6d].
The framework of the three dimensions in a brief
outline:
Economical dimension contains four general
indicators, covering the cost of a building up front
and seen over years, maintenance and costs for
operations, suitability for conversions and number of
refurbishment cycles. The social dimension covers
five indicators, mainly the impacts of a building
related to its occupants, expressed by quantifiable
indicators. There are 3 general indicators within the
environmental dimension, limited to the assessment
of environmental impacts and aspects of a building
on the local, regional and global environment. The
quantifiable indicators are expressed mainly as a life
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
136 ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY

Figure 1: Output of the indicators within the social dimension, validated from 1-5 where 1 is below current
practice and 5 is best practice.

Figure 2: Output of the indicators within the social dimension, validated from 1-5 where 1 is below current
practice and 5 is best practice.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 137


When looking into the future kaleidoscope of the
CEN/TC 350 there is a suggestive outline that the
overall dimensions of environmental, social and
economical could become predominant as meta-
categories. The indicator measures for social and
economic sustainability are still in their infancy, and
the economical aspect is quite inactive or considered
a hygiene factor in many of the projects making it
difficult to compare.
Several of the informative indicators under
environmental, e.g. eutrophication and acidification
of land and water resources will mean very little to
most professionals yet. However the idea of
measuring the impact rather than the performance is
the merging trend, supported strongly by the financial
calculations of the added value of sustainable
buildings.
The CEN/TC 350 indicator analysis remains as
an exercise in the garage. Mainly because standards
are not released yet, the indicator sets are not
finalized, still under discussion and final revision;
consensus is still years ahead of us. However the
picture drawn up is clear and can be used to
communicate projects sustainability aspirations and
benchmarks within a relative group of weights, and
supports the point that a benchmark must stay
simple and be able to give with different levels of
overview. We may as well start using it now.

5. DISCUSSION
Different people have different views and levels
of understanding about sustainability issues. A
standardised platform for assigning relative
importance to different sustainability impacts is
required if there is to be a consistent basis for
decision-making [4].
The stakeholder picture within the construction
business is very broad. Typically different individuals
or groups are responsible for different levels within
building sectors, each with their viewpoint,
perspective and interest on the problems at hand,
implications and solutions. Where developers could
be looking for a return on investment, open towards
a service life discussion linked to investment interest,
quantity surveyors could regard sustainable
intelligent buildings as being significantly more
expensive from the outset - the difference of
estimating cost or monetary value. The added value
gained by being sustainable must be properly
accounted for, and experience along with feedback
flows can provide useful evidence for future designs.
The differing views of the assessor, the building
architect and the building engineer on multiplier level
lead to subjective results [4] This means, that
effective project value requires an ongoing dialogue
between all decision makers to negotiate appropriate
compromises and balance stakeholder views. Thus,
by recognizing KPIs as a tool to reach consensus
among stakeholders, it seems useful to discuss a
procedure to do so as a future topic.

The problem with any statement, certification,
assessment, assumption, and result in the field of
construction is, that the minute is has been stated,
the next minute, it is questioned. This is a culture and
an educational discipline to put up questions as for
results of sustainable buildings. So when the culture
is to question any fact put up, what will remain? The
subjective conviction and belief, typically driven by
accumulated experience and ability to create
consensus in the group, using the big storage of
common knowledge. However, no indicators,
performance categories and impact weightings are
common knowledge yet; then it is pointless to keep
developing further schemes, matrix, indicator
systems and benchmarkings, without a common
denominator and agreed starting point of the
yardstick.

By defining three levels, differentiated by
complexity, communication and target groups (Table
2), the approach can be targeted according to target
group.
Table 2: Setup of communication levels according to target
groups and corresponding complexity
Label Target Group Complexity
Performance
Category

Politicians &
Public
3
General
Indicators
Policy Makers
& Press
12

Informative
Indicators
Peers &
Professionals
69


The level of detailing could follow the framework
of the CEN/TC 350 standards, and be used
accordingly, leaving each target group within their
comfort zone and still discussing the same issue at
hand. The benefit of using the CEN/TC 350 as
platform is, that the particular national, private,
corporate or political interests are taken care of in the
one and same model, giving the overall consensus
framework.
If the point of departure is shared as far as the
three levels, a lot of common luggage can be shared
initially, still allowing for differences of opinion, but
with a completely different consensus to begin with.

6. CONCLUSION
The quintessence of a sustainable building is that
it can ensure human wellbeing on a long-term basis.
A certification or an assessment must give an
assurance of physical surroundings, which will
secure and maintain the wellbeing of the users. This
is the main interest of the public as key stakeholder
within sustainable buildings, and any attempt to
bring, sell, promote or convince, legislate, pioneer,
conquer, promote or demonstrate should be
measured on a scale of what will matter most to the
public - long-term. The decision-makers are to

Figure 1: Output of the indicators within the social dimension, validated from 1-5 where 1 is below current
practice and 5 is best practice.

Figure 2: Output of the indicators within the social dimension, validated from 1-5 where 1 is below current
practice and 5 is best practice.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
138 ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY
legislate the framework and have policy-makers
formulate quantifications of the currency with which
we can cash a future independency of fossil fuels.
They are today presented with a wide range of
statements and postulates some are for real, some
will work, some will not - and how will we know? We
may not know before in the next generation, and
even then, we need someone to investigate this, and
to communicate it, and bring it into the common
consensus bag of common knowledge.

The economical dimension and the profit aspect
are in fact the weakest dimension in terms of
indicators. Public interest is that sustainable
buildings stay within financial reach and social
accessibility. It is highly problematic, that the financial
aspect is not really a part of the discussions. This
dimension cannot be left out, sustainability must, in
order to mean a difference, be within social reach,
and that means that it cannot only be available for
the well-off private or public clients. Can you actually
put a price on wellbeing, or rather on the absence of
it? The consequences of a failing health, of lack of
efficiency and absence of workers, early need for
care, exceed surely the economical calculations of
the upfront costs of constructing a sustainable
building. Prevention goes above and beyond
treatment, also when it comes to buildings.

The successful transformation of the individual
understanding into high quality indicators stands out
as the dilemma, no matter the grouping and levelling
of indicators and categories.

Policymakers and politicians are not
professionals and will never be. Therefore the
construction industry should start simplifying,
planners should decipher the concept of sustainable
buildings, take it out of the rocket science universe
and keep it simple. The most imperative need is to
keep it on a simple level, as a minimum when
explaining it to politicians, or to your grandmother, as
Einstein said.

Even though the issue is very complex, it could
be concentrated to three levels by consensus.
Politicians stay on top, they got time for 3 bullet
points, policy makers can handle the complexity of
12 levels, and peers and professionals go all the way
to the informative indicator level, where you must
know your way through the 69 (and counting)
indicator informatives - like acidification and
eutrophication, and so forth.

The grouping of performance categories and
deriving indicators in the CEN TC/350 could become
a common denominator, subject to be challenged
and discussed, but leaning on the very same
framework would mean a great difference. How the
weighting and subjective assessments is made, will
be a whole other challenge, which employs aspects
of general education at the schools, information to
the public and much more educational aspects in
general, if a satisfying level of common knowledge
within this field should be reached.
Health is our maybe most precious resource, we
must be sure to programme accordingly since we
depend on this for future wellbeing through a healthy
triple bottom line. We need grandmother to live for as
long, that we have time to explain the whole issue
about sustainable buildings to her, and we will then
need to have our grandchildren explain us the next
steps, that is, if we live that long.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to Nils Larsson for making his work
accessible and for inspiration in general, to Lars-Ove
Persson for making it feasible and to Peter Lawaetz
for making it possible.
8. REFERENCES
[1] Larsson, N. (November 2010). Building
performance assessment, SB Method and
SBTool.
[2] Report of the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development, R. d.-1. (1992).
[3] Birgisdottir, H. (n.d.). Retrieved 12 2010, from
Comparison of how the concept of sustainability
is covered in Assessment Schemes DGNB &
BREEAM, by Harpa Birgisdottir, SBI:
http://www.dk-
gbc.dk/media/8958/101029_dkgbc_styregruppe
_breeam_dgnb.pdf
[4] iiSBE Tool 2010: http://www.iisbe.org/sbtool-
2010
[5] H. Alwaer, D. Clements-Croome. (2010, April).
Key performance indicators (KPIs) and priority
setting in using the multi-attribute approach for
assessing sustainable intelligent buildings.
Building and Environment # 45 (4).
[6] prEN 15643
a. General Framework
b. Framework for the assessment of
environmental performance
c. Framework for the assessment of
social performance
d. Framework for the assessment of
economic performance
e. prEN 15804: Environmental product
declarations core rules for the product
category of construction products
f. prEN 15978 Sustainability of
construction works - Assessment of
environmental performance of buildings
- Calculation method
[7] Manfred Hegger, T. B. (2010). kobilanzierung
VELUX Model Home 2020 LichtAktiv Haus
Hamburg. Fachbereich Architektur, Fachgebiet
Energieeffizientes Bauen. Darmstadt:
Technische Universitt Darmstadt..
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 139
1
Do current environmental assessment methods
provide a good measure of sustainability?
Or what should be a good measure for Green Building
Standard?
Edna SHAVIV
Faculty of Architecture & Town Planning, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
ABSTRACT: We present the fundamental ideas, logic and thoughts that led to the definition of the requirements
for an energy efficient building that warrants green points according to the Israeli Green Building Standard.
Emphasis is put on the sections concerned with: Bio-climatic, Passive and Low Energy architecture of the
building. This includes: The determination of the Bioclimatic and Passive solar strategies and their
implementation. Design for minimal energy consumption for cooling, heating and lighting, via building envelope
design optimization. Design for solar and wind rights for the proposed building, as well as the close surrounding
environment: buildings and open spaces.
Keywords: green building standards, passive and low energy architecture, bio-climatic design, energy rating of
buildings
1. INTRODUCTION
Green Architecture is today the current fashion
and the main stream in architectural practice. Hence,
one would expect bio-climatic, passive and low
energy architecture to grow with the Green
Architecture movement. However, it didnt happen. A
former paper presented in PLEA 2008 [1] examined
carefully different examples of LEED accredited
buildings and found that almost no improvement in
the energy performance of the building was
achieved. Moreover, even when energy efficiency
was considered, it could be achieved merely by
improving the mechanical, electrical and hot water
systems. There was no need to improve the
architectural design from bio-climatic and passive
solar aspects.
Based on that conclusion, the author of this
paper, who was in charge of the revision of the
Energy Chapter of the Israeli Green Building
Standard, has put an emphasis on the improvement
of the architectural design, i.e. implementation of bio-
climatic and passive solar solutions, at each Green
grad level.
The first part of the paper summarizes what is
imperfect with current assessment methods. The
second part discusses the question: what should be
a good measure for Green Building Standard and
how it can be implemented. In the first part we focus
on LEED [2] (Leading in Energy and Environmental
Design) that was established by US Green Building
Council (USGBC). This is because it is the most
common one and therefore the momentum of the
Green Building Movement in the USA, as well as
worldwide, has been achieved largely through it. In
the second part we demonstrate the implementation
of the ideas for improving the current assessment
methods for rating Green Buildings by the energy
chapter of the Israeli Standard IS 5281 Buildings
with reduced environmental impact-Green Building
[3] as well as by the Israeli Standard IS 5282 Energy
Rating of Building [4]. Emphasis will be put on the
energy performance issues and especially on rhe
requirements for implementing passive and low
energy architecture.
2. WHAT IS IMPERFECT WITH CURRENT
ASSESMENTS TOOLS AND HOW CAN
WE IMPROVE THEM?
2.1. Do current environmental assessments
methods provide a good measure of
sustainability?
In general most of the environmental
assessments tools like LEED or BREEAM [2,5], as
well as the Israel Green Building Standard [3],
provide a measure for sustainability refer to similar
issues. For example: LEED NC 3.0 (2009) includes
the following issues (see Fig. 1): SS- Sustainable
Sites (26 points), WE- Water Efficiency (10 points)
EA- Energy & Atmosphere (35 points), MR- Materials
& Resources (14 points), EQ- Indoor Environmental
Quality (15 points), ID- Innovation & Design Process
(6 points), Regional Priority (4 points). These are all
important issues that justify achieving green
buildings with reduced environmental impact as well
as buildings that possess good indoor environmental
quality. So, what is imperfect with this approach?
Figure 1: LEED 3.0 total possible points
EA
35p
32%
EQ
15p
14%
MR
14p
13%
WE
10p
9%
SS
26p
24%
ID
6p
5%
Rg
4p
3%
LEED3.0
legislate the framework and have policy-makers
formulate quantifications of the currency with which
we can cash a future independency of fossil fuels.
They are today presented with a wide range of
statements and postulates some are for real, some
will work, some will not - and how will we know? We
may not know before in the next generation, and
even then, we need someone to investigate this, and
to communicate it, and bring it into the common
consensus bag of common knowledge.

The economical dimension and the profit aspect
are in fact the weakest dimension in terms of
indicators. Public interest is that sustainable
buildings stay within financial reach and social
accessibility. It is highly problematic, that the financial
aspect is not really a part of the discussions. This
dimension cannot be left out, sustainability must, in
order to mean a difference, be within social reach,
and that means that it cannot only be available for
the well-off private or public clients. Can you actually
put a price on wellbeing, or rather on the absence of
it? The consequences of a failing health, of lack of
efficiency and absence of workers, early need for
care, exceed surely the economical calculations of
the upfront costs of constructing a sustainable
building. Prevention goes above and beyond
treatment, also when it comes to buildings.

The successful transformation of the individual
understanding into high quality indicators stands out
as the dilemma, no matter the grouping and levelling
of indicators and categories.

Policymakers and politicians are not
professionals and will never be. Therefore the
construction industry should start simplifying,
planners should decipher the concept of sustainable
buildings, take it out of the rocket science universe
and keep it simple. The most imperative need is to
keep it on a simple level, as a minimum when
explaining it to politicians, or to your grandmother, as
Einstein said.

Even though the issue is very complex, it could
be concentrated to three levels by consensus.
Politicians stay on top, they got time for 3 bullet
points, policy makers can handle the complexity of
12 levels, and peers and professionals go all the way
to the informative indicator level, where you must
know your way through the 69 (and counting)
indicator informatives - like acidification and
eutrophication, and so forth.

The grouping of performance categories and
deriving indicators in the CEN TC/350 could become
a common denominator, subject to be challenged
and discussed, but leaning on the very same
framework would mean a great difference. How the
weighting and subjective assessments is made, will
be a whole other challenge, which employs aspects
of general education at the schools, information to
the public and much more educational aspects in
general, if a satisfying level of common knowledge
within this field should be reached.
Health is our maybe most precious resource, we
must be sure to programme accordingly since we
depend on this for future wellbeing through a healthy
triple bottom line. We need grandmother to live for as
long, that we have time to explain the whole issue
about sustainable buildings to her, and we will then
need to have our grandchildren explain us the next
steps, that is, if we live that long.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to Nils Larsson for making his work
accessible and for inspiration in general, to Lars-Ove
Persson for making it feasible and to Peter Lawaetz
for making it possible.
8. REFERENCES
[1] Larsson, N. (November 2010). Building
performance assessment, SB Method and
SBTool.
[2] Report of the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development, R. d.-1. (1992).
[3] Birgisdottir, H. (n.d.). Retrieved 12 2010, from
Comparison of how the concept of sustainability
is covered in Assessment Schemes DGNB &
BREEAM, by Harpa Birgisdottir, SBI:
http://www.dk-
gbc.dk/media/8958/101029_dkgbc_styregruppe
_breeam_dgnb.pdf
[4] iiSBE Tool 2010: http://www.iisbe.org/sbtool-
2010
[5] H. Alwaer, D. Clements-Croome. (2010, April).
Key performance indicators (KPIs) and priority
setting in using the multi-attribute approach for
assessing sustainable intelligent buildings.
Building and Environment # 45 (4).
[6] prEN 15643
a. General Framework
b. Framework for the assessment of
environmental performance
c. Framework for the assessment of
social performance
d. Framework for the assessment of
economic performance
e. prEN 15804: Environmental product
declarations core rules for the product
category of construction products
f. prEN 15978 Sustainability of
construction works - Assessment of
environmental performance of buildings
- Calculation method
[7] Manfred Hegger, T. B. (2010). kobilanzierung
VELUX Model Home 2020 LichtAktiv Haus
Hamburg. Fachbereich Architektur, Fachgebiet
Energieeffizientes Bauen. Darmstadt:
Technische Universitt Darmstadt..
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
140 ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY
1. Current environmental assessment methods in
general use simple point hunting approach. The
tendency is to choose cheap and easy points in
order to collect enough points to be labelled Green
Building. The points for reducing the energy
consumption of the building are, in general, not
cheap nor easy. This means that even if one third
of all possible points is assigned to energy efficiency
(like in LEED), nevertheless, in order to achieve
LEED Silver, the most common goal, one can get the
minimum score required for it with almost no
improvement in the energy performance of the
building.
2. Energy efficiency in buildings, according to
LEED, can be achieved only by improving the
mechanical, electrical and hot water systems. There
is no need to improve the architectural design from
bio-climatic and passive solar aspects.
3. In LEED the use of renewable energy, like
solar energy for hot water, PV, or even buying Green
Power, is awarded twice: once, as it reduces the
amount of the total purchased energy and again, as
it contributes to the On Site Renewable Energy
credit, or to the Green Power credit. However,
Passive Solar Energy is not considered as On Site
Renewable Energy. Consequently, there is no
incentive in LEED for passive solar design.
4. The energy calculations in LEED for
minimizing energy performance are based on
appendix G of ASHRAE 90.1, which cant be used
for buildings without mechanical systems. Therefore,
If the building is an innovative Passive Solar and Bio-
climatic one that doesnt require any mechanical
heating or cooling, it cant be assessed and graded
by ASHRAE and hence, lose the points for the credit
of minimizing energy performance by LEED. In
other words, the best design fails! It might even lose
the possibility of achieving Green Building
accreditation, as happened to the SF Federal
Building, designed by Architect Mayne [6]. If this is
not a paradox, what is?
2.2. What should be a good measurement for
green building standard?
To overcome the above mentioned problems the
following solutions may be implemented:
1. On top of the prerequisites, minimum required
points for not easy important issues, like energy
conscious design, should be imposed at each Green
Grad level.
2. The fact that all energy saving features are all
lumped together in one basket, and the energy
standard are defined in such a way that the goals
may be achieved with no need for good architectural
design, leads to the present situation. The Building
Code should treat the energy conscious building
design separately from the mechanical and the hot
water systems. This is because the building is
designed to last for at least 50 to 100 years, while
the mechanical and hot water systems last less than
one 15 to 20 years. Moreover, such a separation will
overcome the paradox mentioned above in point 4,
as the building low energy features will be evaluated
separately from its mechanical equipment whether
they exist or not.
3. Passive Solar Energy should be considered as
On Site Renewable Energy and should be awarded
at least as solar energy for hot water, PV, or buying
Green Power.
3. THE ISRAELI GREEN BUILDING
STANDARD
The Israel Green Building Standard ST-5281:
Buildings with Reduced Environmental Impact was
first issued on November 2005 and consisted of only
one part that included Residential Buildings, as well
as Office Buildings. After three years of discussions,
it was decided to review periodically this standard at
least every five years, in order to adapt it to scientific
and technological developments. This paper refers to
the revision of this Green Building Standard, as was
proved by the expert committee.
The revision of the Green Building Standard
includes at the stage that this paper is written, three
parts as follows:
SI 5281 Part 1: General requirements,
SI 5281 Part 2: Requirements for residential
buildings,
SI 5281 Part 3: Requirements for office buildings.
The revision for ST 5281 Part 2 (residential)
includes the following issues: EA- Energy (40 points),
SS-Land (13 points), water, WE-Waste and Drainage
(17 points), MR-Materials (9 points), EQ-Indoor
Environmental Quality (5 points), ED-Other
Environmental Issues, including: Waist, Management
& Transportation (9 points), ID-Innovation &
Excellence (5 points), Total: 100 points. The different
between Residential and Office buildings are small.
(See Fig. 2).
Residential-Buildings
ID 5%
ED 9%
EQ 4%
MR 9%
EA 40%
WE19%
SS 14%

Figure 2: IS 5281 total possible points for residential

buildings
There are 5 Green Grades as shown in Table 1.
The number of prerequisites subjects is 15 (no points
obtained for them). These prerequisites are
distributed along the different issues to ensure that a
Green Building must be of high quality in each of
these subjects. On top of the prerequisites, the
Israeli Standard required achieving a minimum
number of points in key subjects like Energy (see
Chapter 3.2 Table 2).
Table 1: Required points for rating Green Grades in each
level
Rating of Building Total points
"Green building" 55 to 64
Silver "green building" 65 to 74
Gold "green building" 75 to 82
Platinum "green building" 83 to 89
Diamond "green building" 90 or more
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 141
3
4. THE ENERGY CHAPTER OF THE
ISRAELI GREEN BUILDING STANDARD
The author of this paper was in charge of the
Energy Chapter of the revision of the Israeli Green
Buildings Standard ST-5281: Buildings with
Reduced Environmental Impact. The Emphasis in
the suggested revision has been laid on the
improvement of the architectural design, i.e.
implementation of bio-climatic and passive solar
solutions as well as on minimizing the energy
consumption of the building. The mechanical
equipments had to be rated high according to the
COP of each piece of equipment. However, in order
to avoid design failure from the point of view of Bio-
Climatic and Passive Solar Architecture, all the
energy saving features were handled separately.
Instead, total performance requirement and available
points were imposed on each of the following issues:
BC-,Bioclimatic design (10 points), EC-Energy
Consumption for heating and cooling (16 points), DI-
Daylight Illumination (3 points), RE-Renewable
Energy (4 points), AC-Air Conditioning Efficiency for
cooling & heating (5 points), SW-Solar Water heating
(1 point), OS-Other Systems (1 point), Total: 40
points These numbers are for residential buildings.
For office buildings the numbers are slightly different
(Fig . 3).
Energy-Residential
BC 10
EC 16
LE 3
SW 1
RE 4
OS 1
AC 5
Figure 3: Energy Related issues for Residential Buildings -
total possible points
We defined two groups of energy related issues:
Group A: Architectural aspects i.e. Passive and Low
Energy Design, including: Bioclimatic design,
environmental assessment (solar and wind rights)
and minimizing the energy consumption of the
building for heating, cooling and Natural illumination.
Group B: systems of the building including:
Renewable Energy, Solar Water Heating, Air
Conditioning for cooling and heating, and Other
Systems.
As the life expectancy of a building in Israel is
about 50 to 100 years and that of the systems is
about 15 to 20 years only, the requirements for these
two families of issues should differ and we cant treat
them on equal footing in order to minimize the
energy consumption of the building.
The Energy Consumption of the mechanical
equipments is controlled under an Israeli Standard
that defines the minimum required efficiency for each
system, while the Energy Consumption of the
building is carried out according to another Israeli
Standard that defines the energy rating of the
building. The calculations of the energy consumption
for heating, cooling and daylighting for the proposed
building designed, as well as for the reference one,
are performed according to the electricity
consumption of an Air-condition system, with a
required minimum COP. Thus, only the architectural
aspects are considered under this title.
Solar systems like solar water heating, and PV,
are not in group A as their life expectancy is much
shorter that the building life expectancy. On top of it,
Solar systems for water heating is mandatory in
residential buildings in Israel for more than 30 years,
so no points can be granted for it. Only in cases were
it is not mandatory, solar water heating systems can
be awarded points according to the size and
efficiency of the system.
PV is not mandatory, but as it is highly subsidized
by the government, the decision was to consider it as
a separate issue.
The minimum required points for these two
groups, to obtain the different Green Grades level
are given in Table 2.
Table 2: Minimum required points for different Green
Grades level
Rating of Building Group A Group B
"Green building" 12 5
Silver "green building" 15 6
Gold "green building" 18 7
Platinum" green building" 21 8
Diamond" green building" 24 9
As the emphasis of this paper is put on the
architectural aspects of the energy chapter of the
Israeli standard, we present in details the energy
related issues of group A.
5. BIO- CLIMATIC DESIGN
The Bio-Climatic design includes the following
subjects:
a. Determining bio-climatic design strategies and
applying passive and low energy design systems (1-
2 points).
b. Environmental assessment in regards to the sun
and wind (1-8 points).
5.1. Determining and applying bio-climatic
design strategies (1 to 2 points)
The requirement is to present the climatic conditions;
temperature and relative humidity on a Bioclimatic
Chart, in order to determine the suitable passive and
low energy strategies (Fig. 4). The analysis is a
prerequisite and can be carried out manually, or by
using computer programs like PASYS [7]. However,
one may achieve points only according to the
number of passive systems for heating, cooling and
natural ventilation that were applied in the building
(up to 4 passive systems), on condition that each
system serves at least 15 % of the building floor
area. A passive system, which serves more than one
strategy, gets points according to the number of
strategies that it complies with.
The passive systems to be applied in the project,
and the building area served by each system, should
be documented and presented.
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142 ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY
Fig. 4 presents analysis of the weather condition:
temperature and relative humidity, on a Bioclimatic
Chart performed by PASYS. The analysis shows that
only 16% of the time there is no need for AC for
heating and cooling. 19% of the time passive solar
heating is required, while comfort ventilation and
thermal mass with night ventilation can eliminate the
need for mechanical cooling in summer by 16% and
24% of the time. On top of it, 48% of the time
shading is required. By applying all these design
strategies a 75% passive building was achieved.
Because of the high humidity, the building cant be
100% Passive.

Figure 4: Sussman Energy and Environment Building Laboratory in the Weizman Institute of Science, Rehovot. Analysis of
the weather condition: temperature and relative humidity, on the Bioclimatic Chart (top left) and two of the Passive Systems
applies: Sunspace for preheating the intake air during winter, and external sunshades required for summer

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ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 143
5.2. Environmental assessment in regards to the
sun and wind (1-8 points)
The building density in Israel is one of the highest
in the world. The green code, as its name declares
Buildings with Reduced Environmental Impact
should ensure suitable environmental conditions to
the surrounding buildings and open spaces, as well
as the building itself in regards to the sun and winds.
Analyzing the shadow cast by the surrounding
buildings and objects and the shadow cast by the
designed building, is a prerequisite. Points are
awarded (14 points) according to achieved
predefined amount of solar exposure of: a. the solar
systems (PV and water heating solar collectors), b.
the building elevation, mainly in the southern section,
and c. the open spaces of the proposed designed
building.
Moreover, the building should comply with the
requirements of keeping the solar rights of the
neighbouring buildings and open spaces [8]. The last
requirement is mandatory for high rise buildings (see
Fig. 5).

Figure 5: Solar Rights Requirements The Descriptive

approach
The environmental assessment includes also the
analysis of the wind regime on pedestrian level in
open spaces during the four seasons of the year.
Evaluation of the desirable wind directions for
ventilation and the undesirable winds directions that
should be avoided should be performed according to
the psychometric chart. The analysis is a
prerequisite. Points may be awarded only according
to the number of physical solutions applied for
achieving natural ventilation in open areas, on one
hand and protecting them from undesired winds on
the other one (1-2 points). Using CFD or wind tunnel
to evaluate the required level of wind velocity for the
proposed activity in the open spaces, like sitting,
strolling, walking, etc. [9] will provide two more
points. The last requirement is mandatory for high
rise buildings.
6. MINIMIZING ENERGY CONSUMPTION
OF THE BUILDING
Achieving points for minimizing the energy
consumption of the building that is required for
heating, cooling and lighting, is based on the Israeli
Standard SI 5282 Energy Rating of Buildings [4].
This Israeli Standard offers prescription/description
methods and in addition a performance method to
evaluate the building energy consumption. The
energy performance method defines a reference
building that complies with the mandatory Israeli
Standard 1045 [10] that prescribes the required
insulation and shading of the building envelope.
Saving 20% of the energy consumption of the
reference building is a prerequisite in all climatic
zones, except in zone D (the Jordan Valley) that has
a very hot climate. There are 5 grades. The percent
required for achieving of A+ to D rating is different for
residential and commercial buildings. Moreover,
these numbers are not the same in the four climatic
zones of Israel as it was impossible to achieve 50%
energy savings in the climatic zone D. The hotter the
climate is the less saving could be achieved.
However, in all climatic zones, energy rating of A+
provides the green building with 16 points, while
energy rating of C gives 4 points only (see table 3).
Table 3: Energy Rating of buildings in IS 5282 and 5281
Energy Rating of Building
IS 5282
Green Building
Points
IS 5281
Platinum A+ 16
Gold A 12
Silver B 8
Bronze C 4
Satisfactory D 0
Failure F -

The Israeli standard IS 5282 energy rating of

buildings emphasizes the building architecture:
envelope insulation and shading, windows size and
orientation, building thermal mass and night
ventilation for passive cooling, as well as the building
geometry, compactness and proportions. The last
point is very important for office buildings, as the
depth of the building influences the daylighting (the
most influential design parameter) that can be
achieved in working areas. Hence, the energy
required for electrical lighting can be reduced
significantly. Also, in order to achieve better
daylighting without glare, emphasis was put in
commercial buildings on external sunshades and
light shelves [11]. This is in contrast to ASHRAE 90.1
[12], the scope of which is: This standard provides:
minimum energy-efficient requirements for the design
and construction of: 1. new buildings and their
systems, 2. new portions of buildings and their
systems, and 3. new systems and equipment in
existing buildings. To ensure that the building is
mechanically heated in winter or cooled in summer,
the requirement is: The provisions of this standard
do not apply to: buildings that do not use either
electricity or fossil fuel. Moreover, there is a
minimum requirement of the capacity of the HVAC
systems: provided that the enclosed spaces are: 1.
heated by a heating system whose output capacity is
greater than or equal to 3.4 Btu/hft2 or 2. cooled by
a cooling system whose sensible output capacity is
greater than or equal to 5 Btu/hft2. This means that
the emphasis in ASHRAE 90.1 is put on improving
the mechanical system, and not on the design of the
building itself.
Zone B
Zone A
Zone D Zone C
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144 ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY
To cope with the scope of ASHRAE 90.1, the
reference building is defined in appendix G according
to the geometry of the proposed building, an action
that practically eliminates the influence of the
buildings geometry. Contrary to this, the reference
building in IS 5282 is defined with fixed geometry
and depth to allow daylighting. In such a way the
geometry of the proposed building is considered and
is influential.
7. SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONS
Present situation of existing green buildings
examples shows that a building may be labelled as
Green with barely any improvement in its energy
performance. Moreover, even when energy efficiency
is considered, it may be achieved merely by
improving the mechanical, electrical and hot water
systems. There is no need to improve the
architectural design from bio-climatic and passive
solar aspects.
Based on these conclusions, the author of this
paper, who was in charge of the revision of the
Energy Chapter of the Israeli Green Building
Standard, and participated in the development of the
Energy Rating of Buildings standard, has
suggested few solutions:
a. In the Energy Chapter of the Israeli Green
Building Standard a minimum required points from
the energy chapter should be requested in order to
achieve each Green Grad level.
b. Special bio-climatic and low energy
architecture requirements should be imposed in
order to achieve points in the energy chapter.
c. In order to avoid the present situation that the
minimum required points for energy saving may be
achieved with no need for good architectural design,
it was suggested in the Energy Rating of Buildings
standard, to treat Passive and Low Energy Building
Design separately from the hot water systems (that
is mandatory in Israel) and the mechanical systems
(AC and others, like elevator). This separation is also
important because the building is designed to outlive
the mechanical systems by a large margin.
8. REFERENCES
[1] E. Shaviv, Proc. 25th PLEA 2008 Passive and
Low Energy Architecture Conference, Dublin
Ireland (2008)
[2] LEED2009 for New Construction and Major
Renovations.http://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.as
px?DocumentID=5546 (2009)
[3] Israeli Standard IS 5281, Buildings with
reduced environmental impact (Green
Building) Under Revision (2010)
[4] Israeli Standard IS 5282, Energy Rating of
Building, Under Revision (2010)
[5] BREEAM Offices,
http://www.breeam.org/page.jsp?id=17
[6] J. Stamp, Greener Than Thou: Fed Building
Too Green For LEED,
http://sf.curbed.com/archives/2008/02/12/green
er_than_thou_fed_building_too_green_for_leed
.php (2008)
[7] A. Yezioro and E. Shaviv, A Knowledge Based
CAD System for Determining Thermal Comfort
Design Strategies. Renewable Energy 8:
Pergamom Press Ltd., GB. (1996) 133.
[8] G. Capeluto, A. Yezioro, T. Bleiberg, E. Shaviv,
Solar Rights in the Design of Urban Spaces.
PLEA 2006 Proc. 23th PLEA 2006 Passive
and Low Energy Architecture Conference,
Geneva - Switzerland (2006).
[9] Building Research Establishment, Wind around
Tall Buildings. BRE Digest, Concise reviews of
building technology. Digest 390. (1994).
[10] Israeli Standard IS 1045, Thermal Insulation of
Buildings: Residential Buildings, Under
Revision (2010).
[11] E. Shaviv, A. Yezioro, I. G. Capeluto, Energy
Code for Office Buildings in Israel. Renewable
Energy, 33/1. Elsevier Science Ltd., GB. (2008)
99
[12] ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2007. (2007). Energy
Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise
Residential Buildings. ISSN 1041-2336.
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ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 145
Urban sustainability assessment systems
How appropriate are global sustainability assessment
systems?
Dimitra KYRKOU
1
, Melissa TAYLOR
2
, Sofie PELSMAKERS
3
, Roland KARTHAUS
4
,
1
AVA, Sustainable Urban Design Research Group, University Of East London, London, UK
2
Hilson Moran & PassivHaus Trust, London, UK
3
AVA, MA Architecture: Sustainability & Design, University Of East London, London, UK
4
AVA, Sustainable Urban Design Research Group, University Of East London, London, UK
ABSTRACT: This paper presents the findings of research on urban sustainability assessment systems for
neighbourhood-scale developments worldwide. The main objective is to investigate how appropriate
international urban sustainability systems are, and how these systems could be adapted to different local
communities. This research paper aims to link the local approaches with the current global objectives of urban
sustainability. The findings are based firstly on the application of LEED for Neighbourhood Developments and
BREEAM Communities on several schemes officially assessed by the US Green Building Council and BREEAM,
and secondly on a testing-application of both of the systems on the same pilot scheme. The research also
involves a survey with questionnaires and contacts with designated assessors of LEED-ND and BREEAM
Communities on how these systems perform in different localities, and an investigation on the qualitative
aspects of those systems. As a conclusion, this paper suggests that before using a universal sustainability
assessment system, it is necessary to analyze the local situation and identify the adaptability of using such a
tool in a specific country and region. It highlights that a tailored version of globally accepted national urban
sustainability assessment systems would work more effectively than a totally integrated global system.
Keywords: urban sustainability, assessment systems, tools, BREEAM Communities, LEED ND
1. INTRODUCTION
Green Buildings have attracted international
attention as a means to reduce CO2 emissions, as a
response to global warming, the current energy crisis
and the deterioration of the worlds natural
environment. It is certainly true that a growing
number of different assessment tools and
frameworks have been developed during the last
years in order to support conscious environmental
decision making [1].
However, those numerous assessment systems
are limited to the scale of environmental building
design. While the framework of assessment
methods is clearly broadening, most assessment
tools still focus on individual buildings. However, the
sequence in the development of assessment
methods is important in revealing the increasing
acknowledgement of a broader context [2].
According to Edward Ng, this broader context
involves the urban scale.
It is worth understanding that the way to
sustainability passes through our urban
environments. Buildings are only one part of the
human lives and it is the cities as a whole that
represent the modern urban style of living. Therefore,
it is very important to understand that a sustainable
way of living should effortlessly derive from the
design of sustainable neighbourhoods, as green
neighbourhood developments are beneficial to the
community and the individual as well as to their
environment.
After realizing the significance of the sustainable
urban living, several existing assessment systems
have recently introduced versions that address that
broader context of urban scale. Such systems are:
the US LEED for Neighbourhood Developments
(LEED-ND) [3] and the Sustainable Sites Initiative
(SSI) [4], the UK BREEAM Communities [5] and the
SuBET [6], which was officially launched by the
Steering Group for Sustainable Masterplanning in UK
by Hilson Moran, as well as the Japanese CASBEE
Urban Development (CASBEE-UD) [7].
This paper will present the findings of in-depth
research on those sustainability assessment systems
on neighbourhood scale developments worldwide. In
general, this paper aims to contribute to the
prevailing debate of environmental assessment
systems and to further enhance the currently limited
research on urban sustainability assessment
systems. Trying to link the local approaches with the
current global objectives of urban sustainability, it will
demonstrate that local versions of globally
acceptable national urban sustainability assessment
systems would work more efficiently than a totally
integrated global assessment system.
2. METHODOLOGY
Although there is a satisfactory amount of
information on research concerning environmental
assessment systems for buildings, the information
provided for urban-scale assessments is still limited.
As such there were several challenges in conducting
an in depth analysis on the field of urban
sustainability assessment.
Therefore, apart from the review on existing
literature and scientific articles, a more quantitative
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146 ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY
method was used during the research on urban
sustainability assessment systems. As the main
purpose of the research was to investigate how
appropriate an international sustainability
assessment system is; two urban sustainability
assessment systems were reviewed and compared
in order to test how local or how global their criteria
are and how useful this is.
For the purpose of this research, the LEED-
Neighbourhood Developments and BREEAM
Communities were used as the main methods for
analysing an international sustainability assessment
system of urban scale developments. These two
rating systems were chosen as they are the most
accepted and prevailing ones in the industry, with the
highest amount of applications worldwide.
Interestingly, they were originally conceived as
national rating systems only. (LEED-ND for the US
and BREEAM Communities for the UK.)
The research involved the application of the
above urban sustainability assessment systems in
two different ways. Firstly, case studies of different
urban developments were used, which had already
been rated against LEED-ND or BREEAM
Communities in relation to the locality of the places.
The category of the locality was used as the criterion
to review the different assessment systems as it is
highly related with the local or the global character of
a place.
In addition, both systems were applied on the
same pilot scheme, which was used only for the
purposes of this research as primary data. This
allowed an exploration of how the importance of the
same site-location scored against both of the
systems, and highlighted different approaches in the
different rating systems.
Furthermore, questionnaires were asked to be
completed by the BREEAM Communities and LEED-
ND assessors worldwide, investigating their personal
opinion on the feasibility of a global urban
sustainability assessment system, through their
experience on the application of BREEAM
Communities and LEED-ND correspondingly.
Finally, the comparative analysis between LEED-
Neighbourhood Development and BREEAM
Communities also involved a quantitative and
qualitative test of their credits, in order to investigate
which aspects of urban sustainability can be
measured and how this is related with the location of
a place.
3. RESULTS
3.1. Rating of the same scheme against both
LEED-ND and BREEAM Communities
A future residential development project at
southern Cambridge, Clay Farm by Place Partners,
was used as the pilot scheme to be reviewed against
both LEED-ND and BREEAM Communities. The
testing assessment of Clay Farm against BREEAM
Communities and LEED-ND showed that the Clay
Farm masterplan could target 50% of the total
available credits for BREEAM Communities, while it
could score 76 points out of 100, which is
equivalent to a GOLD level of certification according
to LEED-ND certification levels. Both of the scores
seem to be rather high for a project that did not
initially intend to be certified under any urban
sustainability assessment system. This highlights
that when a project follows general sustainable urban
design principles, it can achieve a high scoring
against any local or non-local rating assessment
system.
The higher score against LEED-ND, being a US
tool, compared to that against the UKs BREEAM
Communities, could be implicit by the fact that
Building regulations and sustainability standards vary
from country to country. For example, building code
standards in the U.S. are lower than those found in
the UK [8], hence a project in the UK would likely
score higher under a less demanding US rating tool.
The reliance on local building standards as a
minimum starting point for the systems means that
the ratings they subsequently award are affected.
What is more, as far as LEED-ND scoring is
concerned, it tends to be more heavily weighted
towards rewarding new urbanism principles, which is
generally accepted in mainstream urban planning in
the US, rather than low environmental impact
development. For instance, in the Clay Farm
assessment, high scoring was gained mainly due to
the provision of good public transport linkage and the
effort for reduced car dependence; its location
adjacent to already developed areas and to diverse
uses that can offer a high number of job places and
its pocket principles that enhance the walkability of
the neighbourhood and activate the frontages of the
buildings along sidewalks. These principles are more
ingrained in the UKs planning systems and urban
design principles of compact city thinking and hence
do not need to ingrain this into BREEAM. However,
these aspects are mostly promoted with higher
scoring within LEED-ND, as this is less prevalent in
urban design; explaining the difference in bias
between the two systems.
Furthermore, LEED-ND gives some additional
points for regional weighting, which, although it
would offer an even higher score in the case of Clay
Farm; in general it does not affect the final scoring
significantly. As regional credits is not considered a
mandatory and significant criterion, thus it cannot be
assumed that this criterion makes LEED-ND a
global system.
In the case of BREEAM Communities, in a full
assessment, it normally involves local and regional
planning requirements assessed through a weighting
system. As the rating of Clay Farm against BREEAM
Communities was not conducted by a professional
assessor and no data is available about the
weighting by BREEAM, it has not been possible to
go through this process, and so the framework and
subsequent weighting according to regional priority,
have not been applied in this assessment. Although
this may not result in the most accurate scoring in
this case, it shows that in general, BREEAM
Communities allows for an adaptation of the system
to different local and regional requirements, but not
through a transparent process. An example of that is
the recent BREEAM Communities Scotland scheme
which is not yet launched but is tailored to Scotland.
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ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 147
This highlights the available bespoke service offering
for international projects by BREEAM [9], where the
assessment are adapted to take account of local
issues rather than a top down approach.
All in all, the above project proved that selecting a
good development location is an important element
of an urban sustainability assessment system. This
perspective is embodied in prerequisites related to
location which means that not all land within a given
jurisdiction is eligible for certification. According to
the Local Government Guide [10], by LEED-ND, it is
suggested that rather than issuing a blanket
mandate that all new development projects must
achieve certification, it is more effective to use
strategies outlined in the urban sustainability
assessment systems to encourage development
projects to pursue certification, remove barriers to
achieving certification, or provide technical
assistance to projects seeking certification. Initial
findings also highlight that internationalising or
globalising standards can be rather biased to the
region they originate from: after all, they appear to
reflect the relative importance of local issues into
the weighting and scoring of their global
frameworks.
3.2. Analysis of case studies officially assessed
by BREEAM Communities and LEED-ND.
The analysis of the previously officially assessed
projects-case studies, involved the Athletes Olympic
Village in London and MediaCityUK in Manchester
for the BREEAM Communities as well as the
scorecards of 59 participated pilot projects in the US
in total, in the case of LEED-ND [11]. It has to be
mentioned that it was difficult to find sufficient data
about the assessments accomplished by BREEAM
Communities, as it is not a transparent tool, offering
no information to public related with the scoring of
assessed projects. On the contrary, a lot of data is
published and easily accessible through USGBC on
LEED-ND assessed projects. The LEEDND case
study analysis indicated that the highest points were
gained due to the preferred location of the sites, the
opportunities provided for low automobile
dependence and for great diversity and proximity to
transit facilities. Green building performance or the
protection of the ecology of the place, were
secondary to site issues in the LEED-ND scoring.
The above findings confirm that, in general, as far
as the LEED-ND scoring is concerned, it tends to be
more heavily weighted toward rewarding new
urbanism principles rather than low environmental
impact development. While these two principles are
not mutually exclusive, there are significant
differences in the ecological emphasis between the
two, where BREEAM Communities tends to address
environmental concerns more directly. Considering
that LEED-ND is modelled under the principles of
New Urbanism and BREEAM Communities are trying
to comply with the strict UK regulations about
sustainability, this confirms similar findings of the
partial scoring of the Clay Farm pilot study.
Indeed, the combination of the test application of
LEED-ND and BREEAM Communities on Clay Farm,
together with the analysis of the case studies already
assessed by these systems, verified that a rating
system that is not developed for a specific region
might be incompatible with local conditions. These
rating systems may then fail to contribute to local
sustainable development goals by prioritising global
or locally borrowed priorities, inappropriate to a
different region. In summary, the appropriate
sustainability assessment rating system ought to be
adapted to address local contexts and conditions. In
case of LEED-ND, the proposed revisions to its pilot
version, undertaken as part of ongoing research at
the University of East London, helped to address this
issue to some extent.
3.3. Analysis of the Questionnaires
The questionnaires that were completed by the
BREEAM Communities and LEED-ND assessors for
urban developments worldwide offered some
interesting findings on the feasibility of a global urban
sustainability assessment system, as well as on the
credits that assessors thought should change when a
system is to be adapted in different local situations.
According to the findings, mainly the credits
related with energy efficiency and the on-site
renewables should be carried over from the global
assessment tools to local situations. Similarly,
credits related with flood risk, surface water-runoff,
cycling networks and facilities as well as consultation
and business issues were believed to be highly
dependent on the locality of a place and should be
adapted to reflect local requirements. The survey
highlighted that all the projects assessed against
BREEAM Communities would have scored differently
if located in a different country [12] and that when a
development addresses ALL of the aspects of
sustainability, which is highly connected with the
locality of every place, it can then achieve a high
scoring against any urban sustainability rating
system.
3.4. Analysis of the qualitative & quantitative
aspects of LEED-ND and BREEAM
Communities
The comparative analysis between LEED-ND
and BREEAM Communities involved a quantitative
and qualitative test, in order to investigate which
aspects of urban sustainability can be measured and
how this is related with the location of a place. This
investigation has shown that both of the systems
mainly include quantitative issues and the aspects
that are not taken into consideration in the
sustainability assessment systems tend to be
qualitative as they are difficult to measure.
In particular, both LEED-ND and BREEAM
Communities take into consideration the amount and
the proximity to public spaces, the transit facilities
and the decrease of car dependence. However, none
of the systems seems to consider the quality of the
streets, the quality of cycling networks or that of
public spaces. This supports research findings that
qualitative aspects are not being assessed by the
urban sustainability assessment systems.
In the same notion, despite the fact that both of
the systems promote high density development and
consider heights of the buildings, they do not include
method was used during the research on urban
sustainability assessment systems. As the main
purpose of the research was to investigate how
appropriate an international sustainability
assessment system is; two urban sustainability
assessment systems were reviewed and compared
in order to test how local or how global their criteria
are and how useful this is.
For the purpose of this research, the LEED-
Neighbourhood Developments and BREEAM
Communities were used as the main methods for
analysing an international sustainability assessment
system of urban scale developments. These two
rating systems were chosen as they are the most
accepted and prevailing ones in the industry, with the
highest amount of applications worldwide.
Interestingly, they were originally conceived as
national rating systems only. (LEED-ND for the US
and BREEAM Communities for the UK.)
The research involved the application of the
above urban sustainability assessment systems in
two different ways. Firstly, case studies of different
urban developments were used, which had already
been rated against LEED-ND or BREEAM
Communities in relation to the locality of the places.
The category of the locality was used as the criterion
to review the different assessment systems as it is
highly related with the local or the global character of
a place.
In addition, both systems were applied on the
same pilot scheme, which was used only for the
purposes of this research as primary data. This
allowed an exploration of how the importance of the
same site-location scored against both of the
systems, and highlighted different approaches in the
different rating systems.
Furthermore, questionnaires were asked to be
completed by the BREEAM Communities and LEED-
ND assessors worldwide, investigating their personal
opinion on the feasibility of a global urban
sustainability assessment system, through their
experience on the application of BREEAM
Communities and LEED-ND correspondingly.
Finally, the comparative analysis between LEED-
Neighbourhood Development and BREEAM
Communities also involved a quantitative and
qualitative test of their credits, in order to investigate
which aspects of urban sustainability can be
measured and how this is related with the location of
a place.
3. RESULTS
3.1. Rating of the same scheme against both
LEED-ND and BREEAM Communities
A future residential development project at
southern Cambridge, Clay Farm by Place Partners,
was used as the pilot scheme to be reviewed against
both LEED-ND and BREEAM Communities. The
testing assessment of Clay Farm against BREEAM
Communities and LEED-ND showed that the Clay
Farm masterplan could target 50% of the total
available credits for BREEAM Communities, while it
could score 76 points out of 100, which is
equivalent to a GOLD level of certification according
to LEED-ND certification levels. Both of the scores
seem to be rather high for a project that did not
initially intend to be certified under any urban
sustainability assessment system. This highlights
that when a project follows general sustainable urban
design principles, it can achieve a high scoring
against any local or non-local rating assessment
system.
The higher score against LEED-ND, being a US
tool, compared to that against the UKs BREEAM
Communities, could be implicit by the fact that
Building regulations and sustainability standards vary
from country to country. For example, building code
standards in the U.S. are lower than those found in
the UK [8], hence a project in the UK would likely
score higher under a less demanding US rating tool.
The reliance on local building standards as a
minimum starting point for the systems means that
the ratings they subsequently award are affected.
What is more, as far as LEED-ND scoring is
concerned, it tends to be more heavily weighted
towards rewarding new urbanism principles, which is
generally accepted in mainstream urban planning in
the US, rather than low environmental impact
development. For instance, in the Clay Farm
assessment, high scoring was gained mainly due to
the provision of good public transport linkage and the
effort for reduced car dependence; its location
adjacent to already developed areas and to diverse
uses that can offer a high number of job places and
its pocket principles that enhance the walkability of
the neighbourhood and activate the frontages of the
buildings along sidewalks. These principles are more
ingrained in the UKs planning systems and urban
design principles of compact city thinking and hence
do not need to ingrain this into BREEAM. However,
these aspects are mostly promoted with higher
scoring within LEED-ND, as this is less prevalent in
urban design; explaining the difference in bias
between the two systems.
Furthermore, LEED-ND gives some additional
points for regional weighting, which, although it
would offer an even higher score in the case of Clay
Farm; in general it does not affect the final scoring
significantly. As regional credits is not considered a
mandatory and significant criterion, thus it cannot be
assumed that this criterion makes LEED-ND a
global system.
In the case of BREEAM Communities, in a full
assessment, it normally involves local and regional
planning requirements assessed through a weighting
system. As the rating of Clay Farm against BREEAM
Communities was not conducted by a professional
assessor and no data is available about the
weighting by BREEAM, it has not been possible to
go through this process, and so the framework and
subsequent weighting according to regional priority,
have not been applied in this assessment. Although
this may not result in the most accurate scoring in
this case, it shows that in general, BREEAM
Communities allows for an adaptation of the system
to different local and regional requirements, but not
through a transparent process. An example of that is
the recent BREEAM Communities Scotland scheme
which is not yet launched but is tailored to Scotland.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
148 ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY
credits about the street scape or the townscape,
which are part of the citys character. Although there
are credits that count for the protection of historical
buildings, there are no credits for the protection of
the character within a neighbourhood, or its culture in
general, all issues which are connected with the
locality of a place. City character does not only
derive from listed buildings alone: people, local
activities, even the common materials or the colour of
the buildings could give a neighbourhood its
character that in turn, offers the neighbourhood a
community feeling. These are clearly qualitative
issues, and not objectively measurable, and of
course, they are all considered as credits with high
locality character.
Another social issue that is missing from the
urban sustainability assessment systems is
community participation, in order to enhance
community feeling and thus makes the
neighbourhood more sustainable. Although there are
credits about the procurement of people, these only
refer to the design or management stages, and they
do not involve for example the promotion of common
activities within the community.
All the above issues that are not included in the
sustainability assessment systems are social
issues, and thus qualitative and difficult to be
measured. However, the holistic approach to the
sustainable development derives from the common
acceptance that the ecological, economic and social
aspects of sustainability are its main, significant and
equal components [13]. Therefore, if an urban
sustainability assessment system aims to promote
real sustainable places, it ought to include, apart
from the environmental, social as well as economical
issues.
As a whole, according to David Rudlin and to
Nicholas Falk, Each element of the Sustainable
Urban Neighbourhood represents an important
principle; Sustainability refers to the ability of the
neighbourhood and wider urban systems to be
sustained over time and to minimize their
environmental impact. Urban refers both to the
location of the area and to its physical character
whilst neighbourhood relates to the social and
economic sustainability of the area, the community
ties which hold it together and its relationship to
surrounding areas. In this term, the urban
sustainability assessment systems should include
credits that will promote a neighbouhood that will be
durable, will minimize its environmental impact, will
consider the local character of the area and will
create tight links between the people [14]. This
means that BREEAM Communities and LEED-ND
should be updated to reflect this, if their aim is to
create truly sustainable neighbourhoods.
4. DISCUSSION
4.1. Limitations in establishing a global
sustainability assessment system
The comparisons between the different
applications of BREEAM Communities and LEED-ND
and the qualitative & quantitative test analysis of
their credits, was not undertaken to find the best
performing urban sustainability rating system
amongst the two; but to investigate whether there is
a need for a new global urban sustainability system
or whether national-level systems are the most
appropriate in assessing different local situations.
The initial research findings have shown that
there are several limitations in the effort to establish
a global sustainability assessment system. The
analysis of the BREEAM Communities and LEED-ND
applications demonstrated that these systems were
never totally designed to be used across multiple
countries and often have features with a significant
local flavour. As a result, none of the schemes
would work perfectly if used in countries other than
those within which the system was initially designed
to work in. It is therefore suggested that, where used
outside the native country, any of the systems should
be tailored to take account of the local context.
What is more, there are specific local
characteristics which significantly vary across the
world. The different size of countries, the variance of
climate and natural resources together with the
geological features and economic situation in
different regions have made it difficult to develop a
unified urban sustainability assessment system, let
alone a country-wide one.
Additionally, as any environmental assessment
methodology needs to cover a wide range of issues,
Thomas Saunders argues that there is no other way
that a system could remain up to date without
significant initial investment and continual extensive
maintenance [15]. In many cases, or even whole
countries, there is a general lack of environmental
data, standardization and professionalism, that not
only makes an update impossible, but an initial
implementation of urban sustainability systems as to
begin with. This is mostly true in developing
countries, where although there is an increase in
environmental awareness by the governments, and
thus in green legislation, instead, there are few
opportunities for infrastructure provision which is a
key element in every rating system. It is therefore
obvious that a global sustainability assessment
system would not manage to balance the needs of
sustainable development projects between
developed and developing countries, and
strengthens the argument for regionally tailored
versions.
4.2. Increasing the adaptability of the
assessment tools to local conditions
In general, although a global urban sustainability
assessment system would undoubtedly provide a
systematic and useful approach for the urban
sustainability assessment industry, many
researchers have pointed out that urban
sustainability assessment systems should be
adjusted according to the background of a certain
country or region. Cooper argues that such current
international attempts at developing a universal,
standardized method for assessing the urban
sustainability are inherently flawed. He claims that
such methods are found wanting in that they are
culturally implicit, and that such methods or tools
treat the sustainability [of the] wider built
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 149
environment as simply a matter of energy and mass
flows without due regard to the socio-economic and
political dimensions of sustainability [16]. Our
research findings support similar thinking, even if the
widening of systems to include the qualitative, would
lead to more complex systems and ways of
assessing the unmeasurable.
However, the importance of this paper lies on the
findings of the research that can show which criteria
and aspects of the assessment systems are the most
sensible to change according to local conditions.
The economic viability of a number of sustainable
interventions vary according to local market,
incentives and planning / building regulations. While
several assessment systems, like BREEAM
Communities, provide a flexible mechanism suitable
for global application, some countries will score more
favourably due to the local market (e.g. feed in tariffs,
consultation more readily carried out, local materials
appropriate and available etc). This means that the
credits related with those issues can more easily be
adapted according to local market needs. Such
credits include the ones awarding for example the
use of reasonable resourced and recyclable
materials or the ones related with community
involvement, which can assure that local needs are
taken into consideration. In addition, credits that
promote energy efficiency and support the use of
renewable resources can benefit from a green local
management, like a feed-in-tariffs system and thus,
they should be carried over from the global
assessment tools to local situations. Similarly, credits
related with flood risk, surface water-runoff and
biodiversity are believed to be highly dependent on
the locality of a place and should be adapted to
reflect local requirements, like the conservation of
the native habitats. For example, water resource is
now a real problem for the development in the north
part of China, while it is a light issue in the south
region, showing the need for setting priorities and in
turn for setting a scoring system according to local
needs.
All these issues are highly linked to the local
regulations and frameworks as well, increasing the
need for adaptability of the assessment systems to
local requirements. The example of reviewing a UK-
based scheme against LEED-ND during our
research proved that a conversion system is
needed to adapt all the requirements and the credits
of the US system, according to the most equivalent
frameworks and regulatory in UK. Only then the
system could be used and reflected the needs of the
UK market.
Furthermore, the comparative qualitative and
quantitative analysis between BREEAM
Communities and LEED ND has demonstrated that a
lot of qualitative social issues are usually missing
from the assessment systems. This is due to the
efforts of the establishment bodies behind those
systems to make them more world-widely acceptable
and easily used in an international base. However, at
the same time this international character creates
difficulties in addressing local issues related with
culture, architectural character, human relationships
and habits, and thus those aspects are totally absent
from the assessment systems. As a result,
sustainability is not implemented successfully as not
a holistic approach is undertaken, with a promotion
only of the environmental aspect and not of the
social or the economic. BREEAM Communities
though includes a whole category dedicated to
Business and Economy, although again the credits
should be adapted to reflect requirements of the local
market.
A good approach towards the integration of local
needs into an assessment system is QSAS (Qatar
Sustainability Assessment System), developed by
two of the leading real estate companies in Qatar in
order to implement sustainability principles in all of
their future projects [17]. QSAS was the answer to
the need of this sector for an assessment system
based on the needs of Qatar and the region, since all
other solutions were totally imported and did not go
along with the society, culture, climate and various
environmental conditions which exist in the region.
What is important and should work as a best practice
is that QSAS offers a lot of advantages which are not
available in any other imported system. For instance,
QSAS responds to urgent issues such as preserving
the architectural identity of Qatar and the region, and
enhancing the creative solutions to address other
challenges like water scarcity and lack of non-
hydrocarbon raw materials. Besides, this system
determined the types of plants which are suitable to
the Gulf environment, and are distinguished by low
consumption of water as well as providing the
suitable greening and other environmental issues.
Therefore, this is an example of how an assessment
system should be adapted to meet local
requirements.
5. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, this paper has shown that global
urban sustainability assessment systems, as well as
the adapted versions of already well established
rating systems, have both advantages and
disadvantages and it is therefore difficult to choose
the most appropriate solution. Instead, it suggests
that before using a universal sustainability
assessment system, it is necessary to analyze the
local situation and identify the adaptability of using
such a tool in a specific country and region.
This paper argues that a tailored version of
globally accepted national urban sustainability
assessment systems would work more effectively
than a totally integrated global system. Therefore, all
the credits, requirements and scoring of an
assessment system should be adapted in order to
meet local needs and to respond to priorities set by
local planning, frameworks or even by the local
character of the region.
The criteria and aspects of the assessment
systems which are the most sensible to change
according to local conditions are mostly the ones
related with energy efficiency and the use of
renewable resources, but similarly, credits also
related with flood risk, surface water-runoff and
biodiversity. Furthermore, this paper suggests that
the existing assessment systems should be further
credits about the street scape or the townscape,
which are part of the citys character. Although there
are credits that count for the protection of historical
buildings, there are no credits for the protection of
the character within a neighbourhood, or its culture in
general, all issues which are connected with the
locality of a place. City character does not only
derive from listed buildings alone: people, local
activities, even the common materials or the colour of
the buildings could give a neighbourhood its
character that in turn, offers the neighbourhood a
community feeling. These are clearly qualitative
issues, and not objectively measurable, and of
course, they are all considered as credits with high
locality character.
Another social issue that is missing from the
urban sustainability assessment systems is
community participation, in order to enhance
community feeling and thus makes the
neighbourhood more sustainable. Although there are
credits about the procurement of people, these only
refer to the design or management stages, and they
do not involve for example the promotion of common
activities within the community.
All the above issues that are not included in the
sustainability assessment systems are social
issues, and thus qualitative and difficult to be
measured. However, the holistic approach to the
sustainable development derives from the common
acceptance that the ecological, economic and social
aspects of sustainability are its main, significant and
equal components [13]. Therefore, if an urban
sustainability assessment system aims to promote
real sustainable places, it ought to include, apart
from the environmental, social as well as economical
issues.
As a whole, according to David Rudlin and to
Nicholas Falk, Each element of the Sustainable
Urban Neighbourhood represents an important
principle; Sustainability refers to the ability of the
neighbourhood and wider urban systems to be
sustained over time and to minimize their
environmental impact. Urban refers both to the
location of the area and to its physical character
whilst neighbourhood relates to the social and
economic sustainability of the area, the community
ties which hold it together and its relationship to
surrounding areas. In this term, the urban
sustainability assessment systems should include
credits that will promote a neighbouhood that will be
durable, will minimize its environmental impact, will
consider the local character of the area and will
create tight links between the people [14]. This
means that BREEAM Communities and LEED-ND
should be updated to reflect this, if their aim is to
create truly sustainable neighbourhoods.
4. DISCUSSION
4.1. Limitations in establishing a global
sustainability assessment system
The comparisons between the different
applications of BREEAM Communities and LEED-ND
and the qualitative & quantitative test analysis of
their credits, was not undertaken to find the best
performing urban sustainability rating system
amongst the two; but to investigate whether there is
a need for a new global urban sustainability system
or whether national-level systems are the most
appropriate in assessing different local situations.
The initial research findings have shown that
there are several limitations in the effort to establish
a global sustainability assessment system. The
analysis of the BREEAM Communities and LEED-ND
applications demonstrated that these systems were
never totally designed to be used across multiple
countries and often have features with a significant
local flavour. As a result, none of the schemes
would work perfectly if used in countries other than
those within which the system was initially designed
to work in. It is therefore suggested that, where used
outside the native country, any of the systems should
be tailored to take account of the local context.
What is more, there are specific local
characteristics which significantly vary across the
world. The different size of countries, the variance of
climate and natural resources together with the
geological features and economic situation in
different regions have made it difficult to develop a
unified urban sustainability assessment system, let
alone a country-wide one.
Additionally, as any environmental assessment
methodology needs to cover a wide range of issues,
Thomas Saunders argues that there is no other way
that a system could remain up to date without
significant initial investment and continual extensive
maintenance [15]. In many cases, or even whole
countries, there is a general lack of environmental
data, standardization and professionalism, that not
only makes an update impossible, but an initial
implementation of urban sustainability systems as to
begin with. This is mostly true in developing
countries, where although there is an increase in
environmental awareness by the governments, and
thus in green legislation, instead, there are few
opportunities for infrastructure provision which is a
key element in every rating system. It is therefore
obvious that a global sustainability assessment
system would not manage to balance the needs of
sustainable development projects between
developed and developing countries, and
strengthens the argument for regionally tailored
versions.
4.2. Increasing the adaptability of the
assessment tools to local conditions
In general, although a global urban sustainability
assessment system would undoubtedly provide a
systematic and useful approach for the urban
sustainability assessment industry, many
researchers have pointed out that urban
sustainability assessment systems should be
adjusted according to the background of a certain
country or region. Cooper argues that such current
international attempts at developing a universal,
standardized method for assessing the urban
sustainability are inherently flawed. He claims that
such methods are found wanting in that they are
culturally implicit, and that such methods or tools
treat the sustainability [of the] wider built
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
150 ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY
developed and adapted in order to include more
qualitative aspects as well, like cultural issues related
with the build environment, if they willing to promote
and create truly sustainable environments not only at
the places where they were originally designed for,
but also world-widely corresponding to the different
local needs.
However, this paper is just the starting point for a
discussion between the increasing number of
scheme operators developing and running
sustainability assessment methods for
neighbourhood scale developments, suggesting that
opportunities exist for new approaches to urban
sustainability assessment systems.
All in all, this paper suggests ways to increase
the efficiency of the tools that we can use as
environmental architects and urban designers driven
by sustainability, by linking the local approaches with
the current global objectives of urban sustainability.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was supported by the Sustainable
Urban Design Systems research group, of the
school of AVA of the University of East London. The
authors would also like to thank the BREEAM
Communities assessors for completing the
questionnaires and the USGBC for the valuable
information provided.
7. REFERENCES
[1] A. Gasparatos, Embedded value systems in
sustainability assessment tools and their
implications, Journal of Environmental
Management 91 (2010), 1613-1622
[2] E. Ng, Designing High-density Cities for Social
and Environmental Sustainability, Earthscan,
UK, USA (2010), 279
[3] Official website of US Green Building Council,
www.usgbc.org
[4] Official website of Sustainable Sites Initiative,
www.sustainablesites.org
[5] Official website of BREEAM Communities,
www.breeam.org
[6] Official website of HILSON MORAN,
www.hilsonmoran.com/Services/Sustainability/
SuBET
[7] Official website of CABSEE, Japan,
www.ibec.or.jp/CASBEE
[8] Official website of BREEAM, www.breeam.org
[9] Official website of BREEAM Communities,
www.breeam.org
[10] LEED, Local Government Guide for LEED-ND,
USGBC, October 2009
[11] Official website of US Green Building Council,
www.usgbc.org
[12] B. Warren, BREEAM Communities assessor of
MediaCity at Sinclair Knight Merz, personal
statement for the questionnaires, August 2010
[13] R. Cole and R. Lorch, Buildings, Culture and
Environment, Blackwell publishing (2003)
[14] D. Rudlin and N. Falk, Sustainable Urban
Neighbourhood_ Building the 21st Century
Home, Architectural Press (2009), 50
[15] T. Saunders, A discussion document comparing
international Environmental assessment
methods, BRE (2008), 8
[16] I. Cooper, Which focus for building assessment
methodsenvironmental performance or
sustainability?, Building Research & Information
(1999), 27(4/5)
[17] A. Horr, Dr, The Green Leaf, Qatari Diar
Research Institute, (2009)
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 151
Assessment of Sustainable Buildings
A Case for Enabling Post Occupancy Verification
ABSTRACT: This paper illustrates, evaluates and tests the potential for the evolution of building environmental
assessment methods (EAM) to both enable and require ongoing assessment of buildings, based on in-use
performance. This is not to say that the existing evaluation of the EAM or sustainability of the construction is
obsolete, rather that this does not go far enough to ensure the delivery of the step change required by current
policy and global environmental drivers including climate change. Our argument for an EAM + would make
mandatory all factors that allow post occupancy evaluation within certified sustainable buildings and go further
to require use of such applications (including installation of, and collection of data from, sub metering for energy
and water and ongoing evaluation of occupant comfort) to produce regular building MOTs. These would then
inform ongoing certification of buildings. This process would further allow the acknowledgment of the changing
nature of a certified excellent or outstanding building and require owners to continually improve their
buildings performance to warrant the continued use of the title excellent or outstanding certification in
marketing and corporate social responsibility statements, for example.
Keywords: Assessment, Post Occupancy Evaluation
1. INTRODUCTION
Learning from our mistakes is a philosophy we
all rely on in life. However, in the context of
Architecture, very little interest has historically been
given to enabling a continued learning relationship
with the performance of our buildings in practice.
Indeed, despite a plethora of processes for
assessing the performance of buildings in-use,
commonly referred to as Post Occupancy Evaluation
(POE), very few projects are ever subjected to such
a post-mortem (Yudelson, 2009) [1]. It is argued here
that the current approach to building procurement,
where the design team walk away from their projects
soon after practical completion, is not in the spirit of
sustainable development. We are certainly not alone
in this assertion. It is further stressed that
assessment methods, such as BREEAM, widely
perceived as the de facto measure of a buildings
sustainability in the UK, do not in reality deliver
buildings that realise carbon savings or the wider
sustainable operational measures that current
national and European policy requires from its built
environment. The exception to this is the Display
Energy Certificate, implemented in response to the
EPBD and the only UK legislated measure that, for
public buildings over 1000m2, reflects in use
performance.
This research explores the credibility gap
(Bordass, 2003) [2] associated with current
procedures employed through the critical evaluation
of the BRE Environmental Assessment Method
(BREEAM) for testing and certifying the
environmental performance of buildings in the
commercial sector. BREEAM represents a tried and
tested tool for demonstrating and communicating the
result of efforts and measures taken to reduce the
environmental impact of buildings (British Standards
Institution and International Organization for
standardization 2010) [3]. However, concerns have
emerged that proclaim to question the credibility of
the current assessment process, on the grounds that
it fails to take into account absolute building
performance (and therefore compliance).
Gas Electricity
Figure 1: Actual vs. Predicted Performance (After Bordass
2003)
Buildings are presently assessed and certified
according to information provided about how they are
predicted to perform, rather than how they actually
perform in use. Critical environmental performance
data including energy usage and CO2 emissions,
renewable energy yields and water consumption are
all based on theoretical design calculations that are
often never checked against real performance data.
Furthermore, compliance with certain issues is based
entirely on non-enforceable commitments made by
various parties to perform specific tasks during the
initial occupation and running-in period. As such,
Julie gWilliaM
1
1
Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff, Wales, UK
developed and adapted in order to include more
qualitative aspects as well, like cultural issues related
with the build environment, if they willing to promote
and create truly sustainable environments not only at
the places where they were originally designed for,
but also world-widely corresponding to the different
local needs.
However, this paper is just the starting point for a
discussion between the increasing number of
scheme operators developing and running
sustainability assessment methods for
neighbourhood scale developments, suggesting that
opportunities exist for new approaches to urban
sustainability assessment systems.
All in all, this paper suggests ways to increase
the efficiency of the tools that we can use as
environmental architects and urban designers driven
by sustainability, by linking the local approaches with
the current global objectives of urban sustainability.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was supported by the Sustainable
Urban Design Systems research group, of the
school of AVA of the University of East London. The
authors would also like to thank the BREEAM
Communities assessors for completing the
questionnaires and the USGBC for the valuable
information provided.
7. REFERENCES
[1] A. Gasparatos, Embedded value systems in
sustainability assessment tools and their
implications, Journal of Environmental
Management 91 (2010), 1613-1622
[2] E. Ng, Designing High-density Cities for Social
and Environmental Sustainability, Earthscan,
UK, USA (2010), 279
[3] Official website of US Green Building Council,
www.usgbc.org
[4] Official website of Sustainable Sites Initiative,
www.sustainablesites.org
[5] Official website of BREEAM Communities,
www.breeam.org
[6] Official website of HILSON MORAN,
www.hilsonmoran.com/Services/Sustainability/
SuBET
[7] Official website of CABSEE, Japan,
www.ibec.or.jp/CASBEE
[8] Official website of BREEAM, www.breeam.org
[9] Official website of BREEAM Communities,
www.breeam.org
[10] LEED, Local Government Guide for LEED-ND,
USGBC, October 2009
[11] Official website of US Green Building Council,
www.usgbc.org
[12] B. Warren, BREEAM Communities assessor of
MediaCity at Sinclair Knight Merz, personal
statement for the questionnaires, August 2010
[13] R. Cole and R. Lorch, Buildings, Culture and
Environment, Blackwell publishing (2003)
[14] D. Rudlin and N. Falk, Sustainable Urban
Neighbourhood_ Building the 21st Century
Home, Architectural Press (2009), 50
[15] T. Saunders, A discussion document comparing
international Environmental assessment
methods, BRE (2008), 8
[16] I. Cooper, Which focus for building assessment
methodsenvironmental performance or
sustainability?, Building Research & Information
(1999), 27(4/5)
[17] A. Horr, Dr, The Green Leaf, Qatari Diar
Research Institute, (2009)
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
152 ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY
true compliance with issues assessed in this manner
will always remain questionable.
This paper presents the case for inclusion of an
additional verification stage as a mandatory phase
of building environmental assessment. It should be
noted that this additional phase of EAM is considered
to be additional to the newly developed BREEAM In-
Use. The phase proposed by this work is termed a
Post Occupancy Verification, ensuring the
Sustainable functioning of a building during its initial
occupancy phase; while BREEAM in use would be
considered to follow and indeed focuses on ongoing
improvement of performance of existing buildings
rather than new build development.
Figure 2. Placement of Proposed Post-occupancy
Verification stage
2. METHODOLOGY
Firstly, a critical evaluation of the assessment
criteria contained within each of the nine main
BREEAM assessment categories (Management (10
factors/ Man), Health & Wellbeing (13/Hea), Energy
(9/Ene), Transport (6/Tra), Water (4/Wat), Materials
(7/Mat), Waste (4/Wast), Land Use & Ecology (6/Le),
and Pollution(8/Pol)) was undertaken. This was
intended to identify those constituent factors that
require in situ or in use verification in order to
validate design and or post construction phase
assessment. For example, these are factors that
despite appropriate installation, may or may not in-
use be functioning appropriately, or indeed be in-use
at all.
Secondly, a Post Occupancy Verification
methodology is proposed for each of the factors
deemed to require in-situ / in-use verification. These
methodologies can be seen to build upon widely
applied existing Post Occupancy Evaluation
investigation methods and techniques. They were
selected in order to collect the necessary data
required to perform the post-occupancy verification
assessment, while balancing the ambition to develop
a usable and repeatable methodology. Therefore
methods that required prior knowledge, equipment or
expertise were discounted, indeed where data
collection was required, much of the process was
designed to closely relate to the widely used Building
Use Survey (BUS) [4] and the CIBSE TM22: Energy
Assessment and Reporting Method [5], thus enabling
a research output synergy with this existing dataset.
Finally, the proposed Post Occupancy
Verification methodology (POV) was tested through
application to a case study BREEAM assessed
building (VOSA Bristol HGVTS Offices, Avonmouth,
Bristol, BREEAM Excellent, completed 2008) in order
to evaluate credibility gaps in the existing BREEAM
assessment process.
3. DEVELOPMENT OF THE POST
OCCUPANCY VERFIRICATION TOOL
3.1. Assessment Factors for Verification
The first stage in developing the POV
methodology was to decide which aspects of the
original BREEAM assessment should be addressed
and why. Clearly, one of the major objectives of this
exercise was to devise a simple methodology that is
economically and logistically appropriate to
administer, but nevertheless provided a valid tool for
verification of in-use compliance. Initial critical
evaluation of the list of BREEAM issues and their
individual credit requirements identified unfeasible
numbers of issues for evaluation. It should be noted
that for this initial development phase this process
has focussed on the assessment of new build owner-
occupied buildings only. However, the process
undertaken could be applied to any other of the
BREEAM family of assessment methods and indeed
other building assessment method such as LEED
and Greenstar.
This evaluation process aimed to ensure that the
POV process was manageable and did not require
excessive expenditure, in terms of both time and
cost. Therefore, it was considered vital to limit its
scope in a systematic manner. Firstly, those criteria
that are defined as Minimum Standards within the
BREEAM Offices 2008 Assessor Manual, were
identified as core to the process (BRE Global Ltd
2009a) [6].
Following an initial evaluation, some of these
were deemed not to be relevant or fundamental to
the on-going credibility of the assessment process
and so were excluded from this POV method. In
addition to these minimum standards, some
additional BREEAM issues were identified as being
fundamental to the credibility of an assessment and
therefore worthy of inclusion. Others, although not
strictly deemed as fundamental were included on
account of the simplistic nature of assessment.
The following set of criteria were used as a
general guide for selecting which of the remaining
BREEAM issues should be explored in detail and
form part of the proposed post-occupancy verification
stage:
I. Issues that require a commitment to perform
specific tasks during the initial occupancy
period. For example, Seasonal Commissioning.
II. Issues relating to internal environmental
conditions and occupant comfort.
III. Issues relating to the reduction of energy and
water consumption.
IV. Issues identified as vulnerable to initial post-
occupancy adaptation and misuse.
Table 1 below provides a summary of the issues
included as part of the proposed POV methodology.
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ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 153
Table 1: BREEAM credits forming a part of the proposed
POV Methodology (Including justification for inclusion)
BREEAM Credits Justification
Man1: Commissioning
BREEAM Min. Standard
Review of commissioning duties
necessary to guarantee
compliance.
Man4: Building User
Guide. BREEAM Min.
Standard
Review necessary to ensure the
User Guide & contents made
available to building occupants.
Hea1: Daylighting Review of daylight levels
necessary to confirm occupant
comfort.
Hea3: Glare Control Review of effectiveness of glare
control necessary to confirm
occupant comfort.
Hea5: Internal / External
Lighting Levels
Review of internal lighting levels
necessary to confirm occupant
comfort.
Hea6: Lighting
Zones/Controls
Review of controls installed to
confirm ease of use.
Hea8: Indoor Air Quality Review necessary for confirm
effectiveness of ventilation
systems and occupant comfort.
Hea10: Thermal Comfort Review necessary to confirm
occupant comfort.
Hea11: Thermal Zoning Review of controls installed to
confirm ease of use.
Ene1: Reduction of CO2
Emissions. BREEAM
Min. Standard
Review of energy performance in-
use necessary to confirm
predictions.
Ene2: Sub-Metering
BREEAM Min. Standard
Forms part of energy performance
review.
Ene3: Sub-Metering by
Tenancy
Review of energy performance in-
use necessary to confirm
predictions.
Ene5: LZC Technologies
BREEAM Min. Standard
Review of installed LZC
technologies and their actual
contribution.
Tra1: Public Transport Review of transport options
necessary to account for the
local development credits.
Tra2:
Proximity to Amenities
Review of local amenities
necessary to account for local
development credits.
Wat1: Water
Consumption. BREEAM
Min. Standard
Review of consumption in-use
necessary to compare estimated
and metered levels.
Wat2: Water Meter.
BREEAM Min. Standard
Considered as part of water use
assessment.
Le6:
Long Term Impact
Review of long-term landscape
and habitat management plan.
In addition to the credits listed in Table 1, 4
further credits were included as they were easily
assessed in use by way of a walkthrough survey,
namely: Ene 4: External Lighting; Tra 6: car parking
capacity; Wst 3: Recyclable waste storage
(BREEAM min. standard) and Pol 7: Night time
Light Pollution.
It should be noted that issues exclusively
connected with the building specification and
construction were excluded from further assessment
within the POV. Furthermore, compliance with issues
that had already been fully substantiated by the PCR
stage were also excluded from further assessment
Table 2: BREEAM credits not included in the proposed
POV Methodology (Including justification for exclusion)
Compliance
adequately checked
BREEAM Credits
D
u
r
i
n
g

D
e
s
i
g
n

D
u
r
i
n
g

C
o
n
s
t
r
u
c
t
i
o
n

A
t

P
r
a
c
t
i
c
a
l

C
o
m
p
l
e
t
i
o
n

Man2: Considerate Constructors X
Man3:
Construction Site Impacts
X
Man8: Security X
Hea2: View Out X
Hea4: High Freq Lighting X
Hea7:
Potential for Natural Vent
X
Hea9: Volatile Organic
Compounds (See HEA 8.)
X
Hea12: Microbial Contamination X
Hea13: Acoustic Performance X
Ene8: Lifts X
Ene9: Escalator / Walkway X
Tra3: Cyclist Facilities X
Tra4: Pedestrian and Cyclist
Safety
X
Tra5: Travel Plan X
Wat3: Major Leak Detection X
Wat4: Sanitary Shut-off X
Le1: Reuse of Land X
Le2: Contaminated Land X
Le3: Ecological Value X
Le4: Mitigating Impact (See Le6) X X
Le5: Enhancing Site Ecology X
Pol1: Refrigerant GWP X X X
Pol2: Preventing Refrigerant
Leaks
X X X
Pol4: Nox Emissions X X X
Pol5: Flood Risk X
Pol6: Minimising Watercourse
Pollution
X
Pol8: Noise Attenuation X X X
Mat1: Materials Selection X
Mat2: Hard Landscaping X
Mat3: Re-use of Faade X
Mat4: Re-use of Structure X
Mat5: Responsible Sourcing X
Mat6: Insulation X
Mat 7: Design for Robustness X
Wst 1: Construction site waste X
Wst 2: Recycled aggregates X
Wst 4: Floor finishes X
Man9: Publication of building
information
Man10: Development as a learning
resource
Not assessed for
offices
(Education only)
3.2. Post Occupancy Verification Methodology
Having established those BREEAM credits that
require verification during the proposed POV, it was
then necessary to establish an integrated
methodology through which to undertake this
assessment. The methods can be grouped under 5
broad categories: 1: Building User questionnaire, 2:
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154 ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY
Information requests, 3: Building Walkthrough, 4:
Energy Audit and 5. desktop study.
Table 3: BREEAM Issues Against Proposed POV method
BREEAM
Issue
B
u
i
l
d
i
n
g

U
s
e
r

Q
u
e
s
t
i
o
n
n
a
i
r
e

I
n
f
o
r
m
a
t
i
o
n

R
e
q
u
e
s
t
s

B
u
i
l
d
i
n
g

W
a
l
k
t
h
r
o
u
g
h

E
n
e
r
g
y
A
s
s
e
s
s
m
e
n
t

D
e
s
k
t
o
p

S
t
u
d
y

Man 1
Man 4
Hea 1
Hea 3
Hea 5
Hea 6
Hea 8
Hea 10
Hea 11
Ene 1
Ene 2
Ene 3
Ene 4
Ene 5
Tra 1
Tra 2
Tra 6
Wat 1
Wat 2
Le 6
Pol 7
Wst 3
The building user questionnaire can be seen to
focus on those credits that relate to the indoor
environment as experienced by the occupants. This
questionnaire uses a qualitative approach to the
assessment of building performance. It is
acknowledged here that building performance
monitoring may play a useful role here. However, it
was the intention of the authors to develop a method
that was both practicable an appropriate, and as
such the application of the occupants as the
measurement devices to consider both winter
(heating season) and summer (cooling season)
performance was considered to be most economical
in terms of time, equipment and cost. The
questionnaire used was an adapted version of the
Building Use Studies (BUS) (Building Use Studies
Ltd, 2010) [4] standard form. Additional questions
were added relating to training on and complexity of
the controls for lighting and heating.
Training
Have you ever received instructions on the
correct use of Heating controls?
Have you ever received instructions on the
correct use of Cooling controls?
Have you ever received instructions on the
correct use of Ventilation controls?
Have you ever received instructions on the
correct use of Lighting controls?
No Yes
Please tick:
1 2
No Yes 1 2
No Yes 1 2
No Yes 1 2

Figure 3. Example of Questions added to Standard BUS

Questionnaire
In order to obtain historical information about the
building such as metered energy and water
consumption data, it is the intention of this method
that information requests should be made to those
responsible for facilities management. This is
intended to supplement information derived from
documentation relating to the design intent.
Meanwhile a building walkthrough, guided by a
senior member of FM staff can be undertaken to fulfil
the verification of a number of factors listed above,
photographs being taken to provide evidence.
The energy credits to be assessed through this
proposed POV method are intended to enable the in
use Evaluation and benchmarking of the energy
performance of buildings. This is a complex process,
and requires a tool that could enable the clear
communication of an in-depth, robust energy
assessment. It is the intention of the proposed
method to make use of benchmarking to compare
results with other typical buildings of the same type,
enabling re-evaluation of Ene-1: Reduction of CO2
Emissions. The CIBSE Energy Assessment and
Reporting Method [5] was selected as the basis for
performing this part of the assessment.
Finally, in order to obtain the necessary
information on public transport networks within the
facility of a building or development a desktop study
would be required, searching bus and train timetable
information, assessing proximity of stations and
stops.
3.3. Case Study Application of POV
In order to evaluate the proposed methodology, it
was applied to a case study building: VOSA Bristol
HGVTS Offices, Avonmouth, Bristol, BREEAM
Excellent, completed 2008, enabled by the
cooperation of members of the design and the
buildings estates team.
Table 4: BREEAM credit Scoring PCR vs Post POV
BREEAM Category
N
o

o
f

C
r
e
d
i
t
s

A
v
a
i
l
a
b
l
e
N
o
.

C
r
e
d
i
t
s

A
c
h
i
e
v
e
d

a
t

P
C
R
N
o

o
f

C
r
e
d
i
t
s

R
e
l
i
n
q
u
i
s
h
e
d

a
t

P
O
V

Management 9 9 -2
Health & Wellbeing 13 7 0
Energy 18 13 -5
Transport 15 10 -4
Water 6 5 -1
Materials 9 4 0
Waste 3 2 0
Land Use & Ecology 10 10 -1
Pollution 15 10 0
The detailed methodology for each of the 22
issues selected for post occupancy verification was
applied and enabled evaluation of the achievement
of credits as to whether the performance in use
exceeded, equalled or failed to achieve the standard
credited within the original BREEAM Assessment
process. It was found that the credits awarded at
PCR stage were significantly affected (Caller, 2010)
[7].

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ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 155
The results from the POV were systematically
compared against the credits achieved at the PCR
stage (summarised in table 4 above). It can be seen
that the building lost BREEAM credits under the POV
methodology in the Management, Energy, Transport
Water and Land use & Eoclogy criteria. The reasons
for these reduction in awarded credits are
summarised as follows:
Man 1: No implementation of seasonal
commissioning and so this credit was
relinquished.
Ene 1: Energy performance of building was
below the standard claimed at the PCR stage and
1 of the original 10 credits were relinquished.
Ene 2: Sub metering by energy usage, although
installed, was not monitored and are not linked to
the building management system, therefore long
term collection and analysis of data was not
enabled and the credit was relinquished.
Ene 3: Sub metering by floor (end user or
department), although installed, was not
monitored and are not linked to the building
management system, therefore long term
collection and analysis of data was not enabled
and the credit was relinquished.
Ene 5: The yield from the installed LZC
technology (Photovoltaic array) was significantly
overestimated (41% estimated/ 13% actual). 2 of
the 3 credits were relinquished. It was also
unclear as to proportion of yield utilised in
offsetting energy demand.
Tra 6: Additional car parking spaces were
provided (40 rather than the 21 stated in design
statement). 4 of the 8 credits were therefore
relinquished.
Wat 1: Water usage exceeded stated target
(Design - 1.45 m
3
/ person / year. Metered: 6.7 m
3
/ person / year). Estimated from site wide meter.
All the credits were relinquished.
Wat 2: No building specific water meter was
installed and the credit was relinquished.
Le 1: The site landscape and habitat
management plan was not in the possession of
the estate management staff therefore it was
assumed that it was not possible to follow the
plan and 1 of the 2 credits were relinquished.
Table 5: BREEAM Assessment PCR vs Post POV
BREEAM Category
W
e
i
g
h
t
e
d

S
c
o
r
e

a
t

P
C
R

W
e
i
g
h
t
e
d

S
c
o
r
e

a
t

P
O
V

Management 15.0 11.7
Health & Wellbeing 8.1 8.1
Energy 9.8 6.1
Transport 7.6 3.0
Water 4.2 0.8
Materials 3.3 3.3
Waste 1.7 1.7
Land Use & Ecology 15.0 13.5
Pollution 10.0 10.0
Weighted Score 74.7 58.2
BREEAM Rating Excellent Very Good
When compiled and weighted within the
BREEAM process the impact of these alterations to
the credits awarded after the POV process resulted
in the downgrading of the building from its previous
Excellent to Very Good status as illustrated in table
5. It must be noted here that difficulties were
encountered in the process of undertaking the
proposed POV methodology that can be categorised
as relating to the availability and quality of data. The
ability to verify the performance of the building was
significantly affected by the reduction in active
engagement with the performance of the building
beyond the PCR assessment phase of BREEAM. For
example, beyond this phase, the commitment to
undertake seasonal commissioning was not upheld,
the building user guide was not communicated
successfully to staff and there was no system or
process in place to enable the systematic collation,
reporting and analysis of energy or water use,
despite the presence of sub metering system,
despite clear commitment to each of these issues
during the initial design and assessment phases.
4. DISCUSSION
This work has attempted to address the credibility
gap associated with the current procedures for
certifying environmentally sustainable building under
building environmental assessment methods,
focusing on the UK based BREEAM. This research
has successfully developed and tested a
methodology that aims to bridge this gap by verifying
postoccupancy compliance and confirming in-use
building performance. This work has shown that in
relation to a number of factors there is potential for
extending the assessment process to include a post-
occupancy verification stage. Further, this work has
demonstrated how existing post-occupancy
evaluation techniques may be employed to gather
the data needed to evaluate compliance.
Results from the case study assessment
presented have supported the case that buildings
certified by BREEAM may not be performing as well
as expected, or may be failing to comply with
aspects of assessment procedures undertaken prior
to occupation. It is therefore time to question whether
the awarding of environmental certification based
entirely on predicted performance assessment alone
is appropriate, particularly in terms of energy
consumption or carbon emissions where their actual
reduction is key to the mitigation of the affects of
climate change.
In any event, this work reinforces the need for the
BRE to respond swiftly to emerging questions of
integrity, or else risk damaging BREEAMs reputation
as a legitimate rating tool. Development of future
methods that begin to address absolute performance
will be required to maintain the balance of rigor and
practicality that is so fundamentally important to the
success of BREEAM. It will require an
interdisciplinary approach, drawing on existing tried
and tested methods and tools where appropriate, but
also creating and pioneering new ones.
In summary the potential benefits of the adoption
of the POV methodology here are considered to
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156 ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY
include its role in: acting as a filtration process,
reserving the highest levels of certification for
buildings that are proven to deliver in use
sustainability; improving credibility, responding to
current questions relating to integrity and rigor;
encouraging project actors to revisit occupied
buildings and learn from them and identifying
common problems and failures, thus informing future
BREEAM updates. Meanwhile potential barriers to
future adoption of the proposed POV methodology
include: increased fear of recrimination relating to
claims on professional indemnity insurance; funding
and planning consequences where buildings fail to
achieve the required BREEAM rating in use;
additional time and cost associated with carrying out
the POV stage and delay in certainty over the
assessment result until the POV stage is complete.
As evidence of discrepancies between predicted
and actual building performance become more
widely publicised, either through more research or
the introduction of mandatory DECs for all non-
domestic buildings, it is suggested that EAM
methods such as BREEAM should minimise impact
on integrity through the introduction of certification
that reflects in use performance.
5. CONCLUSION
It is the assertion of the authors that further
research is required in order to better understand the
post-occupancy performance of BREEAM certified
office buildings. A methodology has been developed
with the potential to ensure that the spirit of BREEAM
assessments is maintained during occupation. The
proposed verification process has been shown to be
robust, but could be further supported through
alterations in the BREEAM methodology that would
enable the implementation of post occupancy
evaluations to be more straightforward. It is hoped
that further case study investigations may be
conducted involving a mixture of public and private
sector projects across the UK, using the proposed
methodology, that would enable common issues to
be identified and help to target future research and
development. Such studies would enable the
collation of information about in-use energy
performance and CO2 emissions, with direct
comparisons made between figures for predicted and
metered energy consumption.
Although this research has attempted to address
the credibility of BREEAM through the introduction of
an additional assessment stage covering the initial
occupancy period, it does not address the long-term
aspects of environmental certification and the
diminishing significance of an assessment result over
time. Figure 5 illustrates the impact of improvement
in standards on certification. It can therefore be seen
that, given sufficient time, a building certified as
Excellent in, say, 2010 may only achieve a Very
Good rating if assessed again after a step change in
environmental performance has occurred. This
begins to lead us to the idea that environmental
assessment should include regular MOT style
periodic assessment. A paradigm shift is needed to
accommodate this approach and indeed the
systematic verification methodology proposed by this
work may provide a framework by which such
ongoing assessment beyond initial post-occupancy
verification may be undertaken.
Figure 4. Shelf Life of Building Environment Assessment.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks the Estates Team at the Vehicle &
Operator Services Agency (VOSA) as well as to
Stride Treglown Ltd and BJP Consulting Group Ltd.
7. REFERENCES
[1] Yudelson, J. (2009). Green building trends:
Europe. Washington DC: Island Press.
[2] Bordass, W. (2003). System Boundaries: Joining
up actual energy consumption and modelled
estimates.
Available at: http://www.usablebuildings.co.uk/
[Accessed: 3/7/2010].
[3] BSI & ISO, (2010). Sustainability in building
construction: Framework for methods of
assessment of the environmental performance
of construction works. Part 1: Buildings.
Switzerland: BSI.
[4] Building Use Studies Ltd. 2010. BUS
Methodology: Occupant Survey Graphics.
Available at:
http://homepage.mac.com/aleaman2/1113/index
.html [Accessed: 20/8/2010].
[5] Field, J. W. and CIBSE. 2006. Energy
assessment and reporting record : CIBSE TM22.
2nd ed. London: CIBSE, p. 26
[6] BRE Global Ltd. (2009). BRE Environmental &
Sustainability Standard [Online]. Watford: BRE
Global Ltd. Available at: http://www.breeam.org
[Accessed: 15/6/2010].
[7] Caller, L (2010). Advancing the Credibility of
Building Environmental Assessment through
Post Occupancy Verification. MSc Dissertation
submitted to Cardiff University.
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ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 157


What is the Relationship between Design Excellence
and Building Performance?
With particular reference to education buildings
YANTI CHEN
1
, DANIELA BESSER JELVES
2
, BRIAN FORD
3
1,2,3
Department of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
ABSTRACT: This paper discusses the relationship between design quality and building performance. It describes
an investigation of two recent award winning education buildings in the UK in terms of the attributes of design
quality, the actual energy performance and occupant perception of these buildings in use. Design quality, as
evidenced by receipt of RIBA awards, may not necessarily imply good performance. The study is a pilot project to
establish a methodology to assist the correlation of these attributes. Conclusions are drawn from the analysis
based upon the completed buildings and post-occupancy evaluation. The assessment has involved onsite
observation, and occupant feedback through questionnaire and surveys. It is hoped to extend this initial work to
include a larger sample of award winning buildings to obtain a better understanding of the relationship between
design excellence and building performance.
Keywords: low carbon school, design excellence, energy performance, people perception
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background
It is now widely accepted that architectures should
encompass the environmental task of reducing fossil
fuel energy consumption in response to climate
change and peak oil. Government and institutional
pressures are influencing architects to design more
environmentally responsible buildings.
For many years, the Royal Institute of British
Architects (RIBA) National and Regional Awards have
promoted buildings of quality and rewarded
architectural excellence. Over the last five years,
there have been an increasing number of buildings
that have received awards which explicitly attempt to
address environmental design issues and reduce
fossil fuel energy use. However, does award winning
design achieve good building performance, and do
award buildings offer a comfortable environment to
their occupants? When we examine the relationship
between design excellence (established through
peer review) and building performance, the priorities
and pre-conceptions of the profession may be
revealed.
1.2. Low carbon school programmes in UK
Education buildings currently account for 13% of
carbon emissions from non-domestic buildings in the
UK. [1] For sustainability, the UK Government set up
an extremely demanding goal that all new homes and
new schools should be carbon neutral by 2016. The
previous UK Governments programme Building
Schools for the Future (BSF) was a 45 billion
programme that focused on the key issues in the
design process of new schools and the refurbishment
of existing buildings. Implicit within the programme
were the governments targets to achieve
sustainability and low carbon emissions. [2] In parallel,
the Commission of Architecture and the Built
Environment (CABE) started a school design quality
programme, which objective was to provide free
advice and support for local authorities
commissioning BSF schools, and conducted a
professional panel supported by the Government to
review the school buildings annually from 2007. [3]
However, in July 2008, one of the CABEs reports
stated that nearly 80 percent of schemes reviewed by
its schools design review panel were mediocre or
not yet good enough. [4] The review results pointed
out the lack of awareness in the profession regarding
the relationship between design quality and building
performance. Well-designed schools can impact on
pupils behaviour and teaching activity positively and
potentially raise the childrens awareness of
sustainability. Therefore, education buildings have
been set as research targets in this study.
2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research assumed that education buildings in
the UK that received RIBA awards have achieved a
high level of design quality. On this basis, it is then
reasonable to choose these award winning buildings
to analyse their performance by site observation,
energy efficiency and occupant responses to their
environment. As the pilot study, two recent school
buildings were chosen. One is an RIBA East Midlands
(EM) Award winning building, and the other was
praised for its environmental design. The objective
was to explore whether the awarded building could
achieve good environmental performance and
whether the high performance project receives a good
occupant response. Site observations and surveys
were supplemented by theoretical analysis of
daylighting performance using Radiance based
simulations and post-occupancy evaluation.
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158 ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY


3. DEFINITIONS
3.1. Design Excellence
A well-designed project is not only an architectural
issue. It should achieve a balance between social,
economic and environmental aspects, like the regular
triangle showed below (Fig.1). It also, needs to avoid
the situation like the light grey circle where a project
with high environmental value has lost the connection
with other aspects, such as social context or human
interaction. [2]

Figure 1: Projects have varying balance between the triple
bottom-line values of sustainability (Source: BRE, 2007)
RIBA EM Awards in association with Ibstock Brick
Ltd and the East Midlands Development Agency have
encouraged building excellence within East Midlands
region. Most of the awarded buildings were praised
because of their high architectural standards and
contribution to the local environment. Architectural
excellence as assessed in award schemes is
determined by a process of peer review. Jury
members may disagree on certain issues but results
are presented as a concensus of views of panel
members.
On the other hand, design quality of low carbon
education buildings should not only reflect traditional
architectural values, but it calls for 60% reduction of
carbon emissions compared with a school built to
2002 standards as well. [5]
In order to achieve the challenging target stated
by the UK Government, CABE supplied ten issues
that should be included in a well-designed school.
The ten issues included high design quality to inspire
and engage users and the public, flexible design
arrangement for different activities, a requirement for
clear environmental strategies and convenient
facilities and services, etc. [4]
3.2. Building performance
Compared with design excellence, building
performance is less subjective and can be assessed
by making site measurements and by post-occupancy
studies. When it comes to low or zero carbon design,
a rational design needs to include an assessment not
only illustrating the real performance but how this
informs design assumptions and better solutions. [3]
In this paper, the building performance is based
upon two aspects: energy performance and the
response of occupants to their experience of the
building in use.
A. Energy performance
According to the Zero Carbon Task Force, an
annual reduction of 12-14kgCO2/m
2
(near 33%
relative to probable total energy used by buildings
constructed to the standards required by 2006
building regulations) could be achieved by measures
with high energy efficiency, and the final target is
10kgCO2/m
2
/yr. [4]
In order to review the energy performance of
individual buildings, different types of assessment
systems have been offered by relevant Department,
such as Energy Performance Certificates, Display
Energy Certificates and BREEAM system, etc.
Distinct ratings show the different levels of building
energy performance. It is a directly visual way to
understand how efficiently the building runs, but
cannot fully represent its environmental performance.
B. Occupant Perception
Eventually, architecture responds to the natural
environment and serves people, no matter how
sustainable it is expressed to be. Post Occupancy
Evaluation is an essential approach to assessing
building performance which is reflected through the
feedback from users. The process of evaluating the
actual energy performance and peoples perception of
the quality of the interior environment were pioneered
by Adrian Leaman in the PROBE studies. [4] It is
assessing and comparing the actual response of
building occupants towards internal environment
performance.
In this paper, the post-occupancy evaluation
surveys were implemented at the Victor Miller building
in Bowbridge Primary School, Newark, to understand
if this energy efficient building could provide a
comfortable environment to users.
4. CASE STUDY
The cases chosen in this study are critically
reviewed in terms of the design principles offered by
CABE, CIBSE and DCSF in terms of design quality.
Regarding building performance, the energy
efficiency and some occupant feedback will be
mentioned in the analysis.
4.1. Case 1: Sci-Tech, Oundle School

Figure 2: Sci-Tech, Oundle School (Source: RIBA
architecture.com, 2008)
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 159


The Sci-Tech block at Oundle School, designed
by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, received the RIBA
EM Awards in 2008. It is designed for science, arts,
design and technology. The concept of Sci-tech was
shaped by promoting learning through doing.
A. Design quality
In an excellent integrated design, architects
should consider how to make the building participate
in local context, and how to maximise the advantages
of nature to benefit the building as well. The site is
facing south-east to north-west enabling the southern
part of the building to benefit from solar gains in
winter. (Fig. 3) The existing mature trees on the south
side of the site, of historic Oundle, can potentially
shade the building. New landscape to the north is
introduced in the form of a new pool that controls
water run-off and dependence on drainage system.
The design of the landscape can be defined by three
principles: maximising educational opportunities,
maximising sustainability and minimising impact on
existing features.

Figure 3: The site plan of Sci-tech, Oundle. A- laboratory
space, B and D- Circulation, gallery and exhibition, C-
lecture room. (Created by Chen, 2010)
How to arrange the layout of the building based
upon its function and user activity is another key issue
in design quality. The layout has been organised so
that the original concept of open views and
connection to the landscape through the laboratories
has been maintained. (Fig. 4) This design fully
embodied the requirement of flexibility in low-carbon
school design and increased the pleasure to
occupants connecting the indoor environment to the
external environment.

Figure 4: The Sci-Tech gallery- Windows into worlds. It
showed the concept of the design that it desires to open the
building to the world by windows, involving activities,
functions and the nature (After Feilden Clegg Bradley
Studios, revised by Chen, 2010)
B. Building performance
A comfortable indoor environment is an indication
of good environmental performance. To analyse the
building performance of Sci-Tech, three aspects:
daylighting, ventilation and thermal comfort, have
been discussed in this paper.
Daylighting:
To evaluate the daylight performance of the
building, two chief types of space have been selected
for simulation: laboratory space in the north (A), and
the atrium gallery (B). (Refer to Fig. 3) Performance
simulation was undertaken using Radiance software.
In order to create a well daylit indoor environment, the
angle shaped north elevation of the laboratory space
with large windows and skylights on the roof were
designed to maximise the natural light. With the
purpose to increase the light quality, the design of a
glazed screen to the rear of the laboratories planned
to allow top light into the back of the labs and to
provide long distant views out through the
laboratories to the landscape beyond. Additionally,
low energy artificial lighting is used throughout the
building.

Figure 5: The daylight factor distribution of different space in
Sci-Tech shown on section. The dark areas in graphs
described the average daylight factor (DF) was 5% that is
the minimum standard for well daylit space. (Created by
Chen referencing the testing results by Radiance, 2010)
The testing results showed that the average
daylight factor in lab areas (A in Fig. 5) was around
7.6% (ground floor) and 10.1% (first floor),
respectively, which implied they were well day-lit.
Even though the depth of the lab space was large, the
rooflights on top of the two-storey high corridor could
help increase the level of natural light. The daylight
factor was adequate for doing experiments in the lab,
and the uniformity ratio was above 0.5 which means
the distribution of the interior light was even. When it
comes to the exhibition space with glazed roof (B in
Fig. 5), the average daylight factor was nearly 20%
that was able to provide good natural light for
exhibition.
Ventilation:
The laboratory space requires a high air change
rate. The building is designed to use natural
ventilation in most working areas, controlled by
automatic window actuators, and the existing
underground labyrinth is used to precondition air for
the auditorium's mixed-mode ventilation and use the
air quality sensors for minimum fresh air. [5] Moreover,
designers supplied openable extracts on top of the
roof and walls to exhaust warm air heated by internal
gains. (Refer to Fig. 6)


3. DEFINITIONS
3.1. Design Excellence
A well-designed project is not only an architectural
issue. It should achieve a balance between social,
economic and environmental aspects, like the regular
triangle showed below (Fig.1). It also, needs to avoid
the situation like the light grey circle where a project
with high environmental value has lost the connection
with other aspects, such as social context or human
interaction. [2]

Figure 1: Projects have varying balance between the triple
bottom-line values of sustainability (Source: BRE, 2007)
RIBA EM Awards in association with Ibstock Brick
Ltd and the East Midlands Development Agency have
encouraged building excellence within East Midlands
region. Most of the awarded buildings were praised
because of their high architectural standards and
contribution to the local environment. Architectural
excellence as assessed in award schemes is
determined by a process of peer review. Jury
members may disagree on certain issues but results
are presented as a concensus of views of panel
members.
On the other hand, design quality of low carbon
education buildings should not only reflect traditional
architectural values, but it calls for 60% reduction of
carbon emissions compared with a school built to
2002 standards as well. [5]
In order to achieve the challenging target stated
by the UK Government, CABE supplied ten issues
that should be included in a well-designed school.
The ten issues included high design quality to inspire
and engage users and the public, flexible design
arrangement for different activities, a requirement for
clear environmental strategies and convenient
facilities and services, etc. [4]
3.2. Building performance
Compared with design excellence, building
performance is less subjective and can be assessed
by making site measurements and by post-occupancy
studies. When it comes to low or zero carbon design,
a rational design needs to include an assessment not
only illustrating the real performance but how this
informs design assumptions and better solutions. [3]
In this paper, the building performance is based
upon two aspects: energy performance and the
response of occupants to their experience of the
building in use.
A. Energy performance
According to the Zero Carbon Task Force, an
annual reduction of 12-14kgCO2/m
2
(near 33%
relative to probable total energy used by buildings
constructed to the standards required by 2006
building regulations) could be achieved by measures
with high energy efficiency, and the final target is
10kgCO2/m
2
/yr. [4]
In order to review the energy performance of
individual buildings, different types of assessment
systems have been offered by relevant Department,
such as Energy Performance Certificates, Display
Energy Certificates and BREEAM system, etc.
Distinct ratings show the different levels of building
energy performance. It is a directly visual way to
understand how efficiently the building runs, but
cannot fully represent its environmental performance.
B. Occupant Perception
Eventually, architecture responds to the natural
environment and serves people, no matter how
sustainable it is expressed to be. Post Occupancy
Evaluation is an essential approach to assessing
building performance which is reflected through the
feedback from users. The process of evaluating the
actual energy performance and peoples perception of
the quality of the interior environment were pioneered
by Adrian Leaman in the PROBE studies. [4] It is
assessing and comparing the actual response of
building occupants towards internal environment
performance.
In this paper, the post-occupancy evaluation
surveys were implemented at the Victor Miller building
in Bowbridge Primary School, Newark, to understand
if this energy efficient building could provide a
comfortable environment to users.
4. CASE STUDY
The cases chosen in this study are critically
reviewed in terms of the design principles offered by
CABE, CIBSE and DCSF in terms of design quality.
Regarding building performance, the energy
efficiency and some occupant feedback will be
mentioned in the analysis.
4.1. Case 1: Sci-Tech, Oundle School

Figure 2: Sci-Tech, Oundle School (Source: RIBA
architecture.com, 2008)
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
160 ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY



Figure 6: The ventilation of the laboratory space and the
corridor (Source: Max Fordham, 2009)
Thermal comfort:
The structure of the building is all reinforced
concrete, so walls and soffits provide significant
thermal mass, which responds slowly to fluctuations
in temperature and aids passive thermal control in
both summer and winter. In addition, the green roof of
Sedum plants either reduces the rainwater running off,
or enhances the balance of the micro-ecosystem, and
could be viewed as a good landscape in the school.
[6]
Reduction of carbon emissions:
A passive energy system was exploited in this
building, integrated with renewable energy system
involving roof-mounted, flat-plate, solar-thermal
collectors generate hot water services for the
laboratories, and polycrystalline photo-voltaic panels
supplement the electrical capacity. The building
achieved approximately an energy reduction of 40 to
60% as compared to conventionally controlled
schools. Only the reduction of CO2 emissions from the
controlled lighting system is from 8 million to 2.8
million tons per year. In terms of ventilation, it also
saved 78% of energy consumption compared to a
conventional mechanical ventilation system.
Regarding the thermal comfort, the radiant floor
heating system is controlled in 16 zones and saves
50% of the energy as compared to a conventional
heating system.
4.2. Case 2: Bowbridge Primary school

Figure 7: Victoria Miller Building, Bowbridge Primary School
(Source: http://www.bowbridgeprimary.com, 2009)
The Victoria Miller Building is one of the new-
designed buildings in Bowbridge Primary School,
located in Newark, Nottinghamshire, which aims to
set up an eco-friendly school which is as low carbon
as possible. In addition, the school was designed as a
learning building supposed to promote the whole
communitys performance in a green way thus it was
the winner of the BSCE 'Greening the School
Community' Industry Award 2009. [7]
A. Design quality
The site of the school is surrounded by a
residential area, facing south to north. (Fig. 8) The
design of the main facades of the building have been
sheltered by other school buildings, additionally, the
southern facade is fully exposed to a lawn with direct
prevailing wind from southwest. The natural context is
favourable for the building with nice view and activity
area, as well as providing fresh air that might conduce
to natural ventilation, especially for night time cooling.
Furthermore, the initial designed orientation could
supply a good opportunity for maximising natural light
for indoor environment; however, the overheating
might become a problem by the direct sunlight in
summer.

Figure 8: The site plan of Victoria Miller Building (Source:
Offered by Daniela Besser Jelves, revised by Chen, 2010)

Figure 9: The layout of the ground floor and the first floor of
Victoria Miller Building (Source: Offered by Daniela Besser
Jelves, revised by Chen, 2010)
In the building layout, it is clear that a large atrium
space (the light areas in Fig. 9) has been designed as
a crucial element on the south part of the building,
and all the teaching areas were located in the north of
the building (the dark areas in Fig. 9) Architects
planned to make use of the big atrium playing as a
buffer zone that targets to moderate direct sunlight
and adjust the temperature of the adjacent areas, and
provide flexibility to various activities as well.
Regarding the layout of the building, the atrium took
approximately 50% of the floor area.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 161


While the initial concept has advantages, such a
large volume might bring some negative impacts to
the interior environment, such as acoustic problems
and possible overheating that should be avoied in
school design.
B. Building performance
The building was designed with the purpose of
being low carbon, so a series of environmental
strategies have been involved within the building
design.
Daylighting:
To analyse the daylight performance of Victoria
Miller Building, two main areas were selected for
simulation: classrooms and the atrium space. (Refer
to Fig. 9) Performance simulation was undertaken
using Radiance software. Architects proposed using
the atrium to bring more natural light for benefiting
surrounding classrooms. Nevertheless, the analysis
result showed that except the atrium on the ground
floor reached a good daylight factor (9.64%), the
average daylight factor of other testing areas,
particularly the northern classrooms on the ground
floor, were around or below 5% that is the basic value
to support normal activities. (Fig. 10) The section of
the building displayed the uniformity of the daylight
factor in different spaces. It illustrated that the value
of the daylight factor and the uniformity of the
classroom on the first floor was better than on the
ground floor. It has not offered an excellent visual
environment even for the chief function.

Figure 10: The daylight factor distribution of the Victoria
Miller Building showed on section (Source: Offered by
Daniela Besser Jelves, revised by Chen, 2010)
Ventilation:
The building was designed being naturally
ventilated with automated vents. The vents are the
windows on main elevations as well as the rooflights.
It has a computerised system controlled by relevant
variables that are internal and external temperatures,
wind speed, direction and precipitation. Furthermore,
it could be in charge of the window opening when the
interior content of carbon dioxide is extreme high. The
component grilles in classrooms would allow the wind
to pass through side windows to rooflights vents by
air leaves, using stack effect. (Refer to Fig. 11)

Figure 11: Passive ventilation strategy of Victoria Miller
Building (Source: Nottingham County Council, 2009)
Thermal comfort:
The architects have considered about the
overheat issue thus the atrium in south was designed
to avoid overheat problem. Nevertheless, if the
internal temperature was high enough the passive
ventilation by stack effect will lose effect. With the
purpose of keeping interior thermal comfort, particular
in classrooms, radiators are supplied with
thermostatic fittings. When the internal temperature
was below the set one, radiators will be turned on.
During the occupied period, the set temperature is 19
degree, in contrast to 12 degree targeting to saving
electricity consumption and protecting the building
fabric.

Figure 12: The energy rating of Bowbridge Primary School
(Source: Display Energy Certificate, 2009)
Rating:
Victoria Miller Building reached rating A in the
Display Energy Certificate, which implies that the
building performes well in terms of energy efficiency,
compared with the typical school (rating D). (Fig. 12)
According to its energy report, the energy
consumption of the building was 35 KWh/m
2
/year in
heating and 21 KWh/m
2
/year in electricity,
respectively. Comparing with the energy usage in
typical school, 50% of reduction in average has been
reached.
C. Occupant perception
In order to find out whether this building with good
energy efficiency could offer a comfortable indoor
environment to its occupants, a post-occupancy
evaluation has been implemented by means of
surveys that were offered by Adrian Leaman in order



Figure 6: The ventilation of the laboratory space and the
corridor (Source: Max Fordham, 2009)
Thermal comfort:
The structure of the building is all reinforced
concrete, so walls and soffits provide significant
thermal mass, which responds slowly to fluctuations
in temperature and aids passive thermal control in
both summer and winter. In addition, the green roof of
Sedum plants either reduces the rainwater running off,
or enhances the balance of the micro-ecosystem, and
could be viewed as a good landscape in the school.
[6]
Reduction of carbon emissions:
A passive energy system was exploited in this
building, integrated with renewable energy system
involving roof-mounted, flat-plate, solar-thermal
collectors generate hot water services for the
laboratories, and polycrystalline photo-voltaic panels
supplement the electrical capacity. The building
achieved approximately an energy reduction of 40 to
60% as compared to conventionally controlled
schools. Only the reduction of CO2 emissions from the
controlled lighting system is from 8 million to 2.8
million tons per year. In terms of ventilation, it also
saved 78% of energy consumption compared to a
conventional mechanical ventilation system.
Regarding the thermal comfort, the radiant floor
heating system is controlled in 16 zones and saves
50% of the energy as compared to a conventional
heating system.
4.2. Case 2: Bowbridge Primary school

Figure 7: Victoria Miller Building, Bowbridge Primary School
(Source: http://www.bowbridgeprimary.com, 2009)
The Victoria Miller Building is one of the new-
designed buildings in Bowbridge Primary School,
located in Newark, Nottinghamshire, which aims to
set up an eco-friendly school which is as low carbon
as possible. In addition, the school was designed as a
learning building supposed to promote the whole
communitys performance in a green way thus it was
the winner of the BSCE 'Greening the School
Community' Industry Award 2009. [7]
A. Design quality
The site of the school is surrounded by a
residential area, facing south to north. (Fig. 8) The
design of the main facades of the building have been
sheltered by other school buildings, additionally, the
southern facade is fully exposed to a lawn with direct
prevailing wind from southwest. The natural context is
favourable for the building with nice view and activity
area, as well as providing fresh air that might conduce
to natural ventilation, especially for night time cooling.
Furthermore, the initial designed orientation could
supply a good opportunity for maximising natural light
for indoor environment; however, the overheating
might become a problem by the direct sunlight in
summer.

Figure 8: The site plan of Victoria Miller Building (Source:
Offered by Daniela Besser Jelves, revised by Chen, 2010)

Figure 9: The layout of the ground floor and the first floor of
Victoria Miller Building (Source: Offered by Daniela Besser
Jelves, revised by Chen, 2010)
In the building layout, it is clear that a large atrium
space (the light areas in Fig. 9) has been designed as
a crucial element on the south part of the building,
and all the teaching areas were located in the north of
the building (the dark areas in Fig. 9) Architects
planned to make use of the big atrium playing as a
buffer zone that targets to moderate direct sunlight
and adjust the temperature of the adjacent areas, and
provide flexibility to various activities as well.
Regarding the layout of the building, the atrium took
approximately 50% of the floor area.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
162 ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY


to understand how occupants feel towards working in
this building.

Figure 13: The summary of the overall building performance
in post-occupancy evaluation (Source: Usable Building Trust
offered by Daniela Besser Jelves, 2010)
Figure 13 shows the summary of the feedback
from occupants towards the building environmental
performance, it illustrated that the overall result was
better than the typical score, particular in architectural
design, spatial pleasure to visitors and lighting.
Nonetheless, we can see that the thermal comfort
was not completely achieved, especially in summer
(Refer to the first item of Fig. 13), and the people
reflected the noise issue as well (Refer to the sixth
item of Fig. 13). According to the user feedback and
the building design analysis, the overheating and
acoustic issues existed in the building, which
indicated that the design of the atrium space might
need improvement.
5. CONCLUSION
Oundle School was a positive example, designed
with careful consideration of spatial interest and
sustainable thinking, at the same time, its building
performance showed that it supplied interior comfort
and reduced carbon emissions. While Bowbridge
School aimed at being as carbon neutral as possible,
however, the occupant response showed that the
comfort was not completely achieved based on
various environmental technologies.
Even though the case study cannot represent all
the award winning architectures, to a certain extent, it
indicated that design is not equal to performance.
For example, a building endowed with sustainable
title may be conducive to good results in energy
saving, such as A rating in certain certificates, but it
probably ignores the essence of architecture that is to
supply a comfortable environment for people, a sense
of well being, as well as design quality. It may be
concluded that an integrated design of architecture
should combine a concern with architectural
excellence and environmental thinking during design
process, with attention to how the building works in
real and occupant perceptions towards the building in
use.
This paper, as a pilot study, explored the balance
between architectural design quality, environmental
performance (sustainability) and occupant perception,
and it was a start to rethink the essence of
environmental design. Whilst the limitation of the
research examples is hardly to draw further
conclusions, it calls for a long-time effort in future.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank Daniela Besser
Jelves of the Departmentl of Architecture and Built
Environment, Nottingham University for her
assistance in the light performance analysis and post
occupancy evaluation, and Professor Brian Ford for
his patiently revising. In addition, a special thanks to
Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios for their supportive
information regarding Oundle School.
7. REFERENCES
[1] BSF (online) http://www.teachernet.gov.uk
(Accessed 17
th
August 2010)
[2] BRE, (2007). A bre guide: Design Quality
Buildings, BR 487, London
[3] CABE (2007). Leaflet of CABEs new schools
design quality programme, CABE, London
[4] CABE (2008). Most BSF designs not good
enough, CABE, London
[5] DCSF, (2010) Final Report of the Zero Carbon
Task Force (Online)
www.teachernet.gov.uk/publications
[6] Gluch, P., Raisanen, C., (2009). Interactional
perspective on environmental communication in
construction projects, Building Research &
Information Journal, Vol 37, Issue 2, pp.164-175
[7] Preiser. W. FE, Vischer. J.C, (2005). Assessing
Building Performance, Elsevier Butterworth-
Heinemann, Oxford
[8] Leaman, A., Bordass, B., (2001). Assessing
building performance in use 4: the Probe
occupant surveys and their implications, Building
Research & Information Journal, Vol 29, Issue 2,
pp. 129 143
[9] Energy Consultant of Oundle School is available
on WWW at Maxfordham internet page: <
http://www.mfp.co.uk> (Accessed 22 August
2010)
[10] S&C Square Brochure, (2007). Oundle School,
Available on:
http://www.concretecentre.com/PDF/CQWinter20
07.pdf
[11] Bowbridge Primary School (online):
http://www.bowbridgeprimary.com (Accessed 22
August 2010)
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 163
Sustainable architecture and sustainable design
assessment tools
Wim ZEILER
Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Eindhoven, Netherlands

ABSTRACT: There is a strong need for more efficient and more sustainable buildings. However sustainable
architectural design management is a problem. Especially the focus is on Multi Criteria Decision making within
the design process and how to support this, so that the decisions about fulfilling sustainable aspects in the
design are made transparent for all stake holders within the design process. The four most popular sustainable
assessment tools in the Netherlands, Greencalc+, Ecological Footprint, LEED and BREEAM, were then applied
to the set of 8 state-of-the-art buildings and the results compared. The key question to be answered is do current
environmental assessment methods provide a good measure of sustainability? Therefore the conclusions of our
research will be used to draw some conclusions.
Keywords: sustainable assessment tools, design support
1. INTRODUCTION
Building design is changing, according to Holzer [1]
there is a recent move from prescriptive project-briefs
in favour of more performance-orientated design.
The description of a building through its performative
qualities is a key aspect in enabling a control over
issues of project cost (clients) and sustainability
(public domain). Clients have become especially
sensitised to the value for money aspects of design
to the point where project briefs are handed out with
specific building performance-targets that need to be
met [1]. The public domain and the authorities are
mostly responsible for including building
sustainability as key drivers in architectural design.
Environmentally sustainable design became a
requirement to reduce energy consumption and
emissions [1]. As a result there is a strong need for
more efficient and more sustainable buildings. At
present it is difficult in the conceptual design phase
to define the life cycle performance of buildings in an
objective way to efficiency and sustainability. As the
design proceeds, more information and detail will be
developed [1]. Addressing reasons for the complexity
of common design problems, Kalay [2] points out that
projects undertaken in the building industry differ
from those in other industries such as car-
manufacture and aerospace due to the fact that each
project is unique [1]. Architectural design often deals
with the unknown where problems are defined and
solved concurrently while designing and during
construction. Holzner [1] states that collaboration
between architects, engineers, construction
managers and owners is difficult as each group has
different world views and different modes of practice
that are almost incompatible with each other [2].
One mode of practice [1], applied by specialists such
as engineers, is dependent on precise problem and
goal definitions before they can start to search for
solutions, whereas architects who apply a mode of
practice through discovery - are often not capable of
defining desired effects until the design process is
well on the way. [2]
Conventionally, architects are somewhat tardy when
inviting engineers to join their projects. However by
only introducing consulting engineers to participate
in the later stages of the design process, engineers
are commonly assigned a merely fixing role. This
provides little opportunity for creative engineering
solutions at the conceptual design stage [3]. The
main part of the project costs are allocated in the
early conceptual phase of product development, still
in this phase only few resources (manpower, money)
are actually spent on the project [4]. By the
dichotomy of this design process at the early stages
of design there is little information, even though
nearly all the important decisions have to be made at
this time, as Fig. 1 [5] shows.


Figure 1. Relation between allocated and actually
spent costs during a design project [4] and Influence
/ information contradiction at the early stages of
design [5]
Traditionally the costs of the building to be
designed, takes a central place in thinking of the
design team. However more and more the insight is
growing that it is not the costs of the building to be
designed that should be central but the needs of the
humans for which the building is intended and the
effects during the whole life cycle of the building.


to understand how occupants feel towards working in
this building.

Figure 13: The summary of the overall building performance
in post-occupancy evaluation (Source: Usable Building Trust
offered by Daniela Besser Jelves, 2010)
Figure 13 shows the summary of the feedback
from occupants towards the building environmental
performance, it illustrated that the overall result was
better than the typical score, particular in architectural
design, spatial pleasure to visitors and lighting.
Nonetheless, we can see that the thermal comfort
was not completely achieved, especially in summer
(Refer to the first item of Fig. 13), and the people
reflected the noise issue as well (Refer to the sixth
item of Fig. 13). According to the user feedback and
the building design analysis, the overheating and
acoustic issues existed in the building, which
indicated that the design of the atrium space might
need improvement.
5. CONCLUSION
Oundle School was a positive example, designed
with careful consideration of spatial interest and
sustainable thinking, at the same time, its building
performance showed that it supplied interior comfort
and reduced carbon emissions. While Bowbridge
School aimed at being as carbon neutral as possible,
however, the occupant response showed that the
comfort was not completely achieved based on
various environmental technologies.
Even though the case study cannot represent all
the award winning architectures, to a certain extent, it
indicated that design is not equal to performance.
For example, a building endowed with sustainable
title may be conducive to good results in energy
saving, such as A rating in certain certificates, but it
probably ignores the essence of architecture that is to
supply a comfortable environment for people, a sense
of well being, as well as design quality. It may be
concluded that an integrated design of architecture
should combine a concern with architectural
excellence and environmental thinking during design
process, with attention to how the building works in
real and occupant perceptions towards the building in
use.
This paper, as a pilot study, explored the balance
between architectural design quality, environmental
performance (sustainability) and occupant perception,
and it was a start to rethink the essence of
environmental design. Whilst the limitation of the
research examples is hardly to draw further
conclusions, it calls for a long-time effort in future.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank Daniela Besser
Jelves of the Departmentl of Architecture and Built
Environment, Nottingham University for her
assistance in the light performance analysis and post
occupancy evaluation, and Professor Brian Ford for
his patiently revising. In addition, a special thanks to
Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios for their supportive
information regarding Oundle School.
7. REFERENCES
[1] BSF (online) http://www.teachernet.gov.uk
(Accessed 17
th
August 2010)
[2] BRE, (2007). A bre guide: Design Quality
Buildings, BR 487, London
[3] CABE (2007). Leaflet of CABEs new schools
design quality programme, CABE, London
[4] CABE (2008). Most BSF designs not good
enough, CABE, London
[5] DCSF, (2010) Final Report of the Zero Carbon
Task Force (Online)
www.teachernet.gov.uk/publications
[6] Gluch, P., Raisanen, C., (2009). Interactional
perspective on environmental communication in
construction projects, Building Research &
Information Journal, Vol 37, Issue 2, pp.164-175
[7] Preiser. W. FE, Vischer. J.C, (2005). Assessing
Building Performance, Elsevier Butterworth-
Heinemann, Oxford
[8] Leaman, A., Bordass, B., (2001). Assessing
building performance in use 4: the Probe
occupant surveys and their implications, Building
Research & Information Journal, Vol 29, Issue 2,
pp. 129 143
[9] Energy Consultant of Oundle School is available
on WWW at Maxfordham internet page: <
http://www.mfp.co.uk> (Accessed 22 August
2010)
[10] S&C Square Brochure, (2007). Oundle School,
Available on:
http://www.concretecentre.com/PDF/CQWinter20
07.pdf
[11] Bowbridge Primary School (online):
http://www.bowbridgeprimary.com (Accessed 22
August 2010)
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164 ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY
This leads to a new approach in which the human
needs and especially the sustainability
characteristics are the key aspects, see Fig.2 [6].

Figure 2: Degree of responsibilities of professionals
with respect to environmental design in different
stages [6]

At present it is difficult in the conceptual design
phase to define the sustainability of buildings in an
objective way. Goal of this project is to examine and
to understand differences between different
sustainability assessment building rating systems. To
select a good set of reference buildings which can be
used to test the sustainable assessment tools
different buildings were compared and finally a set of
8 buildings was determined.
2. METHODOLOGY
Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) is a
generic term for the use of methods that help people
make decisions according to their preferences, in
cases characterized by multiple conflicting criteria
[17].MCDM methods deal with the process of making
decisions in the presence of multiple objectives. In
most of the cases, different groups of decision-
makers are involved in the process. Each group
brings along different criteria and points of view,
which must be resolved within a framework of
understanding and mutual compromise [18]. MCDM
techniques have two major purposes [19];
- to describe trade-offs among different
objectives.
- to help participants in the planning process
define and articulate their values, apply them
rationally and consistently, and document the results.
The object is to inspire confidence in the
soundness of the decision without being
unnecessarily difficult. As a result it will be necessary
to supply information about the sustainability of
building service applications at a much earlier stage
in the design process. And, since this stage is where
most decision-making takes place, possible
sustainable architectural concepts will then have a
much better chance of actually being implemented.
Often decision makers assume that sustainable
design is mainly about resource conservation
energy, water, and material resources. The last ten
years, however, has seen a dramatic broadening of
the definition of sustainability to include assurances
for mobility and access as affected by land use and
transportation, for health and productivity as affected
by indoor environmental quality, and for the
protection of regional strengths [7]. This broader
definition of sustainability is represented in the US by
the LEED (Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design) standard of the US Green
Building Council [7]. The Center for Building
Performance and Diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon
University likes to expand this definition even further,
to give greater emphasis to contextual and regional
design goals, to natural conditioning, and to flexible
infrastructures that support change and
deconstruction [7]. Sustainable design offers
architecture of long term value through 'forgiving' and
modifiable building systems, through life-cycle
instead of least-cost investments, and through
timeless delight and craftsmanship [8].
The use of sustainable energy will soon be the
major guiding principle for building planning practice.
This asks for new design approaches. Synergy
between design and assessment methods is
necessary to really get transparent and
understandable tools for supporting decision making
on sustainability issues in the conceptual phase of
building design. Nowadays design is conducted more
and more in multi disciplinary design teams with a
view towards integrating all aspects of the life cycle
aspects of a design. This makes design a
complicated messy process [9]. Achieving
environmental goals makes the task more difficult for
designers as for most consumers, energy efficiency
and recyclability are less important product attributes.
This means that designers cannot compromise other
product attributes in becoming green [9]. Often most
of the choices in the design process may be made by
intuition and according to simplified decision rules,
which is necessary and inevitable [10]. This makes it
almost impossible for the different design team
members to understand the implicit argumentation of
the decisions. Therefore there is a need for
formalized discursive methods to structure the
decision process and make the process transparent
[11]. This would make it easier to share the
information and argumentation on which decisions
are made within the team.

(Sustainable) Quality can only be determined by
a multi-criteria, multi-disciplinary performance
evaluation, which comprises a sum of several
satisfaction/behaviour functions [12]. Therefore new
decision support tools are necessary especially for
the sustainability assessment of a design. At the
moment there are quite a few sustainable
assessment tools for the commissioning of buildings.
Therefore we wanted to investigate their differences
and usefulness. We decided to select the four most
popular sustainability assessment tools within the
Netherlands at this moment: Greencalc+, Ecological
Footprint, LEED and BREEAM.

2.1. Sustainable assessment tools
First we wanted to define a representative set of
buildings to test the sustainability assessment tools
with. Therefore in November 2003 a project was
started, in which students compared 15 Dutch and
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ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 165

15 German modern office buildings. From that
project the 6 best Dutch and German buildings were
compared more thorough with each other and it was
examined in which extent the Dutch and the German
buildings are sustainable [13].
The first and second stage of the research was
necessary to get a good understanding and
experience with the evaluation of building
performances. This led to a selection of high
performance buildings which could become leading
examples in sustainable building design. This is of
course an excellent group for the comparison of
green building assessment tools such as BREEAM,
LEED, Greencalc+ and Ecological footprint. It is
necessary when analyzing the tools to use the same
objects and aspects as a basis for comparison. From
our former studies we selected the 5 best buildings;
Hoogheemraadschap in Leiden (The Netherlands),
Thermo Staete in Bodegraven (The Netherlands),
WWF in Zeist (The Netherlands),Spherion in
Dusseldorf (Germany) and Energy forum in Berlin
(Germany). To look for sensibilities we added three
buildings which were developed using specific
sustainable design strategies: XX building in Delft
(calculated life expectation 20 years), the first Cradle-
to Cradle office in Amsterdam and the new head
office of Rabobank Netherlands in Utrecht.

2.2. Ecological footprint
The Ecological footprint analysis compares
human demand on nature with the biosphere's ability
to regenerate resources and to provide services. It
does this by assessing the biologically productive
land and marine area required to produce the
resources a population consumes and absorb the
corresponding waste, using prevailing technology.
This approach can also be applied to an activity such
as the manufacturing of a product or driving of a car.
This resource accounting is similar to life cycle
analysis where in the consumption of energy,
biomass (food, fibre), building material, water and
other resources are converted into a normalized
measure of land area called 'global hectares' (gha).
The Office Ecological Footprint Calculator is a
questionnaire which allows you to estimate how
much land it takes to run and maintain your office.
The input values for this program are divided in the
following six groups: Building and construction:
Energy & water: Food: Travel: Consumable items;
Recycling.

2.3. Greencalc+
The development of GreenCalc started in 1997.
The Greencalc+ assessment method is a
questionnaire which allows you to estimate how
much land it takes to run and maintain your office. It
that can be used to calculate what the developers
call the environment index of a building. This is done
by calculating the environmental impact of the
buildings by Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). The
GreenCalc+ software consists of four modules, each
representing a different aspect of the building
characteristics; mobility, materials, water and energy.
The input values for this program are divided in the
following four groups:
Materials: Energy: Water: Travel to and from
work:

2.4. LEED
LEED was developed by the US Green Building
Council (USGBC) for the US Department of Energy.
The pilot version (LEED 1.0) for new construction
was first launched at the USGBC Membership
Summit in August 1998 [14]. In March 2000, LEED
Version 2.0 based on modifications made during the
pilot period was released. The most current LEED for
New Construction Version 2.2 was released in
November 2005. Current versions for other building
types, including schools, homes, etc. were either
released in 2006 or scheduled to be released. LEED
registered projects are in progress in 24 different
countries, including Canada, Brazil, Mexico, India
and China, and the World Green Building Council
an affiliation of seven national green building
councils, including the US. The LEED reference
Guide presents detailed information on how to
achieve the credits which are divided in the following
six groups [15]: Sustainable site: Water
efficiency:,Energy & Atmosphere: Materials &
resources: Indoor Environmental Quality: Innovation
& Design process.

2.5. BREEAM
The first Building Research Establishment
Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM),
launched and operated by the Building Research
Establishment (BRE) in UK, came into prominence in
1990 [14]. Version 1 BREEAM for offices was first
revised in 1993. The second revision was launched
in September 1998. The current BREEAM version for
non-domestic premises is BREEAM 2008. It covers a
range of building types, including offices; industrial
premises eco-homes; courts; prisons; retail outlets;
schools; multi-residential, etc. It is one of the best-
known schemes and has embraced 1520% of the
new office building market in the UK. BREEAM has
also been taken as a reference model when similar
schemes were developed in Canada, New Zealand,
Norway, Singapore and Hong Kong. The input
values for this program are divided in the following
eight groups [15]: Management: Health & wellbeing:
Transport: Water: Materials: Land Use: Ecology:
Pollutions.
3. RESULTS
3.1. Comparing BREEAM, LEED, Greencalc+ and
Ecological footprint.
To select a good set of reference buildings which can
be used to test the sustainable assessment tools
different buildings were compared and finally a set of
8 buildings was determined. The four most popular
sustainable assessment tools in the Netherlands,
Greencalc+, Ecological Footprint, LEED and
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166 ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY
BREEAM, were then applied to the set of 8 state-of-
the-art buildings and the results compared, see Fig 3
to 6. Many subjects are checked with the checklists
of LEED and BREEAM. But not all subjects can be
used for comparing all programs because of
Ecological footprint and Greencalc+. Ecological
footprint and Greencalc+ can only be compared at
the aspects materials, land use & ecology,
energy, water and transport. All assessment
methods are expressed in different values, namely:
Global hectares for the program ecological
footprint, Earths environment costs () for
Greencalc+, Credits for the checklists of LEED and
BREAAM. To compare all assessment methods, they
need to be calculated in percentages per subject for
each building (%). All assessment results of the
subjects for the different tools are expressed in
percentages so that they can be compared with one
another. The total results of the 4 common aspects
(energy, transport, water and materials, land use and
ecology) of the assessments methods show that
there is a rather big fluctuation in total score between
buildings, see Fig. 7,8,9,10 and 11.

Figure 3: Hoogheemraadschap Leiden & Thermo
Staete, Bodegraven


Figure 4: WWF, Zeist & XX-building, Delft


Figure 5: Cradle2Cradle office, Amsterdam &
Rabobank, Utrecht

Figure 6: Spherion, Dusseldorf & Energy Forum,
Berlin

Figure 7: Score different environmental assessment
tools for energy

Figure 8: Score different environmental assessment
tools for transportation

Figure 9: Score different environmental assessment
tools for water

Figure 10: Score different environmental assessment
tools for water materials

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ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 167

Figure 11. Results of all four aspects of the different assessment tools

This makes it very difficult to use them as a
management tool within the sustainable architectural
design. The following Tabel 1. shows the order of
ranking from the best to the worst results, resulting
from each different assessment method.

Tabel 1. Ranking as a result from the evaluations by
the different sustainable assessment tools.


4. DISCUSSION
We think that the proposed sustainability
assessment tools could be a support for Multi Criteria
Decision Making in the conceptual design phase.
The sustainable quality can only be determined by a
multi-criteria, multi-disciplinary performance
evaluation, which comprises a sum of several
satisfaction/behavior functions [16]. The more
effective way of achieving sustainability in a project is
to incorporate environmental issues at a stage even
before a design is conceptualized. It is important to
separate project design and project assessment as
building design takes place at an early stage and the
assessment process is usually carried out when the
design of the project is almost finalized [20,21]
Therefore, the traditional use of environmental
assessment methods as design guidelines cannot be
sufficient. Consequently, in order for environmental
building assessment methods to be useful as a
design tool, they must be introduced as early as
possible to allow for early collaboration between the
design and assessment teams. They also need to be
reconfigured so that they do not rely on detailed
design information before that has been generated
by the designer [12].
5. CONCLUSION
Applying the different sustainable assessment
tools leads to different choice for the best building,
which means that applying such tools for decision
within the conceptual design phase would also lead
to different outcomes. The choice of the decision
supporting tool is thus of great importance for the
results of the decisions. So before applying a
sustainability assessment tool the sensitivity of the
tool to specific aspects of the design program should
be evaluated. Probably this can be best tested by
applying the different sustainability assessment tools
to a set of reference buildings related to the design
task at hand. Those reference projects should be
selected based on the sustainable architectural style
which is preferred by the client as well as the
sustainability goals. Based on these criteria a fitting
sustainable design assessment tool can be selected.
In this way the outcome of the tool can be supportive
in de decision process.
The different sustainability assessment tools all
have still some flaws. The organizations behind the
assessment tools are of course not ignoring the
critiques and as a result the green building standards
are still under construction [23]. At the moment the
current sustainable assessment tools are still not
really adequate for supporting the early phase of
architectural design. Often they are used as a check-
list afterwards instead of being used early in the
design process.
Sustainability is a diffuse blurry term that mixed
economic, social and environmental aspects [24].
However sustainable architecture practices should
be orented by clear targets that express the societys
vision of a sustainable future. The evaluation should
be performance based in order to link specific
sustainable goals and quantify the success of the
outcomes {24]. Buildingaspects should be based to
ecoimpacts represented by a score of a sustainability
assessment tool. This top down approach requires
the clarification of the type of impacts of building
assessment assessed in terms of ecological impact
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168 ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY
and environmental performance. The rationale
behind criteria should be related to the value system
of the context applied [24]. In order to face the
uniqueness and complexity of sustainable
architecture the application of case studies [25] to
make a choice for sustaianbl assessment tools is an
important step in the design process.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The foundation Stichting Promotie
Installatietechniek (PIT) supported this research.
7. REFERENCES
[1] Holzer D.C.C., 2009, Sense-making across
collaborating disciplines in the early stages of
architectural design,PhD thesis, School of
Architecture and Design Design and Social
Context Portfolio, RMIT University, October
2009
[2] Kalay Y.E., 1998, P3: Computational
environment to support design
collaboration Original Research Article
Automation in Construction, Volume 8, Issue 1,
November, 37-48
[3] Holzner D., Downing S., 2010, Optioneering, A
new basis for engagement between architects
and their collaborators, Arxhitectural Design,
Vol.80, Is. 4, 60-63
[4] Buur J., Andreasen M.M., 1989, Design models
in mechatronic product development, Design
Studies, Vol 10 No 3 July
[5] Hartog, J.P.den, 2003, Designing indoor climate,
a thesis on the integration of indoor climate
analysis in architectural design, thesis
manuscript dated 01/09/2003, Delft University
[6] Mourshed M., Kelliher D., Keane M., 2003,
ArDOT: A tool to optimize environmental design
of buildings. Proceedings of IBPSA 2003.
[7] Loftness, V., Hartkopf, V., Poh, L.K., Snyder, M.,
Hua ,Y., Gu, Y., Choi, J., Yan,g X. 2006.
Sustainability and Health are Integral Goals for
the Built Environment, Proceedings Healthy
Buildings 2006, Lisbon, Portugal, June 4-8.
[8] Loftness, V., Hartkopf, V., Gurtekin, B., Hua, Y.,
Qu, M., Snyder, M., Gu, Y., Yang, X. 2005.
Building Investment Decision Support (BIDS)
Cost-Benefit Tool to Promote, High
Performance Components, Flexible
Infrastructures & Systems Integration for
Sustainable Commercial Buildings and
Productive Organizations, 2005 AIA Pilot
Report on University Research, pp. 12-31.
[9] Hendrickson, C., Conway-Schempf, N., Lave, L.
and McMichael, F. 2008, Introduction to Green
Design, Green Design Initiative, Carnegie Mellon
University, Pittsburgh PA, accessed 28 may
2008,
www.ce.cmu.edu/GreenDesign/gd/education/gd
edintro.pdf
[10] Roozenburg, N. and Eekels J. 1995. Product
design: Fundamentals and methods, Wiley,
Chichester.
[11] Derelv, M. 2004, On Conceptual Design
Reliability, Linkpings University, Thesis
No.1121, Licentiak
[12] Thabrew, L., Wiek A., Ries, R. 2008.
Environmental decision making in multi-
stakeholders contexts: applicability of life cycle
thinking in development planning and
implementation, J Clean Prod (2008),
doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2008.03.008
[13] Lony, R.J.M., Molenaar, D.J., Rietkerk J.,
Schuiling, D.J.B.W., Zeiler, W., Brun,k M.F.
2006, Comparison between Dutch and German
buildings, Proceedings VDI Tage der
Gebudetechnik, January 31 february 1,
Leonberg.
[14] Lee, W.L., Burnett, J., 2007, Benchmarking
energy use assessment of HK-BEAM, BREEAM
and LEED, Building and Environment 43 (2008)
1882-1891
[15] Fowler, K.M., Rauch, E.M., 2006, Sustainability
Building Rating Systems Summary, Rapport DE-
AC05-76RL061830, Pacific Northwest national
Laboratory, Battelle
[16] Kalay Y.E. 1999. Performance-based design,
Automation in construction 8 (1999) 395-409
[17] Lken, E. 2007. Multi-Criteria Planning of Local
Energy Systems with Multiple Energy Carriers,
PhD Thesis Norwegian University of Science
and Technology, Trondheim, April 2007.
[18] Pohekar, S.D. and Ramachandran, M. 2004.
Application of Multi-Criteria Decision Making to
Sustainable Energy Planning - a Review,
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews,
vol. 8 (4), p. 365-381
[19] Hobbs, B.F..and Meier P.M. 1994. Multicrerion
methods for resource planning: an experimental
comparison. IEEE Transactions on Power
Systems 9(4):18117.
[20] Crawley , D., Aho, I., 1999, Building
environmental assessment methods:
applications and development trends, Building
Research & Information (27(4/5), 300-308
[21] Soebarto, V.I., Williamson, T.J., 2001, Multi-
criteria assessment of building performance:
theory and implementation, Building and
Environment 36, 681-690
[22] Ding, G.K.C., 2008, Sustainable construction
The role of environmental assessment tools,
Journal of Environmental Management 86, 451-
464
[23] Block B., 2009, Green Building Standards Under
Construction , Worldwatch Institute, Published
August 27, 2008, Green Building, e-journal,
2009, Vol 3(3).
[24] Podeva M.G.Z., 2009, Sustainability as driver of
architectural practices, PLEA 2009, Quebec
[25] Trebilcock M., 2009, 592: Learning from
practice: a model for integrating sustaianbel
design in architectural education, PLEA 2008,
Dublin
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ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 169
Analyzing the Application of Energy Efficiency
Labelling to Hotel Buildings
MYRTHES MARCELE FARIAS DOS SANTOS, LUCIANA HAMADA, RICARDO WARGAS DE FARIA
Sebrae/RJ, Innovation and Technology Access Unit, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
ABSTRACT: Most Brazilian buildings have low performance in terms of energy, since they received little
attention (or none) concerning energy efficiency. In 2009, new perspectives to change this situation emerged,
due to an initiative by the Federal Government, that established the necessary regulations for energy efficiency
labelling in buildings, and broadened the Brazilian Labelling Program, which, up until then, encompassed only
machinery and equipment. Never before had that happened in Brazil: conditions were defined for the
classification of commercial buildings according to their energy efficiency, considering lighting and air-
conditioning systems, and the architectural envelope. The major purpose of this article is to analyze, from a
business point of view, the compliance with the new regulations for energy efficiency labelling in hotel buildings,
where small businesses are predominant. Hotels have been targeted for large investments, since they have
become the pillars of Brazils project to welcome tourists during the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic
Games. The outcome of this article is a broad analysis on the application of new regulations for labelling the
level of energy efficiency of the hotel business, based on two perspectives: the external environment
(opportunities and threats) and the internal environment (strengths and weaknesses).
Keywords: energy efficiency; commercial buildings; labelling; small businesses; hotels.
1. INTRODUCTION
The service sector, which includes the hotel
business, employs a large portion of the population
and accounts for a large measure of Brazils GDP
and consumption of electric energy.
In 2009, in the midst of the global financial crisis,
Brazils GDP suffered a decline of 0.2%, after
experiencing a gain of 5.1% in 2008. However, the
service sector stood out as the only sector to show
growth, at a rate of 2.6%, and increased its share of
the whole economy to 68.5%. The Industrial sector,
which comprises around 25.4% of the economy,
showed negative growth of -5.5% [1].
Over the coming years, the service sector is
expected to continue its growth trend, averaging 4.3%
a year over the 2010-2014 period, putting Brazils
economy in synch with the trends in developed
economies, where services are gaining increasing
importance in the generation of a countrys wealth.
The growth trend in the services sector has a
direct impact on the consumption of electric energy in
the sector, which is likely to be above the national
average. According to the Ten Year Energy
Expansion Plan 2008-2017, consumption in the
business sector, which includes services, is expected
to grow at an annual average rate of 6.9%, and thus
the sector will become the biggest consumer,
increasing from 15.1% presently to 18.3% in 2017 [2].
In the world today, it can be noted that companies
and businesspeople in all sectors are making
increasing efforts to provide quality service in
response to the needs and desires of their customers,
even if, oftentimes, this is associated with
unnecessary costs and the wasting of all kinds of
resources. Thus, in hotels, the major components of
electric energy consumption are in climate control and
lighting, which are closely linked to the comfort
requirements of habitual users (employees) and
occasional users (guests).
The amount of electric energy consumed in
climate control and lighting depends, among other
factors, on the technology used, operating conditions
and systems maintenance, and the way the building
is occupied. However, it depends importantly on the
construction characteristics of the building: whether
they are suitable or not for local climate conditions.
Although architectural solutions for energy
efficiency have greater potential when adopted during
the design phase of the building, there are
economically viable ways to make architectural
modifications to buildings already constructed.
According to data in Eletrobras Procel the National
Program for the Conservation of Electric Energy, the
potential for energy savings in new buildings is
around 50%, and 30% for existing buildings [3].
In this way, the adoption of architectural strategies
that are specific for each situation and focus, among
other things, on the shape of the building, the physical
properties of the construction materials, and the
transmission of natural light, allows better energy
performance in a hotel establishment, in that the use
of energy to satisfy the comfort of guests will only
occur at times when conditions in the external climate
are unfavorable.
Architectural strategies can also be combined with
artificial systems which use new technology to avoid
wasting energy, such as the automatic closing of
windows when air conditioners are in use, or the
installation of photo-electric sensors which reduce the
amount of illumination when there is natural light.
In addition to reducing energy costs through the
implementation of such measures, today employers
can obtain the National Label of Energy
Conservation (Etiqueta Nacional de Conservao de
Energia - ENCE), which classifies commercial
buildings with respect to energy efficiency, taking
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170 ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY
three systems into account: lighting, air conditioning,
and architectural envelope (the skin of the building).
2. REGULATIONS FOR ENERGY
EFFICIENCY IN BUILDINGS
The new Brazilian regulations for energy
efficiency, which created the labelling of buildings,
were established by Inmetro, the National Institute of
Metrology, Standardization, and Industrial Quality and
Procel, through the publication of two complementary
ordinances.
Ordinance n
o
372, dated 17/09/2010, which
ratifies the Technical Regulation for the Quality Level
of Energy Efficiency in Commercial, Service and
Public Buildings (RTQ-C); and
Ordinance n
o
185, dated 22/06/09, which
ratifies the Regulation for the Assessment of the
Level of Compliance of Energy Efficiency in
Commercial, Service and Public Buildings (RAC-C).
RTQ-C specifies the technical criteria for the
classification of new and existing buildings with
respect to energy efficiency; the classification can
vary from level A (more efficient) to level E (less
efficient). The requirements of RTQ-C are to be
assessed by an inspection entity accredited by
Inmetro, as described in RAC-C, which contains all
the necessary procedures to obtain authorization for
the use of the ENCE. RAC-C contains forms, models
of spreadsheets, terms of commitment, which will
enable the building to be submitted for labelling.
Labelling and inspection, as mechanisms to
assess the level of energy efficiency in buildings in
Brazil are a result of the emergency measures taken
during electric energy rationing which was
experienced in 2000-2001. With the approval of the
Energy Efficiency Law (Lei de Eficincia Energtica
- Law n
o
10.295, dated 17/10/2001), whose course in
the National Congress began in 1990, and the Decree
n
o
4.059, dated 19/12/2001, which regulates it,
minimal levels for energy efficiency were established
for machines and consumer appliances made or sold
in Brazil; the same was applied to building structures,
and, in addition, the need for technical indicators and
specific regulation was indicated, in order to
establish obligatory levels of efficiency.
2.1. National Label of Energy Conservation
(ENCE) for Buildings
The ENCE for buildings was introduced as a
voluntary measure, with a view to preparing the civil
construction market to gradually absorb the new
method of classification; but, it will likely become
obligatory for new buildings at a yet to be determined
date. It is directed to commercial, public, and service
buildings, climatized in whole or in part, artificially or
naturally, with workspace over 500 square meters or
serviced by voltage equal to or higher than 2.3kV
(tariff group A). This restriction in the regulations
excludes some micro and small enterprises, despite
the fact that the methodology developed for the
calculation of energy efficiency is applicable to
buildings of all types and sizes.
To be eligible for labelling, the building must have
an electrical circuit which can be centrally controlled
according to its final use: lighting, air conditioning,
among others. If this requirement cannot be met, the
highest possible rating for the building is level C.
There are exceptions: hotels with circuits that are
turned off automatically when the guest leaves the
room or buildings whose date of construction
precedes the publication of RTQ-C.
The classification of the level of energy efficiency
for the building can be:
General: encompassing the three systems
(envelope, lighting and air conditioning) plus possible
improvements through innovative technology, co-
generation etc.
Partial: separately for each of the systems.
In order to obtain a general classification for the
building, the efficiency of each system must first be
calculated, resulting in partial ratings. An equation
weighs the individual systems, through an established
weighting system, resulting in a final rating for the
building. The weightings are as follows: envelope,
30%; lighting, 30%; and air conditioning, 40%. The
number of points obtained determines the partial
classifications or the general classification to be
presented in the ENCE provided to the building.
2.2. Architectural Envelope
Specifically with respect to the architectural
envelope, RTQ-C prescribes the calculation of a
Consumption Indicator (IC), which predicts how the
envelope of the building will impact the buildings
energy consumption, taking into consideration: the
area of the windows, the existence or not of solar
protection and how extensive it is, the type of glass
used, the dimensions of the building, and the
Brazilian bio-climate zone, as established in ABNT
NBR 15.220:2005 - Thermal Performance of
Buildings. The IC obtained is evaluated against a
scale, which considers Brazilian construction
patterns, and which is divided into numbered intervals
determining the level(s) of energy efficiency.
The lower the IC, the more efficient the building:
that is, the less the envelope exposes the interior of
the building and less heat is exchanged between the
interior and exterior. Thus, envelopes with less heat
exchange imply less heating of the building in hot
climates (through solar radiation, temperature), or
less heat loss in cold climates (through infiltration,
temperature differences, for example). As a result,
less energy is consumed in artificial climate control of
the buildings interior.
After the IC of the envelope is calculated, it is
necessary to check if the specific prerequisites
(thermal transmittance and absorptivity of the roof
and external walls, as well as natural light) are
satisfied for the level of efficiency indicated. The
higher the intended level, the more stringent are the
prerequisites.
3. PRESENT PROFILE OF THE HOTEL
SECTOR
The hotel facilities vary according to the resources
and operating focus of each establishment, with
services offered thus ranging from basic food and
accommodation, to luxury services, and/or facilities
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ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 171

and services to handle conferences and events.
Thus, there is great diversity among the
establishments comprised in this segment, and,
similar to other tourist activities, most of the business
is conducted by small companies, normally run as
family businesses.
According to the Brazilian Statistics Institute -
IBGE, there are 25,000 hotels and like establishments
in Brazil, engaged in the business of short term
lodging through hotels, motels, and inns; 42% are
concentrated in the Southeast Region and 22% in the
Northeast Region [4]. Of this universe, 70% are
micro-enterprises, and 27% are small enterprises,
providing around one million rooms. By contrast, the
ten leading hotel chains presently operating in Brazil,
led by the French chain Accor Hotels, together,
provide only 60,000 rooms [5].
The hotel sector is labor intensive, providing
approximately 284,000 jobs, with micro and small
enterprises accounting for about 68% of the total. It
should be emphasized that the cost of generating a
job in the hotel industry is one of the lowest in the
Brazilian economy, at an average of R$16,000
(Brazilian real). By comparison, the cost of generating
a job in civil construction or the textile industry is
almost double at around R$28,000 [6].
It is worth pointing out, further, data surveyed by
Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, which shows a growth of
6.7% in RevPAR (revenue per available room) for
hotels in 2009 [7]. With respect to utility costs
(electricity, water, and others), depending on the type
and size of the hotel, the same study shows that such
costs vary between 17.35% and 27.94% of operating
expenses, with the higher percentages in hotels with
daily room rates below R$ 155 (Brazilian real).
3.1. Electric Energy Consumption and
Conservation Potential
According to data from the National Energy
Balance (BEN - Balano Nacional de Energia), the
business sector, which includes hotels, consumed
64,329 KWh of electric energy in 2009 [8].
Data from Procel show that the greatest uses of
electric energy in the business sector were for climate
control (40%) and lighting (19%) [9]. For hotel
establishments these uses together accounted for
59% of the total electric energy consumption [10], as
shown in Table 1 below.
Table 1: Electric Energy Consumption by end-use (%)
Business Sector and Hotels Brazil (2006)
End-use
Commercial
Sector
Hotels
Climate control 40% 41%
Lighting 19% 18%
Equipment 15% 14%
Other 26% 27%

With respect to the potential for energy efficiency
in the use of electric energy, the commercial sector is
among those with the greater possibilities. Based on
the analysis of the technical and economic
characteristics of the energy efficiency measures
presently available in the marketplace, and on the
incentive policies which can be adopted to facilitate
their use, the Plano Nacional de Energia - PNE
(National Energy Plan) shows in its three scenarios a
greater potential for reduced consumption, as shown
in Table 2 [11].
Table 2: Potential for Reduced Electrical Energy
Consumption by Sector (%) Brazil (2007)
Sector
Scenarios
Technical Economic Market
Industrial 41% 21% 12%
Commercial 58% 29% 16%
Residential 32% 15% 6%

With specific reference to the energy efficiency
potential in the hotel industry, a study conducted by
the Programa de Planejamento Energtico of
COPPE/UFRJ divides the industry into three groups
of facilities, and estimates for each one the following
technical potential for reducing electric energy
consumption: 26% in the sophisticated group (13.2
kWh/month/m
2
), 21% in the basic group (3.45kWh
/month/m
2
) and 26% in the very basic group (1.35
kWh/month/m
2
) [11].
4. CONSTRUCTION PATTERNS IN HOTELS
Although Brazil lacks studies on the construction
patterns which are most representative of buildings
and their various uses, two important nationwide
studies on electric energy consumption have already
been made, covering hotels, among others.
One of these studies is the Survey of Equipment
Ownership and Habits of Energy Consumption
(Pesquisa de Posse de Equipamentos e Hbitos de
Consumo de Energia), conducted by Procel since
1988, with a sampling that represents 92% of the
market. In the business sector, around 5,600 facilities
were surveyed, trying to maintain the same number of
samples for each utility company and sector of
activity. For the purposes of the survey, 16
commercial activities using Low Voltage (LV) and 11
using High Voltage (HV) were selected [9]. Of the
hotels and motels covered, there was effective
participation of 381 establishments, 6% in LV and
21% in HV (176 hotels and 22 motels) [10].
From the commercial buildings surveyed, it was
observed that in 67.4% the faade was predominantly
masonry, followed by glass (predominant in 11.3% of
the cases). An absolute majority of the buildings had
roof types which accumulated heat, with slab roofs
(43.2% of the cases) and fiber cement roofs (17.5%
of the cases) most commonly found in the structures
that were surveyed. For the windows, simple glass,
without the use of sun screens, was most commonly
used (58.1% of the cases). Darkened glass was used
in 11.8% of the cases. Lastly, it can be observed that
only 15.7% of the buildings had some kind of external
protection against insolation; thus there is room for
architectural modifications in those regions, where the
use of shading elements placed could provide greater
thermal comfort and less use of air conditioning.
The other study, conducted on a national scale,
was a field study of the physical characteristics and
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172 ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY
energy use in non-residential buildings. This study
was conducted by the Laboratory of Energy Efficiency
of Buildings (Labeee), of the University of Santa
Catarina (UFSC), which helped develop energy
efficiency regulations for buildings in Brazil. A specific
methodology for surveying the common
characteristics of buildings was developed, making
use of photographic and on site approaches.
The photographic survey recorded 1,103 buildings
in the metropolitan areas of five Brazilian cities:
Recife, Salvador, Belo Horizonte, So Paulo and
Florianpolis, and provided typical volumetric
dimensions and other characteristics relating to the
exteriors of the buildings, which enabled the
construction of representative models of the buildings
typically found in urban settings. Next, the onsite
survey collected physical and usage characteristics of
the interiors of the buildings, of examples of buildings
in Florianpolis according to their specific activity,
whose building exterior types were most similar to the
models generated.
Of the total number of buildings in the study, the
largest number of samples were big offices, which
accounted for 26.2% of the total, followed by small
stores (14.1%). Eighty two hotels and eleven inns
were in the study, representing 8.2% of the total [12].
The architectural features found in hotel buildings
were as follows: in their faades, the majority of the
hotels had a window area of 21-40%; also in the
faades, there was a secondary but still significant
characteristic occurring in less than 20% of the cases,
that is a small opening in the faades. With respect to
the predominant color of the glass, almost 50% of the
hotel buildings used colorless glass, while grey was
the predominant color in almost 30% of them.
The existence of solar protection is not common in
the majority of the buildings, in that the Vertical
Shadow Angle (VSA) referring to the existence of
horizontal solar protection in the openings was found
in few buildings. Of those buildings which had them,
the VSA of up to 25% was most common; angles
above this, that is, with greater shading capacity were
not common. Even less common was the vertical
protection, or Horizontal Shadow Angle (HAS), which
thus can be considered irrelevant.
5. APPLICATION OF LABELLING TO
HOTEL BUILDINGS
To analyze the application of new regulations for
labelling the level of energy efficiency of the hotel
business, we have chosen to develop a SWOT Matrix
(Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats).
This is a tool widely accepted in the market for
evaluating a range of scenarios (or in the analysis of
environments), and it is used as a base for
management and strategic planning in a corporation
or company, but it can also be used for any kind of
scenario analysis.
From a business perspective, the analysis is
organized around two perspectives: the external
environment and the internal environment. Table 3,
which shows the opportunities and strengths in the
application of labelling to hotel buildings, and Table 4
which shows threats and weaknesses, follow.
Table 3: Opportunities and Strengths in the Application of
Labelling to Hotel Buildings
External Environment Internal Environment
O
p
p
o
r
t
u
n
i
t
i
e
s

Consolidation over the
long term of efficient
energy use in the country;
Reduction of electric
energy consumption;
Postponement of the
need for investments in
power generation;
Improvement in city
building codes;
Development of sectorial
indicators of energy
efficiency;
Improvement in the
quality of hotel accommo-
dations in Brazil;
Incorporation of
sustainability concepts in
buildings;
Opening of a new
market niche for
professionals.
Better understanding
of ones facilities;
To be more energy
efficient;
Possibility of
reducing electric
energy costs , thus
reducing daily rates;
To become more
competitive;
To obtain
advantages for labeled
hotels - based on the
marketing of
sustainability;
To add value to
services offered.
S
t
r
e
n
g
t
h
s

Table 4: Threats and Weaknesses in the Application of
Labelling to Hotel Buildings
External Environment Internal Environment
T
h
r
e
a
t
s

Excess of regulatory
details could hinder market
acceptance;
No labelling of buildings
with usable space below
500m
2
;
Lack of qualified
professionals to apply
new regulations;
Lack of financing
sources that favor
labelling;
Few entities to issue the
labelling and entities are
tied to universities.
High refitting costs
for projects already
constructed;
Increased costs from
hiring specialty
consultants;
Lack of clarity with
respect to the benefits
obtained from
labelling.
W
e
a
k
n
e
s
s
e
s


Our definition of the external environment
corresponds to the macro-environment of the hotel
industry, that is, the segments which affect or are
affected by it, such as the governmental authorities,
other sectors like tourism and civil construction,
professionals of several levels and society as a
whole. The internal environment represents just the
hotel industry.
Below is a detailed explanation of each of the
items covered in the analysis.

5.1. Opportunities External Environment
Consolidation over the long term of efficient
energy use in the country having been adopted in
more than 25 countries [13], labelling and the
establishment of standards for equipment and
facilities are proven techniques for improving the
efficient use of energy in a country.
Reduction of electric energy consumption
the more efficient use of energy in buildings has a
direct impact on the reduction of final power
consumption, especially in lighting and air-
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ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 173

conditioning systems. Estimates made in other
countries show 4% savings in the consumption of
electric energy as a result of the application of
labelling [13].
Postponement of the need for investments in
power generation the partial reduction of energy
consumption in buildings, which account for around
50% of energy consumption in Brazil [9], helps to
defer the expansion of electric power generation,
without compromising the quality of services provided
to the end users. The costs associated with a
labelling program are significantly less than the cost
of expanding the electric power system.
Improvement in city building codes the
establishment of minimum energy efficiency levels for
buildings on a national scale leads to the revision of
local building codes. A city building code could even
suggest materials and construction types which are
different from those used regularly, incentivating the
market to become increasingly more efficient.
Development of sectorial indicators of energy
efficiency setting up a database on the Brazilian
buildings which have been labeled will allow the
development of technical indicators, both quantitative
and qualitative, which can contribute to the
development of public policies and the creation of
benefits for several sectors, including hotels and
small businesses.
Improvement in the quality of hotel
accommodations in Brazil to reach the required
levels of energy efficiency, the buildings will have to
undergo modifications and modernization of their
facilities. This will result in more than just energy
gains, such as improvement in guest comfort and in
the quality of the accommodations, which in turn will
attract more tourists, especially from abroad.
Incorporation of sustainability concepts in
buildings the concepts of sustainability, added to
those of energy efficiency, involving new construction
techniques and materials, also lead to greater
efficiency in the buildings consumption of other
resources. In hotels, the consumption of water and
energy are closely linked, as it is common to adopt a
program of energy efficiency which involves reduction
of wastage as a whole.
Opening of a new market niche for
professionals the labelling of buildings can expand
the market for professionals in civil construction, since
it promotes the introduction of new concepts in
architectural and modification projects, as well as the
audit of efficient buildings. Thus, it functions as a tool
for developing new niches in the market.
5.2. Strengths Internal Environment
Better understanding of ones facilities the
analysis of the hotel facilities for the purpose of
labelling documents the operating conditions of the
enterprise and its actual energy needs, in addition to
indicating the opportunities for reducing waste and
the viability of performing architectural modifications.
To be more energy efficient the
implementation of energy efficiency solutions in order
to obtain the labelling is the most effective way to
simultaneously optimize the facilities and improve the
quality of services offered, mainly in the lighting and
air-conditioning systems.
Possibility of reducing electric energy costs,
thus reducing daily rates the incorporation of
sustainability concepts and energy performance
parameters into the enterprise will lead to savings in
consumption and in the costs of energy and other
resources.
To become more competitive the hotel
business which adopts labelling as a quality
requirement for its facilities will have lower operating
expenses, resulting in a lower daily rate. Therefore it
will be possible to offer a higher quality service at a
more competitive price.
To obtain advantages for labeled hotels -
based on the marketing of sustainability the
businesses that are labeled can display this
qualification, making it a point of difference in relation
to competitors. This differential might guide the
development of a market strategy directed to
sustainability and social responsibility, attracting a
more demanding target public which is willing to pay
more for this.
To add value to services offered
classification at a higher energy efficiency level will
allow a business to add value to the services it offers,
since this might make it attractive to groups of guests
who chose services that address sustainability issues.
5.3. Threats External Environment
Excess of regulatory details could hinder
market acceptance the process for obtaining a label
involves methods and technical requirements to make
a precise evaluation of the level of energy efficiency
in buildings, which has never been done before in
Brazil. For this to be accepted by the market, the
training of professionals and the promotion of
partnerships with manufacturers is needed.
No labelling of buildings with usable space
below 500m
2
the opportunities and competitive
advantages created by the possibility of labelling
remain restricted to the large and medium size
companies, which comprise a lesser share of the
hotel sector. For future actions, it would be necessary
to correct this limitation by the inclusion of a greater
universe of companies, since the methodology is
already established and can be applied to
establishments occupying smaller areas.
Lack of qualified professionals to apply new
regulations the lack of professionals, qualified in
energy efficiency in the civil construction sector, could
hinder the application of labelling, unless there is
greater investment in training and capacity building,
as well as In partnerships with universities to convey
the methodology proposed in the labelling process
and the classification of efficient buildings.
Lack of financing sources that favor labelling
there are few sources of attractive financing for the
modification of buildings for the purpose of
implementing energy efficiency measures. This could
make the attainment of the required levels of
efficiency unviable.
Few entities to issue the labelling and entities
are tied to universities the time spent by interested
companies to obtain labelling has been too long,
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174 ASSESMENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY
because of the bureaucracy involved, and because
the established entities are tied to university
structures which lack the dynamism that the market
needs for its full functioning.
5.4. Weaknesses Internal Environment
High refitting costs for projects already
constructed the majority of Brazilian buildings are
the result of an architectural style which does not take
into consideration the natural characteristics of their
surroundings, which makes them inefficient. Often the
costs for adjustment and making them more efficient
after construction are high, which can make labelling
unviable.
Increased costs from hiring specialty
consultants the implementation of energy efficient
measures and the obtaining of a label require advice
and monitoring on the part of specialists in the field.
Hiring these professionals involves increased costs.
Lack of clarity with respect to the benefits
obtained from labelling the hotel business has still
not grasped the advantages of energy efficiency in its
market because of the low level of dissemination of
information on the various gains that can be obtained.
Very little has been invested in the dissemination of
energy efficiency labelling for buildings through the
corresponding sectorial channels. This can become
an impediment to its application.
6. CONCLUSION
Despite the fact that the new regulations are
considered difficult to apply to buildings which have
already been constructed, labelling is recognized as
an effective tool for achieving energy efficiency in the
country in the long term, and for promoting the move
of the construction industry to standards of efficiency.
Another aspect is the fact that labels are not given to
buildings with work space less than 500m
2
, thus
excluding a portion of the small hotel businesses. For
them, the concepts of sustainability and architectural
strategies should be encouraged more strongly, since
small enterprises have been proven to be more
flexible in adjusting to the rapid changes of our times
and to the incorporation of new concepts.
Since big sports events, such as the 2014 World
Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, have been
scheduled for the next few years, various investments
are forecast for the hotel sector in Brazil. One which
is worth pointing out is the BNDES program ProCopa
Turismo, a line of financing which encourages energy
efficiency in the expansion and modernization of
hotels. This financial incentive will make the market
that targets the hotel segment (architectural and
consulting firms, construction companies), address
more appropriately all environmental issues to be
considered in the implementation of the enterprise
and the application of energy efficiency regulations.
For the entrepreneurs, the principal benefit from
obtaining a level A label (more efficient) for their
business is the possibility of offering more sustainable
services from an environmental perspective, to those
guests who look for this feature, as well as the
positive results which will arise from the increased
awareness of the theme of energy efficiency by the
users of such hotel buildings (employees and guests).
7. REFERENCES
[1] www.bcb.gov.br. Accessed on April 8
th
, 2010.
[2] EPE - Empresa de Pesquisa Energtica,
Ministrio de Minas e Energia, Plano Decenal de
Expanso de Energia 2008-2017, Rio de Janeiro
(2009), 2v.
[3] http://www.eletrobras.com/procel. Accessed on
May 10th, 2010. (Procel - Programa Nacional de
Conservao de Energia Eltrica)
[4] www.ibge.gov.br. Accessed on May 6
th
, 2010.
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatstica
[5] E. A. Bojar and L. Goldner, Anlise Setorial da
Indstria Hoteleira no Brasil, Volume 3,
Amazonas Press, So Paulo (2006).
[6] FIPE - Fundao Instituto de Pesquisas
Econmicas, Sebrae, Ministrio do Turismo,
Meios de Hospedagem, Estrutura de Consumo e
Impactos na Economia, So Paulo (2006).
[7] Jones Lang, LaSalle Hotels, Hotelaria em
Nmeros, Brasil 2010, So Paulo (2010), 20.
[8] www.ben.epe.gov.br. Accessed on August 12
th
,
2010.
[9] Eletrobras, Procel Programa Nacional de
Conservao de Energia Eltrica, Pesquisa de
Posse de Equipamentos e Hbitos de Consumo
de Energia, Ano Base 2005, Classe Comercial,
Alta Tenso, Estudo Completo, Rio de Janeiro
(2008), 160. (Survey of Equipment Ownership
and Habits of Energy Consumption)
[10] Eletrobras, Procel Programa Nacional de
Conservao de Energia Eltrica, Pesquisa de
Posse de Equipamentos e Hbitos de Consumo
de Energia, Ano Base 2005, Classe Comercial,
Alta Tenso, Relatrio Setorial: Hotis / Motis,
Rio de Janeiro (2008), 13. (Survey of Equipment
Ownership and Habits of Energy Consumption)
[11] EPE - Empresa de Pesquisa Energtica,
Ministrio de Minas e Energia, Plano Nacional de
Energia 2030, Rio de Janeiro (2007), 12 v.
[12] J. C. Carlo, Desenvolvimento de Metodologia de
Avaliao da Eficincia Energtica do Envoltrio
de Edificaes No-residenciais, Tese de
Doutorado do Programa de Ps-Graduao em
Engenharia Civil, Universidade Federal de Santa
Catarina, Florianpolis (2008).
[13] A. G. P. Garcia, Impacto da Lei de Eficincia
Energtica para Motores Eltricos no Potencial
de Conservao de Energia na Indstria,
Dissertao de Mestrado do Programa de Ps-
Graduao em Engenharia, Universidade
Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro
(2003).

CLIMATIC, WATER
AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
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CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 177
A PATTERN LANGUAGE DESIGN TOOL FOR
WATER EFFICIENT GARDENS
A Knowledge Based Computer-Aided Design (KBCAD) tool
for water efficient landscape design
Daphna DRORI AND Edna SHAVIV

Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion-Israel institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

ABSTRACT: A Knowledge Based Computer-Aided Design Tool was developed for the process of designing
water efficient gardens, and is applicable at any stage of the design process. The design tool is based on the
"Pattern Language", which is characterized by a decision making process that reflects customized choices and
flexible implementation. To realize water efficiency, emphasis is put on the bioclimatic design of the garden for
the comfort of the plants and the people. The tool directs the planner to adjust the design to the autochthonous
conditions of site and recommends a variety of options for effective and efficient design. The tool consists of a
qualitative part and a quantitative one, thus enable to evaluate the qualitative design with quantitative
measurements. The proposed tool is demonstrated by case study, whose results shows a tremendous reduction
in water consumption of more than 50% in total, thus proofing the effectiveness of it and infers to the amount of
possible water consumption reduction.
Keywords: water efficient gardens, water consumption reduction, bioclimatic design, KBCAD tool, pattern
language.
1. INTRODUCTION
The water issue is now a crucial matter around
the globe more than ever. There is a constant growth
in water demand due to the increase in the
population and the rise in the standard of living,
which is expressed in the data of the Gross National
Product (GNP).
1.1. The water crisis in Israel
After continuity period of five years of drought in
Israel (2004-2009) and an average year (2010),
water crisis is an existing fact. The Israeli
government raised the water cost in order to reduce
consumption. In the residential sector, the base tier
cost is sufficient, in the best case, only for indoor
use. The garden use is double the cost, and many
lawns were irrigated insufficiently and turned dry and
yellow, or died completely. However, the way to
implement water efficiency policy is not necessarily
by eliminating the "green", but by proper design of
the gardens. In an era of sea water desalination,
theoretically there won't be shortage in potable water
in the near future, but 1 cubic meter of desalinated
water has an energy rate of 3.75 kW/h. Thus, a
reduction in water consumption contributes to the
reduction in energy consumption.
1.2. Residential water consumption
Trying to inquire which are the factors
determining residential water consumption, it is clear
that there is a correlation between water
consumption in household and the data of GNP per
capita. In other words, the standard of living strongly
influences domestic water consumption [1]. (See
black line in Figure 1).
A second factor influencing domestic water
consumption is the urban form. There is a correlation
between the GNP per capita and the demand for
private houses with gardens, which increases the
irrigation requirements. In countries like the U.S and
Canada, where low density housing type are
dominant building pattern, we see increased
domestic water consumption (See dashed line
circles in Figure 1).
We argue that as far as the GNP is increasing
permanently, the increase in the domestic water
consumption is liable to grow also. Due to this, water
crisis is expected to strengthen, and water efficient
design is significantly essential.

Figure 1: Correlation between Water Consumption in
Household and GNP Per Capita
Another major factor influencing water
consumption is the climate. It is surprising at first to
see that in countries like Spain and Israel the
domestic water consumption is similar to that of
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178 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
France and Sweden. This is due to the fact that in
hot countries, irrigation of garden is required almost
all year round (See black circle in Figure 1).
1.3. Climate and garden water usage
The ratio of garden water usage to total domestic
water consumption is different from place to place. In
the U.S for instance, there are states like
Pennsylvania where outdoor use constitutes only 7%
of total water consumption, and there are states like
California where it constitutes 44%. The average in
the U.S is in fact, 32% [2]. The differences in this
case derive from a combination of the three factors
as aforementioned. Comparing to Pennsylvania, the
standard of living is higher, the dominant urban form
is that of private houses with gardens, and the
climate of the state of California is dryer. All of these
factors encourage the increase in the ratio of garden
water usage to total domestic water consumption.
1.4. Proper architectural design
In a research performed in Barcelona (Spain) [3]
it was discovered that differences in garden design
effect water demand significantly. The preferred
"Atlantic garden", based on green turf grass as the
main component, on a traditional "Mediterranean
garden" based on autochthonous, less consuming
plants cause the garden water consumption to
increase in 40%.
A proper architectural design process of the
garden should be an integration of paved areas
within the landscape, a selection of water efficient
plants and efficient and effective irrigation systems.
In order to design effectively, it is essential to perform
a climate analysis and adjust the design to the local
and unique conditions of the place.
These two factors, the climate consciousness
and the effective and efficient design can contribute
a tremendous reduction in water consumption of
more than 50% in total. Moreover, the designer has
the professional ability and the professional ethics to
maximize the water conservation of the garden.
In order to cope with efficient landscaping, a
Knowledge Based Computer-Aided Design (KBCAD)
tool was developed and can be implemented in the
various design stages. Chapter 2 deals with the
methodological aspects of the described research.
Chapter 3-4 present the tool: the qualitative part as
well as the quantitative one. The proposed tool is
demonstrated in Chapter 5 by a case study that
shows the effectiveness of it
2. A PATTERN LANGUAGE DESIGN TOOL
The Knowledge Based Computer-Aided Design
(KBCAD) tool that was developed, derives its
methodology layout from "The Pattern Language" [4]
conceived by Christopher Alexander and
implemented by Edward Mazria in The Passive
Solar Design Handbook [5] for the theme of Passive
Solar Architecture.
2.1. "The Pattern Language"
The language is composed of elements called
patterns. The patterns describe variables and
problems one should address during the different
design stages, as well as options for solutions.
The pattern language is a holistic design
approach, with a decision making process that is not
linear or hierarchical, but rather carried out according
to need. Thus, the decision making pattern is a semi-
lattice offering infinite possibilities and unique
implementation for every project, like a new
language for each design (Figure 2).

Figure 2: The semi-lattice navigation order [7]
The advantage of choosing the pattern language
as a methodological concept is evident. This way of
decision making process is more adjusted and
convenient for the implementation of guidelines in
the design process, because it is carried out not as
checklist but as links based on the planner's
requirements.
3. KBCAD TOOL FOR EFFICIENT DESIGN
OF GARDENS
Originally, "The Pattern Language" [4] and "The
Passive Solar Energy Book" [5] are hard copy books.
Our efficient landscape design tool is a KBCAD tool
therefore it is more user friendly than a hard copy
book. Figure 3 illustrates the structure of the data in
this tool. As appears, the information is organized in
hierarchy but the concept of navigation is nonlinear
one.

Figure 3: The navigation through patterns in the KBCAD
tool
Each of these cells (Figure 3) contains
information and recommendations for its specific
subcategory. Typically, one can go in his decision-
making process from top to bottom in each of the six
main branches. Alternatively, he can make a semi-
lattice navigation through information, in a manner
which reflects customized choices.
3.1. The patterns layout
Basically, the KBCAD tool is divided into six main
branches, which are: Landscape Design, Irrigation,
Vegetation, Agro-technical Methods, Runoff and Non
Potable Water.
The "Landscape Design" branch (Figure 4)
contains four branches. It deals with the selection of
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 179

a "Combination of Plants" for the garden and the
integration of "Built Elements" within it. Other
important branches are the "Field of Vision", which
assists the planner in minimizing the vegetation
areas without spoiling the beauty of the garden,
through the creation of an aesthetic illusion of a full
garden, and "Environmental Conditions".

Figure 4: The "Landscape Design" branch (level 1 only)
We would like to look more deeply at the branch
"Environmental Conditions". It is important to indicate
that the climatic perspective in water efficient
gardens design, is similar to bio-climatic buildings
design, and is the essence of the process. The
design should start by analyzing the environmental
conditions and refer to the unique characteristics in
the proposed design. The planning should respond
to the local nuances, obtain maximum adjustment of
the plants to the climate and encourage the most
sustainable solution for irrigation requirements.
Therefore, emphasis was put on the bioclimatic
design of the garden for the comfort of the plants and
the people, which is indicated by the "Environmental
Conditions" pattern that contains in Level 2:
"Climate", "Micro-Climate", "Orientation",
"Evapotranspiration", as well as "Soil" and
"Topography" (Figure 5). Through these patterns the
tool directs the planner to adjust the design to the
climate and autochthonous conditions of the site and
recommend a variety of options for effective and
water efficient garden suited the particular climate

Figure 5: The "Landscape Design" branch (level 2 only)
The "Irrigation" branch includes the "High
Efficiency Irrigation strategies" and the "Plan of
Action" for efficient and effective operation like
"Watering Schedules", "Watering Duration" and
"Irrigation Calculations" (Figure 6). The irrigation
calculations will be discussed in detail in chapter 4.

Figure 6: The "Irrigation" branch (level 1 only)
The "Vegetation" branch of patterns contains
recommendations for choosing native or adopted
plants' selection, and plants which belong to the
large diverse group of "Water Efficient Plants"
(Figure 7).

Figure 7: The "Vegetation" branch
"Agro-technical methods" are a set of
advisable techniques for amending durability of soil
and plants' health in the garden, like "cultivation",
"Mulching", "Mowing" and "Compost" (Figure 8).
These patterns are effective for maximizing the water
conservation of the garden and for minimizing the
maintenance of it in the long run as well. Thus,
promoting a sustainable garden in its wide definition
in addition to the water efficiency,

Figure 8: The "Agro-technical methods" branch (level 1
only)
"Runoff" means the total design facilities to
direct rainwater runoff through the site in order to
give vegetation an additional water supply (Figure 9).

Figure 9: The "Runoff" branch (level 1 only)
The "Non-potable Water" is a branch of
strategies that reduce potable water demands for
irrigation by using "Captured Rainwater", "Recycled
Graywater" or "Treated Wastewater" (Figure 10).

Figure 10: The "Runoff" branch (level 1 only)
France and Sweden. This is due to the fact that in
hot countries, irrigation of garden is required almost
all year round (See black circle in Figure 1).
1.3. Climate and garden water usage
The ratio of garden water usage to total domestic
water consumption is different from place to place. In
the U.S for instance, there are states like
Pennsylvania where outdoor use constitutes only 7%
of total water consumption, and there are states like
California where it constitutes 44%. The average in
the U.S is in fact, 32% [2]. The differences in this
case derive from a combination of the three factors
as aforementioned. Comparing to Pennsylvania, the
standard of living is higher, the dominant urban form
is that of private houses with gardens, and the
climate of the state of California is dryer. All of these
factors encourage the increase in the ratio of garden
water usage to total domestic water consumption.
1.4. Proper architectural design
In a research performed in Barcelona (Spain) [3]
it was discovered that differences in garden design
effect water demand significantly. The preferred
"Atlantic garden", based on green turf grass as the
main component, on a traditional "Mediterranean
garden" based on autochthonous, less consuming
plants cause the garden water consumption to
increase in 40%.
A proper architectural design process of the
garden should be an integration of paved areas
within the landscape, a selection of water efficient
plants and efficient and effective irrigation systems.
In order to design effectively, it is essential to perform
a climate analysis and adjust the design to the local
and unique conditions of the place.
These two factors, the climate consciousness
and the effective and efficient design can contribute
a tremendous reduction in water consumption of
more than 50% in total. Moreover, the designer has
the professional ability and the professional ethics to
maximize the water conservation of the garden.
In order to cope with efficient landscaping, a
Knowledge Based Computer-Aided Design (KBCAD)
tool was developed and can be implemented in the
various design stages. Chapter 2 deals with the
methodological aspects of the described research.
Chapter 3-4 present the tool: the qualitative part as
well as the quantitative one. The proposed tool is
demonstrated in Chapter 5 by a case study that
shows the effectiveness of it
2. A PATTERN LANGUAGE DESIGN TOOL
The Knowledge Based Computer-Aided Design
(KBCAD) tool that was developed, derives its
methodology layout from "The Pattern Language" [4]
conceived by Christopher Alexander and
implemented by Edward Mazria in The Passive
Solar Design Handbook [5] for the theme of Passive
Solar Architecture.
2.1. "The Pattern Language"
The language is composed of elements called
patterns. The patterns describe variables and
problems one should address during the different
design stages, as well as options for solutions.
The pattern language is a holistic design
approach, with a decision making process that is not
linear or hierarchical, but rather carried out according
to need. Thus, the decision making pattern is a semi-
lattice offering infinite possibilities and unique
implementation for every project, like a new
language for each design (Figure 2).

Figure 2: The semi-lattice navigation order [7]
The advantage of choosing the pattern language
as a methodological concept is evident. This way of
decision making process is more adjusted and
convenient for the implementation of guidelines in
the design process, because it is carried out not as
checklist but as links based on the planner's
requirements.
3. KBCAD TOOL FOR EFFICIENT DESIGN
OF GARDENS
Originally, "The Pattern Language" [4] and "The
Passive Solar Energy Book" [5] are hard copy books.
Our efficient landscape design tool is a KBCAD tool
therefore it is more user friendly than a hard copy
book. Figure 3 illustrates the structure of the data in
this tool. As appears, the information is organized in
hierarchy but the concept of navigation is nonlinear
one.

Figure 3: The navigation through patterns in the KBCAD
tool
Each of these cells (Figure 3) contains
information and recommendations for its specific
subcategory. Typically, one can go in his decision-
making process from top to bottom in each of the six
main branches. Alternatively, he can make a semi-
lattice navigation through information, in a manner
which reflects customized choices.
3.1. The patterns layout
Basically, the KBCAD tool is divided into six main
branches, which are: Landscape Design, Irrigation,
Vegetation, Agro-technical Methods, Runoff and Non
Potable Water.
The "Landscape Design" branch (Figure 4)
contains four branches. It deals with the selection of
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
180 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
These two last subjects, among the other things,
maximize the use of on-site natural resources and
meet irrigation demand in the most sustainable
manner [6].
There are almost 80 different patterns in the tool,
which are embedded within each other in a semi-
lattice order, during the decision-making process.
3.2. The pattern format
All patterns have the same format and interface.
They consist of a title, a definition and a list of
recommendations for successful implementation in
the garden. For example see the Landscape Design
Pattern (Figure 11). The pattern has also an
information part which, if necessary, continues on to
a second page (Figure 12).

Figure 11: The "Landscape Design-Recommendations"
pattern page

Figure 12: The "Landscape Design-Information" pattern
page
Within the text there are highlighted words which
are actually new patterns embedded within the
"Landscape Design" pattern, similar to common web
navigation. Each pattern choice leads us to a new
pattern page, and in this way, we create the semi-
lattice pattern of our decision making process as
mentioned earlier. Every page has also a hierarchical
navigation as indicated on the right.
The information part includes quantitative data,
which is highlighted and there are also references to
relevant external links like governmental sites or
case studies.
4. THE QUANTITATIVE TOOL
The necessity for evaluating the conservation
rate of water irrigation in the designated garden is
obvious. Hence, the KBCAD tool for water efficient
gardens has a quantitative part that includes a
calculator to supports the qualitative design process.
There are series of questions, which are required to
be answered. The fill in data refer to the different
types of plants in the proposed garden and their
distribution in square meter units. The climate
conditions are a major subject that is taken into
account in the calculations: First by considering the
local climate, the orientation of the plants in the
garden and the topography of the site. Secondly,
enumerate the microclimate factors which the
proposed design has produced to enable the
reduction of irrigation's demands due to minimizing
evapotranspiration. In other words, the design should
promote the comfort of the plants in the garden
through maximizing shading on soil and plants and
minimizing unwanted winds. These places in
gardens can be for example vegetation area located
in courtyards, north sides of slopes, north side of
buildings and areas under wide building overhangs
[6]. The results are a display of calculations
determining the amounts of water needed for the
garden irrigation: schedules and durations annually
and monthly (Table 1).
Table 1: Calculated as-designed annual and monthly
water consumption


The evapotranspiration column up in table 1
reflects the weighted data, which takes into account
the microclimate factors as aforementioned.
There is also an output concerning the
percentage of water reduction that can be gained by
the proposed design. This data is an outcome of a
comparison between the calculated as-designed
water use rate and a calculated baseline water use
rate for the same climatic area (Table 2).
Table 2: The water reduction rate


The on-spot quantitative examination exposes
the designer to elements in his design that
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 181

consumed a large amount of water. Hence he may
wish to consider improvements in his design in order
to gain a greater reduction in garden water
consumption. In this way, a comprehensive design is
formed, characterized by a qualitative decision-
making process and a quantitative evaluation of it
simultaneously.
5. THE GARDEN CASE-STUDY
In order to experience the design tool in action,
the garden of the author family that is located in
Alon-Hagalil, a place near Nazareth, was selected as
a case study. This place has a Mediterranean
climate with an annual average of 570 mm of rain.
Particularly problematic is the fact that precipitation
occurs only three to four months of the year, which
means that there is a long period of eight to nine
months of the year that irrigation of the garden is
necessary.
This existing garden was explored
comprehensively both qualitatively and quantitatively.
An upgrading process of implementation of the
pattern language design tool in the garden has been
carried out, as well as the quantitative tool. The
sequence of patterns, and recommendations that
have been exploited within the process, were
documented. A quantitative evaluation analyzed the
alteration in the amounts of water consumption
during the period of the research (three summers in
total).
5.1. Results
The analyzed quantitative evaluation of the
design alternative that was selected according to the
recommendations of the KBCAD tool shows a
reduction of 60% in water consumption for garden
irrigation. This calculated numbers actually reflect the
results on site, according to the bill obtained from the
utility. This number presents the potential of
reduction in water consumption for irrigation. Figure
13 presents the actual water consumption during the
years 2007 (the garden before the retrofit) and during
the year 2010 (after retrofitting). The retrofit of the
garden over these three years managed to reduce
the outdoor water consumption by 53% and the total
water consumption by 43%. In 2007 the outdoor
water consumption stood at 45% and in 2010 it was
only 36% of total domestic water consumption.


Figure 13: 2007 & 2010 Domestic Water Consumption (%)
of the garden case study
5.2. The Sequence of Patterns used in the
retrofit
The sequence of patterns that were chosen in
order to achieve water efficient garden Includes:
Appraising the existing garden to see if it well
adapted to the "Climate" and "Orientation" of
the garden.
Changing several plants in order to take
advantage of the "Microclimate" factors and to
minimize the "Evapotranspiration". For
instance: increasing the shaded areas in the
garden with "Trees" and "Groundcover".
Reevaluating the "Combination of Plants" in
accordance with the intended purposes of the
garden. This gave rise to the minimization of
"Lawn" area and "Annual Flowers", which in
the retrofit garden were planted in planters and
located in centered spots in the garden.
In search of adjustments in some garden-beds
choices made here actually lead us to the new
tree: "Vegetation "which directs the selection of
climate-tolerant plants, specific for each
garden's climate conditions.
The Pattern of "Water Efficient Plants", taught
us there are a variety of planted forms of this
kind: tree, shrub and grass for selection
according to the situation. From this point in
time and on, every plant was chosen intently to
enable easy adaption to the site, a practice
which wasn't exactly considered previously.
By considering "Built Elements", like
"Pavement" and "Pergola" we assured the
proper recommendations are maintained.
Through the semi lattice pattern a new branch
of the tree: Runoff was selected, as well as:
catchment area, slopes and
permeability. These patterns are essential to
consider when determining paving for the
garden. Strategies concerning "Non-potable
Water" were not implied, as it is not yet allowed
by the Israeli Health Authority to be used in
private gardens.
However, the branch of "Irrigation" was very
significant in achieving the required goal. In this
branch number of efficient irrigation practice
were applied in the garden, like: Verification of
"Irrigation Schedules" and "Duration" on a
monthly basis, that yielded effective results. It
became evident that the garden was irrigated
with permanent amounts of water each time
without adjusting it to the seasonal climate and
precipitation changes. Therefore, there was a
situation of surplus irrigation and certainly not
efficient. Agro-technical Methods" is another
important subject, which involve techniques of
amending the soil, like "Mulching", "Mowing",
"Fertilization", "Weeding" and "Cultivating"
for the health of the plants and for the
emendation of the water's absorption in the soil.
The decision-making process of this case-study
has implemented 38 patterns out of 80 and
approximately 100 recommendations (Figure 14).
Naturally, in the design process of every garden, a
unique sequence of patterns will be chosen. It is a
matter of climatic and environmental conditions of
the place, budget limitations, personal demands and
priorities etc.
These two last subjects, among the other things,
maximize the use of on-site natural resources and
meet irrigation demand in the most sustainable
manner [6].
There are almost 80 different patterns in the tool,
which are embedded within each other in a semi-
lattice order, during the decision-making process.
3.2. The pattern format
All patterns have the same format and interface.
They consist of a title, a definition and a list of
recommendations for successful implementation in
the garden. For example see the Landscape Design
Pattern (Figure 11). The pattern has also an
information part which, if necessary, continues on to
a second page (Figure 12).

Figure 11: The "Landscape Design-Recommendations"
pattern page

Figure 12: The "Landscape Design-Information" pattern
page
Within the text there are highlighted words which
are actually new patterns embedded within the
"Landscape Design" pattern, similar to common web
navigation. Each pattern choice leads us to a new
pattern page, and in this way, we create the semi-
lattice pattern of our decision making process as
mentioned earlier. Every page has also a hierarchical
navigation as indicated on the right.
The information part includes quantitative data,
which is highlighted and there are also references to
relevant external links like governmental sites or
case studies.
4. THE QUANTITATIVE TOOL
The necessity for evaluating the conservation
rate of water irrigation in the designated garden is
obvious. Hence, the KBCAD tool for water efficient
gardens has a quantitative part that includes a
calculator to supports the qualitative design process.
There are series of questions, which are required to
be answered. The fill in data refer to the different
types of plants in the proposed garden and their
distribution in square meter units. The climate
conditions are a major subject that is taken into
account in the calculations: First by considering the
local climate, the orientation of the plants in the
garden and the topography of the site. Secondly,
enumerate the microclimate factors which the
proposed design has produced to enable the
reduction of irrigation's demands due to minimizing
evapotranspiration. In other words, the design should
promote the comfort of the plants in the garden
through maximizing shading on soil and plants and
minimizing unwanted winds. These places in
gardens can be for example vegetation area located
in courtyards, north sides of slopes, north side of
buildings and areas under wide building overhangs
[6]. The results are a display of calculations
determining the amounts of water needed for the
garden irrigation: schedules and durations annually
and monthly (Table 1).
Table 1: Calculated as-designed annual and monthly
water consumption


The evapotranspiration column up in table 1
reflects the weighted data, which takes into account
the microclimate factors as aforementioned.
There is also an output concerning the
percentage of water reduction that can be gained by
the proposed design. This data is an outcome of a
comparison between the calculated as-designed
water use rate and a calculated baseline water use
rate for the same climatic area (Table 2).
Table 2: The water reduction rate


The on-spot quantitative examination exposes
the designer to elements in his design that
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
182 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT

Figure 14: Patterns used in the case-study
6. SUMMERY AND CONCLUSIONS
This paper presented a KBCAD tool for the
design of water efficient gardens that is based on the
"Pattern Language". Special emphasis was put on
the climatic adjustment in the design of the garden in
a similar way to the bio-climatic design of buildings:
considering the solar radiation, wind and
"Orientation", in order to maximize the
"Microclimate" conditions of the garden, and to
minimize the "Evapotranspiration" from the plants
and "Soil". This tool includes qualitative part,
presented by eighty patterns, and a quantitative part
presented by an excel sheet, where all parameters to
be considered and the formulas are presented. The
qualitative and the quantitative sections work
together as one matching software and enable a
quantitative examination during and after the design
process.
Gardens, as can be deduced, are holistic
dynamic systems that never stand still. It is essential
to recognize that gardens require evolution and not
revolution in design and maintenance. As a pattern
language tool it is particularly supporting this kind of
conception of design, and makes the process
gradual, flexible and uniquely adjusted to every
project.
Practically, the decision-making process of the
KBCAD tool can be performed over and over again
because gardens are systems that are constantly
undergoing change with altering needs. There must
be a permanent operation of maintenance and
improvements in the garden according to the
dynamic situation of it, in order to obtain the water
efficiency in the garden.
The easiness in using this tool and the
performance obtained by applying it was presented
by a case study that showed that about 60% in water
consumption for garden irrigation could be achieved.
This calculated number was compared with the
actually results on site, based on current utility bill.
This number presents the potential of reduction in
water consumption for irrigation by appropriate
design of gardens.
7. REFERENCE
[1] Be'eri, S. (2004), Water Saving in the Israeli
Urban Sector. A Comprehensive Feasibility
Study. MSc, Technion-Israel institute of
Technology.
[2] U.S Environmental Protection Agency (2010).
"How We Use Water in These United States".
Esa21 [Online] January 2004 http://esa21.
kennesaw.edu/activities/water-use/water-use-
overview-epa.pdf [Accessed 7 April 2010].
[3] Domene, E. & Sauri, D. (2006). "Urbanisation and
Water Consumption: Influencing Factors in the
Metropolitan Region of Barcelona". Urban
Studies [Online] August 43, (9): 1605-1623.
http://usj.sagepub.com/citmgr?gca=spusj;43/9/16
05 [Accessed 7 April 2010].
[4] Alexander, C., Ishikawa, S. & Silverstein, M.
(1977). A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings,
Construction. New York: Oxford University Press.
[5] Mazria, E. (1979). The Passive Solar Energy
Book. Emmaus: Rodale Press.
[6] USGBC-LEED, US Green Building Council
(2007) New Construction & Major Renovation
V2.2, Reference Guide, 3
rd
edition: Water
Efficiency, p. 117-127. Washington DC: USGBC.
[7] Pattern Language (2001) "Methods" Pattern
Language [Online]. http:// www. Patternlanguage.
com/leveltwo/methods.htm [Accessed 1
November 2009].

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 183
Urban River Microclimates
Abigail HATHWAY
1
, Steve SHARPLES
2
1
Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
2
School of Architecture, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
ABSTRACT: The effect of the urban area on increasing air temperatures is well recognised and has been
documented since the early 19
th
Century. The replacement of the natural landscape with hard materials, the
ejection of heat from urban processes and large height to width ratios trapping radiative energy all combine to
increase the temperature in urban areas. With the increased likelihood of hotter summers this can have severe
impacts on human health due to both direct heat related illnesses, but also due to air pollution from increased
levels of ozone in the lower atmosphere. This study will focus on the effect of urban design on the local
microclimate in the UK, with a particular focus on urban rivers. The study is based on microclimate data
collected during the summer months in the UK city of Sheffield. Three different types of urban form are
considered, and temperature and humidity data collected at each are presented. During the day time the river is
found to be cooler than the surrounding landscape, and some variation was found dependent on the urban form.
Keywords: river corridors, urban microclimate, urban heat island
1. INTRODUCTION
Urbanisation has been recognised to generate
increased local temperatures for nearly 200 years
[1]. Anthroprogenic heat generation is a key factor,
however so is the design of the urban landscape.
The replacement of natural landscapes with hard
impervious materials absorbs long wave radiation
during the day, providing heat storage and slowly
releasing this into the locality at night. This is further
compounded by street canyons trapping the heat
and reducing night cooling [2-4]. The re-
implementation of natural landscapes into our cities
is therefore of great interest in order to provide
resilience to climate change. To this end much work
has been carried out to understand the impact of
urban greenery of various types to reduce the impact
of the Urban Heat Island (UHI). Research has found
that large parks provide cooling that is able to
penetrate to approximately its own width into the city
[6] and trees are well known to provide cooling
through both shading and evapotranspiration
(e.g.[7]).
The increase in impervious surfacing due to
urbanisation is a significant contributor to the UHI
effect. As water is directed to sewers, and removed
rapidly from the ground surface, the capacity for
cooling due to latent heat flux is reduced. Ponds,
lakes and rivers therefore have the potential to
replace this moisture in the urban environment.
Water bodies are often cited as providing the
potential for cooling due to evaporation, both
traditionally (e.g. Islamic Architecture) and equally in
the modern day when fountains are sold as cooling
devices [8], although quantification of the cooling
effect is somewhat limited. The presence of lakes
and rivers may therefore propagate cooling into the
urban environment, in a similar way to the cooling
provided by parks and green areas. To date research
on the impact of rivers on the local microclimate has
been mainly carried out in Japan [9] and Korea [10].
Both demonstrated cooler temperatures directly
above the river, with some penetration into the city.
Kim [10] made use of a large daylighting project to
evaluate the effect the river had on the local climate
and found small reductions in temperature following
the river being opened up.
2. URBAN RIVER CORRIDORS
In comparison to static parks and lakes, rivers
provide a different cooling process; flowing in from
outside the city their temperature is dependent on
processes occurring upstream. River temperatures
may be impacted by the surrounding surfaces,
stormwater run off, or releases of water from cooling
processes for buildings or industry. Considering the
sensible heat flux alone, large bodies of water will
remain a stable temperature within the urban
environment absorbing heat from the air during hot
weather due to their high specific heat capacity.
Equally storm events will often re-cool rivers,
recharging their potential to act as a cool oasis.
Alongside sensible cooling from the lower
temperature river, the presence of water will enable
latent cooling. This provides an important opportunity
for reducing the UHI, as one of the key factors in its
development is thought to be the change in ratio of
sensible and latent heat flux [5].
Although introducing a river into a city is unlikely
to be a design choice in urban planning for climate
change there is increased interest in opening up
culverted water courses. In the UK the Chartered
Institute for Water and Environment Management is
promoting the daylighting of watercourses citing
reasons such as improvements in ecological value
and reduction in flood risk [11]. Furthermore where a
river is present the design of the immediate
surroundings may impact the magnitude any cooling
effect has on the entire urban area.
In order to create sustainable living environments
the design of a river front requires the consideration
of a wide variety of factors. URSULA (Urban River
Corridors and Sustainable Living agendas) is an

Figure 14: Patterns used in the case-study
6. SUMMERY AND CONCLUSIONS
This paper presented a KBCAD tool for the
design of water efficient gardens that is based on the
"Pattern Language". Special emphasis was put on
the climatic adjustment in the design of the garden in
a similar way to the bio-climatic design of buildings:
considering the solar radiation, wind and
"Orientation", in order to maximize the
"Microclimate" conditions of the garden, and to
minimize the "Evapotranspiration" from the plants
and "Soil". This tool includes qualitative part,
presented by eighty patterns, and a quantitative part
presented by an excel sheet, where all parameters to
be considered and the formulas are presented. The
qualitative and the quantitative sections work
together as one matching software and enable a
quantitative examination during and after the design
process.
Gardens, as can be deduced, are holistic
dynamic systems that never stand still. It is essential
to recognize that gardens require evolution and not
revolution in design and maintenance. As a pattern
language tool it is particularly supporting this kind of
conception of design, and makes the process
gradual, flexible and uniquely adjusted to every
project.
Practically, the decision-making process of the
KBCAD tool can be performed over and over again
because gardens are systems that are constantly
undergoing change with altering needs. There must
be a permanent operation of maintenance and
improvements in the garden according to the
dynamic situation of it, in order to obtain the water
efficiency in the garden.
The easiness in using this tool and the
performance obtained by applying it was presented
by a case study that showed that about 60% in water
consumption for garden irrigation could be achieved.
This calculated number was compared with the
actually results on site, based on current utility bill.
This number presents the potential of reduction in
water consumption for irrigation by appropriate
design of gardens.
7. REFERENCE
[1] Be'eri, S. (2004), Water Saving in the Israeli
Urban Sector. A Comprehensive Feasibility
Study. MSc, Technion-Israel institute of
Technology.
[2] U.S Environmental Protection Agency (2010).
"How We Use Water in These United States".
Esa21 [Online] January 2004 http://esa21.
kennesaw.edu/activities/water-use/water-use-
overview-epa.pdf [Accessed 7 April 2010].
[3] Domene, E. & Sauri, D. (2006). "Urbanisation and
Water Consumption: Influencing Factors in the
Metropolitan Region of Barcelona". Urban
Studies [Online] August 43, (9): 1605-1623.
http://usj.sagepub.com/citmgr?gca=spusj;43/9/16
05 [Accessed 7 April 2010].
[4] Alexander, C., Ishikawa, S. & Silverstein, M.
(1977). A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings,
Construction. New York: Oxford University Press.
[5] Mazria, E. (1979). The Passive Solar Energy
Book. Emmaus: Rodale Press.
[6] USGBC-LEED, US Green Building Council
(2007) New Construction & Major Renovation
V2.2, Reference Guide, 3
rd
edition: Water
Efficiency, p. 117-127. Washington DC: USGBC.
[7] Pattern Language (2001) "Methods" Pattern
Language [Online]. http:// www. Patternlanguage.
com/leveltwo/methods.htm [Accessed 1
November 2009].

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
184 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
interdisciplinary project which aims to consider the
social, economic and environmental gains to be
made by integrated and innovative interventions in
urban river corridors. This covers research into the
ecology of urban rivers, the implementation of
sustainable drainage systems, engagement with
stakeholders in urban design, access improvements
to the river, economic value, and the use of computer
visualisations, as well as urban design for an
improved microclimate. These aspects will be
brought together at one site on an urban river to
understand how regeneration may be carried out to
provide multiple benefits.
Even considering purely the microclimate
implications there are many, sometimes competing,
factors that need to be considered. Shading and
orientation to prevailing wind directions have
significant impacts on resulting temperatures.
Equally an increase in temperature in summer can
mean an increase in temperature in winter, and a
resulting reduction in energy required for heating.
Although shading may reduce overheating it will
reduce available daylight. Designs which increase
airflow, removing heat and pollutants, may result in
high and uncomfortable windspeeds during certain
seasons. There is a large proportion of literature
available providing guidance for designing to improve
the local microclimate. A few examples include
recommendations for height-width ratios of streets be
between 0.4 and 0.65 [12] the provision of street
trees with tall trunks and large canopies [13], and the
placement of small 0.1ha parks every 200m [14].
There is also substantial literature discussing the use
of reflective materials [5].
This study presents the preliminary analysis of
microclimate data collected on a river corridor in the
vicinity of a variety of urban forms. The aim of the
study is to understand how variation in urban form on
a river corridor can promote any benefits the river
provides in the mitigation of the UHI effect.
3. METHODOLOGY
The study is located along the river Don as it
travels through the city of Sheffield in the UK. The
river originates in the Pennines and passes through
mainly rural locations before reaching the outskirts of
the city. The city has been shown to have a UHI of
2C on a spring day [15]. The study site borders the
north of the city centre, and extends approximately
150m either side of the inner ring road. A reference
urban weather station is set up 1.5km from the river,
on the inside of the ring road and approximately 25m
higher than the riverside locations. The temperatures
measured at this location are increased by 0.24C in
the results to account for the altitude difference [15].
This reference weather station is located at roof level
and monitors temperature (C), humidity (%), wind
speed (m/s) and direction () and light levels (W/m
2
).
At the study site a weather station is located at a
height of 1.5m adjacent to the river to measure the
microclimatic conditions along the river which
includes temperature, humidity, wind speed, direction
and water temperature. Twelve temperature and
humidity monitors (iButtons, Maxim, USA), housed in
solar radiation shields were installed in three
distinctly different locations. The manufacturers
stated accuracy of the ibuttons is +/- 0.5C, however
a series of calibrations every 4 months found them to
measure to within 0.3C of each other.
Figure 2 shows sketches indicating the three
types of urban form considered. Monitors 1-5 were
mounted at a height of 3m attached to a pedestrian
walkway. Monitors 6-12 were mounted between 1.2
and 1.5m above ground level. Monitors 3,5,8,9, and
10 were attached adjacent to car parks, and monitor
11 was adjacent to a minor road. The remainder
were located in pedestrian areas.
a) b)
c)
Figure 1: Sketches showing three types of urban form
considered a) Open square, b) Narrow Streets and c)
Enclosed. Not to scale.
In the open square the buildings are
approximately 6 storeys to the north and south, and
10 storeys to the west. At the narrow streets site the
buildings are much smaller scale being only 2
storeys high; the streets are pedestrian walkways
N
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 185
<10m wide. At the enclosed site there is a pedestrian
path between the river and the building which is 7
storeys high.
Temperature data has been collected for an
entire year at 20minute intervals. However
preliminary analysis showed different effects due to
the ambient air temperature, therefore only the
summer months will be considered for the analysis
presented here. This includes data from the 1
st
May
to 12
th
August. Monitors 11 and 12 were only in
operation from the 18
th
June. Analysis was carried
out comparing temperatures at each location (Ti) in
reference to the urban weather station (Turban). The
difference between the sites was based on three
hour averages. Since impact of wind and solar gain
would have differed at each site Pearsons
correlation analysis was carried out to identify if
temperature differences between sites were
correlated with changes in light levels or wind
speeds. Where this is deemed significant to
interpreting the results the correlations are presented
below. The notation r is the Pearsons correlation
coefficient with +1 equalling a perfect positive
correlation and -1 a perfect negative correlation. The
statistical significance of this is represented by P,
where p<0.05 is taken as being statistically
significant. The number of independent
measurements used in the analysis is represented
by N. The results are presented for day and night
time separately, where day time is classed as 06:00-
21:00, and night time 21:00- 06:00.
In order to identify the capacity for sensible
cooling from the river the temperature variation of the
water was analysed and consideration given to a
week long period during the summer when air
temperatures approached 25C on five adjacent
days.
4. RESULTS
4.1. Water Temperature
The river has the capacity to provide cooling due
to both sensible and latent heat flux. The former is
directly related to the temperature of the river. The
water temperature of the river, measured at the base
of the channel adjacent to the bank, varied between
2.7 and 17.8C, whereas the air temperature
immediately at the bank in the same location varied
between -3.9 and 29.0C.
Figure 2 presents a period when temperatures
approached or exceeded 25C on 5 days in a row.
The steady increase in river temperature can be
seen over the period of hot weather but with much
smaller variation than the air temperature. During this
time the difference between the air temperatures in
the city, and directly adjacent to the river rises to
nearly 5C. The greatest difference in temperature
occurs first thing in the morning around 7-9am. It
should be noted that the riverside could be up to 2C
warmer than the urban weather monitoring at around
8pm. The correlation between this temperature
difference and the light levels over the city is
significant (r=0.538, p<0.01, N=781) for the summer
period. Further work is required to identify the
magnitude of temperature difference due to the
presence of the river alone.
Figure 2:Variation in urban reference air temperature (thick
black line) and water temperature (dotted grey line) over 7
days. Lowest line shows difference in temperature between
urban station and monitor 6.
4.2. Open Squares
The temperature difference at each location is
calculated using Turban-Ti, therefore a positive value
represents the magnitude of cooling in comparison to
the urban weather station.
Figure 3: Average difference between urban and site
temperature measurements. Dotted lines show night time
differences, solid line day time differences. The error bars
represent the standard deviation.
Figure 3 presents the average cooling in the
urban square adjacent to the river, with temperature
monitors spanning from one directly adjacent to the
river on the east, to monitor 10, 60m away from the
west bank as shown in figure 1a. There is a clear
decrease in temperature at the centre of the river
(measured from the side of a footbridge), with an
average difference at the centre of the river 1C
cooler than the urban location during the day time.
During hot weather this difference can be seen to
increase substantially to nearly 5C (see Figure 2).
interdisciplinary project which aims to consider the
social, economic and environmental gains to be
made by integrated and innovative interventions in
urban river corridors. This covers research into the
ecology of urban rivers, the implementation of
sustainable drainage systems, engagement with
stakeholders in urban design, access improvements
to the river, economic value, and the use of computer
visualisations, as well as urban design for an
improved microclimate. These aspects will be
brought together at one site on an urban river to
understand how regeneration may be carried out to
provide multiple benefits.
Even considering purely the microclimate
implications there are many, sometimes competing,
factors that need to be considered. Shading and
orientation to prevailing wind directions have
significant impacts on resulting temperatures.
Equally an increase in temperature in summer can
mean an increase in temperature in winter, and a
resulting reduction in energy required for heating.
Although shading may reduce overheating it will
reduce available daylight. Designs which increase
airflow, removing heat and pollutants, may result in
high and uncomfortable windspeeds during certain
seasons. There is a large proportion of literature
available providing guidance for designing to improve
the local microclimate. A few examples include
recommendations for height-width ratios of streets be
between 0.4 and 0.65 [12] the provision of street
trees with tall trunks and large canopies [13], and the
placement of small 0.1ha parks every 200m [14].
There is also substantial literature discussing the use
of reflective materials [5].
This study presents the preliminary analysis of
microclimate data collected on a river corridor in the
vicinity of a variety of urban forms. The aim of the
study is to understand how variation in urban form on
a river corridor can promote any benefits the river
provides in the mitigation of the UHI effect.
3. METHODOLOGY
The study is located along the river Don as it
travels through the city of Sheffield in the UK. The
river originates in the Pennines and passes through
mainly rural locations before reaching the outskirts of
the city. The city has been shown to have a UHI of
2C on a spring day [15]. The study site borders the
north of the city centre, and extends approximately
150m either side of the inner ring road. A reference
urban weather station is set up 1.5km from the river,
on the inside of the ring road and approximately 25m
higher than the riverside locations. The temperatures
measured at this location are increased by 0.24C in
the results to account for the altitude difference [15].
This reference weather station is located at roof level
and monitors temperature (C), humidity (%), wind
speed (m/s) and direction () and light levels (W/m
2
).
At the study site a weather station is located at a
height of 1.5m adjacent to the river to measure the
microclimatic conditions along the river which
includes temperature, humidity, wind speed, direction
and water temperature. Twelve temperature and
humidity monitors (iButtons, Maxim, USA), housed in
solar radiation shields were installed in three
distinctly different locations. The manufacturers
stated accuracy of the ibuttons is +/- 0.5C, however
a series of calibrations every 4 months found them to
measure to within 0.3C of each other.
Figure 2 shows sketches indicating the three
types of urban form considered. Monitors 1-5 were
mounted at a height of 3m attached to a pedestrian
walkway. Monitors 6-12 were mounted between 1.2
and 1.5m above ground level. Monitors 3,5,8,9, and
10 were attached adjacent to car parks, and monitor
11 was adjacent to a minor road. The remainder
were located in pedestrian areas.
a) b)
c)
Figure 1: Sketches showing three types of urban form
considered a) Open square, b) Narrow Streets and c)
Enclosed. Not to scale.
In the open square the buildings are
approximately 6 storeys to the north and south, and
10 storeys to the west. At the narrow streets site the
buildings are much smaller scale being only 2
storeys high; the streets are pedestrian walkways
N
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
186 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
The cooling decreases rapidly with distance from
the river to be within the limits of temperature
detection. At the furthest point from the river there is
an increase in cooling. This logger is located near to
an opening aligned to the prevailing wind, and is
shaded for the majority of the day. However
correlations with temperature difference between this
logger and the centre of the river (T10-T6) showed
little correlation to either sunshine or wind speed
(r=0.2; P<0.05, N=781 and r=-0.02, P<0.50, N=781
respectively). At night the difference alters and the
riverside locations show increased temperatures in
comparison to the urban reference. This warming
though has a lower magnitude than the cooling
provided during the day and approaches the limits of
the monitoring equipment.
4.3. Variation in riverside temperatures
The variation in temperature parallel to the river
was analysed in order to understand how the
buildings form adjacent to the river impacts on any
cooling effect. Temperatures measured at monitors
1,6,7,11 and 12 shown in Figure 1 were used in
comparison. As before the average daytime and
night-time differences from the urban reference
location are taken and plotted along with the
standard deviation in Figure 4. Similar to above the
riverside locations are cooler during the day time and
warmer at night. Monitor 11 which is located on the
opposite of the river to the open square is the
warmest position during both the day and the night.
This monitor is located closest to a road.
Monitor 1 which is located at an opening to a
linear street orientated approximately in the
prevailing wind direction is the coolest location, this
is also the location furthest from the urban centre,
approximately 300m upstream from the open square
site.
Figure 4: Cooling magnitude at locations adjacent to river
with different urban forms. Dotted line shows the night time
differences, and the solid line the day time differences. The
error bars represent the standard deviation.
4.4. Narrow Streets
The narrow streets site gives the opportunity to
consider two different scenarios, with an opening to
the river, and a street with no opening (see Figure
1b). Figures 5 and 6 show the temperature variation
along both streets from the riverside, till the opening
into the car park. As can be seen at the ends of the
streets (monitors 3 and 5) the temperatures are very
similar, approximately 0.5C cooler than the urban
reference location during the day and 0.5C warmer
at night. Within the streets at positions 2 and 4 there
is a large difference. However, the south east facing
wall behind monitor 4 is less shaded than at position
2. A correlation between the temperature difference
between monitors 2 and 4, and the light levels in
W/m
2
over the city found this temperature difference
has a significant positive correlation to the light levels
(r=0.82, p<0.01, N=781).
Figure 5: Magnitude of cooling along street open to the river
including temperature measured at river centre. Dotted line
shows the night time differences and the solid line the day
time differences. The error bars represent the standard
deviation.
Figure 6: Magnitude of cooling along street closed to the
river including temperature measured at river centre and
riverside. Dotted line shows the night time differences and
the solid line the day time differences. The error bars
represent the standard deviation.
Monitors 3,5 and 9 are all located approximately
30m from the riverside. Although they are based in
different locations, considering the average data for
the summer period they all show similar differences
to the urban temperatures being 0.5C cooler in the
daytime and 0.5C warmer at night.
5. CONCLUSION
This study provides preliminary analysis of
microclimate data collected along an urban river
corridor. The results showed cooler temperatures
immediately above the river compared to the banks
of the river. A daytime average reduction in
temperature of 1C compared to the urban
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 187
environment was found during the summer months.
During night-time the river was found to be warmer
than the urban reference. Variation in air temperature
was found depending on the urban form adjacent to
the river, with the coolest location being at a narrow
street aligned to approximately the prevailing wind.
However this site was also the furthest from the city
centre. Two adjacent streets, open and closed to the
river had very similar temperatures at the far end
where they connected to the same space. Thirty
metres from the river the temperature difference to
the urban location was similar despite differences in
urban form.
Further work is required to assess the variation in
temperature across the entire year, and to
incorporate the effect of solar radiation and wind
speed into the analysis. Furthermore the
interdependency between water temperature and air
temperature requires consideration. The work
presented above provided a highly simplistic method
of differentiating between day and night. Considering
the Urban Heat Island effect has its most profound
effect during the night analysis of the transient
variation over the diurnal period is required to
understand how the difference in temperature
between the river and the urban area varies through
time.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper is based on work undertaken as part
of the URSULA project funded by the Engineering
and Physical Sciences Research Council (grant
number EP/F007388/1). The authors are grateful for
EPSRC's support. The views presented in the paper
are those of the authors, and cannot be taken as
indicative in any way of the position of URSULA
colleagues, partners or of EPSRC. All errors are
those of the authors alone.
7. REFERENCES
[1] Howard, L (1833) The Climate of London.
London: Harvey and Darton.
[2] Stone, B. and Rodgers M.O (2001) Urban Form
and Thermal Efficiency: How the Design of
Cities influence the urban heat island effect.
Journal of American Planning Association, 67(2).
186-198.
[3] Coutts, A.M., Beringer J., and Tapper N.J
(2007). Impact of Increasing Urban Density on
Local Climate: Spatial and Temporal Variations
in Surface Energy Balance in Melbourne,
Australia. Journal of Applied Meteorology and
Climatology, 2007. 46: 477-493.
[4] Grimmond, C.S.B. and Oke T.R (1999) Heat
storage in urban areas: Local-scale observations
and evaluation of a simple model. Journal of
Applied Meteorology, 38: 922-940.
[5] Smith, C. and Levermore G. (2008) Designing
urban spaces and buildings to improve
sustainability and quality of life in a warmer
world. Energy Policy, 36: 4558-4562.
[6] Jauregui, E (1990) Influence of a large urban
park on temperature and convective
precipitation in a tropical city. Energy and
Buildings, 15: 457-463
[7] Giridharan, R., et al. (2008) Lowering the
outdoor temperature in high-rise high-density
residential developments of coastal Hong Kong:
The vegetation influence. Building and
Environment, 43(10): 1583-1595
[8] Nishimura, N., et al. (1998) Novel Water
Facilities for creation of comfortable urban
micrometeorology. Solar Energy, 64(4-6): 197-
207
[9] Murakawa, S., Sekine T., and Narita K. (1990)
Study of the Effects of a River on the Thermal
Environment in an Urban Area. Energy and
Buildings, 15-16: p. 993-1001.
[10] Kim, Y.H., et al. (2008) Does the restoration of
an inner-city stream in Seoul affect local thermal
environment. Theoretical Applied Climatology,
92: p. 239-248
[11] CIWEM, (2007) Policy Position Statement on
Deculverting of Water-courses. Chartered
Institute of Water and Environmental
Management: London.
[12] Oke, T.R. (1988) Street Design and Urban
Canopy Layer Climate. Energy and Buildings,
11: p. 103-113.
[13] Yang, F., Lau, S.S.Y. and Qian, F. (2010)
Summer time heat island intensities in three high
rise housing quarters in inner city Shanghai,
China. Building and Environment, 45(1): p. 115-
134.
[14] Shashua-Bar, L. and Hoffman, M.E (2000)
Vegetation as a climatic component in the
design of an urban street: An emperical model
for predicting the cooling effect of urban green
areas with trees. Energy and Buildings, 31(3): p.
221-235.
[15] Lee, S.E. and Sharples S. (2008) An Analysis of
the Urban Heat Island of Sheffield - the impact of
a changing climate., in 25th Conference on
Passive and Low Energy Architecture. 2008:
Dublin.
The cooling decreases rapidly with distance from
the river to be within the limits of temperature
detection. At the furthest point from the river there is
an increase in cooling. This logger is located near to
an opening aligned to the prevailing wind, and is
shaded for the majority of the day. However
correlations with temperature difference between this
logger and the centre of the river (T10-T6) showed
little correlation to either sunshine or wind speed
(r=0.2; P<0.05, N=781 and r=-0.02, P<0.50, N=781
respectively). At night the difference alters and the
riverside locations show increased temperatures in
comparison to the urban reference. This warming
though has a lower magnitude than the cooling
provided during the day and approaches the limits of
the monitoring equipment.
4.3. Variation in riverside temperatures
The variation in temperature parallel to the river
was analysed in order to understand how the
buildings form adjacent to the river impacts on any
cooling effect. Temperatures measured at monitors
1,6,7,11 and 12 shown in Figure 1 were used in
comparison. As before the average daytime and
night-time differences from the urban reference
location are taken and plotted along with the
standard deviation in Figure 4. Similar to above the
riverside locations are cooler during the day time and
warmer at night. Monitor 11 which is located on the
opposite of the river to the open square is the
warmest position during both the day and the night.
This monitor is located closest to a road.
Monitor 1 which is located at an opening to a
linear street orientated approximately in the
prevailing wind direction is the coolest location, this
is also the location furthest from the urban centre,
approximately 300m upstream from the open square
site.
Figure 4: Cooling magnitude at locations adjacent to river
with different urban forms. Dotted line shows the night time
differences, and the solid line the day time differences. The
error bars represent the standard deviation.
4.4. Narrow Streets
The narrow streets site gives the opportunity to
consider two different scenarios, with an opening to
the river, and a street with no opening (see Figure
1b). Figures 5 and 6 show the temperature variation
along both streets from the riverside, till the opening
into the car park. As can be seen at the ends of the
streets (monitors 3 and 5) the temperatures are very
similar, approximately 0.5C cooler than the urban
reference location during the day and 0.5C warmer
at night. Within the streets at positions 2 and 4 there
is a large difference. However, the south east facing
wall behind monitor 4 is less shaded than at position
2. A correlation between the temperature difference
between monitors 2 and 4, and the light levels in
W/m
2
over the city found this temperature difference
has a significant positive correlation to the light levels
(r=0.82, p<0.01, N=781).
Figure 5: Magnitude of cooling along street open to the river
including temperature measured at river centre. Dotted line
shows the night time differences and the solid line the day
time differences. The error bars represent the standard
deviation.
Figure 6: Magnitude of cooling along street closed to the
river including temperature measured at river centre and
riverside. Dotted line shows the night time differences and
the solid line the day time differences. The error bars
represent the standard deviation.
Monitors 3,5 and 9 are all located approximately
30m from the riverside. Although they are based in
different locations, considering the average data for
the summer period they all show similar differences
to the urban temperatures being 0.5C cooler in the
daytime and 0.5C warmer at night.
5. CONCLUSION
This study provides preliminary analysis of
microclimate data collected along an urban river
corridor. The results showed cooler temperatures
immediately above the river compared to the banks
of the river. A daytime average reduction in
temperature of 1C compared to the urban
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 189
ARCHTECTURE AND SUSTANABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
SBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - SBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011

1

Design AIterations in Urban SeIf-BuiIt Houses in
Campinas, BraziI: AnaIysis of their Effects on
VentiIation Through CFD
Mariela OLVERA 1, Lucila LABAK , Paulo VATAVUK
1Curso de Arquitetura e Urbanismo, Universidade Federal do Tocantins, Palmas/TO, Brasil
2,3Faculdade de Engenharia Civil Arquitetura e Urbanismo, UNCAMP, Campinas/SP, Brasil
ABSTRACT: There are a lot of papers about social and economic factors of low-income people who live in self-built
housing constructions. Generally, project houses for these people come true in places with poor infrastructure
conditions and low value. The aim of this paper is to show how the modifications in the projects of these houses
without professional assistance can be negative for the natural ventilation system. By using the CFD software
Phoenics 3.6, an analysis of the ventilation of self-built houses in the urban area of Campinas, Brazil, is carried out.
Three houses which suffered modifications in relation to their first projects in a period of five years were analyzed,
through simulations: in the first one, the number of rooms was increased; in the second one, the facade was
altered and finally, the roof area was extended in the front of the house to create garages. For the simulation each
lot was divided in cells defining a staggered mesh of 126 cells 1m each, following the standard lot size. The results
show changes in the direction and velocity of wind flow, as well as areas with recirculation of flow originated from
these changes, proving the necessity of previous studies to design changes that may seem insignificant in relation
to the built area.
Keywords: Simulation, Ventilation, CFDs

1. INTRODUCTION
Much of the social housing projects in the city of
Campinas are located in areas deemed unfavorable
in large-scale urban development, which creates
conditions for the establishment of settlements in low-
income population, due to the low value of the land.
Consequently, those ventures show precarious and
inadequate to the minimum quality expected,
especially for the characteristics of the project on the
deployment, interference with the environment,
flexibility, personalization, needs and desires of users.
[1]
Self-building is a construction technique based on
modifying frequent area of buildings constructed
within the lot, increasing the built area within the
same, not taking into account existing rules and laws.
The paper proposes a study of how wind speed and
flow are altered by changes made by self-builders
both in the inner space of the lot of the buildings, as
the deployment on the block.
n the neighborhoods of self-building, the impact
of changes is 70% and reflects the construction steps
carried out without prior planning, featuring a vicious
cycle of building, demolishing, rebuilding, where
rebuild is a constant throughout the neighborhood.
The housing quality involves a different set of
requirements and orders of variables, constructed
area. The notion of comfort or concern about aspects
of humanization of housing does not seem relevant in
the universe studied. Unfortunately, only a tiny portion
of the changes made seeks comfort. [2]
The projective changes can be seen in two ways:
vertical and horizontal transformations. The horizontal
transformation includes the decline mandatory
coverage provided by the Law of Use and Occupancy
of the Land [3] which at this moment becomes the car
garage or the increase of the built environment at the
back of the buildings as a place for barbecues and
family entertainment. The vertical transformation may
represent the exchange of facade ornaments,
aesthetic choice by the people and also security when
they are involved with the exchange of bars for walls
and gates, or increase in the boundary walls, which
are also not allowed by Law of Use and Occupancy of
the Land. [4] [5]
The purpose of this study is to evaluate, through
computer simulation, the changes in natural
ventilation within the lot outside the home; occasioned
by constructive changes in the buildings pertaining to
each lot studied.
2. SIMULATION
For the computer simulation was used the
methodology proposed by Oliveira, Labaki, and
Vatavuk [5]. The article divides the simulation into two
stages: urban area without buildings and second only
to the block with the buildings. n the whole it was
done a survey with 13 houses randomly chosen in the
So Jos neighborhood resulting in the standard
block shown in figure 1.
The characteristic block is formed by residences
that were modified between 2000 and 2005, for
comparison. The block contains models of the
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
190 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
PLEA2011 - 27th nternational conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
2 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (NSDE AND OUTSDE)
residences according to their design of the years
2000 and 2005. To obtain these data a survey was
made with all residences in the neighborhood in those
years.
The residences were visited and their plan was
drawn. Figures 3 and 4 shows the plan of the
residence of figure 2 in 2000 and 2005, with the
modifications that occurred in the period.

Figure 1: The characteristic block used in the simulation, the
house of figure 3 corresponds to the 8
th
and 9
th
houses, from
left to right.
For this paper will be examined buildings C5, C8,
C13. The first amendment demonstrates the
constructed area, the second, changes in coverage
and the third change of facade. Figure 3 corresponds
to the C5 building in two phases: one building with
amendment and one without change. This structure
corresponds to changes in the built area. t's like
another house had been built in the front area of the
building. Figure 2 shows the C5s residence depicted
in 2000 and 2005 respectively.


Figure 2: Residence depicted (C5) in So Jos
neighborhood at different times, first in 2000 and second in
2005.
Figures 3 and 4 represent the plans with
amendments.

Figure 3: Plan of the C5s residence of figure 3 as observed
in 2000.
Figure 4: Plan of the C5s residence of figure 3 as observed
in 2005.
This building represents the changes in coverage.
A very common type of this building is the garage
area coverage for fallback binding site proposed by
the LUOS. Figure 5 corresponds to C8 building in two
phases: one with amendment and one without it



Figure 5: Residence depicted (C8) in So Jos
neighborhood at different times, on the left in 2000 and on
the right in 2005.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 191
PLEA2011 - 27th nternational conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (NSDE AND OUTSDE) 3
Figure 6 shows the plan of the building and cover
change that is visible in Figure 6.
R
U
A
R
U
A
sala
sala
cozinha
copa
quarto
quarto
quarto
quarto
w.c.
w.c.
cozinha
varanda

Figure 6: Plan of the C8s residence of figure 4 as observed
in 2005.
Figure 7 shows the last building, it happens to
change the facade elements. The wall located on the
right is replaced by openings precast concrete; there
is also the completion of the wall


Figure 7: Residence depicted (C13) in So Jos
neighborhood at different times, on the left in 2000 and on
the right in 2005.

Figure 8: Plan of the C13s residence of figure 6.
To set the values of wind speed inside the
buildings and the way of the airflow around the
buildings set up a grid of 32 cells. Figure 9 shows the
prototype simulated by software Phoenics 3.6, with
the definition of the mesh used. The colors represent
the speed changes in the simulated area.

Figure 9: The prototype simulated (houses).
All buildings have 32 cells in the frontal area and
calculated the speed of 32 cells in each house at z =
1, as Figure 10.

PLEA2011 - 27th nternational conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
2 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (NSDE AND OUTSDE)
residences according to their design of the years
2000 and 2005. To obtain these data a survey was
made with all residences in the neighborhood in those
years.
The residences were visited and their plan was
drawn. Figures 3 and 4 shows the plan of the
residence of figure 2 in 2000 and 2005, with the
modifications that occurred in the period.

Figure 1: The characteristic block used in the simulation, the
house of figure 3 corresponds to the 8
th
and 9
th
houses, from
left to right.
For this paper will be examined buildings C5, C8,
C13. The first amendment demonstrates the
constructed area, the second, changes in coverage
and the third change of facade. Figure 3 corresponds
to the C5 building in two phases: one building with
amendment and one without change. This structure
corresponds to changes in the built area. t's like
another house had been built in the front area of the
building. Figure 2 shows the C5s residence depicted
in 2000 and 2005 respectively.


Figure 2: Residence depicted (C5) in So Jos
neighborhood at different times, first in 2000 and second in
2005.
Figures 3 and 4 represent the plans with
amendments.

Figure 3: Plan of the C5s residence of figure 3 as observed
in 2000.
Figure 4: Plan of the C5s residence of figure 3 as observed
in 2005.
This building represents the changes in coverage.
A very common type of this building is the garage
area coverage for fallback binding site proposed by
the LUOS. Figure 5 corresponds to C8 building in two
phases: one with amendment and one without it



Figure 5: Residence depicted (C8) in So Jos
neighborhood at different times, on the left in 2000 and on
the right in 2005.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
192 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
PLEA2011 - 27th nternational conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (NSDE AND OUTSDE) 5
The house C8 features changes in its project,
change speed and direction of wind flow, undergoing
changes in the interior of the lot, the construction of a
flat roof on the front of the lot. n this urban setting,
changing the vertical coverage can influence the
speed of the air inside the standard lot. The graphs
below show the values of speed, according to
proposals by the mesh cells.
Table 2: The speed values for cells of the building C8
according to figure 12. The lines show values for the building
in 2000 and 2005.


The final analysis is the C13 home. The 13 house
has changed the facade. There was an increase in
the entrance area of the wind. (Figure 13)













Figure 13: Streamlines, for the house C13 in 2000 and 2005.
The graphs below show the values of speed,
according to proposals by the mesh cells.
Table 3: The speed values for cells of the building C13
shown in figure 12. The lines show values for the building in
2000 and 2005.


Table 4 shows the speed values in m/s for the
cells of the house of Figure 13
Table 4: Speed values (m/s) for the coordinate points X and
Y .
Point
Year
X
Y 2 3 4 5
11
2005 0,34 0,39 0,44 0,47
2000 0,45 0,47 0,48 0,53
12
2005 0,28 0,31 0,34 0,34
2000 0,47 0,54 0,58 0,63
13
2005 0,20 0,21 0,23 0,23
2000 0,50 0,57 0,63 0,68
14
2005 0,24 0,23 0,22 0,20
2000 0,47 0,57 0,64 0,69
Point
Year
X
Y 6 7 8 9
11
2005 0,48 0,49 0,48 0,47
2000 0,62 0,70 0,78 0,86
12
2005 0,33 0,35 0,42 0,50
2000 0,69 0,75 0,82 0,89
13
2005 0,24 0,30 0,41 0,50
2000 0,72 0,78 0,83 0,91
14
2005 0,21 0,28 0,39 0,44
2000 0,73 0,78 0,83 0,91

For the analysis of Table 4, it is noticed that the
speed in the buildings in 2000 was higher than in
PLEA2011 - 27th nternational conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
4 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (NSDE AND OUTSDE)
Figure 10: Points used for the monitoring of buildings.
Thus the results are shown images taken from the
simulation, along with the chart with the speed
differences between the points.
3. RESULTS
The C5 house has changed its project, change
speed and direction of wind flow, with consequent
changes in the interior of the lot. t also notes in that
house the effect of the corridor side. The increased
length of recirculation caused by the coverage and
the creation of the recirculation (vorticity) effect can
also be observed.
By evaluating the images of figure 11 it is
observed that the house C5, the flow in 2000 had a
greater regularity related to a flow lines than in 2005.



Figure 11: Streamlines, for the house C5 200 and 2005,
simulating the wind flow to cells as shown in figure 10.
Graphs 1, 2 and 3 show the speed values in the
cells as shown in figure 12 for z = 1m and y = 11, 12,
13, 14. The axis of coordinates refers to the speed
and varies from 0 to 1.0 m/s and the y-axis shows the
points on the coordinate X.
n table 1, there is uniformity of the flow at 200.
Since the flow in 2005 shows a loss of speed
compared to 2000. The non-linearity of the flow
velocity shows that it took more time inside the urban
area which suggests the internal vortices.
Table 1: Speed values for the cells of the buildings as shown
in figure 12. The lines show values for the building in 2000
and 2005. To cells z=1 and y=11, y=12, y=13, y=14

The house C8, shown in Figure 12, was the
building that suffered the alteration of coverage. This
presented a recirculation of current lines in about 15
seconds longer than before coverage is placed.
Figure 12: Streamlines, for the house C8 200 and 2005,
simulating the wind flow to cells as shown in figure 10.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 193
PLEA2011 - 27th nternational conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (NSDE AND OUTSDE) 5
The house C8 features changes in its project,
change speed and direction of wind flow, undergoing
changes in the interior of the lot, the construction of a
flat roof on the front of the lot. n this urban setting,
changing the vertical coverage can influence the
speed of the air inside the standard lot. The graphs
below show the values of speed, according to
proposals by the mesh cells.
Table 2: The speed values for cells of the building C8
according to figure 12. The lines show values for the building
in 2000 and 2005.


The final analysis is the C13 home. The 13 house
has changed the facade. There was an increase in
the entrance area of the wind. (Figure 13)













Figure 13: Streamlines, for the house C13 in 2000 and 2005.
The graphs below show the values of speed,
according to proposals by the mesh cells.
Table 3: The speed values for cells of the building C13
shown in figure 12. The lines show values for the building in
2000 and 2005.


Table 4 shows the speed values in m/s for the
cells of the house of Figure 13
Table 4: Speed values (m/s) for the coordinate points X and
Y .
Point
Year
X
Y 2 3 4 5
11
2005 0,34 0,39 0,44 0,47
2000 0,45 0,47 0,48 0,53
12
2005 0,28 0,31 0,34 0,34
2000 0,47 0,54 0,58 0,63
13
2005 0,20 0,21 0,23 0,23
2000 0,50 0,57 0,63 0,68
14
2005 0,24 0,23 0,22 0,20
2000 0,47 0,57 0,64 0,69
Point
Year
X
Y 6 7 8 9
11
2005 0,48 0,49 0,48 0,47
2000 0,62 0,70 0,78 0,86
12
2005 0,33 0,35 0,42 0,50
2000 0,69 0,75 0,82 0,89
13
2005 0,24 0,30 0,41 0,50
2000 0,72 0,78 0,83 0,91
14
2005 0,21 0,28 0,39 0,44
2000 0,73 0,78 0,83 0,91

For the analysis of Table 4, it is noticed that the
speed in the buildings in 2000 was higher than in
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
194 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
PLEA2011 - 27th nternational conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
6 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (NSDE AND OUTSDE)
2005, demonstrating that the alterations projective
interfere in wind speed within the area of the lot.
The highest speeds found within in the lot area
occur in the house 13, which is around the corner
from the mainstream. Yet these values are between
0.9 and 1.4 m/s. According to studies by Givoni [7],
the location of openings in residences, as well as
size, obstacles and the possibility of cross-ventilation
openings may cause variations from 5% to 30% in the
amount of ventilation inside the houses. Under these
conditions the internal value of wind speed, usually
coming from areas of turbulence, was far below the
minimum standard of 0.2 m/s proposed by ASHRAE
(1997)[8], in the vast majority of buildings blending
"Jardim So Jos.
The houses located with the main view in the
direction of the prevailing wind, could be benefited
with more ventilation if the width of the streets were
larger than the seven meters found in Jardim So
Jos. The currently width makes the recirculation
occurs mainly around the corner. The vortices reduce
wind speed, and that found in lots of houses not
exceeding 1.4 m/s
4. DISCUSSION
Simulations were largely studied so that it could
be reached a final result with the best possible
exactitude. t is important to state that PHOENCS is
very complex software, but the insertion of data was
fulfilled with the best clearness possible.
The analyses of ventilation in self-build houses
through CFD simulation in the settlement So Jos
enlarged the knowledge about natural ventilation in
urban areas as altered by self-builders. The proposed
methodological tool for simulation shows the
problems resulting from this constructive model and
how it reflects in natural ventilation of the area.
Low wind velocities and the tendency of wind to
follow its natural flow contribute to the creation of
vortices in almost all free areas in the interior of
individual lots. This contribution comes even from
side corridors, which act as natural wind catchers,
from which the wind reaches larger areas.
To owner-builders, the recommendations refer to
relation between gate and/or fences, external walls,
side corridors, roofing slope. Special attention should
be drawn to the effect of walls in the limits of the lot
and garage roof, which affect very negatively the
ventilation in the houses, with harmful effects on
environmental comfort and life quality of the
inhabitants.

5. REFERENCES
[1] D. C. C. K. Kowaltowski; L. C. Labaki;, S. A. M.
Pina, S. R. Bertoli;, R. C. Ruschel; E. Favero; L
Francisco, E V. S. Gomes, Analise de
parmetros de implantao de conjuntos
habitacionais de interesse social: nfase nos
aspectos de sustentabilidade ambiental e da
qualidade de vida. Relatrio parcial de projeto de
pesquisa FNEP do programa de Tecnologia de
habitao/HABTARE: s/e, referente ao perodo
de 19/09/02 a 19/04/03.
[2] D. C. C. K. Kowaltowski; S. A. M. Pina, R. C.
Ruschel. Elementos sociais e culturais da casa
popular em Campinas. Relatrio Cientfico, FEC /
UNCAMP em Campinas, SP: s/e, 1995.
[3] M. C. A. de Oliveira.- Simulao computacional
para avaliao dos efeitos das modificaes em
casas autoconstrudas sobre a ventilao.
Campinas. 2009. Thesis (doctorate). Unicamp.
Campinas. 2009.
[4] CAMPNAS - Cmara Municipal. Lei
complementar n. 004 de 17 de Janeiro de 1996-
nstitui o plano diretor do Municpio. Campinas:
Dirio Oficial do Municpio, 18 Jan. 1996.
[5] CAMPNAS - Cmara Municipal. Lei
complementar n. 009 de 23 de Dezembro de
2003 - Dispe sobre o cdigo de projetos e
execues de obras e edificaes do municpio
de campinas. Campinas: Dirio Oficial do
municpio, 27 Dez. 2003.
[6] M. C. A. Oliveira; L. C. Labaki; P. Vatavuk. The
application of simulations Computational in CFD,
in studies of Natural Ventilation, in urban areas
characterized by the selfconstruction in
Campinas/BR. n: building simulation 2009, 2009,
Glasgow. Building Simulation 2009. Glasgow:
BPSA, 2009. v. 1. p. 1-8.
[7] B. Givoni. Climate considerations in building and
urban design. Wiley, USA: s/e, 1998.
[8] ASHRAE - Ashrae Handbook, Fundamentals -
nch Pound Edition. Atlanta: America society of
Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning
Engineers, 1997.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 195
Microclimate in Urban Forest Fragments
CRISTIANE DACANAL
1
, LUCILA CHEBEL LABAKI
1
1
School of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil
ABSTRACT: Urban forest fragments play an important role in urban climate. The foliage of plants intercepts
solar radiation, diminishing heat gain above canopy layer; air humidity is increased by transpiration process.
This specific microclimate in green areas depends on foliage density, diversity and type of species and canopy
stratification. Sky View Factor (SVF) represents physical structure of vegetation and it can be related with the
microclimate. Six urban forest fragments are selected in Campinas, Sao Paulo (Brazil). Air temperature and air
humidity were monitored in 60 points during the year of 2009. In addition, hemispherical photographs were used
to calculate SVF in the Gap Light Analyzer software. This index was compared to microclimate data. Results
demonstrate that minimum air temperature and daily thermal amplitude augment with open canopy. Little green
areas are more susceptible to urban microclimate influences. They presented elevated SVF, low relative air
humidity and elevated minimum air temperature. The homogeneity of forestry structure associated with low open
canopy could indicate thermal stability, serving as parameter to forestry management.
Keywords: microclimate, sky view factor, urban forestry, urban planning

1. INTRODUCTION
The green urban areas, such as squares, parks
and forests perform a socio-environmental role, as
they attract people to recreation, sports and rest and
also bring benefits to the environment.
These areas, when vegetated, are the habitat for
wildlife, intercept the rain that slowly permeates the
soil, which prevents runoff and flooding, improve air
quality retaining pollutant particles, and modify the
urban microclimate [1].
In tropical regions, the microclimate of urban
forests aside from providing thermal comfort [2]
works on the nearby buildings, which may be more
efficient from the energy standpoint.
In Brazil, the researches on the microclimate of
isolated or grouped trees as well as researches on
thermal comfort in opens spaces have been
developed in recent years [3]. However, little is know
about urban forest fragments, which are
characterized by dense, stratified and diverse
vegetation.
Overall, the researches on forests fragments
focus on the management and conservation of areas
located outside the urban perimeter [4]-[5]-[6].
How would the microclimate of urban forest
fragments with high leaf density be? Would there be
a relation between the physical characteristics of the
forest canopy and the resulting microclimate? Can
the influence of urban climate on the microclimate of
the fragments be identified?
1.1. Vegetation an microclimate
The plants, seen as a living organism, absorb
and emit radiation, perspire and exchange heat with
the atmosphere. The leaves and flowers orient
themselves in relation to the incident radiation, the
stomata open or close themselves according to the
availability of radiation and water and physical and
biochemical mechanisms occur so that their energy
balance is efficient.
Part of the incident solar radiation is absorbed
during the photosynthetic process, and another
fraction is transmitted and reflected. In composition
of plants, with several strata (trees, shrubs, grass,
vine), the radiation is used by the highest crowns to
the lowest foliage, so that the radiation that reaches
the ground is only 2% [7].
The more varied in species, the greater the
capacity to absorb radiation. Comparing the radiation
spectrum under a shrub fence to a dense forest, one
can observe that the range between 400 m and 700
m is virtually all absorbed by the forest, while in the
shrubs this range is focused around 700 m [7].
The water percolated in the soil is absorbed by
the roots, occurring the transpiration from the leaves
and the evaporation from the soil. The larger the leaf
area, the larger the transpiration, as long as there is
water availability.
The leaves gain heat and lose heat through
ventilation, which accelerates the transpiration
process and the convective exchanges. Hence, the
greater the wind speed, the greater the heat and
humidity loss from the plants to the air.
The resulting microclimate in the height of the
tree trunks is characterized by the shading, low
temperature and high humidity, considering that the
daily temperature range is lower than in open fields.
The night warming occurs due to the barrier formed
by the vegetation foliage in relation to the heat loss
from the soil to the atmosphere.
Next to green wooded areas the air temperature
decreases and the air humidity increases, winds are
displaced and their speed is reduced, the solar
radiation is attenuated by the vegetation foliage. The
result is a microclimate next to the maritime,
modifying the urban climate usually more arid and
hot [8].
PLEA2011 - 27th nternational conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
6 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (NSDE AND OUTSDE)
2005, demonstrating that the alterations projective
interfere in wind speed within the area of the lot.
The highest speeds found within in the lot area
occur in the house 13, which is around the corner
from the mainstream. Yet these values are between
0.9 and 1.4 m/s. According to studies by Givoni [7],
the location of openings in residences, as well as
size, obstacles and the possibility of cross-ventilation
openings may cause variations from 5% to 30% in the
amount of ventilation inside the houses. Under these
conditions the internal value of wind speed, usually
coming from areas of turbulence, was far below the
minimum standard of 0.2 m/s proposed by ASHRAE
(1997)[8], in the vast majority of buildings blending
"Jardim So Jos.
The houses located with the main view in the
direction of the prevailing wind, could be benefited
with more ventilation if the width of the streets were
larger than the seven meters found in Jardim So
Jos. The currently width makes the recirculation
occurs mainly around the corner. The vortices reduce
wind speed, and that found in lots of houses not
exceeding 1.4 m/s
4. DISCUSSION
Simulations were largely studied so that it could
be reached a final result with the best possible
exactitude. t is important to state that PHOENCS is
very complex software, but the insertion of data was
fulfilled with the best clearness possible.
The analyses of ventilation in self-build houses
through CFD simulation in the settlement So Jos
enlarged the knowledge about natural ventilation in
urban areas as altered by self-builders. The proposed
methodological tool for simulation shows the
problems resulting from this constructive model and
how it reflects in natural ventilation of the area.
Low wind velocities and the tendency of wind to
follow its natural flow contribute to the creation of
vortices in almost all free areas in the interior of
individual lots. This contribution comes even from
side corridors, which act as natural wind catchers,
from which the wind reaches larger areas.
To owner-builders, the recommendations refer to
relation between gate and/or fences, external walls,
side corridors, roofing slope. Special attention should
be drawn to the effect of walls in the limits of the lot
and garage roof, which affect very negatively the
ventilation in the houses, with harmful effects on
environmental comfort and life quality of the
inhabitants.

5. REFERENCES
[1] D. C. C. K. Kowaltowski; L. C. Labaki;, S. A. M.
Pina, S. R. Bertoli;, R. C. Ruschel; E. Favero; L
Francisco, E V. S. Gomes, Analise de
parmetros de implantao de conjuntos
habitacionais de interesse social: nfase nos
aspectos de sustentabilidade ambiental e da
qualidade de vida. Relatrio parcial de projeto de
pesquisa FNEP do programa de Tecnologia de
habitao/HABTARE: s/e, referente ao perodo
de 19/09/02 a 19/04/03.
[2] D. C. C. K. Kowaltowski; S. A. M. Pina, R. C.
Ruschel. Elementos sociais e culturais da casa
popular em Campinas. Relatrio Cientfico, FEC /
UNCAMP em Campinas, SP: s/e, 1995.
[3] M. C. A. de Oliveira.- Simulao computacional
para avaliao dos efeitos das modificaes em
casas autoconstrudas sobre a ventilao.
Campinas. 2009. Thesis (doctorate). Unicamp.
Campinas. 2009.
[4] CAMPNAS - Cmara Municipal. Lei
complementar n. 004 de 17 de Janeiro de 1996-
nstitui o plano diretor do Municpio. Campinas:
Dirio Oficial do Municpio, 18 Jan. 1996.
[5] CAMPNAS - Cmara Municipal. Lei
complementar n. 009 de 23 de Dezembro de
2003 - Dispe sobre o cdigo de projetos e
execues de obras e edificaes do municpio
de campinas. Campinas: Dirio Oficial do
municpio, 27 Dez. 2003.
[6] M. C. A. Oliveira; L. C. Labaki; P. Vatavuk. The
application of simulations Computational in CFD,
in studies of Natural Ventilation, in urban areas
characterized by the selfconstruction in
Campinas/BR. n: building simulation 2009, 2009,
Glasgow. Building Simulation 2009. Glasgow:
BPSA, 2009. v. 1. p. 1-8.
[7] B. Givoni. Climate considerations in building and
urban design. Wiley, USA: s/e, 1998.
[8] ASHRAE - Ashrae Handbook, Fundamentals -
nch Pound Edition. Atlanta: America society of
Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning
Engineers, 1997.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
196 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
1.2. Sky
The h
the struct
measures
leaf angle
related to
physiolog
as the flo
the soil o
by the fol
Thus,
evaluatio
the forest
The s
develope
the inser
calculatio
adjustme
lens used
2. OBJ
This
(Latitude
640m), S
the physi
fragments
the calcu
relate this
3. MET
3.1. Pres
The s
originally
which oc
seasons
winters, a
of its leav
The f
and vine
Forest, w
suffer ant
the urba
connectin
The a
located i
always in
They are
leisure [2
Table 1: F
Code
SGG
ITA
GER
S.JOS
GUA
PEA
y view factor a
hemispheric p
ture of the for
s (Sky View F
e. On the othe
o environmen
gical role in th
ow of direct a
or the quantity
iage [9].
the SVF c
n of the micro
t conservation
software Gap
d by Frazer e
rtion of hem
on on canop
nt of the proje
d in the camer
JECTIVE
work, develo
22 48 57 Sou
o Paulo state
ical structure
s, from hemis
ulation of the
s index to the
THODOLOG
sentation of t
six urban for
belonge to se
ccurs in clim
summer wi
a period when
ves [11].
forest fragmen
stratum, with
which is a con
thropic pressu
an climate a
ng to other gre
areas vary in
n different re
n predominan
used for walk
].
Forest fragment
Saint
Ita
Ger
S Saint
Gua
Pe
and vegetatio
hotographs ar
rest canopy, f
actor - SVF),
er hand, the ca
ntal factors w
he life of the f
nd diffuse ligh
y of solar radi
can be a pa
oclimate and
n status [10].
p Light Anal
et al (1999) in
ispheric phot
py opening,
ection accordi
ra [9].
ped in the c
uth, Longitude
e (Brazil), aim
of the canopy
spheric photo
Sky View Fa
microclimate.
Y
the study are
rest fragment
easonal semi
mates with tw
ith heavy rain
n the whole fo
nts have tree
h the except
nservation un
ure, are under
and have n
een areas.
n dimensions
egions of the
ntly residentia
king, friends g
ts studied in Ca
Local
Geneve Grov
alian Woods
rman Woods
Joseph Wood
rants Woods
eace Woods
on
re used to de
from the open
the leaf area
anopy structur
hich may pla
forest individu
ht which reac
iation intercep
arameter for
its implication
yser (GLA v
n Canada, allo
tographs for
considering
ing to the type
city of Campi
e 47 03 33 W
ms to characte
y of urban fo
graphs and fr
actor (SVF),
eas
ts studied he
deciduous for
wo well defi
n followed by
orest loses so
es, shrubs, gr
of Saint Gen
nit [12]. All ar
r the influence
o possibility
s (Table 1),
city (Figure
al neighborho
gathering, job
ampinas
Area (
ve 252.7
1.40
2.00
ds 3.36
s 4.38
6.29
epict
ning
and
re is
ay a
uals,
ches
pted
the
n for
v.2),
ows
the
the
e of
nas
West,
rize
rest
rom
and
ere,
rest,
ned
dry
ome
rass
eve
reas
e of
of
are
1),
ood.
and
ha)
70
0
0
6
8
9
3.2
tem
tem
for
the
onl
app
of
poi
com
and
acq
3.3
200
fra
wa
con
Th
bub
com
the
mu
v.2
adj
we
(ob
Figur
2. Microclima
Between J
mperature, a
mperature we
est fragments
e study areas
ly during the d
proximately. T
temperature a
int between th
mpare them.
d 177-H1, w
quisitions took
3. Hemisphe
factor
The hemisph
09, in the ea
gments. It is w
as wet, delayin
A Nixon Co
nverter lens fo
e camera was
bble level, wit
mpass the top
e North. The im
uch the same w
The bitmapp
2. The pola
justment of m
ere transform
bstructions) to
Saint Gen
Italian Wo
German W
re 1: Location o
ate monitorin
January and
air relative
ere monitored
s, alternating
s. The acquis
day, between
There were als
nd relative hu
he study areas
Testo data-lo
ere placed in
k place hourly
ric photogra
heric photogra
arly phase of
worth noting t
ng the fall of le
oolpix 5000 (
or fisheye Nik
s connected t
th the lens fac
p of the camer
mages were t
way as the mi
ped images w
r projection
magnetic north
med into wh
calculate the
neve Grove
oods
Woods
of study areas
ng
d August 2
humidity an
d in points w
measuremen
sitions were
09:00am and
so continuous
midity in a sim
s, making it p
oggers, mode
n tripods 1.5
.
aphs and s
aphs were tak
semi deciduo
that this year
eaves.
(digital camer
kkor FC-E8 w
to a tripod, lev
cing the sky. B
ra was directe
taken at 1.5m
icroclimate mo
were inserted
was used
was made. T
hite (Sky) a
canopy openn
Saint Josep
Guarants
Peace Woo
2009 air
nd globe
within the
nts among
performed
06:00pm,
monitoring
multaneous
possible to
ls 175-T2
5m height,
sky view
ken in July
ous forest
the winter
ra) and a
were used.
veled by a
By using a
ed towards
height, in
onitoring.
into GLA
and the
The colors
and black
ness.
ph Woods
Woods
ods
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 197
PLEA2011
4. RES
4.1. Mic
The m
variation
variation
significan
relative a
green ar
watercou
occurred
cases).
Table 2:
fragments.
2009 (total
Local
SGG
ITA
GER
S.JOS
GUA
PEA
Label - T
Average m
range; UR
Average m
There
increase
size of g
only the
fragments
but also t
higher in
may indic
such as t
of the are
in relation
The c
is less w
ITA Wood
not close
humid are
4.2. Can
The
were take
8 points
10 po
showed lo
variations
variation
and their
item. T
analysis o
air tempe
of minim
monitored
The s
from eac
15.98%.
- 27th Internati
SULTS
roclimate of s
maximum air t
between th
of minimum te
nt (2.2
o
C) (Tab
air humidity
eas (SGG ca
rse (PEA ca
in places with
Hygrotermal
. Simultaneous
l of 40 days),
T
max
(
o
C)
T
m
(
o
26.0 16
26.4 19
26.6 18
26.4 18
26.3 18
26.1 17
T
max
Average
minimum temp
R
max -
Average m
minimum relative
e was a clo
in daily temp
reen areas (r
e influence
s warming the
the potential
the larger a
cate the differ
he presence o
eas and the d
n to the urban
comparison of
warm and mor
ds, which has
e to valley bot
ea.
nopy opennes
photographs
en in: SGG
s; S.JOS 12
oints, totalizin
ow correlation
s of these 50
of physical st
r microclimate
herefore it w
of the six area
erature occurre
mum temper
d.
sky view facto
ch study area
The overall a
onal conference
study areas
temperature a
e areas (0.
emperature av
ble 2). On the
was more e
ase) and in
ase). The sm
h watercourse
behavior of
monitoring betw
min
C)
T
(
o
C)
6.8 9.2
9.0 7.5
8.8 7.8
8.7 7.7
8.4 7.8
7.8 8.3
e maximum te
erature; T
maximum relativ
e humidity.
ose correlatio
perature rang
r
2
= 0.83). It
of urban cl
e green areas
for nighttime
areas. Howev
rences in tem
of water, the c
distance to the
frontier (stree
f the areas ind
re humid. On
s the smaller d
ttoms, is the
ss and micro
and microcli
2 points; ITA
2 points; GUA
ng 50 points
n between SVF
0 points. Thi
ructure of the
es, as noted
was opted for
as during the t
ence (02:00pm
rature occurr
or (the averag
varied betwe
average of th
e on Passive an
average had l
6
o
C), while
verage was m
e other hand,
levated in la
the presence
maller amplitu
s (PEA and G
the urban fo
ween Jan. and A
UR
max
(%)
UR
(%
98.5 66
86.6 56
92.2 58
90.7 58
88.7 58
92.9 66
emperature; T
m
daily tempera
ve humidity; UR
on between
es (T) and
may indicate
imate of fo
during the da
cooling, whic
ver, other fact
mperature rang
conservation le
e monitored p
et).
dicates that S
the other ha
dimension an
warmer and l
climate
mate monito
7 points; G
11 points; P
. An initial
F and the clim
s is due to
forest fragme
in the previ
r the descrip
time of maxim
m), since the t
rence was
ge of the poi
een 10.94%
e 50 points w
nd Low Energy A
little
the
more
the
arge
e of
des
GUA
orest
Ago.
R
min
%)
6.1
6.1
8.0
8.4
8.8
6.0
min
ature
R
mn
the
the
not
rest
ays,
h is
tors
ges,
evel
oint
SGG
and,
d is
less
ring
GER
PEA
test
mate
the
ents
ous
ptive
mum
time
not
nts)
and
was
13
pos
fro
ind
lea
ope
is
und
Fig
(av
ma
oth
ma
Th
15
ma
var
gre
out
com
(Fi
ope
in t
we
spi
14
gre
It d
for
can
urb
3.0
the
hig
wit
are
rad
foli
lev
sm
of t
Architecture, Lo
.70% (standa
ssible to com
m 6.97 and
dicates the pre
af area, while
enness indica
a greater dis
derstory of litt
SVF = 6.
gure 2: Hemisph
forest fragm
The smaller
verage SVF 1
aximum (13.3%
her locations
aximum and m
e wider open
.98%), with
aximum and
riation in the
eater found, s
tlier (SVF = 41
mparison betw
gure 3) the
ening monitor
the temperatu
ere used for th
Observing th
ite of having
.66%), there
eat temperatu
demonstrates
est fragment
nopy opennes
ban microclima
0
o
C lower than
e limits effect (
In ITA, as w
gher and the
th average SV
eas. With gr
diation suffers
iage reaching
vel of the tru
maller, the site
the microclima
ouvain-la-Neuve
ard deviation
mpare forest c
21.06%. T
esence of inte
e the high
ates areas wit
stance betwee
le significance
.97%
heric photograp
ents and corres
canopy openn
10.94%), even
%) and minimu
s. The diffe
minimum SVF
ning occurred
a variation b
minimum op
e forest cano
since a point i
1.42%) (Figure
ween SVF an
point of ma
red in PAE w
ure and humid
e average cal
he Figure 3 it
similar canop
is between b
re and relative
the influence
microclimate.
ss is less expo
ate and prese
n the point wh
(less preserve
was expected,
relative hum
VF higher than
reater canopy
s less attenua
g the soil and
unks. Further
is more susc
ate of built are
e, Belgium, 13-1
3.92). In Figu
canopy to SV
The lowest p
erlaced trees
percentage o
th glades, tha
en individual
e.
SVF=21.06%
phs of the canop
sponding view fa
ness occurred
n when comp
um (6.97%) va
erence betw
in this area w
in ITA (ave
between the
pening of 8.0
opy opening
in PEA was c
e 3-a). Howev
d the climatic
aximum fores
ill be conside
dity box plots
culation.
is noted that
py openness (
both monitored
e air humidity
e of urban he
The point wi
osed to the in
ented an air te
hich is in the a
ed).
the air temp
midity lower,
n the ones of
y exposure,
ation by the v
d heating the
more, as ITA
ceptible to the
eas.
15 July 2011
ure 2 it is
VF varying
percentage
with large
of canopy
at is, there
trees and
%
py of urban
actor.
d in S.JOS
paring the
alue to the
ween the
was 6.33%.
rage SVF
points of
05%. This
was the
considered
ver, for the
c variables
st canopy
red, since
their data
in SGG in
(13.26% e
d points a
y variation.
eat in the
th smaller
nfluence of
mperature
area under
perature is
consistent
f the other
the solar
vegetation
air in the
A area is
e influence
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
198 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
Figura 3: Sky View Factor and climate and climatic
variables (at 02:00pm) in urban forest fragments.(a)SVF (b)
Air Temperature (c)Gray Globe Temperature (d)Relative Air
Humidity
However, in GER, located 500m from ITA, but
toward the valley bottom, there is an average
temperature 4.2
o
C lower than in ITA, maintaining
great hygrothermal variation between the sample
points. The SVF in ITA is also smaller, which may
indicate a better preservation of this area when
compared to ITA. Furthermore, ALE is 0.6ha larger
than ITA.
However, in S.JOS, where SVF is lower and was
expected to have a milder microclimate, the air
temperature and the globe temperature were
maintained high when compared to the other areas.
There is, however, a small temperature difference
between the maximum and minimum average of the
points, which was of 1.6
o
C. The same did not occur
to the relative air humidity, for which there is a
variation of 34.16% between the maximum and
minimum average, which indicates the change in the
absolute air humidity.
Comparing GUA to PAE, both with the presence
of water bodies, there are significant temperature
differences, due to the point with high SVF in PAE,
as previously mentioned. This point is possibly
responsible for the average air temperature and
globe temperature increase and the relative air
humidity decrease in PAE. Furthermore, although
PAE is 1.91ha larger than GUA, its conservation
level is worse [12]. The low SFV is due to the
occurrence of vines and slope inclination, and not
exactly due to the foliage of the tree tops.
4.3. Canopy openness and the distance from the
urban edge
Would the physical structure of forest canopy be
modified according to the distance from a point to the
urban limit? Presumably so, since the urban
microclimate influence the microclimate of the forest
fragments, affecting their conservation level.
To answer this question, a correlation between
SVF and the distance of the monitored points was
sought, as presented in Figure 4.
Figura 4: Correlation between Sky View Factor (SVF) and
the distance from the point to the urban limit.
A low correlation between the distance from the
limits and the forest canopy openness was noted,
even when analyzed separately. Possibly it occurs
due to the small dimension of urban forest
fragments, with the exception of SGG. Thus, the
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 199
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
physical structure of the canopy in the woods is little
changed by distancing itself from the urban limits,
since the distance is not more than 63m. Possibly in
SGG there would be a less evident change in the
forest structure, but for accessibility matters it was
not possible to photograph its interior.
5. CONCLUSION
The comparison of the microclimate of six urban
forest fragments in the city of Campinas, Brazil,
showed that average minimum temperature and daily
temperature range are the variables that better
express differences between the studies areas.
With the increase in size (area) of the fragments
there is a decrease in minimum air temperature and
an increase in daily temperature range. However, it
is worth noting that the monitoring points in Saint
Geneve Grove, the largest urban forest reservation
analyzed, were placed next to the urban limits, so
that the thermal behavior observed may not be valid
for points located in forest core, which are probably
more thermally stable, for they suffer less influence
from the urban microclimate.
The areas of smaller dimensions suffer more
daytime and nighttime heating, showing the influence
of the urban microclimate in the forest microclimate.
In the presence of water or next to valley bottoms,
there is a decrease in air temperature.
An interesting characteristic is that the globe
temperature is very close to the air temperature
inside the fragments. It occurs because the solar
radiation is intercepted by the foliage of the plants
and the small parcel which results in the understory
tends to be diffuse. Thus, the soil and plants in the
understory are poorly heated.
The Sky View Factor (SVF), calculated from
photographs of the forest canopy at the height of
1.5m, tends to decrease with the increase of the
areas, which indicates an increase in leaf area and in
the quantity of plants in larger areas.
However, disturbance of the microclimate of the
urban forest fragments cannot be explained only by
SVF. It was noted that in Saint Joseph Woods,
despite the low canopy openness, the maximum air
temperature is high, which can happen either
because of urban microclimate influence or because
of the obstruction of the atmosphere by the tree
canopy, which makes heat exchanges with the
understory difficult. The temperature difference
between the points located in these woods was
small. Thus, the homogeneity of Forest structure
associated with low canopy openness may indicate
higher thermal stability, which is good for forestry
management.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors thank CAPES, for continued doctoral
research schoolarship, Fundao Pedro de Oliveira
for permission of research at Saint Geneve and
Campinas City Hall for authorization of research in
the public woods.
7. REFERENCES
[1] MILLER, R. W. (2007) Urban Forestry: planning
and managing urban greenspaces. 2
th
ed.
Waveland, Long Grove.
[2] DACANAL, C.; MEULMAN, T.L.; LABAKI, L.C.
(2010) Let's take a walk through the forest!
Thermal comfort in urban forest fragments.
Ambiente Construdo, Porto Alegre (10), Apr.
Jun., pp. 115-132.
[3] ABREU, L. V. ; LABAKI, L. C. (2008) Evaluation
of the radius of influence of different arboreal
species on microclimate provided by vegetation.
In: Conference on Passive and Low Energy
Architecture, 25
th
. Dublin, Towards Zero Energy
Building.
[4] BLUMENFELD, E. C. (2008) Relaes entre
Vizinhana e Efeito de Borda em Fragmento
Florestal. Dissertao de Mestrado em
Engenharia Civil. Campinas, UNICAMP.
[5] KARLSSON, M. (2000) Nocturnal Air
Temperature Variations between Forest and
Open Areas. Journal of Applied Meteorology
(39), June, pp. 851-862
[6] RAMOS, F.; SANTOS, F.M. (2006)
Microclimate of Atlantic Forest Fragments:
Regional and Local Scale Heterogeneity.
Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology,
(49), 6, Nov., pp. 935-944.
[7] LARCHER (2004). Ecofisiologia Vegetal. So
Carlos, RiMa Artes e Textos.
[8] GEIGER, R. (1966) The climate near the
ground. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard
University Press, 2
th
printing.
[9] Frazer, G.W., Canham, C.D., Lertzman, K.P.,
(1999). Gap Light Analyzer (GLA), Version 2.0:
Imaging software to extract canopy structure and
gap light transmission indices from true-color
fisheye photographs. Copyright 1999: Simon
Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, and the Institute
of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, New York;
(http://www.rem.sfu.ca/forestry/index.htm or
http://www.ecostudies.org).
[10] LIMA, R.A.F. (2007) Regime de disturbio e de
regenerao natural na Floresta Pluvial Atlntica
Submontana. Dissertao de Mestrado em
Recursos Florestais. Piracicaba, Universidade
de So Paulo.
[11] VELOSO, H.P.; RANGEL FILHO, A.L.; LIMA,
J.C.A. (1991). Classificao da vegetao
brasileira, adaptada a um sistema universal. Rio
de Janeiro, Fundao Instituto Brasileiro de
Geografia e Estatstica - IBGE.
[12] SANTIN, D.A. (1999) A vegetao
remanescente no municpio de Campinas (SP):
mapeamento, caracterizao fisionomica e
floristica, visando a conservao. Tese de
doutorado em Cincias Biolgicas. Campinas,
Universidade Estadual de Campinas.
Figura 3: Sky View Factor and climate and climatic
variables (at 02:00pm) in urban forest fragments.(a)SVF (b)
Air Temperature (c)Gray Globe Temperature (d)Relative Air
Humidity
However, in GER, located 500m from ITA, but
toward the valley bottom, there is an average
temperature 4.2
o
C lower than in ITA, maintaining
great hygrothermal variation between the sample
points. The SVF in ITA is also smaller, which may
indicate a better preservation of this area when
compared to ITA. Furthermore, ALE is 0.6ha larger
than ITA.
However, in S.JOS, where SVF is lower and was
expected to have a milder microclimate, the air
temperature and the globe temperature were
maintained high when compared to the other areas.
There is, however, a small temperature difference
between the maximum and minimum average of the
points, which was of 1.6
o
C. The same did not occur
to the relative air humidity, for which there is a
variation of 34.16% between the maximum and
minimum average, which indicates the change in the
absolute air humidity.
Comparing GUA to PAE, both with the presence
of water bodies, there are significant temperature
differences, due to the point with high SVF in PAE,
as previously mentioned. This point is possibly
responsible for the average air temperature and
globe temperature increase and the relative air
humidity decrease in PAE. Furthermore, although
PAE is 1.91ha larger than GUA, its conservation
level is worse [12]. The low SFV is due to the
occurrence of vines and slope inclination, and not
exactly due to the foliage of the tree tops.
4.3. Canopy openness and the distance from the
urban edge
Would the physical structure of forest canopy be
modified according to the distance from a point to the
urban limit? Presumably so, since the urban
microclimate influence the microclimate of the forest
fragments, affecting their conservation level.
To answer this question, a correlation between
SVF and the distance of the monitored points was
sought, as presented in Figure 4.
Figura 4: Correlation between Sky View Factor (SVF) and
the distance from the point to the urban limit.
A low correlation between the distance from the
limits and the forest canopy openness was noted,
even when analyzed separately. Possibly it occurs
due to the small dimension of urban forest
fragments, with the exception of SGG. Thus, the
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 201

Local Adaptation Processes to Climate
Variability, Towards Living with Floods in the Padma
River Bank Areas: The Case of Bangladesh.
Amreen SHAJAHAN
1
, Md. Yousuf REJA
2

1
Department of Architecture, Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh
2
Department of Architecture, Ahsanullah University of Science & Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh

ABSTRACT: This paper outlines a part of a research and design project based on work undertaken for the B.Arch.
at the Department of Architecture, Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology in 2007-08. This paper
devotes to discussing how the present floodplain residents live coping with floods, particularly in the flood-prone
areas like Padma riverbank areas. The findings of the study on how these categories of residents cope with floods
can be integrated into establishing official flood management measures to effectively manage flood disasters in
flood prone areas which would greatly reduce flood losses. Floods in Bangladesh are a complex phenomenon.
They pose enormous threats to the population through loss of life and economic damage, but at the same time,
moderate floods contribute to the fertility of the land. Flood hazards of bank side areas of rivers are difficult to
control through structural measures; Flood proofing through assistance to self help measures to reduce the
damage to property and stress are largely accepted preventive efforts that these people have practiced.
Adaptations towards the impact of climate change have made them quite self-dependent in facing disasters. A
sample based survey in the selected case study area was done to make the plan efficient. This paper concentrates
to heightening the communitys responsibility to sustain adaptation towards flooding and to proactively internalize
the adaptation process.
Keywords: local adaptations, flood proofing measures, vulnerability, coping strategies, riverbank area
1. PROLOGUE
The South-Asian country of Bangladesh is prone
to the natural disaster of flooding due to being
situated on the Ganges Delta and the braided with
many tributaries flowing into the Bay of Bengal. Due
to its geographic location, the main physiographic
feature of the country is its extensive floodplain
system, which has been formed by the deposition of
floodwater-laden silt carried by these rivers. Flow
regimes of these rivers demonstrate large seasonal
contrasts, inundating the floodplains each year during
the monsoon season. At least Two-thirds of the
country is less than 5 meters above sea level and in
an average year, a quarter of the country is inundated
[1]. Only the abnormal floods, the high magnitude
events that cause widespread damage are the major
environmental concerns facing Bangladesh. The
severity of floods and other natural disasters has
been increasing in Bangladesh due to climate
change. Once every ten years roughly one third of the
country gets severely affected by floods, while in
catastrophic years such as 1988, 1998 and 2004
more than 60 percent of the country is inundated, that
is an area of approximately one hundred thousand
square kilometers for duration of nearly three months
[2]. The main victims of flood disasters are the poor
rural people who are 80 percent (2010) of total
population have very little capacity to cope with the
losses [3]. Due to limited resources, Bangladesh does
not have the capacity to ensure appropriate measures
to mitigate the damage.
Floods periodically claim many thousands of lives
in Bangladesh disrupt normal economic activities and
aggravate already-severe problems of poverty, health
and quality of life. Floods in the Bangladesh are a
complex phenomenon [4]. Normal floods are
considered a blessing for Bangladesh-providing vital
moisture and fertility to the soil through the alluvial silt
deposition. Only abnormal floods are considered
disastrous, i.e., the high-magnitude events that
inundate large areas, and cause widespread damage
to crops and properties. Successive severe floods in
1987 to till now stimulated the victims to set
comprehensive activities to protect themselves from
these calamities. This study has focused on
understanding how different groups of people and
communities perceive and respond to flooding risks in
flood-prone countries like Bangladesh.

Figure 1: Study area located in the Map of Bangladesh.
[5,6]
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
202 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
The poor and vulnerable people are constantly
adjusting to climate change by raising their houses
above the flood level or changing crop types. This
paper examines the household and community
coping strategies used by the people beside Padma
riverbank areas (Fig. 01) basically the low-income
households living in Hasail-Banuri union (P.S.-
Tongibari; District-Munshigonj) (Fig. 1), one of the
highest flood prone areas in Bangladesh. This
includes how they use physical and social means to
reduce risks, lessen losses and facilitate recovery
from flooding. The paper also discusses how local
planning and governance mechanisms aimed at
adaptation can support these coping strategies,
including mainstreaming them into adaptation plans
that can be scaled up to wide level.

2. PROBLEM STATEMENT
Flood disasters are inherently a characteristic of
natural hazards [7]. Disasters arise inevitably when
the magnitude of a hazard is high. This contrasts with
the alternative discourse that sees flood disasters as
being jointly produced by interaction of the physical
hazard and social vulnerabilities. This view posits that
flood disasters are not only the result of natural
hazards, but also of socioeconomic structures and
political processes that make individual, families and
communities vulnerable [8].
With 140 million people, Bangladesh is one of the
worlds densest nations and also one of the most
vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The
fourth report by the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) stated that Bangladesh would
experience heavier monsoons and that the melting of
Himalayan glaciers will cause higher river flows and
severe floods [9]. Each year in Bangladesh about
26,000 km2, (around 18%) of the country is flooded,
so far killing over 5000 people and destroying 7
million homes [10]. With the prospects of climate
change the likelihood of extreme events like floods
and cyclones may increase in future making
Bangladesh even more vulnerable to these risks. The
current trends in climate change have led to extreme
environmental conditions that have caused the
upheaval and displacement of millions of the most
vulnerable people named environmental or climate
change refugees (Fig. 2). However, based on past
experiences, preparation of elaborate action plans is
not the way to go. Rather, the country needs to take a
few pragmatic actions which can be implemented and
monitored.

Figure 2: Flood risks & damages. [11,12]
Bangladesh experiences two distinct types of
inundations. The first one is river flood resulting from
excessive runoff contributed by monsoon
precipitation, which is normal events and the second
one is coastal floods induced by storm surges of
tropical cyclones, which occurs once in every few
years cause serious damages. Flood risk at a location
depends upon the frequency of flooding and the
associated consequences to the community. But most
flood damage is caused by property and crop
damage, followed by Lack of clean drinking water
during a flood. To minimize flood losses, a number of
modern engineering projects have been constructed
within Bangladesh which has very limited results due
to complex river system of Bangladesh and erratic
behaviour of disasters. Again many structural
measures have proved costly in environmental terms
and failure or poor maintenance of some have even
exacerbated flood hazards [13,14,15]. However, the
successful solution of the problem would be probably
encouraging and reinforcing various types of
indigenous adjustments to floods.

3. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE ON
VULNERABILITY & ADAPTIVE CAPACITY
To conduct this analysis, this paper approaches
the issue of disaster like seasonal flood from the point
of view of vulnerability. The devastation caused by
natural disasters like recurrent flooding in Bangladesh
is, more a function of the social and economic
characteristics of society or locality than of the actual
physical repercussion of the catastrophe. Generally,
vulnerability is seen as the outcome of a mixture of
environmental, social, cultural, institutional and
economic structures and processes related to poverty
and (health) risk, not a phenomenon related to
environmental risk only. Besides risk exposure,
adaptive capacity is seen as a key component of the
concept of vulnerability [16,17]. This adaptive
capacity is a process of adaptation (over time) to
structural and/or incidental sources of environmental
stress [18], consisting of distinct social, economic,
technological, institutional and cultural adaptive
mechanisms [e.g. 19].
Minimizing or even preventing the cause of
climate change is mitigation, while adaptation to the
effect of climate change has become the key focus of
policymaking in climate variability sectors. Since the
mid 1990s, the concept of social vulnerability is used
to describe and analyze the exposure and coping
mechanisms of groups and individuals to
environmental risks, primarily in the context of climate
change and flooding hazards in developing countries
[20,21]. From the field of disasters, the term coping
capacity is concerned with the means by which
people or organizations use available resources and
abilities to face adverse consequences that could
lead to a disaster [22]. In the climate change field,
IPCC discusses how under the scenario of a
changing climate, risks may increase but adaptation
actually expands a systems coping ranges. Following
on this, the IPCC uses the term adaptive capacity as
the ability of a system to adjust to climate change
(including climate variability and extremes), to
moderate potential damage, to take advantage of
opportunities, or to cope with the consequences [23].
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 203


4. METHODOLOGY
This paper aims to investigate the complex
relationship between environmental risk and adaptive
coping mechanism of the community. A case study
carried out in one of the poorest and most flood prone
countries in the world, focusing on household and
community vulnerability. In a large-scale household
survey carried out in the Padma River bank areas.
Almost 198 hoses of floodplain residents living
without any flood protections at Hasail Banuri union
in Munshigonj' district. A stratified sampling
procedure has applied to select the households
during physical survey. Among the 28 households
(surveyed), 18 were situated near the river edge,
while the other 10 on higher ground near the main
rural road.
From the field survey, it reveals that, households
with lower income and less access to productive
natural assets face higher exposure to risk of
flooding. Regarding the identification of coping
mechanisms to deal with flood events, we look at both
the beforehand household level preparedness for
flood events and the afterward availability of
community level support and disaster relief.
5. FLOOD EVENTS IN CASE STUDIED
AREA
The study area is located on the left bank of
Padma River and 45 km south of Dhaka city (Fig. 1).
This area had flooded every year and cause severe
damages. The local people seem to have a strong
sense of territory which has heightened when they
face natural disasters like flood. These floods cause
damage to houses, agricultural crops and the
infrastructure in the area. For more than half of the
rainy season around two thirds of the area remains
under water. And during extreme flooding flood depth
remain 1.8-3.6 meter and flood duration is 81-95 days
[24]. As a result, employment opportunities decrease
dramatically. In addition to regular seasonal flooding,
the area suffered from devastating floods over the
past 20 years in 1988, 1996, 1998, 2004 and 2007.
Majorities of 94 percent of the interviewed floodplain
residents are exposed every year during the rainy
season to flooding, and a 42% of the population
mentions flooding as the main problem faced by the
region, followed by other important problems such as
bad roads (18%), unemployment (26%) and lack of
electricity (14%). The extent and level of flood
exposure during the rainy season is severe. More
than half of the population (58%) indicates that they
suffer each year from diarrhoea and other health risks
during the rainy season.

Figure 3: Planning layout of Hasail-Banuri Village (2007).
This village has a typical settlement pattern (Fig.
3) that prevails in the plain land of Bangladesh.
Homesteads are raised above agricultural lands to
protect houses from annual flooding. So land level is
one of the major criteria for building houses and its
design varies according to socioeconomic status of
households. But almost all houses (Fig. 4) are built on
stilts due to environmental reasons.

Figure 4: Plan & elevation of typical houses in study area.
6. INDEGENOUS FLOOD ADAPTATION
MEASURES
6.1. Determinants of adaptive capacity
The local people have adapted their lifestyle for
centuries to live with river flooding, frequently moving
their temporary bank-side homes, planting on newly
emergent river bars, and sometimes raising their
homesteads above water level in flood periods. For
this reason, the quality of life notably poorer in these
areas and this situation is worsened by floods. Thus
they have prepared some non-structural flood-
proofing measures which have made them quite self
dependent in facing disasters like flood. The impact of
seasonal flood firstly depend on the probability of risk
exposure through the distance (in meters) people live
to the river at community level (the closer to the river,
the higher the probability of flooding), secondly the
state or condition of risk exposure through inundation
depth (in meters) at individual household level, and
thirdly the consequence of risk exposure through
economic damage cost when the flooding occurs at
individual household level.
Disasters often acts as means of change,
resulting for instance, in innovations in hazard
resistant architectural and construction designs. In the
study area, the most unique adaptation that has
evolved in response to flood disasters is the stilt
houses. These houses originally evolved as an
adaptation to the occupation of swamp-land and
frequent flooding in riverine areas. The survey results
show that the majority of respondents took some
corrective measures to minimize their flood looses.
Some villagers received assistance from various
sources (Fig. 5) to cope with flood hazards. Flood
damage costs mitigated by taken measures aimed at
preventing, avoiding or alleviating the physical and
socio-economic impacts of flooding.

Figure 5: Sources of assistance received by the local flood
victims of Hasail-Banuri area during 2004 flood.
Flood preparedness plan is a series of sub-plans,
including emergency response planning and training,
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
204 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT


In this area, most of the houses are on stilts (Fig.
8) due to extreme annual flooding. With stilts there is
the flexibility to increase the height every time
households rebuild, depending on the water level.
Again households increased the height of the
furniture (Fig. 9) by at least 1-2 ft (68 bricks)
depending on the location of homesteads and they
had created platforms (Fig. 10) at attic space or
somewhere in-between due to storage purpose (food
& water) during emergency. This type of raised
platforms (Fig. 10) has also created in outdoors for
storing vegetables for emergency and sometimes for
domestic animals.

Figure 10: Raised platforms both in outdoor & indoor for
storing purposes during emergency.
d) Building materials:
Only very few households had changed to
weather resistant building materials before rainy
season like giving bituminous coal coating to lower
part of the walls (Fig. 8) or vertical elements for water
resistance. Wooden plank flooring is preferred as they
suffer less from water-clogging and damages once
the water subsides after heavy rainfall.
e) Sanitation and water supply:
Clean water-Flooding can contaminate water
supplies, leading to potentially fatal diseases. There
was only one raised tube-well for the villagers.
f) Strategies after the flood disaster
After a flooding and water-clogging event, 60%
households had made alterations during the
rebuilding of their structures, such as changing
building and plinth materials, increasing plinth levels,
and changing structural, roofing and walling materials.
g) agricultural adjustments
In this village, where farming is the main
occupation, the locals have double use for their
farming lots. The fields are located much lower than
the land on which houses are built because wet
paddy needs to be inundated by water most of the
time. When the rivers overflow their banks, paddy
fields act as a form of retention ponds.
Local people had taken different measures (Fig
11) to protect their homesteads from erosion during
flood.

Figure 11: Sections showing local measures to protect
landmasses from erosion due to annual flooding.
As a part of the community based adaptation to
climate change, a number international NGOs are
working with local communities in this district to
develop ways. Again, flood affected poor families
were allowed to take shelter in village schools or
higher local government buildings. Families who lose
their home and livelihood moved to flood relief camps.
Social capital, e.g., reciprocal support among
neighbours, support from immediate family members
and wider kinship networks, is a vital safety net for
people in this area to cope with recurrent flooding.
7. CONCLUSIVE REMARKS
Floods cannot be prevented but planning the
emergency measures through flood management can
often reduce their disastrous consequences. Flood
risk reduction and response are more likely to be
effective when they include coping mechanisms in the
assessment and programme design. Programmes
that directly support communities and their local
organisations have proved to work best for immediate
reinforcement of coping and resilience capacities [27].
In this paper, we investigated the complex
relationship between environmental risk and
vulnerability in a concrete case study carried out in
one of the poorest and most flood prone countries in
the world, focusing on household and community
vulnerability and adaptive coping mechanisms.
Coping with natural calamities like flooding is not a
new situation for the rural people beside the riverbank
areas, and much can be learnt from their autonomous
responses (Fig. 12) in order to build local adaptation
policies and plans in national level.

Figure 12: Example of flood resilient houses [28].
Localised solutions such as flood proofing have
shown good results [29]. These local measures have
been effective however; their extent is constricted
because they are fragmented and uncoordinated.
Even coping mechanisms can and do fail, and not just
because this capacity is overwhelmed by the scale of
flooding. Changes in population and economy, local
environmental change and changes in flood regimes
themselves can make mechanisms outdated. It is
important not to over-romanticize indigenous
capacities. Nevertheless, by incorporating these
methods taken by the past residents into the official
systems would greatly reduce flood losses. So
lessons suggest that structural and non-structural
measures for flood risk reduction should be integral
parts of both the overall development process and
disaster management
8. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Special acknowledgement to Prof. Dr Khandaker
Shabbir Ahmed & Atiqur Rahman for their supervision
& Department of Architecture, Bangladesh University
of Engineering and Technology (BUET).
raising public awareness, flood forecasting and
warning, setting development policy, land use
regulation, flood proofing, setting alternative plans,
and local social structure strengthening. Community
flood preparedness is an analysis of possible disaster
scenarios for determining how authority and
responsibility for action should be delegated, what
local human and material resources exist, and how
these can be deployed. Indigenous people, who are
the vital & active parts of this ecosystem, are reacting
to climate change impacts in a creative way from the
very beginning. Peoples lived on this floodplain for
centuries, have evolved many responses to reduce
and mitigate flood disasters. Adaptation to extreme
environments, including flooding is inherently a
human survival trait. Effective flood responses are
those that build on peoples existing ways of dealing
with floods and complement their coping
mechanisms, resources and social capital. Many
flood-prone communities have local and traditional
institutions dealing with disasters.
6.2. Physical coping strategies
Adjustments to flood hazards in Bangladesh can
be classified in different ways. Modern engineering
flood control structures, such as embankments,
levees, flood walls and polders, constitute structural
adjustments that are intended to modify flood regimes
significantly. In contrast, indigenous adjustments
comprise all other measures - most of which are of
the folk or preindustrial type, that are intended to
adapt to natural flood regimes. Indigenous
adjustments can be further classified into two distinct
categories. First, indigenous flood proofing or flood
adaptation may involve certain amounts of structural
adjustments, such as raising homesteads above flood
levels and the construction of animal refuges; but
these activities are usually considered indigenous to
contrast them with modern engineering structural
measures . Second, agricultural adjustments refer to
traditional cropping practices that have evolved for
generations to adapt different crops to varied flood
depths at different levels of the floodplains [25,26].
Table 1: Types of indigenous adjustments to floods at
2004 in case studied area.
A. Indigenous flood
adaptations
Padma Riverbank
at 2004(%)
Raised homesteads 84
Raised floors 94
Raised platform for temporary
shelter
25
Took shelter on major roads 47
Took shelter on other spaces 27
Used bamboo bridges between
houses
2
Use boats/rafts 56
B. Agricultural adjustments
Cultivated new rice crops 88
Used bamboo fence to protect
crops
0

Vulnerable people individually and collectively
develop their own means, resources and strategies to
cope with flooding (Table 1). Coping strategies in this
area is basically preventative as well as impact-
minimizing. In this area, the rural poor having no land
ownership have no choice but to build beside the
newly emerged sand bars beside the Padma
riverbank areas (Fig. 6). These areas are highly
susceptible to flooding. In this area houses are
arranged in courtyard pattern (Fig. 3,6).

Figure 6: Courtyard housing beside the newly emerged
sand bars close to the riverbank areas.
In the absence of adequate flood protection
structures, the inhabitants of this floodplain in
Bangladesh have developed a series of indigenous or
traditional adjustments to floods. Most of these
individual or collective adjustments are stated bellow.
a) Temporary relocation to a safer area during
a disaster:
Some of them moved to higher lands or beside
the main rural road side. In that sense, most of the
households took few preventative actions before the
disaster (Fig. 7).

Figure 7: Temporary location of houses beside the rural
roadside (high elevation) created by two depressions areas
(pond) at both sides.
b) Raising the homesteads:
Digging earth from local depressions surrounding
the homesteads in a dig-and-mound process where
there is a productive by product is pond or depression
area (Fig. 7).
c) Build higher plinths, arrange higher storage
facilities and increase the height of furniture:

Figure 8: Stilt houses with various stilt heights
depending on location & water level during monsoon.

Figure 9: Hei ght of the furniture (Bed) has increased due
to protect the functional space from flood.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 205


In this area, most of the houses are on stilts (Fig.
8) due to extreme annual flooding. With stilts there is
the flexibility to increase the height every time
households rebuild, depending on the water level.
Again households increased the height of the
furniture (Fig. 9) by at least 1-2 ft (68 bricks)
depending on the location of homesteads and they
had created platforms (Fig. 10) at attic space or
somewhere in-between due to storage purpose (food
& water) during emergency. This type of raised
platforms (Fig. 10) has also created in outdoors for
storing vegetables for emergency and sometimes for
domestic animals.

Figure 10: Raised platforms both in outdoor & indoor for
storing purposes during emergency.
d) Building materials:
Only very few households had changed to
weather resistant building materials before rainy
season like giving bituminous coal coating to lower
part of the walls (Fig. 8) or vertical elements for water
resistance. Wooden plank flooring is preferred as they
suffer less from water-clogging and damages once
the water subsides after heavy rainfall.
e) Sanitation and water supply:
Clean water-Flooding can contaminate water
supplies, leading to potentially fatal diseases. There
was only one raised tube-well for the villagers.
f) Strategies after the flood disaster
After a flooding and water-clogging event, 60%
households had made alterations during the
rebuilding of their structures, such as changing
building and plinth materials, increasing plinth levels,
and changing structural, roofing and walling materials.
g) agricultural adjustments
In this village, where farming is the main
occupation, the locals have double use for their
farming lots. The fields are located much lower than
the land on which houses are built because wet
paddy needs to be inundated by water most of the
time. When the rivers overflow their banks, paddy
fields act as a form of retention ponds.
Local people had taken different measures (Fig
11) to protect their homesteads from erosion during
flood.

Figure 11: Sections showing local measures to protect
landmasses from erosion due to annual flooding.
As a part of the community based adaptation to
climate change, a number international NGOs are
working with local communities in this district to
develop ways. Again, flood affected poor families
were allowed to take shelter in village schools or
higher local government buildings. Families who lose
their home and livelihood moved to flood relief camps.
Social capital, e.g., reciprocal support among
neighbours, support from immediate family members
and wider kinship networks, is a vital safety net for
people in this area to cope with recurrent flooding.
7. CONCLUSIVE REMARKS
Floods cannot be prevented but planning the
emergency measures through flood management can
often reduce their disastrous consequences. Flood
risk reduction and response are more likely to be
effective when they include coping mechanisms in the
assessment and programme design. Programmes
that directly support communities and their local
organisations have proved to work best for immediate
reinforcement of coping and resilience capacities [27].
In this paper, we investigated the complex
relationship between environmental risk and
vulnerability in a concrete case study carried out in
one of the poorest and most flood prone countries in
the world, focusing on household and community
vulnerability and adaptive coping mechanisms.
Coping with natural calamities like flooding is not a
new situation for the rural people beside the riverbank
areas, and much can be learnt from their autonomous
responses (Fig. 12) in order to build local adaptation
policies and plans in national level.

Figure 12: Example of flood resilient houses [28].
Localised solutions such as flood proofing have
shown good results [29]. These local measures have
been effective however; their extent is constricted
because they are fragmented and uncoordinated.
Even coping mechanisms can and do fail, and not just
because this capacity is overwhelmed by the scale of
flooding. Changes in population and economy, local
environmental change and changes in flood regimes
themselves can make mechanisms outdated. It is
important not to over-romanticize indigenous
capacities. Nevertheless, by incorporating these
methods taken by the past residents into the official
systems would greatly reduce flood losses. So
lessons suggest that structural and non-structural
measures for flood risk reduction should be integral
parts of both the overall development process and
disaster management
8. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Special acknowledgement to Prof. Dr Khandaker
Shabbir Ahmed & Atiqur Rahman for their supervision
& Department of Architecture, Bangladesh University
of Engineering and Technology (BUET).
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
206 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
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[24] Institute of Water Modelling (IWM).
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[25] Rasid, H. and Paul, B.K. (1987) Flood problems
in Bangladesh: is there an indigenous solution?
Environmental Management 11, 155-173.
[26] Paul, B.K. (1984) Perception of and agricultural
adjustments to floods in Jamuna floodplain,
Bangladesh, Human Ecology 12, 3-19.
[27] DipECHO (2004 The Evaluation of DIPECHO
Action Plans in the Caribbean Region. Brussels:
Directorate-General for Humanitarian Aid
Disaster Preparedness Programme.
apps.odi.org.uk/erd/ReportDetail.aspx?reportID=
3276
[28] D. Lumbroso1, D. Ramsbottom1, M. Spaliveiro
(2008) Sustainable flood risk management
strategies to reduce rural communities
vulnerability to flooding in Mozambique, J Flood
Risk Management, 1
[29] World Bank (2002) Bangladesh: disaster and
public finance. Working paper series
6.Washington DC: World Bank.
www.proventionconsortium.org/?pageid=37&publ
icationid=6#6

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1
Towards resilient urban ecosystems
How resilience thinking can modify architects vision of
sustainability and urban planning
Hugo SORIANO
1
1
Escuela Tcnica Superior de Arquitectura, Universidad Politcnica, Madrid, Spain
ABSTRACT: Resilience is the ability of a system to absorb disturbance and still retain its basic function and
structure. Since 2005, more than half of the world population lives in cities. Its estimated that in 30 years time,
this figure will most likely reach 80%[1]. Cities are the ecosystems were humans mostly live. In a world threatened
by economic crisis, depletion of natural and ecological resources, diminishing biodiversity and climate change,
sustainability depends on resilience. Resilience theories study complex social-economical systems, originally
natural ones such as forests, coral reefs or lakes. After disasters like hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans, or the
Haitian earthquake, certain awareness about urban resilience has been raised. Focus and research on the
resilience of urban ecosystems is needed. Why is resilience thinking important? Would it provide the opportunity
for a new urbanism? What is being done, what can be done? What role can architects play?
Keywords: resilience, urban, ecosystem, cities
1. INTRODUCTION
Resilience thinking is largely based on the
theories developed by Buzz Holling and colleagues
since the 1970s, when they studied forests as highly
adaptive systems that go through regular cycles of
growth, reorganisation and renewal. Their
conclusions led to understanding that in many cases
the efficiency and degree of interconnection within
systems were inevitably accompanied by a loss of
resilience, and that ultimately, an external surprise
brings a change that can transform the system into a
completely different, undesired one, due to the
combined loss of resiliences different cycles (for
example, a fishery losing all fish, a forest not
recovering after a fire, etc.).
Holling and many others, clustered in the
Resilience Alliance, believe the world reunites the
conditions for a systemic crisis [2]; and that cities
have all the conditions to be studied as ecosystems.
The study of their resilience can help prevent
undesired effects, encourage necessary
transformations and sustainable development in a
desirable sense. These considerations are already
provoking urban initiatives, such as the transition
towns movement or DRIFT.
2. RESILIENCE AND PANARCHY
2.1. What is resilience
According to the Stockholm resilience centre,
Resilience is the capacity to deal with change and
continue to develop. Resilience refers to the capacity
of a social-ecological system both to withstand
perturbations from, for instance, climate or economic
shocks, and to rebuild and renew itself afterwards.
Loss of resilience can cause loss of valuable
ecosystem services, and may even lead to rapid
transitions or shifts into qualitatively different
situations and configurations, evident in, for instance,
people, ecosystems, knowledge systems, or whole
cultures. [3]
Urban resilience is the degree to which cities are
able to tolerate alteration before reorganising around
a new set of structures and processes [4].
Holling and his colleagues like to represent the
cycles which ecosystems go through with a 3-
dimensional figure. The cycle undergoes 4 phases, 2
compose the fore-loop, Rapid Growth and
Conservation, and the other 2 the back-loop
Release and Reorganisation. They happen at
different scales, simultaneously and at different
speeds. In conclusion a system is composed and/or
related to many other variable systems, engaged in
their own cycles, and nested to a certain extent:
something described as panarchy.
Figure 1: The loop of adaptive cycles
As ecosystems develop, they start in rapid growth
exploiting new opportunities and available
resources [5] to engage in the Conservation phase,
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where stakeholders of the system have established
and gradually optimised their available resources
while increasing their connections and reinforcing
relationships, reducing space for novelty. This
process is accompanied by an increase in the
efficiency and specialisation every stakeholder has in
exploiting available resources, and a subsequent
higher regulation. The growth rate slows as
connectedness increases, the system becomes more
and more rigid, and resilience declines [5]. An
unexpected event can then break apart the web of
reinforcing interactions, thus undoing the system. An
example in ecosystems would be fires, drought,
diseases or insect infestations. In this phase, theres
creative chaos, or destruction, but also new
opportunities for reorganisation. The problem is that
systems have thresholds in their transformations.
Thresholds are levels in controlling variables that
feedback to the rest of the system changes [5].
Once a system crosses a threshold, it can start
functioning under completely different rules, and this
can happen after a certain amount of nested cycles
have lost enough resilience to ultimately not recover
to the previous situation. Thus a clear water lake can
become a murky water lake, usually because of a
combination of conditions that change even if the
state of the system doesnt. (Fig.2, 3)
Figure 2: The system as a Ball in the Basin Model
Figure 3: The Basin changes shape
In conclusion, systems develop in nested cycles
where specialisation results in a reduction of
redundancy vs. higher efficiency, less flexibility and
loss of resilience.
Why is resilience thinking an adequate tool to
study urban ecosystems?
As it is well pointed out in the paper, Resilience:
Accounting for the Non-computable: Plans to solve
complex environmental problems should always
consider the role of surprise. Nevertheless, there is a
tendency to emphasise known computable aspects
of a problem while neglecting aspects that are
unknown and failing to ask questions about them.
The tendency to ignore the non-computable can be
countered by considering a wide range of
perspectives, encouraging transparency with regard
to conflicting viewpoints, stimulating a diversity of
models, and managing for the emergence of new
syntheses that reorganise fragmentary knowledge.
[6]
Resilience thinking takes into account diversity.
Diversity is very different from the culture of
optimisation that tends to monoculture, dominance of
the few, and dominant solutions. Nothing is more
contemporary in our interconnected world than a tag
cloud, a comprehensive way to have a multilateral
approach to a problem, considering nested systems
and variables. Resilience can be apprehended in
practical terms with modern representation tools
such as real-time visualisation tools but also social
networks and associations. (Fig. 4)
Figure 4: The tag cloud as a representation of a diversity of
models
Contemporary representation is complex, and
studies related to sustainable development are also
probabilistic and scenario oriented. The Millennium
assessment, the World Economic Forum Global
Risks Report or companies like Shell, they all work
with scenarios and probabilities related to varying
conditions as ways to orientate sustainable
development. Resilience thinking proposes the
appropriate framework for establishing these
scenarios.
3. URBAN RESILIENCE
Urban planning driven by single
political/economical forces is hardly representative
and certainly incapable of adequately responding to
the complexity of urban ecosystems. As described by
the Resilience Alliance Urban landscapes represent
probably the most complex mosaic of land cover and
multiple land uses of any landscape and as such
provide important large-scale probing experiments of
the effects of global change on ecosystems (e.g.
global warming and increased nitrogen deposition).
Urbanisation and urban landscapes have recently
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been identified by the Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment as research areas where significant
knowledge gaps exist.
Recent natural disasters (e.g. Hurricane Katrina
(Fig. 5) and the Asian Tsunami) and social
disturbances (e.g. London Bombings and September
11) have highlighted the need for urban systems to
cope with unexpected shocks. While there is an
emerging research focus on sustainable cities (urban
landscapes), there remains a poor scientific
understanding of the processes and factors that
make some cities vulnerable to shocks and others
resilient. This may be due in part to the fragmented
nature of urban science and policy [7]
Figure 5: New Orleans after the Katrina
A renewed form of urban science is being created
to study cities as ecosystems and design positive
strategies. The architects approach to building and
sustainable development can be central in this
process since they already have (in spite of strong
specialisation) a naturally holistic approach to
planning. This opens an opportunity for architects
after, in the words of Rem Koolhas, the death of
urbanism -our refuge in the parasitic security of
architecture- [8] has been digested, as well as the
assumption of the relatively new, humbled position of
the architect after its rise in the rationalist modern
movement. For, again to quote Koolhas, If theres to
be a new urbanism it will not be based on the twin
fantasies of order and omnipotence; it will be the
staging of uncertainty, it will no longer be concerned
with the arrangement of more or less permanent
objects but with the irrigation of territories with
potential; it will no longer aim for stable
configurations but for the creation of enabling fields
that accommodate processes that refuse to be
crystallised into definitive form[8]
3.1. Research themes
The resilience alliance has identified a series of
research themes they are currently working on. They
will be cited here not as a guideline, but as a reality
in which a cluster of scientists of different disciplines
are working and that architects can participate in.
This will be reviewed concisely because the scope of
the subject is too large to embrace in this paper. The
following diagram shows these themes as an
interconnected whole. (Fig.6)
Figure 6: Urban resilience themes
Metabolic Flows studies are concerned with the
critical interconnections and interdependencies along
the chain of production. Incidents like the Longford
explosion, due to a research of optimal efficiency,
halted natural gas supply in Melbourne for more than
2 weeks and led to the wasting of 25 Million litres of
milk that couldnt be pasteurised. Its a typical case
where optimal efficiency and lack of redundancy
(alternate sources) led to greater damage.
This theme focuses on understanding what the
city consumes and produces (energy, food, waste,
etc.). Main questions are Diversity, (whether it
provides larger resilience) Disturbance, (response to
shocks and surprises including when produced in
distant geopolitical zones) Metabolism, (is recycling
the solution?) and Connectivity (how does high
connectivity and feedback create resilience, if it does
at all?).
Social dynamics studies are mainly related to
demography, the role of population, its composition
and diversity. Challenges come both from relentless
growth (in Africa or Asia) to negative growth (Italy
and Spain), social marginalisation and protests. Main
questions are Demography, (how do immigration,
social change and turnover contribute to the
resilience of urban sub-regions and the system as a
whole?) Distribution, (how does the placement of
populations affect resilience? how does modularity of
populations work vs. connectivity with the associated
degree of social inequity? Are the poorest always the
most vulnerable to shocks and surprises?) Diversity,
(do populations with a higher degree of diversity in
culture, age and education have a higher level of
social capital in terms of organisational knowledge
and life experience, to withstand rapid-onset shocks?
Governance networks Urban decision making,
institutions, and land use practices are increasingly
shaped by civil society represented by NGOs,
universities, research centres, industry and informed
citizens [7] The rapid growth of cities and their
transformations, coupled with shifts of governance
from larger scales to local, even communal scales,
their overlaps and good or bad practices lead us to
think that urban decision makers should be less
concerned with prediction and control, and more
concerned with organic, adaptable and flexible urban
management [7]
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Questions are: Evolution, (what patterns and
lessons emerge from governance dynamics
emerging from old cities that can enhance
resilience?) Components, (how do social networks
and organisations interact with urban institutions and
influence resilience?) Cross scale-effects (how do
changes of scale and cross scale effects influence
governance, as cities are formed or evolve?) Lock-in
and change, (can surprises cast opportunities for
governance and change the existing inequalities and
urban marginalisation?)
Built environment is the theme most traditionally
attached to architects. The static regulations of urban
planning occurring within political ideologies have
dynamics that are opposed to the fast changes and
complex interactions inherent to the city. To a large
extent, we live in yesterdays cities in the sense that
many of the urban patterns we see today reflect
decision making periods of the past [7]
Its needless to explain that urban planning and
spatial organisation of the city has significant
influence on the flow of commerce and people in and
out of cities. The spatial pattern of the cities is both
created by chance and necessity [7]
For the resilience alliance, the following questions
arise:
Pattern and diversity What is the role of
green-space or semi-natural ecosystems (kinds,
amounts, patterns) in promoting sustainability,
reducing vulnerabilities, and building resilience?
Path dependency With the many examples of
path dependant dangers in urban systems, could
irreversible changes have been identified in advance,
and are there particular attributes of the systems that
identify or suggest such non-return points? Can
resilience theory on regime shifts and thresholds
help identify key attributes of the system to monitor
and inform decision making?
Rates of change How can urban planning
blueprints be made compatible with the speed of
urban system change, and can self-organisation be
specifically addressed and included? When faced
with difficulties or failures in the urban environment,
what structural or social responses emerge, and how
do we learn from these so as to guide rather than
control urban development?
Sizes and patterns Can the worlds mega-
cities keep growing? How does the emergence of
extended urban regions (megapolitan regions)
influence urban resilience? Is there an optimal
density and/or optimal layout for cities and how might
this vary according to social-ecological context? And
how does the regional pattern of other city sizes
influence urban growth trends? [7]
4. APPLICATIONS
The interpretation of urban resilience can be used
for many purposes. Its multi-dimensional focus is
compelling and contemporary. The source of its
motivation is disturbing: a challenge is set for our
planets sustainability, its resilience needs to be
secured. Resilience thinking can be detoured to
encourage security and restriction of personal
freedoms. It can also lead voices to partially return to
previous states of underdevelopment for mankind,
because there are many ecologists that, in their love
of nature, oppose everything related to science and
development.[9] It opens the door to sheer
traditionalism and refusal of novelty.
4.1. Transition towns movement
Figure 7: Transition initiatives UK
According to the transition network website, A
Transition Initiative (which could be a town, village,
university or island etc) is a community-led response
to the pressures of climate change, fossil fuel
depletion and increasingly, economic contraction.
There are thousands of initiatives around the world
starting their journey to answer this crucial question:
"for all those aspects of life that this community
needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how do we
significantly rebuild resilience (to mitigate the effects
of Peak Oil and economic contraction) and drastically
reduce carbon emissions (to mitigate the effects
of Climate Change)?"
Transition initiatives are one of the most popular
resilience thinking derivatives. Initiated by Rob
Hopkins, it has developed a lot in the UK and USA,
counting more than 500 cities with initiatives at this
point in time.(fig. 7)
The movement is founded at a local level. Small
activist groups start a labour of environmental
transformation following a protocol (established by
the Transitions network) that has a lot of down-to-
earth wisdom and common sense. The application of
these principles will supposedly allow to create
awareness and connect to the rest of the community
with the aim of establishing bridges with local
authorities, encouraging the community to develop
the main themes of life (food, energy, transportation,
health, spiritual and physical well-being, economy
and lifestyle), build resilience; and eventually lay mid
term plans (20 years or so) that will contribute, in
collaboration with other towns, to create a new
society. This initiative sometimes feels naive, others
plainly reactionary; but has growing adepts, is
ambitious in its marginality, and it has become
possible thanks to internet-powered social networks,
global consciousness and anti-globalisation. If, like
the studies led by Paul Hawken [9] indicate, theres
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more than one million associations around the world
that combine in their credo, elements of social justice
and environmental concern, we can quickly see the
potential that this kind of marginal initiative can
have. Alter-governance led by NGOs acting in a
kaleidoscope of interdependent situations, evolving
in nested cycles, connected yet modular, diverse and
redundant, offer a panorama that resonates with
panarchy theories.
Some architects can integrate this processes, as
they have in many self-construction initiatives (i.e.
Alejandro Aravena), acting as mediators in the
reconfiguring of these new towns.
4.2. DRIFT
DRIFT stands for Dutch Research Institute for
Transitions. It is related to various initiatives
promoted by the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the
Technical University Eindhoven and the University
Amsterdam. Its an academic, scientific-oriented
version of the practical transition town movement
with shared objectives: piloting the transition process
our society has to obligatorily go through.
Through a series of publications exposed in a
website [11], they have grouped the main transition
themes in 4 groups: Food, Health, Energy and
Automobiles. The automobile appears here as a
problem over which actions can have noticeable
impact in relatively short time. The urgency of action
makes possible encouraging ideas that, out of our
current context, wouldnt be taken into consideration.
Automobiles configure urban models, some now
recognised as public enemies, such as sprawl.
Watching a documentary like The end of suburbia
[12] leaves us with mixed feelings. Theres the
necessity of creating awareness of a bad model
(urban sprawl) but encouragement of a traditional
European model, based on density. One has to be
careful when suggesting models, for the method of
reasoning is still bound to be mono-focused, mono-
cultural and non-responsive...This is precisely what
resilience thinking allows, seeing opportunities in the
future to enable radical action in front of surprises,
and prepare for a sustainable, inevitable and desired
transformation.
5. OPPORTUNITIES
At this point, architects can find space, maybe
because cities and building are their specialty,
where, ironically, a significant gap of knowledge
[13] exists. We can only blame our own profession
for such a gap, publicly described by expert
ecologists. We could be victims of treasuring our own
knowledge, wanting to protect our own field of work
to keep the upper hand. But if we leave behind Henri
Roark and the parasitic architect, maybe we can find
a renewed social role (although this might be too
ambitious) through resilience thinking. As pointed
out by Juan Freire, the architect could be an
integrator in the new urbanism that agglutinates
potentialities proposed by empowered citizens,
technology-enhanced social networks and
representation methods. [14], become an expert in
communication and conversation, abandoning the
marketing model of persuading images at which all
are more or less experts already.
For example, take the automobile, a theme of
concern for DRIFT. Architects like MVDRV have
seen an opportunity to propose an utopian model of
city, maybe too formal and far from reality, but that
proves nevertheless that theres room for the debate
about the car in large scale terms, that there are
alternatives in industry that are working already on
new car concepts. Architects can integrate and
hopefully contribute to the evolution of transportation
and subsequent city transformations using the
resilience lens as an argument of objective
value.(Fig.8)
Figure 8: Skycar city. MVDRV architects
More opportunities are opened by the work of
MITs Senseable City Lab. Their study during the
World Cup finals of 2006 in Rome showed the
potential of mobile phones coupled with new
representation tools. By mapping the position of
human beings in their environment, the possibilities
opened by gathering and processing real-time data
both as consumers and producers are many. For
instance, the amount of phone calls during that final
allowed representation of an exceptional event in the
city, with the possibility of adequately responding to
it, for example, with the surplus of transportation at
the right time. Similar representation tools such as
Usahidi or Urban atmospheres enable great
possibilities for real-time urbanism. The possibilities
opened by these tools and democratic information,
as well as the eventual backlashes, are yet to
explore. An example is provided also by tools like
Oakland crime-spotting website map, it provides real
time information of where crimes happen in the city,
empowering stake-holders to focus on local
problems with urban planers, decision-makers and
architects. Space syntax is, in this sense, an office
that has been working for years with this kind of data,
their decisions deduced from parametric computer
analysis of many conditions observed on site. (Fig. 9)
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Figure 9: Lebanon Masterplan. Space Syntax.
6. CONCLUSION
This paper has studied urban resilience as a
science with the ambition of better understanding our
cities. It opens up exciting possibilities about
urbanism. But it has failed to deal with one of the
most disturbing realities: Informal cities. Many of the
possibilities opened by new technologies have to
address the fact that more than a billion people live
in informal cities; and a billion more are expected to
come there [9]. Their ecological footprint hasnt been
studied, their future needs, neither. Their resilience is
based on an enormous capacity of self
reconstruction after disasters, at the cost of their
inhabitants. Being deprived even of the most basic
tenure of their premises, the poor of global slums
have hardly any rights, yet they live in an ecosystem
where nothing is wasted, nobody is unemployed and
things somehow work. Slums could be saving our
cities as a buffer against unsustainable energy and
material demands. Their study and the lessons to be
learnt to improve their needs in security, health,
energy and food, might be essential in determining
the resilience of our future urban ecosystems.
7. REFERENCES
[1] United Nations (UN) (2009). The World
Population Prospects: the 2009 Revision.
Department of Economic and social affairs. The
United Nations. New York.
[2] T. Homer-Dyxon. Our panarchic future.
[online]URL:http://www.worldwatch.org/node/60
08
[3] [online]URL:http://www.stockholmresilience.org/r
esearch/whatisresilience
[4] Alberti, M., Marzluff, J.M., Shulenberger, E.,
Bradley, G., Ryan, C. and Zumbrunnen, C.
(2003). Integrating Humans into Ecology:
Opportunities and Challenges for Studying
Urban Ecosystems. BioScience, 53: 1169-1179.
[5] B. Walker and D. Salt (2006) Resilience
thinking Sustaining Ecosystems and People in
a Changing World. Island press, Washington DC
[6] Carpenter, S. R., C. Folke, M. Scheffer, and F.
R. Westley. (2009). Resilience: accounting for
the non-computable.
[online]URL:http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/v
ol14/iss1/art13/
[7] A Resilience Alliance Initiative for Transitioning
Urban Systems towards Sustainable Futures
[online]URL:http://www.resalliance.org/1610.php
[8] Rem Koolhas and Bruce Mao S,M,L,XL -
Whatever happened to urbanism?:959-971
[9] Stewart Brand: Poptech conference.
[online]URL:http://www.poptech.com
[10] [online]URL:http://www.transitionnetwork.org/
[11] [online]URL:http://www.sustainabilitytransitions.c
om/en/background
[12] Gregory Greene - The End of Suburbia: Oil
Depletion and the Collapse of The American
Dream
[13] McGranahan et al. (2005).Millenium Ecosystem
Assesement, Island press, Washington DC
[14] Juan Freire Urbanismo emergente :ciudad,
tecnologa e innovacin social Paisajes
Domsticos / Domestic Landscapes, Vol. 4
Redes de Borde / Edge Networks. Ed. SEPES
Entidad Estatal de Suelo, Spain.
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ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
Sustainable Urban Planning of High Density Cities
by Urban Climatic Mapping
An Experience from Kaohsiung, Taiwan
CHAO REN, KA LUN LAU, KAM PO YIU, EDWARD NG
School of Architecture, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
ABSTRACT: There is a need to create sustainable urban development and quality living environment for the
increasing urban population of high density cities. Sustainable urban planning of high density cities from the
urban climatic point of view has been a topical issue for city planners and policy makers. However, the
application of urban climatic knowledge has a low impact urban planning and policy decision making of urban
development. This is especially true in high density cities of developing countries. Thus, there is an urgent need
to seek for ways to assemble quickly urban climatic information for planning actions in a format that is user-
friendly to planners. The study has identified ways to promote the use of urban climatic knowledge in planning.
By utilizing readily available data, the paper introduces a method that focuses on urban planning using the
Urban Climatic Map (UCMap). UCMap provides a visual and spatial information platform on planner-friendly
Geographical Information System. By focusing on Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the study first defines the urban climatic
issues in the area. It then introduces the key methodology of urban climatic mapping and elaborates on the
general urban climatic-based planning advices using the UCMap. Lastly, it identifies the sensitive areas and
provides planning recommendations that can be easily adopted by city planners. The actionable importance of
urban greenery and coverage, urban air paths and open spaces, water bodies and rivers, and building
morphologies and layouts, have been highlighted for planners.
Keywords: urban climatic map, high density city, sustainable urban planning
1. INTRODUCTION
Cities have become bigger in size and more
densely populated nowadays as characterized by
their compact urban fabric and enormous urban
population [1, 2]. Such phenomenon is more
prominent in high density cities where urban
development has become more unsustainable and
living quality of urban environment is declining [3].
Although scientifically-based urban climatic studies
have been widely conducted, the consideration of
urban climatic environment is still limited in the
decision-making process of urban planning. One of
the major drawbacks preventing the consideration of
urban climatic environment in planning processes is
the assemblage of urban climatic information for
planning purposes and the translation of working
languages between scientists and urban planners [4-
7].
From planners perspective, the following
difficulties have been encountered when dealing with
urban climatic issues in planning processes:
(i)climatic information cannot be easily understood by
planners and designers due to their non-scientific
background [6, 8]. Numbers and equations are
difficult to be comprehended or translated into
semantic language for policy applications; (ii)it is not
easy to reconcile numerical precisions in scientific
terms with rough and synergetic thresholds
commonly required when a number of concerns must
be concurrently considered; (iii)at the city level,
urban climatic conditions with spatial information are
not normally visualised for policy decision-making [9].
(iv)climatic evaluations and knowledge are not
normally elaborated into planning language;
(v)effective mitigation measures are not clear or
practical in planning context [8]; (vi)as a result, there
is an urgent need for an immediate assemblage of
urban climatic information for planning purposes in
the way that can be easily recognized by urban
planners and government officials [8]. The collation
and presentation of such information are also
important in the formulation of planning and policy
decision-making with regard to urban climatic
environment. The emergence of Urban Climatic Map
(UCMap) offers a possibility for this agenda [8, 10-
12].
This study aims to enhance current
understandings by developing a map-based planning
tool for high density cities, using Kaohsiung City,
Taiwan as an example (Fig.1). It will fill the
knowledge gap to identify the relationship between
urban climatology and morphology, and to construct
a framework of climatic-environmental evaluation and
to apply the useful result into Taiwan urban planning
system.

Fig. 1. The map of Kaohsiung city, Taiwan

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2. BACKGROUND
2.1. Urban climatic map
The concept of UCMap was first developed by
German researchers in the 1970s [13] and have
been widely conducted in Europe, Asia, and South
America since the 1980s. Urban climatic map is an
information and evaluation tool that integrates urban
climatic factors and urban planning considerations by
presenting urban climatic phenomena into a two-
dimensional spatial map and in a format that can be
easily interpreted by urban planners. The scales of
UCMap applications normally vary from 1:100,000 to
1:5,000, precisely fitting urban planning into a wide
range of scales ranging from regional, city, to
neighbourhood scales [14, 15]. It collates
meteorological, planning, land use, topographic, and
vegetation information. Their inter-relationships and
effects on urban environment are also analysed and
evaluated spatially and quantitatively [15, 16]. Based
on such information, various climatopes can be
defined in which the spatial distribution of urban
climatic characteristics and their significance can be
easily interpreted [12, 17, 18]. Sensitive areas with
urban climatic and environmental problems can be
identified so that relevant strategic urban planning
recommendations can be formulated in order to
assist urban planners to take appropriate actions.
3. METHODOLOGY
3.1. Theory
In the present study, urban climatic,
environmental, and planning parameters, as well as
their impacts, are considered in order to synthesize
and comprehensively evaluate the physical urban
environment (Table 1). Topography, population
density, land use, and UHI intensity contribute to the
variations of the thermal environment and are
therefore categorised as thermal loads. Dynamic
potential consists of natural landscape, seas, and
rivers reflecting potential for air ventilation and air
mass exchange in Kaohsiung. The prevailing wind
information and local land and sea breezes are
coded and evaluated as Wind Information, providing
a comprehensive understanding of the wind
environment of Kaohsiung. The synthesized effects
of thermal load, dynamic potential, and wind
information result in various Climatopes. Climatopes
refer to urban areas with similar urban climatic
conditions and implications for planning decision-
making [15, 19], which are mainly defined and
differentiated by land use and urban morphology [16,
18].
Table 1: Selected Parameters and Their Impacts on Urban
Environment
Physical
Urban
Environment
Selected Analysis
Factors
Impact on Urban
Environment
Topography
Negative impact on
thermal load
Population Density
Positive impact on
thermal load
Thermal
Environment
Land Use
Positive/ Negative
impact on thermal load
Urban Heat Island
Intensity
Positive impact on
thermal load
Natural Landscape
Negative impact on
thermal load
Water Body
Positive impact on
dynamic potentials
Prevailing Wind
Information
Positive impact on
dynamic potentials
Wind
Environment
Local Wind Circulation
Positive impact on
dynamic potentials
3.2. Procedures and data collection
A three-step analysis has been conducted using
GIS as the data platform. The use of the GIS
platform ensures that urban planners can eventually
assess and utilise the data as it has been one of the
major working tools of urban planners.

Fig.2. Main Procedures of the UCMap Study

The workflow of the present study is summarised
in Fig. 2. First, climatic, environmental and planning
data and information were collected from various
government authorities such as Taiwan Central
Weather Bureau, Urban Development Bureau, and
Department of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics of
Kaohsiung Local Government. Secondly, data
collation was then performed and data was
interpreted and resolved to form the basic input
layers of UCMap. The input layers of various
selected parameters were then synergized and
merged to generate the UCMap of Kaohsiung. It is
composed of various climatopes that spatially
represent thermal conditions and wind environment
of the city. Based on the urban climatic
understandings of the UCMap, problematic and
sensitive areas were identified. With the collaboration
of urban planners, a number of general urban
climatic planning recommendations were elaborated
at urban scale.
4. RESULT
The UCMap of Kaohsiung is composed of eight
basic layers with input data unified and rasterized
into grid cells of 500 m 500 m. This provides a
preliminary area-based understanding for urban
planners who work out further planning decisions at
district and neighbourhood scales.
4.1. Layer 1: Topography
Air temperature decreases with height at a rate of
10C/km for rising air (i.e., adiabatic changes in
temperature occur due to changes in pressure of gas
while not adding or subtracting any heat) [20]. The
moist adiabatic lapse rate is relatively lower at a
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value of 0.6C/100m (Aikawa et al., 2006). This layer
therefore represents the topographic height in metres
according to the data obtained from the Urban
Development Bureau of Kaohsiung Government [21-
23]. The relatively flat topography of Kaohsiung City
suggests that only two small hills need to be
represented. Due to their possible temperature
variations and thermal stress contributions, three
UCMap classes have been identified: 0-150 m, 151-
300 m, and over 300 m (Fig. 3a).
4.2. Layer 2: Population Density
Population density contributes in the intensity of
androgenic activities and is known to correlate with
the urban thermal environment [24, 25]. Building
density and volume must therefore increase to
accommodate the increasing population. In general,
an urban area with a higher density of buildings has
poorer urban ventilation conditions and stronger UHI
effects [26, 27]. Population density contributes to the
understanding of thermal loads in the UCMap. This
layer (Fig. 3b) represents the population density in
persons per km. Based on the data obtained from
the Department of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics
of Kaohsiung Government (Tseng, 2008; Yap, 2008),
it was deduced that the highest population density in
Kaohsiung reaches above 30,000 persons per km.
Given this high-density scenario [28], this layer was
defined as high density, moderate high density, or
extreme high density (Fig. 3b).
a)Layer 1; b)Layer 2;
Fig. 3. a) Topographical Map, b) Population density map of
Kaohsiung City
4.3. Layer 3: Land use
Urban thermal environment is influenced by land
use, which determines a wide range of urban
parameters, such as building form, urban density,
anthropogenic heat releases, energy consumption,
and transport behaviours. Based on the Land use
and Planning Data acquired from the Urban
Development Bureau of Kaohsiung Government and
Geography Atlas of Kaohsiung City [27], the layer on
land use was rasterized and created (Fig. 4a). The
grid cells were respectively classified as climatopes
which form the basic units of the UCMap. The
classification of this layer is based on their similarities
in urban climatic characteristics for different land
uses, such as thermal capacity, surface roughness,
and anthropogenic heat release [15].
4.4. Layer 4: Urban Heat Island Intensity
The phenomenon of UHI is commonly observed
along with the temperature difference between urban
and rural areas [29]. UHI is defined as a metropolitan
area having a significantly higher temperature than
its surrounding rural areas [24, 30, 31], which can be
more significant when wind or air ventilation is weak
[25]. Based on the study by Taiwanese researchers
using traverse mobile measurements [32], the UHI
intensity in Kaohsiung is about 2.5-3.0 C. Using
computational fluid dynamics model simulation [33,
34], their study results were collated and rasterized,
resulting in six classes of layer ranging from very
high to very low UHI intensity (Fig. 4b).
a)Layer 3; b)Layer 4;
Fig. 4. a) Land Use Map; b)UHII Map of Kaohsiung City
4.5. Layer 5: Natural Landscape
Natural vegetation has a beneficial cooling effect
to its surrounding areas and can therefore lower
thermal load (Oke, 1987, 1988; Landsberg, 1981;
Bowne and Ball, 1970; Brook, 1972). The
classification of this layer (Fig. 5a) is based on the
parks and types of greenery coverage [22, 35, 36].
Areas of no vegetation are classified as very low,
while limited coverage is classified as low.
Grasslands, agricultural, and military lands, which
can provide considerable cooling effects to
surrounding areas, are classified as medium. Large
urban parks, which contribute to the cooling of
surrounding urban built-up areas, are classified as
high. Forests or large woodlands are classified as
very high.
4.6. Layer 6: Water Body Systems
In the construction of large-scale climatic maps,
the distance measured from the coastline for sea
breezes is factored in [37]. Kaohsiung has a long
coastal line with Love River running through the
central urban area and Lianchih Pond in the inland
area. Some paddy fields and fishponds are found in
the northern part of Kaohsiung City. There are two
small canals, Yansheigang Canal and Cianjhen
Canal [35]. The classification of this layer is based on
the potential effects of the different types of water
systems, such as seas, rivers, lakes, and fishponds
(Fig. 5b).
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a)Layer 5; b)Layer 6;
Fig. 5. a) Natural landscape Map; b) water body Map of
Kaohsiung City
4.7. Layer 7: Prevailing Wind Information
The prevailing wind information is important in the
design of urban settlements. It also has great
potential in improving urban thermal environment
and in solving problems related to air pollution. Thus,
the prevailing summer and annual wind directions
are considered in the study. According to the
historical meteorological record, the mean wind
speed in Kaohsiung city is relatively low at around
2.7 m/s throughout the year [35, 36, 38]. Annual wind
directions are mainly from the N, WNW, NEN, S, and
SES; summer wind directions are mainly from WNW,
W, ENE, E, and SES. In Fig. 6, the blue arrow shows
the prevailing annual wind directions while green
arrow shows the prevailing summer wind directions.
Fig. 6. Layer 7: Prevailing Wind Map of Kaohsiung City
4.8. Layer 8: Land and Sea Breezes Effect
Since Kaohsiung is a coastal city, land and sea
breezes are prominent and have a potential to
improve the urban thermal environment. Land
breezes come from ENE, N, and SES directions at
night. High wind velocity areas focus on inland areas
such as the eastern part of Zuoying District and
Cianjhen District. Sea breezes come from WNW, W,
and S directions during daytime. Thus, high wind
velocity areas concentrate on the waterfront areas,
for example, the outlet of Love River in Cianjin
District. In Fig. 7, red arrows in the left figure show
the land breeze at night while blue arrows in the right
figure show the sea breeze during daytime.
Fig.7. Layer 8: Land & Sea Breezes Map of Kaohsiung City,
after [33, 34]
4.9. The Urban Climatic Map
Based on the eight input layers, the UCMap of
Kaohsiung was synthesized based on the evaluation
of urban climatic data (Fig. 8) and composed of
different climatopes, the basic units of the UCMap.
Land uses were first differentiated for better
planning-based understandings, including areas for
commercial/business, residential/education, and
industrial, as well as water bodies and greeneries.
Within such land use types, various areas of similar
climatopes are delineated and described. The
different climatopes are affected by its constituent
parameters of urban morphology, population density,
topography, greeneries, and water bodies. Their
contributions to the urban thermal environment are
likewise differentiated. For example, for
commercial/business districts, areas are classified
from very high to low thermal load.
Fig.8. UCMap of Kaohsiung
By referring to the UCMap in Fig. 8, three levels
of planning action at the city, urban, and
neighbourhood scales were suggested with the
collaboration of urban planners. Coding their
descriptions in planning terms was employed.
Level 1: Central Kaohsiung, including Cianjin,
Yancheng, and Sinsing Districts, has very high
thermal load and low dynamic potential. This
suggests that these areas have intense
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anthropogenic heat releases but have limited air
ventilation. These areas require specific planning
actions such as increasing greenery coverage and
reducing anthropogenic heat releases.
Level 2: Medium planning is required in the
districts of Lingya, Sanmin, Cianihen, and Siaogang,
since high to medium thermal stress and higher
dynamic potential are observed in these areas.
Provision of greenery is encouraged, while
anthropogenic heat releases must be reduced. In
particular, air pollution due to industrial activities
requires specific attention. Industrial restructuring
should be considered in these areas.
Level 3: For areas with low thermal stress and
high dynamic potential, such as Zuoying, Nanzih,
Cijin, and Gushan Districts, the current situations
should be preserved and the provision of surfaces of
low albedo is encouraged. Since the availability of air
ventilation is higher in these areas, air exchange with
surrounding urban areas is encouraged. In particular,
potential air pollution problem in Nanzih requires
specific attention.
5. DISCUSSION
5.1. Advantages
As a means to assist city planners, developers,
and policy-makers, the UCMap shows how urban
climatic planning recommendations on an urban
spatial scale can be formulated. To summarize, the
methodology and procedures introduced in the
present study have several advantages: (i) the
structure of UCMap system, which consists of input
layers and a final evaluation map, is flexible and is
easily managed. All climatic, environmental, and
planning information is collated and evaluated with
the same grid size embedded into the GIS
framework. Thus, further urban climatic,
environmental, and planning information can be
updated and managed easily; (ii)the selected
parameters are easy to collect, and the study results
are useful for planners; (iii)according to the UCMap,
various climatic data and environmental information
are presented spatially for convenient interpretation
of urban planners. Problem and sensitive areas can
be easily identified. Further detailed studies can
focus on any particular aspects or localities; (iii)the
UCMap provides an information platform for
interdisciplinary study. It presents visually and
spatially the aforementioned evaluation, which could
then assist in future planning decision-making and
policy implementations; (iv)urban climatic information
is translated into planning-based language and
actionable strategies.
5.2. Limitation and Further Studies
A number of limitations are identified to guide
future studies: (i) the resolution of UCMap is at a grid
of 500 m 500m. The general effective control
measures and planning strategies can only be
implemented onto the master plan at the urban level.
(ii) for certain planning studies, the UCMap
evaluation at the 500-m grid is rather coarse. Hence,
from time to time, there is a need for focused
understanding and studies. This has been the case
for Tokyo where, based on the Tokyo Thermal
Environmental Map, further studies on wind paths
were conducted in specific areas (Kagiya and Ashie,
2008). (iii) further empirical and model simulation
data are needed to better quantify the map so that
the degree of control can be better established. After
knowing what to do and where to do, planners
must know how much one needs to do.
6. CONCLUSION
The urban climatic environment of Kaohsiung has
never been studied systematically at the urban level
and applied to the Taiwan Planning System [39]. In
this study, a demonstration to quickly draft an
UCMap was presented and quick reference to urban
planners has become possible. With readily available
data, eight urban climatic and planning parameters
were considered. They were collated into GIS layers
and evaluated quickly for their respective thermal
and dynamic contribution to the urban environment.
Planning recommendations in planning language
air paths and open spaces, water body and rivers,
greenery and landscaping, and urban morphology
were explained. These could assist planners in
making their design decisions. Furthermore, an
actionable plan was presented that is suitable for
planners. As such, the study achieved the agenda of
promoting the use of urban climatic knowledge in
planning. Currently, some detailed planning
parameters, such as site coverage and building
volume density, were not considered. The resolution
of Kaohsiung city UCMap is at 500 m x 500 m, a
dimension that can be improved in the process.
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1
Urban Climatic Map and STEVE Tool for Sustainable
Urban Planning in Singapore
Steve Kardinal JUSUF
1
, Nyuk Hien WONG
2
, Chun Liang TAN
1
1
Center for Sustainable Asian Cities, National University of Singapore, Singapore
2
Department of Building, National University of Singapore, Singapore
ABSTRACT: Extensive urbanization has resulted in economic, social, energy & environmental problems. The
trend in global population increase leads to an increase in demand for housing. Natural land has been replaced
with artificial surfaces in most cities around the world with undesirable thermal effects. This, together with growth
in industrialization, has caused a deterioration of the urban environment. Urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon
has become a common problem in many major cities worldwide. Urban climate is one of elements of urban
physical environment, which is often ignored in urban planning. To design a sustainable city, it is necessary to
factor the climatic information holistically and strategically into the planning process. Sustainable urban
development emerges as one of the main issues to tackle the UHI problem and to increase energy saving of
buildings. At the building level, many building energy simulations have emerged to provide energy assessment
for building during the design stage. However, the challenge remains for the estate development. Combining the
air temperature prediction models and urban climatic mapping method, a framework is developed as an
assessment tool to help urban planners in their design process. Since the 1970s, the concept of urban climate
map (UCMap) has been developed by German researchers, which have a strong focus on applied urban
climatology. It is considered as an appropriate tool for translating climatic phenomenon and problem into 2-D
images and symbols with land use and spatial information for the urban planning use. It can help urban
planners, architects and governors to understand and evaluate the effect of urban climatic issues on decision-
making and environment control. The Screening Tool for Estate Environment Evaluation (STEVE) was
developed with a motivation to bridge research findings, especially air temperature prediction models, and urban
planners. STEVE is a web-based application that is specific to an estate and it calculates the Tmin, Tavg and Tmax
of a point of interest for the existing condition and future condition (proposed master plan) of an estate. By
combining these two methods, urban climatic map and STEVE Tool will help creating a more sustainable urban
planning.
Keywords: urban climatic map, STEVE Tool, sustainable urban planning, microclimatic condition, Singapore
1. INTRODUCTION
In 2008, more than half of the world population is
living in the urban areas and the numbers are
estimated to grow up to 5 billion people by year 2030
[1]. The problem of urbanization is not an exception
to Singapore, which extends beyond its border to its
neighbouring countries and even to its regional
South East Asian countries. Known as a politically
stable and the safest country in Asia, Singapore
attracts a large pool of foreign talent and traders from
all over the world. Furthermore, the government has
a plan to increase the population to 6.5 million in 40-
50 years from the current 4.5 million inhabitants.
Urbanization in the recent years has significantly
increased the number of buildings, in which
ameliorate the urban microclimate. As In the past
decades, urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon in the
city and its corresponding issues including the
mitigation methods have become the main research
topics in the area of urban climatology. Researchers
have conducted various investigations and
measurements in the urban environment such as
temperature, wind condition inside the urban
canyons, urban greeneries, shadowing effect,
anthropogenic heat generated by buildings and
traffics, etc. Prediction models such as impact
mitigation strategies, urban air temperature
predictions, improved weather forecasting and air
quality forecasting have been developed as a result.
Singapore, known as a City in the garden, is also
not spared from the UHI problem. Based on the
island-wide mobile survey, the highest air
temperature of 28.4
o
C was found in the Central
Business District (CBD) area that has less
vegetation. A higher air temperature was also
observed in the industrial area. The UHI intensity is
up to 4.5
o
C [2].
Singapore is relatively new in adopting the urban
climatic mapping method for its urban development
as compared to some other countries, for example
Germany, which has been using this method for
more than two decades. The history of adopting this
urban climatic mapping method in Singapore starts
from the necessity of developing an assessment tool,
used by urban planners and decision makers.
Singapore has various research projects related to
the built environment, such as urban heat island,
thermal benefits of parks, rooftop garden, vertical
greenery et cetera. The lesson learnt from these
research projects interrelate one to another and
urban climatic mapping method is found to have the
ability to wrap them all together into an assessment
tool that provide benefits in developing an
environmentally sustainable Singapore.
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2
Figure 1: Sketch of UHI profile in Singapore [2]
This paper highlights the estate level urban
climatic mapping of Singapore from the background
condition of Singapore, such as its urban heat island
phenomenon, development of air temperature
prediction model and the application of urban climatic
mapping for an estate development.
2. URBAN CLIMATIC MAP
2.1. At nation/city level
Climate is an existing factor in a built environment
and the study about climate condition is to improve
the climate condition and to reduce the negative
microclimate effects. There are two different
difficulties appear for the climatic study. First, there is
no suitable data available as the usual
meteorological measuring net is too wide. Second,
there is only a little or no time for the planners to
make decisions and so is the available time for the
meteorological investigation [3].
Germany is one of the leading countries in urban
climate research. The first urban climate study was
conducted in Berlin as early as in the end of 19
th
century and used several methodologies in the later
studies including thermal imaging, temporary
weather station, car transverses, vertical soundings
and constructions of urban climatic map (UC-Map) in
the early 80s [4].
Among the various methods, UC-Map is found
very useful for urban planning purpose since it
integrates the urban climatic factors and urban
planning considerations. Before this methodology
was developed, the integration was a problem in
many cities, because both have different domain of
knowledge. Meteorologists do not know the planning
requirement that consider the urban climate factor,
while urban planners do not understand the type of
climate data that can be provided for their planning
purpose [5]. As an information and evaluation tool,
the UC-Map has two components, the Urban Climatic
Analysis Map (UC-AnMap) and Urban Climatic
Recommendation Map (UC-ReMap).
The UC An-Map compiles the meteorological
data, land use, building footprint information,
topography and vegetation information, in which,
their effects on thermal load and thermal comfort are
analyzed and classified spatially into several
categories [6]. Figure 1 shows the workflow and data
required to develop UC-AnMap for urban climatic
map of Hong Kong as an illustration.
Urban Climatic Recommendation Map (UC-
ReMap) is specific for planning purpose. It provides
strategic and city planning guidelines to improve the
microclimate condition based on the UC-AnMap and
practical constraints. Similar climatopes obtained
from UC-AnMap are grouped into classification
zones, where each zone is represented in different
colors and has specific planning guidelines, such that
the urban climatic condition will not be worsened or
even improved. Hence, the collaboration between
the urban climatologist and the planners is very
important in the development of UC-ReMap from UC-
AnMap [7]. The recommendation map can be in a
form of general guidelines, for example in Stuttgart
climatic map, transformation of green space and
vegetation into the built city to preserve and reclaim
natural vegetation in order to improve ventilation,
reduce the release of air pollutants and support fresh
air provision (Figure 3) [8]. The scale of the UC-Map
is 1:100,000 for the regional analysis and 1:5,000 for
district analysis. It provides an overall analysis, in
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CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 221
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which, microclimate study can be selected and
conducted.

Figure 2: Workflow of UC-AnMap development for Hong Kong [5]

Figure 3: UC-ReMap City of Stuttgart [8].
2.2. At estate level
Urban climatic map at the estate level provides a
more detail climatic condition, i.e. urban air
temperature, as compared to urban climatic map at
city level, as it usually has the scale of 1:5,000 to
1:100,000 with the resolution of 100m grid.
Known as temperature map, its methodology was
developed based on the findings that the urban air
temperature in the urban areas has a close
relationship with the land uses [9], which physically is
related to the urban morphology characteristics, such
as: sky view factor [10-14], greenery condition [15-
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222 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
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16], thermal mass of the built environment [17-18],
building materials [19-21].
Daily minimum (Tmin), average (Tavg) and
maximum (Tmax) temperature of a location point were
calculated as the result of temperature deviation from
the temperature measured at meteorological station.
The deviation is mainly due to the urban morphology
characteristics, i.e. building, pavement and greenery,
within the radius of 50 meters. The independent
variables for the models can be categorized into:
1. Climate predictors: daily minimum (Ref Tmin),
average (Ref Tavg) and maximum (Ref Tmax)
temperature at reference point; average of daily
solar radiation (SOLAR). For the SOLAR
predictor, average of daily solar radiation total
was used in Tavg models, while average of solar
radiation maximum of the day was used in the
Tmax model. SOLAR predictor is not applicable for
Tmin model.
2. Urban morphology predictors: percentage of
pavement area over R 50m surface area,
average height to building area ratio, total wall
surface area, Green Plot Ratio, sky view factor
and average surface albedo.
The planners are not able to modify the overall
climate condition, but they modify the urban
morphology condition. With the temperature map,
planners are able to analyze the impacts of their
design to the environment.
As an example, temperature map study was
used to analyze and predict the impact of a new
master plan as compared to the existing condition in
a Singapore estate and also to study two different
greenery density of the park, named as Green Belt.
The calculated maximum temperature is shown in
Figure 4. The changes of maximum air temperature
distribution pattern at different master plan models
(Model 1 and Model 2) are mainly due to the change
of greenery and building distributions. The removal
of large greenery area and replace it with buildings
increases the average temperature condition, as
seen in the Vista Xchange zone. The impact of
Green Belt in Model 2 (Figure 4 right) that has a
higher greenery density as compared to Model 1
(Figure 4 middle) seems more noticeable, creating a
larger cool island in the middle of the estate.
Figure 4: The calculated average air temperature of current condition (Left), master plan model 1 (Middle) and master plan
model 2 (Right).
3. SCREENING TOOL FOR ESTATE
ENVIRONMENT EVALUATION (STEVE)
TOOL
Researchers have conducted various
investigations and measurements in relation to urban
and built environment. As the results, they have
come out with various prediction models for different
purposes, including impact mitigation strategies,
climate predictions, improved weather forecasting
and air quality forecasting [22]. Nevertheless, these
prediction models are too complicated for educated
non-scientists, such as urban planners. At the end,
they are often kept in the shelves until the scientists
are engaged to do the assessment. By the time
scientists finish their assessments, the planners have
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no time to redesign their master plan based on the
scientists findings. There is a gap between scientists
and planners. Furthermore, at building design level,
CAD software has been developed and integrated
with some simulation software, called as Building
Information Modeling (BIM). However, at urban or
estate planning level, there is still no software or tool
that can equip planners to design and perform
assessment at the same time. These findings
emphasize the need to develop a tool for planners.
The Screening Tool for Estate Environment
Evaluation (STEVE) was developed with a
motivation to bridge research findings, especially air
temperature prediction models, and urban planners.
STEVE is a web-based application that is specific to
an estate and it calculates the Tmin, Tavg and Tmax of a
point of interest for the existing condition and future
condition (proposed master plan) of an estate. The
air temperature prediction models that have been
briefly mentioned above were used in this
application. The map of estates existing condition or
future development is displayed in STEVE interface.
The viewing level of the map is set into three levels.
In level 1 (Figure 5), it displays a complete estate
map including the zoning boundaries, which are
darkened when the mouse is pointed to the selected
zone. Users are able to zoom-in the map into the
second view level by clicking either the selected
zone or the zoom-in button (Figure 6).
Figure 5: First viewing level of the map
The designated points appear for the users selection
in this viewing level and then, users are able to
predict air temperatures condition by clicking the
selected point. A circle with the radius of 50 meters
blinks to provide indication of urban morphology
distribution that has the influence on air temperature
at the selected point (Figure 7).
At the left hand side of the existing or proposed
master plan map, Calculator interface appears with
preloaded values of different parameters for the
selected point (Figure 8). The preloaded values can
be changed according to users need and the
predicted air temperature results will appear with a
push on the Calculate button.
Figure 6: Second viewing level of the map
Figure 7: Third viewing level of the map
Figure 8: Calculator interface
4. CASE STUDY
A new master plan of a residential area has been
announced. Temperature values (Tmin, Tavg and
Tmax) used in developing the predicted temperature
are interpolated with reference to temperature
reading from NUS Weather station on 6
th
March
2010 which is considered fairly clear and hot
weather. The selection is based on the analysis of
that day, measured air temperature and precipitation.
Singapore daytime is considered as from 8.00 to
19.00 hours, while night time is considered from
20.00 to 7.00 hours.
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224 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
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Figure 9: New residential development

Table 1: Climate predictors from NUS weather
station on 6th March 2010 (Source: NUS Weather
Station, 2010)
Date
Min. Temp at reference
point (Ref Tmin)
Avg. Temp at reference
point (Ref Tavg)
Max. Temp at reference
point (Ref Tmax)
Total solar radiation
(SOLARtotal)
Max. solar radiation
(SOLARmax)
6 March 2010
25.49
o
C
27.98
o
C
31.2
o
C
5062.945 W/m
2
683.5 W/m
2
5. SIMULATION RESULTS
Figure 10: Predicted maximum temperature
The maximum, average and minimum temperature
maps are shown in Figure 10-12. The maximum
temperature map shows that the built-up areas have
cooler temperatures than the open areas. The
shadow casted by the buildings lowers the
temperature of spaces surrounding the buildings. On
the other hand, the minimum temperature map
represents the night time temperature, shows the
built-up area has the higher temperature as
compared to the open areas. The heat absorbed by
the buildings is released to the environment during
night time, the urban heat island phenomenon. The
empty sites simulated with turfing show high
temperatures during the day because turfing is
unable to provide shading. But, it prevents the bare
soil heated up and during night time, it cools faster
than the roads.
Figure 11: Predicted average temperature
Figure 12: Predicted minimum temperature
Figure 12 shows the predicted temperature
conditions in a well-planted residential precinct. The
vegetations around the buildings help moderating the
temperature. During daytime, the trees provide
shading and reduce the direct solar radiation to the
environment. Meanwhile, the evapotranspiration
process of the trees reduces the temperature during
night time (minimum temperature map).
6. CONCLUSION
Urban climate is one of elements of urban
physical environment, which is often ignored in urban
planning. To design a sustainable city, it is necessary
to factor the climatic information holistically and
strategically into the planning process. Sustainable
urban development emerges as one of the main
issues to tackle the UHI problem and to increase
energy saving of buildings. At the building level,
Maximum Temperature
Average Temperature
Minimum Temperature
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CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 225
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many building energy simulations have emerged to
provide energy assessment for building during the
design stage. However, the challenge remains for
the estate development. Combining the air
temperature prediction models and urban climatic
mapping method, a framework is developed as an
assessment tool to help urban planners in their
design process.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research study is funded Ministry of National
Development together with Housing Development
Board (HDB) under research grant number R294-
000-030-490
REFERENCES
[1] Laski, L. and Schellekens, S. Growing up urban.
In Marshal, A. and Singer, A. (eds.), The state of
world population 2007 youth supplement. (2007).
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
[2] Wong NH, Chen Y. Tropical urban heat islands:
Climate, buildings and greenery. New York,
Taylor & Francis 2009; pp 52-67.
[3] Katzschner L. The urban climate as a parameter
for urban development. Energy and buildings
1988; 11: 137-47.
[4] Matzarakis A. Country Report Urban Climate
Research in Germany. IAUC Newsletter 2005; 11:
4-6.
[5] Mayer H. Results from the research program
STADTKLIMA BAYERN for urban planning.
Energy and buildings 1988; 11: 115-2.
[6] CUHK. Urban Climatic Map and Standards for
Wind Environment - Feasibility Study. Working
paper 1A: draft urban climatic analysis map.
CUHK: Hong Kong. 2008; pp 13.
[7] CUHK. Urban Climatic Map and Standards for
Wind Environment - Feasibility Study. Working
paper 1A: draft urban climatic analysis map.
CUHK: Hong Kong. 2008; pp 19-38.
[8] Climate booklet for urban development. Ministry
of Economy Baden-Wurttemberg in Cooperation
with Environmental Protection Department of
Stuttgart; 2008.
[9] Jusuf SK, Wong NH, Hagen E, Anggoro R, Yan
H. The influence of land use on the urban heat
island in Singapore. Habitat International 2007;
31: 232-42.
[10] Cleugh H. Urban climates. In: Henderson-Sellers
A, Ed. Future Climates of the World: A Modeling
Perspective. Amsterdam and New York: Elsevier,
1995.
[11] Arnfield AJ. Street design and urban canyon
solar access. Energy and Buildings 1990; 14:
117-31.
[12] Oke TR. Canyon geometry and the nocturnal
urban heat island: comparison of scale model and
field observations. Journal of Climatology 1981;
1: 237-254.
[13] Brring I, Mattsson JO, Lindqvist S. Canyon
geometry, street temperatures and urban heat
island in Malm, Sweden. International Journal of
Climatology 1985; 5: 433-44.
[14] Chapman L, Thornes JE, Bradley AV. Rapid
determination of canyon geometry parameters for
use in surface radiation budgets. Theoretical and
Applied Climatology 2001; 69: 81-89.
[15] Chen Y, Wong NH. Thermal benefits of city
parks. Energy and Buildings 2006; 38: 105-120.
[16] Streiling S, Matzarakis A. Influence of single and
small clusters of trees on the bioclimate of a city:
a case study. Journal Arboriculture 2003; 29:
309-16.
[17] Knowles RL. Energy and form: An ecological
approach to urban growth. USA: The MIT Press
1977.
[18] Giridharan R, Lau SSY, Ganesan S, Givoni B.
Lowering the outdoor temperature in high-rise
residential developments of coastal Hong Kong:
the vegetation influence. Building and
Environment 2008; 43: 1583-595.
[19] Berdahl P, Bretz S. Preliminary survey of the
solar reflectance of cool roofing materials. Energy
and Buildings Special Issue on Urban Heat
Islands and Cool Communities 1997; 25: 14958.
[20] Taha H, Akbari, H, Rosenfeld A, Huang J.
Residential cooling loads and the urban heat
island-the effects of albedo. Building and
Environment 1988; 23: 271-83.
[21] Taha H. Modeling the impacts of large-scale
albedo changes on ozone air quality in the south
coast air basin. Atmospheric Environment 1997;
31: 1667-76.
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CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 227
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
City Planning with Urban Wind in Complex Coastal
Cities an experience of Hong Kong
EDWARD NG, XIPO AN
School of Architecture, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
ABSTRACT: Hong Kong is one of the worlds highest-density cities, with over sixty thousand persons per square
kilometer in its urban areas. High-rise, bulky and closely packed buildings are the norm. This reduces urban air
ventilation. Since 2003, the Hong Kong Government has commissioned studies using the method of air
ventilation assessment (AVA). One of the key issues regarding the AVA assessment and the planning quest for
better urban ventilation is a need for a better understanding of the wind environment. In a nutshell, what kind of
wind are we designing for in our city? What are the characteristics of this wind? This paper elaborates efforts to
understand Hong Kongs wind environment based on a detailed analysis of Hong Kong observatorys ten year
wind data. It can be concluded that designing for the available wind can be a very complicated matter especially
when the city is affected by various phenomena like topography, land and sea breezes, and so on.
Keywords: urban wind environment, high density city, urban planning
1. INTRODUCTION
High density city design is a topical issue. There
is a need to deal with the scarcity of land, to design
for a viable public transport system, and to re-build
the community of our inner cities. High density living
is increasing an issue that planners have to confront
with. Hong Kong is a high density city with a
population of 8 millions living on a piece of land of
1,000 square kilometres. The urban density of Hong
Kong is close to 60,000 persons per square
kilometre. The site development density can be up
to 3000 persons per hectare (Figure 1).

Fig. 1. The high-rise cityscape of Hong Kong.
The unfortunate events of Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 have brought
the Government and inhabitants of Hong Kong to the
realization that a quality built environment should
be an aim for Hong Kong. Gradation of development
height profiles, provision of breezeways (Figure 2),
layout planning and disposition of building blocks to
allow for more open spaces, greater building
setbacks to facilitate air movement, reduction of
development intensity, increase open space
provisions especially in older districts and more
greenery, are coined as measures in the Team
Clean Report 2003 to improve the built environment.
The report also highlights the need to establish an
objective assessment method of urban air ventilation
to guide future planning actions. [1]

Fig. 2. Incorporate breezeways and air paths into the city
fabric is one of the many design measures to improve the
citys urban air ventilation.
In 2006, the Government of Hong Kong
promulgated the Air Ventilation Assessment (AVA)
Method that has now been adopted in Hong Kong to
guide developments. [2]
Wind Velocity Ratio (VRw) is used as an indicator.
V is the wind velocity at the top of the wind
boundary layer not affected by the ground roughness,
buildings and local site features (typically assumed to
be a certain height above the roof tops of the city
centre and is site dependent). Vp is the wind velocity
at the pedestrian level (2m above ground) after
taking into account the effects of buildings. Vp/V is
the Wind Velocity Ratio (VRw) that indicates how
much of the wind availability of a site can be
experienced and enjoyed by pedestrians on ground
taking into account the buildings in between. As
VRw is solely affected by the buildings of the location,
it is a simple indicator one may use to assess the
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2 xx.x SECTION NAME
effects of proposals higher the value of VRw,
lesser the impact of buildings on wind availability. [3]
(Figure 3)

Fig. 3. The figures show how VRi and VRw are calculated
The wind performance understanding of the AVA
method replies on the V, being the wind velocity at
the top of the wind boundary layer not affected by the
ground roughness. This is the synoptic wind of the
city. In order for the city to capture this avail-able, its
directions and speeds are important to note; and
since AVA is a weak wind assessment method, the
directions of the available wind at low and medium
speeds are of greater concern.
The simple wind velocity ratio understanding of
Figure 3 is typically employed by wind engineers
dealing with wind load and wind safety studies. [4] [5]
It basically assumes a simple and unchanged
relationship (or ratio) understanding of V and Vp.
Using models in wind tunnel, this simple relationship
can be scaled and tested. Whilst the understanding
has served wind engineers well conducting tests
under strong wind conditions, a problem is that this
simple and constant relationship may not hold under
all wind conditions, especially under weak wind
conditions, and in complex topographical conditions.
2. OBSERVED WIND
The Hong Kong Observatory observed data
serves as the first step understanding the available
wind of the city. There are more than 40 stations
positioned in various places in Hong Kong (Figure 4).
The data is extracted and presented as wind roses in
Figure 5 and 6).

Fig.4. Locations of Hong Kong Observatory wind stations.

This first cut understanding demonstrates the
complex wind field of Hong Kong due to the seasons,
topography and the land and sea breezes. Based on
the reference wind station of Walgan Island (WGL) at
the bottom right corner of Figure 3 and 4, annually,
winds come from the East and north-East. In the
critical summer months, winds come from the South-
West. Hence, if streets have to be aligned with the
winds, it is obvious that it needs to be orientated
North-East South-West.

Fig.5. Wind roses of Hong Kong Observatory wind stations

(summer months of June to August). The topography of the
land is shown. The highest mountain is about 1000m
above sea level.
Fig.6. Wind roses of Hong Kong Observatory wind stations
(annual).
i
pi
i
V
V
VR

1 6
1 i
i i w
V R F V R
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xx.x SECTION NAME 3
The problem with this understanding is that in
many parts of Hong Kong, the wind directions are
different. For example, in the Victoria Harbour
(inserted diagram at the bottom right hand corner od
Figure 4), a strong channelling effect can be
observed. Hence it is more important for streets to
be East West orientated.
3. TOPOGRAPHY
Hong Kong has a complicated topography.
Topographical variations in close proximity of the
project site means that care must be exercised to
determine the characteristics of the site wind
availability for pedestrian level thermal comfort
understanding. Take a zoom in area of Figure 5 as
an example (Figure 7). The sheltered project site is
indicated by the RED circle. It is surrounded by
complicated topographical features. Using
MM5/CALMET model simulation, the annual wind
roses at 10m, 30m and at 450m above ground are
captured in Figure 8, 9 and 10 respectively. The
slow shift of wind directions as shown in the wind
roses is apparent. Hence if the direct scaled
relationship between V and Vp that is typically
employed by wind engineers is applied, the shift in
wind directions will not be accounted for. For weak
wind studies where the wind directions are the more
important consideration, the understanding of the
ground level wind environment, in particular the wind
directions, would be incomplete.
Given the anomalies, wind engineers in Hong
Kong introduces the concept of yawn angle to
compensate for this observation. [6] The technique
basically observes the shift of wind directions during
the wind tunnel test using a Cobra probe measuring
devise. Shifts of up to 45 degrees can be detected
at various heights. They are then factored into the
wind directional components and the synthetic wind
roses at different heights can be generated. The
representative wind rose can then be evaluated and
the most appropriate site wind availability data
(speed, direction, probability) can be determined.


Fig.7. A sheltered urban area of Figure 5 in Hong Kong.
The RED circle indicates the project area.
Fig.8. Wind rose at 10m above ground of the project area.
Fig.9. Wind rose at 30m above ground of the project area.
Fig.10. Wind rose at 450m above ground of the project area.
4. LAND AND SEA BREEZES
Apart from the complex topography of the land,
Hong Kong is surrounded on three sides with the sea.
Strong land sea breezes effects are experienced
(Figure 11). It is therefore necessary to consider not
only the seasonal effects of the wind availability, but
also the temporal effects of daily changes.
The sea breeze phenomenon is a coupled
atmospheric and oceanic response to the differential
heating rates of land and water. The onshore
directed sea breeze is a mesoscale phenomenon
that occurs along coastlines when the land is warmer
than the sea due to solar insolation and properties
associated with the land-water energy balance. It
occurs only when the prevailing synoptic flows are
not prohibitively strong (Figure 12). The land sea
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2 xx.x SECTION NAME
effects of proposals higher the value of VRw,
lesser the impact of buildings on wind availability. [3]
(Figure 3)

Fig. 3. The figures show how VRi and VRw are calculated
The wind performance understanding of the AVA
method replies on the V, being the wind velocity at
the top of the wind boundary layer not affected by the
ground roughness. This is the synoptic wind of the
city. In order for the city to capture this avail-able, its
directions and speeds are important to note; and
since AVA is a weak wind assessment method, the
directions of the available wind at low and medium
speeds are of greater concern.
The simple wind velocity ratio understanding of
Figure 3 is typically employed by wind engineers
dealing with wind load and wind safety studies. [4] [5]
It basically assumes a simple and unchanged
relationship (or ratio) understanding of V and Vp.
Using models in wind tunnel, this simple relationship
can be scaled and tested. Whilst the understanding
has served wind engineers well conducting tests
under strong wind conditions, a problem is that this
simple and constant relationship may not hold under
all wind conditions, especially under weak wind
conditions, and in complex topographical conditions.
2. OBSERVED WIND
The Hong Kong Observatory observed data
serves as the first step understanding the available
wind of the city. There are more than 40 stations
positioned in various places in Hong Kong (Figure 4).
The data is extracted and presented as wind roses in
Figure 5 and 6).

Fig.4. Locations of Hong Kong Observatory wind stations.

This first cut understanding demonstrates the
complex wind field of Hong Kong due to the seasons,
topography and the land and sea breezes. Based on
the reference wind station of Walgan Island (WGL) at
the bottom right corner of Figure 3 and 4, annually,
winds come from the East and north-East. In the
critical summer months, winds come from the South-
West. Hence, if streets have to be aligned with the
winds, it is obvious that it needs to be orientated
North-East South-West.

Fig.5. Wind roses of Hong Kong Observatory wind stations

(summer months of June to August). The topography of the
land is shown. The highest mountain is about 1000m
above sea level.
Fig.6. Wind roses of Hong Kong Observatory wind stations
(annual).
i
pi
i
V
V
VR

1 6
1 i
i i w
V R F V R
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breeze is a challenging atmospheric phenomenon to
characterize because of its relatively small temporal
and spatial scale. The sea to land breeze typically
peaks at 3pm.

Fig.11. A schematic understanding of the land and sea

breezes.

Fig.12. An understanding of the land sea breeze based on

an episode of wind conditions on 17 May 2007 in Hong
Kong. It can be noted that when the easterly synoptic wind
is strong (top left) in the early morning, the wind regime is
largely driven by the synoptic winds. However, in the
afternoon at 2pm, the sea breeze has on-set, and a
convergence zone appears around the western Hong Kong
territory (bottom left). This moves slightly eastward in the
early evening (bottom right).
Using Hong Kong Observatory station 10 year
(Jan 1997 to Dec 2006, n=3650) data, 10 stations
around Hong Kong has been studied (Figure 13).
The data is extracted based on the following two
conditions:

Wind directions in the 24 hour period is relatively
stable at WGL and from a prevailing direction (e.g.
north-east NE or south-west SW)
AND
Wind speeds in the 24 hour period is relatively stable
and fall into 1 of the 3 categories: strong, medium and
weak
Strong (l) > 8.3 m/s
Moderate (m) 4.3 8.2 m/s
Weak (s) 0.1 4.2 m/s

Based on the analysis, the hourly wind directions
and wind speeds of the HKO stations are extracted
and the data are compared to the WGL data. The
shifts of the relative wind directions can be noted
(Figure 14).
The study illustrates an important understanding
of wind for what. For instance, if conditions under
strong wind conditions for safety is under study. It is
important to focus on the local wind conditions under
strong synoptic winds. Hence the key wind
directions of concern would follow mostly the wind
direction of the synoptic winds. However, for urban
air ventilation, it is the weak wind conditions for
human comfort that is of concern, hence one would
need to be careful and try to understand the possible
wind direction shift as can be demonstrated in Figure
7 (top) especially in the afternoon hot hours.

Fig.13. 10 stations(marked Blue and Orange) have been

studied. Hong Kong Observatory stations on the western
side of the Hong Kong territory (Orange) shows stronger
land and sea breeze effects.

Fig.14. When the synoptic wind of WGL, being the Hong

Kongs reference wind station (at the south-east corner of
the map in Figure 13) is recording weak North-East winds in
the afternoon, a station on the western side of the territory
(CPL) is at the same time experiencing South winds.
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CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 231
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xx.x SECTION NAME 5

Fig.15. Under strong synoptic wind conditions, it is noted

that CPLs wind largely follows that of WGL.
In addition to the observation understanding, a 24
hour wind simulation taking into account the land and
sea breeze effects has been conducted using MM5
(Figure 16).
Fig.16. A 24 hour MM5 simulation is conducted. It shows
clearly the land breezes at night and the sea breezes in the
afternoon hours.
As such it is important to note the important
question: what time is wind most needed. For
subtropical summer conditions of Hong Kong, it is
opined that for urban human comfort, wind in the
afternoon is most needed. Hence, it is more
important to factor in the sea breezes than the land
breezes. The prevailing directions of the sea
breezes of a locality are therefore important to sort
out.
5. STRONG VS. WEAK WINDS
Apart from the topographical and the temporal
understanding, it is important to know the
relationship between wind speeds and wind
directions. Since the AVA method is a weak wind
assessment method. It is important to make sure
that under weak wind conditions, the streets are still
well ventilated aligning with the prevailing wind
directions. As demonstrated in Figure 17. In this
case, at this locality, it is important to factor in a
consideration of the weak summer wind coming from
the South-West despite the prevailing East wind
direction.

Fig.17. A detail analysis of HKOs wind data shows that the

weak wind direction (Bottom) is different from the strong
wind direction (Top) in the summer months.
6. DOWNHILL AIR MOVEMENT
Hong Kong has a hilly topography. Vegetated hill
slopes next to urban areas are known to be
beneficial bringing in cool downhill air movement to
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232 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
6 xx.x SECTION NAME
relief the warmer urban areas. [7] [8] [9] Researches
have indicted that the thickness and the air velocity
of the downhill movement depends on a number of
parameter, as in eqn. 1. [10]

U
m
( )

, R
0

, U
m
/( )

x, (1)

where
U
m
is the average air movement velocity,
the potential temperature drop down the slope,
the sine of the angle of the slope to the horizontal along
the streamline,
x the downslope distance from the virtual origin of the flow
measured along the streamline, and
R
0
the average net radiation loss on the slope.

Based on literature understanding, prudently, for

a vegetated or forest slope of 5 to 15 degree, a slope
length of a few hundred metres, and a temperature
difference of 1-3 degree C, a down slope air
movement of around 0.5 to 1 m/s can be expected.
The thickness of this gravity flow is not high, around
5 to 20m. Such a flow can easily be dissipated by
intercepting building structures and warmer paved
surfaces. [11] Nonetheless, when considering urban
air ventilation, this is a useful understanding.
7. CONCLUSION
The study highlights the importance of
understanding the weak wind available for design in
complex situations. It summarises various
understandings the synoptic winds, the land-sea
breezes, the topographically shifted winds, and
differences between strong and weak wind
conditions, and the downhill air movements that
are necessary for better planning and design
decision making. Urban climatologists and wind
engineers dealing with air ventilation assessment in
Hong Kong is advised to be extra vigilant. Typical
methodologies that are typically practised elsewhere
in the world may not directly apply.
8. POSTSCRIPT
As the paper is drafting, a wind information map
is being created for Hong Kong. The purpose is to
provide a simple map based understanding for
planners to have a better appreciation of the wind
environment of Hong Kong in the summer months so
that better decisions could be based. The wind
information map is part of the on-going urban climatic
map studies of Hong Kong. [12].
9. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Thanks are due to Professor Jimmy Fung of
HKUST for providing the MM5 wind simulation data.
Thanks are also due to the Hong Kong Observatory
for providing the 10 year (1997 to 2006) data for
analysis.
10. REFERENCES
1. Team Clean, 2003: Report on Measures to
Improve Environmental Hygiene in Hong Kong,
HKSAR. 87.
2. Ng, E., Policies and technical guidelines for
urban planning of high-density cities - air
ventilation assessment (AVA) of Hong Kong.
Building and Environment, (2009). 44(7): p.
1478-1488
3. www.devb.gov.hk/filemanager/en/content_679/hplb-etwb-
tc-01-06.pdf (assessed Nov 2010)
4. ASCE (1999), American Society of Civil
Engineers (ASCE) Manuals and Reports on
Engineering Practice No. 67: Wind Tunnel
Studies of Buildings and Structures, Virginia.
5. Plate E J (1982), Wind tunnel modeling of wind
effects in engineering. In: Plate, EJ (ed.),
Engineering Meteorology. Elsevier, Amsterdam,
pp. 573-639.
6. Ng, E., Kwok, K. and Hitchcock, P., Wind Tunnel
Benchmarking Studies - Batch 1, Urban Climatic
Map and Standards for Wind Environment
Feasibility Study, Technical Report for Planning
Department HKSAR, Nov 2008.
7. Oke, T. R. (1987). Boundary Layer Climates.
London, Routledge.
8. Barlag, A. B., & Kuttler, W. (1990/91). The
Significance of Country Breezes for Urban
Planning. Energy and Buildings, 15-16, 291-297
9. Weber, S., & Kuttler, W. (2003). Analysis of the
nocturnal cold air dynamic and quality of a urban
ventilation zone (in German). Gefahrstoffe-
Reinhaltung der Luft 63, Nr.9, S. 381-386.
10. Bergen, J.D., 1969: Cold Air Drainage on a
Forested Mountain Slope. J. Appl. Meteor., 8,
884895.
11. Nichol, J. (2005). Remote sensing of urban heat
island by day and night. Photogrammetric
Engineering and Remote Sensing, 71(5), 613-
621.
12. www.pland.gov.hk/pland_en/p_study/prog_s/ucmapweb/
(assessed Nov 2010)
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 233
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
Suburban Neighbourhood Adaptation for a
Changing Climate
Developing climate change scenarios for suburbs
RAJAT GUPTA
1
, MATTHEW GREGG
2
1
Low Carbon Building Group, Department of Architecture, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom
2
Low Carbon Building Group, Department of Architecture, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom
ABSTRACT: This paper describes the overall aims, methodological framework and key findings from developing
climate change scenarios for suburbs, as part of a UK Research Council funded 3-year consortium-based
project on Suburban Neighbourhood Adaptation for a Changing Climate (SNACC): identifying effective,
practical and acceptable means of suburban re-design. The paper also evaluates the various techniques
available for downscaling temporally and spatially, the recently-released UK Climate Change Projections 2009
(UKCP09) dataset, to conceptualise and quantify the climate change impacts and environmental risks for
smaller areas such as neighbourhoods in cities. In order to develop climate change scenarios that are
meaningful at the neighbourhood scale, probabilistic climate change data are first analysed and downscaled for
three UK cities; Bristol, Oxford and Stockport. For each location, local microclimatic and environmental features,
that may exacerbate or ameliorate climate change impacts, are considered for their influence. These local
environmental features can range from the city to building scale encompassing neighbourhood influence. The
climate change hazards are combined with the neighbourhood and building-level local environmental features to
reveal the impacts that need to be addressed in order to test relevant climate change adaptation packages that
are effective, practical and acceptable.
Keywords: climate change adaptation, neighbourhoods, suburbs, climate change projections
1. INTRODUCTION
The overwhelming majority of experts agree that
the global climate is changing, and that most of this
is caused by human activity, releasing carbon
dioxide (CO
2
) and other greenhouse gases (GHG)
into the atmosphere [1]. Since 1900, over 1.7 trillion
tonnes of CO
2
have been emitted as a result of
burning fossil fuels, changes in land use and other
human activities, increasing atmospheric
concentrations from pre-industrial levels of around
280 parts per million to nearly 390 parts per million
today [2].
Even if the most ambitious global mitigation
targets are achieved, the world has a 50% chance of
warming by 2
o
C or more by the end of the century
[3]. So far the main focus in tackling climate change
has rightly been on mitigation, addressing the causes
of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas
emissions. Mitigation is crucial for avoiding some of
the greatest risks in the long term [3]. However, it is
likely to take several decades before there is a major
reduction in global emissions. Even if all emissions
were to stop now, which is of course not feasible, the
Earth is very likely to warm by a further 0.5-1
o
C over
the coming decades in response to historic and
current emissions due to the inertia of the climate
system [1].
To address these concerns, the UK has made a
legal commitment to two kinds of action. On the one
hand it is committed to mitigate climate change by
reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 80% below
1990 levels by 2050 [3]. On the other it is legally
obliged to plan for the climate change that is already
happening and will continue to accelerate, as a result
of past, current and future greenhouse gas
emissions. This is referred to as adaptation.
Adaptation involves responding to the unavoidable
consequences of climate change, to which the world
is already committed (higher temperatures, changing
rainfall patterns, altered seasons, and more extreme
weather events). Mitigation and adaptation are not
alternatives. Both are essential to reduce the risks to
future generations [1].
It is widely accepted that existing built
environments are both contributing to, and adapting
poorly for, climate change. Buildings and transport
account for 75% of energy use in the UK, and our
building stock is ill-equipped for either gradual
changes in average climatic conditions or extreme
events, such as heat waves. Nowhere is this more
evident than in the UK's suburbs, which are the most
common type of urban area in the UK (and other
nations). Suburban areas contain 80% of all homes
in the UK, and tend to be characterised by low-
medium density housing that is energy- and land-
rich, and built-in layouts that encourage car use and
discourage walking and cycling [4]. Also, the built
environment changes at a rate of about 1% a year,
hence the majority of the suburban buildings will still
be here in 50-100 years. People are also likely to
want to carry on living in suburbs, with almost all
attitudinal research showing that suburbs are still the
preferred residential location of the majority of
households [5]. Hence, for the foreseeable future,
the suburbs will be the places where the domestic
life of the majority of the population (8/10 people) will
be affected most acutely by climate change.
Residents lifestyles and property will be affected by
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
234 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
PLEA2011
2
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- 27th Internati
xx.x SECTION
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PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 235
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PLEA 2011 - 27
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236 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
PLEA2011
4
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PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 237
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 5
location, through the analysis of UKCP09 data for
Bristol and surrounding areas, it has been found that
25km grid squares around and over Bristol show an
increase in precipitation as they are followed from
the east/southeast to the west/northwest (figure 6).
Additionally, maximum temperatures tend to be
warmer west/southwest of Bristol and cooler to the
east of the city [12].
4. CLIMATE CHANGE DATA FOR THE
CASE STUDY CITIES
In order to choose appropriate neighbourhoods
for Bristol Oxford and Stockport, climate change
scenarios were defined for each location.
Temperature and precipitation data provide the
greatest measurable change/impact and therefore
are the primary foci to deliver meaningful climate
change scenarios for the neighbourhood scale.
4.1. Preliminary analysis
In general, the climate change projections for the
future reflect the current climate condition for each
case study city. As an example, the future
projections for the cities and their surrounding
regions reflect the current fact that Oxford (southeast
England) is generally warmer than Stockport
(northeast England). Also, Bristol (west coast of
England) receives more annual rainfall than Oxford
(southeast England). For the three cities, the high
emissions scenarios have the greatest impact on
temperature and precipitation. Other climate
variables, such as cloud cover and relative humidity
for example, tend to be less affected by the variation
in emissions scenarios [12].
4.2. Key climate change findings
Overall summer mean temperature increases are
projected to be higher than winter mean temperature
increases. This difference in temperature change is
least noticeable for Stockport. Summer mean
temperature increases are projected to be greater in
Oxford, however in many instances the change
difference between Bristol and Oxford are almost
unremarkable. The summer mean temperature
increase for Stockport is notably less (Table 4).
Generally for the high emissions scenario, central
estimate the projected mean summer maximum
temperature changes by an approximate 0.5C
increase with every selected time period progression.
Table 4: Temperature change comparison between the
case study neighbourhoods for 2050s, high emissions
scenario, central estimate. The cities are listed in order of
magnitude of change [6].
Temperature C Oxford Bristol Stockport
Summer max 3.4 3.2 2.9
Summer mean 3.3 3.0 2.6
Winter mean 2.6 2.2 2.2
For all locations, the central estimate for annual
mean precipitation for all emissions scenarios and all
time periods shows little to no change, meaning the
offset between increase and decrease are almost
equivalent (greater decreases in summer). Summer
and winter mean precipitation changes are projected
to be greatest in Bristol.
Additionally, for all locations there is a decrease
in annual cloud cover and relative humidity (RH) with
little to no change in winter cloud cover and RH. The
greatest decreases in cloud cover and RH occur in
the summer. By 2050s Oxford has the greatest
reduction in the mean summer RH, Stockport has the
lowest (table 5).
Table 5: Precipitation and relative humidity change
comparison between the case study neighbourhoods for
2050s, high emissions scenario, central estimate [6].
Precipitation % Bristol Oxford Stockport
Annual mean -2 -1 -1
Summer mean -15 -12 -8
Winter mean 11 11 5
RH %
Annual mean -3 -3 -2
Summer mean -7 -7 -3
Winter mean 0 0 0
5. CLIMATE CHANGE HAZARDS AND
IMPACTS FOR SUBURBS
Once the key climate change hazards have been
identified, the impacts and local environmental
features (LEF) that may ameliorate or exacerbate
these impacts are then defined for each location. As
an example, table 6 below shows the hazards,
impacts and general LEF for Oxford. The five
possible impacts that can be identified for the city of
Oxford and its suburbs are overheating, flooding,
water stress and construction (material or structural)
degradation. Impacts can be both gradual and
extreme and may occur as a result of current
vulnerability to such existing problems as flooding
and water stress (which both exist in Oxford) [15,16].
Oxford, compared to the other cities for example, has
the highest percentage of green space cover versus
urban built-up areas. This higher percentage of
green space has the potential to be beneficial in
ameliorating the impacts of specific climate change
risks.
Table 6: Key climate change hazards and impacts and
LEFs for Oxford (high emissions, 2050s) [6,12,15,16].
Hazard Impact LEF
Peak summer
temp. increase
of 3.4C and
mean summer
CDD increase
of 18-68.
Overheating in
buildings leading
to possible
increased
energy use
Material
degradation
Neighbourhood
density;
proximity to
greenspace,
woodland and
waterways;
proximity to
dense urban
areas; amount
and location of
trees and
canopy size;
building types,
heights and
material use.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
238 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
6 xx.x SECTION NAME
Winter
precipitation
increase of
11%.
Flooding and
water ingress
Material
degradation
Mould growth
urban drainage
quality; proximity
to greenspace
and waterways;
ground
infiltration
capacity.

Summer
precipitation
decrease of
-12%.
Water stress
and/or drought
Increased
imposition of
water restrictions
and hosepipe
bans
Subsidence
Current water
stress (high)
Soil composition
6. CONCLUSIONS
To understand the risk that climate change poses
for the suburban typology, findings from the UKCP09
were first extracted and categorised for three case
study cities (Oxford, Stockport and Bristol). As
current climate change information is available for
large areas (at 25km
2
grids), the information needs to
be downscaled to be meaningful at the suburban
neighbourhood scale. Downscaling of climate
change information was found to not significantly
increase the detail of the hazard, but is nonetheless
relevant for various methods of testing impacts, case
study neighbourhood selection and visual
dissemination of impacts and risk. Additionally, local
environmental and microclimatic features can help to
reveal the extent of the climate change impact or
possible amelioration of current conditions. Among
the three cities, it is realised that Oxford will be most
impacted by summer heat increase and Bristol is
expected to see the greatest reduction in summer
precipitation. Once the hazards are defined and
related to relevant LEFs, the impacts for both the
neighbourhood and building scale can be described,
so that appropriate adaptation packages can be
identified and tested to be technically-appropriate,
practically-feasible and acceptable.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support
of the Engineering and Physical Science Research
Council (EPSRC) for financially supporting the
SNACC project, under Grant reference:
EP/G060959/. SNACC project is funded under the
Living with Environmental Change Programme
(LWEC) and is part of the Adaptation and Resilience
to a Changing Climate (ARCC) Coordination
Network.
REFERENCES
[1] IPCC (2007). Climate Change 2007: Synthesis
Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and
III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
[Core Writing Team, Pachauri, R.K and
Reisinger, A.(eds.)]. Geneva: IPCC.
[2] http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends
(Accessed: 1 November 2010).
[3] Adaptation Sub-Committee (2010). How well
prepared is the UK for climate change? First
report of the Adaptation Sub-Committee,
London: Committee on Climate Change
Adaptation.
[4] House of Commons: Communities and Local
Gov. Committee (2008). Existing housing and
climate change: Seventh report of session 2007-
08. London: The Stationary Office Ltd.
[5] Williams K (2007) New and Sustainable
Communities in the UK, A Report for the Cultural
and Educational Section of the British Embassy.
[6] http://ukclimateprojections.defra.gov.uk/
(Accessed: 1 December 2010).
[7] Johar I and Maguire C (2007) Sustaining our
Suburbs, a Report for RICS and CABE, RICS,
London.
[8] Williams, K. Joynt, JLR and Hopkins, D. (2010).
Climate change and the compact city: the
challenge of adapting suburbs, Built
Environment, 36 (1), 105-115.
[9] Jenkins, G. J., et al. (2009). UK Climate
Projections: Briefing report. Exeter: Met Office
Hadley [Online]. Available at:
http://ukclimateprojections.defra.gov.uk/images/s
tories/briefing_pdfs/UKCP09_Briefing.pdf
(Accessed: 23 September 2010).
[10] CIBSE (2009). Use of climate change scenarios
for building simulation: the CIBSE future weather
years. TM48: 2009. London: CIBSE.
[11] Murphy, J.M., et al. (2009), UK Climate
Projections Science Report: Climate change
projections. Exeter: Met Office Hadley [Online].
Available at:
http://ukclimateprojections.defra.gov.uk/images/s
tories/projections_pdfs/UKCP09_Projections_V2
.pdf (Accessed: 23 September 2010).
[12] ARUP (2010a). SNACC: Report for work
packages 1.1 and 1.2. London: ARUP.
[13] http://maps.google.co.uk/
[14] BADC and UKCIP (2010). The UKCP09
threshold detector manual: Version 1.1.0.
[Online]. Available at: http://ukclimateprojections-
ui.defra.gov.uk/ui/docs/td/td_manual.pdf
(Accessed: 26 October 2010).
[15] http://www.environment-
agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/default.as
px (Accessed: 23 September 2010).
[16] http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/705598.Hose
pipe_ban_in_force_from_April/ (Accessed: 1
November 2010).
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 239

1
Urban morphology and temperature mapping
comparative study
Case study: Singapore's commercial area
Nyuk Hien Wong
1
, Steve Kardinal Jusuf
2
, Rosita Samsudin
3
, Marcel Ignatius
4

1,4
Department of Building, National University of Singapore, Singapore
2,3
Centre for Sustainable Asian Cities, National University of Singapore, Singapore
ABSTRACT: Extensive urban development in high density cities may lead to increasing of urban air temperature
and heat island index. Urban morphology parameters of canyon geometry, sky view factor (SVF), surface
material reflectivity (albedo) and greenery affect air temperature generated within urban canyon, besides the
initial role of local climate condition. Singapore is an example of high density city in hot humid climate region
which experiences extensive urban development with many high rise buildings are constructed due to the limited
land area. This comparative study investigates the effects of low rise and high rise developments' urban
morphology towards air temperature generated in Singapore's commercial area by implementing an air
temperature prediction model. Geographic Information System (GIS) platform is utilized to generate a
temperature map which is used for detail analysis.
Keywords: urban morphology, urban temperature mapping, high density urban area, Singapore's commercial
area
1. INTRODUCTION
Increasing urban air temperature is happening in
most world's developed and high density cities. This
leads to urban heat island (UHI) issue and affects
urban environment quality. The major causes include
diminishing of greenery area, low wind velocity due
to high building density and change of surface
coating materials [1]. UHI effect is dependently
affected by canyon geometry, building materials,
greenhouse effect, anthropogenic heat, evaporation
and wind flow [2].

As the most developed country within Southeast
Asian region with rapid population growth, strong
economic growth and stability, Singapore has
experienced extensive urban development for the
past decades. The main economic activities are
majority located within high rise office and
commercial buildings, concentrated within Downtown
Core area. Earlier study on Singapore UHI indicates
that UHI effect is seen during daytime from the
satellite image. Commercial area is one of the areas,
besides airport and industrial areas, that is observed
to become the 'hot' spot. The satellite image also
shows some 'cool' spots, which are mostly observed
on the large parks, the landscape in-between the
housing estates and the catchment area [3].

Geographically Singapore is located between
latitudes 1
o
09' North and 1
o
29' South, longitudes
103
o
36' East and 104
o
25' East. Based on
metrological data from Singapore National
Environmental Agency (NEA), Singapore can be
classified as a region with hot humid climate. Uniform
high temperatures, humidity and rainfall throughout
the year characterize this climate [4].

As response to high demand of commercial
spaces despite of limited land space, current
Singapore's commercial area urban planning allows
high rise developments with plot ratio ranging from 5
to more than 11.2. It is translated to allowable
building height ranging from 25 to more than 50
storeys height with some exceptions are applicable
for some historical sites for conservation purposes.
Presence of densely built high rise buildings may
confirm the possibility of UHI existence as what has
been mentioned in the earlier studies. During
daytime, high rise buildings benefit urban area by
providing shading and reduce urban area sky
openness, resulting the possibility of lower air
temperature generated. However during night-time,
the heat absorbed by buildings' surface material is
released into and trapped within the urban canyon
because of the limited sky openness, resulting the
possibility of higher air temperature generated.
Earlier study on Singapore's UHI profile as shown in
Figure 1, identifies commercial area with lower air
temperature during daytime and higher air
temperature during night-time [5].

The aim of this study is to investigate the relation
between urban morphology and greenery with air
temperature, to give inputs for future urban planning
in improving urban environment quality for high
density urban area development.

PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
6 xx.x SECTION NAME
Winter
precipitation
increase of
11%.
Flooding and
water ingress
Material
degradation
Mould growth
urban drainage
quality; proximity
to greenspace
and waterways;
ground
infiltration
capacity.

Summer
precipitation
decrease of
-12%.
Water stress
and/or drought
Increased
imposition of
water restrictions
and hosepipe
bans
Subsidence
Current water
stress (high)
Soil composition
6. CONCLUSIONS
To understand the risk that climate change poses
for the suburban typology, findings from the UKCP09
were first extracted and categorised for three case
study cities (Oxford, Stockport and Bristol). As
current climate change information is available for
large areas (at 25km
2
grids), the information needs to
be downscaled to be meaningful at the suburban
neighbourhood scale. Downscaling of climate
change information was found to not significantly
increase the detail of the hazard, but is nonetheless
relevant for various methods of testing impacts, case
study neighbourhood selection and visual
dissemination of impacts and risk. Additionally, local
environmental and microclimatic features can help to
reveal the extent of the climate change impact or
possible amelioration of current conditions. Among
the three cities, it is realised that Oxford will be most
impacted by summer heat increase and Bristol is
expected to see the greatest reduction in summer
precipitation. Once the hazards are defined and
related to relevant LEFs, the impacts for both the
neighbourhood and building scale can be described,
so that appropriate adaptation packages can be
identified and tested to be technically-appropriate,
practically-feasible and acceptable.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support
of the Engineering and Physical Science Research
Council (EPSRC) for financially supporting the
SNACC project, under Grant reference:
EP/G060959/. SNACC project is funded under the
Living with Environmental Change Programme
(LWEC) and is part of the Adaptation and Resilience
to a Changing Climate (ARCC) Coordination
Network.
REFERENCES
[1] IPCC (2007). Climate Change 2007: Synthesis
Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and
III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
[Core Writing Team, Pachauri, R.K and
Reisinger, A.(eds.)]. Geneva: IPCC.
[2] http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends
(Accessed: 1 November 2010).
[3] Adaptation Sub-Committee (2010). How well
prepared is the UK for climate change? First
report of the Adaptation Sub-Committee,
London: Committee on Climate Change
Adaptation.
[4] House of Commons: Communities and Local
Gov. Committee (2008). Existing housing and
climate change: Seventh report of session 2007-
08. London: The Stationary Office Ltd.
[5] Williams K (2007) New and Sustainable
Communities in the UK, A Report for the Cultural
and Educational Section of the British Embassy.
[6] http://ukclimateprojections.defra.gov.uk/
(Accessed: 1 December 2010).
[7] Johar I and Maguire C (2007) Sustaining our
Suburbs, a Report for RICS and CABE, RICS,
London.
[8] Williams, K. Joynt, JLR and Hopkins, D. (2010).
Climate change and the compact city: the
challenge of adapting suburbs, Built
Environment, 36 (1), 105-115.
[9] Jenkins, G. J., et al. (2009). UK Climate
Projections: Briefing report. Exeter: Met Office
Hadley [Online]. Available at:
http://ukclimateprojections.defra.gov.uk/images/s
tories/briefing_pdfs/UKCP09_Briefing.pdf
(Accessed: 23 September 2010).
[10] CIBSE (2009). Use of climate change scenarios
for building simulation: the CIBSE future weather
years. TM48: 2009. London: CIBSE.
[11] Murphy, J.M., et al. (2009), UK Climate
Projections Science Report: Climate change
projections. Exeter: Met Office Hadley [Online].
Available at:
http://ukclimateprojections.defra.gov.uk/images/s
tories/projections_pdfs/UKCP09_Projections_V2
.pdf (Accessed: 23 September 2010).
[12] ARUP (2010a). SNACC: Report for work
packages 1.1 and 1.2. London: ARUP.
[13] http://maps.google.co.uk/
[14] BADC and UKCIP (2010). The UKCP09
threshold detector manual: Version 1.1.0.
[Online]. Available at: http://ukclimateprojections-
ui.defra.gov.uk/ui/docs/td/td_manual.pdf
(Accessed: 26 October 2010).
[15] http://www.environment-
agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/default.as
px (Accessed: 23 September 2010).
[16] http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/705598.Hose
pipe_ban_in_force_from_April/ (Accessed: 1
November 2010).
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
240 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT

2


Figure 1: Urban Heat Island (UHI) profile in Singapore
2. METHODOLOGY
Geographic Information System (GIS) platform is
utilized in this study to capture climatic and urban
morphology parameters. Urban climatic mapping
method has become widely used for urban planning
as it can provide a clear picture from the regional
scale of 1:100,000 to the urban scale of 1:5,000. And
by using GIS, in this study context, temperature map
can be developed together with analysis on different
information layers.

The methodology also follows the air
temperature prediction model STEVE (Screening
Tool for Estate Environment Evaluation) developed
by Jusuf et al. [6], which is designed for wind calm
condition and represents Singapore's condition.

Temperature maps of predicted Tmin (minimum
temperature), Tavg (average temperature) and Tmax
(maximum temperature) are built up by total of 140
measurement points, each is positioned within 50
meter radius buffer. The measurement points are
distributed at pedestrian level of 2 meter high
throughout studied commercial areas. The predicted
temperatures are governed by some independent
predictors as following:

Climate predictors: RefTmin, RefTavg and
RefTmax at measurement point, daily solar
radiation (SOLAR). Average daily solar radiation
is used in Tavg models and maximum solar
radiation is used in Tmax models. SOLAR
predicted is not applicable for Tmin models.

Urban morphology predictors: percentage ratio of
pavement area and surface area within 50 meter
radius buffer (PAVE), average building height to
building area ratio within 50 meter radius buffer
(HBDG), total wall surface area within 50 meter
radius buffer (WALL), Green Plot Ratio (GnPR)
within 50 meter radius buffer, sky view factor
(SVF) and average surface albedo (ALB).
3. CASE STUDY
The extent of commercial areas observed in this
comparative study is limited to area as shown in
Figure 2. The closer analysis will focus on group
area 1 and group area 2 as highlighted. The
categorization is based on their urban geometry
characteristics. Group area 1 is a densely built low
rise commercial area with average building height of
15.9 meter comprises of shop-houses which is
maintained as a conservation area. Group area 2 is a
densely built high rise buildings which has uniformity
in height with average building height of 144.7 meter.
Both area 1 and 2 have site coverage ratio of 0.65.


Figure 2: Area 1 and 2 selected as sample area for
comparative study
4. FINDINGS
By considering climate and urban morphology
predictors, predicted air temperature Tmin, Tavg and
Tmax are inserted as GIS layers to generate a
temperature map that can be analysed in detail
based on some urban determining variables of
canyon geometry and green plot ratio (GnPR).
4.1. Canyon geometry
Discussion on canyon geometry includes building
height and surface area variables. The observations
on canyon geometry and predicted Tmax of group
area 1 and group area 2 are shown in Table 1 and 2.





Area 1 Area 2
PLEA 2011 - 27
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CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 241

3
Table 1: Canyon geometry observation and predicted Tmax
of group area 1.
MP AV-HT WALL SVF Tmax
66 27.3 8368.5 0.4 31.9
67 12.2 2957.3 0.6 32.3
68 23.4 8532.1 0.4 31.9
78 11.8 7668.6 0.3 31.7
79 10.1 6097.6 0.4 31.8
80 11.3 7367.6 0.3 31.8
81 24.3 12400.6 0.5 31.7
90 12.6 5347.3 0.4 32
91 29 14970 0.3 31.7
92 8.2 4927.3 0.3 31.6
93 10.6 9495.1 0.2 31.6
94 19.4 12772 0.3 31.7
104 18.7 4912.1 0.5 32
105 10.3 6872.6 0.3 31.8
106 11.7 7677.3 0.3 31.7
107 10.8 4618.6 0.4 31.9

Table 2: Canyon geometry observation and predicted Tmax
of group area 2.
MP AV-HT WALL SVF Tmax
60 47.9 22313.8 0.3 31.8
61 30.8 8317.7 0.3 31.9
72 44.6 21016.9 0.1 31.6
73 33.7 26843.2 0.2 31.8
74 13 2646.5 0.5 32.1
85 44.9 19491.2 0.2 31.7
86 52.2 34912.5 0.2 31.8
87 109.2 36075.9 0.2 31.8
97 32.4 5422 0.4 31.9
98 53.1 19658.9 0.2 31.8
99 78.9 36765 0.2 31.9
100 79.6 17985 0.6 32.2
110 147.8 41796.7 0.4 32.1
111 105.1 43155.8 0.2 31.9
112 74.4 24796 0.3 32
123 54.4 17850.4 0.5 32.2
124 72.7 21918.1 0.3 31.9
125 24.4 3328 0.6 32.1

From plotted graph shown in Figure 3, 4 and 5; it
is found that there is relation between wall surface
area and SVF with temperature generated within
urban canyon. Higher value of wall surface area will
reduce Tmax as effect of building shading that falls
onto urban canyon. However, heat that is absorbed
by building surface material during daytime, will be
released into urban canyon during night-time. The
heat that is trapped within the urban canyon due to
sky openness obstruction, will affect in increasing
Tavg and Tmin. SVF value is influenced by urban
geometry and greeneries. Therefore higher SVF
value will increase amount of solar radiation coming
into the canyon and affects Tmax and Tavg. On the
other hand, it is noticed that building height does not
seem to have noticeable effect towards urban air
temperature change as shown in Figure 6 and 7. It
is building height proportions over urban corridor
width that determines the SVF value and later affect
the air temperature generated within urban canyon.



Figure 3: Plotted graph on relation between wall surface
area and Tmax for group area 1



Figure 4: Plotted graph on relation between wall surface
area and Tmax for group area 2


Figure 5: Plotted graph on relation between SVF and Tmax
for group area 1 and group area 2


Figure 6: Plotted graph on relation between average
building height and Tmax for group area 1
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
242 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT

4

Figure 7: Plotted graph on relation between average
building height and Tmax for group area 2

4.2. Green plot ratio (GnPR)
Green plot ratio (GnPR) is a three dimensional
measurement of green volume by dividing sum of
total leaf area by the site area. Tree with large
shading leaves governs to higher value of GnPR and
reduce the degree of urban area sky openness (SVF
value). Thus it will help to reduce urban air
temperature generated. Table 3 below shows the
observation of greeneries provision found in studied
areas and predicted TAvg findings.

Plotted GnPR and predicted TAvg values as
drawn in Figure 8 confirms the effect of greenery
towards urban air temperature. The higher GnPR
value, the lower air temperature generated.

Table 3: GnPR observation and predicted Tavg of group
area 1 and group area 2.
Group area 1 Group area 2
MP GnPR TAvg MP GnPR TAvg
66 1.22 28.5 60 1.32 28.7
67 1 28.8 61 1.42 28.7
68 1 28.4 72 1.41 28.4
78 0.97 28.4 73 1.45 28.7
79 1 28.4 74 1.37 28.5
80 1.04 28.5 85 0.4 28.5
81 0.62 28.5 86 0.1 28.7
90 1 28.5 87 0.92 28.8
91 1.25 28.3 97 1.17 28.4
92 1.12 28.3 98 1.14 28.6
93 0.12 28.4 99 0.73 28.9
94 0.03 28.4 100 0.97 28.6
104 1.47 28.4 110 1.75 28.8
105 1.16 28.5 111 1.41 28.8
106 2.1 28.3 112 1.5 28.8
107 1.3 28.4 123 1.06 28.8
124 1.45 28.7
125 1.93 28.5



Figure 8: Plotted graph on relation between GnPR and
TAvg
5. TEMPERATURE MAP
Predicted air temperature of TMax, TAvg and
Tmin are inserted as layers in GIS together with
urban morphology layers. The detail analysis of
temperature map for group area 1 and group area 2
are elaborated in sections below.
5.1. Group area 1

(a)Tmax

(b)Tavg

(c) Tmin
Figure 9: Temperature map of group area 1
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CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 243

5
Temperature maps of Tmax, Tavg and Tmin
generated for group area 1 as drawn in Figure 9
show that in general during daytime the air
temperature within urban canyon is rather uniform
throughout with some hot spots are noticeable
around the road junction and surrounding open
space. It is found that there is less provision of
greeneries and other shading variables around those
'hot' spots. This condition potentially increases the
urban area sky openness (SVF) which results in
higher air temperature generated.
Temperature map Tmax shows the presence of
lower air temperature along the shop-houses' urban
corridor. Densely built shop-houses along 11 meter
width urban corridor potentially contributes in
lowering SVF value at the centre of group area 1.
On the contrary, temperature map Tmin shows
the presence of higher temperature within shop-
houses' urban corridor compared to surrounding
open space. It confirms that UHI effect exists within
this area.
5.2. Group area 2

(a)Tmax


(b)Tavg

(c) Tmin
Figure 10: Temperature map of group area 2
Temperature maps of Tmax, Tavg and Tmin
generated for group area 2 as drawn in Figure 10
show that during daytime air temperature within
urban canyon seems to be lower compared to air
temperature generated during night-time. It confirms
the presence of UHI effect within group area 2. Tavg
map shows that hot spots are generally
concentrated at the centre of group area 2 which
comprises of high rise buildings with height varies
from 25 to 190 meter. The average urban corridor
width measured shows value of 33 meter. The
highest temperature is noticed to be present around
the open space where there is less provision of trees
and other shading variables.

By comparing temperature maps of group area 1
and group area 2, it is also found that air temperature
generated within group area 1 is lower compared to
group area 2 during daytime and night-time. Higher
night-time air temperature of group area 2 is caused
by the higher wall surface area as result of high rise
buildings which potentially absorb and release more
heat into urban canyon. Regardless the building
heights that potentially benefit by providing shading
onto urban area, the optimum proportion between
buildings height over urban corridor width and
greenery provisions determines urban area sky
openness and affects the air temperature generated
within urban canyon. It can be seen from Figure 5
above where group area 2 has actually higher SVF
value compared to group area 1.
6. CONCLUSIONS
Urban morphology parameters of urban
geometry, surface material and sky view factor
determine the urban air temperature generated
within urban canyon. Study from Singapore's
commercial group area 1 and group area 2 confirm
the hypothesis of UHI presence within high density
urban area regardless low and high rise building
developments. However, greenery provision of tress
with large canopy and dense leaves seems to help in
reducing the air temperature generated, benefit from
their shading potential.
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244 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT

6
7. REFERENCES
[1] K. Takahashi, H. Yoshida, Y. Tanaka, N. Aotake
and F. Wang. Measurement of Themal
Environment in Kyoto City and Its Prediction by
CFD Simulation, Energy and Buildings 16
(2004), 771-779.
[2] M. Santamouris. The Canyon Effect. Energy and
climate in the urban built environment, London
(2001).
[3] N. Y. Wong. Study of Rooftop Gardens in
Singapore, Singapore (2002).
[4] www.nea.gov.sg
[5] S.K. Jusuf, et al. The influence of land use and
the urban heat island in Singapore. Habitat
International 31 (2007), 232-242.
[6] S. K. Jusuf and N. Y. Wong. STEVE tool: A web
application of Singapore air temperature
prediction model. Accepted for publication in
Journal of Green Building.




















































































PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 245


Trees and heat fluxes: how much do they contribute
to the energy balance at urban spaces?
Loyde Vieira de ABREU
1
, Lucila Chebel LABAKI
1

1
School of Civil Engineering, University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil
ABSTRACT: Results of local-scale surface energy balance observations reveal that latent heat fluxes, Qe,
provided by trees are important in the surface energy control of cities. Arboreal species provide different storage
latent heat, a characteristic related with the mitigation of air temperature in local-scale provided by them. The
aim of this work is to compare heat fluxes in different arboreal species along the day and verify their contribution
for thermal comfort inside and outside buildings. The required data are: net radiation flux density retained by
sunlit and shaded layers (W/m
2
) (collected by tube solarimeters), air temperature and relative humidity,
atmospheric pressure and vegetation phenology (size of crown, leaves and foliar area). The measurements
were carried out during the day, from sunrise to sunset, in three-day periods, throughout the year, covering
different seasons. The energy balance scheme is based in the big-leaf model by Penman-Monteith (FAO056). In
the research four tree species were analyzed, chosen from the most used trees in urban forestry in the South-
East region of Brazil. Results showed that Qe by each trees varied between and W.h/m
2
during
the year. The greatest contribution of trees for the energy balance was observed in the afternoon period. The
different results obtained were due to the characteristics of the sample individual, such as structure and density
of the treetop, size, shape and color of leaves, tree age and growth stage. Trees with higher tops have a good
contribution in the cities, due to their energy consumption and higher solar radiation attenuation. Deciduous
species are excellent in sub-tropical climate, because they can reduce heat fluxes in summer and allow them in
winter. The trees around building, on streets and parks can reduce air temperature, by diminishing the
conductive and convective heat gains. This effect provides thermal comfort and can reduce the energy for
cooling of the buildings. These characteristics of vegetation should be taken in account by professionals of the
urban built environment to improve thermal comfort outdoors, reducing the effect of heat island so ensuring
better quality of life for people.
Keywords: thermal comfort, heat flux, solar radiation.
1. INTRODUCTION
One of the main causes of cities climatic changes
is due to the accelerated expansion of urban centers,
where green areas are generally occupied with
construction and buildings. It occurs due to thermal
characteristics of different kinds of surfaces present
in urban spaces and due to their behaviour with
respect to the incident solar radiation represents
serious impacts on the equilibrium of the
environment [1]. These impacts lead to undesirable
consequences, reducing thermal comfort and
increasing the potential of health impairment of urban
populations. By observing the importance of
vegetation in the control of the incident solar
radiation and as a regulator of the urban climatic
changes, it becomes meaningful to qualify and
quantify how the vegetation influences on
environmental parameters such as air temperatures
and relative humidity [2]. This knowledge permits to
obtain guidelines for the elaboration of plans and
projects aiming to improvement of urban thermal
comfort.
Several authors have pointed out the benefits of
vegetation in improving city climate like Oke [1],
Matzarakis [3] and Gulys [4] . Bueno-Bartholomei
[5] evaluated the attenuation of solar radiation by
different isolated tree species, showing that this
attenuation is due to specific characteristics of the
analyzed species and to individual sample
characteristics like structure and density of the
treetop, size, shape and colour of the leaves, tree
age and stage of growth.
Grimmond et al. [6] observed that the water
evaporation on the surface of leaves mitigates air
temperatures, due to the loss of latent heat. The so
called evapotranspiration, an indirect process,
includes two biophysical phenomena: the water
evaporation of the soil and the transpiration, loss of
water in the tree leaves [2].
Kjelgren and Montague [7] studied the
transpiration of tree species as affected by energy-
balance propriety of paved and vegetated surface.
The results show that isolate trees over paved
asphalt surface intercept more long-wave radiation.
Trees responses to increased energy loading will
vary with species, humidity of atmosphere, and how
much of the crown is exposed. Species from hot or
arid habitats either tolerant to high temperatures or
able to dissipate heat with small leaves, would less
likely be affected by energy radiated from a paved
surface. Broadleaf deciduous species originating
from temperate forests, such as maple and pear,
however, are commonly planted in urban area. Long-
wave energy interception from an asphalt surface is
more likely to trigger a feed-forward response in
these species which results in prolonged stomata
closure. Clustering of trees and increased crown
density result in lower foliage exposed intercepting
long-wave radiation, because if a great percentage of
foliage would not be exposed, the attenuation of
solar radiation could affect by increasing energy
loading.
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246 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT


The aim of this study is the evaluation of the
influence of heat fluxes provided by different arboreal
species in the energy balance at urban spaces,
through the measurements of environmental
parameters.
2. METHODS
The measurements were carried out during three
sunny days in two seasons (summer and winter) in
four trees from 2007 to 2010. This research was
realized in Campinas, Brazil, located at 22 48'57
"S, 47 03'33" W and at altitude 640 m. The city's
climate is classified as tropical of altitude, with mean
annual air temperature 22.3 C, annual rainfall 1411
mm, with the predominance of rain in the months
from November to March and dry periods of 30 to 60
days during July and August. In this research, the
microclimatic and instantaneous scales are adopted.
This choice of scales allows analyzing in loco the
degree of influence through mitigation of air
temperature and solar radiation incident on
individuals of trees.
2.1. Species and sites selection
The criteria for the choice of species were those
most used in tree planting programs by the city
government in Campinas, Brazil. The trees should
fulfill such conditions as: to be adult in age, to have
representative physical characteristics of the species,
and to be located in areas with the adequate
conditions for measurements: no shading by other
trees or buildings; topography of the ground around
the species; accessible area for the measurement
equipment; no interference of other people;
uniformity of conditions around the trees. The trees
studied were localized at the University Campus and
Rio das Pedras Farm (figure 1).

LEGEND
1- Syzygium cumini (Jambolo)
2- Mangifera indica (Mangueira)
3- Tabebuia chrysotricha (Ip-Amarelo)
4- Caesalpinia peltophoroides (Sibipiruna)
Figure 1: Species localization
Four arboreal individuals were selected: Ip-
Amarelo (Tabebuia chrysotricha) deciduous ,
Jambolo (Syzygium cumini L.) perennial -,
Mangueira (Mangifera indica) perennial - and
Sibipiruna (Caesalpinia peltophoroides) semi
deciduous (figure 2).

In leaf in leafless in flowers
Ip-Amarelo
(Tabebuia chrysotricha)

Sibipiruna
(Caesalpinia
peltophoroides)
Jambolo
(Syzygium
cumini)
Mangueira
(Mangifera
indica)
Figure 2: Individual arboreal analyzed
2.2. Equipment and analyses methods
The radiation balance was measured using two
sets of tube solarimeters, type TSL (Delta-T
Devices). Sensors from the tube solarimeters were
connected to a logger, model DL2, also from Delta
T (figure 3 e 4).

Figure 3: Tube solarimeters, Delta-T TSL
One set of equipment was installed at the middle
of the tree shadow, while the second one was
installed at sun, figure 4. Data were collected
beneath crowns of studied trees and in the open
simultaneously. Measurements started at about 6:00
a.m. and finished at about 6:00 p.m. and were
recorded each ten minutes. This equipment
measures average irradiance (W/m
2
) in situations
where the distribution of radiant energy is not
uniform, such as beneath tree crowns and
greenhouses. The spectral response corresponds to
visible and near infrared radiation (350 nm to 2500
nm). So, the wave radiation absorbed by trees
(Rnc/LA) in a period of time can be computed by:
Rn
Rn - Rn
sun
sh sun
/
=
LA nc
R

PLEA 2011 - 27
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CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 247


Where Rsun is solar radiation measured by tube
solarimeter in sun (Kwh/m
2
), Rsh is solar radiation
measured by tube solarimeter in tree canopy
(Kwh/m
2
).

Figure 4: Tripod and solarimeters positioned at the tree
For the collection of the data of the environmental
parameters (air temperature, relative humidity, globe
temperature) sensors were fixed to a tripod at
different distances to the trunk (in the shadow and in
the sun), figure 5. In each set there was one
temperature and humidity recorder, model Testo
175-1; and a globe temperature recorder, model
Testo 175-T2, connected to a temperature sensor,
placed in the interior of the globe (figure 5).

Figure 5: Tripod with the settled protections

Figure 6: Tripod with anemometer
Wind speed data were collected in one fixed site
with Testo anemometer, model 0635-1549,
connected to a multifunction recorder, model 445,
figure 6. All recording sets were protected from solar
radiation through especially prepared shelters for
outdoors measurements and data were collected
each 10 minutes, in 12 hours throughout the day.
Based on data collected - net radiation, air
temperature, relative humidity and wind , it was
calculated the transpiration rate by the Penman-
Montheit (FAO-56) method [8] [9]:
E = ALA[( Rnc/LA + 600 cp ea /ra) / (+(2+rs
s,sh
/ra)]
where ALA is leaf area, is the latent heat of
vaporization (J/g), E is the transpiration rate, (g/(sm
2

per unit leaf area), Rnc/LA is the net radiation flux
density retained by sunlit and shaded layers (W/m
2
),
respectively, ea is the canopy - level vapour pressure
deficit of air (Pa), ra is the total tree leaf boundary
layer resistance (s/m
2
) to vapour and heat
movement, which are assumed equivalent, rs
s,sh
are
the average leaf stomatal resistances (s/m) for the
sunlit and shaded layers, is the slope of the
saturation vapour pressure curve, (Pa/C), at Ta, is
the psychrometric constant (66.2 Pa/C), is the
density of air (g/m
3
), and cp is the specific heat
capacity of air at constant pressure, (J/(g C)).
The variables rs, (1/gs), and ea can be measured
directly, while ra is proposed to be calculated using
the following empirical formula by Landsberg and
Powell [10]:
ra = 58 p
0.56
(d/u)
0.5

where d is the leaf characteristic dimension, u is the
canopy - level wind speed, and p is a dimensionless
number derived from the ratio of total to crown -
silhouette area perpendicular to horizontal wind flow,
by Kjelgren and Montague [7].
The leaf characteristic dimension was calculated
by the method of Marin and Angelocci [11]. Table 01
shows the results of e for the evaluated trees.
Table 01: Value de e from trees evaluated.
Arboreal Species
ALA
(m
2
)
6rown
fronta|
area [m
2
}

7abebuia chrysotricha 35.21 3Z.02 0.5 0.05
$yzygium cumini 19.21 5Z.91 0.85 0.0Z
Mangifera indica 1.ZZ 5Z.ZZ 1.12 0.10
Caesalpinia peltophoroides 185.0 15.0Z 1.11 0.01
Leaf area index (LAI) of each analyzed tree was
determined by Tsutsumi et al. [12] method, based on
eye-fish pictures obtained by Zigma lens 4,5mm. The
mean value of LA was obtained by the arithmetic
average of LA determined by canopy analyzed
based on project canopy area on soil surface.
In order to investigate the energy contribution by
different arboreal species, the energy balance can be
estimated by:
Rn =Qe + QH + Qg + Qps
where Rn is net radiation, Qe is Latent Heat flux, QH
is Sensible heat flux, Qg is Soil Heat flux. Qps is the
flux due to photosynthesis. The values of Latent heat
(QL) is based on tree transpiration rate (E); and, Qg
and Qps represent 10% from Rn.
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248 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT


3. RESULTS
Figures 7 and 8 illustrate the results for solar
radiation by each species at shadow and sun, in
summer and in winter, respectively.

Figure 7: Solar radiation average by different species
analyzed in summer

Figure 8: Solar radiation average by different species
analyzed in winter
Table 2 shows the final results for solar
attenuation radiation percentage of Ip-Amarelo
(Tabebuia chrysotricha), Jambolo (Syzygium cumini),
Mangueira (Mangifera indica), and Sibipiruna
(Caesalpinia peltophoroides) in summer and winter.
Table 2: Solar attenuation radiation percentage
Arboreal Species (%)
summer
|p-amare|o [7abebuia chrysotricha} 81.9 1.25
Hangue|ra lMangifera indica} 8Z.8 1.58
Jambo|o [$yzygium cumini } 8Z.33 0.9
8|b|p|runalCaesalpinia peltophoroides} 83.89 0.13
winter
|p-amare|o [7abebuia chrysotricha} |n f|owers 51.11 1.0Z
|p-amare|o [7abebuia chrysotricha} |n |eaf|ess 1.12 1.22
Hangue|ra lMangifera indica} 88.9 1.1
Jambo|o [$yzygium cumini } 89.11 0.32
8|b|p|runalCaesalpinia peltophoroides} 9.51 1.Z
Figures 9 and 10 present the daily transpiration
graphics, in summer and in winter, respectively.
Additionally, table 3 indicates the results of
transpiration and latent heat average daily during the
year.
Table 3: Transpiration daily during the year
Arborea| 8pec|es T
|| day
0e
w/r
2

3urre(
|p-amare|o [7abebuia chrysotricha} 9.53 391.25
Hangue|ra lMangifera indica} Z1.8Z 52Z.59
Jambo|o [$yzygium cumini } 93.01 121.55
8|b|p|runalCaesalpinia peltophoroides} 213.1Z 1208.89
w|rle(
|p-amare|o [7abebuia chrysotricha} |n f|owers 25.50 11.8
|p-amare|o [7abebuia chrysotricha} |n |eaf|ess 30.5 111.10
Hangue|ra lMangifera indica} Z8.95 382.80
Jambo|o [$yzygium cumini } ZZ.13 121.55
8|b|p|runalCaesalpinia peltophoroides} 152.83 110Z.1
The species Sibipiruna (Caesalpinia
peltophoroides) demonstrated the greatest
transpiration, and the deciduous species Ip-amarelo
(Tabebuia chrysotricha) presents the smallest
transpiration during the year.

Figure 9: Solar Radiation Attenuated in summer

Figure 10: Solar Radiation Attenuated in winter
Figures 11 to 14 bring energy balance
components - Latent Heat flux (Qe), Sensible heat
flux (QH), Net Radiation (Rn) less Soil heat flow (Qg)
during the day in summer. Figures 15 to 19 show
the energy balance during the day in winter.
Ip-amarelo (Tabebuia chrysotricha) shows the
smallest quantities for latent-heat (Qe) in summer,
394.25 W/m
2
, and in winter, 116,68 W/m
2
.
Consequently, this species has less capacity of
environment cooling than others during the year. As
well, Sibipiruna (Caesalpinia peltophoroides) obtains
the best results for transpiration during the year.
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0
6
:
0
0
0
7
:
0
0
0
8
:
0
0
0
9
:
0
0
1
0
:
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:
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:
0
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1
8
:
0
0
K
W
/
m
2
Hour
SOLAR RADIATION ATTENUATED: SUMMER
Sun Ip-Amarelo (Tabebuia Chrysotricha)
Jambolo (Syzygium cumini) Mangueira (Manguifera indica)
Sibipiruna (Caesalpinia peltophoroides)
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
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0.5
0.6
0.7
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:
0
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:
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:
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:
0
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:
0
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1
:
0
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:
0
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:
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:
0
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:
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:
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0
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SOLAR RADIATION ATTENUATED: WINTER
Sun Ip-Amarelo (Tabebuia Chrysotricha) com flores
Ip-Amarelo (Tabebuia Chrysotricha) Jambolo (Syzygium cumini)
Mangueira (Manguifera indica) Sibipiruna (Caesalpinia peltophoroides)
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Transpiration during the day: summer
Ip-Amarelo (Tabebuia Chrysotricha)
Jambolo (Syzygium cumini)
Mangueira (Manguifera indica)
Sibipiruna (Caesalpinia peltophoroides)
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Transpiration during the day: winter
Ip-Amarelo (Tabebuia Chrysotricha)
Ip-Amarelo (Tabebuia Chrysotricha) in flowers
Jambolo (Syzygium cumini)
Mangueira (Manguifera indica)
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 249



Figure 11: Energy Balance Ip-amarelo (Tabebuia
chrysotricha)

Figure 12: Energy Balance - Jambolo (Syzygium
cumini )

Figure 13: Energy Balance Mangueira (Mangifera
indica)

Figure 14: Energy Balance Sibipiruna (Caesalpinia
peltophoroides)

Figure 15: Energy Balance Ip-amarelo (Tabebuia
chrysotricha) in leafless

Figure 16: Energy Balance Ip-amarelo (Tabebuia
chrysotricha) in flowers

Figure 17: Energy Balance Jambolo (Syzygium
cumini)

Figure 18: Energy Balance Mangueira (Mangifera
indica)
0
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Energy Balance
Ipe Amarelo (Tabebuia chrisotricha): summer
Qh
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Rn-Qg
Rnf
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Energy Balance
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Rn-Qg
Rnf
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Energy Balance
Mangueira (Manguifera indica) - summer
H
LE
Rn-G
Rnf
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Energy Balance
Sibipiruna (Caesalpinia peltophoroides) -summer
Qh
Qe
Rn-Qg
Rnf
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Energy Balance
Ipe Amarelo (Tabebuia chrisotricha) in leafless : winter
Qh
Qe
Rn-Qg
Rnf
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Balano de Energia
Ipe Amarelo (Tabebuia chrisotricha) in flowes: winter
Qh
Qe
Rn-Qg
Rnf
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Jambolo (Syzygium cumini ) - winter
Qh
Qe
Rn-Qg
Rnf
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Energy Balance
Mangueira (Manguifera indica) - winter
Qh
Qe
Rn-Qg
Rnf
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
250 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT



Figure 19: Energy Balance Sibipiruna (Caesalpinia
peltophoroides)
4. CONCLUSION
The results confirm that trees have the greatest
contribution in controlling the heat fluxes in cities,
however it is necessary tree management strategy.
It is shown that the tree characteristics like
structure and density of the treetop, size, shape and
color of leaves, tree age and growth, may manipulate
the tree performance in microclimate. For example,
species with dense and low canopy and large leaves,
such as Jambolo (Syzygium cumini) and Mangueira
(Manguifera indica) show similar data for solar
radiation attenuation and transpiration rate during the
year, while deciduous species, like Ip-amarelo
(Tabebuia chrysotricha), present some differences
along the year.
As well, species like Sibipiruna (Caesalpinia
peltophoroides) with little leafs and plagiotrophycal
branch, present the best contribution to control the
heat fluxes during the year. This tree can mitigate air
temperature in summer and humidify the air in winter,
in addition, it had the best capacity of absorbing
latent-heat, and controlling the solar energy. This
happens due to the fact that the structure of the
crown hinders the ventilation according to the
ascending movement of hot air.
In addition, the energy balance estimatives by
different species arboreal are important data for
sustainable urban planning, because trees contribute
to create lower temperature spaces, improve the
thermal comfort and can save energy. Besides,
trees could be used to shade building, allowing
thermal comfort in outdoor and indoor places. The
solar radiation intercepted by the crown functions as
a natural protection in outdoor spaces, mitigating
temperatures and reducing the energy spent on
cooling indoor spaces.
The evaluation of different arborous species
commonly found in the urbanization of cities is an
important information for urban planning aiming to re-
qualify the urban microclimate. In addition, tree-
planting is a practical and inexpensive solution, and
is considered an energy-efficient alternative.
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was sponsored by FAPESP/Fundao
de Amparo Pesquisa do Estado de So Paulo
(Research Support Foundation of So Paulo State).
6. REFERENCES
[1] Oke T.R. (1987); 'Boundary Layer Climates',
Second Edition, Routledge,
[2] Santamouris, M. (2001); Energy and climate in
the urban built. Londres: James & James, 402 p.
[3] Matzarakis, A.; Rutz, F.; Mayer, H. (2007);
Modelling radiation fluxes in simple and complex
environments application of the Rayman
model. International Journal of Biometeorology
n.51, 323-334.
[4] Gulys, .; Unger, J.; Matzarakis, A. (2006);
Assessment of the microclimatic and thermal
comfort conditions in a complex urban
environment: modeling and measurements.
Building and Environment, 2006, v. 41, p. 1713-
1722.
[5] Bueno-Bartholomei, C. L. (2003). Influencia da
vegetao no conforto trmico urbano e no
ambiente construdo. Campinas, SP, Tese
(Doutorado).
[6] Grimmond, C. S. B.; Oke, T. R.; Steyn, D. G.;
(1986); Urban water balance: a model for daily
totals. Water Resources Research; v. 22, p.
1397-1403.
[7] Kjelgren R. and Montague, T. (1998); Urban
Tree Transpiration over Turf and Asphalt
Surfaces, Atmospheric Environment, 32, 1, 35-
41.
[8] Penman, H.L. (1956); Evaporation: an
Introductory Survey. Neth. J. Agric. Sci, n. 4,
p.9-29.
[9] Monteith, J. L. (1965); Evaporation and
environment. Symp. Soc. Expl. Biol., n. 19, p.
205 234.
[10] Landsberg, J. and Powell, D. (1973); Surface
exchange characteristics of leaves subject to
mutual interference. Agricultural Meteorology, v.
13, p. 169-184.
[11] Marin, F. R. ; Angelocci, L. R.; Vila-Nova, N. A.
(2003); Estimativa da transpirao mxima de
lima cida Tahiti pelo modelo de Penman-
Monteith. Revista Brasileira de
Agrometeorologia, Santa Maria/RS, v. 11, n. 2,
p. 237-243.
[12] Tsutsumi, J. G.; Ishii, A.; Katayama, T. (2003);
Quantity of plants and its effect on local air
temperature in an urban area. In: ICUC5 2003
(FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
URBAN CLIMATE,1-5), 5., Lotz, Polland.
Proceedings.... Lodz, Poland: ICUC, 2006.
Available at:
<http://www.geo.uni.lodz.pl/~icuc5/text/indexCD.
pdf.>


-2000
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Energy Balance
Sibipiruna (Caesalpinia peltophoroides) - winter
Qh
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Rn-Qg
Rnf
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 251

Forecasting carbon emissions of the UAE
residential sectora case study of Abu Dhabi
Hassan RADHI
1
, Steve SHARPLES
2

1
Architectural Engineering Department, UAE University, United Arab Emirates
2
School of Architecture, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

ABSTRACT: This study forecasts transformations in carbon emissions from the UAE residential sector. It
introduces a regional bottom-up model for assessing CO2 emissions. Archetypes were first developed and
simulation models then used. The outcome provided the basis for developing a statistical bottom-up model for
the housing stock. This model explores the ways in which CO2 emission levels are affected by global warming
and how such levels can be reduced through the use of different building energy efficiency measures. Abu
Dhabi emirate was taken as a case study. The results demonstrated the capability of the developed model in
forecasting the future trends of CO2 emissions in the UAE residential sector. It was shown that improving
building energy efficiency can generate considerable carbon emissions reduction credits at a competitive cost.
Keywords: Forecasting carbon emissions, residential sector, UAE
1. INTRODUCTION
By signing up to the Kyoto Protocol, the UAE is
required to play a very active role in conserving
energy, protecting the environment and reducing
greenhouse gases, particularly CO2 emissions.
Protecting the depleted energy and reducing its
impact on the environment would have a number of
benefits for the UAE, such as increasing the
exported fossil fuels and limiting the impact of global
warming. Based on this, considerable sustainable
developments and global warming initiatives have
been made in the UAE. A number of economic
development programmes have been planned and
dedicated to establishing new economic sectors
focused on alternative energy and sustainable
technologies. Two huge and costly projects are
planned to be completed in the next few years: first,
a $350 million solar power plant and, second, a $2
billion hydrogen-fuelled power plant. Clean and
renewable energy has also been utilised in
establishing low energy and zero carbon emission
buildings as can be seen in the Masdar City initiative.
Another initiative is the implementation of new
building energy codes which conform to the most
demanding global standards. These codes were
developed on the basis that such a program can
reduce the total energy consumption and
consequently the CO2 emissions. Forecasting future
trends in CO2 emissions has been a growing concern
in recent years. A great deal of effort has been spent
to model current and future trends of energy
consumption and its associated CO2 emissions.
Some studies have explored the impact of
increasing CO2 emissions and global warming on
heating and cooling energy use in building sector [1-
3]. Other studies have investigated how likely the
global warming can contribute to energy use and its
associated CO2 savings [4]. Others have proposed
methods for forecasting the potential impact of global
warming on the energy use [5, 6]. A number of
methods were presented, and these can broadly be
grouped into two categories - top-down and
bottom-up. Statistical and archetype techniques
are examples of the bottom-up methods. Many
studies in to modelling CO2 emissions have been
conducted using statistical techniques, such as those
of Snakin [7] and Hirst and Goeltz [8].
Simultaneously, various researches have been
carried out using the archetype techniques [9-12]. A
principal advantage of bottom up methods is that
they mainly rely on computer programs, and thus
have the ability to analyse in detail the energy
consumption characteristics of each building or
sector. For example, Clarke, Ghauri and Johnstone
[13] focused on the main determinants of energy
demand in the building sector using the insulation
level, capacity level, capacity position, air
permeability, window size, exposure and wall to floor
area ratio. Hirano, Katoa, Murakami, Ikaga, Shiraishi
and Uehara [14] developed an archetype model with
respect to Japanese buildings in order to show the
effectiveness of porous residential buildings in the
light of cooling energy and CO2 emission reductions.
An alternative approach was taken in China by Wan
and Yik [15], where the focus was on solar gains.
The next section presents a bottom-up model for
forecasting space cooling energy and its associated
CO2 emissions in the UAE housing stock. The paper
studies the ways in which CO2 emission levels are
affected by global warming and how such levels can
be reduced through the use of different building
energy efficiency measures. The applicability of this
model is demonstrated through a case study from
Abu Dhabi.
2. METHODOLOGY AND MODEL DATA
Three classes of data were used to construct the
models: future climate data, current housing stock
and energy consumption data of Abu Dhabi.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
252 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
2.1. Climate change data
The general characteristics of Abu Dhabis
climate resemble those of arid and semi-arid zones:
summers are very dry with temperatures rising to
about 48C in coastal cities with accompanying
humidity levels reaching as high as 90%. In the
southern cities temperatures can reach 50C. Arid
regions such as Abu Dhabi are sensitive to global
climatic changes and the effects they produce. The
Environment Agency of Abu Dhabi and the Ministry
of Energy and other concerned parties in the UAE
[16] have stated that temperatures in the UAE
regions could increase while precipitation levels
could significantly decline by the end of the 21
st

century. This scenario was simulated and the output
were generated at the regional level and then scaled
to eight cities within the UAE including Abu Dhabi,
Dubai, Sharjah, Al-Ain, Ras al-Khaymah, Khawr
Fakkan, Umm al-Qaywayn, and Ajman. The annual
average temperatures in 2050 are projected to be
between about 1.6C and 2.9C warmer than they
were over the period 1961-1990, and between 2.3C
and 5.9C warmer by 2100. The reasons why the
climate of the UAE is tending to get warmer are
numerous and include the urban heat island effect,
changes in atmospheric pollution and increases in
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This tendency will
impact upon the built environment and the energy
use in buildings.
2.2. Housing stock data
Three key data sources were used for this study:
the UAE in Figures [17], Sheikh Zayed Housing
Program [18] and housing statistics provided by the
Abu Dhabi Municipality. As depicted in Figure 1, Abu
Dhabi has the largest number of housing units in the
UAE. Figure 2 shows the percentage of housing
units by housing type in Abu Dhabi emirate. It is clear
that the flat type occupies the first position followed
by the traditional house type.
Seven representative buildings were used in
order to ensure a good demonstration of the
mainstream housing topologies. The representative
buildings were chosen after applying certain criteria
and data filters, including building categories and
system types and operation schedules. The building
category filter was applied to select buildings with the
same basic type (e.g., flat, villa or traditional house).
The building systems and operation schedules filter
was applied to define the group for evaluation. This
allows representatives of the major typical class of
residential buildings to be obtained and the physical
and operational characteristics of such buildings to
be analysed. Detailed architectural, functional and
operational data for the buildings were obtained from
governmental statistics, working drawings, utility bills
and field visits. Complete details of the physical and
operational characteristics of the villa type housing
are shown in Table 1.
2.3. Energy end-uses data
In Abu Dhabi energy is consumed in five broad
sectors defined by four end-users, namely buildings,
agriculture, industry and others. If electricity
generation is included, the five sectors account for all
energy consumption in the economy of Abu Dhabi.
Figure 3 shows electricity consumption per sector in
Abu Dhabi emirate. It can be seen that buildings
make up about 50% of the national consumption of
electricity.


Figure 1: Number of housing units in the UAE.


Figure 2: Housing units per housing type.

Table 1: Details for villa-type housing.
Parameters Specification
No. of Floor 2
Total Area 370- 415m
2

Floor Height 3.5 m
External
walls
15 mm concrete masonry units
block-24 mm of plaster inside
and outside
Roof 200 mm concrete, slab 50mm
screed,50mm sand and 10 mm
ceramic tiles
WWR 0.25 & 0.3
Glazing 6 mm single green glass
Infiltration 5.0 m
3
/h/m
2

Ventilation 7.5 L/s/person
Thermal
Zones
Multi-zones
Equipment 12 W/m
2

Lighting 8 W/m
2

HVAC Split units
Occupancy 25 m
2
/p

0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Abu Dhabi Sharjah Umm-Q Fujirah
T
h
o
u
s
a
n
d
s
Flat
39%
Villa
15%
Two storey
Bldg
7%
Traditional
house
25%
Annex
6%
Studio
6%
Others
2%
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 253


Figure 3: Energy consumption per sector.

Figure 4: Energy end-uses.
In order to match the load shape of simulation
models to the electricity generation it is essential to
identify the pattern of energy use of the
representative buildings and to predict domestic load
profiles. Figure 4 shows the energy end-uses of the
representative buildings (flats, traditional houses and
villas). It is clear that electricity used by the AC
system is the most significant, particularly for cooling
energy, which requires more than 65% of the total
electricity consumption to satisfy the cooling and
ventilation loads. The remaining is divided between
lighting, equipment and other building loads.

2.4. Model construction
Archetypes were first developed and then
simulation models used. The outcome provided the
basis for developing a statistical bottom-up model for
the housing stock
2.5. Archetypes and simulation models
As stated above, temperatures are projected to
be between about 1.6C and 2.9C warmer than they
were over the period 1961-1990, and between 2.3C
and 5.9C warmer by 2100. Based on real climatic
elements, a statistically-based weather data file was
generated using MeteoNorm software [19] to reflect
the current climate. In order to predict the impact of
higher air-temperatures on the electricity
performance, the air-temperatures were increased by
1.6, 2.3, 2.9 and 5.9C. These increases were
referred to as Scenario-1, Scenario-2, Scenario-3
and Scenario-4, while the current climate was
indicated as the baseline climate. Each scenario
represented a weather input to the sophisticated
simulation program Visual DOE [20]. The audit
materials and monthly utility bills of the archetypes
were used to calibrate the Visual DOE program. The
models were simulated with respect to the projected
climatic scenarios and three thermal design
parameters - thermal insulation, window area and
glazing type, as shown in Table 2. It is important to
note that these parameters were chosen due to the
fact that Abu Dhabi began planning regulation
efficiency codes for buildings. These codes include
thermal insulation, window area and low-energy
glazing. This resulted in 120 prototypes of simulation
models.
Table 2 Thermal design parameters.
Insulation
Thermal
insulation
U-factor
(W/m
2
/K)
Roughnes
s
Absorption
Exi- wall-1 2.32 3.0 0.7
Ass- wall-2 0.30 3.0 0.7
Exi- roof -1 0.60 0.9 0.5
Ass- roof -2 0.20 0.9 0.5
Window
Glazing type U-Value
(W/m
2
/K)
SC SHGC
Single 6.3 1.00 0.86
Double 2.78 0.89 0.77
Window area
(%)
60 40 20
Climatic
scenarios (C)
baseline +
1.6
+
2.3
+
2.9
+
5.9

2.6. A statistical model
Based on the outcome of simulation, a simple
regression model was developed. This model
considered the increase in air temperature, building
thermal design, schedule of operation and the
conversion factor of fuel. The primary analysis of
such a model was based on a weighted ordinary
least squares regression. This basic form of
regression allows for analysis of a dependent
variable (e.g. cooling energy requirements, electricity
consumption or CO2 emissions) subject to various
independent variables (v) such as air-temperatures,
building design or working hours. This linear
regression can yield an equation of the form:
cpcnJcnt = C1I1 +C2I2 +CnIn +B (1)
In the current case, the cooling index (CI) is the
dependent variable and variables on the right side of
the equation are the independents, where C1, C2,
and Cn represent the equation coefficients and B is a
constant. The developed model is structured to have
the dependent variable to be CI. It is equal to the
total cooling load divided by the gross floor area of
the building. Back to equation (1), if v1, v2, v3 and v4
represent the air temperature, (Tao), U-value (u),
window area (a) and the glazing type (g), then the
values of C1, C2, C3 and C4 represent the statistical
correlation between the independent variables and
CI. This correlation approximates to the average
relationship between these independent variables
and each kWh/m
2
/yr of cooling energy index.

Buildings
50%
Agriculture
20%
Industry
25%
Others
5%
0
20
40
60
80
Lighting Air-con. Equip DHW
(
%
)
Flat Traditional.House Villa
PLEA 2011 - 27
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254 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
The linear regression can be expressed as:

CI = C1Ioo + C2u +CSo +C4g +B (2)

The result of regressing the CI as obtained from
the simulation models on the above-mentioned
independents is depicted in Table 3. The coefficients
of determination, or R
2
of the CI, are 0.932, 0.961
and 0.947 for flats, traditional house and villa
respectively, which would indicate a strong
relationship between the CI variables and the outside
temperature, U-value of the wall, the type of glazing
and window area. To obtain the increment rate due
to each variable. The following equation was used,
where i is the increment rate, FCI is the future CI and
PCI, is the present CI:

i = (
Fci
Pci
] ) -1 (3)
Table 3: Regressing the energy cooling energy index.

C1

C2

C3

C4

B
Flat
25.9 2.6 18.0 8.3 103.8
5.1 0.4 0.9 0.2 8.1
R
2
0.932
F 427.0
Traditional house
31.7 2.9 21.2 1.3 204.8
5.7 0.5 1.0 0.3 9.1
R
2
0.961
F 578.8
Villa
36.0
7.0
R
2
0.947
F 427.0


The amount of electricity consumption (Ec) is
subjected to the CI, building gross area (A) and
working hours (Wh), as illustrated in equation (4).
The CO2 emissions (Ce) are dependent on the
electricity consumption and the conversion factor of
fuel (Cf). Equation (5) shows a simple linear
equation to calculate the CO2 emissions of each type
of buildings.

Ec = (CIxi) x A x wb (4)

Cc = Ec x C (5)

The developed model estimates the cooling
energy consumption of each housing type with
respect to the current and future climates. The
energy consumption estimates are then scaled up to
be representative of the regional and national
housing stock by multiplying the results by the
number of houses which fit the description of each
type. The total CO2 emission of housing stock is
obtained by multiplying the amount of energy
consumption by the conversion factor of fuel. The
total CO2 emissions can be obtained by summing the
amount of CO2 emitted by each housing type.
3. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
For generating confidence in the results, the
validation of a model is essential. To do so, this
section evaluates the performance of the developed
models by comparing the results of modelling the
present performance of buildings with known energy
consumption data. The same can be done to
forecast the future performance. The difference is
that a forecast generates new weather conditions in
addition to modelling changes in building design,
whereas the present climate involves only the latter.
Since the modelling of a new design involves exactly
the same methods and objects as the modelling of
an existing design, the accuracy of predicting the
present performance can be used as an estimate of
the confidence in a forecast.
3.1. Forecasting future trends
Figure 5 illustrates the actual measured cooling
energy indices of the representative buildings as
obtained from the provided data and field studies,
and compares them with those obtained from the
statistical model and validates them using the indices
obtained from the well-validated simulation software
Visual DOE. By considering the numbers of each
housing type and measured data of electricity
consumption, the total amount of electricity is
calculate and compared with the result obtained from
the models. Figure 6 shows the energy consumption
of each housing type due to actual measurements
and due to models. The difference between the
measured indices and those from archetype and
statistical models is within the range of 3.5% to 6.5%.
This level of error is considered to be acceptable in
forecasting models.

Figure 5: comparison of cooling indices.

Figure 6: energy consumption per housing type.
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
75
80
T. house Villa T.s Bldg Flat Annex Studio Other
(
k
W
h
/
m
2
/
y
r
)
Measured Archetype Regression
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
T. houseVilla T.s Bldg Flat Villa AnnexStudioOther
M
W
h
Measured consumption Archetype Regression
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CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 255


With the increase in air temperatures it is
expected that there will be a considerable growth in
energy demand for cooling buildings. To establish
the likely annual cooling demand for future scenarios
the changes in demand were related to the energy
consumed for cooling the representative buildings.
Figure 7 illustrates the impact of global warming on
cooling energy demand. There is a sharp increase in
cooling demand with different rates ranging from
8.2% to 24.1% under Scenario-1 and Scenario-4
respectively. These figures are a clear indication that
the global warming will lead to a negative impact on
the total electricity demand, where changing from the
baseline climate will increase the annual cooling
energy demand, and therefore, additional total
energy will be consume. From the total energy
increase there will be, in effect, a further CO2
increase, with electric cooling energy consumption.
The statistics of energy consumption per sector
indicate that the residential sector in Abu Dhabi
accounts for 2646 GWh, or almost 50% of the total
regional consumption. If global warming delivers a
5.9C air temperature rise then the consumption
could be increased to almost 2977 GWh, and
consequently the total CO2 emissions will grow to
almost 7.6 million metric tonnes. The net Emirati CO2
emissions could increase to around 138.4 million
metric tonnes over the next few decades.

Figure 7: Impact of global warming.
3.2. Modelling building regulations
Table 4 shows the yearly cooling energy
demands and electricity savings due to each code
under different scenarios. The space cooling energy
in the representative houses is within the range of 65
- 70%. As tabled, decreasing the U-value, under the
baseline climate, reduces the residential cooling
demand by approximately 19.3%. Considering the
large amount of cooling energy demand this figure is
significant. When the same U-value is used under
scenario-2, the figure grows to 19.9%. Reducing the
thermal transmittance value of the building envelope
significantly influences the cooling energy demand.
The alteration of window parameters offers fewer
savings for residential buildings. The impact of using
efficient glazing system in the residential buildings is
varied. The maximum reduction occurred under
Scenario-4 with a 10.5% drop. The same situation
can be observed with respect to the window area.
The maximum saving is 10.9% when the window
area is reduced under Scenario-2. This percentage,
however, decreases to 8.3% under Scenario-4. It is
obvious that the reduction due to window parameters
in comparison with the representative buildings is
significant in all cases.
The total electric energy saving was also
modelled. It is clear that the thermal insulation, on
the one hand, produces significant electricity savings
in cooling energy demands and has a considerable
effect on the total electricity use. The electricity
saving is within the range of 15.9%. On the other
hand, the window code, particularly the window area,
is less effective. It offers between 4.5% to 8.1%
reduction in the total electricity demand. The glazing
system is more effective than the window area and it
represents a good option because it is able to save a
large amount of electricity used for cooling buildings
coupled with considerable reductions in the total
electricity demand that can reach 9.8%.
Another objective of the developed models is to
forecast the way in which CO2 emission levels are
affected by different building codes. Figure 8 show
the reduction in CO2 emissions due to each building
code. The illustrated figures indicate that the thermal
insulation code performs best, followed by glazing
system code and then window area code in
descending order.
Table 4: Impact of building regulations.
Climate B-line Sc-1 Sc-2 Sc-3 Sc-4
Reduction due to thermal
Cooling 19.3 19.7 19.9 19.7 15.5
Electricity 15.5 15.9 16 15.9 13.1
Reduction due to glazing system (%)
Cooling 5.4 5.4 5.5 5.5 10.5
Electricity 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.7 8.1
Reduction due to glazing area
Cooling 8.5 9.1 10.9 8.4 8.3
Electricity 7.2 7.7 9.8 7.4 7.4


Table 8: Impact of building regulations.
To this end, the figures estimated, due to the
developed models, are doing well when compared
with those presented in Ref [21]. It is clear,
therefore, that the developed model is likely to be an
effective tool in forecasting future trends of CO2
emissions and in evaluating the impact of efficiency
regulations on building performance under global
warming scenarios. Such a model can guide
decisions of policy regarding the housing stock. The
policy measures, such as energy efficiency
regulations, have an immediate impact in the
housing practice. The present models are well
applicable to studies on such operations.
4.4%
6.3%
9%
12.5%
8.2%
11.8%
16.7%
24.1%
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
240
260
280
300
320
B-line Sc-1 Sc-2 Sc-3 Sc-4
k
W
h
.
m
2
/
y
r
k
W
h
/
m
2
/
y
r
Electrcity Cooling
140
150
160
170
180
190
200
210
Baseline scenario-1 scenario-4
(
K
g
/
m
2
/
y
r
)
Basecase Thermal insulation
Glazing sytem window area
13%
8.1%
7.4%
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256 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
4. CONCLUSION
This study introduced a statistical model for
forecasting cooling energy consumption and its
associated CO2 emissions under global warming
scenarios. The accuracy of predicting the present
performance was used as an estimate of the
confidence in a forecast. The difference between the
measured indices as obtained from real statistics and
the archetype and regression models is within the
range of 3.5% and 6.5%. This level of error is
considered to be acceptable in forecasting models.
The objective of the developed model is to
improve the quality of energy consumption and CO2
emission data, especially for the benefit of local and
national decision making. Some policy measures
have immediate impacts in practice. These include
energy efficiency regulations, promoting the use of
green materials (thermal insulation and low energy
glazing) and changing the electricity supplier through
the switch towards green electricity or the installation
of more efficient power plants with low conversion
factor of fuels. The present model is highly applicable
to studies of these operations.
5. REFERENCES
[1] D Jenkins, Y Lui, AD Peacock. Climatic and
internal factors affecting future UK office heating
and cooling energy consumptions, Energy and
Buildings 2008, 40: 874881.
[2] H Rosenlund. Buildings in a changing climate -
Effects of Global Warming on Energy Use,
Proceedings of the 24th International
Conference on Passive and Low Energy
Architecture (PLEA), Renewable Energies and
Energy Efficiency, Singapore 2007, 128-134.
[3] MR Gaterll, ME McEvoy. The impact of climate
change uncertainties on the performance of
energy efficiency measures applied to dwellings,
Energy and Buildings 2005, 37: 982995.
[4] IC Ward. Will global warming reduce the carbon
emissions of the Yorkshire Humber Regions
domestic building stockA scoping study.
Energy and Buildings 2008: 40: 9981003.
[5] R Zmeureanu, G Renaud. Estimation of
potential impact of climate change on the
heating energy use of existing houses. Energy
Policy 2008, 36: 303310.
[6] E Mansur, R Mendelsohn, W Morrison. Climate
change adaptation: A study of fuel choice and
consumption in the US energy sector. Journal of
Environmental Economics and Management
2008, 55: 175193.
[7] JPA Snakin. An engineering model for heating
energy and emission assessment-The case of
North Karelia, Finland. Applied Energy 2000; 67:
353-381
[8] E Hirst, R Goeltz, D White. Determination of
household energy using fingerprints from
energy billing data. Energy Research 1986;
10(4):393405.


[9] A Parekh. Development of archetypes of
building characteristics libraries for simplified
energy use evaluation of houses. IBPSA, ninth
international conference, Montreal, Canada;
2005: 9218.
[10] C Weber, M Koyama, S Kraines. CO2-emissions
reduction potential and costs of a decentralized
energy system for providing electricity, cooling
and heating in an office-building in Tokyo.
Energy 2006; 31: 30413061
[11] R Yao, K Steemers. A method of formulating
energy load profile for domestic buildings in the
UK. Energy and Buildings 2005, 37: 663671
[12] B Rolfsman. CO2 emission consequences of
energy measures in buildings. Building and
Environment 2002; 37:1421 1430.
[13] JA Clarke, S Ghauri, CM Johnstone, JM Kim,
PG Tuohy. The EDEM methodology for housing
upgrade analysis, carbon and energy labelling
and national policy development. IBPSA
Canada, eSim conference, Quebec City,
Canada; 2008: 135142.
[14] T Hirano, S Katoa, S Murakami, T Ikaga, Y
Shiraishi, H Uehara. A study on a porous
residential building model in hot and humid
regions part 2reducing the cooling load by
component-scale voids and the CO2 emission
reduction effect of the building model. Building
and Environment 2006; 41: 3344
[15] KSY Wan, FHW Yik. Representative building
design and internal load patterns for modelling
energy use in residential buildings in Hong
Kong. Applied Energy 2004; 77: 6985.
[16] Ministry of Energy. Initial National
Communication to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change.
United Arab Emirates, 2006.
[17] Ministry of Economy of UAE. UAE in Figures
2008.
http://www.economy.ae/English/EconomicAndSt
atisticReports/EconomicReports/Pages/default.a
spx
[18] Sheikh Zayed Housing Program.
http://www.gcchousing.org/stat/ae.pdf
[19] J Remund, R Lang, S Kunz. MeteoNorm V.5.1
Software and Handbook on CD-ROM.
Meteotest, Fabrikstrasse 14, 3012 Bern,
Switzerland 2003.
[20] Architectural energy Corporation 2004. Visual
DOE User Manual, USA.
[21] H Radhi. Evaluating the potential impact of
global warming on the UAE residential buildings
A contribution to reduce the CO2 emissions.
Building and Environment 2009; 44, pp: 2451-
2462.

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CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 257

1
Environmental design of a building
Climatic context
Charline WEISSENSTEIN
1
, Jean-Claude BIGNON
1

1
Map-Crai, University of Lorraine, Nancy, France
ABSTRACT: This article concerns the climatic context related to the environmental assessment of projects at
their preliminary phase of design. An evaluation method is proposed, which is based on the definition of
objectives and assessment criteria, as well as on the introduction of a contextual weighting system. These
weights allow us to adjust the evaluation of various issues related to the climates of each project.Our purpose
relates here to the identification of climatic data influencing the evaluation criteria in order to define context
coefficients.
Keywords: Environment, assessment methods, climatic context, architectural design.
1. INTRODUCTION
The issue of sustainable development and more
precisely related environmental matters are key
stakes to consider in buildings, and more particularly
in architecture.
Evaluation methods of environmental quality are
currently recognised as mandatory in these design
approaches. However, the concept of quality cannot
be defined abstractly and must be connected to a
context and more particularly a climatic context.
This is why we set up a contextual assessment
method for buildings environmental quality, in order
to assist the work of architectural design. It has three
characteristics:
- It is based on a global model defining
environmental criteria used in the evaluation
process;
- It is adapted to the different phases of
architectural design;
- it takes into account specificities of each
operation.
This article presents the development of the third
point, the taking into account of specificities of a
project and more particularly specificities in terms of
climatic context.
The proposed method allows us to adapt the
environmental assessment to the specific climatic
context of each project by using a weighting criteria
called context coefficient.
Firstly, we propose a climatic classification
adapted to the design process.
Secondly, we define a first version of context
coefficients based on this classification.
And finally, we validate this weighting system by
a survey conducted on architects.
2. CLIMATIC CLASSIFICATION
2.1. Definition
The climatic context can be defined by the
description of the weather conditions of a given area
which can be established using various data such as:
temperature, pluviometry, amount of sunshine,
humidity, etc.
Classifing climates therefore consists of
organizing these data, in homogenous zones of
similar climates. The data taken into account for this
classification depend on the goal and the required
precision.
This second part presents some classification
examples, differing in terms of goals and required
data.
2.2. The Kppen classification
The Kppen classification was put forward by
Wladimir Peter KPPEN in 1920 [1]. The data
required to use it are precipitations and
temperatures. The method has three stages, within
each of which different climatic definitions are used.
The first stage characterizes five climate types
(Table 1). They are identified by temperature and
pluviometry characteristics.
Table 1 : 1st stage of Kppen classification.
code Climate types
A Equatorial
B aride
C warm temperate
D snow
E polar

For example, the warm temperate climate is

defined by :
- The average temperature of the three coldest
months between -3 C and 18 C;
- the average temperature of the hottest month
above 10 C;
- seasons, summer and winter, must be well
defined.
The second phase refines this first
characterization according to the pluviometric
regime. And similarly, the third stage specifies the
annual temperature variations.
For example the climate classified as Csa,
representing the Mediterranean climate has the
following characteristics:
- Climate type: moderately hot;
- pluviometric regime: precipitations between 380
and 760 mm;
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258 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT

2
- temperature variations: hot summer.
The final proposal contains about thirty climate
classes, identified by and organized in codes of two
or three letters, which correspond to the three stages
of the classification system. This method allows a
precise and detailed climate characterization.
This system was refined little by little. The current
version is that presented by Rudolf GREIGER in
1961. This classification remains a reference thanks
to regular updates in the fields of hydrology,
geography, agriculture and in the study of climate
changes.
2.3. Holdridge Life Zones System
The holdridge life zones is a method of climatic
classification published by Leslie HOLDRIDGE [2],
that relates climates to their associated vegetation
types.
This classification is shown as a triangle for which
each axis represents a climatic factor (refer to fig. 1),
precipitations, humidity, and the ratio of the potential
of evapotranspiration. The system also integrates
three other indicators, namly biotemprature, altitude
and latitude.

Figure 1: Holdridge Life Zones diagram.
Each zone corresponds to particular climatic
characteristics and thus to defined vegetation types.
The system determines thirty-eight different classes
such as polar desert , warm temperate dry
forest , subtropical dry forest , tropical desert
scrub , etc. For example, in the subtropical
category, the dry Martini forest is characterized in
the following factors :
- biotemprature 12-24 C;
- potential evaporation ratio : 1-2;
- humidity: subhumid;
- average total annual precipitation : 50-100 cm.
2.4. Mahoney tables
The MAHONEY tables [3] characterise climates
and with the aim of proposing recommendations for
construction. These recommendations (seventeen)
are divided into eight categories.
For example, in the tropical monsoon climate
(table 2):
Table 2: Monsoon climate recommendations according to
C. Mahoney.
category Type
1-plan orientation longitudinal axis E-O
2-spacing wide spacing + wind portection
3-air intermittent circulation of air
category Type
4-openings /
5-walls Heavy walls
6-roofs Heavy roofs
7-sleep Sleep outdoors
8-rain Rain protection

The climatic data considered are:
- Temperatures (average, minimum and
maximum).
- Humidity, precipitations and wind.
- Comparison of comfort limits.
These data make it possible to characterize
climates and thus to propose guidelines for an
adapted construction.
2.5. Givoni bioclimatic chart
A method suggested by GIVONI [4] as early as
1963 defines the main roads of construction
according to the comfort zones. The method support
is the psycometric diagram (refer to fig. 2) which
represents the human comfort zone based on
temperatures and air humidity. The method
indicates, based on climatic conditions, where the
confort zones are located and thus shows the axes
of construction to be followed.

Figure 2 : Bioclimatic Chart [5]
2.6. Conclusion
Classification methods make it possible to
characterise climates and their associated typologies
of vegetations, constructions, etc. For classifications
more related to construction purposes (Mahoney,
Givoni), at least two problems can be foreseen.
Firstly, climatic typologies are primarily guided by
a dominating objective: the hygrothermic comfort.
Although important, this objective should not be the
only one.
In architecture, other considerations can be
influenced by the climate, such as visual comfort
(quantity of day light, dazzling), or water
management.
Secondly, the climatic data considered are often
too detailed, which is not necessarely relevant with
the preliminary design phases.
We thus propose a method which tries to answer
these questions.
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CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 259

3
3. METHOD
3.1. Climatic data
The starting point of our work is based on an
approach first developed by Manon Kern [6] and
used by the CRIT Architecture. This assessment
approach of environmental quality of buildings was
put forward based on a study of the existing
certification methods (BREAM, LEED, HQE).
The method was based on the evaluation of
twenty-four targets, organized in phases,
corresponding to the process of design and
realisation (from preparation to occupation).
Each objective was evaluated by experts, ranking
from 0 to 4, the average mark giving the project
value. This evaluation was accompanied by a radar
chart, as a help in comparing projects.
Applied on several occasions for buildings
evaluation, this first version of the method was then
criticised, in view of the criteria considered in the
objectives evaluation and the need to determine
more efficiently the context of each project.
We thus proposed to refine targets by defining
them more precisiely in various criteria (table 3) and
in taking into account the characteristics of each
operation by defining a context coefficient (CC).
Table 3: Hierarchical method segmentation.
Target 1
Criterion 1.1 CC
Criterion 1.2 CC
Criterion 1.3 CC
Target 2

Criterion 2.1 CC
Criterion 2.2 CC
Criterion 2.3 CC
... ...

The aim of our work is to adapt the environmental
evaluation according to the context of each project.
The context is defined by the nature of the
construction (new, rehabilitation), the type of
program (multifamily appartments, single house),
geographico-urban data (built-up area, isolated)
and climatic considerations.
From now on, we will limit ourselves to presenting
the climatic data of contextualisation.
Initially, we tried to define standard climates
associated with a specific weighting (refer to fig.
3).

Figure 3 : 1st phase of reflection
The characterization of elements in limited
numbers raises the question of their. Defining a
limited number of elements makes it possible to have
a simple model, but it integrates only a small number
of cases. On the contrary, determining a large
number of elements makes it possible to consider
more cases, but makes the model complex.
Making only five climate types (dry heat, wet
heat, moderate hot, moderate cold, polar) does not
allow us to propose a relevant model for a large
number of situations. For example, in such a model
the monsoon climate type, which has a hot wet
period as well as a hot dry period, would not be
represented in such a model. It however induces
constructive singular characteristics which are
neither those of a hot and wet climate, nor those of a
hot and dry one.
To have a model adapted to all design cases, it
would be necessary to characterize the whole array
of possible climatic situations, which would make the
model complex.
In a second phase, we reversed our reasoning
(refer to fig. 4), looking at which climatic data
influence the importance of the evaluation criteria.

Figure 4: 2nd phase of reflection.
This makes it possible to restrict the data input
to the only useful elements for the criteria definition,
while preserving the effectiveness of the model. All
climates can be considered as well as microclimates.
Indeed, the method takes into account the climatic
data from a given point and not an average of a
region.
The climatic data generally considered to
influence the environmental quality of a building are:
- temperatures (variations, averages);
- pluviometry (rain, snow);
- winds (speed and direction);
- sunshine (hour, radiation, nebulosity);
- humidity;
- localization (latitude, longitude, altitude, solar
trajectory).
Our method objectives being to bring help in the
early phase of design, all data available and useful at
this moment in the design process must be defined.
It is thus not necessary, in the early phases, to
obtaine detailed climatic data. The latter will be
crucial only at the end of the process, to optimize
dimensioning of the architectural elements. On the
other hand, it is essential to have a notion of the
climatic conditions in which the project will take
place.
It is also possible to estimate certain information
by deducing it from other data. According to the
temperature and pluviometry, it is for example
possible to deduce the relative humidity and the
potentiality of snow cover.
We thus propose to retain as essential data at the
preliminary phases of design:
- Notion of low and high temperatures (Tb and
Th). Value: high, very high, etc
- Notion of the amount of pluviometry (P). Value:
important, very weak, etc
- Notion of winds (V): intensity, direction.
- localization, latitude (L); pole, tropic, equator.
In our method, we have thus indicated, for each
evaluation criterion, a selection of climatic data
influencing the design.
climate 1 criterion
climatic data
criterion
climatic data
influenced
by
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260 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT

4
3.2. Assumptions
To determine these influences and to establish
the context coefficients, we studied vernacular
architecture and recent sustainable architecture.
Indeed, the study of these architectures has allowed
us to observe the design characteristics specific to
each climate (refer to fig. 5).
For example, light architecture, and large roofs
are typical of the architecture of a hot and humid
climate. In contrast, in a hot dry climate we find the
following features: a heavy compact design and a flat
roof. The architecture in climates having both a hot
dry period and a hot wet period has the
characteristics of both climates.
hot dry hot wet intermediate

Figure 5 : architectural typology. Above: secondary school,
J.A.G. (Papachton, Guyana), Primary school, Dibdo
Francis Kr (Gando, Burkina Faso), Womenss community
centre, Saija Hollmn, Jenni Reuster, Helena Sandman
(Rufisque, Snagal). Below, vernacular architecture: Benin
lake village [7], Bhil village, India [8]; Yemen [9].
So we have for each climate a particular type of
architecture, and therefore unique needs. These
needs can be analyzed through the study of these
types.
In the example of a hot humid climate, the
chareteritic of a large roof indicates the need for
protection from the rain and sun, whereas the
characteristic of light architecture indicates the need
for continuous circulation of air.
These needs correspond to the different
assessment criteria established. We were therefore
able to identify which climatic data influence criteria
(refer to fig. 6).

Figure 6 : relationship between architectural typology,
needs , criteria an climatic data.
After having identifie which climatic data
influenced each criterion, we formulated a first
hypothesis about the criteria weighting system taking
into account the climatic data.
Five class levels were proposed :
- / not important
- + slightly important
- ++ fairly important
- +++ important
- ++++ very important
The summary of the proposals is presented in a
table which indicates the importance of the criteria
according to the associated climatic conditions (table
4).
Table 4 : importance of the criterion
criterion
To collect,
manage the
solar
contribution
s
Direct
radiation
protection
Optimized
orientation of
sunlight
++++ tb very low
Th average
to very high
L tropic
+++
Tb low
or
L : pole
-
L pole
and equator
++ Tb average th low -
+ tb high - -
- Tb very high th very low -

4. VALIDATION
To validate our proposals, we carried out a
survey involving building professionals. These were
primarily European architects, but we also included
designers involved in more contrasted climatic areas.
The validation corpus thus included about fifty
projects covering a dozen different climatic contexts
(Australia, South Africa, Brazil, India, the USA,
Canada).
The survey was carried out using a questionnaire
aiming to measure the relative weight of evaluation
criteria in the design process, according to the
contrasted climatic context.
Designers were required to answer based one
the positions taken in particular projects, not on their
general opinion.
Each designer was thus requested to indicate the
climatic context of the project and to indicate the
importance of each criterion in the project (table 5).
Their appreciation was accompanied by a comment
in order to give more precision.
Table 5: example of returned questionnaire, Catsieau
Architect in Guyana, project for old people's home.
criterion influence comments
Optimized,
orientation of
sunlight
/
Without
object; Existing
buildings and
quasi vertical sun
To limit direct
light and
dazzling.
/
Without Object;
Sun very quickly
at the zenith
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CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 261

5
To manage
infiltration and
water run-off on
the plots.
++++
pluviometry
very strong
Protection from
strong
precipitations.
(External
Spaces)
+++
Conform to way of
life under open
shelter


These questionnaires enabled us to appreciate
the weight of each criterion in well-defined climatic
contexts and thus to refine and validate the
preliminary assumptions.
5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Results must be relativized, based on the fact
that the remote survey did not allow exchanges and
direct dialogs, and therefore does not guarantee an
exact comprehension of the question elements.
Indeed, we have noticed that certain criteria were not
understood correctly. However the comments
allowed us to correct some comprehension problems
and to draw a certain number of conclusions.
Firstly, the results of the various investigations
clearly confirm the need to contextualize the criteria,
according to the specific situations of each project.
We noted that the importance of the evaluation
criteria fluctuates effectively according to the climatic
context of the operation.
Secondly, we refined our original weighting
proposals. Some were validated, but others had to
be modified.
For example, a starting hypothesis that in a dry
climate, there is no need to infiltrate and control
water was confirmed. This confirmation was based,
for example, on an answer given to our survey, from
a school project in Zanskar (northern India), directed
by the architect Jan Tilinger (refer to fig. 7), where
the pluviometry is relatively low.

Figure 7 :Bioclimatic school, Jan Tilinger (Kargyark, India).

On the other hand, the hypothesis that it is very
important to collect solar radiation in any cold
climate was revised based on the answers from
different projects in Sweden and Norway directed
respectively by the agencies S-XL architects and
Snohetta (refer to fig. 8). Indeed in the cold climate at
the poles, the sun is not very present, even absent,
at the coldest periods. This criterion although
important is thus not the first to be considered in
such situations. It is more important to be isolated
and protected from the cold.

Figure 8: national opera, Snohetta (Oslo, Norway)
Thirdly, whereas certain criteria did not appear to
us to depend on climate, they appeared sometimes
to be related to it. For example, the criterion external
extensions (loggia, balcony, terrace) which could
appears as not very dependent upon the climatic
context is on the contrary very related to it. Our
survey revealed that in hot climates these elements
were part of the life philosophy and thus were very
important (refer to fig. 9); whereas in a cold climate
this criterion is not prevalent, and even useless.

Figure 9: R.R House, Andrade & Morretin (Sao paulo,

Brasil)
Finally, we clearly identified, thanks to the
designers comments, the key climatic data
influencing evaluation criteria (table 5). This allowed
us to refine our method.
Table 5: example of climatic data influencing the criteria
criteria influence
Collect, manage solar
contributions
- temperature (low)
- latitude
Temporize heat
- temperature (high)
- pluviometry
Collect rain water - pluviometry
Optimize orientation of
sunlight
- latitude
Orientation compared to
wind
- wind
External extensions - temperature

6. CONCLUSION
In order to progress, the evaluation of
environmental quality must be defined. This is an
actual recognized need. However, quality cannot be
defined abstractedly. The concept of context,
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262 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT

6
although complex and subject to interpretation, must
be an integral part of the evaluation methods.
During this work, centered on the concept of
climatic context, we identified the data required to
adapt construction to climate at the preliminary
design phases. We also defined the relative weight
of each evaluation criterion to judge the quality of a
project based on its context.
The results of this study will be used to develop
an evaluation tool, allowing the designers to propose
projects offering better environmental answers.
Complementary work in progress bearing on the
concept of construction type or program should
enable us to futher refine the projects
contextualisation criteria as well as the weighting
system in our evaluation method.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank the unit architects who answered the
survey and thus allowed the realisation of this
research task.
8. REFERENCES
[1] Kottek, M., Grieser, J., Beck, C., Rudolf, B., &
Rubel, F. (2006). World Map of the Koppen-
Geiger climate classification updated.
Meteorologische Zeitschrift, 15(3), 259264.
[2] Holdridge, L. R. (1967). life zone ecology
(REVISED EDITION.).
[3] UNITED NATIONS. (1971). Climate and House
Design Vol. I: Design of Low-Cost Housing
and Community Facilities. Department of
Economic and Social Affair. New York.
[4] Givoni B. (1978). L'homme, l'architecture et le
climat. Cep.
[5] Guthrie, J. (2003). Architect's Portable
Handbook (3 d.). McGraw-Hill Professional.
[6] Kern, M. (2004). Analyse du cycle conception
environnementale. Mmoire de formation
continue, Classe 4.
[7] http://meriterroires.phpnet.org/international/wp/w
p-content/uploads/2008/09/benin25-10-03-
159.JPG
[8] http://www.pbase.com/croftcroyne/image/52516
393
[9] http://www.rahhala.net/images/carnets/37_2.jpg

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CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 263
Interdisciplinary methodological approach for urban
water management in densely urbanized areas
within Brussels
Geology, history and architectural engineering
Valrie MAHAUT
1
, Kevin DE BONDT
2
and Chlo DELIGNE
3
1
Universit de Montral, Montreal, Canada
2
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
3
Universit libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
ABSTRACT: From centuries rivers and waterways have had an important impact on the development and the
design of Brussels. But since the covering of the rivers and the reorganization of water networks in the course of
the 19
e
century, water circulates mainly underground and has disappeared from the surface of the city. At the
same time water management was separated from others fields of the urban composition. Difficulties of
managing floods that currently occur in Brussels are partly the result of this partition between city design and
water management. This paper proposes an interdisciplinary methodology (including geology, history,
architectural engineering) to innovate in the field of water management. Water management has to be
understood as a thread to (re)think the city and its future development. To be improved, this methodology is
applied it to a densely urbanized area that is representative of the greater Brussels metropolis from topographic,
hydro-geological and historical points of view.
Keywords: water management, history, hydrogeology, SUDS, rainwater
1. NEW METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH
FOR URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT
Brussels (nowadays called Brussels-Capital
Region) has too long forgotten its past of "City of
water". For two centuries, the urbanization has
ignored topographical and hydro-geological realities
and their implication on water cycles. Runoff on
continuous increasing impervious areas contributes
currently to frequent overloading of the combined
sewer network inherited from the 20
th
century and to
generate recurrent floods during intense storm
events.
The methodology suggested in this paper
proposes an innovative way to think urban water
management. This interdisciplinary vision is the
result of the association of three researchers coming
from different specialities (geology, history and
architectural engineering) and conciliates technical,
environmental and landscape aspects.
The geological investigation aims to replace the
subterranean geology of the city into its
environmental context and to document its
interactions with the urbanization. The historical point
of view leads to understand the present hydrological
situation, and gives some clue to underline relevance
of future urban projects. The engineering coupled
with architectural and environmental analysis allows
validating technical solutions, defines their spatial
and temporal dimensions and integrates them into
the city development, emphasising the geological
and historical contributions.
This scientific and interdisciplinary work on urban
water management is totally new in Brussels. Its the
first time that these three disciplines are discussed
and combined to produce a common knowledge to
reinvent urban water management by inserting
environmental, patrimonial and social aspects. The
strong complementary of these three disciplines
allows global answers to local scale flood problems.
The proposed methodology aims to help decision-
makers and politics towards a more sustainable
management of the city and its environment.
2. BRUSSELS CONTEXT: URBANIZATION
AND WATER PROBLEMATIC
2.1. Background
The Brussels-Capital Region is formed by the old
city of Brussels and 18 surrounding communes. The
territory of the Region is 161 km for 1 115 000
inhabitants and approximately 1 million workers who
come each weekday from the other Belgian Regions
(Fig. 1).
Its main river, the Senne, flows through the
Region entering from the south-west at 20 meters
above the sea level (asl), and leaving to the north-
east (15 meters asl). On highs, top point reaches up
to 120 meters asl in the southern part of Brussels.
The relief is modeled by several Senne tributaries
(Maelbeek, Molenbeek, Woluwe, Geleytsbeek)
which draw narrow valleys and slopes with strong
grades.
Valley bottoms are constituted by alluvial deposit
on claystone, while highs are mainly constituted of
sand alternating with clay layers and recovered by a
thin loam blanket. These sands are more permeable
(mainly Lede and Brussels sands). Rainwater
infiltrates easier into sandy highs than into valley
alluviums already watered. Water-tables in sand are
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264 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
deep and infiltrated water takes time to reach them
before re-emerging at interface with deep claystone
(often in the middle of valleys slopes).
Figure 1: Hydrography and topography of the Brussels-
Capital Region.
This situation is current on the large part of
Brussels (in South, East and North) although the
South-West presents a gentler relief because a more
important thickness of loam and the absence of
sandy geological layers (Fig. 2). Hence it is obvious
that rainwater preferential paths and fluxes are
related to topographical and geographical realities in
Brussels.
Figure 2: Cumulative thickness of Brussels and Lede sands
within Brussels-Capital Region [8].
The climate is temperate, mild and rainy.
According to the geological and topographical
background, the flows of Senne catchment are very
responsive to the meteorological events, with low
flow in dry weather and torrential flow in rainy
weather.
2.2. History and urbanisation
The Senne is considered the Brussels River
given the economic role it has played in the citys
development since the Middle Ages. Beside the
Senne, seven tributary streams ran through the
Brussels area (Fig. 1). Until the the 19
th
century, their
flows were intensely exploited to operate a large
number of mills and an important fish farming
industry. The number of ponds dedicated to fish
farming (dug in medieval times) was impressive,
particularly on the east side of the Senne Valley, as it
can be seen on the Ferraris map (ca 1775, Fig. 3). In
other words, at the end of the 18
th
century, the
waterways resembled more of a water system
composed of channels, reservoirs and
interconnections than a single, continuous flow of
water.
Figure 3: The water system on the Woluwe at the end of
the 18
th
century.
As many studies have shown Erreur ! Source du
renvoi introuvable. [2] [3], the industrial revolution
had radical consequences on the role of rivers. One
by one, the activities (energy, artisanal, fish farming)
that had engendered the coexistence of people and
water disappeared leading to a rapid end to fish
farms and ponds. In Brussels region, the area
occupied by such ponds fell by nearly 60% from
1775 to 1860 (Fig. 4).
Observation of flooding tends to indicate that this
dramatic decrease had repercussions on the
hydrographic systems capacity to absorb
floodwaters ; flood severity increased significantly in
the course of the 19
th
century and caused more
damage since the spectacular demographic growth
had led to a massive urbanization (and increase of
impervious areas) of the suburbs. This increase
coupled with greater pollution [4], forced Brussels
authorities to seek "solutions". The solution they
found is known as the covering of the Senne (1866-
1871), an urbanistic operation that buried the
Senne in underground waterways, and used it as the
Morethan 0 meters
Morethan 10 meters
Morethan 20 meters
Morethan 30 meters
Morethan 40 meters
Morethan 50 meters
Morethan 60 meters
Morethan 70 meters
Locality boundaries
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CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 265
spin of the sewage network. All rivers will know the
same lot in the course of the 19
th
century: they were
transformed into a combined sewer network running
under a newly urbanized landscape [5].
Figure 4: Massive decrease in hydraulic annexes on the
Maelbeek River between 1775 and 1860.
2.3. Water problematic and the Brussels
water management plan
Today, Brussels enjoys an efficient drinking water
network but also an old existing combined sewer
system suffering from several collapses and
overflows by stormy weather.
The large majority of floods within Brussels-
Capital Region are caused by overflow of the
combined water system mainly during intense rains
in summer and autumn. These floods are more and
more frequent and cause more and more damage.
An analysis of the data from the Fund of Calamities
(Fig. 5) and flood declarations in Brussels
determines a concentration of the phenomena in the
bottom of valleys [6].
The efficient of the waste water treatment plant
downstream the city is reduced owing to high
proportion of clean water (rainwater, pumping water)
coming at the plant. This dysfunction leads to
additional charge and even to the complete stopping
of the plant, as in December 2009.
To struggle against floods, a storm water plan
was adopted in 2008 by the government of the
Region. It enumerates the main reasons of these
repeated floods (increasing impervious areas,
carelessness and unsuitability of the sewer system,
disappearing of the natural zones under the
urbanization pressure) and develops strategies to
struggle against floods (reduction of impervious
areas, setting up compensation and source control
devices on private and public plots, reinforcement of
the sewer system, construction of stormwater
drainage reservoirs, restoration of the natural water
network and wetlands for natural flood).
A year later after the adoption of this storm water
plan, the government of the Region established a
larger water management plan [7] including different
aspect of the water problematic. According to the
European directive of the European Commission,
this plan includes also quality of water, protected
areas, cost, sustainable use of water, quantity of
natural water supply, reintegration of water into the
surroundings of the inhabitants, production of
renewable energy from water and participation in the
international policy about water management.
Figure 5: Floods map made with data from the Fund of
Calamities and flood declarations in Brussels, 1999-2005
[8].
2.4. Ambition of the present study
The water management plan is fitting together
different fields concerned by water. It is the first step
to an integrated water management.
The methodology proposed in this paper follows
the same direction as the water management plan
but aims at exceeding it. Indeed it aims to integrate
different disciplinary points of view and knowledge in
order to propose a global urban approach where
environmental as well as urban constraints, heritage
and well-being of the inhabitants are integrated.
Since the disappearing of water from the surface
of the city at the 19
th
century, water management
was separated from others fields of the urban
composition. Difficulties of managing floods that
currently occur in Brussels are partly the result of this
partition between city design and water
management. This paper proposes an
interdisciplinary methodology (including geology,
history, urban development and engineering) to
(re)link together city design and water management.
Furthermore, water management has to be
understood as a thread to (re)think the city and its
future development [9].
3. GENESIS OF THE PROJECT
While facing recurrent problems of floods and
pollution, water management boards in numerous
cities have recently opened to new visions, paying
more and more attention to the global water cycle
and considering infiltration of rain water into the soil
as a key element in highly impervious urbanized
areas. In order to choose the appropriate technique
and the right scale of intervention, they need a good
knowledge of underground environment and water
circulation patterns.
In the recent design and comparison tool made
for the Brussels Region to help architects to manage
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266 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
rainwater at the plot scale [10] [11], the geological
aspect is present and simplified in a coefficient of soil
permeability. The hydraulics objective to choose and
design compensation and source control devices are
depending of the level of the permeability of land. De
Bondt and Claeys distinguish areas where rainwater
infiltration brings major benefit in the struggle against
floods problems for the Brussels Region [8]. But this
information is unfortunately far from being complete
and accurate on local scale, and so remains
inaccessible to the users of the tool.
The deepening of geological knowledge is a real
stake for the future of water management in
Brussels. Moreover, it could lead to more appropriate
decisions on urban development or to more cautious
urban rules.
In the perspective of a better understanding of
(underground) water cycle in Brussels, the historical
approach is also useful. Indeed, in a densily
urbanized area where running water has been made
invisible, the study of historical maps and data often
gives some clue to the comprehension of some
specific problems (location of ancient springs,
existence of old hydraulic (net)works).
On a more cultural level, beyond the fact that the
history of water management helps us to understand
present urban landscapes, it can also be used as
thread for new urban project/proposition, either to
recalls the links between the city and its water, or to
give some inspiration for new technical solutions
more respectful of the local hydrological context.
Indeed, some technical choices made by past
generations proved to be appropriate and respectful
of the environmental context [12] [13] [14].
4. ISSUE OF THE MULTIDISCIPLINARY
APPROACH
The methodology is based on three main lines,
each of them combining two of the fields involved
(geology-history, architectural enginneering-geology,
history-architectural engineering) (Fig. 6).
4.1. Geology-history
The first one aims at identifying the localization
and nature of possible parasitic waters into the sewer
network. These kinds of waters often come from
forgotten rivers and springs or from ground water
and contibute to increase the damage caused by the
floods. Geological research (drill-hole and
piezometric monitoring) and geo-chemical analysis of
the sewage (stable isotopes method) are very useful
to distinguish the different origins of the waters
(ground water, rainwater ans tappedwater). They are
also useful at tracing the existence and localization
of the invisible waters and rivers. Historical survey
of ancient maps and of written archives (especially
19
th
century archives coming from first water boards
and administrations) bring complementary
information about the localisation and course of the
forgotten springs and rivers. This combined
investigation is the first step towards a better
understanding of the floods mechanics and hence
towards action to minimise them (by separating
them).
4.2. Architectural enginneering-geology
The second main line combines the works of the
geologist and of the architectural engineer and aims
at proposing a hydrogeological zonation for the
covered territory based on topographical realities and
local geology. Infiltration of rainwater into the soil
rather than into the sewage system is indeed one of
the compensatory measures (i.e. ways to avoid
rainwater flows entering, or entering too rapidly, into
the sewage system) that can be applied to minimize
importance of floodings. Therefore, it is of great
importance to evaluate the infiltration capacity of the
different kind of soils that can be found on the
covered territory and to classify them in different
zones. This capacity will be evaluated (in situ) on the
permeable part of the territory on small scale private
projects. The expected outputs for each zone
determine a maximum output flow as well as the
infiltration capacity for small scale private projects as
for new large housing estates.
4.3. History-architectural engineering
The objective of the last main line is to propose
concrete developments able to improve the
management of floods and also to make the water
circulation more visible and the water management
more respectful of the environment. Flow reducing
devices and rain gardens (layed out zones where
water can be stored during rainy events) are some of
the possibilities. The location and forms of these
improvements would be carefully choosen in keeping
with the water heritage/landscape. In other words,
they would apply the precepts of a sustainable
architecture.
Figure 6: Multidisciplinary approach including geology,
history and architectural enginneering.
Gathered together, these lines would result in a
proposition for a global management of water in the
Brussels-Capital Region (either on public or on
private scale) combining (1) the separation of
sewage from other types of water (old rivers and
springs), (2) a real infiltration politics, (3) local
improvements of surface overland flows, and (4) the
use of historic heritage as one of thread for more
sustainable management and architecture. This
global proposition would lead to the improvement of
the flood situation and to a better working of the
water treatment plant. At the same time, it will resutl
in a greater conscience and respect of local water
cycle.
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CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 267
5. APPLICATION TO A MICRO-
CATCHMENT OF BRUSSEL
5.1. Description of the study-case area
The study area (one of the Brussels district) is
located in the southern part of Brussels, on the right-
bank of the Senne Valley for a total surface around
2.7 square kilometres. The top reaches 90 meters
asl while valley bottom is around 20 meters asl.
Average grade is about 5%. Topography plays a
deterministic role on urban water fluxes and flood
occurrence in this area. This topographical difference
is very important but quite common within the
Brussels-Capital Region. Geological layers met in
this area are also representative for a large part of
Brussels (mainly East Brussels).
The East-North-East oriented slope constitutes
the main part of the micro-catchment. It also contains
a South-oriented slope in Geleytsbeek Valley next to
confluence with the Senne Valley. Both the Senne
and the Geleytsbeek Rivers are now intimal related
to or simply hijacked by the sewer network.
The micro-catchment area is the topographical
catchment of a sewer drainage system leading to the
new stormwater drainage reservoir and to the South
waste water treatment plant. The construction of the
stormwater drainage reservoir is supposed to solve
flood problems in this locality. It is planned to be
functional in a few months but lots of floods listed
between 1999 and 2005 are out of its impact area.
Both South waste water treatment plant and
stormwater drainage reservoir provide powerful data
on sewage fluxes.
As said before, urban hydrodynamics are now
hidden by urbanization. Field and historical
investigation are necessary in order to recover and
understand these systems. Located in the Senne
Valley, the historical sources relative to Forest Abbey
are helpful to collect data on historical floods,
resurgences and also old water managements.
This micro-catchment is highly urbanized (and
also covered by lot of impervious surfaces) but it still
exist some places where new housing estates could
take place. One goal of this study is to propose
architectural solutions for water management in
densely urbanised area but applied to
neighbourhood presenting renovation potential.
This study area presents lot of benefit to
understand local water fluxes, interactions and
management before extending it to the whole
Brussels-Capital Region. The physical environment
(topography and geology) and urbanisation layout
are representative of a large part of Brussels. Lot of
data are available to understand urban water-cycles
(Forest Abbey, waste water treatment plant and
stormwater drainage reservoir).
5.2. Methodology
In this type of urbanized environment, all clues
are highly valuable because urban water-cycles are
very complex, hidden and likely to be changed with
new construction, housing projects or sewage
construction or renovation. Therfore, the first step is
communicating regularly with local and regional
authorities to be aware of new flood events and
housing estate projects. An extra attention must be
given to old citizens who keep the local memory of
floodings. They lived through past events in their
neighbourhood and often know it better than the local
administration. Once the information exchange is
guaranteed, data will be collected (or produced) by
three specific analyses (historical, geological and
urban landscape) but treated interdisciplinary in
order to correspond to local and real water
management issues.
There are some examples of interdisciplinary
analysis:
(1) Floods in neighbourhood of Saint-Denis plain
are apparently caused by underground water. Water
comes trough basement walls and floor during rain.
However, quick response to the rain makes think of
probable run-off processes. Stable isotope analyses
will be done to clarify water provenance. The area is
known for numerous old water-courses and springs
now hidden by urbanization. In this case, the
historical approach will adequately supplement the
isotopic analyses. The conclusions will be then
extended to other areas with old water-courses and
flooding problems.
(2) The new stormwater drainage reservoir will
normally reduce the flood occurrence in the valley
but not on upstream catchment. Rainwater infiltration
techniques are being developed troughout Europe
but merely within new housing estates. A good
knowledge of geo-environmental characteristics
differing along the catchment area leads to develop
these techniques without creating other floods
problems in a challenging densely urban context.
(3) Other compensatory techniques than
infiltration process do exist. New rainwater channels
and ponds could be created to differ flood peak and
to weaken sewer network surcharge during rain
event. As said before, historical context is important
to choose appropriate technical choice regarding to
social acceptance and localization relevance. The
numerous old water-courses and springs in this area
are determining elements that will guide architectural
choices.
6. CONCLUSION
The rainwater plan currently is subject to a
revision for the next four-year plan. According to
European obligations, the water management plan
must be accompanied by an operational program of
measurements before the end of 2012. In other
words, it must be accompanied by privileged
concrete actions which will be implemented thanks to
various political levers (laws, grants, information,
public investments) coordinated between them.
The achievement of this proposed study on a
micro-catchment of Brussel could contribute to the
political and environmental debates which will lead to
the establishment of these plans. But the
continuation of this study depends on opportunities
given by different authorities (local and regional).
PLEA 2011 - 27
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268 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
7. REFERENCES
[1] J.-P. Goubert. La conqute de leau.
Lavnement de la sant lge industriel, Paris
(1995).
[2] I. Backouche. La trace du Fleuve. La Seine et
Paris 1750-1850, EHESS (2000).
[3] C. Deligne C., M. Dagenais M. and C. Poitras.
Grer l'eau en milieu urbain 1870-1970.
Bruxelles-Montral, regards croiss, dans S.
Jaumain et P. Linteau (ds.), Vivre en ville.
Bruxelles-Montral 19
e
et 20
e
sicles, 169-202
(2006).
[4] G. Billen, J. Garnier, C. Deligne et C. Billen,
Estimates of early-industrial inputs of nutrients to
river systems: implication for coastal
eutrophication, The science of Total
Environment, 243/244, 43-52 (1999).
[5] C. Deligne. Bruxelles et sa rivire, Gense dun
territoire urbain, Brepols, Turnhout (2003).
[6] Bruxelles Environnement. Rapport sur les
incidences environnementales du projet de Plan
rgional de lutte contre des inondations - Plan
Pluie 2008-2011, Bruxelles (2008).
[7] Bruxelles Environnement. Plan de gestion de
leau questions importantes, Bruxelles (2009).
[8] K. De Bondt and P. Claeys. Capacits naturelles
dabsorption de leau de pluie par les sols en
Rgion de Bruxelles-Capitale, ESSC-DGLG,
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels (2009).
Unpublished.
[9] V. Mahaut. Leau et la ville, le temps de la
rconciliation. Jardins dorage et nouvelles
rivires urbaines, PhD. thesis, Ecole
polytechnique de Louvain, Universit catholique
de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve (2009).
[10] V. Mahaut. Comparaison de mesures
alternatives pour la gestion des eaux de pluie
lchelle des parcelles,
www.bruxellesenvironnement.be/outil_gestion_e
au (2009).
[11] V. Mahaut V. and A. De Herde. A prototype tool
for the design and environmental comparison of
source control devices for small-scale
developments in Brussels, paper proceedings at
the 10th International Symposium on Stochastic
Hydraulics and the 5th International Conference
on Water Resources and Environment Research
(joint Water 2010 symposium), Qubec (2010).
[12] C. Deligne. Histoire longue et prospective
environnementale. Le cas dune rivire
priurbaine (Maelbeek, Rgion bruxelloise), J.
Burnouf et Ph. Leveau, (dir.), Pratiques sociales
et hydrosystmes fluviaux, lacustres et palustres
des socits prindustrielles. (Les fleuves ont
une histoire, 2), Actes du Colloque PEVS/SEDD,
8-10 avril 2002, Aix-en-Provence, Comit des
Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques, (2004),
285-290.
[13] A. Guillerme. Les temps de leau: la cite, leau et
les techniques, Seyssel, Champ Vallon (1983).
[14] F.L. Hooimeijer. The New Dutch Polder City, 11
th
International Conference on Urban Drainage,
Edinburgh, Scotland, UK (2008).
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CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 269
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July
2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
Field survey on water-saving efficiency of roof
rainwater harvesting system in Taiwan
RUEY-LUNG HWANG
1
, HAN-HSI LIANG
1
, RUEI-LING CHEN
2
, SHIU-YA SHUE
1

1
Department of Architecture, National United University, Miaoli, Taiwan
2
Architecture and Building Research Institute, Ministry of Interior, Taipei, Taiwan
ABSTRACT: The implementation of Taiwans Green Building Rating System has led to a number of cases of
established rainwater harvesting systems; however, the post-establishment evaluation of such systems has
never been completed. This study conducted field surveys on 55 actual cases of rainwater harvest systems. It is
found that all the investigated cases regularly maintain their rainwater harvesting systems without operational
problems, and more than half of them expressed the setting up of rainwater harvest system contributes to a
reduction in the use of tap water. The review on rationality of system design found that the combination of a
rainwater collection area and storage tank volume of 37 cases of the total 55 investigated cases was reasonably
designed. However, eight cases had their storage tank volume too large, while the storage tank volume of ten
cases was too small. The rainwater substitution rate analysis found that the current approach can generally
ensure the replacement rate of the rated cases. Nevertheless, contradictions do exist in some cases. Therefore,
this study proposed a new approach that was able to determine the volume metric reliability of the cases, as well
as diagnose its design rationality
Keywords: rainwater harvest system, water-saving efficiency, green building
1. INTRODUCTION
Rainwater harvesting is a technology to collect
and store rainwater falling on roofs or paved ground
surfaces into a tank for future use. Rainwater
harvesting systems are a cost-effective solution for
the collection and reuse of rainwater for flushing
needs and garden. Since rainwater harvest system
makes a significant saving in the use of potable
water. The use of rainwater to supplement the
potable water supply in Taiwan has been
demonstrated to be practical and effective [1].Thus,
Taiwans Green Building Rating System [2] regards
the installation of a rainwater collection system as an
important credit in its water resource indicators.
According to the guideline of Taiwans Green
Building Rating System, a building with more than
100m
2
of green and garden is obliged to install a
rainwater harvesting system as an alternative source
for green and garden watering needs. The capacity
of rainwater storage tank is regulated by
Vs0.5*N*A
G
/100 (1)
where Vs is the capacity of storage tank in m
3

A
G
is the area of green and garden, m
2

N is a factor depending on the location in
Taiwan
When the storage tank capacity of designed
rainwater harvest system fill in with the requirements,
the building is granted 3 points, otherwise 2 points
are deducted.
Since the implementation of Taiwans Green
Building Rating System in Taiwan, there have been a
number of cases of buildings setting up a rainwater
harvest system. This study presented the results
from field survey and benefit analysis on such cases.
Based on the results of this study, a new approach to
ranking the rainwater harvesting system rating
method was proposed in order to improve the
shortcomings of existing simple ranking approach.
2. RESEARCH METHOD
2.1. Investigation subjects
The investigated subjects of this study were 55
cases of buildings with the rainwater harvest systems
in central Taiwan. All the buildings have passed the
certification of Taiwans Green Building Rating
System. The 55 building cases are composed of 26
school buildings, 17 office buildings, two hospital
buildings, two residential buildings, and eight other
buildings. Figures 1 and 2 illustrate the summary of
the designed rainwater collection area and rainwater
storage tank volume against the area of green and
garden requiring irrigation.
2.1. Questionnaire survey
Presented in the format of a checklist, the
questionnaire consisted of six questions that
collected information on:
Q1 Do you know whether your organization has set
up a rainwater harvesting system: Yes No
Q2 The use of collected rainwater: irrigation
toilet flushing irrigation and toilet flushing
other
Q3 Is the current rainwater harvesting system
working properly? : Yes No
Q4 Is the rainwater harvesting system regularly
maintained? : Yes No
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
270 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July
2011
2 xx.x SECTION NAME
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000
c
o
l
l
e
c
t
i
o
n

a
r
e
a

(
m

)
irrigation area (m)

Figure 1 A scatter diagram of the rainwater collection area

against the area of green and garden of investigated cases

0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000
s
t
o
r
a
g
e

c
a
p
a
c
i
t
y

(
m

)
irrigation area(m)

Figure 2 A scatter diagram of the storage tank volume

against the area of green and garden of investigated cases
Q5 Is the rainwater harvesting system equipped with
a meter to monitor its effectiveness? : Yes
No
Q6 In your observations, is the tap water
consumption of your organization reduced after
the installation of the rainwater harvesting
system? : Yes No Unknown.
All questionnaires were filled out by the general
directors of the investigated cases. A total of 40 valid
questionnaires were recovered.
2.2. System simulation
In a simulation analysis, the changes in storage
content of a finite capacity are determined using a
mass balance equation. The procedure takes into
account the four key factors, relating to the amount
of rain water supplied by designed water harvesting
system: the quantity of rainfall, the rainwater
collection area, the capacity of rainwater storage
tank and the water demand. Two water release rules
are considered, namely, YAS (yield after spillage)
and YBS (yield before spillage). The YAS rule can be
understood by considering that the demand is
withdrawn after the rainfall has been added to the
storage facility and spillage has been determined.
The YBS rule assumes that the demand is withdrawn
before spillage is determined. The YBS model was
used in this study and its operation principles can be
illustrated mathematically as
Y
t
= Min (D
t
, S
t-1
) (2)
S
t
= Min (S
t-1
+ Q
t
Y
t
, C
a
) (3)
Qt= C I Area (4)
where D
t
is water demand at time t;
S
t-1
and S
t
are storage at the beginning of the
t-1
th
and t
th
time period, respectively;
Q
t
is inflow during the t
th
time period;
Y
t
is release during the t
th
time period;
and C
a
is storage capacity.
The use of rainwater has been limited for
irrigation of green and garden. Daily intervals are
normally used in simulations of operations. Figure 3
shows the flowchart of simulation. The 15-year (from
1996 to 2009) historical rainfall records from Central
Weather Bureau, Taiwan were input into the YBS
model for long-term simulation of the operation of
rainwater harvesting system.
The performance of rainwater harvesting system
is described in terms of volumetric reliability (R
v
). It
can be expressed as
R
v
= actual supply/demand (5)

Figure 3 The flowchart to simulate the operation of

rainwater harvest system
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
3.1 Results of questionnaire survey
Figure 4 summarized the results from
questionnaire survey. Although all the investigated
cases had installed rainwater harvesting system, but
five (12.5%) of the 40 general directors surveyed did
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CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 271
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2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 3
not know their originations had installed the rainwater
harvesting system (Q1). 18 (42.5%), 5 (12.5%) and 8
(20%) cases reuse the collected rainwater for
irrigating, flushing needs or both, respectively (Q2).
In most cases the rainwater harvesting systems were
regularly maintained (Q4); however, the results of
questionnaire survey also indicate that such systems
in four cases have been out of service in less than 3
years after installation (Q3). Only six cases were
found to have water meters to monitor the amount of
collected and reused rainwater (Q5). However, 15
cases indicated that the rainwater co harvesting
system make a contribution on reducing the
consumption of tap water (Q6). There leaves 12
cases expressing that they did not know whether the
rainwater harvesting made saving on tap water or not,
as no water meter has been installed. Interestingly,
in six cases with installed water meters, only three
cases indicated that the rainwater collection system
helped to reduce the consumption of tap water.

0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Y
e
s
N
o
I
r
r
i
g
a
t
i
o
n
F
l
u
s
h
i
n
g
B
o
t
h
Y
e
s
N
o
Y
e
s
N
o
Y
e
s
N
o
Y
e
s
N
o
U
n
k
n
o
w
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6
n
u
m
b
e
r


o
f

c
a
s
e
s
Figure 4 Questionnaire survey results summary
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
40000
0 1000 2000 3000 4000
c
o
l
l
e
c
t
i
o
n

a
r
e
a

(
m

)
storage tank capacity (m
3
)
Figure 5 Scatter diagram of the rainwater storage tank
volume against the rainwater collection area of the
investigated cases
3.2 Optimal Sizing
As a reference for engineers who are involved in
the design of rainwater harvesting system to get the
credit point, the manual for Green Buildings in
Taiwan does not provide a comprehensive and
detailed examination of the effects of major
parameters and estimates of their optimal values.
Figure 5 demonstrates the distribution of the
rainwater storage tank volume against collection
area of the 55 investigated cases. Figure 5 also
depicts the optimal expansion pathway as well as the
feasible limits in Taiwan, proposed by Liao [3]. As
shown in Figure 5, it illustrates that the investigated
cases seem not to be designed by following optimal
expansion pathway: 37 (67%) cases fell within the
range of feasible, while the remaining 18 (33%)
cases were out of the feasible range. In the cases
out of the feasible range, eight cases had their
storage tank volume too big, and ten cases had too
small storage tank volume.
3.3 Performance of system
Figure 6 illustrates the volumetric reliability of
investigated cases calculated from YBS model.
Figure 6 deliberately distinguishes cases granted +3
credit point from those cases granted -2 credit point.
It can be seen from the figure that the volumetric
reliability of cases granted +3 credit points was
generally higher than that of cases granted -2 credit
points.

0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
v
o
l
u
m
e
t
r
i
c

r
e
l
i
a
b
i
l
i
t
y
(
%
)
credit point

Figure 6 Distributions of volumetric reliability against credit
point of investigated cases
3.4 A proposed approach for ranking
The current approach ranks the rainwater
harvesting system by taking account of the volume of
storage tank, without considering the impact of the
rainwater collection area, leading to the two
phenomena requiring improvement, as shown in
Figure 6. First, the volumetric reliability of cases
granted +3 point was not always higher than cases
granted -2 point; second, cases of different
volumetric reliability grant the same credit point. To
solve this problem, this study proposed an alternative
approach that replacing volume of storage tank in the
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
272 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July
2011
4 xx.x SECTION NAME
current approach with the volumetric reliability as
criterion for ranking.
By using the YBS model, this study simulated the the
volumetric reliability in the cases of different
combinations of rainwater collection areas and
storage tank volumes, when using all collected
rainwater for green and garden watering needs. The
calculated results were as represented by the curves
shown in Figure 7.
In Figure 7, storage tank volume for per square
meter of green and garden was used as the
horizontal ordinate, while the rainwater collection
area for per square meter of green and garden was
used as the vertical ordinate. Hence, it is easy to
depict the design conditions of the 55 investigated
cases on the figure and to determine their
corresponding volumetric reliability.
In addition to rapidly learning the volumetric
reliability of any case, Figure 7 can be used to help
the engineers to diagnose whether the system was
well designed or not. For example, the case labelled
with in Figure 7 has a storage capacity of 0.18m
3

for per m2 of green. As can be seen from the figure 7,
even if its storage capacity is reduced to 0.06 m
3
for
per m2 of green, the volumetric reliability
replacement rate remains unchanged. In other words,
in this case the storage tank was overdesigned. In
fact, 1/3 of the original designed capacity is enough
to achieve the same performance of system. Take
the cases labelled with in Figure 7 as another
example. The rainwater collection area for this case
is 2.43m
2
/m
2
of green, while the unit area/storage
tank volume is only 0.01m3/m
2
of green. If the
storage tank volume is increased to 0.08m3/m
2
of
green, the volumetric reliability can be dramatically
increased from 4% to 42%.
0.00
0.04
0.08
0.12
0.16
0.20
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0
s
t
o
r
a
g
e

t
a
n
k

v
o
l
u
m
n

(
m

/
m
2
o
f

g
r
e
e
n
)

collection area (m/m
2
of green)
10%(1point)
20%(0 point)
30%(1 point)
40%(2point)
50%(3point)
60%(4point)
70%(5 point)

Figure 7 Distributions of investigated cases in the newly
established rainwater replacement rate calculation diagram
4. CONCLUSIONS
Based on the results of this study, it can be
concluded that
1. Most cases reused the collected rainwater for
green and garden irrigating, as compared with
cases reusing the rainwater for toilet flushing.
2. Field survey found that the rainwater harvesting
systems in the investigated cases were regularly
maintained and made a significant saving of tap
water. It is also found that a few investigated
cases had their system out of service or did not
know they had established rainwater harvesting
system.
3. By checking whether the systems of investigated
case were rationally designed or not, it found that
37 cases of the 55 investigated cases were fell in
the feasible range. However, it was also found
that eight cases had their storage tank
overdesign, while ten cases had their storage
tank under design.
4. The analysis of performance of rainwater
harvesting system found that there was room for
improvement of the current criterion of ranking by
storage capacity.
5. This study proposed an alternative approach to
rank the system by the volumetric reliability
instead of storage capacity. The proposed
approach not only can determine the
performance of the system but also make a
contribution on system diagnosis.
5. ACKNOWANGEMENTS
We sincerely appreciate the Architecture and
Building Research Institute (ABRI), Ministry of
Interior, Taiwan for assistance in grant.

6. REFERENCES
[1] C.H. Liaw, S.H. Chu, Y.L. Tsai, and W.Y. Chen
(1997), Development of Urban Rainwater
Cistern Systems Technology. Engineering
Science and Technology Bulletin NSC 26:75-78.
[2] ABRI (2000), Evaluation Manual for Green
Buildings in Taiwan, Architecture and Building
Research Institute(ABRI), Ministry of Interior,
Taipei, Taiwan.
[3] C.H. Liaw and Y.L. Tsai (2005), Optimum
storage volume of rooftop rainwater harvesting
system for domestic use, Journal of the
American water resources association, Paper
No. 03014: 901-912
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 273
Analysis of Seasonal Differences in Microclimate
Formed in a Local Small City of Paddy Field Areas
A new approach using airborne remote sensing
and CFD simulation
Takashi ASAWA
1
, Akira HOYANO
1
, Tamon YOSHIDA
2
, Masahito TAKATA
1

1
Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama, Japan
2
PASCO Corporation, Tokyo, Japan
ABSTRACT: This paper examines the relationship between the seasonal land cover change and microclimate
formed in a local small city of paddy field areas in Japan using airborne remote sensing data and CFD
(Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulation. The land cover maps for three seasons, the 3D urban district model
and the 3D surface temperature images are made using the airborne MSS (Multi-Spectral Scanner) data obtained
in each season and GIS data in Tonami city, Toyama prefecture. These data are applied to the boundary
conditions for the CFD simulation, and microclimate, including air current and air temperature distribution, are
simulated for three seasons taking into account the seasonal land cover change. The simulation results are
compared with the field measurement results for the microclimates in the site. These results quantitatively indicate
that the control of microclimate by the paddy fields changes seasonally as its land cover changes through the year.
In the summertime, the cooling effect of the paddy fields and the cool air current from the area contribute to the
decrease in air temperature in the urbanized area.
Keywords: remote sensing, microclimate, CFD, surface temperature, paddy field
1. INTRODUCTION
A change in land cover distribution is one of the
primary factors influencing the heat island effect in
urbanized areas. The heat island effect has been
observed not only in large cities but also in small
cities of Japanese countryside. As urbanization
progresses in a small city, housing development is
sprawling to the rural surroundings, then the land
cover changes from natural surfaces and vegetation
to artificial materials including asphalt pavement and
reinforced concrete buildings with high heat capacity.
In order to establish countermeasures against the
heat island effect, it is necessary to understand the
characteristics of land covers and local microclimate
formed in the locations and its surroundings.
Tonami city, a local small city in Japan, is located
in the Tonami plains where wide spread paddy fields
cover most of the land surfaces. The Tonami
urbanized area is surrounded by the paddy fields, so
that the cooling effect of the paddy fields could be
utilized for the mitigation of the heat island effect in
summertime [1] [2]. Besides, there is frequent change
of land cover annually on the paddy fields. The land
cover of croplands in the study site, which is water in
springtime due to the irrigation, becomes green due
to the growth of rice plants during summertime. In
addition, it is covered with snow in wintertime.
Therefore, the annual land cover change should be
examined.
In the previous study, the authors group
implemented the analysis of nocturnal cold-air
currents formed in urban neighbouring hills and
forests using airborne remote sensing data and CFD
simulation [3]. The present study applies this analysis
method. The purpose of the present study is to clarify
the relationship between the annual land cover
change of the paddy fields and the seasonal
characteristics of microclimate formed in the Tonami
urbanized areas using airborne remote sensing data
and CFD simulation.
2. OUTLINE OF THE ANALYSIS
2.1. Analysis steps
Firstly, the method to analyze microclimate is
developed by using surface temperature distribution
derived from the airborne multi-spectral scanner
(MSS) data as a thermal boundary condition for CFD
simulation. At this process, the surface temperature
data are put on the 3D GIS data of the region, and
then the 3D surface temperature images are
completed. Secondly, the land cover and surface
temperature distribution are analyzed by the 3D
surface temperature images for each season. Finally,
the effects of the land cover of the paddy fields on the
microclimate are examined by using the CFD
simulation results and field measurement results.
2.2. Airborne MSS data
Observation by airborne MSS was performed in
order to generate the land cover maps and surface
temperature images of the Tonami plains, Japan for
May and July of 2002, winter of 2006 both in daytime
and in nighttime [4]. The two observation altitudes
were set; course 1 for high altitude was 6,000 m,
which allowed observation of the entire Tonami
planes, and course 2 for low altitude was 1,500 m,
which allowed observation of detailed ground surface
PLEA 2011 - 27
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274 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
information. Spatial resolutions on ground were 8.0m
and 2.0m respectively. Figure 1 shows the
observation courses. Table 1 shows the observation
date and time for each season and Table 2 shows the
Specification of the MSS data.
Course1 (high)
Course2 (low)

Figure 1: Observation course of the airborne MSS
Table 1: Observation date and time for each season
Spring
daytime
Spring
nighttime
Summer
daytime
Summer
nighttime
Winter
daytime
Winter
nighttime
Date 2002/5/25 2002/5/21 2002/7/25 2002/7/26 2006/2/22 2006/2/21
Couse1 11:30-11:45 20:28-20:40 12:00-12:12 20:07-20:20 12:29-12:49 19:02-19:15
Course2 12:09-12:24 19:43-19:54 12:33-12:42 19:19-19:30 13:34-13:48 18:28-18:40

Table 2: Specification of the MSS data
Spring and Summer Winter
Band
Wave
length(nm)
Band
Wave
length(nm)
1 459489 1 459489
2 542564 2 551579
3 586614 3 586614
4 655679 4 655679
5 683713 5 825871
6 738768 6 9761114
7 825871 7 10261166
8 9761114 8 12291375
9 14301570 9 14301570
10 15821666 10 15831695
11 667511815 11 667511815
12 1010513525 12 1010513525

2.3. Generation of land cover maps
In advance of the analysis of the land cover
distribution, rectification and the land cover
classification were conducted using the airborne MSS
and GIS data. First of all, rectification was conducted
by a second-order polynomial transformation using
the airborne MSS data, and GIS data drawn on a
scale of 1 to 5000. Extracting a small area from
rectified MSS data, 6 items of polygon were created
for signature, supervised classification was
implemented. Considering the land cover change, the
land cover maps including vegetative area were
generated.
3. METHOD FOR ANALYZING
MICROCLIMATE
3.1. Generation of the 3D urban district model
The 3D urban district model was made by
combining the GIS data of this region and the land
cover maps (2m resolution) generated from the MSS
data (Figure 2). The building models were made by
putting building height information (multiplying stories
by floor height) onto the building 2D polygon of the
GIS data. The two types of building structure were
set; one was wooden structure and the other was
reinforced concrete structure. The tree models were
generated by putting tree height information onto the
tree distribution derived from the land cover maps.
The three types of tree height, obtained from field
measurement in this region, were set to the tree
models. The building and tree models were put on the
land cover maps, and the 3D urban district model was
completed.
3.2. Generation of the 3D surface temperature
image
The surface temperature images, generated from
the MSS data, were put onto building roofs and
ground of the 3D urban district model. The surface
temperatures of building walls cannot be obtained
from the MSS data, so that the wall temperatures
were calculated by the 3D CAD-based thermal
environment simulator, which was developed by the
authors group [5]. The temperature of trees crown
was determined by the vegetative (tree) coverage
area of the surface temperature images. By these
processes, the 3D surface temperature images for
each season were completed (Figure 2).


Figure 2: Generation of the 3D urban district model and 3D
surface temperature simage
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CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 275

3.3. CFD simulation
The subject area for the microclimate analysis
using CFD simulation includes the Tonami urbanized
area and its surrounding paddy fields. This subject
area includes the field measurement positions for
microclimates conducted in the summertime so that
these data can be compared each other (Figure 3).
The 3D surface temperature images generated in
the previous step were used for the thermal boundary
conditions (input data) for the CFD simulation, and
then wind environment and air temperature
distribution in the subject area were calculated.
Three-dimensional turbulent airflow is given by
Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations (RANS).
The governing flow equations are solved with the
SIMPLE algorithm. A numerical scheme (QUICK) was
used for pressure correction in solving the governing
equations. The standard k- model was used for the
turbulence model and the boussinesq approximation
was used for the buoyancy-driven flow. Table 3
shows the details of the CFD simulation. Figure 4
illustrates the 3D model for the CFD simulation.
Inflow air temperature and velocity were set using
the AMeDAS (Automated Meteorological Data
Acquisition System) data at Tonami city, where the
weather station is located on the paddy field area.
The CFD simulation was conducted for three seasons.


Figure 3: Subject area for the microclimate analysis using
CFD simulation (including the field measurement points)

Table 3: Details of the CFD simulation
Dimension
Grid number
Minimum grid size
Turbulence model
Solid surface
Top and sides of
simulation domain
Inflow boundary
Outflow boundary
Inflow wind direction
2050m(X) x 895m(Y) x 100m(Z)
1513 (X) x 895 (Y) x 43 (Z)
1m (for X and Y), 0.5m (for Z)
Standard K- model
Log law for smooth surface
Convective heat transfer coefficient
11.6W/m
2
K
Free-slip
Power law (power index 0.15)
Wind velocity and temperature at
the standard position are derived
from Tonami AMeDAS data.
Free
(1) Daytime in the summer: ENE
(2) Nighttime in the spring: ENE
(3) Daytime in the summer: SSW


Figure 4: 3D model for CFD simulation (The wind direction is
for the case of daytime in the summer and nighttime in the
spring.)
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.1. Comparison between the simulation result
and observation result
Figure 5 shows the comparison in air temperature
and wind velocity distribution along a wide street
between the CFD simulation result and field
measurement result in the summertime. The field
measurement was conducted along the street from
the paddy fields to the urbanized area in the summer
of 2004.
The simulation result of wind velocity indicates
that the wind velocity decreases gradually from the
open paddy fields into the inside of the urbanized
area. The difference in wind velocity between the
inside and outside of the urbanized area is
approximately 2 m/s. The simulation result of air
temperature indicates that air current with lower
temperature (cool air current) flows from the paddy
field into the urbanized area along the street, and it
reaches to approximately 400m inside from the edge
of the urbanized area.
The observation results of wind velocity and air
temperature show the same distribution as the
simulation results. Therefore it is confirms that the
CFD simulation result is appropriate for the
discussion.


Figure 5: Comparison between the simulation result and
observation result (Summer, daytime)

information. Spatial resolutions on ground were 8.0m
and 2.0m respectively. Figure 1 shows the
observation courses. Table 1 shows the observation
date and time for each season and Table 2 shows the
Specification of the MSS data.
Course1 (high)
Course2 (low)

Figure 1: Observation course of the airborne MSS
Table 1: Observation date and time for each season
Spring
daytime
Spring
nighttime
Summer
daytime
Summer
nighttime
Winter
daytime
Winter
nighttime
Date 2002/5/25 2002/5/21 2002/7/25 2002/7/26 2006/2/22 2006/2/21
Couse1 11:30-11:45 20:28-20:40 12:00-12:12 20:07-20:20 12:29-12:49 19:02-19:15
Course2 12:09-12:24 19:43-19:54 12:33-12:42 19:19-19:30 13:34-13:48 18:28-18:40

Table 2: Specification of the MSS data
Spring and Summer Winter
Band
Wave
length(nm)
Band
Wave
length(nm)
1 459489 1 459489
2 542564 2 551579
3 586614 3 586614
4 655679 4 655679
5 683713 5 825871
6 738768 6 9761114
7 825871 7 10261166
8 9761114 8 12291375
9 14301570 9 14301570
10 15821666 10 15831695
11 667511815 11 667511815
12 1010513525 12 1010513525

2.3. Generation of land cover maps
In advance of the analysis of the land cover
distribution, rectification and the land cover
classification were conducted using the airborne MSS
and GIS data. First of all, rectification was conducted
by a second-order polynomial transformation using
the airborne MSS data, and GIS data drawn on a
scale of 1 to 5000. Extracting a small area from
rectified MSS data, 6 items of polygon were created
for signature, supervised classification was
implemented. Considering the land cover change, the
land cover maps including vegetative area were
generated.
3. METHOD FOR ANALYZING
MICROCLIMATE
3.1. Generation of the 3D urban district model
The 3D urban district model was made by
combining the GIS data of this region and the land
cover maps (2m resolution) generated from the MSS
data (Figure 2). The building models were made by
putting building height information (multiplying stories
by floor height) onto the building 2D polygon of the
GIS data. The two types of building structure were
set; one was wooden structure and the other was
reinforced concrete structure. The tree models were
generated by putting tree height information onto the
tree distribution derived from the land cover maps.
The three types of tree height, obtained from field
measurement in this region, were set to the tree
models. The building and tree models were put on the
land cover maps, and the 3D urban district model was
completed.
3.2. Generation of the 3D surface temperature
image
The surface temperature images, generated from
the MSS data, were put onto building roofs and
ground of the 3D urban district model. The surface
temperatures of building walls cannot be obtained
from the MSS data, so that the wall temperatures
were calculated by the 3D CAD-based thermal
environment simulator, which was developed by the
authors group [5]. The temperature of trees crown
was determined by the vegetative (tree) coverage
area of the surface temperature images. By these
processes, the 3D surface temperature images for
each season were completed (Figure 2).


Figure 2: Generation of the 3D urban district model and 3D
surface temperature simage
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276 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
4.2. Simulation results for each season
The CFD simulation was conducted for three
cases taking into account the characteristics of land
covers and surface temperature distributions; (1)
Daytime in the summer, (2) Night time in the spring,
(3) Daytime in the winter.
Figure 6-8 show the 3D surface temperature
images, the CFD simulation results of the air
temperature distribution and wind velocity for each
case.
(1) Daytime in the summer
The land cover of the paddy fields around the
urbanized area is green due to the growth of rice
plants. The surface temperature distribution image
indicates that the surface temperatures of the paddy
fields score much lower than the air temperature and
approximately 30C lower than the asphalt paved
ground in the urbanized area. The simulation result of
air temperature distribution shows that the air
temperature in the central urbanized area is much
higher than that in the windward paddy fields, it is
confirmed that the heat island effect occurs.
The cool air current from the windward paddy
fields flows into the urbanized area along the wide
street and contributes to decreasing the air
temperature in the urbanized area. However, the cool
air current does not go over the cross road at the
center of the urbanized area. The air temperature
increases at the leeward of buildings and narrow
streets where the air current stagnates and the
surface temperatures of the space increase.


(a) Surface temperature distribution (generated from the
MSS data)


(b) Air temperature distribution (at a height of 2 m)
Figure 6: Simulation results (Summer, daytime)

(2) Night time in the spring
The land cover of the paddy fields is water in
springtime due to the irrigation, so the urbanized area
is surrounded by the water fields. The averaged
surface temperature of the paddy fields is
approximately 18C, only 3C lower than that of the
asphalt pavement in the urbanized area, due to high
heat capacity of water and its solar heat storage
during the daytime. The difference in air temperature
between the paddy fields and urbanized area is small
as well as the surface temperatures.


(a) Surface temperature distribution (generated from the
MSS data)


(b) Air temperature distribution (at a height of 2 m)

(c) Profile along the wide street
Figure 7: Simulation results (Spring, nighttime)

(3) Daytime in the winter
In this season, the main wind direction over this
region is south-west. The wind velocity in the paddy
fields is approximately 3 m/s. The inflow air current
into the urbanized area is blocked by the windward
buildings and wind break forests situated on the
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CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 277

southern edge of the area, so that the wind velocity in
most of the urbanized area is under 1.5 m/s.
The land cover of the paddy fields is snow, and
the surface temperature is approximately 20C lower
than that in the urbanized area. The difference in air
temperature between the paddy fields and the
urbanized area is 2C; the heat island effect is
confirmed in this season as well as the summer.
Solar altitude is lower than that in the summer, so that
the southern walls of the buildings receive large
amount of solar radiation and its surface
temperatures increase. The air temperatures around
the buildings, therefore, increase. This is
characteristic of the microclimate formed in this
season.


(a) Surface temperature distribution (generated from the
MSS data)


(b) Air temperature distribution (at a height of 2 m)

(c) Profile along the wide street
Figure 8: Simulation results (Winter, daytime)


These results indicate that the control of
microclimate by the paddy fields changes seasonally
as its land cover changes through the year.
5. CONCLUSION
This paper presents the method to analyse
microclimate in a local small town of paddy field areas
using airborne MSS data and CFD simulation. The 3D
urban district model and 3D surface temperature
image were generated by combining the MSS data
and GIS data in Tonami city. The relationships
between the land covers of the paddy fields and
microclimate formed inside and outside of the Tonami
urbanized area were analysed using the 3D surface
temperature image and CFD simulation for three
seasons taking into account the seasonal land cover
change.
These results quantitatively indicate that the
control of microclimate by the paddy field changes
seasonally as its land cover changes through the year.
In the summertime, the cooling effect of the paddy
fields and the cool air current from the area
contributed to the decrease in the air temperature in
the urbanized area. In the spring, the difference in air
temperature at nighttime between the paddy fields
and urbanized area was small as well as the surface
temperature, due to high heat capacity of irrigated
water on the paddy fields. In the winter, the air
temperature in the urbanized area was much higher
than that in the paddy fields covered with snow, so
that the heat island effect was confirmed.
6. REFERENCES
[1] H. Yamada (1993), J. Jap. Inst. Landscape
Architect, 56(5), pp.331-336. (In Japanese with
English Abstract)
[2] M. Yokohari (1998), J. Jap. Inst. Landscape
Architect, 61(5), pp.731-736 (In Japanese with
English Abstract)
[3] A. Hoyano, J. He and H. Kita (2007), J. of The
Remote Sensing Society of Japan, 27(5), pp.445-
455. (In Japanese with English Abstract)
[4] A. Murakami, A. Hoyano and K. Kim (2007), Proc.
of IGARSS 2007, 1786-1789.
[5] T. Asawa, H. Hoyano and K. Nakaohkubo
(2008), Building and Environment, 43, pp. 2112-
2123.
4.2. Simulation results for each season
The CFD simulation was conducted for three
cases taking into account the characteristics of land
covers and surface temperature distributions; (1)
Daytime in the summer, (2) Night time in the spring,
(3) Daytime in the winter.
Figure 6-8 show the 3D surface temperature
images, the CFD simulation results of the air
temperature distribution and wind velocity for each
case.
(1) Daytime in the summer
The land cover of the paddy fields around the
urbanized area is green due to the growth of rice
plants. The surface temperature distribution image
indicates that the surface temperatures of the paddy
fields score much lower than the air temperature and
approximately 30C lower than the asphalt paved
ground in the urbanized area. The simulation result of
air temperature distribution shows that the air
temperature in the central urbanized area is much
higher than that in the windward paddy fields, it is
confirmed that the heat island effect occurs.
The cool air current from the windward paddy
fields flows into the urbanized area along the wide
street and contributes to decreasing the air
temperature in the urbanized area. However, the cool
air current does not go over the cross road at the
center of the urbanized area. The air temperature
increases at the leeward of buildings and narrow
streets where the air current stagnates and the
surface temperatures of the space increase.


(a) Surface temperature distribution (generated from the
MSS data)


(b) Air temperature distribution (at a height of 2 m)
Figure 6: Simulation results (Summer, daytime)

(2) Night time in the spring
The land cover of the paddy fields is water in
springtime due to the irrigation, so the urbanized area
is surrounded by the water fields. The averaged
surface temperature of the paddy fields is
approximately 18C, only 3C lower than that of the
asphalt pavement in the urbanized area, due to high
heat capacity of water and its solar heat storage
during the daytime. The difference in air temperature
between the paddy fields and urbanized area is small
as well as the surface temperatures.


(a) Surface temperature distribution (generated from the
MSS data)


(b) Air temperature distribution (at a height of 2 m)

(c) Profile along the wide street
Figure 7: Simulation results (Spring, nighttime)

(3) Daytime in the winter
In this season, the main wind direction over this
region is south-west. The wind velocity in the paddy
fields is approximately 3 m/s. The inflow air current
into the urbanized area is blocked by the windward
buildings and wind break forests situated on the
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 279
Rethinking the Green Roof. A proposal of Grey
Water Phytodepuration System.
Alberto Gmez Gonzlez
1
, Inmaculada Morgado Baca
1
; Mariana Chanampa
1
,
Csar Bedoya Frutos
1
, Consuelo Acha Romn
1
, Javier Neila Gonzlez
1
,
1
Universidad Politcnica de Madrid. Department of Construction and Technology in Architecture.
ABIO-UPM Research Group (Bioclimatic Architecture in a Sustainable Environment)
Corresponding author: alberto.gomez.gonzalez@upm.es
ABSTRACT: The proposal is based on the need of rethinking the traditional building typologies and the
opportunity to transform the water consumption patterns in our cities. According to the Spanish National Statistic
Institute, Spain has an average water domestic consumption of 167 litres per person per day. Wash-basins and
showers represent the highest values of 60 litres per person per day; while each inhabitant spends daily 45 litres
by flushing the toilet. This implies a daily unload to the public sewerage system of 105 litres per inhabitant; more
than a 60% of the total consumption. Furthermore, it is important to reconsider new ways of water reuse,
especially in countries with low rainfall levels, like Spain. Because of that, the proposal researches the possibility
of grey water management, associated with the development of new flat green roofs systems. It has been
designed an industrialized prototype, which helps to reduce the main problems of traditional reed bed systems,
such as their large dimensions, high weight and the compaction of the substrate by the roots. In this way it has
been improved a system which optimizes the design of traditional channels, improving the contact between
bacteria, roots and water. In the second part of the study, it has been analyzed the impact of its integration in
urban environments, studying the estimated drinkable water savings, by reusing cleaned grey water in flushing
toilets and irrigation. The theoretical behaviours study, in a medium density district of Madrid, has demonstrated
that these strategies can save more than a 40% of the currently potable water consumes.
Keywords: grey water reuse, phytodepuration, water management benefits, green roofs
1. INTRODUCTION
The research has been developed in the frame of
the subproject 10-Optimization Systems for Efficient
Behaviour in Housing, belonging to the Strategic and
Singular Project INVISO (Industrialization of
Sustainable Housing). Developed since 2007, it has
had four main phases, with the aim of designing
industrialized prototypes associated with water
saving systems. These phases are:
1. Cataloguing phase. There have been analysed
and classified 166 strategies that nowadays are used
in sustainable water management. They have been
organized in the next categories of study: Rainwater,
water consumption reduction, irrigation, grey water,
waste water and water quality.
2. Selection phase. Each strategy has been
described in detail, through analytical and graphical
parameters, in order to define their level of
Sustainability, Innovation and Functionality. As result
of the strategies comparison, grey water treatments
have been determined as the ones with greater
potential development in industrialized housing field.
Their application supposes important drinkable water
saving, good possibilities of spatial innovation and
relative easy application in housing.
3. Development of a phytodepuration system for
grey water reuse. Although these systems are
normally used in communities with large free land
extensions; the development of the proposed
strategy tries to adapt traditional systems into
industrialized modular products, which can be
applied in urban building roofs or gardens.
4. Prototype construction and monitoring. A first
prototype of the industrialized phytodepuration
system will be built on the roof of an experimental
house in the village of Tembleque, close to the city of
Toledo (Spain), funded by a private society.
2. GREY WATER REUSE
According to the National Statistic Institute of
Spain (INE 2005) [1], this country has an average
drinking water consumption of 167 litres per person
per day. Wash-basins and showers represent the
highest values of 60 litres per person per day; while
each inhabitant spends daily 45 litres by flushing the
toilet (Table 1).
It implies that practically the both uses together
suppose the daily unload of 105 litres per person to
the public sewerage system. These levels suggest
that it is necessary to reconsider new ways of water
reuse, especially in countries with low rainfall levels,
like Spain [2].
Also, if water saving strategies [3] are using
associated to water reuse systems, the levels of
water consumption per inhabitant could be reduced
in more than a 60%.
2.1. Definition of grey water
Some authors define grey water as wastewater
without any input from toilets, which so generally
includes sources from baths, showers and basins,
washing machines, dishwashers and kitchen sinks
[4]. Meanwhile, other authors define grey water as
the low polluted waste water from bath uses and
washers [5].
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280 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
If Kitchen sink load is being included as grey
water, the Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) and the
Phosphorus levels are increasing at similar levels as
the WC loads ones [6]. Also, the suspended solids
levels are higher and hardly controllable.
Because of that, the proposed system will
consider only grey water as the product of showers,
baths, bidets and washbasins.
Table 1: Average water consumption values in Spain
(l/person day). Source: INE [1], ECODES [3], (estimated
water consumption values, associated to the application of
water saving strategies). *source: grey water,
washingmachine included
INE ECODES
Shower/bath,
bidet, washbasin
60 46
Toilet 45 16
Washing machine 33 18
Cooking / drinking 19 13
Cleaning
Grey water
Total water
consumption
10
60 /93*
167
7
46/64*
100
3. APPROACH
3.1. Spanish Urban Context
The population distribution of the Spanish cities
differs markedly from the most of the Occidental
European countries; mainly from these like United
Kingdom or Central Europe, where it has been
developed great amount of reed bed systems.
The population density in Spain is 91,4
inhabitants per km
2
[7]; while other countries with
similar dimensions, reach values of 250 inhabitants
per km
2
(Germany) or 243 inhabitants per km
2
(United Kingdom). Unlike these European countries,
the Spanish population is focused in medium and
large cities, distributed on seaside and metropolitan
valley areas that are densely populated. Also, there
are some metropolitan interior areas, like Madrid,
Zaragoza, Crdoba or Valladolid. This territorial
organization concentrates the 45% of the population
in only 7 provinces. Geographical, climatic and
sociological condition, make the Spanish cities
denser than the average European ones.
3.2. The Metropolitan Area of Madrid
The Metropolitan Area of Madrid is the fourth
larger in the European Union, after Paris, London
and Essen-Dsseldorf [8]. It had an important
development since the sixties, which implied the
growth of the peripheral cities with high and medium
density models. This urban planning promoted the
construction of high multi-storey housing buildings,
but with the lack of public green spaces.
Respect to the urban water management, many
centralized wastewater treatment stations were built
in outer parts of the city. But nowadays, the
continuously growth has contributed to their
incorporation in the urban space and to the overload
of the installations.
Because of that, the proposal is focused in two
main actions to adopt. First of all, the incorporation of
grey water systems that allows the separated
conduction from black water. Also, the rethinking of
new grey water treatment systems, will be focused
on district scales, instead of urban ones; taking
advantage of the large surface of flat roofs existent in
these medium and high density areas.
3.3. Case Study
The city of Alcal de Henares, is situated in the
Metropolitan Area of Madrid, being a good example
of the urban growth that was developed in the sixties
and seventies years. A high density area of this city
has been selected, in order to study the benefits of
the industrialized phytodepuration system associated
to the existing large flat roof surface (Fig.1).
Figure 1: Proposal area.
The studied area is bounded by the Avenida
Complutense with the Ribera, Murillo, Caballera
Espaola, Juan de Arellano and Manuel Azaa
streets. It was built in the seventies, and it is formed
by two dwelling blocks organized with a central
volume, this one with tertiary use. Each dwelling has
a commercial level plus seven storeys, and a storage
basement underground. The dwellings have a
medium built surface of 100-130 m
2
, organized in
four bedrooms and two bathrooms. According to the
Comunidad de Madrid legislation [9], it has been
calculated an average of 3 equivalent inhabitants per
dwelling.
Respect to the central volume, it is used as
shopping centre. It has a main commercial floor and
another basement used as an underground car park.
This building has a large flat roof of 4.690 m
2
, mainly
free and without any use, except a small space, used
as installations room (Table 2).
Table 2: Flat roof surfaces in each building (m
2
).
Block A Block B
Commercial
building
Roof surface
4.300 (m
2
)
Roof surface
4.400 (m
2
)
Roof surface
4.690 (m
2
)
4. STRATEGY
The opportunity of reusing the large roof surface
of the central building has been considered, in order
to improve the water treatment management
strategies at district scale; at the same time to
improve the landscape environment of the area.
Because of that, the proposal will take advantage of
the lack of direct contact between inhabitants and
grey water on the roof; but also it configures a new
urban landscape to the surrounded dwellings.
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CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 281
On the other hand, the previous design of the
dwelling buildings has helped to diminish the works
on the existing dwellings. The two bathrooms of each
dwelling are sharing the same technical wall,
allowing to reducing the length of the new grey water
pipeline, diminishing the cost of the work.
4.1. Industrialized Phytodepuration system
The industrialized phytodepuration system aims
to purify the grey water, in order to the reuse in
irrigation and flushing toilets. In this way, it is
possible to diminish the potable water consumption
and the volume of water that daily overloads the
urban wastewater treatment plants.
Because of that, it has been proposed a
centralized system, associated to the medium and
small scales, in order to its easily incorporation to the
existing urban contexts.
The following process has been studied: The
grey water from each apartment is conducted by an
independent pipeline, separating the water produced
in the showers, washbasins and bidets. This water is
pre-filtered by a centralized unit, in order to remove
suspended solids; and then it is stored in a
preliminary cistern. Daily , water is pumped to a main
centralized tank, and from there it is pumped again to
the industrialized phytodepuration tanks, where the
macrophytes are floating. The tanks are organized
on the flat roof, making a zig-zag shape, in order to
optimize the space of this building area.
The design of the modular tanks, allows many
distribution combinations; at the same way it makes
possible to build a circuit, in which the water flows.
The optimization of the tank dimensions and the
circuit design, contributes to increase the contact
between rhyzosphere and grey water. In this way,
the aerobic bacteria, which are responsible of the
purifying, are developed on the roots, so the increase
of contact between roots and water allows to
improving the efficiency of the system.
It has been estimated a necessary period to
purify the water of a week. After this period, the
cleaned water is circulated to the storage cistern,
waiting to be reused in flushing toilets or irrigation the
rest of the green roof and the nearby green public
space.
Then, the purified water is stored again in another
centralized cistern, waiting to be reused in flushing
toilets or irrigation of the rest of the roof and the
nearby green public space (Fig. 2).
Figure 2: Working principle.
4.2. Dual plumbing
The installation of the dual plumbing is
necessary, in order to collect the grey water and
separate it from the black water from toilets and
kitchen sinks. The grouping of bathrooms in the
existing dwellings diminishes the necessity of large
pipelines construction, minimizing the economic and
environmental costs of the project.
If the water from washing machine is collected, it
is recommended to place it also in the bathroom, in
order to diminish the length of the new grey water
pipeline.
Once collected in each dwelling, grey water is
conduced to a pre-filtration system, where solid
particles are taken out. This pre-filtration system can
be individual or collective, but it is recommended that
it will be collective, in order to facilitate the
maintenance and to diminish costs.
Pre-cleaned water is later stored in a preliminary
tank, where should not be more than 24 hours, in
order to avoid bacteria development. Each doorway
has a preliminary cistern, from where water is then
pumped to the centralized deposits, one per block.
These centralized deposits are placed in the
basement of the central commercial building.
The daily pumped water for the whole complex
depends on the source of grey water. Due to the
great amount of equivalent inhabitants (1.680), and
the minimum daily consumption of 46 litres per
person per day, it has been estimated a daily grey
water consume of 77.280 litres. Because of that, it is
necessary that the water will be pumped from the
primary deposits, in a coordinated and alternately
way; in order to diminish the volume of water that
simultaneously comes to the centralized tank.
4.3. Phytodepuration area
The main innovation has being developed in
relation with the phytodepuration area. As traditional
wetlands are so large that is not possible to define
the tour wastewater does, the strategy proposes to
reduce drastically the required water treatment
surface. Because of that, the industrialized tanks
have been designed, with the aim of controlling the
water circulations, by reducing the width and height
of each tank.
Subsurface reed beds have normally a 4.00 m
width [10], and are normally disposed linearly.
However, the developed strategy will reduce the
width to 1.50 m, in order to increase contact between
roots, bacteria and water, optimizing the system and
reducing the space needed. Also, the maximal length
of the tank is 10 m, in order to avoid joints, but
facilitating its portability and the transport of the
system.
In order to diminish the roots growth in the
connection pipelines between industrialized tanks,
three different areas have been design in each tank.
The central area is the largest and is where the
macrophytes float; while the end sides are free of
roots, in order to facilitate the water circulation. Also,
a platform over the tank has been projected,
providing to the system an air chamber which will
avoid disgusting smell. A layer of gravel is disposed
If Kitchen sink load is being included as grey
water, the Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) and the
Phosphorus levels are increasing at similar levels as
the WC loads ones [6]. Also, the suspended solids
levels are higher and hardly controllable.
Because of that, the proposed system will
consider only grey water as the product of showers,
baths, bidets and washbasins.
Table 1: Average water consumption values in Spain
(l/person day). Source: INE [1], ECODES [3], (estimated
water consumption values, associated to the application of
water saving strategies). *source: grey water,
washingmachine included
INE ECODES
Shower/bath,
bidet, washbasin
60 46
Toilet 45 16
Washing machine 33 18
Cooking / drinking 19 13
Cleaning
Grey water
Total water
consumption
10
60 /93*
167
7
46/64*
100
3. APPROACH
3.1. Spanish Urban Context
The population distribution of the Spanish cities
differs markedly from the most of the Occidental
European countries; mainly from these like United
Kingdom or Central Europe, where it has been
developed great amount of reed bed systems.
The population density in Spain is 91,4
inhabitants per km
2
[7]; while other countries with
similar dimensions, reach values of 250 inhabitants
per km
2
(Germany) or 243 inhabitants per km
2
(United Kingdom). Unlike these European countries,
the Spanish population is focused in medium and
large cities, distributed on seaside and metropolitan
valley areas that are densely populated. Also, there
are some metropolitan interior areas, like Madrid,
Zaragoza, Crdoba or Valladolid. This territorial
organization concentrates the 45% of the population
in only 7 provinces. Geographical, climatic and
sociological condition, make the Spanish cities
denser than the average European ones.
3.2. The Metropolitan Area of Madrid
The Metropolitan Area of Madrid is the fourth
larger in the European Union, after Paris, London
and Essen-Dsseldorf [8]. It had an important
development since the sixties, which implied the
growth of the peripheral cities with high and medium
density models. This urban planning promoted the
construction of high multi-storey housing buildings,
but with the lack of public green spaces.
Respect to the urban water management, many
centralized wastewater treatment stations were built
in outer parts of the city. But nowadays, the
continuously growth has contributed to their
incorporation in the urban space and to the overload
of the installations.
Because of that, the proposal is focused in two
main actions to adopt. First of all, the incorporation of
grey water systems that allows the separated
conduction from black water. Also, the rethinking of
new grey water treatment systems, will be focused
on district scales, instead of urban ones; taking
advantage of the large surface of flat roofs existent in
these medium and high density areas.
3.3. Case Study
The city of Alcal de Henares, is situated in the
Metropolitan Area of Madrid, being a good example
of the urban growth that was developed in the sixties
and seventies years. A high density area of this city
has been selected, in order to study the benefits of
the industrialized phytodepuration system associated
to the existing large flat roof surface (Fig.1).
Figure 1: Proposal area.
The studied area is bounded by the Avenida
Complutense with the Ribera, Murillo, Caballera
Espaola, Juan de Arellano and Manuel Azaa
streets. It was built in the seventies, and it is formed
by two dwelling blocks organized with a central
volume, this one with tertiary use. Each dwelling has
a commercial level plus seven storeys, and a storage
basement underground. The dwellings have a
medium built surface of 100-130 m
2
, organized in
four bedrooms and two bathrooms. According to the
Comunidad de Madrid legislation [9], it has been
calculated an average of 3 equivalent inhabitants per
dwelling.
Respect to the central volume, it is used as
shopping centre. It has a main commercial floor and
another basement used as an underground car park.
This building has a large flat roof of 4.690 m
2
, mainly
free and without any use, except a small space, used
as installations room (Table 2).
Table 2: Flat roof surfaces in each building (m
2
).
Block A Block B
Commercial
building
Roof surface
4.300 (m
2
)
Roof surface
4.400 (m
2
)
Roof surface
4.690 (m
2
)
4. STRATEGY
The opportunity of reusing the large roof surface
of the central building has been considered, in order
to improve the water treatment management
strategies at district scale; at the same time to
improve the landscape environment of the area.
Because of that, the proposal will take advantage of
the lack of direct contact between inhabitants and
grey water on the roof; but also it configures a new
urban landscape to the surrounded dwellings.
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282 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
over this platform, in order to protect the water from
the exterior pollution components, sheets or insects.
Respect to the problem of weight, the height of
the water will be maximal 40 cm, enough to the
development of the macrophytes selected. Also, the
reduction of treatment surface, contributes to
diminish the weight of the new roof in comparison
with the traditional reed beds (Fig. 3).
Figure 3: Industrialized phytodepuration components.
4.4. Macrophytes in flotation
The macrophytes in flotation filters (FMF) have
been firstly developed by the Grupo de
Agroenergtica of the Universidad Politcnica de
Madrid, leaded by the Professor J. Fernndez [10].
The technical consist in combining the benefits of
emergent and floating plants. The emergent plants,
like Praghmites or Typhas, have an important
rhyzosphere volume, so when they have growth
enough, they are incorporated to the aquatic medium
by the used of buoys. Because of the rizosphere
volume is greater than the natural aquatic plants, the
volume of aerobic bacteria increases and with it the
system efficiency. Also, roots are floating, which
avoids the traditional problems associated to the
compaction of the substrate.
The innovation relative with the FMF, consists in
the incorporation of a transitivity platform over the
tank. This platform contributes to the macrophytes
support, avoiding the necessity of buoys. It is
supported by two lateral tank reinforcements and
transversal polypropylene cells transversally
disposed. These cells contribute to the oxygenation
of the water which passes through them (Fig. 4).









Figure 4: Details of the industrialized phytodepuration tanks.
01. Floating macrophytes 02. Platform cover 03.Gravel 04.
Industrialized tank 05. Reinforced support for the platform
cover 06. Grey water pipeline 07. Stainless steel mesh to
separate phytodepuration area and roots protected area 08.
Water circulation area protected from roots 09. Stainless
steel frame 10. Registering cover 11. Outflow pipeline 12.
Phytodepuration area 13. Rhyzosphere area
4.5. Storage system
The storage system has been organized in two
centralized deposits where the clean water is stored,
and from where is again pumped to the storage tank
of each doorway. This cleaned water can be reused
in flushing toilets, in irrigating green public spaces or
in street flushing.
5. WATER SAVING STUDY
5.1. Water savings
It has been studied many different situations, in
order to quantify the impact of the use of
phytodepuration systems in flat green roofs. The
selected parameters of study depend on the source
of the grey water and the combination with other
complementary actions, associated to the water
consumption reduction.
The first hypothesis A, has only considered the
incorporation of the industrialized phytodepuration
system; the hypothesis B, includes also the
replacement of low consumption toilets; and the
hypothesis C, includes also the use of different
strategies of water saving, such as aerated taps,
thermostatic taps, low power washers, etc. [3].
Each hypothesis has been studied according to
two different sources of grey water. Firstly, it was
only included the water produced in showers, baths,
bidets and washbasins (Table 3); and then the water
from washing machines was included (Table 4).
1.680 total inhabitants has been estimated in the
area, according to the parameters of the Comunidad
de Madrid official laws.
Table 3: Water produced in shower, bath, bidet and
washbasin. Percentages of daily water reuse
Hypothesis A_
only phytodepuration
Grey water produced (l/inh.eq) 60
Total litres
Total cleaned water
100.800
70.560 100,00 %
Wc flushing (l/inhab.eq)
Total litres
Need extra water (litres)
45
75.600
-5.040
107,14 %
-6,67 %
Hypothesis B_
Included replacement of low consumption toilets
Grey water produced (l/inh.eq) 60
Total litres
Total cleaned water
100.800
70.560 100,00 %
Wc flushing (l/inhab.eq)
Total litres
Extra for irrigation reuse (litres)
16
28.880
43.680
38,10 %
61,90 %
Hypothesis C_
With strategies of water reduction consumption
Grey water produced (l/inh.eq) 46
Total litres
Total cleaned water
77.280
54.096 100,00 %
Wc flushing (l/inhab.eq)
Total litres
Extra for irrigation reuse (litres)
16
28.880
27.216
49,69 %
50,31 %
PLEA 2011 - 27
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CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 283
Table 4:Water produced in shower, bath, bidet, washbasin
and washing machine. Percentages of daily water reuse
Hypothesis A_
only phytodepuration
Percentages of daily water reuse
Grey water produced(l/inhab.eq) 93
Total litres
Total cleaned water
156.240
109.368 100,00 %
Wc flushing (l/inhab.eq)
Total litres
Need extra water (litres)
45
75.600
33.768
45,33 %
44,67 %
Hypothesis B_
Included replacement of low consumption toilets
Percentages of daily water reuse
Grey water produced(l/inhab.eq) 93
Total litres
Total cleaned water
156.240
109.368 100,00 %
Wc flushing (l/inhab.eq)
Total litres
Extra for irrigation reuse (litres)
16
26.880
82.488
24,58 %
75,42 %
Hypothesis C_
With strategies of water reduction consumption
Percentages of daily water reuse
Grey water produced(l/inhab.eq) 64
Total litres
Total cleaned water
107.520
75.264 100,00 %
Wc flushing (l/inhab.eq)
Total litres
Extra for irrigation reuse (litres)
16
26.880
48.384
35,71 %
64,29 %
Empirical data observed by the Universidad
Politcnica en Madrid in other experimental
phytodepuration prototypes, which has been built too
in the same climatic areas as the proposal, shows
that it should be considered 30% water loses by
evaporation and possible fails of the pipelines. These
percentages have been considered in the analytical
study, reducing the total grey water volume that
could be cleaned, to be reused in irrigation and
flushing toilets.
5.2. Economical impact
This industrialized and modular system can be
used not only in roofs, but also in gardens or parks.
Due to its dimensions optimization, the economic
and environmental costs associated to the use of
materials were considerably diminished. Also, the
industrialization provides important benefits in
relation with construction and deconstruction periods.
Respect to the economic costs, it has been
estimated that a system in a single house with 5
equivalent inhabitants is around 1.200
euros/inhabitant, including installations and
construction. But also, it has been estimated that the
use in a centralized district context, could diminish
the price per inhabitant, around a 40% less.





Figure 6: Phytodepuration in flat roofs. Proposal view.
6. MONITORING
In parallel to the study of water savings impact in
urban areas by using phytodepuration systems in flat
roofs; two scaled prototypes will be built and
monitored. A first application has been developed in
the ground of the Aula de Educaciob Ambiental of
Pozuelo de Alarcn, by the biologist scar
Domnguez.
Figure 7: Prototype built in the ground. Aula de Educacin
Ambiental of Pozuelo de Alarcn, by .Domnguez
On the other hand, the first prototype on a flat
roof will be constructed by the UPM during 2011, in a
single dwelling for 5 inhabitants, in the city of
Tembleque, Toledo (Spain). The technical project of
the second prototype has been approved, and the
works has been started in November 2010. In this
case, water will be reused to irrigate the garden and
to flush toilets of the house. The prototype will also
have a complementary connexion to the primary
potable water net, in order to avoid problems when
grey water is not enough produced. During the
second half of 2011, this prototype will be concluded,
and it will be monitored in order to analyze the quality
of cleaned water, according to the parameters of the
law R.D. 1620/2007, which regulates the quality of
the reused water in function of the different uses.
The analysis of cleaned water will be compared
in the two prototypes; which also will allow the study
of the relation between climatic parameters
(temperature, wind influence, etc) and the position of
the prototypes in the building (ground and roof).
7. CONCLUSIONS
According to the objectives of the study; in the
first part of the project, an industrialized prototype of
grey water phytodepuration has been designed,
adapted to the constructive and water management
requirements of flat roofs in medium density cities.
over this platform, in order to protect the water from
the exterior pollution components, sheets or insects.
Respect to the problem of weight, the height of
the water will be maximal 40 cm, enough to the
development of the macrophytes selected. Also, the
reduction of treatment surface, contributes to
diminish the weight of the new roof in comparison
with the traditional reed beds (Fig. 3).
Figure 3: Industrialized phytodepuration components.
4.4. Macrophytes in flotation
The macrophytes in flotation filters (FMF) have
been firstly developed by the Grupo de
Agroenergtica of the Universidad Politcnica de
Madrid, leaded by the Professor J. Fernndez [10].
The technical consist in combining the benefits of
emergent and floating plants. The emergent plants,
like Praghmites or Typhas, have an important
rhyzosphere volume, so when they have growth
enough, they are incorporated to the aquatic medium
by the used of buoys. Because of the rizosphere
volume is greater than the natural aquatic plants, the
volume of aerobic bacteria increases and with it the
system efficiency. Also, roots are floating, which
avoids the traditional problems associated to the
compaction of the substrate.
The innovation relative with the FMF, consists in
the incorporation of a transitivity platform over the
tank. This platform contributes to the macrophytes
support, avoiding the necessity of buoys. It is
supported by two lateral tank reinforcements and
transversal polypropylene cells transversally
disposed. These cells contribute to the oxygenation
of the water which passes through them (Fig. 4).









Figure 4: Details of the industrialized phytodepuration tanks.
01. Floating macrophytes 02. Platform cover 03.Gravel 04.
Industrialized tank 05. Reinforced support for the platform
cover 06. Grey water pipeline 07. Stainless steel mesh to
separate phytodepuration area and roots protected area 08.
Water circulation area protected from roots 09. Stainless
steel frame 10. Registering cover 11. Outflow pipeline 12.
Phytodepuration area 13. Rhyzosphere area
4.5. Storage system
The storage system has been organized in two
centralized deposits where the clean water is stored,
and from where is again pumped to the storage tank
of each doorway. This cleaned water can be reused
in flushing toilets, in irrigating green public spaces or
in street flushing.
5. WATER SAVING STUDY
5.1. Water savings
It has been studied many different situations, in
order to quantify the impact of the use of
phytodepuration systems in flat green roofs. The
selected parameters of study depend on the source
of the grey water and the combination with other
complementary actions, associated to the water
consumption reduction.
The first hypothesis A, has only considered the
incorporation of the industrialized phytodepuration
system; the hypothesis B, includes also the
replacement of low consumption toilets; and the
hypothesis C, includes also the use of different
strategies of water saving, such as aerated taps,
thermostatic taps, low power washers, etc. [3].
Each hypothesis has been studied according to
two different sources of grey water. Firstly, it was
only included the water produced in showers, baths,
bidets and washbasins (Table 3); and then the water
from washing machines was included (Table 4).
1.680 total inhabitants has been estimated in the
area, according to the parameters of the Comunidad
de Madrid official laws.
Table 3: Water produced in shower, bath, bidet and
washbasin. Percentages of daily water reuse
Hypothesis A_
only phytodepuration
Grey water produced (l/inh.eq) 60
Total litres
Total cleaned water
100.800
70.560 100,00 %
Wc flushing (l/inhab.eq)
Total litres
Need extra water (litres)
45
75.600
-5.040
107,14 %
-6,67 %
Hypothesis B_
Included replacement of low consumption toilets
Grey water produced (l/inh.eq) 60
Total litres
Total cleaned water
100.800
70.560 100,00 %
Wc flushing (l/inhab.eq)
Total litres
Extra for irrigation reuse (litres)
16
28.880
43.680
38,10 %
61,90 %
Hypothesis C_
With strategies of water reduction consumption
Grey water produced (l/inh.eq) 46
Total litres
Total cleaned water
77.280
54.096 100,00 %
Wc flushing (l/inhab.eq)
Total litres
Extra for irrigation reuse (litres)
16
28.880
27.216
49,69 %
50,31 %
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284 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
By the optimization of the channels design, the
construction of the industrialized prototype allows the
reduction of treatment surface required in traditional
reed bed systems. In comparison with the FMF [12],
the required surface for the industrialized system has
been reduced in almost five times (Table 5).
Table 5: Surface of phytodepuration, according to the
current filters of macrophytes in flotation (FMF) in
comparison with the estimation or required surface, using
the industrialized phytodepuration system.
Conventional macrophytes in flotation filters(FMF)
Total equivalent inhabitants 1.680
m
2
/ equivalent inhabitant
*
total surface need (m
2
)
5
8.400
Grey water circulation optimized
Total volume to be depurated (m
3
) 156,2
Industrialized tanks high (m)
Total daily surface need (m
2
)
Evaporation losses (%)
Phytodepuration period
Total surface need (m
2
)
Total surface (included transivity areas) (m
2
)
0,5
312,5
30 %
7
1.531,2
1.840,0
On the other hand, after the analysis of the
different hypothesis, it can be concluded that
conversion of traditional flat roofs into grey water
phytodepuration systems, can suppose important
benefits associated to the urban water management.
According to the different studied hypothesis, this
system allows the reduction of potable water
consumption, in uses that does not require it;
meanwhile the volume circulated to urban
wastewater treatment stations can be diminished in
almost a 60%.
If each hypothesis is being detailed analysed and
compared with the current water consumes, it can be
exposed the following estimations (Tables 6,7):
Table 6: Water produced in shower, bath, bidet,
washbasin and washing machine
Hypothesis A_Only phytodepuration
_The grey water produced is not enough to reuse
the 100% in flushing toilets, but it is only necessary
almost 7% more to cover all the demand.
_The system will save 25% respect to the current
water consumption.
Hypothesis B_Use of the phytodepuration
system with the replace of existing toilets for
others of low consume
_The strategy will save 34% respect to the current
water consumption.
_The combined strategy will save 27% respect to
only replace the toilets for others of low consume.
Hypothesis C_Use of the phytodepuration
system, including strategies of water reduction
consumption
_The strategy will save 45% respect to the current
water consumption.
_The combined strategy will save 32% respect to
apply only all the other water reduction
consumption strategies.
Table 7: Water produced in shower, bath, bidet,
washbasin and washing machine
Hypothesis A_ Only the phytodepuration
system
The strategy will save 39% respect to the current
water consumption.
Hypothesis B_Use of the phytodepuration
system with the replace of existing toilets for
others of low consume
_The strategy will save 43% respect to the current
water consumption.
_The combined strategy will save 48% respect to
replace only the toilets for others of low consume.
Hypothesis C_Use of the phytodepuration
system, including strategies of water reduction
consumption
_The strategy will save 59% respect to the current
water consumption.
_The combined strategy will save 67% respect to
apply only all the other water reduction
consumption strategies.
8. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The results presented here have been developed in
the frame of the INVISO Project (Industrialization of
Sustainable Housing), funded by the Spanish
Ministry of Science and Technology.
9. REFERENCES
[1] National Statistic Institut, (2005), Encuesta sobre
suministro y tratamiento del agua. Madrid: INE.
[2] Cabrera, E., (2007), La sequa en Espaa.
Directrices para minimizar su impacto. Madrid:
Ministerio de Medio Ambiente.
[3] ECODES, (2006), Proyecto Life Zaragoza,
ciudad ahorradora. Zaragoza: Gob. de Aragn.
[4] Eriksson, E. et al., (2002), Characteristics of
grey wastewater. Urban Water, 4 (1), pp.85-104.
[5] Nolde, E., (1999), Greywater reuse systems for
toilet flushing in multi-storey buildings. Urban
Water, 1, pp.275-284.
[6] Butler, D. et al., (1995), Characterising the
quantity and quality of domestic wastewater.
Water Science and Technology, 31 (7),pp.13-24.
[7] National Satistic Institut of Spain, (2008),
Indicadores demogrficos bsicos. Madrid: INE.
[8] Wendell, C., (2010), Demographia World Urban
Areas: Population & Projections, 6 ed.
[9] R.D. Normas aplicables al tratamiento de las
aguas residuales urbanas. (2004), Madrid:
Direccin General de Arquitectura. Com. Madrid.
[10] Fernndez, J., (2005), Filtros de macrofitas en
flotacin. Murcia: Ayuntamiento de Murcia.
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 285
Measuring the effects of urban form
on urban microclimate
MATTHIAS IRGER
1
1
Faculty of Built Environment, University of New South Wales, NSW, Australia; CSIRO, National Climate
Adaptation Research Flagship, Urban Systems, Canberra, ACT, Australia
ABSTRACT: The current literature on the Urban Heat Island fails to adequately quantify the modifying effect of
various elements of the urban form on the urban microclimate, in particular within the urban canopy layer at
pedestrian level.
The ongoing research compares urban form in relation to the thermal performance of precincts with the aim to
quantify the contributions of various elements, such as vegetation, urban canyon geometry and orientation and
urban surface characteristics, to microclimate alteration, in particular elevated urban temperatures.
The study employs multi-spectral remote imaging to examine the spatial structure of thermal patterns in selected
regions in Sydney. This data will be combined with ground-based measurements using the software ArcGIS for
spatial analysis, data management, and mapping.
Once the complex interplay between urban form and the urban microclimate is better understood, it would be
possible to mitigate the effects of climate change, enhance human comfort and reduce CO2-emissions through
urban design interventions that focus on the resilience of the built environment to the effects of urban warming.
Keywords: Sustainable urban design, Urban microclimate, Urban Heat Island, Climate change adaptation,
Remote sensing
1. INTRODUCTION
For the first time in history, more than half of the
worlds population now live in cities, which is
expected to increase to two thirds by the middle of
this century [1].
Australia is one of the most urbanized nations in
the world, with the majority of residents living in its
five largest cities [2]. Additionally, Australia has one
of the highest immigration rates of all developed
countries, leading to an almost doubling of its
population within the next 50 years [3].
The process of urban settlement has profoundly
impacted on the environment and dramatically
changed the climatic conditions of previously rural
regions.
In the early 19
th
century Luke Howard first
recorded that urban areas tend to have higher
average temperatures than their rural surroundings,
a phenomenon later named the Urban Heat Island
(UHI) effect [4]. The UHI can be experienced to a
varying degree in every settlement and is attributed
to gradual surface modifications, including the
replacement of the natural vegetation with dark
coloured surfaces, such as roads and roofs, which
absorb large amounts of radiation during the day,
and slowly emit the stored energy during the night [5,
6].
Oke (1973) has correlated the UHI intensity to the
size of a cities population, importantly noting that
cities in Europe feature a weaker UHI than those in
the USA, which is likely due to morphological
differences [7].
Precisely this disparity is of great importance, as
its understanding could enable urban designers to
advantageously manipulate the urban microclimate.
Furthermore, it is argued that suburbs, which are
characteristic of Australian cities with relatively low
population and dwelling densities, can support strong
UHIs, given their particular urban form.
While urban warming may be desirable in cold
climates, in hot and arid regions it can present
significant threats to human health, increase the
discomfort of people, reduce their efficiency, limit
their enjoyment and use of their environment,
impede on opportunities for active travel such as
walking and cycling, and cause damage to the built
environment [8].
In the course of recent heat waves in Australia,
France, Russia and other countries, morgues
exceeded capacity as mortality rates multiplied
during prolonged extreme heat for several days [9-
12].
As older people are more vulnerable to extreme
heat events, a changing demographic profile with a
doubling of people aged 65 years and over by the
middle of the century will potentially expose large
proportions of the population to discomfort and an
elevated risk to their health during days with high
temperatures and more frequent heat waves [13].
Despite some international climate change
mitigation efforts, the world has already committed to
a significant amount of global warming over the next
decades and even centuries [14]. Already elevated
temperatures attributed to the UHI will be further
amplified by the effects of global warming [8].
Australia, with its extensive arid and semi-arid areas
and high rainfall variability, is one of the countries
most at risk from climate change [15]. Across the
nation, warming of up to 2.0C over the past 50
years has already been documented, with 2010 on
track to become the hottest year ever recorded [16].
As economic growth centred in Asia continues to
drive rapid greenhouse gas emissions significantly
beyond those projected by the Intergovernmental
By the optimization of the channels design, the
construction of the industrialized prototype allows the
reduction of treatment surface required in traditional
reed bed systems. In comparison with the FMF [12],
the required surface for the industrialized system has
been reduced in almost five times (Table 5).
Table 5: Surface of phytodepuration, according to the
current filters of macrophytes in flotation (FMF) in
comparison with the estimation or required surface, using
the industrialized phytodepuration system.
Conventional macrophytes in flotation filters(FMF)
Total equivalent inhabitants 1.680
m
2
/ equivalent inhabitant
*
total surface need (m
2
)
5
8.400
Grey water circulation optimized
Total volume to be depurated (m
3
) 156,2
Industrialized tanks high (m)
Total daily surface need (m
2
)
Evaporation losses (%)
Phytodepuration period
Total surface need (m
2
)
Total surface (included transivity areas) (m
2
)
0,5
312,5
30 %
7
1.531,2
1.840,0
On the other hand, after the analysis of the
different hypothesis, it can be concluded that
conversion of traditional flat roofs into grey water
phytodepuration systems, can suppose important
benefits associated to the urban water management.
According to the different studied hypothesis, this
system allows the reduction of potable water
consumption, in uses that does not require it;
meanwhile the volume circulated to urban
wastewater treatment stations can be diminished in
almost a 60%.
If each hypothesis is being detailed analysed and
compared with the current water consumes, it can be
exposed the following estimations (Tables 6,7):
Table 6: Water produced in shower, bath, bidet,
washbasin and washing machine
Hypothesis A_Only phytodepuration
_The grey water produced is not enough to reuse
the 100% in flushing toilets, but it is only necessary
almost 7% more to cover all the demand.
_The system will save 25% respect to the current
water consumption.
Hypothesis B_Use of the phytodepuration
system with the replace of existing toilets for
others of low consume
_The strategy will save 34% respect to the current
water consumption.
_The combined strategy will save 27% respect to
only replace the toilets for others of low consume.
Hypothesis C_Use of the phytodepuration
system, including strategies of water reduction
consumption
_The strategy will save 45% respect to the current
water consumption.
_The combined strategy will save 32% respect to
apply only all the other water reduction
consumption strategies.
Table 7: Water produced in shower, bath, bidet,
washbasin and washing machine
Hypothesis A_ Only the phytodepuration
system
The strategy will save 39% respect to the current
water consumption.
Hypothesis B_Use of the phytodepuration
system with the replace of existing toilets for
others of low consume
_The strategy will save 43% respect to the current
water consumption.
_The combined strategy will save 48% respect to
replace only the toilets for others of low consume.
Hypothesis C_Use of the phytodepuration
system, including strategies of water reduction
consumption
_The strategy will save 59% respect to the current
water consumption.
_The combined strategy will save 67% respect to
apply only all the other water reduction
consumption strategies.
8. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The results presented here have been developed in
the frame of the INVISO Project (Industrialization of
Sustainable Housing), funded by the Spanish
Ministry of Science and Technology.
9. REFERENCES
[1] National Statistic Institut, (2005), Encuesta sobre
suministro y tratamiento del agua. Madrid: INE.
[2] Cabrera, E., (2007), La sequa en Espaa.
Directrices para minimizar su impacto. Madrid:
Ministerio de Medio Ambiente.
[3] ECODES, (2006), Proyecto Life Zaragoza,
ciudad ahorradora. Zaragoza: Gob. de Aragn.
[4] Eriksson, E. et al., (2002), Characteristics of
grey wastewater. Urban Water, 4 (1), pp.85-104.
[5] Nolde, E., (1999), Greywater reuse systems for
toilet flushing in multi-storey buildings. Urban
Water, 1, pp.275-284.
[6] Butler, D. et al., (1995), Characterising the
quantity and quality of domestic wastewater.
Water Science and Technology, 31 (7),pp.13-24.
[7] National Satistic Institut of Spain, (2008),
Indicadores demogrficos bsicos. Madrid: INE.
[8] Wendell, C., (2010), Demographia World Urban
Areas: Population & Projections, 6 ed.
[9] R.D. Normas aplicables al tratamiento de las
aguas residuales urbanas. (2004), Madrid:
Direccin General de Arquitectura. Com. Madrid.
[10] Fernndez, J., (2005), Filtros de macrofitas en
flotacin. Murcia: Ayuntamiento de Murcia.
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286 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
Panel of Climate Change, this trend is projected to
accelerate over the next century, leading to a further
increase in average annual temperatures of 2.0C
above 1990 levels by 2030 [16, 17].
In response to the need to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions and adapt to the effects of climate
change, different forms of settlement patterns are
being explored by the planning community. As
articulated in many of the metropolitan plans for
Australian cities, development policies aim to
constrain the urban footprint by establishing urban
growth boundaries and proposing a more compact
settlement form with higher population and dwelling
densities, particularly to reduce emissions from the
transport sector [18, 19].
In practise, densification strategies have led to
the simple reduction in plot sizes, while the long-term
trend towards larger houses has continued, despite a
trend to smaller household sizes [2, 20]. The owner-
occupied detached house remains the signature of
Australian cities, where outdoor areas are either
paved over or non-existent, as developers seek to
maximize the buildings footprint to meet perceived
customer preference [20].
The marginalization of private outdoor areas
combined with the absence of vegetation on public
land have consequently created very dry urban areas
featuring predominantly impervious surfaces, lack of
natural shading and evapotranspiration, and a high
degree of thermal mass. This urban form supports
strong UHIs, in particular at street scale on
pedestrian level, and inhibits sustainable design
principles, such as natural daylight access, cross
ventilation and night-flush of buildings with cool air
during the night. In combination with poor
construction techniques and the lack of insulation,
this has resulted in an increased reliance on
technological appliances like air-conditioning to
maintain human comfort levels leading to growing
electricity demand. Additionally, the absence of
urban design strategies to protect pedestrians from
solar radiation and traffic have contributed to a
further increase in car use, as temperatures in
neighbourhoods have become too hot to walk or
cycle.
Thus, urban densification policies implemented
as a strategy for climate change mitigation have
conflicted with the goal they aim to achieve.
The need to restructure Australias cities to
accommodate significant population growth presents
an opportunity to redevelop outdated building stock
and disadvantageous urban from.
It is therefore imperative to develop urban design
guidelines with the focus on reducing the carbon
footprint of new precincts, and to explore possible
design interventions for existing suburbs, in order to
minimize the adverse implications of urban warming
due to the combined effects of climate change and
the UHI.
There is, however, a lack of knowledge in the
urban design and planning community regarding the
implications of different urban form characteristics
and their impact on the urban microclimate, and thus
on human comfort and energy consumption.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Over the decades, the field of urban climatology
has produced a considerable volume of research
with diverse focus and methodologies in various
spatial and temporal scales.
Since the 19
th
century, climatologists have been
interested in the balance of energy fluxes within
urban areas, and their difference to their rural
surroundings [21]. Most early descriptive studies
focused on individual climatic phenomena,
comparing records of different weather stations in
urban and rural areas, or applying city-wide
automobile traverses [7, 22, 23].
Since the 1970s significant progress has been
made in understanding atmospheric processes, such
as radiant energy budgets and the urban wind field
[21]. The investigation into the causality of urban
climate modifications was greatly facilitated by Okes
(1987) differentiation between the Urban Canopy
Layer (UCL), which extends from the surface to the
roofs of buildings; and the Urban Boundary Layer
(UBL), situated directly above [24].
2.1. Urban form parameters
The application of micrometeorological theory in
diagnostic studies, exploring the spatial and temporal
variability of the urban climate and its modification by
isolated elements of the urban form, have led to the
development of theoretical models of the urban
energy balance [21, 22]. Simulative studies have
identified the properties of the urban surface and the
geometry of the urban canyon as the most influential
factors for thermal modification of the urban climate
[22, 25, 26].
The urban environment consist of multiple
surfaces with material specific characteristics that
govern the amount of absorbed and re-emitted long-
and short-wave radiation, thus each contributing in
varying degrees to the urban energy balance [27].
Simulative studies of a typical U.S. city have shown
that the combined effect of direct and indirect energy
savings through an increase of the overall city-wide
albedo - a surfaces ability to reflect incoming
radiation - could lower the average urban air
temperature by 5K, while reducing the energy
demand for air-conditioning up to 40% [28].
The geometry of the urban canyon is defined as
the ratio between the height of the canyons flanking
buildings (H) and the width of the street (W), thus
controlling the amount of solar radiation admitted into
the canyon, radiative loss towards the sky, wind flow,
and degree of air dispersion and ventilation [25, 29].
Additionally, the orientation of the urban canyon
also affects the solar exposure of its vertical and
horizontal surfaces, the degree of ventilation within
the canyon and the overall wind conditions in the
area [29].
While the H/W-ratio together with the length (L) of
an urban canyon governs the quantity of low- and
short-wave radiation accessible to increase air and
surfaces temperatures and the degree of shade that
is available to pedestrians and buildings during the
day, it also controls the rate of a surfaces cooling at
night [25]. The magnitude of this long-wave radiative
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CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 287
loss has been found to be proportional to its skyview
factor, which can be measured as the proportion of
the viewing hemisphere that is occupied by the sky
[29].
The H/W/L-ratio describes the surface
roughness of the urban environment towards the
sky, which affects the wind speed above roof level,
the degree of air intermixing between UCL and UBL
above, and the amount of shelter provided from
strong winds [29].
Field and wind tunnel studies have shown that
the geometry and orientation of urban canyons and
the organization of buildings and streets within
precincts can greatly affect air flow and ventilation in
neighbourhoods [29, 30].
In his evaluation of the benefits of minimizing
heat-gain in summer versus utilizing the UHI to save
energy for heating in winter, while maximizing shelter
from wind, dispersion of pollutants and daylight
access, Oke (1988b) recommended H/W-ratios of
0.4 to 0.7 for North American cities at mid latitude.
Further studies have demonstrated that trees and
other vegetation significantly improve the urban
climate due to the provision of shade and
evaporative cooling, promote biodiversity and
enhance urban air quality by reducing airborne
pollutants [31-33]. Researchers have found that
parks as well as green walls and roofs have the
potential to lower the air temperature in their
immediate surroundings in excess of 10K at street
level, and demonstrated a noticeable cooling effect
extending up to 1100 m in windward directions [27,
34-36]. On a larger scale, simulative studies have
shown that a doubling of the average tree cover in
North American cities could reduce the UHI by about
2K [28, 37].
The availability of moisture is another factor
influencing the urban microclimate by cooling the air
through evaporation of water and enabling
evapotranspiration by plants [32, 36]. Modelling has
suggested that an increase in the average moisture
availability in North American cities from currently
15% of that in rural areas to 30% would result in a
reduction of the UHI by 20% [32].
Other studies have identified anthropogenic heat
release through vehicles, transport systems, air-
conditioning units and other human activities as
major contributors to the elevation of urban
temperatures [21]. These inputs can be considerable
in compact city centres, while less significant in
residential and suburban areas [21, 26, 38].
2.2. Remote sensing
The utilization of satellite based remote sensing
has enabled the detection of urban surface heat
islands (SUHI) on a city wide scale [39-43]. In their
review of urban climate studies, which have applied
thermal remote sensing before the year 2000, Voogt
and Oke (2003) note: While progress has been
made, the thermal remote sensing of urban areas
has been slow to advance beyond qualitative
description of thermal patterns and simple
correlations [42]. Most studies appear to be limited
by the application of general land-use data to
describe the urban surface and their lack of
comprehensive urban form classifications.
Additionally, the relatively low resolution of satellite
imaging, especially in the thermal infrared spectrum,
only provides averaged information of urban thermal
patterns at a meso or macro scale, and fails to
contribute to the causal exploration of urban
microclimate modification.
More recently, technological advances have
enabled airborne remote sensing to detect SUHIs at
a micro scale with a resolution of <1m. Stone and
Rogers (2001) were amongst the first to employ high-
resolution airborne remote imaging in the city of
Atlanta, concluding that low-density residential areas
can emit a larger amount of thermal energy than
more compact districts of the city [44].
Regrettably, this powerful method of data
collection has not been widely utilized to examine the
microclimate in urban areas.
In summary, while the mechanisms influencing
the urban climate are largely understood, current
research fails to quantify the modifying effect of
various elements of the urban form on the urban
microclimate, in particular at neighbourhood scale
and pedestrian level.
Many descriptive studies are limited by a small
sample size or poor spatial resolution and seldom go
beyond urban-rural temperature comparisons.
Advances in remote sensing technology have the
potential to enable future analyses of the urban
climate at an appropriate spatial resolution required
to examine the microclimate at precinct and street
scale, while at the same time supporting large
sampling areas.
The results of simulative studies need to be
validated by empirical measurements and expanded
to a wider geographical range. Importantly, their
findings need to be translated into guidelines in order
to increase their accessibility for urban design and
planning professionals.
3. METHODOLOGY
This new research aims to verify possible
correlations between urban air and surface
temperatures and different aspects of the urban
form, in particular the urban canyon geometry,
vegetation content within the built environment,
surface characteristics of the urban structures and
the street orientation within precincts, and seeks to
quantify their relationship.
This study employs airborne remote sensing to
collect high-resolution information of urban surface
temperature, vegetation content in precincts, soil
moisture content, and geometry of the urban canyon,
across the Sydney metropolitan region.
This data will be supplemented and validated
against simultaneously collected in-situ
measurements of air temperature, long- and short-
wave radiation and photography in selected case
study areas located within the area covered by the
aircraft.
Using the software ArcGIS, this data will be
assembled and geospatially analysed in combination
with aerial photography, land-use and demographic
data.
PLEA 2011 - 27
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288 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
6. REFERENCES
[1] UN. World Urbanization Prospects. 2009 [cited
2010 14 June 2010]; Available from:
http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/index.htm.
[2] MajorCitiesUnit, State of the Australian Cities
2010. 2010, Infrastructure Australia: Canberra.
[3] ABS. Regional Population Growth, Australia,
2008-09. 2010 [cited 2010 18 August];
Available from:
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Produ
cts/3218.0~2008-
09~Main+Features~Main+Features?OpenDocu
ment#PARALINK6.
[4] Howard, L., The climate of London deduced
from meteorological observations made in the
metropolis and at various places around it
[microform]. Goldsmiths'-Kress library of
economic literature ; no. 28395. 1833, London:
Harvey and Darton.
[5] Givoni, B., Climate Considerations in Building
and Urban Design. 1998, New York: Van
Nostrand Reinhold.
[6] Akbari, H., Energy Saving Potentials and Air
Quality Benefits of Urban Heat Island Mitigation.
Solar Energy, 2001.
[7] Oke, T.R., City size and the urban heat island.
Atmospheric Environment (1967), 1973. 7(8): p.
769-779.
[8] Watkins, R., et al., Increased Temperature and
Intensification of the Urban Heat Island:
Implications for Human Comfort and Urban
Design. Built Environment, 2007. 33(1): p. 85-
96.
[9] Fouillet, A., et al. Has the impact of heat waves
on mortality changed in France since the
European heat wave of summer 2003? A study
of the 2006 heat wave. World Climate Report
2008 [cited 2009 18 May]; Available from:
http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index.php/20
08/02/14/few-french-fried-in-2006/.
[10] Vaneckova, P., et al., Effect of temperature on
mortality during the six warmer months in
Sydney, Australia, between 1993 and 2004.
Environmental Research, 2008. 108(3): p. 361-
369.
[11] Vidal, J., World feeling the heat as 17 countries
experience record temperatures, in Guardian.
2010: London.
[12] ABCNews. Melbourne morgue full after
heatwave deaths. 2009 [cited 2009 10 June];
Available from:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/06/2
484219.htm.
[13] Henry, K. The 2010 Intergenerational Report.
2010; Available from:
http://www.treasury.gov.au/igr/igr2010/report/ht
ml/02_Chapter_1_Economic_and_demographic.
asp.
[14] Garnaut, R., Garnaut Climate Change Review.
2007, Commonwealth of Australia: Canberra.
[15] Stern, N., The Stern Review on the Economics
of Climate Change. 2006.
[16] CSIRO and BOM, State of the Climate. 2010,
CSIRO and the Australian Bureau of
Meteorology: Canberra.
[17] IPCC, Report on Climate Change. 2007, United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP),World
Meteorological Organization (WMO).
[18] Newman, P.W.G. and J.R. Kenworthy, The land
use--transport connection : An overview. Land
Use Policy, 1996. 13(1): p. 1-22.
[19] City.of.Sydney, Sustainable Sydney 2030. 2008,
The Council of the City of Sydney: Sydney.
[20] Hall, T., Where have all the gardens gone? An
investigation into the disappearance of back
yards in the newer Australian suburb. 2007,
Urban Research Program: Griffith University,
Brisbane, Australia. p. 1-51.
[21] Oke, T.R., The Urban Energy Balance. Progress
in Physical Geography, 1988b. 12(4): p. 471-
508.
[22] Arnfield, A.J., Two decades of urban climate
research: A review of turbulence, exchanges of
energy and water, and the urban heat island.
International Journal of Climatology, 2003.
23(1): p. 1-26.
[23] Bornstein, R.D., Observations of the Urban Heat
Island Effect in New York City. Journal of
Applied Meteorology, 1968. 7: p. 575-682.
[24] Oke, T.R., Boundary Layer Climates. 1987, New
York: Methuen & Co.
[25] Oke, T.R., Canyon geometry and the nocturnal
urban heat island: Comparison of scale model
and field observations. International Journal of
Climatology, 1981. 1(3): p. 237-254.
[26] Taha, H., Urban climates and heat islands:
albedo, evapotranspiration, and anthropogenic
heat. Energy and Buildings, 1997. 25(2): p. 99-
103.
[27] Akbari, H., Cooling Our Communities. A
Guidebook on Tree Planing and Light-colored
Surfacing. 2009: Lawrence Berkely National
Laboratory.
[28] Sailor, D., Simulated urban climate response to
modifications in surface albedo and vegetative
cover. Journal of Applied Meteorology and
Climatology, 1995. 34(7): p. 16941704.
[29] Oke, T.R., Street design and urban canopy layer
climate. Energy and Buildings, 1988a. 11(1-3):
p. 103-113.
[30] Golany, G.S., Urban design morphology and
thermal performance. Atmospheric Environment,
1996. 30(3): p. 455-465.
[31] Akbari, H., Shade trees reduce building energy
use and CO2 emissions from power plants.
Environmental Pollution, 2002. 116(Supplement
1): p. S119-S126.
3.1. Remote sensing
There are three main advantages of employing
airborne remote sensing: the first is the ability to
cover a large number and diversity of urban
precincts; secondly, recent technological
improvements have lead to the development of
various sensors with very high resolutions in the sub-
meter range; and thirdly an array of different
scanners can be utilized simultaneously in a single
flight.
The flight will be carried out with a small research
aircraft that will encompass a course departing from
Sydney airport, located at the coast to the citys East,
to the Western edge of the metropolitan region at
Penrith, passing the North Shore area before
returning the airport. This transect will provide a
sufficiently large sampling area comprising a
representative cross section of Sydneys typical
urban environments, while allowing for specific
regional geographical features and the influence of
the proximity to the ocean.
In order to analyse the effect that different urban
phenomena, such as parks, bodies of water or
clusters of trees, have on the air temperature in their
immediate surroundings and surrounding
neighbourhood, a swath width of 2000m is
considered to be the minimum.
Initially, two flights are proposed: the first on a
hot, clear day and the second during the following
night. The flights should be scheduled between two
and three oclock in the afternoon and just before
sunrise during the hottest month of the year. Ideally,
the experiment is able to be conducted under heat-
wave conditions - after a few consecutive hot days
and importantly, without cloudiness or precipitation
during the experiment and the preceding 24 hours.
These trips during summer should be supplemented
with additional flights in spring or autumn and winter,
in order to pick up changes in foliage cover and
seasonal vegetation growth, as well as different
radiation impacts due to changing sun angles.
Sensors utilized in this study achieve a spatial
resolution of better than 1m accuracy, and include a
hyper-spectral scanner and a thermal imager to
record images across visual (VIS), near (NIR) and
short-wave (SWIR) spectral bands and thermal
infrared (TIR) with a minimum temperature resolution
of 0.1K. Additionally, a laser scanner measures the
height of the underlying terrain to a vertical accuracy
0.02m and a full-waveform LiDAR provides detailed
3D-information of the urban form geometry.
3.2. In-situ measurements
Stratified sampling based on a comprehensive urban
form classification will support a randomized
selection of a small number of case studies.
Neighbourhood areas within the flight transect will be
classified according to urban form features, such as
street orientation, dwelling density and urban
structure, H/W/L-ratio of urban canyon and
vegetation content.
In-situ measurements will be performed with mobile
sensors mounted on a bicycle trailer along
predefined routes within the sampling area. These
traverses will be carried out simultaneously to the
airborne data collection, for a continuous period of 24
hours at one hour intervals in each case study area.
The instrumentation mounted at approximately
1m height includes six radiation sensors oriented in
different directions to measure long- and short-wave
radiation from the sky and emitted or reflected by the
urban form, including upward emissions from the
ground and those sideways oriented from vertical
surfaces, such as building structures or vegetation.
Combined with a shielded thermometer, a humidity
sensor and a GPS device, the equipment is
connected to a laptop and powered by a solar panel.
4. RECOMMENDATIONS AND
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Despite the considerable amount of research that
has been undertaken in the field of urban climatology
over recent decades, findings have not been easily
accessible to city planners and urban designers, and
thus have rarely been employed in the design of
neighbourhoods or streets [30].
There is a need for further research to explore
the complex interplay between built environment and
urban climate at a micro scale, with the aim to
quantify the relationship between elevated urban
temperatures and different elements of urban form. It
is desirable to develop methodologies that enable an
effective region wide risk assessment of urban areas
to identify precincts and streets that are particularly
vulnerable to the effects of urban warming.
This ongoing research aims to demonstrate how
urban design can play its part in reducing the carbon
footprint of our cities and increase the resilience of
the urban environment to the impacts of urban
warming. This improved understanding can support
the development of urban design guidelines for
precincts, and to explore possible design
interventions for existing suburbs, in order to ensure
the continued wellbeing and prosperity of its
Australias urban residents.
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to acknowledge the support
of the University of Sydney and CSIROs Urban
Systems Program in funding this research. I would
like to thank Prof. Alan Peters, Faculty of
Architecture, Design and Planning, University of
Sydney, Dr. Matthew Inman and Guy Barnett, CSIRO
Ecosystem Sciences, and Alice Thompson for their
ongoing support and advice. Furthermore I would like
to thank Nik Midlam, City of Sydney, for facilitating
access to thermal imagery and local weather station
data.
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT 289
6. REFERENCES
[1] UN. World Urbanization Prospects. 2009 [cited
2010 14 June 2010]; Available from:
http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/index.htm.
[2] MajorCitiesUnit, State of the Australian Cities
2010. 2010, Infrastructure Australia: Canberra.
[3] ABS. Regional Population Growth, Australia,
2008-09. 2010 [cited 2010 18 August];
Available from:
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Produ
cts/3218.0~2008-
09~Main+Features~Main+Features?OpenDocu
ment#PARALINK6.
[4] Howard, L., The climate of London deduced
from meteorological observations made in the
metropolis and at various places around it
[microform]. Goldsmiths'-Kress library of
economic literature ; no. 28395. 1833, London:
Harvey and Darton.
[5] Givoni, B., Climate Considerations in Building
and Urban Design. 1998, New York: Van
Nostrand Reinhold.
[6] Akbari, H., Energy Saving Potentials and Air
Quality Benefits of Urban Heat Island Mitigation.
Solar Energy, 2001.
[7] Oke, T.R., City size and the urban heat island.
Atmospheric Environment (1967), 1973. 7(8): p.
769-779.
[8] Watkins, R., et al., Increased Temperature and
Intensification of the Urban Heat Island:
Implications for Human Comfort and Urban
Design. Built Environment, 2007. 33(1): p. 85-
96.
[9] Fouillet, A., et al. Has the impact of heat waves
on mortality changed in France since the
European heat wave of summer 2003? A study
of the 2006 heat wave. World Climate Report
2008 [cited 2009 18 May]; Available from:
http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index.php/20
08/02/14/few-french-fried-in-2006/.
[10] Vaneckova, P., et al., Effect of temperature on
mortality during the six warmer months in
Sydney, Australia, between 1993 and 2004.
Environmental Research, 2008. 108(3): p. 361-
369.
[11] Vidal, J., World feeling the heat as 17 countries
experience record temperatures, in Guardian.
2010: London.
[12] ABCNews. Melbourne morgue full after
heatwave deaths. 2009 [cited 2009 10 June];
Available from:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/06/2
484219.htm.
[13] Henry, K. The 2010 Intergenerational Report.
2010; Available from:
http://www.treasury.gov.au/igr/igr2010/report/ht
ml/02_Chapter_1_Economic_and_demographic.
asp.
[14] Garnaut, R., Garnaut Climate Change Review.
2007, Commonwealth of Australia: Canberra.
[15] Stern, N., The Stern Review on the Economics
of Climate Change. 2006.
[16] CSIRO and BOM, State of the Climate. 2010,
CSIRO and the Australian Bureau of
Meteorology: Canberra.
[17] IPCC, Report on Climate Change. 2007, United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP),World
Meteorological Organization (WMO).
[18] Newman, P.W.G. and J.R. Kenworthy, The land
use--transport connection : An overview. Land
Use Policy, 1996. 13(1): p. 1-22.
[19] City.of.Sydney, Sustainable Sydney 2030. 2008,
The Council of the City of Sydney: Sydney.
[20] Hall, T., Where have all the gardens gone? An
investigation into the disappearance of back
yards in the newer Australian suburb. 2007,
Urban Research Program: Griffith University,
Brisbane, Australia. p. 1-51.
[21] Oke, T.R., The Urban Energy Balance. Progress
in Physical Geography, 1988b. 12(4): p. 471-
508.
[22] Arnfield, A.J., Two decades of urban climate
research: A review of turbulence, exchanges of
energy and water, and the urban heat island.
International Journal of Climatology, 2003.
23(1): p. 1-26.
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[24] Oke, T.R., Boundary Layer Climates. 1987, New
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[26] Taha, H., Urban climates and heat islands:
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heat. Energy and Buildings, 1997. 25(2): p. 99-
103.
[27] Akbari, H., Cooling Our Communities. A
Guidebook on Tree Planing and Light-colored
Surfacing. 2009: Lawrence Berkely National
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cover. Journal of Applied Meteorology and
Climatology, 1995. 34(7): p. 16941704.
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290 CLIMATIC, WATER AND BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
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sequestration by an urban forest. 2002: Elsevier
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temperature differences in a central business
district area. Landscape and Ecological
Engineering, 2009. 5(2): p. 183-191.
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parks. Energy and Buildings, 2006. 38(2): p.
105-120.
[36] Alexandri, E. and P. Jones, Temperature
decreases in an urban canyon due to green
walls and green roofs in diverse climates.
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[37] Sailor, D.J., Simulations of annual degree day
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[38] Wen, Y. and Z. Lian, Influence of air
conditioners utilization on urban thermal
environment. Applied Thermal Engineering,
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[39] Aniello, C., et al., Mapping micro-urban heat
islands using LANDSAT TM and a GIS.
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[40] Gluch, R., et al., A multi-scale approach to urban
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[42] Voogt, J.A. and T.R. Oke, Thermal remote
sensing of urban climates. Remote Sensing of
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[43] Weng, Q. and D.A. Quattrochi, Thermal remote
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[44] Stone, B. and M.O. Rodgers, Urban form and
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67(2): p. 186-198.
PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND
MULTI GENERATION) /
MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES)
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PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES) 293
Improving areas around railway stations to promote
changes in the mode of transportation
Yves HANIN, Vronique CLETTE, Amlie DAEMS, Thomas DAWANCE, Martin GRANDJEAN,
Vronique ROUSSEAUX
1

1
Confrence permanente du dveloppement territorial, Universit Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve and
Universit Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
ABSTRACT: The renewal of rail transport brings railway station districts back in the spotlight and raises the
question about their (re)development. Whereas the strategies to be implemented must be geared chiefly to
transport mode shift, they also provide an opportunity to revitalise these areas and to rebuilt the city around a
bolstered central core. These strategies vary depending on the type of station. Sixty (60) Walloon stations have
been described according to three criteria: passenger flow (departure/arrivals, people going to and from
work/school ), land occupation in the district (including available land reserves), and access by the various
modes of transport. On this basis, general guidelines for improvement have been established.
Keywords: railway station district passenger flow land occupation town planning transport mode shift

1. INTRODUCTION
Until recently, both in cities and in rural areas, the
immediate surroundings of railway stations were
normally not paid attention to when promoting urban
development. However, over the recent years, a
number of changes in peoples transportation patters
seem to underpin development and progress in the
railway transportation system.
In the late eighties, the railway sector was subject
to many innovations and offered the public a modern
image and user-friendly mode of transportation.
Furthermore, the introduction of high speed trains,
undoubtedly contributed to an increased use of the
railway over medium distances. During the nineties,
the increased use of trains, led to the construction of
new stations and railway lines. Today, a number of
railway modernization projects are ongoing,
especially in connection with the development of the
regional express network around Brussels. This
renewed focus and investments in the railway sector,
are caused by multiple factors. The two most
apparent reasons being (i) changes in transport
policies driven by international requirements (for
instance the Kyoto Protocol) and the excess
numbers of users of the road networks (causing
traffic congestion), and (ii) an increased cost
associated with the use of private vehicles, both with
respect to higher fuel prices, and increased costs
associated with accessing cities (parking fees, toll
fees, etc.).
The current policy in Wallonia seems to support
establishment of parking areas around the main
stations of departure, and a concentration of offices
around the main stations of arrivals. To determine
how relevant this policy is, and see how it can be
incorporated in more comprehensive urban and rural
development plans, a study was accomplished. The
study was conducted as part of the Standing
Conference on Territorial Development (CPDT)
cpdt.wallonie.be in collaboration with the Ministry of
Land Management and Urban Planning, the Ministry
of Equipment and transport, the Walloon Regional
Transport Company, the National Society of Belgian
Railways and the Federal Ministry of Finance
(Cadastre unit). The research identified changes in
peoples travelling patterns and illustrated the
characteristics and potential of railway stations in the
Walloon region of Belgium. Based on the first
assessment, a list of concrete proposals for the
development of areas directly surrounding various
types of railway stations was established.
2. DIVERSITY OF PRACTICES, FLOWS
AND PLACES
2.1. Understanding changes in peoples
travelling pattern
Studies on mobility and travelling patterns clearly
indicate an increase in the average distance that
people travel on a daily basis. They also point out
that the travelling patterns are becoming increasingly
complex as places of residence, offices/businesses,
education, shopping and recreation are increasingly
fragmented over a larger area. With this background,
two changes should be evident among commuters:
(i) More and more people have a car and the use of
personal vehicles increases, and (ii) People are
trying to establish chains of movement to connect
their residences, workplaces, and social
infrastructure including shopping, recreation, and
education facilities. However traffic jams and new
incentives for public transport encourage the use of
different transport modes.
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294 PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES)
Figure 1: Types of station according to the flow of passengers and the land use

3.3. Types of stations in terms of accessibility
For each of the 60 stations, accessibility was
determined by examining how the passengers
reached the station, either by car (park and ride" or
"kiss and ride "), public transport, on bike or by foot.
A general conclusion emerges from the study, which
is that the accessibility of the station is closely
correlated with the development and land use in the
surrounding area.
Urban stations alone stand for 10,600 departures
to Brussels, or a third of the total movement to the
capital. Nearly 55% of these subscribers are going to
their departure station by private car. The presence
of a main road within 500 meters from the train
station provides a convenient access when using
private vehicles. However, thanks to public
transportation being available within short distance to
the urban railway stations, nearly 20% of the
passengers use this in order to reach their departure
station. Urban stations have the lowest number of
users accessing the station by cycling and walking,
compared to all the other types of stations.
The rate of car use, related to the access to
stations in urban and industrial areas is very similar
to the urban stations, but use of public transportation
accounts for only 12%.
Of commuters located in a predominantly
residential neighborhood, 60% go by car to the
station, 35% walking and just 7% use public
transportation. For the residential stations with large
reserves of undeveloped land in the surrounding
area, people access the station in a similar fashion
as those using rural stations, mainly by cycling and
walking. This can be explained by the proximity of
peoples residence to the railway station and the
limited public transportation services.
4. DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES AROUND
STATIONS
The final objective of the study was to propose
some strategies to be applied when developing
areas around railway stations as a mean to promote
a change in transportation patterns. The conclusions
reached on the patterns of passengers, the use and
development of the land around stations and the
accessibility of the different types of stations allowed
us to consider different strategies in developing
these areas. The different strategies will not be
explained in detail in this brief, but some general
remarks follows.
The predominance of private cars is also
supported by spatial transformations in metropolitan
areas, causing new travelling patterns other than
those traditionally observed between city center and
the suburbs. In fact, the city center is no longer
necessarily an area where all activities are based,
and equally, the suburbs are not only a location for
residences and daily services.
2.2. Understanding the flow of railway users in
Wallonia
In the Wallon region, the railway covers about 9%
of all daily trips, whereas private cars represent 80%,
the bus 4% and other modes of transport (e.g.
walking, cycling, etc.) represent more or less 7%.
Thanks to the commercial services of the national
railway, the mentioned study was able to use and
refer to a significant database showing passengers
travels in Wallonia. This database allowed us to
identify points of origin and destination, as well as
type of passengers and their residential locations. By
selecting 60 stations, a daily movement of 102.500
commuters was analyzed, representing nearly two
thirds of the total market share of railway
passengers. The remaining third was composed of
occasional trips (one-way tickets) and special tickets
(e.g. multiple cards travels).
From this database, the analysis could conclude
the following:
Walloons working in Wallonia are hardly using
the railways.
Most of the working commuters go to Brussels.
The internal movements in Wallonia are mainly
related to school, while the departures are made up
by mostly workers. However, the smaller the station,
the more equal is the number of people departing for
school and for work, while the number of people
arriving is predominantly composed of workers.
The daily travel related to schools is shorter than
the daily travel of workers. Consequently departures
for reasons of work are less dominant if the station is
near a major hub.
3. BEYOND THE MAIN TRENDS, THE
PARTICULARITIES OF WALLOON
RAILWAY STATIONS
To address issues related to development of rural
and urban areas with regards to the railway stations,
it is necessary to develop specific strategies
depending on what type of station it is, - whether it is
a major destination station, a mixed station with an
equal number of departures and arrivals, or one of
the many small stations with mainly departures.
These specific strategies should take into account
the particularities of the stations, their surroundings
and their accessibility for the people who use the
services from the station.
To do this, the 60 stations that were studied were
classified according to three factors: The flow of
subscribers, the development of the land surrounding
the station, and the accessibility for users.
3.1. Types of railway station according to the
flow of passengers
In addition to the four major Walloon stations
(Namur St., Liege St., Mons St. and Charleroi St.),
other stations can be classified into four groups
according to their relative importance, passenger
flow (departure or arrival) and type of users (related
to work, school or mixed).
The first group of stations is characterized by
mainly being a point of departure for workers, mainly
commuting to Brussels, and by the arrival of
schoolchildren typically from neighboring towns.
A second group consists of stations mainly used
by workers going in the direction of a major hub,
along with arrival and departure of students and
workers to nearby cities.
A third group consists of modest and small
stations, mainly characterized by the departure of
workers and normally having less than 250 arrivals
(students and few workers).
The fourth group of stations includes those with
very specific features, like stations with a large
number of student departures and few arrivals.
3.2. Types of stations according to the land use
A second set of classification was developed,
based on the land use in the neighborhood of the 60
stations studied. The neighborhood concept refers to
the area within a radius of 800 meters surrounding
the station. The social and urban aspects are not
taken into consideration at this stage in the definition.
The 60 stations were classified into five major
types, according to the development of the land
surrounding the station.
A first group of stations consisted of those
located in heavily urbanized areas, where unutilized
plots represent less than 8% of the surrounding area.
Another group includes stations located in less
developed/urbanized neighborhoods, where about
60% of the land is devoted to agriculture and
forestry. The majority of the surrounding buildings
are for residential purposes.
The largest group of stations is those located in
residential neighborhoods. This group is further
divided in two, depending on whether the
neighborhood includes large reserves of land or
whether it is more densely built.
The last two groups are characterized by the
presence of industrial parks/areas within the
surrounding of the station.
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PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES) 295
Figure 1: Types of station according to the flow of passengers and the land use

3.3. Types of stations in terms of accessibility
For each of the 60 stations, accessibility was
determined by examining how the passengers
reached the station, either by car (park and ride" or
"kiss and ride "), public transport, on bike or by foot.
A general conclusion emerges from the study, which
is that the accessibility of the station is closely
correlated with the development and land use in the
surrounding area.
Urban stations alone stand for 10,600 departures
to Brussels, or a third of the total movement to the
capital. Nearly 55% of these subscribers are going to
their departure station by private car. The presence
of a main road within 500 meters from the train
station provides a convenient access when using
private vehicles. However, thanks to public
transportation being available within short distance to
the urban railway stations, nearly 20% of the
passengers use this in order to reach their departure
station. Urban stations have the lowest number of
users accessing the station by cycling and walking,
compared to all the other types of stations.
The rate of car use, related to the access to
stations in urban and industrial areas is very similar
to the urban stations, but use of public transportation
accounts for only 12%.
Of commuters located in a predominantly
residential neighborhood, 60% go by car to the
station, 35% walking and just 7% use public
transportation. For the residential stations with large
reserves of undeveloped land in the surrounding
area, people access the station in a similar fashion
as those using rural stations, mainly by cycling and
walking. This can be explained by the proximity of
peoples residence to the railway station and the
limited public transportation services.
4. DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES AROUND
STATIONS
The final objective of the study was to propose
some strategies to be applied when developing
areas around railway stations as a mean to promote
a change in transportation patterns. The conclusions
reached on the patterns of passengers, the use and
development of the land around stations and the
accessibility of the different types of stations allowed
us to consider different strategies in developing
these areas. The different strategies will not be
explained in detail in this brief, but some general
remarks follows.
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296 PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES)
We emphasize that the choices regarding land
use and development of the areas around stations,
especially with regards to accessibility issues and
expansion of structural entities should be included in
a charter involving railroad companies and both
regional and local operators. This charter should
express not only regional and local operators
willingness to upgrade stations to promote increased
use, but also the potential of improving railway
linkages and the frequencies of the trains.
We also believe that development and
improvement of areas around railway stations
requires strategic interventions at different scales. At
the level of municipalities and cities, the proposed
urban development interventions should not compete
with the projects specifically planned around the
railway station areas. The general structure around
the station should be taken into consideration, and
influences of new interventions need to be
thoroughly assessed. A development plan covering a
larger area should provide the guidelines that to be
followed in designing the operational plans.
Improvements regarding means of access to the
railway station will require establishment of road
networks and expansion of public transportation
within the area surrounding the station. Also,
development of surrounding pathways should be
enhanced in order to facilitate people cycling and
walking.
These principles, set out according to the
strategies related to the types of railway district
should be included in the charter. The improvement
should strategically strengthening three functions of
the station: The modal centrality, and the destination-
and departure functions.
The stations are central structures, to varying
degrees, making up essential junction points for the
population in an area. After losing some of their
symbolic power in the 20
th
century, they have again
become vital meeting points and centers for
transportation.This can be further enhanced by
improving the qualities of the space surrounding
stations and by developing other type of
infrastructure making the railway stations more
convenient and attractive centers. The station
should in other words be considered as a
development hub central in both local and
regional dynamics.
Furthermore, the station has a double role as
both a point of destination and departure. Depending
on the weight of these two roles, activities and
facilities must be provided and adapted. This will
naturally depend on the stations place in the
network.
5. CONCLUSIONS
The mentioned study attempts to lay out the
groundwork for a new policy. Too often the railway is
seen as a way of federal transportation and therefore
does not take into consideration regional concerns.
While there are projects focusing on regional issues,
such as the RER (rapid transit system), the
modernization of stations and railway lines, the
urgency of a comprehensive strategy should be
addressed.
Locally, the station and its surroundings have a
negative perception among people. Few people wish
to expand this infrastructure, even though it would
increase the travelling convenience and
opportunities. However, the station and its
neighborhood should be valued as important assets
of municipal- and urban development. A change to
this perspective requires both a strong political will of
regional authorities and transport operators to
implementation an urban planning strategy
addressing the problems linked to these facilities
(noise and vibration of trains, arriving and departing
flows from the station, insecurity, etc.)
It is therefore urgent to put Wallonia on track and
to promote mobility of the inhabitants in the region.
This collective challenge will directly impact the
development of our region and the quality of life for
its people.
6. REFERENCES
[1] Althabegoity H. (1998), Pour une stratgie du
rseau des gares regionals, dans Revue des
chemins de fer n4, pp. 69-75
[2] Bahn-Ville (tude franco-allemande) sur
http://www.bahn-ville.net/fr
[3] Confrence Permanente du dveloppement
territorial CPDT (2005), Protocole de Kyoto :
amnagement du territoire, mobilit et
urbanisme, MRW, DGATLP, Collection Etudes
et documents, srie CPDT n6
[4] Dawance T. (2002), Les sites degares face aux
enjeux de structuration du territoire en faveur
dun report de mode : synthse dexpriences
trangres, dans Mutations spatiales et
structures territoriales, rapport final de la
subvention 2002, CPDT, Thme 1, septembre
2003, vol.2, pp109 et s.
[5] Gouvernement Wallon (1999), Schma de
Dveloppement de lEspace Rgional, DGATLP,
Namur
[6] Halleux J.-M. et Lambotte J.-M. (2002),
Quantification et analyse volutive de la
dsurbanisation , in Les cots de la
dsurbanisation, Etudes et documents n1,
Namur Belgium
[7] Hubert J.-P. et Toint Ph. (2002), la mobilit
quotidienne des belges, Presses universitaires
de Namur, 347 pp.
[8] Kaufmann V. (2000), Mobilit quotidienne et
dynamique urbaines, la question du report
modal, Science, Techniques, Socit, Lausanne
Switzerland
[9] Menerault Ph. (2001), Gares et quartiers de
gares : signes et marges, d INRETS, coll.
Actes n77, 2001, 216 pp.
[10] Service du Premier Ministre (2001), Service
fdraux des affaires scientifiques, techniques
et culturelles, Enqute nationale sur la mobilit
des mnages ralisation et rsultats, Rapport
final.
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PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES) 297
Creating a sustainable transport system - a study
of the comprehensive mobility plan, issues
thereof and policies adopted in Pune urban
region in India.
Jayashree DESHPANDE
Director, National Institute of Advanced Studies in Architecture, Pune, India
ABSTRACT: In recent years, rapid economic developments and expectations of better job
opportunities and superior living conditions are becoming major determinants of the migration which
has contributed significantly to the sizeable increase in the population of Indian cities. In an
attempt to accommodate the swelling population, cities, faced with an unprecedented pace of
construction, are greatly expanding their physical boundaries resulting in a series of overlapping
and interconnected effects. Living conditions in core areas of cities as well as the suburbs are
far from ideal and are becoming increasingly critical. The failure of the public transport system in
providing reliable, economic and rapid conveyance is increasingly forcing large sections of the
population to fall back upon privately owned vehicles leading to pollution and traffic snarls.
This paper examines the relationship between the growth pattern of Indian cities and issues
of urban transportation, with special reference to the city of Pune located in Western
Maharashtra in India. It outlines the features of a comprehensive mobility plan for Pune giving
priority to pedestrians, non motorized transport and all modes of public transport. The paper
analyses the policies to be implemented for the creation of a people oriented city and
emphasizes on the active participation of all stakeholders including citizens and independent
non-government organizations in the process of creating a sustainable transport system.
Keywords: comprehensive mobility plan, urban transportation
1. INTRODUCTION
The urban expansion which has been taking
place the world over since the last few hundred
years has been considerably noticeable since the
beginning of the last century. India has been no
exception to this phenomenon. Rapid economic
developments and expectations of better job
opportunities together with superior living
conditions are becoming major determinants of the
migration from the rural into the metropolitan
areas. This has contributed significantly to the
sizeable increase in the population of Indian cities
in recent years. In an attempt to accommodate the
swelling population cities are faced with an
unprecedented pace of construction. This is
causing an expansion of their physical boundaries
resulting in a series of overlapping and
interconnected effects. As a consequence of
inadequate infrastructure and limited financial
resources, living conditions in core areas of Indian
cities, as well as their suburbs are far from ideal
and are becoming increasingly critical.

2. THE PUNE SCENARIO

The growth pattern of the city of Pune in
Maharashtra State of India is influenced
considerably by the influx of population caused by
the growth of various industry segments. The
issues of transportation within the city and its
suburbs are assuming a grave significance.
Pune is a city situated approximately 180
kilometres southeast of Mumbai at an elevation of
approximately 560 meters above sea level at the
confluence of the Mula and Mutha rivers. It is
bounded by hills on the western side and the
Sinhagad-Katraj hilly area to the south. Pune lies
at the confluence of three national highways.
National Highway 4 or NH4, a part of the Golden
Quadrilateral of highways in India runs between
Mumbai in the west and Chennai in the south
covering 1,235 km through the states of
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and
Tamil Nadu. It connects Pune to several major
cities such as Satara, Kolhapur and Kagal and
villages in Maharashtra as well as Bangalore in
Karnataka. National Highway 9 or NH9 with a total
length of 841 km passes through the states of
Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh
connecting Pune to Machilipatnam in Andhra
Pradesh. National Highway 50, or NH50 officially
listed as running over 192 km, runs within the
state of Maharashtra connecting the cities of Nasik
and Pune. The Pune road network has developed
around these three main highways and connects
Pune city to 1866 villages in 14 'talukas' or
territories within 15,642 sq. km. of Pune district.
Formerly, fondly called as the Oxford of the
East, pensioners paradise and city of cyclists,
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298 PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES)
the quality of the local environment. In order to
effect meaningful changes, there is a need to
carefully re-examine the planning theories that are
being adopted in our cities.
For all practical purposes, a sustainable
transport system would be one which serves the
common vision of an urban regions economic and
social development while focusing on:
easing access and mobility for people to reach
work, services, resources, and each other.
providing access for all groups in the society,
including children, the aged and the differently
able, in a manner that is within the
environmental carrying capacity of the region
being affordable to both the providers and
users of transport systems.
providing for smooth movement of goods within
cities.
Increasing prosperity, growth in population,
changing demands and new economic
requirements make it necessary for the authorities
to review their land policies continuously. There is
a need to create the will, the financial resources
and the management capabilities to improve the
urban infrastructure. Policy makers will have to
take drastic and even unpopular actions in order to
adequately meet the rapidly changing demands of
the urban population in the coming decade.
4. THE TRANSPORT POLICY: AN
ORGANISED APPROACH

The National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP),

formulated by the Ministry of Urban Development
in 2006 aims to transform the current urban
transport system into a safe, convenient and
efficient transportation system across all urban
areas in India. As per the mandate of the ministry,
cities are required to prepare a Comprehensive
Mobility Plan (CMP) that focuses on the mobility of
people rather than vehicles giving priority to
pedestrians, Non-Motorized Transport (NMT) and
all modes of public transport. The CMP for Pune
city has been drafted following the broad vision of
Moving people safely and economically by
emphasizing public transport and non-motorized
transport.
Some of the broad approaches of the CMP for
Pune city in order to achieve the above vision
include:
Identification of a number of trunk mobility
corridors along which high capacity public
transport systems such as Bus Rapid Transit
(BRT)/Monorail/LRT/Metro, etc would be
considered.
Enhancing the capacity and quality of the public
transport so that people are motivated to use it
instead of relying on personal two and four
wheeled motor vehicles.
Providing alternative routes in the form of ring
roads to enable the core city areas and main
city roads to be bypassed by long distance
commuters and goods carrying truck traffic.
Identifying feeder systems that connect
different areas in the city to the most
convenient node in one or more of the mobility
corridors.
Providing a network of dedicated cycle tracks,
footpaths and pedestrian crossings with
emphasis on the safety of users.
Pedestrianising important zones within the core
city area and linking them with strategic parking
places to encourage people to walk in such
areas.
Judiciously providing flyovers in a few heavily
congested junctions/intersections to reduce
idling traffic.
Special attention towards road safety.
Introduction of physical and fiscal measures
that would discourage the use of personal
motor vehicles.
Reforming and strengthening the institutional
arrangements for managing and regulating the
transport system in the city.
Several initiatives have been taken by The
Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to improve the
traffic and transport situation in Pune. A 6 lane,
170 km long ring road is planned to connect the
peripherals with the city and serve as a bypass for
heavy vehicles. This is also expected to ensure
that heavy vehicles and trucks do not ply on the
inner circuits, thereby reducing traffic congestion.
At the same time it would lessen the pollution
within the city and provide relief to buffer zones
like schools and hospitals, which are at present
being subjected to sound pollution due to heavy
vehicular traffic.
The Pune Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, the
first of its kind in India was implemented with the
noble intention of fighting traffic congestion.
However, it has been severely criticized and
leaves tremendous scope for improvement on
account of inadequate planning, lack of
enforcement of dedicated lanes for buses, and
haste in rolling out the project.
.
A file photograph depicting dedicated lanes for
buses under the Pune BRT System.
The PMC has attempted to promote cycling by
making cycle tracks along the roads such that they
are segregated from vehicular traffic. On roads
having width of 80 ft or more, separate cycle
tracks are given by setting aside strips in each
direction adjacent to the foot path and segregated
Pune has been spectator to the vibrant growth of
the industrial, commercial as well as the
educational sector. The presence of various
Central and State Government establishments is
also notable. Industries dealing with automobiles,
auto components, forgings and mechanical
components are giving Pune a new identity as the
Detroit of India, while food processing and
service industries like IT and IT enabled services
have also made a noteworthy presence in the city.
A large proportion of the citys commercial
establishments flourish on wholesale and retail
trade and commerce. The city serves as the
regional wholesale market for food grains and
other commodities. In the education sector, the
city has six universities which include above 600
affiliated colleges with an estimated student
population exceeding five hundred and fifty
thousand. In recent years, Pune has attracted over
8000 students from more than 62 countries. Pune
has thus emerged as the centre and hub for a
wide range of diversified activities and over the
past 30 years, urbanized areas have increased
several times. Once famous for its greenery, open
spaces, clean air and the beautiful lush green hills
surrounding it, today it holds the dubious
distinction of being one of Indias most congested
and polluted cities. The ease of connectivity to
native places coupled with opportunities of better
jobs and higher education in Pune have been
luring youth from neighbouring and far places to
settle in this city. In an attempt to accommodate
the swelling population, Pune is faced with a rapid
and unparalleled pace of construction.
Although the most important function of cities
today should be to provide the best possible
environment and quality of life for all those living
and working there, living conditions in cities are far
from ideal.The process of rapid urbanization is
also greatly expanding the physical boundaries of
large cities creating suburbs or annexes? to
existing suburbs. Real estate markets project the
myth of a false paradise created within these
suburbs and massive numbers of middle income
families lured by promises of superior living
possibilities within affordable prices move to these
areas which are located far away from workplaces.
3. ISSUES OF URBAN TRANSPORTATION
As part of the globalization process, in Pune,
the orientation of Government polices has been
towards building expressways, promoting private
vehicular transport and reducing excise duty on
motorised vehicles. With improved production and
the increasing affordability of cars there has been
a corresponding rise in the construction of
motorways within the city and the development of
suburbs. In order to provide for the increasing
number of vehicles entering the inner city, new
roads are being built, existing roads enlarged by
cutting trees, and open spaces being converted
into parking lots. The old urban fabric is getting
destroyed as large scale urban renewal is initiated
with little or no regard either for pedestrians and
non polluting modes of transport or for the quality
of life.
The public bus transport system is in a state of
utter neglect. Inadequate number of buses as
compared to the population, poor quality of
vehicles, erratic frequencies, not so convenient
routes and high cost of tickets add to the miseries
of the commuters. An organised city taxi service is
almost non-existent and the three wheeled auto
rickshaw service is the only public mode of
transport available, albeit expensive, for travel to
the desired destination. The failure of any of the
existing public transport systems in providing
reliable, economic and rapid conveyance is
instrumental in increasingly forcing large sections
of the population to fall back upon privately owned
two and four wheeled vehicles. In such a scenario,
travel to and from the work places is generating a
large volume of traffic on Pune roads. This has
been leading to pollution and traffic snarls.
In addition, transportation problems in Pune
city become chaotic throughout the rainy season
and also during yearly religious events like the ten
day Ganesh Festival and Palkhi Procession. The
unrelenting growth of traffic has become a major
deterrent to the enhanced growth of the city and
perhaps the greatest environmental threat. Around
2500 State Government owned interstate bus
transport vehicles in addition to the privately
owned luxury bus services connect the city of
Pune, round the clock, to the five adjoining states
through five inter-city bus terminuses. There are
several pickup points for the interstate buses
which are located within the city thus adding to the
traffic woes.
.
Chaotic traffic on one of the main arterial roads in
Pune.
There is a similar environmental deterioration,
rising pollution and increasing traffic paralysis in
many cities of India. It is therefore becoming
obligatory to work out a sustainable transport
policy which will respect the relationship between
transport, energy and pollution and their effects on
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the quality of the local environment. In order to
effect meaningful changes, there is a need to
carefully re-examine the planning theories that are
being adopted in our cities.
For all practical purposes, a sustainable
transport system would be one which serves the
common vision of an urban regions economic and
social development while focusing on:
easing access and mobility for people to reach
work, services, resources, and each other.
providing access for all groups in the society,
including children, the aged and the differently
able, in a manner that is within the
environmental carrying capacity of the region
being affordable to both the providers and
users of transport systems.
providing for smooth movement of goods within
cities.
Increasing prosperity, growth in population,
changing demands and new economic
requirements make it necessary for the authorities
to review their land policies continuously. There is
a need to create the will, the financial resources
and the management capabilities to improve the
urban infrastructure. Policy makers will have to
take drastic and even unpopular actions in order to
adequately meet the rapidly changing demands of
the urban population in the coming decade.
4. THE TRANSPORT POLICY: AN
ORGANISED APPROACH

The National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP),

formulated by the Ministry of Urban Development
in 2006 aims to transform the current urban
transport system into a safe, convenient and
efficient transportation system across all urban
areas in India. As per the mandate of the ministry,
cities are required to prepare a Comprehensive
Mobility Plan (CMP) that focuses on the mobility of
people rather than vehicles giving priority to
pedestrians, Non-Motorized Transport (NMT) and
all modes of public transport. The CMP for Pune
city has been drafted following the broad vision of
Moving people safely and economically by
emphasizing public transport and non-motorized
transport.
Some of the broad approaches of the CMP for
Pune city in order to achieve the above vision
include:
Identification of a number of trunk mobility
corridors along which high capacity public
transport systems such as Bus Rapid Transit
(BRT)/Monorail/LRT/Metro, etc would be
considered.
Enhancing the capacity and quality of the public
transport so that people are motivated to use it
instead of relying on personal two and four
wheeled motor vehicles.
Providing alternative routes in the form of ring
roads to enable the core city areas and main
city roads to be bypassed by long distance
commuters and goods carrying truck traffic.
Identifying feeder systems that connect
different areas in the city to the most
convenient node in one or more of the mobility
corridors.
Providing a network of dedicated cycle tracks,
footpaths and pedestrian crossings with
emphasis on the safety of users.
Pedestrianising important zones within the core
city area and linking them with strategic parking
places to encourage people to walk in such
areas.
Judiciously providing flyovers in a few heavily
congested junctions/intersections to reduce
idling traffic.
Special attention towards road safety.
Introduction of physical and fiscal measures
that would discourage the use of personal
motor vehicles.
Reforming and strengthening the institutional
arrangements for managing and regulating the
transport system in the city.
Several initiatives have been taken by The
Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to improve the
traffic and transport situation in Pune. A 6 lane,
170 km long ring road is planned to connect the
peripherals with the city and serve as a bypass for
heavy vehicles. This is also expected to ensure
that heavy vehicles and trucks do not ply on the
inner circuits, thereby reducing traffic congestion.
At the same time it would lessen the pollution
within the city and provide relief to buffer zones
like schools and hospitals, which are at present
being subjected to sound pollution due to heavy
vehicular traffic.
The Pune Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, the
first of its kind in India was implemented with the
noble intention of fighting traffic congestion.
However, it has been severely criticized and
leaves tremendous scope for improvement on
account of inadequate planning, lack of
enforcement of dedicated lanes for buses, and
haste in rolling out the project.
.
A file photograph depicting dedicated lanes for
buses under the Pune BRT System.
The PMC has attempted to promote cycling by
making cycle tracks along the roads such that they
are segregated from vehicular traffic. On roads
having width of 80 ft or more, separate cycle
tracks are given by setting aside strips in each
direction adjacent to the foot path and segregated
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300 PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES)
from the fast lane by dividers. On roads with the
width less than 80 ft and having heavy cycle flows
in both the directions, priority to cycle traffic is
given by proving cycle tracks on both the sides
and introducing one way schemes for motorized
vehicles on other existing arterial roads. However
such schemes have served to increase the speed
of vehicular traffic on the arterial roads while
compromising on the safety of pedestrians and
cyclists while at the same time increasing
commuting distances and inconveniencing the bus
travellers.
.
A representative image of a public not educated in
traffic rules using the motorway for cycling despite
the provision of an independent cycle track.

5. CONCLUSIONS
In order to see the plans achieve the desired
results, creating awareness and educating the
large local as well as the rapidly growing,
undisciplined rural, migrant population about the
background, intentions and expected outcomes of
such schemes is absolutely necessary. Schemes
must be designed and implemented with the vision
for the next fifty years and not as patchwork
remedial measures of short term duration.
Implementation of these approaches would
necessitate drastic steps to:
Improve the image, capacity, quality and cost of
the bus public transport system.
Constrain the use of personal motor vehicles by
reducing parking areas, restricting entry,
levying taxes and parking fee, higher fuel cost
etc.
Intelligently integrate the existing system of
three wheeled auto rickshaws to economically
connect to the larger mobility corridors by
introducing the concepts of share-an-auto and
point-to-point movement plans.
Give lower priority to road widening and
flyovers, but wherever necessary do it in a
manner to make cycling and walking safer.
Encourage industries and institutions to provide
for employee housing on campus or at least
make arrangement for the mass movement of
their employees.
Design and relocate interstate bus terminuses
to the peripheral areas of the city, to be
connected to core city area by an independent
public minibus system.
There may be nothing new in the above
measures. In a situation where mobility has now
become a major issue for the society, it is certainly
not easy to find the correct solutions in a system of
economic, social, societal and environmental
equations. However, it is for this reason that, to
create people oriented cities, policies will have to
be implemented with the active participation of all
stakeholders including citizens and independent
non-government organisations. The decision
making processes will have to be more open, more
transparent and more inclusive. Decisions need to
be taken with the involvement of local experts in
order to develop a range of mechanisms to receive
support for implementation and meaningful
feedback on performance. It is the sense of
belonging and pride instilled in the involved
stakeholders which will go a long way towards
contributing to the successful implementation of
remedial measures.
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Urban mobiIity at the city of JoinviIIe, BraziI,
focusing on bicycIe integration with pubIic transportation.
ANA MRTHES HACKENBERG
1
, MARCIO LSBOA
1
GEORGE HENRQUE RANGEL COSTA
2
,
EDSON MURAKAM
2
, FERNANDO HUMEL LAFRATTA
3

1
Departamento de Engenharia Civil,
2
Departamento de Cincia da Computao,
3
Departamento de Engenharia
Mecnica Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina Caixa Postal 631 CEP 89.223-100 Joinville SC
Brasil

ABSTRACT: This work presents the initial efforts to reveal how many people ride bicycles, their itinerary and for
what they are using their bicycles in Joinville, a medium city in south of Brazil. A questionnaire where sent to the
public schools asking about the number of students and how many go to the school by bicycles. Together, with
the city government, other information were obtained, like the number of bicycle parks, its condition and if it is
overloaded or not. Also, the actual cycle lanes were checked about their conditions to ride. With this scenario
new actions were proposed in order to improve the use of bicycles as a trustful mean of transportation.
Keywords: bicycles, cycle lanes, data base, urban and rural routes

1. INTRODUCTION
Joinville, an industrial city with 500.000 habitants
at the north region of Santa Catarina state, Brazil, on
70's where known as the "Bicycles' City. Since that
time the number of automotive vehicles increased
strongly but without a proper infrastructure to support
it. Nowadays, together with a lack of efficient public
transportation system, the simple act of moving in the
city is becoming a hard work. To improve the citizen
mobility, in a scenario with physical, environment and
budget restrictions, the use of bicycles, alone or
integrated with the public transportation system,
seems to be a very good option! Besides, with its
implementation, it will be possible to improve the
citizen's health, save fuel and minimize the pollution.
To fulfill this aim the traffic conditions has to be
improved in a way that the actual cyclists, and the
new ones, could feel comfortable and safe using this
mean of transportation. Road characteristics and
conditions, infrastructure to support cyclists like
bicycles parking near bus stations, what for the
cyclists are using the bicycle, are examples of very
important variables in the equation to choose bicycle
as a mean of transportation. Roads' safety, good
accessibility to routes and its continuity, support
infrastructure at the cyclist's destiny (showers,
lockers an bicycles parking) and integration with
other transportation systems, public or not, are
positive points. As well, the trip duration, the
automotive vehicles' speed and the pavement quality
are parameters to define safe and usable routes at
urban and rural areas.
At that manner, the objective of this work is to
identify, at urban and rural areas of the city, physical
problems that contribute to restrict the use of bicycles
as a trustful mean of transportation, integrated or not
with the public transportation system. The results
obtained will be forwarded to the city government as
suggestions to improve Joinville's transportation
system.
2. BICYCLE USE EVALUATION
Recent projects evaluated the intense use of
bicycles on mainly and alternatives itineraries at
Joinville.
The quantitative analysis showed a great number
of workers and students [1]. On the first research,
done in 2008, thirteen itineraries, which visually
demonstrated an intense use, were evaluated. The
data collection was done at 6:45, 8:45, 16:45 and
18:45 h, time where most of the employees are
starting and finishing their work.
At the end of this research was noticed that near
certain factories, that are known for the great number
of cyclists, the results were very low. To verify what
happened a new research were conducted in 2009
[2], but new check points and schedules were
defined.
2.1 Research at streets
On this new research two streets with low level of
use by cyclist, Ottokar Doerffel and Baltazar Buschle,
where substituted by Nove de Maro and XV de
Novembro Streets and Beira Rio Avenue. The time
schedules were modified in order to include the start
and end of shifts at schools and factories. During the
morning period the research were done from 6:30
until 8:30 h and in the afternoon from 17:30 until
19:30 h. At Helmut Fallgater and Albano Schimidt
Street the time schedule were 5:30 until 7:30 h and
11:45 until 14:00 h, because of the different time to
change shifts at schools and factories near these
streets. Table 01 list the streets, avenues and the
district name where the check points were located.
On table 02 is showed the total of cars and
bicycles at the check point per period and routes. t is
recorded only the number of cyclists that were
moving at the same direction of the cars.


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Table 01: Streets, avenues and districts.
Local - Street Code District
Dona Francisca C1 Bom Retiro
riri C2 Saguau
Santos Dumont C3 Bom Retiro
Beira Rio C4 Centro
So Paulo C5 Bucarein
Anita Garibaldi C6 Anita Garibaldi
Santa Catarina C7 Floresta
Monsenhor Gercino C8 Floresta
Florianpolis C9 Guanabara
Helmut Fallgatter C10 Boa Vista
Albano Schmidt C11 Boa Vista
Santo Agostinho C12 Guanabara
XV de Novembro C13 Gloria
Nove de Maro C14 Centro

Table 02 Total of cars and bicycles by period and
routes.
Local Morning Afternoon
Code Car Bike Car Bike
C1 960 255 1007 21
C2 1868 241 2140 69
C3 1944 480 2629 52
C4 1401 261 2331 199
C5 1340 119 1138 45
C6 754 134 811 88
C7 539 266 1255 199
C8 1205 474 916 97
C9 969 236 853 54
C10 1177 237 2344 214
C11 1097 101 2337 96
C12 1566 367 1590 228
C13 1175 167 1229 21
C14 1818 76 1378 43

Figure 01 shows the cars and bicycles variation
during the morning period, when they are at the
same direction.


Figure 01: Bicycles and cars morning period.

Figure 02 shows the cars and bicycles variation
during the afternoon period, when they are at the
same direction.

Figure 02: Bicycles and cars afternoon period.

Evaluating these two figures it is possible to
establish that during the afternoon period the number
of bicycles is smaller than in the morning period and
the number of cars is greater than in the morning
period. That is because great part of the population
that makes use of bicycles as a mean of
transportation are industry workers, which shifts is
not coincident with other activities like commercial
and school.
Table 03 shows the total number of bicycles at
each check point, despite the cars direction.

Table 03: Total number of bicycles per period.

Street Morning Afternoon
D. Francisca C1 255 122
riri C2 300 208
S. Dumont C3 480 386
Beira Rio C4 498 369
So Paulo C5 208 248
A. Garibaldi C6 281 237
Santa Catarina C7 302 288
Mons. Gercino C8 534 424
Florianpolis C9 414 448
H. Fallgatter C10 347 370
A. Schmidt C11 681 624
Sto Agostinho C12 464 493
15 Novembro C13 181 138
Nove Maro C14 135 122

Figure 03 shows the total number of bicycles on
both directions at each check point, comparing both
periods. At some check points this number is greater
for the afternoon period. Most of the time, the cyclists
do not take the same direction of the car traffic
because cycle lanes are two-way or they are riding
wrong-way at streets or on the sidewalks.
The highest concentration of bicycles occurs at
Boa Vista district, at Albano Schmidt Street, near
Tupy Foundry and the High School SOCESC. The
lowest number of bicycles occurs at downtown and
XV de Novembro Street, at the west zone.
On most of these streets and avenues it is
possible to denote that the local government has
serious difficulties with the cycle lanes maintenance,
like at So Paulo Street. Near the highway (BR 101)
it is possible to find streets with a great number of
bicycles circulating, like Anita Garibaldi, and without
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PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES) 303


cycle lanes, that oblige the cyclists to share the road
with heavy trucks and cars at high speed.


Figure 03 Bicycle total for morning and afternoon
period.
2.2 Research at schooIs
Joinville, on May 2009, had 62,748 students
distributed on 144 municipal public schools [3]. Most
of the schools have two periods: morning and
afternoon. Some has night period. For 80 of these
schools were send a questionnaire asking for the
number of students per period and how many make
use of bicycle as a mean of transportation. From
these questionnaires, 26 returned. The total of
students researched on 15
th
, 17
th
and 19
th
of June
represents approximately 30% of the matriculated
students, or 18,615.
Table 04 shows the average number of students
that make use of bicycles as mean of transportation
for the morning and afternoon period. t is possible to
notice that an average of 7.4% of the students make
use of the bicycle at the morning period and 6.1% at
afternoon. But, the percentage fluctuates from 0.3
until 49.1%. The greatest percentage occurred at
School E18, with 44% during the morning and 49.1%
during the afternoon.

Table 04 number of cyclists per school per period.
Shift Morning Afternoon
School Student Byk % Student Byk %
E1 419 52 12 401 19 4,7
E2 628 55 8,8 488 13 2,7
E3 601 58 9,7 560 59 10
E4 64 24 38 77 25 33
E5 450 3 0,7 450 1 0,3
E6 363 13 3,5 325 7 2,3
E7 431 19 4,4 421 8 2,0
E8 439 79 18 355 24 6,9
E9 450 24 5,4 560 31 5,5
E10 99 7 7,1 82 8 9,8
E11 393 1 0,3 380 18 4,6
E12 449 26 5,9 392 12 3,0
E13 207 2 1,0 213 3 1,4
E14 370 22 6,0 379 55 14
E15 474 11 2,3 423 2 0,4
E16 162 24 15 160 16 10
E17 260 22 8,3 140 8 5,5
E18 87 39 44 73 36 49
E19 421 40 9,6 387 29 7,4
E20 383 62 16 387 91 23
E21 420 20 4,8 435 12 2,8
E22 439 3 0,8 496 9 1,7
E23 384 21 5,5 346 7 2,0
E24 439 40 9,1 421 23 5,5
E25 261 23 8,9 367 31 8,4
E26 477 12 2,4 326 1 0,3
Total 9571 704 7,4 9044 548 6,1
2.3 Bus-bicycIe integration
Because of the distances between origin and
destination and the buses schedule, many times
users are forced to do part of their trips by bicycle
and part by bus. For this reason it is very important to
provide practical and safe bicycles parking near the
bus stations. The actual bicycle parking, near the bus
stations were evaluated by their degree of using and
safety. Table 05 shows the bus stations with bicycle
parking, the number of slots and its rate of use
during three periods: morning from 06:30 to 08:30 h,
midday from 10:00 to 14:00 h and at the end of the
afternoon from 15:30 to 18:00 h.
Table 05 bicycle parking utilization.
Terminal slots Morning midday aftern
Centro 60 9 34 37
Tupy 0 0 0 0
Norte 0 0 0 0
tinga 40 29 43 33
Sul 11 1 1 2
Vila Nova 27 20 22 19
riri 17 0 5 0
Pirabeiraba 17 21 15 17
taum 15 3 8 12
Guanabara 13 0 1 0
N. Braslia 12 3 6 6

t was noticed that the far is the residences
distances to bus stations, higher is the necessity to
use bicycles to help on daily transport. During the
morning there is a greater concentration of bicycles
at tinga, Pirabeiraba and Vila Nova bus stations,
border of Joinville's urban perimeter. During the
afternoon bus stations with a greater movement are
Centro, Vila Nova, tinga, Pirabeiraba and taum.
n some bus stations the slots are roofed, as in
Pirabeiraba (figure 04). n tinga there is only a bus
stop and near a very simple bicycle parking without
safety and highly used (figure 05). Centro's bus
station has no parking for bicycles, but near, at
Bandeiras' square, there are two with a high degree
of utilization (figure 06). Nowadays, the bicycle
parking at industries are being under evaluation.
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Figure 04 bicycle parking at Pirabeiraba's bus
station.

Figure 05 bicycle parking at tinga bus stop.


Figure 06 bicycle parking at Bandeira's square.

2.4 BicycIes routes evaIuation
To evaluate the urban cycle routes conditions
(bicycle lanes and routes), 3 groups of students from
Santa Catarina State University Joinville, pass
through them saving the routes' geographic
reference on a GPS (Global Positioning System).
The routes, that totalized 80 km, were evaluated by
their pavement conditions, the number of obstacles
that make difficult the cyclist traffic and the
intersections with streets and avenues.
During the mapping activity were observed that
there are some cycle lanes in good conditions and
well signalized, as those on Monsenhor Gersino and
Baltazar Buschle Streets. Also, were evaluated the
difficult that many cyclists face on their way to home
or work, like rain, pavement poor conditions and
hazards constraining the passage. Another aspect
that contributes negatively to the normal flow of
bicycles is the traffic of pedestrian and motorcycles
on the cycle lanes and the bus stops that obstruct
the cyclist passage.
Despite the great difficulties found during the
travel, bicycles are still a mean of transportation
strongly used by workers and students. n some
regions is possible to notice that bicycles are the
most important vehicle to transport people and stuffs,
because of their low cost and the cyclists poor
monetary conditions.
Besides the bicycles use as a mean of
transportation, they are used during the weekend
and after the work by organized groups for leisure
and sport.
3. A WEB APPLICATION, INTEGRATED TO
GOOGLE MAPS, TO VISUALIZE
BICYCLES ROUTES
Besides the urban routes the rural ones are also
being studied. The objective is to visualize the
possible integration between rural and urban routes.
This integration can turns the dislocation easier and
stimulate the use of the bicycles as an economic,
clean and healthy mean of transportation and leisure.
The urban routes mapping were done and actually
the rural routes are under development. To support
this task a GPS are being used, in order to obtain the
routes reference related to the global position. Those
routes were saved in a Geographic Data Base. A
web application, integrated to Google Maps, was
developed to visualize the rotes over many others
layers offering by Google Maps. Figure 07 shows the
geographic data base model.

Figure 07 geographic data base model for the rural
routes.
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To model the data Geoframe [4] were used. t is a
framework for conceptual modeling of geographic
phenomena and project standard specification for
geographic data base. The tool ArgoCASEGEO [5]
were used for modeling.
Figure 08 shows the web application integrated
into Google Maps to visualize the urban and rural
routes at Joinville. To access the website try
http://200.19.107.196:81.


Figure 8 web application screen for route
visualization.
The technologies applied to construct this
application were the geographic data base system
PostGS an extension to manipulate and save the
geographic data at PostgreSQL [6], the Geoserver
a map server to implement standard services from
OGC (OpenGIS consortium [7], and OpenLayers a
JavaScript component library to manipulate maps
through standard services protocols for OGC, WMS
(web mapping service) and WFS (web feature
service) [8].
The idea is to turn this SG (geographic
information system) application into a free decision
tool to support governments' actions for planning,
creation and maintenance of cycle routes.
4. CONCLUSION
Data obtained until now shows clearly that the
major bicycle use is: concentrate on industry workers
and students, during the week, on the morning
period and at urban area. At rural area is more
common to find bicyclist, in an expressive number,
whose focus is leisure and sport.
n order to know better the bicyclist habits a new
research is being prepared. Questionnaires will be
applied to bicyclist asking about the route they
selected, its extension, time schedule, cares with
traffic, safe equipments, bicycle integration with
others sports, difficulties as general, why bicycle was
chosen as a mean of transportation and bicycle's
care and maintenance.
To also evaluate the bicycle use demand
interviews with passengers of the public
transportation system and car holders are planning
to be applied.
At the end of the that new project, and together
with the results obtained on this one, a set of
recommendations, to improve the conditions to bring
more bicyclist to the street, will be forwarded to the
municipal government.
5. REFERENCES
[1] Hackenberg, A. M. et al Diagnstico
preliminar sobre uso da bicicleta em joinville.
Anais do Pluris2008, Universidade do Minho,
Santos, Brasil. 2008
[2] Hackenberg, A. M. et al Aes de mobilidade
cicloviria no municpio de Joinville
interligando a bicicleta a outros meios de
transporte. Anais do Pluris2010,
Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal,
2010.
[3] www.ippuj.sc.gov.br
[4] CUNHA, M.F. Modelagem e mplementao
de Banco de Dados Geogrficos para Apoio
a Tomada de Deciso Caso Maracaja.
Dissertao de Mestrado. Universidade
Federal do Rio Grande do Norte. 2005.
[5] http://www.dpi.ufv.br/projetos/argocasegeo/.
[6] http://postgis.refractions.net/.
[7] http://geoserver.org/.
[8] http://openlayers.org/.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES) 307


The Significance of Gauging StakehoIder Interests
in Energy Saving and EnvironmentaI Management
in Green HospitaIs
Phanchalath SURYOTHN
1
, Wannee WATTANAPALN
2

1,2
Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
ABSTRACT: Recently, the Engineering Institute of Thailand and the Association of Siamese Architects issued a
green building rating system to promote sustainability and to conserve the environment. A hospital is a building
type that consumes large amounts of energy. Therefore, recommendations for rating their sustainability and
operating them more efficiently have been made. However, hospitals have large and diverse numbers of
stakeholders who need to be consulted before transforming hospital buildings. The aim of this research is to
study the importance of assessing stakeholder interest in energy saving and environmental management in
green hospitals. Sample stakeholders were categorized into five groups: executive officers, building support
staff, hospital workers, architects and engineers. A questionnaire survey was conducted in order to gain opinions
about the significance of the incoming green building rating system in Thailand for hospitals. The results showed
that environmental sustainability is considered important, was rated at the levels of 'high' and 'highest', by all
stakeholders. Of greatest importance was environmental protection, followed by indoor environmental quality.
The next area of concern was construction materials and resources, followed by site and landscape. Finally, an
important criterion that should be added is the details of waste and wastewater management in the hospital.
Keywords: green building, hospital, energy saving, environmental management
1. INTRODUCTION
Under current circumstances, a rapid increase
in energy consumption has caused environmental
impacts and is thought to contribute to global
warming. n many countries, awareness of the
environmental crisis has led to the implementation
of green building rating systems, such as LEED in
the United States, CASBEE in Japan and BREEAM
in the UK., Each criteria has been developed to suit
the environment, topography and climatic
conditions, society, laws, and culture of each
country. For Thailand, the Association of Siamese
Architects under Royal Patronage of His Majesty
the King (ASA) and the Engineering nstitute of
Thailand under His Majesty the King's Patronage
(ET) joined together creating a green building
rating system. The rating system was officially
announced in 2010 by applying the assessment to
all new-constructed buildings with no exceptions.
The study [1] found that hospitals in Thailand
are very high energy-consumption buildings,
especially with air conditioning systems operated
twenty-four hours per day and they also release
large amounts of drainage and toxins. Hospitals are
the buildings which should be priority-assessed as
green buildings, in order to utilize energy more
efficiently and lessen the pollution released in the
environment. Due to the complex multiple-usage
buildings in hospitals it was rather difficult to
evaluate the design and management of a building
as a green building in consideration of investment
feasibility and returns on investment from owner(s)
and investors. Currently, hospitals in Thailand are
expanding their markets to include foreign clients;
therefore entitling a green hospital has become
more possible.
From the discussion above, a study focussing
on green hospitals has been recognized as
significant. According to the green building rating
system in Thailand, the perspectives of all related-
parties including the owner/ executive officers,
building support staff, hospital workers, architects,
and engineers resulted not only in adjustment
implementation to fit the criteria for green hospital
buildings or other similar building types, but also
promoted reduction of environmental problems and
global warming. n addition, the study of the
significance of green building assessment for
hospitals could help designers and those who are
involved with the hospitals has a better
understanding and greater awareness of how
important this matter was.
The first aim the study was to examine the
criteria for assessing green hospital buildings, and
to analyze which section in the rating system was
significant, appropriate, and most practical. The
second aim was to study how important is a green
hospital in view of all involved stakeholders. Lastly,
the third goal was a comparative analysis was
conducted to improve the assessment of energy
saving efficiency and environmental management
for hospitals and to apply these as guidelines for
building designs in the future.
The study scoped involved only hospital
buildings in the Bangkok Metropolitan area thus
targeting foreign clients and medical centers which
were more likely to be promoted as green
buildings. The green building rating system (draft-
document in October 2009) was proposed by the
synergy of the sub-committees of green building
rating system from both ASA and ET. There were
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
308 PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES)


8 sections in the rating system including; Section 1:
Building Management, Section 2: Site and
Landscape, Section 3: Water Conservation,
Section 4: Energy and Atmosphere, Section 5:
Materials and Resources, Section 6: ndoor
Environmental Quality, Section 7: Environmental
Protection, and Section 8: Green nnovation.
The draft-document from October 2009 for the
green building rating system [2] was used as a tool
for this study. t has only been granted by public
hearing but has not yet been officially implemented.
The actual document with officially enforcement
was entitled "Thai's Rating of Energy and
Environmental Sustainable for New Construction
and Major Renovation (TREES-NC) by the
Thailand Green Building nstitute (TGB),
announced in January 2010 [3]. n addition, the
limitation of populations and sampling allowed only
those groups who were related to hospitals. Lastly,
questionnaires that contained a draft of green
building rating system using technical terms were
rather difficult to understand. The study was
therefore conducted in questionnaires instead of
interviews in order to allow respondents' efficient
time to consider and understand.
2. METHODS
2.1. Literature reviews
Documentary research from books, journals,
articles, theses, and research papers from various
sources regarding principles, concepts and theories
of green building assessment both domestic and
international was carried out Criteria and standards
of practice for hospital buildings, and energy saving
efficiency in the hospital including sets of hospital
building samples that were already granted as
green buildings in foreign countries were also
reviewed.
2.2. SampIing seIection
A specific sample of stakeholders for the
research contained five groups: executive officers,
building support staff, hospital workers, architects,
and engineers were selected. The selection
focused on hospitals with a potential to become
green hospitals, such as hospitals that served
foreign clients, or a medical center of various areas
of specialties, and architects or engineers who had
hospital design experiences.
2.3. PiIot test
A pilot test of a draft of the green building rating
system was conducted to preliminarily evaluate
hospital buildings. The test was based on a study
of hospital buildings' drawings and interviews with
architects and engineers who designed the
hospitals for the purpose of data collection and to
find some critical issue during this preliminary
stage.
2.4. PreIiminary questionnaires
A draft questionnaire was designed containing
both closed-ended and opened-ended questions
indicating weight value according to the draft of the
green building rating system. The validity of the
contents was also tested in order to allow for
revision and improvement for an optimal outcome.
2.5. A test of questionnaires
Five target groups with 3-5 sets of
questionnaires for each group using interview
method were tested asked for recommendations in
order to find any flaws and to improve the number
of questionnaires before they were finalized.
2.6. Send questionnaires to stakehoIders
The completed questionnaires were sent by
hand to all five target groups.
2.7. CoIIect questionnaires and anaIyze the
resuIts
A set of respondents were collected, analyzed,
and translated into descriptive research results
indicating frequencies value in percentage (%).
3. RESULTS
The number of questionnaires sent was 330.
236 questionnaires were completed by five target
groups: 31 questionnaires were collected from
Group 1: hospital executive officers who involved in
the main decision making of green building, 70
were collected from Group 2: building support staff
who are involved in energy saving and
maintenance management of buildings to facilitate
the purpose of green building, 38 were collected
from Group 3: hospital workers, 46 were collected
from Group 4: architects with experience in hospital
design who participated in bringing hospitals to be
green buildings, and 51 were collected from Group
5: engineers with experience in hospital building
service system design who participated in bringing
hospitals to be green buildings.
For a sampling selection, the initial aim was to
obtain information in approximately the same
number of respondents from each group, but the
hospital executive officers had limitations due to
time constraints. Therefore only 31 questionnaires
were returned. The majority of participants with the
most interests to complete questionnaires more
than other groups were the building support staff,
who directly and practically worked in hospital
buildings. They recognized how crucial
questionnaires could benefit their work
environment, and would like to provide comments
to communicate where the real problems occurred.
The numbers of respondents from hospital workers,
architects, and engineers were very close as
expected.
The contents of the questionnaire were divided
into 3 parts consisting of Part 1: Personal
information of respondents, Part 2: Level of
significance of green building rating system, and
Part 3: General information of energy saving
efficiency and environmental management of the
hospital.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES) 309


3.1. Part 1: PersonaI information of
respondents/ 5 stakehoIder groups
Table 1: Personal information of five stakeholder groups:
executive officers (G1), building support staff (G2),
hospital workers (G3), architects (G4) and engineers
(G5).
Personal
information
details
% of stakeholders in each group
G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 mean
Sex
male 74.20 92.86 42.11 76.09 86.27 77.54
female 25.81 7.14 57.89 23.91 13.73 22.46
age (years)
< 30 - 12.86 15.79 19.57 17.65 13.98
30-39 9.68 42.86 31.58 39.13 52.94 38.14
40-49 35.48 30.00 31.58 26.09 15.69 27.12
50 54.84 14.29 21.05 15.22 13.73 20.76
education
< undergrad 3.23 22.86 10.53 2.17 - 9.32
undergrad 35.48 57.14 71.05 67.39 74.51 62.29

master
degree 45.16 20 18.42 30.43 23.53 25.85

doctoral
degree 9.68 - - - 1.96 1.69
etc. .6.45 - - - - 0.85
working experience (years)
< 5 - 12.9 13.16 13.00 11.80 11.02
5-10 3.23 25.70 15.79 19.60 33.30 21.61
11-20 29.03 32.90 36.84 39.10 39.20 35.59
20-30 41.94 25.70 21.05 21.70 7.84 22.46
30 25.81 2.86 13.16 6.52 7.84 9.32
working experience reIated to hospitaIs (years)
< 5 - 34.29 15.78 52.17 54.90 34.75
5-10 9.68 21.43 26.32 19.57 19.61 19.92
11-20 29.03 22.86 26.32 17.39 21.57 22.88
20-30 41.94 18.57 26.32 10.87 1.96 17.80
30 19.35 2.86 5.26 - 1.96 4.66

Table 1 shows personal information of the
respondents which consist of 77.54% male and
22.46% female. Majority respondents were at 30-
39 years of age, representing 38.14% followed by
the age of 40-49, representing 27.12%. Hospital
executive officers were mainly in the age of over
50, representing 54.84%. Most of respondents
were Bachelor Degree graduates 62.29%, Master
Degree graduates 25.85%. Most of hospital
executive officers graduated with Master Degree
representing 45.16%. The respondents with
working experience in their careers in a range of
11-20 years had the greatest numbers with
35.59%. The group of executive officers mostly had
working experience in a range of 20-30 years,
representing 41.94%. The respondents with
working experience related to hospital less than 5
years were the most at 34.75%, followed by 11-20
years at 22.88%. Most of executive officers who
had 20-30 years of working experience related to
hospital showed 41.94%, and a few architects and
engineers had working experience related to
designing hospitals for 20 years and over,
representing less than 15%.

3.2. Part 2: LeveI of significance of green
buiIding evaIuation criteria
Level of significance of green building
evaluation criteria was indicated into 5 levels: Level
5 referred to the highest level of significance (4.21-
5.00), Level 4 for High level of significance (3.41-
4.20), Level 3 for Medium level of significance
(2.61-3.40), Level 2 for Low level of significance
(1.81-2.60), and Level 1 for level of nsignificance
(1.00-1.80).
The results shown in table 2 were interpreted
from significant levels of green building rating
system of all groups of stakeholders.

Table 2: Mean significant levels of green building rating
system of five groups of stakeholder.
Level of significance of
green building rating system
results
of all
groups
1 BuiIding Management high
1.1 Preparing for green building (P) high
1.2 Promoting to public high
1.3
Preparing handbook and training for
building operation and maintenance
high
1.4
Monitoring and evaluating results
during building design, construction
process, and finished building
high
2 Site and Landscape high
2.1
Avoiding inappropriate sites for building
construction (P)
high
2.2
Reducing environmental impact on
plentiful site (P)
high
2.3
Project developing on developed site
with existing infrastructure
high
2.4 Reducing private car use high
2.5
2.5.1) Providing open space, not less
than 30% of the site area
high

2.5.2) Planting 1 tree/open space
100m
2

high
2.5.3) Using appropriate local plants high
2.6 Water permeability and reducing flood high
2.7 2.7.1) Green roof or vertical green medium

2.7.2) Hardscape that receives direct
radiation less than 50% of the site
high

2.7.3) Planting trees for direct sunlight
protection in the South, West, and East
high
3 Water Conservation high
3.1
3.1.1) 15% of total water conservation
or water conserving sanitaryware
high

3.1.2) 25% of total water conservation
or water conserving faucets
high

3.1.3) 35% of total water conservation /
water management & rain water usage
high
4 Energy and Atmosphere high
4.1 Building quality assurance (P) high
4.2 Optimum energy performance (P) high
4.3 Energy performance high
4.4 Using renewable energy high
4.5 Monitoring energy consumption high
4.6
Environmental friendly refrigerants for
air conditioning systems
high




8 sections in the rating system including; Section 1:
Building Management, Section 2: Site and
Landscape, Section 3: Water Conservation,
Section 4: Energy and Atmosphere, Section 5:
Materials and Resources, Section 6: ndoor
Environmental Quality, Section 7: Environmental
Protection, and Section 8: Green nnovation.
The draft-document from October 2009 for the
green building rating system [2] was used as a tool
for this study. t has only been granted by public
hearing but has not yet been officially implemented.
The actual document with officially enforcement
was entitled "Thai's Rating of Energy and
Environmental Sustainable for New Construction
and Major Renovation (TREES-NC) by the
Thailand Green Building nstitute (TGB),
announced in January 2010 [3]. n addition, the
limitation of populations and sampling allowed only
those groups who were related to hospitals. Lastly,
questionnaires that contained a draft of green
building rating system using technical terms were
rather difficult to understand. The study was
therefore conducted in questionnaires instead of
interviews in order to allow respondents' efficient
time to consider and understand.
2. METHODS
2.1. Literature reviews
Documentary research from books, journals,
articles, theses, and research papers from various
sources regarding principles, concepts and theories
of green building assessment both domestic and
international was carried out Criteria and standards
of practice for hospital buildings, and energy saving
efficiency in the hospital including sets of hospital
building samples that were already granted as
green buildings in foreign countries were also
reviewed.
2.2. SampIing seIection
A specific sample of stakeholders for the
research contained five groups: executive officers,
building support staff, hospital workers, architects,
and engineers were selected. The selection
focused on hospitals with a potential to become
green hospitals, such as hospitals that served
foreign clients, or a medical center of various areas
of specialties, and architects or engineers who had
hospital design experiences.
2.3. PiIot test
A pilot test of a draft of the green building rating
system was conducted to preliminarily evaluate
hospital buildings. The test was based on a study
of hospital buildings' drawings and interviews with
architects and engineers who designed the
hospitals for the purpose of data collection and to
find some critical issue during this preliminary
stage.
2.4. PreIiminary questionnaires
A draft questionnaire was designed containing
both closed-ended and opened-ended questions
indicating weight value according to the draft of the
green building rating system. The validity of the
contents was also tested in order to allow for
revision and improvement for an optimal outcome.
2.5. A test of questionnaires
Five target groups with 3-5 sets of
questionnaires for each group using interview
method were tested asked for recommendations in
order to find any flaws and to improve the number
of questionnaires before they were finalized.
2.6. Send questionnaires to stakehoIders
The completed questionnaires were sent by
hand to all five target groups.
2.7. CoIIect questionnaires and anaIyze the
resuIts
A set of respondents were collected, analyzed,
and translated into descriptive research results
indicating frequencies value in percentage (%).
3. RESULTS
The number of questionnaires sent was 330.
236 questionnaires were completed by five target
groups: 31 questionnaires were collected from
Group 1: hospital executive officers who involved in
the main decision making of green building, 70
were collected from Group 2: building support staff
who are involved in energy saving and
maintenance management of buildings to facilitate
the purpose of green building, 38 were collected
from Group 3: hospital workers, 46 were collected
from Group 4: architects with experience in hospital
design who participated in bringing hospitals to be
green buildings, and 51 were collected from Group
5: engineers with experience in hospital building
service system design who participated in bringing
hospitals to be green buildings.
For a sampling selection, the initial aim was to
obtain information in approximately the same
number of respondents from each group, but the
hospital executive officers had limitations due to
time constraints. Therefore only 31 questionnaires
were returned. The majority of participants with the
most interests to complete questionnaires more
than other groups were the building support staff,
who directly and practically worked in hospital
buildings. They recognized how crucial
questionnaires could benefit their work
environment, and would like to provide comments
to communicate where the real problems occurred.
The numbers of respondents from hospital workers,
architects, and engineers were very close as
expected.
The contents of the questionnaire were divided
into 3 parts consisting of Part 1: Personal
information of respondents, Part 2: Level of
significance of green building rating system, and
Part 3: General information of energy saving
efficiency and environmental management of the
hospital.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
310 PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES)


Table 2 (continue): Mean significant levels of green
building rating system of five groups of stakeholder.
Level of significance of
green building rating system
results
of all
groups
5 MateriaIs and Resources high
5.1 Using existing building: floor or roof medium
5.2
Solid waste management from building
construction
high
5.3 Reuse materials selection medium
5.4 Recycled materials selection medium
5.5 Local materials selection high
5.6
5.6.1) Using green label or carbon
label materials/products
high

5.6.2) Using materials/products that
provide green information
high
6 Indoor EnvironmentaI QuaIity high
6.1 ndoor air ventilation rate (P) highest
6.2 ndoor illuminance (P) high
6.3
6.3.1) Avoiding air intake from heat or
pollution
high

6.3.2) Negative pressure for chemical
storage
high

6.3.3) Pollution control from outdoor
into indoor
high

6.3.4) Smoking area away from
openings or air intake openings not less
than 10 m
highest

6.3.5) Air filter performance reach
standard
highest
6.4
6.4.1) Low-emitting materials: adhesive
& sealants
high

6.4.2) Low-emitting materials: paints
and coatings
high

6.4.3) Low-emitting materials: carpet
systems
high

6.4.4) Low-emitting materials: wood &
its by-products
high
6.5 Controlling indoor lighting high
6.6 Using daylighting indoors high
6.7 Thermal comfort controls highest
7 EnvironmentaI Protection high
7.1
Reducing pollution from building
construction (P)
high
7.2 Solid waste management (P) highest
7.3 Low impact chemicals high
7.4 Position of a/c ventilator/ cooling tower high
7.5 Glazing facade high
7.6 Preventing building syndromes highest
7.7
nstalling power meter for water
treatment systems
high
8 Green Innovation high
8.1 Energy conservation techniques high
sum of aII group high

(P)
Prerequisite means all significant criteria requirements
must be completed and passed prior entering the Green
Building evaluation process.




The study results of the level of significance of
energy saving efficiency and environmental
management of the hospital buildings according to the
draft of green building rating system related to 5
groups of respondents were concluded as following:
1) For most of the prerequisite credits in each
section, the overall level of significance was at a
high level and the highest level.
2) The overall level of importance in all sections
for all groups indicated at a high level.
3) For overall levels of importance, the highest
level of significance of green building rating system
was at the highest in Section 6: ndoor
Environmental Quality (credit 6.1: ndoor air
ventilation rate, credit 6.3.4: Smoking area away
from openings or air intake openings not less than
10 m) and in Section 7: Environmental Protection
(credit 7.2: Solid waste management and credit 7.6:
Preventing building syndromes).
4) For overall levels of importance, the lowest
level of significance of green building rating system
was medium in Section 2: Site and Landscape
(credit 2.7.1: Green roof or vertical green) and
Section 5: Materials and Resources use existing
building (credit 5.1: Using existing building: floor or
roof, credit 5.3: Reuse materials selection, and
credit 5.3: Recycled materials selection).
5) Executive officers responded with a high
level of significance in almost every section, except
in Section 2: Site and Landscape with medium level
responses in several criterion in this section. A
group of building support staff and a group of
hospital workers responded with high level of
significance in most sections, except in Section 2:
Site and Landscape and Section 5: Materials and
Resources with medium level responses.
Responses from architects and engineers were
similar to other groups with high and highest levels
of significance, and medium level for Section 5:
Materials and Resources.

Figure 1: Levels of significance of each section.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES) 311



Each section of the draft of green building rating
system was rated by the mean significance of the
average of all groups of respondents respectively
as shown in figure 1. The highest was Section 7:
Environmental mpact Protection and the lowest
was Section 5: Materials and Resources for
Construction.

Table 3: The opinion of five stakeholder groups:
executive officers (G1), building support staff (G2),
hospital workers (G3), architects (G4) and engineers (G5)
for green building assessment that they considered the
most significant, suitable, and practical for hospitals .
Group
of
stake-
holders
Green building rating system
highest
significance
(%)
lowest
significance
(%)
G1 Section 1 32.26 Section 8 58.06
G2 Section 1 24.29 Section 8 44.29
G3 Section 8 31.58 Section 8 39.47
G4 Section 1,8 21.74 Section 8 45.65
G5 Section 1 25.49 Section 8 41.18
overaII
groups Section 1 22.03 Section 8 44.92

Table 3 shows that groups of executive officers,
building support staff, and architects had the same
correspondence. Section 1: Building Management
was the most significant while the least significant
was Section 8: Green nnovation. However, groups
of hospital workers and engineers had different
correspondences. Section 8 could be either the
most significant or the least significant for both
groups.
The overall opinions of five groups of
respondents for green building rating system
indicated that Section 1: Building Management
was the most significant, suitable and practical
for hospitals while Section 8: Green nnovation
was the least.
Suggestions from all groups that should be
added into the green building rating system for the
hospital include waste and waste water
management as they were very high impacts to the
environment.
3.3. Part 3: GeneraI information on energy
saving efficiency and environmentaI
management of the hospitaI
Figure 2 shows energy saving management
techniques that are currently implemented. t
indicates that timer control (on/off) switch for air
conditioners was as high as 64.71%, followed by
scheduling maintenance for energy efficiency,
educating all staff in energy saving knowledge,
using energy-saving materials, conducting hygienic
waste management, and concerning about water
conservation respectively.
The expected benefits of green hospital building
assessment responded by all groups of
respondents indicated that the highest was long-
term energy saving and the least was image of the
hospital.




Figure 2: Rating of the energy management
techniques in hospital at present (%).


Figure 3: Green Hospital Building's Obstacles (%).

Figure 3 shows the obstacles to green hospital
buildings responded by all groups of respondents.
t indicated that hospital first cost and operation
cost representing was as high as 79.19%, followed
by building management and/ or maintenance,
cooperation of hospital staff, and building design
respectively
From the open-ended question in this part, the
obstacles of hospital from the environment from the
respondents' point of view was waste as the
highest, followed by waste water, infectious
disease, spreading germs, infection, and diseases,
and lack of green area as respectively.




Table 2 (continue): Mean significant levels of green
building rating system of five groups of stakeholder.
Level of significance of
green building rating system
results
of all
groups
5 MateriaIs and Resources high
5.1 Using existing building: floor or roof medium
5.2
Solid waste management from building
construction
high
5.3 Reuse materials selection medium
5.4 Recycled materials selection medium
5.5 Local materials selection high
5.6
5.6.1) Using green label or carbon
label materials/products
high

5.6.2) Using materials/products that
provide green information
high
6 Indoor EnvironmentaI QuaIity high
6.1 ndoor air ventilation rate (P) highest
6.2 ndoor illuminance (P) high
6.3
6.3.1) Avoiding air intake from heat or
pollution
high

6.3.2) Negative pressure for chemical
storage
high

6.3.3) Pollution control from outdoor
into indoor
high

6.3.4) Smoking area away from
openings or air intake openings not less
than 10 m
highest

6.3.5) Air filter performance reach
standard
highest
6.4
6.4.1) Low-emitting materials: adhesive
& sealants
high

6.4.2) Low-emitting materials: paints
and coatings
high

6.4.3) Low-emitting materials: carpet
systems
high

6.4.4) Low-emitting materials: wood &
its by-products
high
6.5 Controlling indoor lighting high
6.6 Using daylighting indoors high
6.7 Thermal comfort controls highest
7 EnvironmentaI Protection high
7.1
Reducing pollution from building
construction (P)
high
7.2 Solid waste management (P) highest
7.3 Low impact chemicals high
7.4 Position of a/c ventilator/ cooling tower high
7.5 Glazing facade high
7.6 Preventing building syndromes highest
7.7
nstalling power meter for water
treatment systems
high
8 Green Innovation high
8.1 Energy conservation techniques high
sum of aII group high

(P)
Prerequisite means all significant criteria requirements
must be completed and passed prior entering the Green
Building evaluation process.




The study results of the level of significance of
energy saving efficiency and environmental
management of the hospital buildings according to the
draft of green building rating system related to 5
groups of respondents were concluded as following:
1) For most of the prerequisite credits in each
section, the overall level of significance was at a
high level and the highest level.
2) The overall level of importance in all sections
for all groups indicated at a high level.
3) For overall levels of importance, the highest
level of significance of green building rating system
was at the highest in Section 6: ndoor
Environmental Quality (credit 6.1: ndoor air
ventilation rate, credit 6.3.4: Smoking area away
from openings or air intake openings not less than
10 m) and in Section 7: Environmental Protection
(credit 7.2: Solid waste management and credit 7.6:
Preventing building syndromes).
4) For overall levels of importance, the lowest
level of significance of green building rating system
was medium in Section 2: Site and Landscape
(credit 2.7.1: Green roof or vertical green) and
Section 5: Materials and Resources use existing
building (credit 5.1: Using existing building: floor or
roof, credit 5.3: Reuse materials selection, and
credit 5.3: Recycled materials selection).
5) Executive officers responded with a high
level of significance in almost every section, except
in Section 2: Site and Landscape with medium level
responses in several criterion in this section. A
group of building support staff and a group of
hospital workers responded with high level of
significance in most sections, except in Section 2:
Site and Landscape and Section 5: Materials and
Resources with medium level responses.
Responses from architects and engineers were
similar to other groups with high and highest levels
of significance, and medium level for Section 5:
Materials and Resources.

Figure 1: Levels of significance of each section.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
312 PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES)


4. DISCUSSION
Results from questionnaires showed that
Section 6: Environmental mpact and Section 7:
ndoor Environmental Quality were the most
significant, suitable, and practical.
The above mentioned rating criteria are in
accordance with Hospital Accreditation (HA) [4]
which stated the resources and efficiency of
resources management including maintenance
system, utility system, and standard of prevention
and infection control in the hospitals are important.
Most of hospitals today have already been
prompted to enter HA. n addition hospitals which
target foreign clients are pursuing a further goal of
entering international standard accreditation of
Joint Commission nternational (JC) [5] which
standardized health and infection control.
The groups of executive officers, building
support staff, hospital workers, and engineers
responded that Section 2: Site and Landscape was
at medium level of significance. This could be
because these groups of respondents considered
the hospital to be a complex work place with a
large area was needed for various types of
functions and people. Open space, landscape, roof
garden or vertical garden, and hardscape were less
significant than medical usable area. Moreover,
these areas might need more supporting systems
and maintenance.
However, the groups of building support staff,
architects, and engineers responded that Section 5:
Materials and Resources was at medium level of
significance.
This could be because these groups of
respondents were directly involved with building
services and equipment. mproving existing
buildings were very difficult for the designers and it
was likely to cause building services problems for
building support staff. t also corresponded with the
suggestions of overall respondents that the level of
significance that space utilization of hospitals was
the least significant issue.
Moreover, use of reuse and recycled materials
for hospitals was difficult as hospital buildings
needed a very clean and hygienic environment.
The discussion above indicated that Section 2
and Section 5 should be taken into account for
improvement.
The priority recommendations to be taken into
consideration for the green hospital building rating
system for all parties were waste management and
waste water treatment. The fact that hospitals were
associated with infectious disease, chemical and
toxic substances used for treatment could harm the
environment from the rapidly spread of disease if
lacking proper control, usage, or efficiency.
t is also clear that entering the green building
rating system brought the most significant benefits
in long-term energy saving while improving hospital
image was the least. t corresponded to the study
[6] indicating very small numbers of hospital
buildings entering LEED. t was only 2.6% of
overall buildings participated in this rating system.
The regulation of this type of buildings was very
restricted for sustainability rather than image which
was the main objective of LEED assessment for
other building types.
5. CONCLUSION
The aim of this research is to study the
importance of assessing stakeholder interest
before implementing energy saving and
environmental management in a hospital. Sample
stakeholders have been categorized into five
groups: executive officers, building support staff,
hospital workers, architects and engineers. A
questionnaire survey was conducted in order to
gain opinions about the significance of the
incoming green building rating system in Thailand
for the hospitals.
The research results show that environmental
sustainability is important. All 8 sections in a draft
of green building rating system were overall
suitable and practical for all involved parties. Of
greatest importance was environmental protection,
followed by indoor environmental quality.
The next area of concern was construction
materials and resources, followed by site and
landscape. The benefit of building environmentally
friendly hospitals is a long-term energy savings.
The barriers are construction and operating costs.
Finally, an important criteria that should be added
to the rating system is the details of waste and
wastewater management in the hospital.
To create a green building rating system in the
future, credit points for each section of the rating
system should be further studied as this research
excluded.
Some criteria such as green roofs or vertical
gardens, use of existing building, reused and
recycled materials should be studied for
improvement. Waste and waste water treatment
should be further studied in order to set as
additional criteria for hospital buildings in the future.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research paper could not be completed
without devoted assistance from Ms. Phakhaporn
Ruangsri. The authors also would like to express
deep gratitude to Associate Professor Brian
McGrath and Dr. Vorapat nkarojrit who help
framing and editing this research paper.
7. REFERENCES
[1] http://ee.dede.go.th/knowledge
[2] The draft-document toward the green building
rating system, October 2009.
[3] Thailand Green Building nstitute (TGB),
Thai's Rating of Energy and Environmental
Sustainable for New Construction and Major
Renovation (TREES-NC), January 2010.
[4] http://eng.moph.go.th/HospitalAcc/index.php
[5] http://www.jointcommissioninternational.org
[6] http://www.bdcnetwork.com/article/14-steps-
greener-hospitals

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES) 313
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4. DISCUSSION
Results from questionnaires showed that
Section 6: Environmental mpact and Section 7:
ndoor Environmental Quality were the most
significant, suitable, and practical.
The above mentioned rating criteria are in
accordance with Hospital Accreditation (HA) [4]
which stated the resources and efficiency of
resources management including maintenance
system, utility system, and standard of prevention
and infection control in the hospitals are important.
Most of hospitals today have already been
prompted to enter HA. n addition hospitals which
target foreign clients are pursuing a further goal of
entering international standard accreditation of
Joint Commission nternational (JC) [5] which
standardized health and infection control.
The groups of executive officers, building
support staff, hospital workers, and engineers
responded that Section 2: Site and Landscape was
at medium level of significance. This could be
because these groups of respondents considered
the hospital to be a complex work place with a
large area was needed for various types of
functions and people. Open space, landscape, roof
garden or vertical garden, and hardscape were less
significant than medical usable area. Moreover,
these areas might need more supporting systems
and maintenance.
However, the groups of building support staff,
architects, and engineers responded that Section 5:
Materials and Resources was at medium level of
significance.
This could be because these groups of
respondents were directly involved with building
services and equipment. mproving existing
buildings were very difficult for the designers and it
was likely to cause building services problems for
building support staff. t also corresponded with the
suggestions of overall respondents that the level of
significance that space utilization of hospitals was
the least significant issue.
Moreover, use of reuse and recycled materials
for hospitals was difficult as hospital buildings
needed a very clean and hygienic environment.
The discussion above indicated that Section 2
and Section 5 should be taken into account for
improvement.
The priority recommendations to be taken into
consideration for the green hospital building rating
system for all parties were waste management and
waste water treatment. The fact that hospitals were
associated with infectious disease, chemical and
toxic substances used for treatment could harm the
environment from the rapidly spread of disease if
lacking proper control, usage, or efficiency.
t is also clear that entering the green building
rating system brought the most significant benefits
in long-term energy saving while improving hospital
image was the least. t corresponded to the study
[6] indicating very small numbers of hospital
buildings entering LEED. t was only 2.6% of
overall buildings participated in this rating system.
The regulation of this type of buildings was very
restricted for sustainability rather than image which
was the main objective of LEED assessment for
other building types.
5. CONCLUSION
The aim of this research is to study the
importance of assessing stakeholder interest
before implementing energy saving and
environmental management in a hospital. Sample
stakeholders have been categorized into five
groups: executive officers, building support staff,
hospital workers, architects and engineers. A
questionnaire survey was conducted in order to
gain opinions about the significance of the
incoming green building rating system in Thailand
for the hospitals.
The research results show that environmental
sustainability is important. All 8 sections in a draft
of green building rating system were overall
suitable and practical for all involved parties. Of
greatest importance was environmental protection,
followed by indoor environmental quality.
The next area of concern was construction
materials and resources, followed by site and
landscape. The benefit of building environmentally
friendly hospitals is a long-term energy savings.
The barriers are construction and operating costs.
Finally, an important criteria that should be added
to the rating system is the details of waste and
wastewater management in the hospital.
To create a green building rating system in the
future, credit points for each section of the rating
system should be further studied as this research
excluded.
Some criteria such as green roofs or vertical
gardens, use of existing building, reused and
recycled materials should be studied for
improvement. Waste and waste water treatment
should be further studied in order to set as
additional criteria for hospital buildings in the future.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research paper could not be completed
without devoted assistance from Ms. Phakhaporn
Ruangsri. The authors also would like to express
deep gratitude to Associate Professor Brian
McGrath and Dr. Vorapat nkarojrit who help
framing and editing this research paper.
7. REFERENCES
[1] http://ee.dede.go.th/knowledge
[2] The draft-document toward the green building
rating system, October 2009.
[3] Thailand Green Building nstitute (TGB),
Thai's Rating of Energy and Environmental
Sustainable for New Construction and Major
Renovation (TREES-NC), January 2010.
[4] http://eng.moph.go.th/HospitalAcc/index.php
[5] http://www.jointcommissioninternational.org
[6] http://www.bdcnetwork.com/article/14-steps-
greener-hospitals

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
314 PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES)
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
2 253 SECTION NAME
energy/carbon performance set in Building
Regulations; then second, in 2013, to a 44 percent
improvement; then, finally in 2016, to zero carbon.
Zero carbon means that, over a year, the net carbon
emissions from all energy use in the home would be
zero (see Table 1) (DCLG, 2007).
Policy instruments have been developing for 40
years, with standards for limiting energy loss through
buildings first introduced in the 1965 Building
Regulations, which now falls under Approved
Document L1 of the current building regulations,
Conservation of Fuel and Power which takes
account of limiting heat gains and losses, as well as
of energy efficient building services and controls
(McManus, Gaterell and Coates 2010). Also, the
Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) rating
provides a useful measure of potential energy
performance that feeds directly into Part L (DEFRA
2005). In 2007, the government published the Code
for Sustainable Homes (CSH)- built upon the existing
policy Ecohomes- as a pathway to achieving zero
carbon homes in England and sets ambitious targets
for the house building industry. A mandatory rating
against the Code builds on Energy Performance
Certificates (EPCs), which have become compulsory
since October 2008 whenever a building has been
built, sold or rented out. Government has proposed
that all new homes will be built to the zero-carbon
standard from 2016, with interim energy
requirements based on those contained within the
Code (DCLG 2008).
Notably, there are a number of other closely
related government initiatives that have been
introduced. This includes: the Stamp Duty Land Tax,
exemption for zero carbon homes, the criteria for
meeting the energy components of the Code for
Sustainable Homes, the details of the amendments
to be made to the energy efficiency and carbon
requirements of the Building Regulations in 2010 and
2013, the requirements for eco-towns to be zero
carbon and several other initiatives. Ongoing
consultations take into account, where relevant, the
lessons learnt to date in the development of this
policy (CLG, 2008). Moreover, in an attempt to create
widespread uptake of renewable energy
technologies, the UK government has brought about
schemes such as Feed-in-Tariffs (FITs) and a
proposed Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) as well as
a Pay As You Save (PAYS) scheme for green
financing. The following section discusses CSH as a
viable solution in the UK to minimise energy use in
newly built homes.
2.1 The Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH)
Energy policy for homes is being taken forward
through a number of routes and the Code for
Sustainable Homes is a major driver for achieving
low and zero carbon homes. (ZeroCarbonHub,
2009)
The CSH has been developed with the Building
Research Establishment (BRE) and is an effectively
bespoke version of Ecohomes for the domestic
sector in England. To support the Code, CLG has
worked with BRE to put in place an assessment and
certification system. The Code is part of a wider
package of measures which is aimed at reducing UK
carbon emissions from buildings and adapting to
climate change (CLG 2007). It takes a whole house
approach and measures the sustainability of a
dwelling against nine different categories:
energy/carbon; water; waste; materials; surface
water run-off; and health and well being, which have
mandatory performance standards; and pollution;
ecology; and management. Central to the CSH are
the energy efficiency and CO2 emissions of new
homes, which are embedded in a mandatory section
of the CSH in which minimum standards must be met
in order to become accredited (linked to SAP and
Part L) (DCLG, 2007). Depending on the number of
points gathered, a star rating is then awarded (one
star being the lowest achievable level and six stars
being a zero carbon home, see Table 1).
Table 1: Shows regulatory steps to zero carbon and
corresponding Code levels. (CLG, 2009)
In a study by Osmani and OReilly, they affirm
that the introduction of the CSH as legislation, along
with the implementation of Energy Performance
Certificates -in line with the European Energy
Performance of Buildings Directive- is highly
successful in terms of reductions in CO2 emissions
and cost effectiveness, to the point that these
measures could be major drivers for zero carbon
housing (Osmani & OReilly, 2009). However, some
studies proved that what appeared best to the
tenants, delivering them the greatest perceived
benefit, may well not equate to optimum usage of the
systems from an efficiency point of view, and may
not in turn deliver design level carbon savings (Pett
and Guertler 2004), (EnergyActionScotland, 2002).
This is discussed in the following section, which
highlights a few implications to the successful
delivery of the CSH.
3. DISCUSSION: Implications to the Code
delivery
Much behaviour in our everyday lives require the
use of energy. Taken together, these energy-related
behaviours steadily lead to adverse environmental
effects. Households contribute to these energy-
related problems and constitute an important target
group for energy conservation. It is therefore
important to examine how to effectively encourage
Code
Level
Current energy
standard
(Percentage
improvement
over 2006 Part
L)
When
change to
regulations
takes place
2009 Code
consultation
proposals
(Percentage
improvement
over 2006 Part L)
1 10% 25%
2 18% 25%
3 25% 2010 25%
4 44% 2013 44%
5 100%
regulated
emissions
70% onsite+30%
allowable
solutions
6 Zero carbon
onsite -100%
onsite plus
appliances
2016 Zero Carbon
Home- 70%
onsite+allowable
solutions to reach
zero carbon
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES) 315
PLEA2011
househol
which fac
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& Darby,
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interventi
examine
in both en
supports
assess w
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2010). It
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ernment 2010)
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the Govern
late interest i
2009).
ever, when m
ons in energ
the extent to
nergy savings
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whether the CS
s will require
ating to the so
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storically, cre
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ologies and m
cleanliness
onal conference
onservation a
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gy conserva
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mse, 2007)
ow does the
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in order to
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ch 2010 highli
sumer in ho
al advice pr
ndividuals of
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). As stated by
carbon re
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gy savings, it
which the int
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Abrahamse, 2
SH can effectiv
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s for energy
nsumption be
of energy co
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grown fastest
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ted that policy
or retrofitted
a certain exte
dressing beha
be targeted if
zero-carbon
ffect of user
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abits, and the
abits
on is often i
mes part of an
f household
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ion behaviour
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ppropriate be
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and conveni
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lds impact on
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ousehold ene
rovision will
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eduction targ
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reductions (Pa
effectiveness
t is important
tervention res
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2007). In orde
vely deliver on
a number of
to be employ
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mption behav
e the differe
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onsumption wi
er the long te
from applianc
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aviour pattern
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portant contr
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cently been
evelopment C
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vironmentally
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ay also use the
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orrell, 2009))

yefficienthome
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ouvain-la-Neuve
2
what creates c
s ultimately th
key factor in th
haviour (Heisk
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been installed
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designed. Th
heir lifestyle,
mum efficiency
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rol systems
designed appr
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abal et al.,
recognised
Commission in
behaviour ch
sustainable b
bits are also o
nergy consum
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peated (Bec
ome a major
behaviour cha
Jackson highl
choice and de
nitive process
king or even
ase, they ofte
ability to mak
st (Jackson, 2
intend to red
xample, habit
otherwise. In
ge, old habits
lished (Stern,
induce envir
choice of s
existing habit
es for the actio
Effect
nd effect
plications that
an umbrella
hat reduce
mproved ene
sing, home-ow
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e cost savings
o purchase oth
of the optimal
n energy efficie
Lowerrunningc
savingmoney
Higherlevel
Purchasemo
appliances,
e, Belgium, 13-1
53 SECTION NA
consumption b
he choices of i
he process of
kanen et al, 2
ousing tenants
here energy
d, only 23% o
eir heating
he majority w
but not uti
y. In another
as been imp
are to be
ropriately for
ed at the ea
2009). This
by the S
n the develo
hange towar
ehaviour (SDC
one of the ma
mption. Habits
s are freque
chtel and C
factor in pred
nge as they a
ights that ha
escribes them
ses that requi
unconscious
en tend to inte
ke decisions
2005). Even t
duce househo
t or routine m
order for s
need to be b
2000). Even
ronmentally s
hort term rew
ts may overri
on.
may have
might impact
term for a
the potentia
ergy efficienc
wners may b
a higher stan
s from energy
her goods and
scenario and th
ent homes (ad
osts
sofcomfort
oreelectrical
...etc
Redu
cons
15 July 2011
AME 3
behaviour.
ndividuals
f changing
009). This
s in the UK
efficiency
of tenants
systems
were using
ilising the
study of a
plied how
properly
users and
rly design
has also
ustainable
opment of
rds more
C 2006).
in barriers
come into
ently and
Churchman
dicting the
are unique
bits occur
m as being
ire little in
decisions.
erfere with
in his/her
though an
old energy
may cause
successful
roken and
if policies
ustainable
ward that
de paying
important
t the CSH
variety of
al energy
cy. In the
be able to
ndard, and
-efficiency
d
he rebound
dapted from
ucingenergy
sumption
Increaseinenergy
consumption
'Reboundeffect'
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
316 PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES)
PLEA2011
4
services
flights, co
has impli
whether
energy u
consump
engineeri
suggests
improvem
services
services
increased
expected
reduction
This r
examining
dwelling.
be unders
be install
acknowle
will be th
that tena
appropria
technolog
also bee
effects
considere
CSH sta
2010).
3.2 Polic
Policy
respect
complicat
factors
economic
conflicting
complexit
such that
and that
encounte
2003), (M
2007 Wh
to the E
internatio
(DTI, 200
has been
through b
By remov
energy e
individual
reduce em
2007). Al
financially
househol
changing
sustainab
not cont
responsib
It is i
higher en
implemen
homes w
rating ind
and, the
- 27th Internati
253 SECTION
that require
onsumer goo
ed that on th
improvements
use can be
tion by the
ng calculatio
that it will
ments reduce
such as trav
may be e
d consumption
to offset so
in energy con
rebound will h
g the overall
McManus et a
stood in the c
ed to meet th
edgement that
he pattern of
nts will need
ate methods
gies provided
en suggested
the rebound e
ed as part of t
andards (McM
y implication
y formulation
to environm
ted. Typically
to conside
c, ethical, and
g interests of
ty of environ
t they may ap
effort to est
er controversy
McManus, Ga
ite Paper on E
nergy Review
onal cooperatio
07). One of th
n stated as: E
better informat
ving barriers t
efficiency me
ls and the pu
missions and
though it seem
y support
d emissions,
behaviour
ble energy co
tinue to beh
ble manner.
imperative tha
nvironmental s
ntation of reg
ould be requir
dicating wheth
performance
onal conference
N NAME
energy in the
ds, etc (Sorr
he micro level
s in the techn
expected to
amount pred
ons. Simple e
not; since
the margina
vel, the consu
expected to
n of energy s
ome or all o
nsumption.
have a negat
l energy con
al. suggest tha
context of tech
he Code requi
t the major i
usage of the
to be well inf
of using
in their Cod
that some
effect as an e
the policy stra
Manus, Gate
ns
and decisio
mental issues
y, there are
r -physical,
political - as w
f different gro
nmental decis
ppear to defy
tablish enviro
y on many iss
aterell, & Coa
Energy has se
w Report, inv
on as well as
he key elemen
Encourage mo
tion, incentive
to the take up
asures, all o
ublic sector, c
our energy de
ms as a comp
reduction o
it does little
to encou
nsumption as
have in an
at the CSH a
standards in h
ulatory stand
red to have a
her they had
of the home a
e on Passive an
eir provision
rell, 2009).So
l, the question
nical efficiency
reduce ene
dicted by sim
economic the
energy-efficie
l cost of ene
umption of th
increase. T
services may
of the predic
tive impact w
nsumption of
at this issue m
hnologies likely
irements, with
nfluencing fa
ese systems
formed about
energy effic
e homes. It
of the nega
example- must
ategy such as
erell, & Coa
on making w
s tend to
many kinds
psychologi
well as the oft
oups. In fact,
sion problems
rational analy
onmental polic
sues (Nickers
tes, 2010). T
et out a respo
volving increa
s action at ho
nts of its strat
ore energy sav
es and regulat
p of cost-effec
of us, busine
can take steps
ependence (D
patible solution
of the grou
e in the way
rage persist
s individuals m
environment
aims to prom
housing ahead
ards; as all n
mandatory C
been asses
against the C
nd Low Energy A
e.g.
rrell
n is
y of
ergy
mple
eory
ency
ergy
ose
This
y be
cted
hen
the
must
y to
h an
ctor
and
the
cient
has
ative
t be
the
tes,
with
be
s of
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ten-
the
s is
ysis,
cies
son,
The
nse
sed
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tegy
ving
tion.
ctive
ess,
s to
DTI,
n to
ups
y of
tent
may
tally
mote
d of
new
ode
sed
ode
(DC
furt
pla
to
car
for
hav
pla
car
hav
con
sta
Ho
con
inc
eve
beh
are
to
ach
inc
the
app
eco
De
con
pol
beh
stro
pro
effi
(se
Fig
rec
exis
As
req
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mo
200
4.
nor
(Ja
Architecture, Lo
CLG, 2007). It
ther support
anning policy w
set a framew
rbon outcome
a Planning P
ve been pub
anning structu
rbon homes (C
The higher l
ve the poten
nsumption an
andards (McM
owever, govern
nsumption w
congruous wit
eryday life. Ba
haviour, socia
e considered s
changing ene
hieving the
centives is the
em to the pu
proaches tha
onomic secto
evelopment C
nsumers need
licy directions
haviour. It has
ongly engage
o-environment
icient homes
ee fig. 3).
g 3: The diam
commendations
sting housing st
sessing the e
quires a cl
otivations acro
ost appropriat
06).
CONCLUSIO
Policy signa
rms, ethical
ackson, 2005
ouvain-la-Neuve
t has also bee
the aim of
will be develop
work for devel
es (DCLG, 200
Policy Stateme
blished to ass
re in supporti
CLG, 2008).
levels of the
ntial to signif
nd carbon fo
Manus, Gatere
nment exhorta
will go unh
h the social a
arriers, such
al values and
some of the m
ergy behavio
presumed
e lack of pub
ublic in comp
t could possi
ors of peop
Commission (S
d clear and c
s and prioritie
s been sugges
e and encoura
tal actions alo
and techno
ond model su
for reducing c
tock. (SDC, 200
effectiveness
ear underst
oss all incom
e approaches
ON
ls have a ma
codes and
5). However
e, Belgium, 13-1
en stated by C
zero carbon
ped by the Go
opment to de
07). Besides,
ent on Climat
sist using the
ing the delive
CSH (Codes
ficantly reduc
ootprints built
ell and Coat
ations to redu
heeded if t
and physical
as financial c
physical infra
most intractab
urs. Another
outcomes
blicity and bro
prehensive an
ibly target mo
ple. The S
SDC) has im
consistent sign
es in order t
sted that polic
age people to
ong with usin
ologies most
ummarises the
carbon emission
06)
of policy inte
anding of
me groups so
s are develop
ajor influence
cultural ex
r, the comp
15 July 2011
CLG that to
n homes;
overnment
eliver zero
proposals
te Change
e national
ery of zero
5 and 6)
ce energy
to these
es 2010).
ce energy
they are
context of
costs, past
astructure,
le barriers
barrier to
of these
oadcasting
nd tailored
ost socio-
ustainable
mplied that
nals about
to change
ies should
o take up
ng energy
efficiently
key policy
ns from the
erventions
consumer
o that the
ped (SDC,
on social
pectations
plexity of
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES) 317
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
253 SECTION NAME 5
environmental decision problems is such that they
may appear to defy rational analysis, and that effort
to establish environmental policies encounter
controversy on many issues (Nickerson, 2003),
(McManus, Gaterell, & Coates, 2010). It is assured
that public policy-making in general and
environmental policy-making in particular, is a
process concerned with values. This concerns the
identification of desirable goals and the selection of
tools for moving development towards these goals
(Lundmark, Matti and Michanek 2010).
Notably, sustainability policy in the UK has
progressively shifted from a centralised top-down
towards a distributed bottom-up approach in
implementing sustainable development policy
(DEFRA, 2005). Thus, the initial conceptions of
public involvement in sustainability have become
centred around consultation with the placement of
the behaviour change agenda at the centre of the
most recent Sustainable Development Strategy, thus
reinforcing the role of the individual in the sustainable
development framework (Barr, 2008). However,
current thinking suggests that it would be infeasible
for government to change individual consumer
behaviours. Yet, not all research supports this
presumption as government inevitably plays a vital
role in shaping the cultural context within which
individual choice is negotiated. This is made obvious
through its influence on technology, market design,
institutional structures, the media, and the moral
framing of social goods (Jackson & Michaelis, 2003).
Yet, current legislation does little to tackle underlying
values and address the issue of habits -which as
discussed previously- exist as a result of routine
behaviour and recurring events (Verplanken and
Wood, 2006).
Concerning options for driving behavioural
change; Abrahamse et al assert that this can be
done either at the macro-level; through policy
instruments, economic benefits etc., or at the micro-
level; involving education and information tailored
and disseminated to individual households. Both
approaches are required, and both will entail benefits
and drawbacks, as mentioned in their research.
Abrahamse demonstrated that providing a household
with information tends to result in higher knowledge
levels, but not necessarily in behavioural changes or
energy savings (Abrahamse 2007). Meanwhile, there
are ways in which the user can be incentivised to
change their behaviour in order to gain maximum
benefit from any available technology in energy
efficient homes. Gardner and Stern have suggested
three types of incentives that have been used
effectively to promote energy conservation in homes:
energy price changes, financial rewards for desired
behaviour, and methods that simplify the task of
conserving energy and thus make conservation more
convenient (Gardner and Stern 1996). In fact it has
been implied that the reasons given for changing
ones behaviour are motivated both by lower energy
costs, a reduced impact on the environment, and
sometimes even better health (Stern, Berry, & Hirst,
1985).

Existing policies and technologies would bring down

the emissions in 2020 to about 500 MtCO2,
achieving about a 15 per cent reduction from 1990s
level, which falls well short of the target reduction
implied by the legislated carbon budget relevant for
2020 (Anandarajah, Ekins, & Strachan, 2011).
Although the higher levels of the Code have the
potential to reduce domestic energy use significantly,
it still remains unclear whether delivering this aim in
reality would achieve the zero carbon homes target.
It can be said then, that if habits are developed over
time, a zero carbon culture may be achievable in the
future, but effectively changing behaviour to more
energy efficient behaviour may not be possible as
soon as interventions set in, such as CSH. Clearly
then, the Government has mainly opted to gain
compliance without making positive changes in
underlying values to establish a new culture of low
carbon lifestyles. Thus it is not guaranteed that zero-
carbon housing as currently defined within the Code
will actually deliver the UK zero carbon target, if new
approaches for policy design and interventions are
not taken on board.
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Dr. Peter Rutherford for his
guidance, time and support. I would also like to thank
Saeema Hawaldar and Dr Robin Wilson for their
helpful contributions.
5. REFERENCES
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behavioural change: Examining the effectiveness of
a tailormade approach. PhD thesis. Netherlands:
RksuniversiteitGroningen,6December2007.
[2] Abrahamse, Wokje, Linda Steg, Charles Vlek, and
Talib Rothengatter. The effect of tailored
information, goal setting, and tailored feedback on
household energy use, energyrelated behaviors,
and behavioral antecedents. Journal of
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[3] Anandarajah,Gabriel,PaulEkins,andNeilStrachan.
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Energy System, by Jim Skea, Paul Ekins and Mark
Winskel,105145.London:Earthscan,2011.
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[5] CLG. Sustainable New Homes The Road to Zero
Carbon. London: Communities and Local
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[6] CLG.Thefuture oftheCodefor SustainableHomes:
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Homes:Finalreport.London,2008.
[8] DCLG.TheCallcuttreviewofhousebuildingdelivery.
London:HMSO,2007.
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
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PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
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On.Glasgow:EnergyActionScotland,2002.
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[15] Jackson, Tim. Motivating Sustainable Consumption:
a review of evidence on consumer behaviour and
behavioural change. ESRC Technologies
Programme, Centre for Environmental Strategy,
Surrey:UniversityofSurrey,2005.
[16] Jackson, Tim, and Laurie Michaelis. Policies for
Sustainable Consumption. London: Sustainable
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Bjorn Eriksson. Efficient and inefficient aspects of
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PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES) 319


A ModeI for TransdiscipIinary Design in Passive
IIIumination
Sascha Bohnenberger
1
,
3
, Leanne Zilka
1
, Jordi Beneyto-Ferre
2
, and David E.
Mainwaring
2
1
School of Architecture and Design,
2
School of Applied Sciences,
Royal Melbourne nstitute of Technology, Melbourne Australia, and
3
Bollinger + Grohmann ngenieure, Frankfurt, Germany
ABSTRACT: The advent of new materials that are responsive to external environmental stimuli pose a challenge
for design practices exploring such innovations as they become available. A transdisciplinary approach between
architects, engineers, designers and material scientists is viewed as an active response to such a challenge.
Here, a flexible workflow and shared language is introduced and explored in terms of advances in the fabrication
of longer afterglow phosphorescent materials, which have the potential to organically light urban infrastructure.
Keywords: energy, passive, lighting, sustainability, transdisciplinary, simulation
1. INTRODUCTION
n architectural history, material development
has had a decisive influence on the innovative
strength of architecture via the link between the built
form and available material systems. n a wider
sense technology, which includes materials, is
constantly evolving and as such sets new bounds
on both what is do-able and how we do it. Digital
computation and simulation, as another technology,
has integrated design synthesis, morphogenesis
and parametric & CAD modelling [1] and together
with the use of responsive or smart materials,
provides the opportunity to create real-time
environmentally responsive architecture. Only by
the development of such new materials and
techniques can lightweight, energy efficient and
economical buildings become feasible, and thereby
meet the demands of advanced architectural
thinking.. Such smart materials require a higher-
level design process to place them within this
environmentally responsive framework.
With the levels of primary energy consumption
attributable to lighting exceeding 20% in developed
countries, the current recognition of prudent light
energy management signals a challenge to both
urban design and technology to achieve this while
maintaining night-time amenity or as John C. Bell
puts it noctambulism. [2]
The following paper addresses the role of a
transdisciplinary approach between architects,
engineers, designers and material scientists in such
a challenge. A methodology for a flexible workflow
and shared language will be introduced. This will be
explored in terms of advances in the fabrication of
longer afterglow phosphorescent materials, which
have the potential to organically light urban
infrastructure, buildings, public open spaces and
even interiors.
2. LIGHTING ENERGY
As John Bell notes: f we follow "the line of
thinking which informs current urban design practice,
we will, in the near future, live in an efficiently
illuminated, low-pollution continuum of well-directed
moderate luminous intensity., thus minimizing
environmental impact, achieving a relatively low
carbon footprint and seeking to promote and legislate
for prudence in energy management [2]. For
example, next generation US lighting initiatives [3]
focuses on Solid State Lighting (SSL) particularly
LEDs and OLEDs (Organic Light Emitting Diodes).
Australia equally encourages a change towards more
efficient technologies stating that "it (lighting) is a
technology where energy efficiency measures can be
implemented both quickly and cost effectively. Most
importantly, efficient lighting systems don't
necessarily reduce the amount of light available, but
provide the right amount of light in the most efficient
way possible. While the first goal is to change from
traditional lighting to SSL, other materials could
complement this and further decrease primary
energy use. Advances in phosphorescent materials
are beginning to allow for longer lasting coloured
pigments able to illuminate for prolonged periods.
While these new materials would not act to replace
incumbent and newer lighting, they could
complement them providing an alternative
illumination source in areas such as urban
infrastructure, although such smart materials require
enhanced design processes able to site them in their
environmental context. n order to do this, these new
materials require these higher level design
processes to situate them in their environmental
context so that accurate modelling can take place
prior to implementation.
3. DESIGN OPTIMIZATION
3.1. Design and Engineering
Today architects and engineers have developed
several methodologies to analyse and simulate the
architecture and the structure of buildings. Due to the
possibilities of digital computation, we have the
ability to verify within a short timeframe the results of
a vast range of design ideas. .
Branko Kolarevic explains the emergence of
these techniques as a "generative tool for the
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
320 PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES)


derivation of form and its transformation - the digital
morphogenesis exploring the possibilities for the
"finding of form,. Here, he surveys the digital
generative techniques, in computational architecture,
"in terms of topological space, isomorphic surfaces,
kinematics and dynamics, keyshape animation,
parametric design, and genetic algorithms. [4]
Such approaches are based on software mash
ups often conducted through several software
packages such as RHNO for 3d-modelling, ANSYS
for structural analysis and ECOTECT for
environmental impact simulation.
For example, this enables the design and
creation of economical structures and geometrical
patterns for faade cladding as seen in the
performative design of the Serpentine Pavilions of
Toyo to and Alvaro Siza in collaboration with Cecil
Belmond.
To be able to inform design with newer more
dynamic material properties, more flexible systems
able to deal with physics and parametric design
principles in a real time environment are required.
With the increasing development of computational
software and analysis tools architects and engineers
will be able to redefine new ways of engagement
with other disciplines such as material science and
structural engineering in order to implement novel
materials especially those showing "dynamic
functionality to develop lightweight, energy efficient
and economical buildings.

3.2. MateriaI Science
To date architectural engineering has
represented spaces through "specific material and
energetic interventions in the physical environment
[5] yet the materials themselves essentially remain
static with respect to their functionality. These new
technologies and theories of digital computation and
morphogenesis are now leading to a shift from
geometric-centric to a material-based approaches
and an understanding of the significance of the
behaviour of materials in their own complexity. "The
study of material structures and their ability to inform
the design has become a serious subject of
professionals as well as academic concern as noted
by Rivka Oxman. [6]. We are now at a point where
materials can be truly functionally responsive. That
is, materials able to respond to an external stimulus,
interacting with the environment through that
stimulus and provide dynamic material functionality
to a structure. Thus, we now have the opportunity to
create real-time responsive architecture as well as
the need to understand the changing physical
behaviour of responsive materials so that they
become accessible to computational design
platforms.
n the case of current real lighting effects
simulation and analysis may be achieved through
several software platforms e.g. DAYSM, RADANCE
or NSPRER.

3.3. ExpIoring ImpIementation
Physical modelling and prototype production
fulfils a broad range of functions in the design and
engineering process. Hensel and Menges [1] point
out that with onset of these digital generative design
techniques, especially optimization, they shift from
purely representative models to a systematic
approach providing: analysis of performance
capacity, verification of geometric and topological
assemblies, and an exploration of routes to
fabrication and assembly. Functionally responsive
materials add an additional significant requirement to
this design and verification process. That is, it needs
to provide a demonstrable verification of a material's
ability to respond to an external stimulus, interacting
with the environment through that stimulus while
providing dynamic functionality to a structure.
llumination design demonstrates this need for a
close nexus between digital simulation and exploring
physical prototypes within the context of their
environment [7]. Visual perception including colour,
as Faber Birren [8] points out is "beyond the eye and
into the brain. Here, Birren suggests a new
paradigm for illumination: Perceptionism; "(that)
continues beyond the eye, up the optic nerve into the
brain (being) less concerned with what the eye sees
literally than the way the brain interprets what is
seen.
Exploration of phosphorescent materials within
an inner urban environment was explored recently by
placing 114 lanterns within the pergola structure in


Figure 1: Simulation of the glowing effect and analysing the
Lux power
the forecourt of the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Germany.
nitially, the afterglow characteristics were simulated
with RADANCE to provide ray-tracing analysis
(Figure 1) from empirical inputs of colour and
illumination intensity (Lux) for comparison with this
prototype illumination at night. Conventionally the
response of the eye is characterised by the
interdependence of colour and light intensity as
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES) 321


dictated by optic cone and rod photo-receptors. The
difference in both light sensitivity and spectral
response in daylight compared to night results in an
exponential increase in intensity sensitivity and a
shift towards blue in wavelength sensitivity at night
(Purkinje's phenomena), as illustrated in Figure 2.
Visual perception, being largely governed by retinal
illuminance (measured in Trolands) is govered by the
brightness level of an object in comparison to its total
background and thus is a highly differential
phenomenon requiring modelling and assessment
within the context of the environment whether day or
night.


Figure 2: Eye sensitivity to light intensity and colour in
daylight and night darkness

Light intensity from illumination sources and devices
is generally quantified by use of an integrating
sphere [9] This provides the illumination flux density
per unit area, as illustrated in Figure 3 related to the
emitting area of the source (Fig. 3 detail X).



Figure 3: Integrating sphere determining light flux from
source at centre

Development of phosphorescent lighting requires
such simulation which needs quantitative inputs of
the source's performance parameters. Optimization
of the material properties of the phosphorescent
source will require systematic reconciliation between
scientifically measured characteristics as above and
experimental determination of the visual perception
of their performance. Figure 4 illustrates the
prototype lanterns at night within the environment of
the Frankfurt Alte Oper forecourt as an early
experimentation.



Figure 4: Trial phosphorescent lanterns at Luminale 2010
Frankfurt

4. TRANSDISCIPLINARY APPROACH

Kiel Moe, in his recent book Thermally Active
Surfaces in Architecture, presents a primary premise
"that any coherent and reliable practice of
sustainable architecture and urbanism can only
emerge from a coherent understanding of our
techniques (or collective theories, techniques and
technologies) [10]. n "Rethinking Sustainable Design
Solutions, Michelle Addington [11] points out that it
is perhaps sustainable lighting that could bring very
disparate disciplines together such as the physics of
light, the psychology of visual perception, the
engineering of lighting systems and the social history
of the role of technology, culture and marketing. t is
then architecture that targets a definite lighting
outcome whether within a building or urban
landscape. The opportunities generated by the
newer lighting technologies e.g. LEDs and optical
fibres as well as truly functionally responsive
materials e.g. longer afterglow phosphors and up-
converting phosphors necessitates not only early
transfers of knowledge but also the active derivation
of physical material properties prior to the
implementation of the generative techniques involved
in computational architecture,
Currently a more post-rationalist approach to
collaboration has already resulted in a state of early
engagement of designers, architects and engineers,
extending the boundaries of fabrication and building
technologies. Such cross-disciplinary interventions
are probably apparent in other sectors such as the
automotive and aerospace industries. n architectural
design and engineering, new tools and thinking
models have been developed as a Meta language


derivation of form and its transformation - the digital
morphogenesis exploring the possibilities for the
"finding of form,. Here, he surveys the digital
generative techniques, in computational architecture,
"in terms of topological space, isomorphic surfaces,
kinematics and dynamics, keyshape animation,
parametric design, and genetic algorithms. [4]
Such approaches are based on software mash
ups often conducted through several software
packages such as RHNO for 3d-modelling, ANSYS
for structural analysis and ECOTECT for
environmental impact simulation.
For example, this enables the design and
creation of economical structures and geometrical
patterns for faade cladding as seen in the
performative design of the Serpentine Pavilions of
Toyo to and Alvaro Siza in collaboration with Cecil
Belmond.
To be able to inform design with newer more
dynamic material properties, more flexible systems
able to deal with physics and parametric design
principles in a real time environment are required.
With the increasing development of computational
software and analysis tools architects and engineers
will be able to redefine new ways of engagement
with other disciplines such as material science and
structural engineering in order to implement novel
materials especially those showing "dynamic
functionality to develop lightweight, energy efficient
and economical buildings.

3.2. MateriaI Science
To date architectural engineering has
represented spaces through "specific material and
energetic interventions in the physical environment
[5] yet the materials themselves essentially remain
static with respect to their functionality. These new
technologies and theories of digital computation and
morphogenesis are now leading to a shift from
geometric-centric to a material-based approaches
and an understanding of the significance of the
behaviour of materials in their own complexity. "The
study of material structures and their ability to inform
the design has become a serious subject of
professionals as well as academic concern as noted
by Rivka Oxman. [6]. We are now at a point where
materials can be truly functionally responsive. That
is, materials able to respond to an external stimulus,
interacting with the environment through that
stimulus and provide dynamic material functionality
to a structure. Thus, we now have the opportunity to
create real-time responsive architecture as well as
the need to understand the changing physical
behaviour of responsive materials so that they
become accessible to computational design
platforms.
n the case of current real lighting effects
simulation and analysis may be achieved through
several software platforms e.g. DAYSM, RADANCE
or NSPRER.

3.3. ExpIoring ImpIementation
Physical modelling and prototype production
fulfils a broad range of functions in the design and
engineering process. Hensel and Menges [1] point
out that with onset of these digital generative design
techniques, especially optimization, they shift from
purely representative models to a systematic
approach providing: analysis of performance
capacity, verification of geometric and topological
assemblies, and an exploration of routes to
fabrication and assembly. Functionally responsive
materials add an additional significant requirement to
this design and verification process. That is, it needs
to provide a demonstrable verification of a material's
ability to respond to an external stimulus, interacting
with the environment through that stimulus while
providing dynamic functionality to a structure.
llumination design demonstrates this need for a
close nexus between digital simulation and exploring
physical prototypes within the context of their
environment [7]. Visual perception including colour,
as Faber Birren [8] points out is "beyond the eye and
into the brain. Here, Birren suggests a new
paradigm for illumination: Perceptionism; "(that)
continues beyond the eye, up the optic nerve into the
brain (being) less concerned with what the eye sees
literally than the way the brain interprets what is
seen.
Exploration of phosphorescent materials within
an inner urban environment was explored recently by
placing 114 lanterns within the pergola structure in


Figure 1: Simulation of the glowing effect and analysing the
Lux power
the forecourt of the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Germany.
nitially, the afterglow characteristics were simulated
with RADANCE to provide ray-tracing analysis
(Figure 1) from empirical inputs of colour and
illumination intensity (Lux) for comparison with this
prototype illumination at night. Conventionally the
response of the eye is characterised by the
interdependence of colour and light intensity as
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
322 PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES)


between the different disciplines such as the BM-
Model (Building nformation Modelling). Architects
and engineers employ this technique to collaborate
and share design strategies in an early design
phase. However this method is not applicable for
every design phase and is not for everybody.
Successful implementation requires designers to
continue using their long-standing design tools and
processes without productivity loss in their core
tasks. Figure 5 illustrates a conventional approach to
disciplinary collaboration characterised by linear
interactions occurring as required, although not
suggesting a particular discipline primacy it portrays
the knowledge base brought by each discipline to
solve problems sequentially towards the final design
outcome.



Figure 5: Traditional design process.

Rather, a transdisciplinary approach can centre
on an evolutionary design strategy involving initial
interplay between the contextual strategy, material
opportunities and implementation modelling. Here,
the nexus between problem-based knowledge and
solution-based outcomes as termed by Addington
[11] is addressed early on and in a structured way.
Figure 6 illustrates the cohesiveness of such a
design process.
Here, transdisciplinary design represents a set of
fluid interactions between the competencies of the
disciplines that not only results in early problem
identification and solving but also in enhanced
innovation induced by new interactions at the
interface of discipline areas when faced with a
common goal such as sustainable energy
consumption.
5. CONCLUSION
With lighting consuming a significant fraction of
electricity production and as much as a half in many
buildings, and thermal efficiencies of fossil fuel
generation in the region of 30%, design practices
have a significant incentive and opportunity to
explore and implement newer technologies for
lighting in urban environments. Materials that provide
passive lighting in such environments such as longer
after glow phosphors and up-converting phosphors
can contribute progressively towards the options to
reduce the demand for delivered electrical energy.
The advent of such new materials will require
effective design innovations brought about by close
transdisciplinary interactions which the current
progress towards computational architecture and
engineering design foreshadows.



Figure 6:Transdisciplinary design process
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to acknowledge and thank the
Design Research nstitute of RMT University,
Melbourne and Bollinger+Grohmann ngenieure,
Frankfurt for their support facilitating this
collaboration.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
PROGRAMMING (MULTI FUNCTION AND MULTI GENERATION) / MOBILITY (IN AND BETWEEN CITIES) 323


7. REFERENCES
[1]. Hensel, M. and Menges, A., 2006, Material
and digital design synthesis, Architectural
Design, v. 76, n. 2, p 88-95
[2]. Bell, J C, 2009, Urban otaku: electric
lighting and the noctambulism. Architectural
Design, v.79, n.5, p 24-29.
[3]. US Energy Department, 2010, Solid state
lighting research and development:
manufacturing roadmap.
[4]. Kolarevic, B, 2003 Ed. Architecture in the
digital age: design and manufacturing,
Taylor and Francis.
[5]. Hensel, M. and Menges A., 2006 Morpho-
ecologies, Ed M. Hensel and A. Menges,
Architectural Association, London
[6]. Oxman, R., Oxman, R., 2010, The new
structuralism: Design, engineering and
architectural technologies, Architectural
Design, v.80,n. 4 p. 15-23
[7]. Addington, M. and Schodek, D., 2005,
Smart Materials and Technologies,
Architectural Press, Elsevier.
[8]. Birren, F., 1996, Color perception in art:
Beyond the eye into the brain, Leonardo,
v.9 pp 105-110.
[9]. Rastello, M. L., Miraldi, E., and Pisoni, P.,
1996, Luminous-flux measuring by an
absolute integrating sphere, Applied Optics,
v. 35, n. 22 p. 4385
[10]. Moe, K, 2010, Thermally active surfaces in
architecture, Princeton Architectural Press.
[11]. Addington, M., 2003, Energy, body, building
rethinking sustainable design solutions,
Harvard Design Magazine, n.18 pp 1-6.



between the different disciplines such as the BM-
Model (Building nformation Modelling). Architects
and engineers employ this technique to collaborate
and share design strategies in an early design
phase. However this method is not applicable for
every design phase and is not for everybody.
Successful implementation requires designers to
continue using their long-standing design tools and
processes without productivity loss in their core
tasks. Figure 5 illustrates a conventional approach to
disciplinary collaboration characterised by linear
interactions occurring as required, although not
suggesting a particular discipline primacy it portrays
the knowledge base brought by each discipline to
solve problems sequentially towards the final design
outcome.



Figure 5: Traditional design process.

Rather, a transdisciplinary approach can centre
on an evolutionary design strategy involving initial
interplay between the contextual strategy, material
opportunities and implementation modelling. Here,
the nexus between problem-based knowledge and
solution-based outcomes as termed by Addington
[11] is addressed early on and in a structured way.
Figure 6 illustrates the cohesiveness of such a
design process.
Here, transdisciplinary design represents a set of
fluid interactions between the competencies of the
disciplines that not only results in early problem
identification and solving but also in enhanced
innovation induced by new interactions at the
interface of discipline areas when faced with a
common goal such as sustainable energy
consumption.
5. CONCLUSION
With lighting consuming a significant fraction of
electricity production and as much as a half in many
buildings, and thermal efficiencies of fossil fuel
generation in the region of 30%, design practices
have a significant incentive and opportunity to
explore and implement newer technologies for
lighting in urban environments. Materials that provide
passive lighting in such environments such as longer
after glow phosphors and up-converting phosphors
can contribute progressively towards the options to
reduce the demand for delivered electrical energy.
The advent of such new materials will require
effective design innovations brought about by close
transdisciplinary interactions which the current
progress towards computational architecture and
engineering design foreshadows.



Figure 6:Transdisciplinary design process
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to acknowledge and thank the
Design Research nstitute of RMT University,
Melbourne and Bollinger+Grohmann ngenieure,
Frankfurt for their support facilitating this
collaboration.
MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND
HEALTH ASPECTS) /
WASTE MANAGEMENT
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 327

Straw Bale Construction; a Solution for Low Cost
Energy Efficient Rural Housing in the Earthquake
Affected Regions of Central Southern Chile?
Christopher J. WHITMAN
1
, Daniela FERNNDEZ HOLLOWAY
1
1
Laboratorio de Energa e Iluminacin, Faculty of Architecture, Art and Design, Universidad Andrs Bello,
Santiago de Chile, Chile
ABSTRACT: Following the earthquake of February 2010 in central southern Chile almost 80,000 families have
been re-housed in mediaguas, temporary timber emergency shelters 18m2, as they await the rebuilding of
their damaged properties. Even before the earthquake, a survey conducted in 2007 by the Chilean charity, Un
Techo para Chile recorded 28,578 families living in shanty towns. In addition a study conducted between the
winter of 2007 and summer of 2008, showed that a large percentage of the Chilean population live during the
winter in poor hygrothermal conditions with over 80% suffering problems with condensation and moulds. An
affordable, renewable resource, with excellent insulation properties, currently burned as a waste material adding
to carbon emission, straw bales could offer an affordable solution to providing energy efficient housing especially
when considering rural locations. This paper presents the research of the authors regarding the hygrothermal
performance of straw bales in central Chile, with results from physical test chambers, and the application of this
construction typology to designs for permanent housing solutions.
Keywords: Energy, Comfort, Low Cost Housing, Straw Bale, Natural Disaster Relief
1. INTRODUCTION
At 3.34am on the 27th of February 2010 an
earthquake of magnitude 8.8 on the Richter scale hit
central southern Chile. Affecting an area of around
600km in length and felt by over 80% of the Chilean
population, the earthquake left 521 people dead, 56
missing [4], 103,543 dwellings destroyed, 105,039
severely damaged [5] and many more requiring
varying degrees of repair.
2. CHILEAN HOUSING SITUATION
Pre-earthquake housing deficit
Even before the earthquake Chiles housing
deficit was not insignificant. According to the 2002
census 15% of the urban population were recorded
as living in self built shelters or homeless, [6] a figure
that rises to 37.64% of the total Chilean population
[7] when those sharing dwellings are included. Of
this figure the rural homeless population represents
19%.
According to the National Survey of Shantytowns
undertaken by the charity Un Techo para Chile, in
2007 there existed in Chile 533 shantytowns
(campamentos) housing 28,578 families. Of these
73% were located in the earthquake-affected zone
(5-9
th
and Metropolitan Regions) [2]. Prior to the
earthquake Un Techo para Chile, along with other
charities and government agencies had the objective
of eradicating these slums by 2010 with the provision
of definitive housing that met with the Chilean
building regulations. Often during this process, as a
stepping-stone families would be moved into
volunteer built mediaguas temporary timber
shelters 18m2 costing approximately US$915 [8]
In addition to the quantitative housing deficit Chile
also suffers from one that is qualitative. A report on
annual household fuel bills of Chilean families
indicates that in 2006 all but the richest two fifths of
the Chilean population could be classed as energy
poor [9,10]. In addition a study by the Chilean
national government program for energy efficiency,
Programa Pas Eficiencia Energtica PPEE and the
German technical Cooperation GTZ showed that a
large percentage of the Chilean population live
during the winter in poor hygrothermal conditions,
with over 80% suffering problems with condensation
and moulds [3]. This problem is further exasperated
by high usage of freestanding, naked flame, liquid
gas or paraffin heaters, or inefficient wood burning
stoves.
Although historically adobe was the traditional
construction technique in rural central Chile, this has
now been replaced by timber and masonry. A survey
of the principal building materials of a typical village
near Santiago in 2009 recorded 65% of all buildings
were of timber framed, timber clad construction; 25%
masonry; 7% adobe, principally in the historic centre
of the village; and the remaining 3% of timber frame
with sheet metal cladding [11]. The majority of the
dwellings are without any insulation, apart from those
built following the introduction of Chilean Thermal
Building Regulations in 2000 for roofs and 2007 for
walls. Assuming an average timber cladding
thickness of 15mm and an internal finish of 12mm
plasterboard this would provide a u-value of
2.362W/mK, whereas those complying with the
Thermal Building Regulations would have a
maximum u-value of 1.9W/mK which although being
an improvement is insufficient given the climatic
conditions with cold winters and average monthly dry
bulb temperatures as shown in Table 1.


PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
328 MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT

Table 2. Materiality of the 41 government approved
standard house types presently available for those applying
for reconstruction grants. [1]
Structural and
insulation
solution
C
l
a
d
d
i
n
g

T
i
m
b
e
r

s
i
d
i
n
g

o
r

O
S
B

F
i
b
r
e

c
e
m
e
n
t

V
i
n
y
l

s
i
d
i
n
g

R
e
n
d
e
r
B
r
i
c
k
w
o
r
k
C
o
n
c
r
e
t
e

b
l
o
c
k

w
o
r
k

Timber with ESP or
Mineral wool infill 15 7 1 1 24
ESP Insulated
sandwich OSB panel 4 4
Uninsulated
Brickwork 1 4 5
Cold formed steel
with mineral wool 3 3 6
Reinforced concrete
with external ESP 2 2
19 10 4 3 4 1 41
3. COULD STRAW BALES OFFER A
SOLUTION?
Turning waste into housing
During the agricultural productive year 2008-2009
Chile planted 281,000 hectares of wheat, 101,000 of
oats, 18,500 of barley and 24,000 of rice. [13] This
equates to 0.02 hectares per capita of cereal crops.
In comparison, the same year in the UK
approximately double the amount 0.05 hectares per
capita of cereals were planted. [14] Currently in Chile
the straw from these cereal crops is viewed as a
waste product and is burnt in the fields further adding
to carbon emissions and poor air quality. Concerns
over the already saturated air pollution in the capital
Santiago, lead last year to the prohibition of
agricultural fires during the winter months between
the 1
st
of May and the 31
st
August in the VI Region,
the region to the windward side of Santiago.
However in 2009 alone 360 prosecutions were
brought for infringement of this law.
If the straw was viewed as a resource instead of
a waste product the straw from all these crops could
be used for straw bale construction, thereby reducing
green house gas emissions at source and potentially,
emissions arising from the heating of rural dwellings.
In addition, the majority of cereal production is
concentrated in the central zone of Chile, the zone
affected by the earthquake and that where 73% of
the families previously living in shanty towns are
located. If divided between those families previously
homeless and those currently rehoused in
mediaguas, the area of straw producing cereal crops
per family would equate to 4.2 hectares. Assuming a
yield of 2690kg of straw per hectare [15] and an
average bale weight of 14.5kg [11] this would equate
to 781 bales per family, more than sufficient to build
a simple single-family dwelling.
The use of straw or grasses, in construction
dates back thousands of years; however the first
recorded use of straw bales in construction began in
the Sand Hills region of Nebraska in the late 19th
century. Faced by a shortage of other suitable
building materials the settlers of the area turned to
the product of the newly invented mechanical baler.
These early constructions used the bales in a load
bearing fashion with no additional structural
members [11].
Although the most straightforward form of straw
bale construction, load bearing or Nebraska-style
bale structures present some restrictions and
difficulties. These include limitations in opening sizes
and maintaining walls and corners plumb. In addition
there exist concerns over seismic stability despite
Californian tests that have proved good resistance to
seismic loading by straw bales encased in steel
mesh and cement render [16]. For these reasons
some degree of timber structure would appear to be
an advantage.
Thermal properties of straw bales
With the combination of the air trapped within the
hollow fibres and the overall width of the bale, straw
bales provide a high level of thermal insulation.
However, being a natural product these values vary
considerably depending on compaction, straw type
and moisture content. International test results
compiled by the authors [11] show coefficients of
thermal conductivity (lambda) between 0.034 and
0.15W/mK, and U-values between 0.103, and
0.334W/m
2
K. These values show a large variation,
one that would be perhaps worrying to someone
aiming for a zero energy house, however even the
worst of these results would provide 5 times the
thermal insulation required by law in central Chile.
Test results from physical test chambers
In order to test the thermal performance of straw
bale construction under central Chilean climatic
conditions, three physical test chambers were
constructed at the universitys campus Casona de
Las Condes in the suburb of Las Condes, Santiago
de Chile. These test chambers, each with an equal
internal volume, consisted of a timber construction
replicating that of a mediagua; a similar timber
construction insulated with sufficient expanded
polystyrene to comply with the local building
regulations (1.9W/mK), replicating the most
common construction solution of the 41 government
certified house types; and a third in straw bale
construction with a timber frame and 30mm earth
render made from recycled adobes. Using Logtag
data loggers the internal dry-bulb temperature and
relative humidity has been measured hourly since
May 2010. It should be noted that during this period
the straw bale test chamber had yet to receive its
final whitewash finish and as such had a darker
surface finish that increases solar thermal radiation
absorption.
In addition the three test chambers were
simulated using TAS software and recorded external
temperatures. An averaged coefficient of thermal
conductivity of 0.8 W/mK was used for the straw
bale. The results of the simulation, figure 3, can be
seen in comparison with the actually recorded dry-

Table 1. Maximum (max.), Minimum (min.) and daily
average (avg.) dry bulb temperatures C for Santiago de
Chile. [12]
Month Max. Min. Avg.
JAN 33.0 10.0 21.0
FEB 32.0 9.0 20.3
MAR 33.0 4.0 17.9
APR 30.0 -0.3 14.1
MAY 27.0 -0.3 11.0
JUN 22.3 -1.4 9.1
JUL 20.0 -2.2 7.6
AUG 28.2 -6.0 9.3
SEP 25.3 -0.5 11.4
OCT 29.0 2.0 14.4
NOV 31.0 4.2 17.1
DEC 33.2 8.0 20.2

Post-earthquake housing deficit
Directly following the earthquake the Chilean
government, in conjunction with the military and
various Chilean and international charities, organised
the building of approximately 80,000 [1] mediaguas.
Of these 4,754 were located in emergency
encampments the rest being built on the property of
those affected adjacent to their damaged homes.
The walls of these timber framed, timber clad, one-
roomed temporary structures consist of 5mm thick
timber siding with no insulation or internal finishes,
providing a u-value of 4.797W/mK, and considerable
infiltrations.
In addition to the 80,000 families housed in
mediaguas, many other have taken shelter in the
homes of relatives or friends, whilst others continue
to inhabit their damaged dwellings. A more complete
picture of the increase in housing deficit post-
earthquake can be gained from the number of
applications for government subsidies for
reconstruction. These applications required the
presentation of an official certificate, issued by the
local government, proving damage or loss of a
principal dwelling as a direct consequence of the
earthquake. At the closing date for applications, the
27
th
August 2010 a total of 286,678 applications had
been received [1].
Government Reconstruction Proposals
On the 29
th
March 2010 the Chilean government
announced a spending plan of US$2,500 million
dedicated to reconstruction [1]. The plan is organised
in three main action plans, these being;
(i) Rebuilding, repair and replacement of individual
single family dwellings; (ii) Repair and replacement
of social housing blocks and neighbourhood
masterplans; and (iii) Municipal masterplans. Figure
1 illustrates the area affected by the earthquake and
the distribution of these mid to large-scale projects,
with 21 projects for social housing blocks, 107
neighbourhood masterplans and 100 municipal
masterplans [5].
Figure 1: Plan of Government plans for reconstruction at
city or town scale (Masterplan) at neighbourhood scale and
social housing estates in the 5
th
-9
th
Regions [5]
At the scale of the single family dwelling, in an
effort to standardise the process and regulate quality,
the government has introduced a system of certified
housing solutions from which applicants can choose
their new-build dwelling. Costing 380UF
(approximately US$16,950) these houses have an
average floor area of 45m
2
of various construction
systems that must comply with Chilean building
regulations. To date 41 designs have been certified,
the construction solutions of which are as defined in
table 2, and a further 115 are under evaluation [1].
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MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 329

Table 2. Materiality of the 41 government approved
standard house types presently available for those applying
for reconstruction grants. [1]
Structural and
insulation
solution
C
l
a
d
d
i
n
g

T
i
m
b
e
r

s
i
d
i
n
g

o
r

O
S
B

F
i
b
r
e

c
e
m
e
n
t

V
i
n
y
l

s
i
d
i
n
g

R
e
n
d
e
r
B
r
i
c
k
w
o
r
k
C
o
n
c
r
e
t
e

b
l
o
c
k

w
o
r
k

Timber with ESP or
Mineral wool infill 15 7 1 1 24
ESP Insulated
sandwich OSB panel 4 4
Uninsulated
Brickwork 1 4 5
Cold formed steel
with mineral wool 3 3 6
Reinforced concrete
with external ESP 2 2
19 10 4 3 4 1 41
3. COULD STRAW BALES OFFER A
SOLUTION?
Turning waste into housing
During the agricultural productive year 2008-2009
Chile planted 281,000 hectares of wheat, 101,000 of
oats, 18,500 of barley and 24,000 of rice. [13] This
equates to 0.02 hectares per capita of cereal crops.
In comparison, the same year in the UK
approximately double the amount 0.05 hectares per
capita of cereals were planted. [14] Currently in Chile
the straw from these cereal crops is viewed as a
waste product and is burnt in the fields further adding
to carbon emissions and poor air quality. Concerns
over the already saturated air pollution in the capital
Santiago, lead last year to the prohibition of
agricultural fires during the winter months between
the 1
st
of May and the 31
st
August in the VI Region,
the region to the windward side of Santiago.
However in 2009 alone 360 prosecutions were
brought for infringement of this law.
If the straw was viewed as a resource instead of
a waste product the straw from all these crops could
be used for straw bale construction, thereby reducing
green house gas emissions at source and potentially,
emissions arising from the heating of rural dwellings.
In addition, the majority of cereal production is
concentrated in the central zone of Chile, the zone
affected by the earthquake and that where 73% of
the families previously living in shanty towns are
located. If divided between those families previously
homeless and those currently rehoused in
mediaguas, the area of straw producing cereal crops
per family would equate to 4.2 hectares. Assuming a
yield of 2690kg of straw per hectare [15] and an
average bale weight of 14.5kg [11] this would equate
to 781 bales per family, more than sufficient to build
a simple single-family dwelling.
The use of straw or grasses, in construction
dates back thousands of years; however the first
recorded use of straw bales in construction began in
the Sand Hills region of Nebraska in the late 19th
century. Faced by a shortage of other suitable
building materials the settlers of the area turned to
the product of the newly invented mechanical baler.
These early constructions used the bales in a load
bearing fashion with no additional structural
members [11].
Although the most straightforward form of straw
bale construction, load bearing or Nebraska-style
bale structures present some restrictions and
difficulties. These include limitations in opening sizes
and maintaining walls and corners plumb. In addition
there exist concerns over seismic stability despite
Californian tests that have proved good resistance to
seismic loading by straw bales encased in steel
mesh and cement render [16]. For these reasons
some degree of timber structure would appear to be
an advantage.
Thermal properties of straw bales
With the combination of the air trapped within the
hollow fibres and the overall width of the bale, straw
bales provide a high level of thermal insulation.
However, being a natural product these values vary
considerably depending on compaction, straw type
and moisture content. International test results
compiled by the authors [11] show coefficients of
thermal conductivity (lambda) between 0.034 and
0.15W/mK, and U-values between 0.103, and
0.334W/m
2
K. These values show a large variation,
one that would be perhaps worrying to someone
aiming for a zero energy house, however even the
worst of these results would provide 5 times the
thermal insulation required by law in central Chile.
Test results from physical test chambers
In order to test the thermal performance of straw
bale construction under central Chilean climatic
conditions, three physical test chambers were
constructed at the universitys campus Casona de
Las Condes in the suburb of Las Condes, Santiago
de Chile. These test chambers, each with an equal
internal volume, consisted of a timber construction
replicating that of a mediagua; a similar timber
construction insulated with sufficient expanded
polystyrene to comply with the local building
regulations (1.9W/mK), replicating the most
common construction solution of the 41 government
certified house types; and a third in straw bale
construction with a timber frame and 30mm earth
render made from recycled adobes. Using Logtag
data loggers the internal dry-bulb temperature and
relative humidity has been measured hourly since
May 2010. It should be noted that during this period
the straw bale test chamber had yet to receive its
final whitewash finish and as such had a darker
surface finish that increases solar thermal radiation
absorption.
In addition the three test chambers were
simulated using TAS software and recorded external
temperatures. An averaged coefficient of thermal
conductivity of 0.8 W/mK was used for the straw
bale. The results of the simulation, figure 3, can be
seen in comparison with the actually recorded dry-
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330 MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT

bulb temperatures that were recorded on the coldest
day recorded to-date the 16
th
July 2010, figure 4.
Figure 2: Simulation of dry-bulb temperatures with TAS
software 16
th
July 2010, coldest day recorded to-date.
Figure 3: Actual dry-bulb temperatures recorded in physical
test chambers 16
th
July 2010, coldest day recorded to-date.
Whilst the real straw bale construction does not
provide dry-bulb temperatures as stable as those
simulated it still performs better than the other two
constructions.
The dry-bulb temperatures recorded between
May and October 2010 demonstrate that as a result
of the superior U-values the heating degree hours,
are considerably lower for the straw bale test
chamber than those for the timber constructions,
figure 5. Measurements of relative humidity show
that the straw bale construction maintains an internal
RH between 25-60% for 82% of the time, in
comparison to only 61% of the time for the timber
construction and 71% for the insulated timber
construction. It is interesting to note that the
construction cost for the straw bale physical test
chamber was fractionally less than that of the un-
insulated timber test chamber, at a cost of US$140
per usable m as opposed to US$142 [11]. This
would suggest that straw bale emergency shelters
could financially compete with mediaguas.

Figure 4: Physical test chambers constructed at Casona de
las Condes, Universidad Andrs Bello, Santiago de Chile.
Figure 5: Heating (+) and cooling (-) degree hours
calculated from dry-bulb temperature readings in physical
test chambers. During winter months May-October 2010
Bureaucratic barriers
The availability of straw bales as a resource and
the empirical data gathered so far by the authors
would suggest that this construction type could
provide both temporary shelters and replacement low
cost rural dwellings that provide a greater degree of
hygrothermal comfort and improved energy
efficiency. However the Chilean building regulations
state that any permanent residential reconstruction
receiving state funding must be constructed of a
traditional construction system or if using a non-
traditional construction system it must be fully
certified by the Technical Department (DITEC) of the
Ministry of Housing and Urbanism [17]. To receive
this certification the construction system must
undergo testing for fire, thermal and acoustic
resistance, at a government approved laboratory
according to national standards.
Despite the existence of international test results
that prove an earth rendered straw bale wall can
provide a fire resistance of between F60 [18] and
F90 [19], a u-value of between 0.103, and
0.334W/m
2
K [11] and excellent acoustic separation,
national certified test results currently do not exist.
Typically the cost for testing at the two government
approved laboratories, IDIEM of the Universidad de
Chile and DICTUC of the Universidad Catlica, has a
cost of around US$1,780 a cost not covered by
government funds for reconstruction. Currently the
authors are bidding for further internal funding from
the Univerisdad Andrs Bello to undertake fire
resistance testing at one of these laboratories.
4. APPLIED CASE STUDIES
The following case studies present the intentions
of local architects to use straw bales in both private
and state funded reconstruction projects.
Case Study 1, Jorge Broughton Arquitectos
The Chilean architect and building contractor
Jorge Broughton is experienced in building with
straw bale. With more than 20 straw bale design-
and-build projects completed in the last 12 years and
a regular organiser of straw bale building workshops
in Santiago and the Metropolitan area, Jorge is well
aware of the benefits inherent in this type of
construction; benefits that he believes could offer a
viable solution to the rebuilding of rural communities
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MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 331

following the earthquake. Following previous contact
with the Technical Department (DITEC) of the
Ministry of Housing and Urbanism whilst working on
the proposals for a social housing project in Lampa,
Chile, Broughton was aware of the requirements for
test certificates but hoped that owing to the urgency
to provide comfortable shelter following the
earthquake that these requirements might be
relaxed.
Following the governments call for prefabricated
housing designs, Broughton designed a 60m
2
straw
bale house, with a possible additional 17m
2
in a
future first floor extension. The design envisaged the
recycling of the timber from the temporary mediagua
as internal partitions. The straw bales were to be
rendered with a primary coat of earth render to be
made from recycling adobes from collapsed houses,
finished with a cement and earth top coat.
Unfortunately due to the lack of test certificates
for the straw bales the design was not accepted for
consideration by the Ministry of Housing and
Urbanism.

Figures 6&7: Sketch and ground floor plan of straw bale
single-family dwelling proposed by architect Jorge
Broughton
In a parallel project Jorge Broughton has applied
for funding from the governments Corporation for
Production Development (CORFO) as part of their
call for bids for Innovation in Reconstruction. If
successful the project will include the necessary
laboratory testing to allow for the certification of straw
bales construction by DITEC and a series of training
workshops in rural communities in the earthquake
affected regions. The aim of these workshops would
be to train both self-builders and local contractors to
repair traditional adobe architecture with straw bales
in addition to the construction of new build rural
dwellings. The results of the bid should be
announced soon.
Case Study 2, Owar Arquitectos
At the time of the earthquake the office of young
Chilean architects Owar Arquitectos were working in
conjunction with the North American architect Evan
Sellmyer Pruitt, completing the construction of a
large single-family house in Coya, VI Region, Chile.
The house has a timber frame in-filled with straw
bales and is finished with an earth render. Except for
minor cracking in the recently completed earth
render around a few window openings the house
withstood the earthquake undamaged. Based on this
experience they too believed that straw bale could
offer a solution to the reconstruction in rural Chile. In
particular they were drawn to the similarity in the
spatial qualities of straw bale constructions and
traditional Chilean adobe architecture, qualities that
they identified as important in the cultural identity of
many of the affected communities. With this in mind
they developed the designs for a wall prototype that
could be reconstructed in place of collapsed adobe
walls, with a 500mm concrete block plinth to protect
the bales from ground water and large overhanging
eaves or external passageways also typical feature
in traditional Chilean rural architecture.
Armed with this design and the idea of building a
number of prototypes that locals could copy, Owar
Arquitectos approached the local councils of Lolol in
the VI Region and Molina, further south in the VII
Region. Due to concerns over the un-traditional
nature of straw bale construction and inflated
construction budgets from local contractors Lolol
declined to pursue the project. However the
meetings with Molina were greeted with an
enthusiastic response and it is hoped that once the
council has resolved immediate emergency issues
arising in the aftermath of the earthquake, the
proposals can be incorporated in the reconstruction
of heritage properties that are not covered by the
same Building Regulations as new build housing.

Figure 8: Construction sequence of straw bale replacement
for adobe boundary wall, Owar Arquitectos
In a parallel project for a private country estate in
Almahue, San Vincente de Tagua Tagua, Owar
proposed the rebuilding of the estate boundary walls
in straw bale on concrete block foundations, bound
by nylon ties and topped with a clay tile coping (Fig.
8). The client was enthusiastic and initial material
costs came in below budget. However on the receipt
of tender returns from local builders it became clear
that large additional costs were being added due to
the unknown nature of the construction technique.
Faced with a much lower tender return for a
traditional fired brick option the client abandoned
the straw bales. A related project on the same
estate, to rebuild an historic adobe barn with straw
bale, fell through when it was discovered that the
clients insurance company did not insure the
existing adobe constructions and refused to pay out.
5. CONCLUSION
Straw bale construction could turn agricultural
waste into affordable, efficient, comfortable rural
dwellings; whose thick walls and overhanging eaves
reflect the traditional architecture of central southern
Chile. Currently due to inexistence of national
certified testing of straw bales, inexperience and lack
of knowledge of the construction technique it would
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332 MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT

appear that straw bale construction will at present
not play a major role in the reconstruction. However
if the correct certification were to be obtained,
whether through the project CORFO of Jorge
Broughton, through a maintained research program
by the Laboratory of Energy of the Universidad
Andrs Bello or by some other means, then there will
be other opportunities. Past experience has shown
that reconstruction is not something immediately
achieved. Five years after the last major earthquake
in Chile, that of Tarapac 2005, 10% of the
rebuilding remains to be completed [20].
A recently announced relaxation of regulations for
reconstruction in heritage areas could also open a
possibility for the use of straw bales.
In addition, if prepared in advance, the design for
a temporary straw bale shelter could offer a self-
build, low cost refuge for future disasters. This could
be so designed as to provide an initial refuge that
would form the nucleus of a home that could grow in
time.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Internal funding Jorge Millas project DI-05-09JM
of the of the Universidad Andrs Bello has made the
research presented possible. Thanks to Jorge
Broughton www.arquitecturaenfardos.cl and Owar
Arquitectos www.owar.cl for their help and
permission to publish their projects.
7. REFERENCES
1 Ministerio de Vivienda y Urbanismo (MINVU),
2010, Avances y metas Plan Chile Unido
Reconstruye Mejor, 27/09/2010, - MINVU-
Santiago de Chile. Available at:
<http://www.minvu.cl/opensite_2010082719433
6.aspx> [Accessed 12 October 2010]
2 Centro de Investigacin Social (CIS) - 2007 -
Catastro Nacional de Campamentos 2007,- Un
Techo para Chile - Santiago de Chile.
Available.at:<http://www.untechoparachile.cl/cis
/images/stories/Publicaciones/Catastro_2007.p
df> [Accessed 28 October 2010]
3 Proyecto Fomento de la Eficiencia Energtica
(CNE/GTZ) 2008 - Determinacin de lnea base
anual para la evaluacion de la inversion en
eficiencia energetica en el sector residencial
invierno 2007 verano 2008, - Santiago, Chile.
4 Subsecretara del Interior de Chile, - 15 May
2010- Fallecidos confirmados Ministerio de
Interior, Santiago de Chile.
Available.at:<http:www.interior.gov.cl/filesapp/Li
sta_fallecidos.pdf [Accessed 23 Sept. 2010]
5 MINVU 2010 Plan de Reconstruccin
Nacional, Estado de avance 30/09/2010
Santiago de Chile Available at:
<http://www.minvu.cl/opensite_2010100118044
8.aspx> [Accessed 21 October 2010]
6 MINVU Comisin de Estudios Habitacionales y
Urbanos (CEHU) 2009 - Dficit Urbano-
Habitacional: una mirada integral a la calidad
de vida y el habitat residencial en Chile. -
MINVU- Santiago de Chile.
7 MINVU, Divisin Tcnica (DITEC) 2006
Atlas de la evolucin del deficit habitacional en
Chile 1992-2002. MINVU, Santiago de Chile
8 Un Techo para Chile, 2009- Informacin Plan
Construye en Familia, Un Techo para Chile-
Santiago de Chile. Available at:
<http://www.untechoparachile.cl/documents/pla
n_familia_2009.pdf> [Accessed 28 October
2010]
9 Healy J.D. - 2004 Housing, fuel poverty, and
health: A Pan-European Analysis, Ashgate
Publishing, Ltd., England
10 Mrquez, M. Miranda, R. 2007 - Una
estimacin de los impactos en los
presupuestos familiares derivados del
sostenido aumento en los precios de la
energa, Universidad Austral, Valdivia, Chile
11 Whitman C.J. and Fernndez D. 2010- The
viability of improving energy efficiency and
hygro-thermal comfort of rural social housing in
central Chile using straw bale construction.
2
nd
International Conference on Sustainable
Construction Materials and Technologies 28-
30 June 2010 Ancona, Italy
12 Energy Plus - International Weather for Energy
Calculations (IWEC) data for Santiago de Chile
<http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energy
plus/weatherdata_about.cfm> [Accessed 5
November 2010]
13 Oficina de Estudios y Politicas Agrarias, - 2009
Estadsticas de superficie sembrada de cultivos
anuales, - Santiago de Chile. Available at:
<http://www.odepa.gob.cl> [Accessed 14
January 2010]
14 Department of the Environment Food and Rural
Affairs. 2009- Cereals And Oilseed Rape
Production Estimates: 2008 Harvest, United
Kingdom-Final Results, London
15 Lee, C. and Grove, J.,- 2005 - Straw Yields
from Six Small Grain Varieties 2003-4 and
2004-5 growing seasons - University of
Kentucky. Available at:
<http://www.uky.edu/Ag/GrainCrops/Research/
Research_pdf/SmallGrains_StrawYields2005.p
df> [Accessed 8 November 2010]
16 King, B., - 2003 Load bearing straw bale
construction: a summary of worldwide testing
and experience - Ecological Building Network
(EBNet), California, USA
17 MINVU, DITEC 2010- Participacin de las
Empresas en el Proceso de Reconstruccin
Vivienda Prefabricada o Industrializada
MINVU, Santiago de Chile
18 Intertek Testing Services NA, Inc. 2006- 1-
Hour Fire Testing of a Non-Loadbearing
Srawbale Wall, according to ASTM 119-05a
Texas, USA
19 Theis, B.,- 2003 - Straw Bale fire Safety, A
review of testing and experience to date
Ecological Building Network (EBNet),
California, USA
20 Estrella de Iquique, Thursday 25
th
March 2010,
Isasi pide visita presidencial , Iquique.
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MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 333
An environmental assessment of insulation materials
and techniques for exterior period timber-frame walls

Hans VALKHOFF

Laboratoire de Recherche en Architecture (LRA) de lEcole Nationale Suprieure dArchitecture de Toulouse.

ABSTRACT: The French government has instigated an ambitious renovation programme aimed at the thermal
insulation of existing housing stock to combat climate change and cut CO2 emissions. This will have a considerable
effect on the renovation of period timber-frame houses, a rich architectural heritage in France. This study assesses
the environmental impact of thermal insulation of exterior timber-frame walls in vernacular timber-frame buildings
with brick or daub infill. The 20 wall types studied are based on the outcome of interviews with builders and building
experts. A French building assessment tool, Cocon, is used to calculate embodied energy (EE), embodied carbon
(EC) and thermal performance for each wall type. Conventional wall types with interior insulation - often mineral
wool and plasterboard - generally have the worst overall scores. The highest scores are for wall types with exterior
insulation, which make better use of thermal mass. Wall types with interior insulation of plant fibre and binder (e.g.
earth/straw) also show good results. Although there is a general lack of technical information on environmental
building materials, there is growing evidence that natural and breathable materials are better for the environment,
the historic building and the occupant.

Keywords: energy, carbon, renovation, life cycle analysis.

1. INTRODUCTION
This study focuses on the thermal insulation of
period timber-frame houses in the SW of France, a
region rich in these historic buildings, the walls of
which are traditionally filled with daub or fired brick.
The French refurbishment programme, Plan
Btiment, will have a considerable impact on the
renovation of period timber-frame buildings [1]. To
combat climate change the French government
wants to cut the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of
the housing sector by almost 40% by 2020 [1]. More
than 20 million dwellings will have to be renovated
and insulated by 2050 [1].
In the case of housing stock from before 1948,
which represents 10 million dwellings in France, this
drive for sustainable development may well go
against the principles of good conservation [2]. The
problem with current thermal regulations is that they
are not adapted to historic buildings [3].The building
physics of old houses built with traditional materials
are very different from those built after 1948, and are
often not as well understood [2]. From mistakes
made in the past we know how much damage
inappropriate renovation and dry lining can do to
period timber-frame buildings. Clearly we are only at
the beginning of (re)learning about natural and
traditional materials and techniques, and their
contribution to the energy efficiency of historic
buildings [4].
The study aims to answer the question how to
renovate historic timber-frame buildings up to
modern insulation standards, while preserving the
environment and the vernacular qualities of the
building, and reducing the embodied energy (EE)
and embodied carbon (EC) of the rehabilitation
project. The aim of the assessment is not to compare
case studies of entire buildings, but to present a
more generally applicable model that helps to define
the most appropriate environmental insulation
techniques for period timber-frame walls. The focus
of the study is on building materials and embodied
energy and not on operational energy consumption.
Today most of the energy use in buildings is due
to heating and only 10% of is associated with the
embodied energy in materials [5,6,7]. However, as
we move towards highly insulated buildings, EE and
EC of building materials will become a major part of
a buildings energy use and GHG emissions [6].
2. METHODS
2.1. Twenty wall types
The study assesses the environmental impact of
several insulation techniques and materials
presently used in the renovation of timber-frame
buildings. A selection of 20 exterior wall types
divided into 4 categories was made based on
literature review and interviews with builders and
building experts (Table 1). For the general build-up
of each of the 20 wall types, see Table 3, p.4.
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334 MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT
2
Table 1 Four categories of wall types in the survey
Wall types Number
I. Conventional wall types with
interior insulation :
using conventional insulation
techniques and materials, generally
dry lining with mineral wool and
plasterboard or clay blocks.
M1 - M5
II. Ecological wall types with
interior insulation :
using ecological insulation
techniques and materials.
M6 M10
III. Ecological wall types with
plant fibre and binder :
using ecological insulation
techniques and materials, based on
solid walls with infill of plant fibre
and mineral binder (clay or lime).
M11 M15
IV. Wall types with exterior
insulation :
using both conventional and
ecological insulation techniques
M16 - M20



The terms conventional and ecological are
indicative and not based on strict definitions.
Conventional refers to current industrial building
techniques which are also common in renovation.
Ecological applies to the use of materials and
techniques that generally have a low impact on the
environment. This does not mean that conventional
materials and techniques always have a much higher
environmental impact. They can even have a low
embodied energy (EE), e.g. glasswool, while
providing good thermal insulation, though there may
be negative impacts such as pollution, toxicity,
resource depletion and health risks. On the other
hand, so-called ecological materials can have a
high EE (and EC) and therefore do not perform well
in the assessment.
2.2 Life cycle analysis
For each wall type the environmental impact of the
thermal insulation was assessed using the Excel-
based tool Cocon [8]
1
. Cocon gives each wall an
overall score based on the calculation of six
parameters: embodied energy, embodied carbon,
resource depletion, thermal resistance, decrement
delay and thermal inertia (Table 2).
Table 2 Scores and values for six parameters, wall type M1
(brick, glasswool, plasterboard)
Summary
Table M 1
Overall Score kWh /m Score
kg eq
CO2/m
Score kea Score
8.5 177.5 8.2 39.7 7.4 0.0281 10.3
Carbon tax
/ m (mK/ W) Score h Score (kJ/ mK) Score
0.67 2.65 13.6 5.7 9.5 24 1.9
Embodied Carbon
Thermal resistance Decrement delay Thermal Inertia
Resource Depletion Embodied Energy



1
COCON - Comparaison de solutions Constructives de
Confort et demissions de CO2 - is in the process of being
approved by the CSTB.
The scores for the environmental impact parameters
are based on official data from life cycle analysis
(LCA), and the scores for the building physics
parameters are based on values from French or
international thermal regulations
2
.
Cocon can be directly linked to the French
database INIES which contains Environmental
Product Declarations (EPDs) and industry data for
building products based on LCA [10]
3
. For product
data that are not included in INIES, Cocon uses its
own database developed at the LRA, which contains
data from the Swiss Oekobilanzdaten or from
extrapolations based on other sources [11].
There is a possibility in Cocon to choose with or
without renewable energy (RNE). The reason for
including RNE in this assessment is that most data
are based on EPDs in INIES [10] which include RNE,
despite the fact that this is controversial because
these include feedstock energy and cause a bias
against renewable materials [12].
2.3 Thermal performance of a functional unit
The functional unit in LCA is usually 1 m
2
of building
element for a certain life time (e.g. 50 years). To be
able to compare the environmental impact of the 20
wall sections it is better to compare functional units
with a similar thermal resistance. In this study an
average R-value of approximately 2.7 m
2
K/W was
chosen, based on the insulation standard RT-2007,
which corresponds with 8 cm of glasswool [9]. To
achieve a similar R-value for other insulation
materials sometimes required adding an extra
centimetre.
Most builders interviewed do not apply a vapour
control layer (VCL) but leave a cavity of 4cm or 5cm
which should be fully ventilated to allow humidity to
escape, though often is not. Therefore in the
assessment of the conventional wall types (M1-M6)
VCLs are not included. Instead a non-ventilated air
gap of 4 cm ( = 0.23 W/m.C) is added to be true to
existing renovation practice in SW France. Obviously
this hardly influences the outcome in the assessment
which does not take vapour transport into account.

The timbers are not accounted for in the assessment
and therefore considered as accessories, and are
not included in the calculations for thermal
performance. In most cases the original timbers are
kept or reused, which means they are considered
existing and therefore not included in the impact
assessment either. When bricks or daub are reused
or left in place as infill one considers them existing
as well. Again this means they are not included in
the impact assessment, though they are included in
the thermal calculations because they are not
considered accessory. Other accessories, e.g. metal
or wood frames for boards and infill are excluded

2
The scores are a simple linear interpolation on a
somewhat arbitrary scale with an upper and lower limit,
taking the real values from the LCA or thermal regulations
(RT-2007 and ISO13786).
3
FDES Fiche de Dclaration Environnementale et
Sanitaire, based on NF P01-010.
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MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 335
3
from the thermal calculations, though they are
included in the impact assessment because they are
considered new.
Building physics parameters, e.g. air tightness,
thermal bridging and vapour control, require
simulation software and are therefore not included in
the assessment. Qualitative aspects that are hard to
quantify, e.g. health issues related to building
materials, and above all architectural interest and
vernacular qualities, were not included in the
assessment. However, the study clarifies whether
certain insulation techniques and materials are
considered appropriate for exterior period timber-
frame walls.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1. Overall scores of wall types

Fig. 1 Overall scores for 20 wall types (for the results per
parameter, see Table 3, p. 4)

The three wall types with the highest overall scores
all have exterior insulation, which gives much better
scores for thermal inertia (Fig. 1). The walls with
woodfibre board on the outside (M20) give the best
overall results, whereas more conventional wall
types with exterior insulation, e.g. polystyrene (M17),
do not achieve a satisfactory overall score due to
their high environmental impact.
When exterior insulation is out of the question for
conservation reasons the earth/straw wall types give
the best overall results (M15,M12)
4
. They are
probably more compatible with historic timber-frame
walls than woodfibre board, especially in the case of
wattle and daub walls. Beside their hygrothermal
qualities, timber-frame walls with plant fibre infill (e.g.
hempcrete, woodchip/lime and earth/straw) provide
an excellent decrement delay and are a good
solution for thermal bridging and achieving air
tightness in leaky old timber-frame buildings [13].
Several studies, e.g. Evrard, show how the dynamic
thermal performance of insulation materials can be
very different from the steady state situations used
for thermal regulations, which makes hempcrete
walls perform better than expected from simple R-
values, due to the benefits of hygroscopicity and
reduction of thermal bridging [13].
3.2. Earth/straw or hempcrete?
Amongst French builders earth and straw is less well
known than hempcrete, a mix of hemp and lime.

4
Terre-paille or light earth, a mix of straw and clay earth in
very low densities of around 400 kg/m
2
.
Looking at Table 3 (p.4) the hempcrete wall (M11)
does not get a satisfactory score in the assessment
due to its high EE (152 kWh/m
2
), even though it is
virtually carbon neutral (EC = -3.5 kgCO2eq/m
2
).
Changing the lime binder for clay would considerably
lower its environmental impact, though hemp and
clay is still at an experimental stage and needs more
research. With more accurate data for the two lime
renders (3 cm each) that take re-carbonation into
account, the hempcrete wall would perform better,
especially for EE (92 kWh/m
2
) and EC (-30
kgCO2eq/m
2
). Though this is the case for most wall
types that include lime renders. The data for the lime
binder in the hempcrete (M11) are from the French
LCA and show a particularly high EE because the
lime is imported from Spain [14].
Another advantage of earth/straw over hempcrete
is that the materials can be found cheaply and
locally. At present earth/straw is mainly used for the
infill of new timber-frame buildings, though it can be
an excellent solution for renovation, especially in
combination with the repair of old daub (M15).

The hempcrete wall is not the only ecological wall
that gets a mediocre score in the assessment. The
cellulose wall (M9) and the monomur of fired clay
insulation blocks (M6) do not get satisfactory results
either. Blown cellulose is still one of the cheapest
and widely used environmental insulation materials,
also in renovation. However, due to its low density it
has little thermal mass, which brings down the
overall score in the assessment. Bringing other
parameters into account, e.g. hygroscopicity and
thermal bridging, would give cellulose certainly a
better overall score than in the present assessment.
The monomur may provide a very good decrement
delay of 22.5 hours, but shows a very high EE (355
kWh/m
2
) and EC (135 kgCO2eq/m
2
), and is the worst
solution of all the 20 wall types (Table 3.).
3.3. Dry lining and thermal mass
The assessment shows that the widely used
conventional insulation techniques are amongst the
worst performers from a thermal and environmental
point of view, with overall scores below 10 out of 20
(M1,M2, M4). This is mainly due to the high EE of
new fired bricks and the very low scores for thermal
inertia.
This is also the reason why the wall with no
insulation (M5) gets a better overall score, simply
because it does not have an added environmental
impact, while it preserves the buildings thermal
mass. Some experts therefore believe that it is often
preferable not to compromise a buildings vernacular
qualities by applying dry lining, but use an insulation
render, e.g. hemp and lime, for thermal
improvement [3].
When the old daub (M3) is kept, dry lining wall
types get a slightly better result, especially if
glasswool is replaced by woodwool, which is more
hygroscopic and therefore more compatible with
breathing and capillary timber-frame constructions.
When used in combination with interior clay blocks it
achieves a good decrement delay and acceptable
overall score of 13.6 (M3b).
PLEA 2011 - 27
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336 MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT
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Table 3 Results all parameters for the 20 wall types
Overall
score
Width
1 to 20 cm
kWh
per m
2
Score
kg
CO2eq
per m
Score
kea per
m
Score
m K/w
per m
Score h / m Score
kJ/mK
per m
Score
Brick, glasswool, plasterboard M1 8.5 26.5 177 8.2 40 7.4 0.02814 10.3 2.65 13.6 5.7 9.5 24 1.9
Clay block, glasswool, plasterboard M2 9.7 27.5 144 10.4 36 7.6 0.00528 15.2 2.72 14.0 5.6 9.3 24 1.9
Old daub, glasswool, plasterboard M3 11.2 29.5 100 13.4 32 7.9 0.00124 19.4 2.67 13.7 6.5 10.9 24 1.9
Brick, glasswool, clay block M4 9.4 32.0 201 6.6 50 6.7 0.02960 10.2 2.75 14.2 7.9 13.2 71 5.7
Old daub, no insulation M5 10.2 13.0 30 18.0 13 9.1 0.00000 20.0 0.40 1.1 4.6 7.6 70 5.6
Brick and monomur M6 8.1 49.0 355 0.0 135 1.0 0.10341 6.6 3.13 16.3 22.5 20.0 61 4.9
New daub, woodwool, clay block M7 13.9 32.0 72 15.2 -3 10.2 0.00203 18.0 2.70 13.9 12.4 20.0 77 6.2
Brick (reuse), cork board M8 13.1 26.0 60 16.0 -3 10.2 0.00000 20.0 2.70 13.9 9.4 15.7 36 2.8
Old daub, cellulose, Fermacell M9 11.8 28.0 144 10.4 18 8.8 0.00010 20.0 2.69 13.9 8.3 13.8 45 3.6
Old daub, wood f ibre board M10 14.3 28.0 37 17.5 -13 10.9 0.00000 20.0 2.62 13.5 11.8 19.6 54 4.3
Hempcrete M11 11.2 31.0 152 9.9 -4 10.2 0.03250 9.9 2.79 14.4 10.8 17.9 58 4.6
Earth and straw M12 14.7 36.0 85 14.3 -39 12.6 0.00008 20.0 2.77 14.3 16.0 20.0 86 6.9
Woodchip and lime M13 10.1 45.0 290 0.7 -47 13.1 0.06818 7.8 2.77 14.3 18.6 20.0 62 5.0
Earth/straw, woodwool, Fermacell M14 13.9 25.0 70 15.4 -15 11.0 0.00001 20.0 2.74 14.1 10.6 17.6 63 5.0
Old daub, earth and straw M15 14.8 38.0 35 17.6 -22 11.5 0.00000 20.0 2.62 13.5 15.3 20.0 81 6.5
Wood cladding, glasswool, old daub M16 13.6 29.7 147 10.2 17 8.9 0.00076 20.0 2.80 14.5 8.4 14.0 177 14.1
Polystyrene, old daub M17 12.2 26.0 124 11.7 39 7.4 0.00522 15.2 2.57 13.2 7.0 11.6 175 14.0
Slate cladding, woodwool, old daub M18 15.0 27.5 120 12.0 -10 10.6 0.00026 20.0 2.68 13.8 10.6 17.7 198 15.9
Woodf ibre board, unf ired bricks M19 15.9 25.0 36 17.6 -18 11.2 0.00001 20.0 2.65 13.7 11.4 19.0 176 14.1
Woodf ibre board, old daub M20 16.6 28.0 28 18.1 -20 11.3 0.00000 20.0 2.71 13.9 12.3 20.0 202 16.1
Average 12.4 30.1 120 12.2 9.3 9.4 0.01384 16.6 2.61 13.4 10.8 15.9 88 7.1
Thermal
Resistance
Decrement
delay
Thermal
inertia
Wall type
Wall
number
Embodied
Energy
Embodied
Carbon
Resource
depletion


3.4. Biosourced materials
Now both France and Germany have their
government incentives for renewable building
materials, it is interesting to look at the percentage of
materials in the wall sections that are bio sourced,
i.e. derived from plant-based sources (Fig 2). The
plant-fibre-filled walls have the highest percentages
bio sourced for both weight and volume.

Fig. 2 Percentage of materials biosourced per wall type
This corresponds with Fig. 3 which shows that all
plant fibre walls store carbon, with the woodchip and
lime wall (M13) storing 47 kg CO2eq/m
2
and the
earth/straw wall (M12) storing 39 kg CO2eq/m
2
.

Fig 3 Embodied carbon per wall type
4. CONCLUSION
4.1 Appropriate techniques
The aim of the study was to find out what the most
appropriate and sustainable insulation techniques
are for the renovation of period timber-frame
buildings. This means techniques and materials that
do not have a negative impact on the environment,
or on the structure of a building and its aesthetic and
vernacular qualities. The assessment shows there is
no one optimum solution which is satisfactory for all
these criteria. Though some insulation techniques
may be satisfactory from an energy-saving
viewpoint, they are not considered appropriate
solutions when they have a negative impact on the
environment or the building itself. However, despite
the reservations of conservationists, exterior
insulation may be a solution for walls that are not of
great architectural interest.
An appropriate material for the exterior insulation
of period timber-frame walls is woodfibre board, due
to its low thermal conductivity and EE and a good
density (168 kg/m
3
) and vapour-openness. When
exterior insulation is not possible earth/straw
insulation gives the best overall results. Because this
technique is more labour intensive and requires
longer drying times (up to several months), it would
be interesting to study the wider applications of earth
and straw in thermal retrofits of existing buildings, as
was done for straw bale in the UK [15]. Furthermore,
the labour-intensity factor proposed by Floissac et al.
[16] deserves further study and is an interesting
socio-economic concept for the development of a
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 337
5
locally sourced and sustainable construction industry
using renewable materials.
There still is a general lack of reliable technical
information on manufactured environmental building
materials, and producers of these new materials
find it difficult to get their products certified [17], e.g.
in this study it was hard to find reliable data for
expanded cork board insulation. EE and EC figures
for cork boards from different sources varied so
much it was hard to interpret them. This lack of
reliable and comparable data is even more apparent
for non-manufactured local materials, e.g. earth,
straw and other agro fibres.
4.2. Towards consensus on LCA and carbon
storage
The assessment shows that walls with plant fibre
and binder insulation (M12-15) store considerable
amounts of carbon. Carbon storage in building
materials has a great GHG-mitigation potential,
which applies to both renovation and new build
[7,12,13,18]. However, further research and scientific
debate on calculation methods are needed to
establish scientific consensus in the LCA community.
Some authors maintain that the inclusion of carbon
sequestration only makes sense in a wholly
sustainable state of production and consumption
[19]. Furthermore, carbon storage in building
materials is temporary and depends on what
happens at the end-of-life of a product. Still, a
several centuries old timber-frame houses is
probably one of the best examples of a quasi-
permanent carbon store.
The general problem with LCA-based assessment
tools like Cocon is the different weighting methods
and system boundaries used for LCA data. This can
lead to rather different results for the same materials
and functional units studied. Future European
harmonisation of LCA procedures might resolve
some of these problems. However, despite the
limitations of LCA and the lack of LCA data for
environmental materials, the Cocon database
provides reliable figures which have been checked
and compared with industry data and other sources
[7, 11]. The cross-checking has contributed to the
continuous updating process of the database.
4.3. Risks of dry lining in historic buildings
It is clear that the currently used dry lining
techniques have the worst scores in the assessment.
This is not only due to their environmental impact,
but also because dry lining completely cancels out
the benefits of thermal mass. Furthermore, these
techniques annihilate the hygrothermal qualities of
daub walls and can put the building at risk when
condensation and other humidity issues are not
properly addressed, as seen in the interviews [20].
When trying to achieve higher levels of thermal
insulation and air tightness in historic buildings,
inappropriate materials that do not breathe can
bring huge perils to both the health of the building
and the occupant [4]. Builders and architects name
humidity control as the main problem in old buildings
[20]. However, the study shows that the solutions
they provide for thermal insulation and vapour
control are often inappropriate.
Further research and hygrothermal simulation of
different wall types and insulation materials must be
carried out to assess which materials are appropriate
for historic buildings from a hygrothermal point of
view. Hygroscopic materials such as clay and plant
fibres can play an important role in moisture
buffering [21]. However, the main problem,
especially for environmental materials, is to find
reliable hygrothermal data which can be used for
these simulations [22].
A lot of the results from the assessment are also
applicable to new timber-frame buildings and the
research model can be adapted to other renovation
projects that take the vernacular qualities of
buildings into account. Cocon can be used for all
types of construction and is normally used to assess
a whole building, including its operational energy. In
a further case study of several period timber-frame
buildings it would be interesting to look at whole
buildings, testing several wall types and insulation
techniques from the current assessment. Comparing
case studies and including hygrothermal simulation
could confirm which techniques are more
appropriate. Each wall has to be considered
individually, also taking climatic parameters
(e.g.orientation, solar gain, wind and rain) into
account. And building materials should not only be
studied for the environmental impact, or the effect
they have on the building, but should also be
analysed for their influence on indoor air quality and
other occupant-related health issues. At present the
health issue is largely ignored in the French EPDs.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Luc Floissac, researcher at LRA
in Toulouse (author and developer of Cocon), and
the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) for
their financial support that allowed me to carry out
the research. This paper is based on the research
for a MSc in Architecture and Advanced
Environmental and Energy Studies, at the Graduate
School for the Environment, University of East-
London, January 2010.
REFERENCES
[1] Journal Officiel (2009) LOI n 2009-967 du 3 aot
2009 de programmation relative la mise en uvre
du Grenelle de l'environnement 1 .
[2] Marchal T. (2009) Les enjeux du patrimoine bti
ancien au regard des conomies dnergie, Journ
de formation Bti ancien et dveloppement durable,
ANVPAH, Paris 16 juin.
[3] Cuquel L (2010).Interview 2009, In: H. Valkhoff,
The renovation of period timber-frame buildings in
SW France, Thesis MSc AEES, Graduate School of
the Environment, University of East London.
[4] May N. (2006) Traditional materials and energy
efficiency, Retrieved 27 October 2009 from:
www.natural-building.co.uk.
[5] Gielen D.J. (1997) Building materials and CO2;
Western European emission reduction strategies,
Energie Centrum Nederland.
4
Table 3 Results all parameters for the 20 wall types
Overall
score
Width
1 to 20 cm
kWh
per m
2
Score
kg
CO2eq
per m
Score
kea per
m
Score
m K/w
per m
Score h / m Score
kJ/mK
per m
Score
Brick, glasswool, plasterboard M1 8.5 26.5 177 8.2 40 7.4 0.02814 10.3 2.65 13.6 5.7 9.5 24 1.9
Clay block, glasswool, plasterboard M2 9.7 27.5 144 10.4 36 7.6 0.00528 15.2 2.72 14.0 5.6 9.3 24 1.9
Old daub, glasswool, plasterboard M3 11.2 29.5 100 13.4 32 7.9 0.00124 19.4 2.67 13.7 6.5 10.9 24 1.9
Brick, glasswool, clay block M4 9.4 32.0 201 6.6 50 6.7 0.02960 10.2 2.75 14.2 7.9 13.2 71 5.7
Old daub, no insulation M5 10.2 13.0 30 18.0 13 9.1 0.00000 20.0 0.40 1.1 4.6 7.6 70 5.6
Brick and monomur M6 8.1 49.0 355 0.0 135 1.0 0.10341 6.6 3.13 16.3 22.5 20.0 61 4.9
New daub, woodwool, clay block M7 13.9 32.0 72 15.2 -3 10.2 0.00203 18.0 2.70 13.9 12.4 20.0 77 6.2
Brick (reuse), cork board M8 13.1 26.0 60 16.0 -3 10.2 0.00000 20.0 2.70 13.9 9.4 15.7 36 2.8
Old daub, cellulose, Fermacell M9 11.8 28.0 144 10.4 18 8.8 0.00010 20.0 2.69 13.9 8.3 13.8 45 3.6
Old daub, wood f ibre board M10 14.3 28.0 37 17.5 -13 10.9 0.00000 20.0 2.62 13.5 11.8 19.6 54 4.3
Hempcrete M11 11.2 31.0 152 9.9 -4 10.2 0.03250 9.9 2.79 14.4 10.8 17.9 58 4.6
Earth and straw M12 14.7 36.0 85 14.3 -39 12.6 0.00008 20.0 2.77 14.3 16.0 20.0 86 6.9
Woodchip and lime M13 10.1 45.0 290 0.7 -47 13.1 0.06818 7.8 2.77 14.3 18.6 20.0 62 5.0
Earth/straw, woodwool, Fermacell M14 13.9 25.0 70 15.4 -15 11.0 0.00001 20.0 2.74 14.1 10.6 17.6 63 5.0
Old daub, earth and straw M15 14.8 38.0 35 17.6 -22 11.5 0.00000 20.0 2.62 13.5 15.3 20.0 81 6.5
Wood cladding, glasswool, old daub M16 13.6 29.7 147 10.2 17 8.9 0.00076 20.0 2.80 14.5 8.4 14.0 177 14.1
Polystyrene, old daub M17 12.2 26.0 124 11.7 39 7.4 0.00522 15.2 2.57 13.2 7.0 11.6 175 14.0
Slate cladding, woodwool, old daub M18 15.0 27.5 120 12.0 -10 10.6 0.00026 20.0 2.68 13.8 10.6 17.7 198 15.9
Woodf ibre board, unf ired bricks M19 15.9 25.0 36 17.6 -18 11.2 0.00001 20.0 2.65 13.7 11.4 19.0 176 14.1
Woodf ibre board, old daub M20 16.6 28.0 28 18.1 -20 11.3 0.00000 20.0 2.71 13.9 12.3 20.0 202 16.1
Average 12.4 30.1 120 12.2 9.3 9.4 0.01384 16.6 2.61 13.4 10.8 15.9 88 7.1
Thermal
Resistance
Decrement
delay
Thermal
inertia
Wall type
Wall
number
Embodied
Energy
Embodied
Carbon
Resource
depletion


3.4. Biosourced materials
Now both France and Germany have their
government incentives for renewable building
materials, it is interesting to look at the percentage of
materials in the wall sections that are bio sourced,
i.e. derived from plant-based sources (Fig 2). The
plant-fibre-filled walls have the highest percentages
bio sourced for both weight and volume.

Fig. 2 Percentage of materials biosourced per wall type
This corresponds with Fig. 3 which shows that all
plant fibre walls store carbon, with the woodchip and
lime wall (M13) storing 47 kg CO2eq/m
2
and the
earth/straw wall (M12) storing 39 kg CO2eq/m
2
.

Fig 3 Embodied carbon per wall type
4. CONCLUSION
4.1 Appropriate techniques
The aim of the study was to find out what the most
appropriate and sustainable insulation techniques
are for the renovation of period timber-frame
buildings. This means techniques and materials that
do not have a negative impact on the environment,
or on the structure of a building and its aesthetic and
vernacular qualities. The assessment shows there is
no one optimum solution which is satisfactory for all
these criteria. Though some insulation techniques
may be satisfactory from an energy-saving
viewpoint, they are not considered appropriate
solutions when they have a negative impact on the
environment or the building itself. However, despite
the reservations of conservationists, exterior
insulation may be a solution for walls that are not of
great architectural interest.
An appropriate material for the exterior insulation
of period timber-frame walls is woodfibre board, due
to its low thermal conductivity and EE and a good
density (168 kg/m
3
) and vapour-openness. When
exterior insulation is not possible earth/straw
insulation gives the best overall results. Because this
technique is more labour intensive and requires
longer drying times (up to several months), it would
be interesting to study the wider applications of earth
and straw in thermal retrofits of existing buildings, as
was done for straw bale in the UK [15]. Furthermore,
the labour-intensity factor proposed by Floissac et al.
[16] deserves further study and is an interesting
socio-economic concept for the development of a
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
338 MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT
6
[6] Harris C. and Borer P. (2005) The Whole House
Book; ecological building design and materials, 2
nd

ed. CAT publications.
[7] Berge B. (2009) The Ecology of Building
Materials, 2
nd
ed. Architectural Press.
[8] Floissac L. (2009) COCON Comparaison de
solutions Constructives de Confort et demissions de
CO2 version 2.3.0.3.
[9] RT-2007 (2007) Rglementation Thermique des
btiments existants.
[10] INIES (2009) La base de donnes franaise de
rfrence sur les caractristiques environnementales
et sanitaires des produits de construction, CSTB,
Retrieved 27 October 2010 from: http://www.inies.fr/
[11] Cocon base de donnes (2009), Laboratoire de
Recherche en Architecture (LRA) de lEcole
Nationale Suprieure dArchitecture de Toulouse.
[12] Cornillier C., Vial E. (2008) LAnalyse de Cycle
de Vie (ACV) applique aux produits bois, IXme
Colloque Sciences et Industrie du Bois, 20 & 21
novembre.
[13] Bevan R., Woolley T. (2008) Hemp lime
construction ; a guide to building with hemp lime
composites, IHS BRE Press.
[14] Boutin M.P., Flamin C., Quinton S., Gosse G.
(2006) Etude des characteristiques
environnementales du chanvre par lanalyse de son
cycle de vie INRA, Ministre de lAgriculture et de la
Pche.
[15] Le Doujet K. (2009) Opportunities for the large
scale implementation of straw based external
insulation as a retrofit solution of existing UK
buildings MA Thesis, University of Cambridge.
[16] Floissac L., Bui Q.B., Colas A.S., Marcom A.,
Morel J.C. (2009) How to assess the sustainability of
construction processes, Fifth Urban Research
Symposium, Cities and Climate Change, Marseille.
[17] Conteville and Den Hartigh C. (2008) Les
comatriaux dans la rnovation thermique des
logements en France, Amis de la Terre, Paris.
[18] Amato (1996) cited in: Hammond G., Jones C.
Inventory of Carbon&Energy (ICE), University of
Bath, 2008.
[19] Harris R. (2009), Is Timber a sustainable
building material?, Lecture notes AEES Module C-3
study book, Graduate School of the Environment,
CAT/UEL.
[20] H. Valkhoff (2010) Interviews with building
professionals in Midi-Pyrnes, In:, The renovation
of period timber-frame buildings in SW France,
Thesis MSc AEES, Graduate School of the
Environment, University of East London.
[21] Padfield T. (1998) The role of absorbent building
materials, PhD TU Denmark.
[22] Valkhoff H., Floissac L. (2011), rapport Hygroba,
tche 2, LRA, CETE-EST (in preparation).
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 339
The Thermal Behaviour of Cross-Laminated Timber
Construction and its Resilience to Summertime
Overheating
Owen JOWETT
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
ABSTRACT: This study is concerned with the thermal performance of cross-laminated timber (CLT) and the
impact of increased peak temperatures. It explores the passive potential of the Murray Grove housing project by
Waugh Thistleton Architects. On-site measured data from two apartments with contrasting orientations along
with occupant surveys were used to calibrate a dynamic thermal model. Comparative modelling of the thermal
performance of CLT construction with a concrete frame structure showed similar thermal performances under
current conditions. Under projected peak conditions for 2050 the concrete frame scenario reduced overheating
compared to CLT, although still showed over 11% annual hours over 25
o
C.
Occupant surveys indicate very low levels of spacing heating and summer window opening patterns, which
show all-day cooling, was required during summer 2009. The building is naturally ventilated and the simulated
data also suggest this will cease to be sufficient as temperatures rise. The use of factory-based manufacturing
produces engineered timber to exact tolerances and the airtightness results were around a half of current UK
requirements.
The findings indicate that extensive use of CLT, especially in buildings whose form is inherently thermally
efficient, is likely to produce problems of overheating. However they also show the same is true of buildings
using heavyweight construction.
Keywords: Mass Timber, overheating, housing, thermal mass,
1. THE STUDY
This study is concerned with the thermal
performance of cross-laminated timber (CLT) and the
impact of increased peak temperatures. It explores
the passive potential of the case study building (the
Murray Grove housing project), particularly its
resilience to summertime overheating. The study
incorporates the perceptions and actions of residents
to assist the understanding of current and potential
adaptive behaviour.
On-site measured data will be used to calibrate
the dynamic thermal model. Modelling comparative
data on the environmental performance of the CLT
construction with a standard heavyweight structure
will indicate relative performance, as well as the case
study buildings free running potential in different
scenarios. The implications of the findings for future
environmental design will be noted.
2. BACKGROUND
The context of Britains housing shortage and the
recent targets for new homes bring into sharp relief
the need for innovation in construction (Barker et al,
2009). The Community and Local Governments
Adaptation Plan (Communities and Local
Government, 2010) states that: We have made it a
requirement on the builder to consider heat gains as
well as heat losses in domestic buildings, to manage
energy demand. This explicit statement is a marked
change from previous legislation such as the Code
for Sustainable Homes (Communities and Local
Government, 2007) that did not mention summertime
heat gain, focusing instead on air-tightness and
insulation. The impact of the predicted rises in
summertime peak temperature (Jentsch et al, 2008)
is also worthy of investigation, given the associated
health risks amongst certain groups. During the 2003
August heatwave, in London, for example, deaths
among people aged over 75 rose by 60%
(Department of Health, 2009).


Figure 1. Murray Grove housing by Waugh Thistleton
Architects
The Murray Grove housing project (Fig. 1) is in
Hoxton, East London. Completed in 2009, this nine-
storey building is the worlds tallest residential timber
building. It comprises 29 apartments located at
corners surrounding a double core, with separate
stairs and lifts for the different tenures (nine are
6
[6] Harris C. and Borer P. (2005) The Whole House
Book; ecological building design and materials, 2
nd

ed. CAT publications.
[7] Berge B. (2009) The Ecology of Building
Materials, 2
nd
ed. Architectural Press.
[8] Floissac L. (2009) COCON Comparaison de
solutions Constructives de Confort et demissions de
CO2 version 2.3.0.3.
[9] RT-2007 (2007) Rglementation Thermique des
btiments existants.
[10] INIES (2009) La base de donnes franaise de
rfrence sur les caractristiques environnementales
et sanitaires des produits de construction, CSTB,
Retrieved 27 October 2010 from: http://www.inies.fr/
[11] Cocon base de donnes (2009), Laboratoire de
Recherche en Architecture (LRA) de lEcole
Nationale Suprieure dArchitecture de Toulouse.
[12] Cornillier C., Vial E. (2008) LAnalyse de Cycle
de Vie (ACV) applique aux produits bois, IXme
Colloque Sciences et Industrie du Bois, 20 & 21
novembre.
[13] Bevan R., Woolley T. (2008) Hemp lime
construction ; a guide to building with hemp lime
composites, IHS BRE Press.
[14] Boutin M.P., Flamin C., Quinton S., Gosse G.
(2006) Etude des characteristiques
environnementales du chanvre par lanalyse de son
cycle de vie INRA, Ministre de lAgriculture et de la
Pche.
[15] Le Doujet K. (2009) Opportunities for the large
scale implementation of straw based external
insulation as a retrofit solution of existing UK
buildings MA Thesis, University of Cambridge.
[16] Floissac L., Bui Q.B., Colas A.S., Marcom A.,
Morel J.C. (2009) How to assess the sustainability of
construction processes, Fifth Urban Research
Symposium, Cities and Climate Change, Marseille.
[17] Conteville and Den Hartigh C. (2008) Les
comatriaux dans la rnovation thermique des
logements en France, Amis de la Terre, Paris.
[18] Amato (1996) cited in: Hammond G., Jones C.
Inventory of Carbon&Energy (ICE), University of
Bath, 2008.
[19] Harris R. (2009), Is Timber a sustainable
building material?, Lecture notes AEES Module C-3
study book, Graduate School of the Environment,
CAT/UEL.
[20] H. Valkhoff (2010) Interviews with building
professionals in Midi-Pyrnes, In:, The renovation
of period timber-frame buildings in SW France,
Thesis MSc AEES, Graduate School of the
Environment, University of East London.
[21] Padfield T. (1998) The role of absorbent building
materials, PhD TU Denmark.
[22] Valkhoff H., Floissac L. (2011), rapport Hygroba,
tche 2, LRA, CETE-EST (in preparation).
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
340 MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT


socially rented, 20 privately rented or owned) (Fig.
2). It is located within Londons Urban Heat Island
(UHI) (Watkins et al, 2007) area and is, therefore, at
increased risk of overheating.
During the design process for this CLT building
cost-benefit analyses were undertaken on a number
of variables, including construction time and cost,
comparing it to a standard concrete framed
construction. It was estimated, for example, that the
construction period using concrete would be 72
weeks and the CLT project was completed in 49
weeks. However, there is no evidence to suggest
that the projected thermal performance of the
building was included in these analyses, nor that the
emerging research findings were incorporated.
Palmer et als (2004) work, for example, showed that
cooling using a combination of thermal mass, night
cooling and user controlled solar controls reduced
overheating more efficiently than other passive
methods. The structural form of CLT buildings is
similar to those of pre-cast concrete panels as both
materials have multi-lateral strength, with walls acting
as beam (Yates et al, 2009). The buildings
honeycomb structure means that almost all internal
walls are structural CLT with a U-value of 0.62
Wm2/h, compared to 1.69 Wm2/h for a typical stud
wall. The density of CLT is 500 kg/m3, compared to
up to 2400kg/m3 for concrete and the heat
conductance of the 128mm 3-ply wall panels is 0.13
W(m2K). The specific heat capacity of CLT is 2100
J/kgK, compared to 3300 J/kgK for concrete
(McMullan, 2007).

Figure 2. Typical Upper Floor plan (Thompson, 2009)

Building codes can influence progress with CLT.
In Vienna, for example, the Muhlweg Residential
Development followed changes to the local
regulations that encouraged timber construction
(Teibinger, 2008).
The use of factory-based, computer-controlled
manufacturing produces engineered timber to exact
tolerances and reduces structural movement. The
timber used for the case study building was grown
and processed in Austria, where harsher winters
have led to heavily insulated buildings with high
levels of air-tightness. The development of super-
sealed mechanically ventilated homes under the
Passivhaus system is based upon principles of heat
retention, rather than passive cooling (Pokorny et al,
2008). White (2010) indicates that super-insulated
buildings simulated using current UK climate data
(CIBSE DSY 2005) failed to meet requirements for
overheating. However, Orme et al (2005) showed
that reducing internal gains and providing operable
solar shading were effective in reducing overheating
hours.
The amount of solar gain plays a key role in
determining the buildings passive potential. The
combined kitchen, living room and dining areas have
windows on two adjacent facades and are fairly
narrow plan, so sunlight strikes the back wall as well
the floor. Because of fire resistance concerns the
timber is not exposed internally, with 15mm of
plasterboard lining the interior throughout, and
double this thickness protecting the lift shafts. This
reduces the ability of the thermal mass to regulate
the internal environment. These spaces also receive
most of the apartments internal gains from
occupancy, cooking, pets and electrical equipment,
and are, therefore, influenced by occupancy
patterns. As the building contains a mixture of flats,
ranging from 4-bedroom family apartments to 1-
bedroom penthouses there is variation in occupation
profiles and internal gains.

Figure 3. External Wall Detail (Thompson, 2009)
The building is naturally ventilated, and the
double aspect corner apartments allow cross-
ventilation, although the internal fire doors with
closers may limit this. The internal floor construction
contains a 55mm unexposed screed (Fig. 3).
3. METHOD
This experiment combined measured and
simulated data, using on-site readings to calibrate
the dynamic thermal model. It sought to determine
the buildings free-running potential in different
scenarios.

3.1. Environmental Monitoring

Data were collected using data logging sensors in
two apartments and an occupant survey, where all
29 apartments were invited to take part, using letters
and direct contact. The data loggers monitored room
temperature and relative humidity for 7 days from
18:00 on 08/04/10, taking readings at 15-minute
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 341


intervals. The apartments each contain a condensing
boiler and radiators for space heating. Both private
and socially renting tenants are responsible for their
energy bills. Data loggers were placed at six
locations across the two apartments (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Data Logger locations Flat 8, Third Floor (left)
and Flat 14, Seventh Floor
The apartments chosen allowed a number of
conditions to be assessed. Flat 8 is located at the
SW corner of the third floor, has three bedrooms and
is occupied almost constantly. The residents (two
adults, two children and three dogs) are joined on
most days by relatives and friends. This maintains a
constant level of internal gain, particularly in the
living room/kitchen space, which contains a large
CRT television and sound system, alongside the
open kitchen with associated cooking gains. Flat 14
is located at the SE corner of the seventh floor with
two bedrooms, both facing east. The occupants work
full-time, so the flat is generally empty during the
day. Despite this, they only recall 2-3 times when the
heating was required during the winter.

Figure 5. Data Logger results (Flat 8, above, and Flat 14)
The monitoring period was mild and dry, and
neither apartment used central heating during this
time. The results, therefore, indicate the free-running
potential of the building, with heating requirements
being met by internal and solar gains.
The sensors in Flat 8 recorded higher average
temperatures than those in Flat 14 due to the
southwest orientation and more consistent
occupation. The living room/kitchen sensor showed
spikes caused by cooking, although these were
isolated, possibly because of windows being opened
for odour ventilation. The constant occupation and
lack of trends suggest that the occupants use
window opening to regulate their environment. The
sensors in Flat 14 (Fig. 4) indicated clear patterns
relating to use. The bathroom sensor recorded
spikes in temperature and humidity once a day; the
occupants using the shower before work. Otherwise
the temperature remained between 22-24C due to
the rooms position enclosed within the plan.
The sensors in the living room/kitchen space and
the bedroom recorded inverse patterns of use. The
weekday period showed the living room/kitchen
areas temperature responding directly to external
conditions. This is due to the east and south facing
glazing in the room. The bedroom, by contrast, is
warmed by occupancy overnight and then cools
during the day.
3.2. Occupant Survey
All 29 flats were visited, and, following two visits,
10 residents were identified to take part in the
survey, 4 from socially rented apartments and 6 from
those privately owned or rented. All residents had
lived in the building since it opened in January 2009,
and they were questioned on their recollections of its
thermal performance during the previous year. They
were asked for an air-quality rating (Yarnold, 1947)
and to rank rooms by temperature in both summer
and winter. Seasonal window opening patterns were
also determined to investigate adaptive thermal
comfort. All but one reported opening windows in one
or more rooms during winter to expel stale air.
The occupant survey and results show patterns
of adaptive behaviour (fig. 6). One couple had never
used their central heating and their energy bills were
only 85 per quarter. These respondents had young
children and, therefore, occupation was fairly
constant. Although these respondents opened
windows in all rooms during the summer, the longer
occupation period does not appear to have an effect
on adaptive behaviour when compared to the shorter
occupation times of the private flats.
All but one of the respondents with a southerly
aspect to their living room/kitchen space reported
that this was their warmest room during the summer.
Residents with north facing living room/kitchen
spaces generally found that their east or west facing
bedrooms were warmer. This suggests that solar
gain has a strong influence on the internal
environment, and that during the summer months
this overrides internal gains. These trends are
reversed during the winter, when all respondents
reported that the living room/kitchen spaces were
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
342 MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT

Building
Construction
Scenario
Existing Fabric
Heavyweight
Construction
External
wall build-up
Fibreboard tiles,
Cavity, Polyurethane
Board, CLT, Gypsum
plasterboard
0.1633 Wm
2
/h
Gypsum plasterboard,
CLT, Gypsum
plasterboard
0.6163 Wm
2
/h
Internal wall
build-up
Brickwork outer leaf,
polyurethane board,
cast concrete, plaster
0.1633 Wm
2
/h
Plaster, brickwork (inner
leaf), plaster
1.6896 Wm
2
/h
Floor build-
up
Synthetic carpet,
screed, polyurethane
board, CLT, Cavity,
polystyrene, gypsum
plasterboard 0.1424
Wm
2
/h
Synthetic carpet, screed,
polyurethane board, cast
concrete polystyrene,
plaster
0.1424 Wm
2
/h
Glazing Low-e Double Glazed Windows (2001 Building
Regulations)
Uvalue= 1.9773
Infiltration
rate
Infiltration Rate = 0.12 ach (based on post-
completion testing)
Figure 8. IESVE Simulation Characteristics
Existing
Fabric

London
Heathrow
DSY 2005

Heavyweight
construction

Free running
(no space
heating) with
window
opening
regimesbased
on CO2
concentration
and air
temperature

(Doors all
modelled as
closed,
windows
programmed
to open when
20
o
C< >25
o
C
or when
800ppm<
>1200 ppm
Occupied 2
people per
bedroom
23:0008:00, 3
people, a
computer and
lights in living
room 08:00-
23:00 + plus
30mins+30
mins of 1.6kW
latent cooking
load @ 12:30
and 19:00
(Halls,
landings, lifts
and stairwells
unoccupied)
London
Heathrow
DSY 2050

Figure 9. IESVE Simulation Scenarios
Dry Resultant Temperature was used in the
simulation model as it combines air temperature,
radiant temperature and air movement and is
therefore closely associated with thermal comfort,
particularly in a cross-ventilated space where air
movement may be high.
The simulation results are for two of the rooms
monitored: the west-facing bedroom of Flat 8 on the
third-floor and the east-facing bedroom of Flat 14 on
the seventh-floor. These rooms were chosen as they
are similar in size and, unlike the living room/kitchen
spaces, are single aspect. The results for Flat 8 show
that during peak summertime periods the CLT
reaches temperatures of 1-2C higher, with night-
time lows being 2-3C lower, than the heavyweight
construction. This greater range of temperature is
also evident when using the 2050 climate data, with
peak temperatures being higher for CLT and night-
time temperatures remaining above those for
heavyweight construction. These trends are
apparent, although to a lesser extent, in the 2005
data for Flat 14. This could result from only receiving
direct solar gain before midday.

CLT
Flat 8 West
Bedroom Dry resultant temperature (C) - hours in range
File
>
25.00 > 28.00 > 31.00 > 34.00
London dsy
2005 annual
clt .aps 257 43 0 0
London dsy
2050 annual
clt .aps 963 268 56 4

Flat 14 East
Bedroom
Dry resultant temperature (C) - hours in range

File
>
25.00 > 28.00 > 31.00 > 34.00
London dsy
2005 annual
clt .aps 332 65 7 0
London dsy
2050 annual
clt .aps 1114 346 80 11
Heavyweight
Flat 8 West
Bedroom Dry resultant temperature (C) - hours in range
File
>
25.00 > 28.00 > 31.00 > 34.00
London dsy
2005 annual
hvw .aps 259 34 0 0
London dsy
2050 annual
hvw .aps 847 187 31 0

Flat 14 East
Bedroom
Dry resultant temperature (C) - hours in range

File
>
25.00 > 28.00 > 31.00 > 34.00
London dsy
2005 annual
hvw .aps 365 48 4 0
London dsy
2050 annual
hvw .aps 1019 248 50 6
Figure 10. Simulation Results Overheating Tables
Dry-bulb temperature (C) - hours in range
File > 25.00 > 28.00 > 31.00 > 34.00
UK-Heathrow
DSY
medhi-
02050.epw 644 291 71 17
LondonDSY05 283 63 11 0
Figure 11. Climate Data Overheating Tables
Both constructions show dramatic increases in
overheating using the predicted climate data. Under
2005 conditions they both fall well within the limit of
5% of annual hours over 25C, but the predicted data
show this increasing to 12.7% for CLT and 11.6% for
heavyweight construction. Overheating above 28C
is also within the 1% of annual hours when modeled
with 2005 climate data. In 2050 this rises to 2.8% for
heavyweight construction and 3.9% for CLT.
These results suggest that, although there is a
difference between the increase in overheating
between CLT and heavyweight construction, both
experience significant increases, which limit the


warmer than east or west facing bedrooms. This
would suggest that during these periods, internal
gains from occupation, cooking and electrical
appliances are contributing to space heating, so
unoccupied spaces were cooler.

Figure 6. Thermal Comfort questionnaire results
This is supported by the simulated data (Fig. 7)
which show internal gains from night-time occupation
in the bedroom of Flat 14 that remain constant
throughout the year and variation in solar radiation
and its influence on dry resultant temperature.
3.3. Building Simulation
The building was modeled in IES-VE simulation
software to allow predicted climate data (DSY 2050)
to be used for the buildings life expectancy. These
data were generated using the CCWeatherGen
programme, developed by the Sustainable Energy
Research Group at the University of Southampton.
The software uses UK Climate Impact Programme
data for Medium-High emissions levels to stretch
weather files.

Figure 7. Summer and Winter internal and solar gains

The building fabric was modelled using detail
drawings and manufacturers specifications to ensure
correct thermal insulation and resistance. It
underwent post-completion air-tightness testing, in
accordance with the Code for Sustainable Homes
(Communities and Local Government, 2007), and the
results, ranging from 2.02-3.82 m3/(h.m2) @ 50 Pa,
have been applied to the appropriate spaces. They
highlight the buildings potential for heat
conservation, as the requirements of Approved
Document L1A (2006) stipulate an air-permeability of
5 m3/(h.m2) @ 50 Pa. PassivHaus requirements
(Pokorny et al, 2008) are less than a fifth of this,
however, showing that investment in the building
fabric could deliver further increases in performance.
Continued study could determine the benefits of
reaching PassivHaus standards in reducing energy
consumption and the overheating risk of airtight
construction in a warming climate.
Four different scenarios were simulated (Figure
8). As stated, throughout the design process CLT
construction was compared with traditional concrete,
in terms of cost and construction time, and via the
simulation, the thermal performance of each has now
been predicted. The heavyweight construction
simulation featured the same U-values and air
infiltration figures as the existing fabric model to
focus the results on the desired variable. Figure 9
identifies the construction material used in the model.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 343

Building
Construction
Scenario
Existing Fabric
Heavyweight
Construction
External
wall build-up
Fibreboard tiles,
Cavity, Polyurethane
Board, CLT, Gypsum
plasterboard
0.1633 Wm
2
/h
Gypsum plasterboard,
CLT, Gypsum
plasterboard
0.6163 Wm
2
/h
Internal wall
build-up
Brickwork outer leaf,
polyurethane board,
cast concrete, plaster
0.1633 Wm
2
/h
Plaster, brickwork (inner
leaf), plaster
1.6896 Wm
2
/h
Floor build-
up
Synthetic carpet,
screed, polyurethane
board, CLT, Cavity,
polystyrene, gypsum
plasterboard 0.1424
Wm
2
/h
Synthetic carpet, screed,
polyurethane board, cast
concrete polystyrene,
plaster
0.1424 Wm
2
/h
Glazing Low-e Double Glazed Windows (2001 Building
Regulations)
Uvalue= 1.9773
Infiltration
rate
Infiltration Rate = 0.12 ach (based on post-
completion testing)
Figure 8. IESVE Simulation Characteristics
Existing
Fabric

London
Heathrow
DSY 2005

Heavyweight
construction

Free running
(no space
heating) with
window
opening
regimesbased
on CO
2
concentration
and air
temperature

(Doors all
modelled as
closed,
windows
programmed
to open when
20
o
C< >25
o
C
or when
800ppm<
>1200 ppm
Occupied 2
people per
bedroom
23:0008:00, 3
people, a
computer and
lights in living
room 08:00-
23:00 + plus
30mins+30
mins of 1.6kW
latent cooking
load @ 12:30
and 19:00
(Halls,
landings, lifts
and stairwells
unoccupied)
London
Heathrow
DSY 2050

Figure 9. IESVE Simulation Scenarios
Dry Resultant Temperature was used in the
simulation model as it combines air temperature,
radiant temperature and air movement and is
therefore closely associated with thermal comfort,
particularly in a cross-ventilated space where air
movement may be high.
The simulation results are for two of the rooms
monitored: the west-facing bedroom of Flat 8 on the
third-floor and the east-facing bedroom of Flat 14 on
the seventh-floor. These rooms were chosen as they
are similar in size and, unlike the living room/kitchen
spaces, are single aspect. The results for Flat 8 show
that during peak summertime periods the CLT
reaches temperatures of 1-2C higher, with night-
time lows being 2-3C lower, than the heavyweight
construction. This greater range of temperature is
also evident when using the 2050 climate data, with
peak temperatures being higher for CLT and night-
time temperatures remaining above those for
heavyweight construction. These trends are
apparent, although to a lesser extent, in the 2005
data for Flat 14. This could result from only receiving
direct solar gain before midday.

CLT
Flat 8 West
Bedroom Dry resultant temperature (C) - hours in range
File
>
25.00 > 28.00 > 31.00 > 34.00
London dsy
2005 annual
clt .aps 257 43 0 0
London dsy
2050 annual
clt .aps 963 268 56 4

Flat 14 East
Bedroom
Dry resultant temperature (C) - hours in range

File
>
25.00 > 28.00 > 31.00 > 34.00
London dsy
2005 annual
clt .aps 332 65 7 0
London dsy
2050 annual
clt .aps 1114 346 80 11
Heavyweight
Flat 8 West
Bedroom Dry resultant temperature (C) - hours in range
File
>
25.00 > 28.00 > 31.00 > 34.00
London dsy
2005 annual
hvw .aps 259 34 0 0
London dsy
2050 annual
hvw .aps 847 187 31 0

Flat 14 East
Bedroom
Dry resultant temperature (C) - hours in range

File
>
25.00 > 28.00 > 31.00 > 34.00
London dsy
2005 annual
hvw .aps 365 48 4 0
London dsy
2050 annual
hvw .aps 1019 248 50 6
Figure 10. Simulation Results Overheating Tables
Dry-bulb temperature (C) - hours in range
File > 25.00 > 28.00 > 31.00 > 34.00
UK-Heathrow
DSY
medhi-
02050.epw 644 291 71 17
LondonDSY05 283 63 11 0
Figure 11. Climate Data Overheating Tables
Both constructions show dramatic increases in
overheating using the predicted climate data. Under
2005 conditions they both fall well within the limit of
5% of annual hours over 25C, but the predicted data
show this increasing to 12.7% for CLT and 11.6% for
heavyweight construction. Overheating above 28C
is also within the 1% of annual hours when modeled
with 2005 climate data. In 2050 this rises to 2.8% for
heavyweight construction and 3.9% for CLT.
These results suggest that, although there is a
difference between the increase in overheating
between CLT and heavyweight construction, both
experience significant increases, which limit the
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
344 MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT
1
PCM Analysis as a strategy in passive thermal
conditioning in floors
Isabel CERN
1
, M. Carolina HERNNDEZ-MARTNEZ
1
, Carmen MONTEJO
1
, Javier
NEILA
1
1
Department of Construction and Technology in Architecture. School of Architecture. Universidad Politcnica de
Madrid, Madrid, Spain
ABSTRACT: Since 2005, the ABIO research group works on the development of solutions in architecture that
incorporate Phase Change Materials (PCM) into constructive systems and materials as part of the buildings
thermal conditioning. One of the strategies employed for thermal conditioning has been the direct incorporation
of PCM in pavements, having now developed several prototypes. ABIO research group has reached certain
conclusions as a result of the use of PCM as passive thermal conditioning. The development process of one of
these systems is detailed in the article below, as well as the analysis of benefits and difficulties encountered in
the process of integration of PCM in architecture and its performance as passive thermal conditioning agents,
before, during and after the construction of the building. Different aspects have been taken into account, such as
architectural integration (construction), chemical analysis, costs and thermal analysis.
Keywords: Phase change materials (PCM), energy storing, heat storage, flooring, passive strategy.
1. INTRODUCTION
In 2005 the Universidad Politcnica de Madrid took
part in the Solar Decathlon [1] contest with the
Magic Box prototype. During the competition, the first
approach of the research group to phase change
materials (PCM) and their benefits was put in place as
a strategy for latent heat storage integrated into the
materials and constructive systems of the prototype.
As a consequence of this first experience, different
prototypes were developed for their incorporation into
raised-technical floors for housing, with encouraging
results regarding the possible benefits of their
application.
In 2007, the ABIO (Arquitectura biolclimtica en un
entorno sostenible) research group participated in the
INVISO project [3] (Industrializacin de Viviendas
Sostenibles). The main aim was to develop a
research method to create a catalogue of architectural
bioclimatic strategies. The research method was
developed in a tree structure with six main branches
one of which was energy storage. Regarding passive
architectural strategies, ABIO identified thermal
storage (weather sensitive or rather latent heat) as
one of the most interesting strategies because of its
potential development and application in construction.
In so far as latent heat storage research was
concerned, the main objective of ABIO was to identify
every possibility to introduce phase change materials
(PCM) in traditional constructive solutions as well as
new application proposals. The development of the
strategies included all kinds of different possibilities to
introduce the PCM, directly into the system macro-
encapsulated or micro-encapsulated in the material
during its manufacture or even soaked over the
material once finished. All these options generated a
wide range of design proposals appropriate for its use
in horizontal and vertical enclosures as well as in
building installations.
2. LATENT HEAT STORAGE STRATEGY
2.1. Latent heat storage
Several authors have studied the thermal
phenomenon that takes place during the materials
process of phase change [4] [5]. This relates to the
steps between solid, liquid, gas or even an emulsion
phase that appears in some materials. When one of
these processes is reverted the energy stored is
released and completes the materials thermal cycle.
The temperature of the material remains constant
during these phase changes as the energy is being
used in the break down of molecular bounds. This is
the reason why these processes of energy charge and
discharge occur in a slow and constant manner,
allowing for its use in passive thermal conditioning.
2.2. Passive thermal conditioning of flooring
In winter conditions, heat goes up due to
convection, flowing from the floor up to the ceiling of a
room. This mechanism assures that the temperature
gradient is appropriate to obtain ideal comfort
conditions. If the floor works too as an energy
collector, then the location and dimension of windows
would be directly related to the quantity of energy that
the floor may store, as windows are the main entrance
of solar radiation, and a main passive energy
resource. This process suggests the effectiveness of
flooring systems as passive thermal conditioning.
The difficulties encountered in the development of
simple passive thermal conditioning systems are
identical to those encountered in the production of any
pavement, such as high mechanic material resistance,
long life endurance, an acceptable esthetical
preservation, reasonable economic costs, preference
for light weight materials to reduce weight on the
structure and also high speed warming rates (thermal
diffusivity). All these needs actually spell out the list of
possible solutions.


capacity of the building form and cross-ventilation to
provide cooling. The implication is that resilient, high-
density housing must allow increased ventilation and
control solar gains.
4. CONCLUSION
The case study building provides an intelligent
response to current concerns and the ecological
advantages of CLT construction are undisputed
(Thompson, 2009). The findings indicate that
extensive use of CLT, especially in buildings whose
form is inherently thermally efficient, is likely to
produce problems of overheating. However they also
show the same is true of buildings using heavyweight
construction.
A dynamic thermal simulation of BaleHaus at
Bath (White, 2010) showed summertime overheating
was already a problem with between 5.42-5.97% of
hours being over 25C (CIBSE, 2002). Using high-
density internal elements has been shown to
increase the thermal capacity of timber-framed
buildings and this principle applies equally to CLT
construction (Szalay, 2004).
The monitored data begin to undermine the value
of Passivhaus design in high-rise design in the UK.
The case study building falls short of all technical
standards required for certification, but shows that by
exceeding current Building Regulations energy
usage can be reduced dramatically. The combination
of reduced external walls and the UHI effect mean
that air-leakage is reduced and occupants adaptive
thermal comfort is not undermined by using window
opening to control air quality.
The buildings air-tightness and high level of
insulation, combined with the lightweight
construction, mean the building is susceptible to
summertime overheating. The results of the
occupant questionnaire suggest further attempts at
summertime cooling may be ineffective. These
findings are supported by the simulated results,
which show passive cooling by cross-ventilation will
cease to reduce internal temperatures during
increasing summertime temperatures.
The space heating demand of the building is
currently met with combination boilers. As the
occupant survey suggests this is largely unused for
heating. Further study could determine whether the
cost of installing a traditional heating system could
have been more effectively spent on water heaters,
additional insulation and increased air-tightness, if
the internal and solar gains are sufficient. Using
internal gains to contribute to space heating,
particularly in family apartments with longer
occupation hours, could provide substantial savings
in energy use.

5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank Andrew Waugh (Waugh
Thistleton architects), David Gregory (Metropolitan
Housing Trust) and Professor Alan Short for their
support during this study. Particular thanks are due
to the tenants who welcomed me into their homes
and answered my questions so patiently.
6. . REFERENCES
[1] Binderholz Bausysteme GmbH. (2010). Binderholz
CROSS LAMINATED TIMBER BBS. Salzburg:
Binderholz Bausysteme GmbH.
[2] CIBSE. (2002). CIBSE Guide J - Weather, solar and
illuminance data. The Chartered Institution of Building
Services Engineers. London: CIBSE Publications.
[3] Communites and Local Government. (2007). Building
A Greener Future - Policy Statement. London: CLG
Publications.
[4] Communities and Local Government. (2007). Code for
Sustainable Homes : A step-change in sustainable
home building practice. London: CLG Publications.
[5] Communities and Local Government. (2010).
Departmental Adaptation Plan. Communities and
Local Government Publications .
[6] Department of Health. (2009). Heatwave Plan for
England. London: Department of Health.
[7] Jentsch, M. F., Bahaj, A. S., & James, P. A. (2008).
Climate change future proofing of buildings
Generation and assessment of building simulation
weather files. Energy and Buildings , 40 (12), 2148-
2168.
[8] Kovats, S., Johnson, H., & Grifths, C. (2006, Spring).
Mortality in southern England during the 2003 heat
wave by place of death. Health Statistics Quarterly , 6-
8.
[9] McMullan, R. (2007). Environmental Science in
Building. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Orme, M.,
Palmer, J., & Irving, S. (2005). Control of Overheating
in Well-Insulated Housing. CIBSE. Faber Maunsell Ltd.
[10] Palmer, J., Orme, M., & Irving, S. (2004). Control of
Overheating in Housing - Cooling Housing in a
Warming Climate. Future Housing Forum. Faber
Maunsell.
[11] Pokorny, W., Zelger, T., & Torghele, K. (2008).
Construction and Building Physics. In T. Waltjen,
Details for Passive Houses (pp.13-39). New York:
SpringerWien.
[12] Szalay, Z. (2004). Are Timber Buildings Really
Lightweight? Budapest: Department of Building
Energetics and Building Services .
[13] Teibinger, M. (2008). Urban Timber Houses in Vienna
(Vol. 18). International Association for Bridge and
Structural Engineering.
[14] Thompson, H. (2009). A Process Revealed. London:
Fuel.
[15] Vessby, J., Enquist, B., Petersson, H., & Alsmarker, T.
(2009). Experimental study of cross-laminated timber
wall panels. European Journal of Wood and Wood
Products (67), 211-218.
[16] Watkins, R., Palmer, J., & Kolokotroni, M. (2007).
Increased temperature and intensification of the urban
heat island: complications for human comfort and
urban design. Built Environment , 33 (1), 85-96.
[17] White, C. (2010). Thermal Mass Properties of
Monolithic Timber. London: TRADA.
[18] Yarnold, K. W. (1947). Factors Affecting Warmth
Comfort and Stuffiness in Domestic Rooms. Journal of
Hygiene , 45, 434-442.
[19] Yates, M., Linegar, M., & Dujic, B. (2009). Design of
an 8 storey Residential Tower from KLH Cross
Laminated Solid Timber Panels. London, Ljubljana.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 345
1
PCM Analysis as a strategy in passive thermal
conditioning in floors
Isabel CERN
1
, M. Carolina HERNNDEZ-MARTNEZ
1
, Carmen MONTEJO
1
, Javier
NEILA
1
1
Department of Construction and Technology in Architecture. School of Architecture. Universidad Politcnica de
Madrid, Madrid, Spain
ABSTRACT: Since 2005, the ABIO research group works on the development of solutions in architecture that
incorporate Phase Change Materials (PCM) into constructive systems and materials as part of the buildings
thermal conditioning. One of the strategies employed for thermal conditioning has been the direct incorporation
of PCM in pavements, having now developed several prototypes. ABIO research group has reached certain
conclusions as a result of the use of PCM as passive thermal conditioning. The development process of one of
these systems is detailed in the article below, as well as the analysis of benefits and difficulties encountered in
the process of integration of PCM in architecture and its performance as passive thermal conditioning agents,
before, during and after the construction of the building. Different aspects have been taken into account, such as
architectural integration (construction), chemical analysis, costs and thermal analysis.
Keywords: Phase change materials (PCM), energy storing, heat storage, flooring, passive strategy.
1. INTRODUCTION
In 2005 the Universidad Politcnica de Madrid took
part in the Solar Decathlon [1] contest with the
Magic Box prototype. During the competition, the first
approach of the research group to phase change
materials (PCM) and their benefits was put in place as
a strategy for latent heat storage integrated into the
materials and constructive systems of the prototype.
As a consequence of this first experience, different
prototypes were developed for their incorporation into
raised-technical floors for housing, with encouraging
results regarding the possible benefits of their
application.
In 2007, the ABIO (Arquitectura biolclimtica en un
entorno sostenible) research group participated in the
INVISO project [3] (Industrializacin de Viviendas
Sostenibles). The main aim was to develop a
research method to create a catalogue of architectural
bioclimatic strategies. The research method was
developed in a tree structure with six main branches
one of which was energy storage. Regarding passive
architectural strategies, ABIO identified thermal
storage (weather sensitive or rather latent heat) as
one of the most interesting strategies because of its
potential development and application in construction.
In so far as latent heat storage research was
concerned, the main objective of ABIO was to identify
every possibility to introduce phase change materials
(PCM) in traditional constructive solutions as well as
new application proposals. The development of the
strategies included all kinds of different possibilities to
introduce the PCM, directly into the system macro-
encapsulated or micro-encapsulated in the material
during its manufacture or even soaked over the
material once finished. All these options generated a
wide range of design proposals appropriate for its use
in horizontal and vertical enclosures as well as in
building installations.
2. LATENT HEAT STORAGE STRATEGY
2.1. Latent heat storage
Several authors have studied the thermal
phenomenon that takes place during the materials
process of phase change [4] [5]. This relates to the
steps between solid, liquid, gas or even an emulsion
phase that appears in some materials. When one of
these processes is reverted the energy stored is
released and completes the materials thermal cycle.
The temperature of the material remains constant
during these phase changes as the energy is being
used in the break down of molecular bounds. This is
the reason why these processes of energy charge and
discharge occur in a slow and constant manner,
allowing for its use in passive thermal conditioning.
2.2. Passive thermal conditioning of flooring
In winter conditions, heat goes up due to
convection, flowing from the floor up to the ceiling of a
room. This mechanism assures that the temperature
gradient is appropriate to obtain ideal comfort
conditions. If the floor works too as an energy
collector, then the location and dimension of windows
would be directly related to the quantity of energy that
the floor may store, as windows are the main entrance
of solar radiation, and a main passive energy
resource. This process suggests the effectiveness of
flooring systems as passive thermal conditioning.
The difficulties encountered in the development of
simple passive thermal conditioning systems are
identical to those encountered in the production of any
pavement, such as high mechanic material resistance,
long life endurance, an acceptable esthetical
preservation, reasonable economic costs, preference
for light weight materials to reduce weight on the
structure and also high speed warming rates (thermal
diffusivity). All these needs actually spell out the list of
possible solutions.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
346 MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT
In general, for the installation of discontinuous
pavements in interiors, there are two main traditional
systems. The first one and most common is to install
the pavement, a floor tile or stone, with an adherent
layer directly over the intermediate layer (thermal
and/or acoustic insulation, waterproofing, mortar or
sand base) that evens the surface of the floor
structure. The second one, a raised-technical floor,
would lift the walking surface from the slab, by means
of a substructure that creates a useful intermediate
space for installation tubes or increasing thermal or
acoustic insulation.
To date, ABIO has developed three different
prototypes, all of them sharing one common element
design: a ceramic tile which carries underneath a
metal container with PCM Two of the prototypes were
designed to be incorporated as a raised-technical
floor, while the third one was intended to be installed
directly on the floor.
3. PROTOTYPE DESIGN
3.1. Paraffin mixtures as PCM
In all three cases mentioned above, the paraffin
was used as PCM, substance that changes its phase
from solid to liquid and vice versa in a temperature
gap between 10C and 30C and latent heat value
between 90 and 130 kJ / kg. The choice of material
was made with due regard to its compatibility with high
mechanic resistance metal capsules, easy handling,
non corrosive, chemically stable, not wearing out with
time and having its phase change temperature gap in
a lapse according to normal building interior comfort
needs. The PCM was not supplied encapsulated in
any of the cases.
This kind of PCM substances can be pure or
mixtures, both with a paraffinic composition. Because
of their organic origins, in some cases (when there is
no proper study of the mixture) there may appear
compounds that volatilize in contact with the air. This
may cause changes in its composition as well as in its
thermal, physical and chemical properties. Therefore,
it is recommended to purchase these substances at
recognized laboratories, which is a difficult task,
having to request from suppliers guaranteed products
[6], [7] with a corresponding differential scanning
calorimetric analysis (DSC) (Fig.1).

).! |w/|u
1cmec|alu|c l^|l
|
c
a
l

|
|
c
w

l
|
N
0
0
l
! ^|/m|r
~3) ~2) ~) ) 2) 3) /) !) )

Figure 1: DSC performed with used PCM substance in the tile
and cylinders prototype
3.2. Encapsulation
The container design needed to fulfil a series of
requirements such as high resistance against punctual
stresses, adequate thermal conductivity and full
compatibility with the PCM. All these restrictions led at
the beginning to choose an embossed steel metal
container. Two of the prototypes incorporate a floor tile
that carries underneath a rectangular metal container
with 41 structural stamped cells and a covering sheet
welded to it, with a coating of oven cooked conductive
paint that seals the whole container. The main problem
of this choice was to have an adequate seal of the
fissures along the container welding, as the substance
in its liquid phase could leak. A secondary problem was
the increase of weight that the container could add to
the system.
The next evolution of the prototype was a
galvanized steel container, a high thermal conductivity
material but rather lighter than the previous embossed
steel one. This meant a considerable decrease in costs
and containers wall thickness, leading to lighter
structures and better heat transmission.
The encapsulation of the substance can be done in
two ways. On the one hand, it can be pre-filled, in
factory, where the safety for the PCM integrity is higher,
and the hand work is cheaper. In this case the whole
tile can be transported ready finished to the construction
site where it can be installed much faster, although the
weight of 32 kg each finished tile makes it more difficult
to handle them. On the other hand, the encapsulation
can be done directly at the construction site, in-situ. In
this case, to be able to work with the paraffin, it must be
in liquid phase, which means that the substance has to
be heated up or delivered already hot, with a limit of
time for the encapsulation and poor safety of the PCM
integrity against exterior contamination. This procedure
is obviously very complex and slow.
In two of the strategies developed the intention was
to encapsulate the PCM underneath the technical floor.
In order to achieve this objective the encapsulation
requirements for the tiles had to change slightly from
those of the container design. While the tiles finished
side was within any users reach, the capsules
underneath would need to be handled only by
authorised personnel, less likely to be exposed harm.
The resistance requirements would be limited to
chemical compatibility of the material with PCM and the
environment. The most important feature for these
systems is to optimize the heat transmission and the
containers geometry with a bigger contact surface to
increase heat exchange between air and PCM.
The first prototype for the Solar Decathlon 2005
contest, the so-called Magic Box consisted of a pile of
two to three flat plastic rectangular containers, whose
size was 28cm x 48cm x 2cm. The prototype
incorporated a gap of 2cm between each of them to
allow the necessary air flow.
The second prototype, developed for the Solar
House-Energy Agency Office Building at Rivas-
Vaciamadrid, after the analysis of the previous one,
evolved into a change of shape and material. With
aluminium cylinders, 13cm high and 5.5 cm diameter,
thereby achieving a volume reduction of each container
and an improvement on heat transmission to make
them more efficient.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 347
3
3.3. Pavement Selection
The pavement used should be made out of a
conductive material in order for energy to travel from
the surface of the tile to the PCM underneath. The
floor materials in the market are mainly wood, textiles,
polymeric, stones and ceramics. Among these
materials only ceramics and stones answer better to
the previous statement. The study centred its attention
on two types of ceramic finish, namely, porcelain and
rustic stoneware. The porcelain stoneware has a high
heat conductivity rate [8] in comparison with other
pavements. The tiles thickness is generally under
1cm, thereby improving heat conductivity. Rustic
stoneware is fired clay and due to its production
process each tile may have a variation in size of up to
5mm in all three dimensions. This last feature makes
its use difficult and may delay the assembly of the
system. It is two times thicker than the porcelain
stoneware and has up to 0,2 W / m K lower heat
conductivity rates. On the other hand, rustic
stonewares price can be up to 100 / m2 cheaper.
3.4. Material simulation
In the current conventional software market
(Ecotec or Design Builder) for energy efficiency
simulations in buildings, phase change materials lack
established standards of analysis. This is the result of
an absence of empirical data, so far due to reduced
PCM applications in construction.
Some of the top companies in PCM integrated
systems have developed specific software for their
products. Examples of this software are PCM Express
(rendering coating and Pladur divisions), Cristopia
(heat storage tanks) and DuPont that has developed
an arithmetic engine for their product (dividing walls).
Other existing complex arithmetic engines were
designed to solve thermodynamic problems such as
Trnsys, ESP-R or Energy Plus (E+), but they involve a
big technical difficulty that requires an exhaustive
training and practice.
4. SOLUTIONS CATALOGUE
4.1. System composed by porcelain stoneware
tile with metallic capsule containing PCM and
plastic containers with PCM under raised-
technical floor. (Fig.2)
7
5
6
1
4
2
3
7. Porcelain Stoneware tile
5. Plot
6. Steel container
1. Floor structure
4. Plastic container
2. Thermal insulation
3. Divider elements
Figure 2: Explanatory section of system composed by
porcelain stoneware tile with metallic capsule containing PCM
and plastic containers with PCM under raised-technical floor.
This system was designed as part of the thermal
conditioning strategy in the solar house Magic Box
that represented the Universidad Politcnica de
Madrid in the Solar Decathlon international contest in
2005 [2].
The strategy involved, first, installing the tile
prototype in the raised-technical floor and in the space
below introducing piles of two to three rectangular
plastic containers filled with PCM distanced between
themselves by strips of 2cm (Fig.3) to permit the air
flow. The plenum under the tiles had a height of 30
cm.


Figure 3: Photograph of system installed in Magic Box Solar
house.
The system was designed to activate the PCM by
means of air flow through the space under the
technical floor. The air went into the room through a
combined system of grilles and lockgates. They
worked depending on the conditioning requirements
for each moment of the day, allowing air from inside or
outside the building and/or getting it back in. Additional
turbines were installed underneath the technical floor
to increase the air flow.
Data obtained from thermal conditioning analysis
proved that plastic containers geometry and its
encapsulation material were not working properly, as
they did no allow a proper air flow. In some areas, the
storage substance was not liquefying or solidifying
completely in each of the cycles, reducing efficiency
considerably in the whole system.
Assuring the complete materials phase change is
essential in these systems. For this reason, the
containers shape and material are key for the
effectiveness of the system.
This system is appropriate in new construction,
since clear heights and ventilations channels are
needed for it to work properly. Instead its incorporation
in restoration works has several limitations, even
though its construction and installation are quite
simple, carrying no special extra costs.
4.2. System composed by porcelain stoneware
tile with metallic capsule containing PCM and
cylindrical containers with PCM under raised-
technical floor. (Fig.4)
In 2009, the UPM was entrusted with the
reproduction of the Magic Box prototype for Rivas
Vaciamadrid City hall [9], with design improvements in
the buildings passive conditioning system. The main
modifications were introduced in the raised-technical
floor. This system consists of three elements, namely,
a porcelain stoneware tile with a galvanized steel
capsule attached underneath containing PCM, raised
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
348 MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT
5
Figure 7: Photograph of raised-technical floor system,
without porcelain stoneware tile, installed at Rivas-
Vaciamadrid
About the grilles and lockgates ventilation
system, these keep the same working arrangement
as the initial Magic Box project [2].
4.3. System composed by rustic stoneware tile
with metallic capsule containing PCM.
(Fig.8).
4
3
1
2
3. Steel container
4. Rustic Stoneware tile
1. Floor structure
2. Thermal insulation
Figure 8: Explanatory section of system composed by rustic
stoneware tile with metallic capsule containing PCM.
Clear height limitations in restoration projects
lead to variations on the prototypes for pavements.
As raised-technical floors were not always a
possibility to work with, the need for a simpler system
to store heat became clear. In this case, the tile with
the metal PCM container was placed directly over the
insulation layer that covers the floor structure.
For this prototype the tile finish used was rustic
stoneware attached with the same metal container
as the Magic Box project, and filled with paraffin as
phase change material (Fig.9). The insulation layer
made of Rockwool isolates thermally the floor
structure to avoid heat loss.

Figure 9: Photograph of rustic stoneware with metal
container prototype.
In 2008, around 20 tile prototypes were
developed and built with these characteristics. The
main aim was to carry out a thermal study of the
system installed in real winter conditions. The old
prototype Magic Box, now located in the Solar
Energy institute at the UPM facilities, was adapted
and used to make these tests.
As already mentioned in section 3.3, the first
problem found was the type of tile material, as rustic
stoneware tiles have slightly different dimensions
and they are usually furnished with some kind of
buckle. On the other hand, rustic stoneware tiles for
floor structure are usually of small size. For that
reason, the prototype had to be joined together in
four pieces, each of 33cm x 33cm x 2cm, into a
bigger one 66cm x 66cm x 2cm attached to one
container. In this kind of compound systems, it is
necessary to adjust the weight of the pieces
combined in a bigger format and the thermal energy
lost between gaps. It is important to take into account
that containers manufactured in the industrialized
process use formats that are standardized. This
means that adapting irregular pieces with different
dimensions is a slow and difficult process, even if
easy to handle.
The introduction of phase change material
substance in the prototype was done in-situ and, as
explained above, it had to be done while in its liquid
phase. This meant that the PCM had to be
transported and handled at a temperature over 38C
that allowed approximately 4 hours for pouring it in
the containers. This would be done during the hours
of high solar radiations and carefully so as not to
contaminate the substance. Once the prototypes
were ready, with the PCM incorporated, the placing
and installation of tiles prototypes was easy and fast.
Thereafter, sensor equipments were installed to
monitor the test room. Interior and exterior
temperature data were registered, as well as the
temperature of the tiles carrying and not carrying
PCM surfaces. With a comparative analysis
methodology of these data it was possible to obtain
important conclusions about the heat storage that
these systems may be able to achieve.
The results of the monitoring allowed to conclude
that during night hours the system can release heat
energy outwards into the environment, reaching a
2C difference during peak hours between the PCM
tile and the non-PCM, in favour of the PCM system.
By contrast, during day hours, when temperature
outside is higher and solar radiation increases, the
tile system with PCM stores latent heat energy
reaching temperature differences of up to 10C. In
this case, the higher temperature corresponds to the
non-PCM system.
This particular PCM system is considerably more
efficient, as long as tiles are exposed to solar
radiation for long periods of time. This is because the
system does not depend on the air flow as with
previous prototypes. Shadows over the tiles with
PCM alter considerably the thermal performance of
each piece decreasing their efficiency regarding
solar radiation storage.
22cm from the slab on plots, aluminium cylinders filled
with PCM and a 6cm thick expanded polystyrene
(EPS) tray laid under tiles where the cylinders are
installed [10].

7
5
6
1
4
2
3
7. Galvanized steel container
5. Aluminium cylinder container
6. Plot
1. Floor structure
4. EPS cast
2. Thermal insulation
3. OSB Panel
8
8. Porcelain Stoneware tile
Figure 4: Explanatory section of system composed by
porcelain stoneware tile with metallic capsule containing PCM
and cylindrical containers with PCM under raised-technical
floor.
The first improvement step with regard to previous
prototypes was to check and evaluate the
encapsulation element used under the technical floor.
The search for a material with higher thermal
transmission rates, minimum thickness, cheap and
present in industrial processes to facilitate production,
resulted in choosing aluminium. In a similar way,
capsules geometry led to a change of shape and
compactness analysis (relationship between surface
and volume of geometric shapes). A greater surface
means greater heat exchange capacity between
interior and exterior and a greater volume means
greater heat storage capacity. Subject to these
conditions, the cylinder was chosen against the
sphere (with ideal shape factor) due to its stability and
its availability in standardized cheap industrial
processes.
The design of the EPS cast was done to set the
cylinders. But at the same time it works as an element
that increases thermal and acoustic insulation in
horizontal divisions. The cast installation onto the
surface underneath the technical floor covered the
surface and filled it with gaps for substructure plots.
This piece works as an egg box, keeping the distance
and stability of cylinders and providing safety (Fig.5).

59mm

5

m
m

m
m

Figure 5: Computer Graphics of cylinder and cast system in

technical floor at Rivas Vaciamadrid.
The tile prototype with metal container was
checked to decrease the total weight of the piece, and
increase its physical capacity, eliminating the
structural stamped cells of the initial prototype. It was
turned into a container made of galvanized steel sheet
of minimum thickness, reducing weight considerably.
This solution involved independence between capsule
and tile and a squared plastic crosshead was
developed to fit both parts together (Fig.6). The benefit
of this intermediate element is to assemble the system
in two independent steps, with less weight involved in
the handle of pieces so it is easier and faster to build,
and at the same time it works as a joint between tiles.
Although, this is a very thin separation element, it
avoids the direct contact between the tile and the PCM
container underneath. It should be noted that even the
tiniest amount of air in between the tile and the PCM
container, would cause a discontinuity in the thermal
flux from the tiles surface to the metallic capsule,
resulting in energy being lost. To avoid this
phenomenon an adhesive mortar was introduced to
seal and keep continuity.

Figure 6: Photograph of porcelain stoneware tile and plastic
crosshead at Rivas-Vaciamadrid
With regard to the physical installation of the
prototypes part located under raised-technical floor,
it is necessary to analyse the space where it will be
installed to ensure correct and efficient air ventilation.
In addition, a maximum of 1cm distance is required
between the part underneath the tiles and the
cylinders, so that the air flow would be kept going
around the cylinders and not above them, as fluids
tend to go through the path which requires less
energy to flow. For the same reason, cylinders are
arranged in a diamond shape, facing the flows
direction, having this way uniform ventilation all over
the technical floor space. (Fig.7).

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MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 349
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Figure 7: Photograph of raised-technical floor system,
without porcelain stoneware tile, installed at Rivas-
Vaciamadrid
About the grilles and lockgates ventilation
system, these keep the same working arrangement
as the initial Magic Box project [2].
4.3. System composed by rustic stoneware tile
with metallic capsule containing PCM.
(Fig.8).
4
3
1
2
3. Steel container
4. Rustic Stoneware tile
1. Floor structure
2. Thermal insulation
Figure 8: Explanatory section of system composed by rustic
stoneware tile with metallic capsule containing PCM.
Clear height limitations in restoration projects
lead to variations on the prototypes for pavements.
As raised-technical floors were not always a
possibility to work with, the need for a simpler system
to store heat became clear. In this case, the tile with
the metal PCM container was placed directly over the
insulation layer that covers the floor structure.
For this prototype the tile finish used was rustic
stoneware attached with the same metal container
as the Magic Box project, and filled with paraffin as
phase change material (Fig.9). The insulation layer
made of Rockwool isolates thermally the floor
structure to avoid heat loss.

Figure 9: Photograph of rustic stoneware with metal
container prototype.
In 2008, around 20 tile prototypes were
developed and built with these characteristics. The
main aim was to carry out a thermal study of the
system installed in real winter conditions. The old
prototype Magic Box, now located in the Solar
Energy institute at the UPM facilities, was adapted
and used to make these tests.
As already mentioned in section 3.3, the first
problem found was the type of tile material, as rustic
stoneware tiles have slightly different dimensions
and they are usually furnished with some kind of
buckle. On the other hand, rustic stoneware tiles for
floor structure are usually of small size. For that
reason, the prototype had to be joined together in
four pieces, each of 33cm x 33cm x 2cm, into a
bigger one 66cm x 66cm x 2cm attached to one
container. In this kind of compound systems, it is
necessary to adjust the weight of the pieces
combined in a bigger format and the thermal energy
lost between gaps. It is important to take into account
that containers manufactured in the industrialized
process use formats that are standardized. This
means that adapting irregular pieces with different
dimensions is a slow and difficult process, even if
easy to handle.
The introduction of phase change material
substance in the prototype was done in-situ and, as
explained above, it had to be done while in its liquid
phase. This meant that the PCM had to be
transported and handled at a temperature over 38C
that allowed approximately 4 hours for pouring it in
the containers. This would be done during the hours
of high solar radiations and carefully so as not to
contaminate the substance. Once the prototypes
were ready, with the PCM incorporated, the placing
and installation of tiles prototypes was easy and fast.
Thereafter, sensor equipments were installed to
monitor the test room. Interior and exterior
temperature data were registered, as well as the
temperature of the tiles carrying and not carrying
PCM surfaces. With a comparative analysis
methodology of these data it was possible to obtain
important conclusions about the heat storage that
these systems may be able to achieve.
The results of the monitoring allowed to conclude
that during night hours the system can release heat
energy outwards into the environment, reaching a
2C difference during peak hours between the PCM
tile and the non-PCM, in favour of the PCM system.
By contrast, during day hours, when temperature
outside is higher and solar radiation increases, the
tile system with PCM stores latent heat energy
reaching temperature differences of up to 10C. In
this case, the higher temperature corresponds to the
non-PCM system.
This particular PCM system is considerably more
efficient, as long as tiles are exposed to solar
radiation for long periods of time. This is because the
system does not depend on the air flow as with
previous prototypes. Shadows over the tiles with
PCM alter considerably the thermal performance of
each piece decreasing their efficiency regarding
solar radiation storage.
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350 MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT
5. CONCLUSIONS
The result of the above experience shows the
great efficiency of floor passive conditioning systems
with PCM incorporation.
The design and selection of materials that form
part of these systems depend on their application,
specific location in the pavement and the results
expected. Raised-technical floors systems are very
efficient whenever air flow can be assured going
through and triggering the effects of the PCM. The
main and greatest advantage of these systems is the
pavements partial independence from direct solar
radiation. Instead, pavements laid over the
insulation layer need direct radiation for them to work
efficiently.
In terms of pavement choice, it is thermally
convenient the use of porcelain stoneware, although
it is substantially more expensive than rustic
stoneware. The pavement format should be selected
between medium standard sizes (45cmx60cm,
50cmx50cm, 60cmx60cm) to ensure heat loss
decrease with tiles expansion.
In the case of raised-technical floors, the use of
metal cylinders to encapsulate PCM instead of a
plastic container was an efficient choice. It optimized
the air flow between capsules and increased the
transfer of heat thanks to a better heat conductivity
rate resulting from the material as well as the
geometry of the containers used. It is important also
to take into account the geometric conditions of the
space where the systems will be installed, as PCMs
performance can be affected by deficient and uneven
ventilation through the plenum underneath the
technical floor.
The thermal study of the phase change
substance is vital. The material must be of high
quality and rely on the suppliers quality guarantee
certificate. This issue is particularly relevant in order
to achieve progress and develop PCM incorporation
to construction in a safe and efficient manner.
Achieving the objective of building in an energy
efficient manner requires creating storage and
reusing heat systems. The use of PCM incorporation
in constructive systems is key to achieve such
objective.
At this stage, on the basis of the prototypes
described above and with the aid of the experience
and data obtained so far, it is our intention to develop
a proper model for its introduction into the current
software available for energy efficiency simulations.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A part of the research presented in this paper has
been developed in the framework of the INVISO
project (Industrialization of Sustainable Housing),
subproject 10: Optimization Systems for Efficient
Behaviour in Housing, with the financial support of
the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.
We are grateful to the Solar Decathlon UPM
2005 Team for their generous effort and dedication.
The first prototype would have never seen the day
without their support.
The second prototype has been founded by the
City Council of Rivas-Vaciamadrid and is presently
installed and working in the Solar House-Energy
Agency Office Building of the city.
We wish to thank Gres Rstico Ebro Company
for their collaboration and financial support and the
department of thermal Analysis in the Chemistry
faculty at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid for
their help with the PCM substances analysis.
7. REFERENCES
[1] E. Caamao, F.J. Neila, F.J. Jimnez, M.A.
Egido, and others. Viviendas solares
autosuficientes: Participacin de la Universidad
Politcnica de Madrid, en el concurso Solar
Decathlon, Informes de la Construccin Vol. 56
n. 494, Nov Dec 2004
[2] FJ Neila, C. Acha, E. Higueras and C. Bedoya,
Los Materiales de Cambio de Fase empleados
para la acumulacin de energa en la
arquitectura. Su aplicacin en el prototipo
Magic Box, Materiales de Construccin, Vol. 58,
291, 119 -126, Jul Sep 2008
[3] J. Queipo, J.M. Navarro, M. Izquierdo, A. del
guila, D. Guinea, M. Villamar, S. Vega and
F.J.Neila, Proyecto de Investigacin INVISO:
Industrializacin de viviendas sostenibles,
Informes de la Construccin, Vol. 61, 513, 73
86, jun mar 2009
[4] A. Pasupathy, R. Velraj, R.V. Seeniraj, Phase
change material-based building architecture for
thermal management in residential and
commercial establishments, Renewable and
Sustainable Energy Reviews, Vol. 12, 1, 39
64, Jan 2008
[5] A. Sharma, V.V. Tyagi, C.R. Chen, and D.
Buddhi Review on thermal energy storage with
phase change materials and applications,
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews,
Vol. 13, 2, 318 345, Feb 2009
[6] Basf, www.basf.com.
[7] Rubitherm, www.rubitherm.com
[8] E. Garca, A. de Pablos, M.A. Bengoechea, L.
Guaita, M.I. Osendi, P. Miranzo. Thermal
conductivity studies on ceramic floor tiles.
Ceramics International. 2010. DOI:
10.1016/j.ceramint.2010.09.023
[9] M.C. Hernndez-Martnez et al, this conference
[10] M.C. Hernndez- Martnez, C. Montejo, J. Neila,
C. Bedoya-Frutos, Proceedings SEEP 2009, 3
rd
International Conference on Sustainable Energy
and Environmental Protection, Vol 2, Aug 2009.
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MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 351
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New high-performance insulation materials:
Aerogels. Case study: new Munch Museum in Oslo

1
MARIA MEIZOSO and JOSE CARLOS GONZALEZ, Architects
2
Arup, Facades Engineering, Madrid, Spain
ABSTRACT: Aerogels are characterized by high thermal performance and the ability to transmit light associated
with daylight comfort. Thanks to the high air content their density is very low and they can be used as an
insulation material with very demanding requirements. In previous years, the building sector has been
undergoing significant changes in terms of energetic strategies and new sustainable materials. Aerogels are
already available on the construction market and they are environmentally sustainable. One of the future
requirements will be to keep the sustainable aspects while reducing their cost when they are assembled in a
translucent panel.
Keywords: high thermal insulation, daylighting, low energy demand, passive strategies, design process.
1. INTRODUCTION
Almost all new buildings designed today have
something in common; they want to reduce energy
demand. This involves developers, designers,
contractors and building users alike. All this effort
results more and more in high performance and
innovative materials and solutions.
Low thermal transmittance (U-value) reduces the
heat loss in northern climates, as also the heat gain
in hot climates, through the faade. This means that
the energy used for heating and cooling will be
reduced. In order to decrease the thermal
transmittance the following measures are normally
taken into account:
Increase insulation thickness and use insulation
materials with low thermal conductivity.
Reduce the glazed area.
Avoid thermal bridges.
Reduce framing by modifying the layout or by
using a different faade system or using large
thermal breaks.
These measures, usually applied when designing
facades with high thermal requirements, can be
improved with the integration of new materials such
as aerogel, a high performance translucent
insulation. As the faade is an essential element in
creating and maintaining a comfortable environment
within the building, in particular in the perimeter area
(typically 6 meters from the faade), the application
of aerogels in the building envelope provides:
Thermal comfort: surface temperature to be as
similar as possible to the internal air temperature.
Visual comfort: avoid glare to excessive light and
contrast, provide sufficient daylight levels to
perform the tasks required within the building.
Acoustic comfort: reduce noise transmission from
outside-inside.
Also taking into account the adaptation capacity
to future climate change, the traditional parameters
with which we design our faades have to be
rethought, and greater extremes in terms of heat
and cold, wet and dry and noise are to be expected.
The faade thermal performance, especially U and g
values, will need to be improved in order to maintain
the same internal conditions and levels of comfort.
This has further implications for material selection
based on their thermal properties.
2. AEROGELS BRIEF HISTORY
Aerogels sound like something new in the
market, like a recent product of modern technology,
but the first aerogels were actually developed in
1931 by Steven S. Kistler of the Pacific College in
Stockton, California.
The name pays tribute to the somehow
paradoxical accomplishment of creating a hybrid
between a gel and thin air:
"Obviously, if one wishes to produce an aerogel,
he must replace the liquid with air by some means in
which the surface of the liquid is never permitted to
recede within the gel. If a liquid is held under
pressure always greater than the vapour pressure,
and the temperature is raised, it will be transformed
at the critical temperature into a gas without two
phases having been present at any time." [1]
Kistler discovered the secret to drying a gel
without collapsing it. He dried his gels at elevated
temperatures and pressures, transforming the liquid
into a supercritical state wherein there is no longer a
distinction between a liquid and a gas. After cranking
up the temperature and pressure to create
supercritical conditions, pressure is slowly released.
The supercritical fluid is vented out of the gel matrix
without any surface tension effects. What remains is
an aerogel that is more than 96 percent air.
After Kistler brought aerogels into the world,
they remained a forgotten phenomenon for three
decades. Briefly, they re-emerged in scientific
literature in the 1960s, but aerogels were not fully
resurrected until the 1980s when Arlon Hunt, working
for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, saw
their potential.
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352 MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT
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3. AEROGEL PROPERTIES
3.1. Pore Structure
The Silica aerogels have a pore structure difficult
to describe because of their different sizes. The
International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
recommends a classification for porous materials
where pores of less than 2nm in diameter are termed
"micropores", those with diameters between 2 and
50nm are termed "mesopores" and those greater
than 50nm in diameter are termed "macropores".
Silica aerogels possess pores of all three sizes.
However, the majority of the pores fall in the
mesopore category, with relatively few micropores.
An important aspect of the aerogel pore network
is its "open" nature and interconnectedness. Pores in
various materials are either open or closed
depending on whether the pore walls are solid or
porous themselves. A microscopic example of an
open-pored material is a common sponge, and
"bubble wrap" packaging is an example of a closed-
pored material. In a closed-pore material, gases or
liquids can not enter the pore without breaking the
pore walls. This is not the case with an open-pore
structure. In this instance, gases or liquids can flow
from pore to pore, with limited restriction, and
eventually through the entire material. It is this
property that makes silica aerogels effective
materials for adsorbents, microfiltration membranes
and substrates for chemical vapour infiltration.

Figure 1: T silica aerogel pore size distribution of a single-

step.
One of the consequences of the pore sizes in
aerogels is the level of transparency. Arlon Hunt,
from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,
discovered that the largest of the pores was
responsible for the scattering and haziness in
aerogels. The cross-linked silica particles should be
extremely fine, 20-40 angstroms in diameter. That is
smaller than the wavelengths of visible light and too
small to cause scattering. The average pore size was
200 angstroms in the first aerogels manufacturing
process and there were pores of 3,000 angstroms.
To make aerogels suitable for use in glazed
translucent units, windows or skylights, pores larger
than 500 angstroms have to be eliminated. Further
research and development is necessary before
aerogels are totally transparent.
3.2. Thermal properties
Aerogels portray a good thermal performance
with a reduced thickness in comparison with
traditional insulation materials. The passage of
thermal energy through an insulating material occurs
via three mechanisms: solid conductivity, convection
and radiative (infrared) transmission. The sum of
these three components gives the total thermal
conductivity of the material. Solid conductivity is an
intrinsic property of a specific material. For dense
silica, solid conductivity is relatively high. However
silica aerogels possess a very small (around 10%)
fraction of solid silica. Additional solids that are
present consist of very small particles linked in a
three dimensional network with many "dead ends".
Therefore, thermal transport through the solid portion
of silica aerogel occurs through a very tortuous path
and is not particularly effective. The space not
occupied by solids in an aerogel is normally filled
with air or another gas unless the material is sealed
under a vacuum. These gases can also transport
thermal energy through the aerogel. The pores of
silica aerogel are open and allow the passage of gas
through the material. The mode of thermal transport
through silica aerogels involves infrared radiation.
Aerogels are reasonably transparent in the infrared-
wave spectrum (especially between 3-5 microns). At
low temperatures though, the radiative component of
thermal transport is low, and not a significant
problem. At higher temperatures, radiative transport
becomes the dominant mode of thermal conduction,
and must be dealt with.
The total thermal conductivity arising from the
sum of these three modes is very low. Thats the
reason why there was a renaissance of aerogel
technology around 1980, when an increased concern
for energy efficiency occurred.
The thermal conductivity of silica aerogel is
typically 0.018W/mK at 10C.

Figure 2: T silica aerogel thermal conductivity compared
with different insulation materials.
3.3. Optical properties
As silica aerogels are made of the same material
as glass they are called "transparent", but actually
they are translucent because of the result of
Rayleigh scattering effects. These effects come from
the elastic scattering of light by the aerogel pores
much smaller than the light wavelength. It occurs
when light travels in transparent inhomogeneous
solids and liquids but is most prominently seen in
gases. Rayleigh scattering is a function of the electric
polarizability of the pores.

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A simple method can be used to quantitatively
measure the relative contributions of Rayleigh
scattering and the wavelength independent
transmission factor for silica aerogels.

T= transmittance.
A= wavelength independent transmission factor.
C= intensity of Rayleigh scattering.
t= sample thickness.
Lambda= wavelength.
From this, aerogels with high value of A and low
value of C will be the most transparent.

Figure 3: Visible transmission spectrum.
There is then a "visible window" of transmission
through silica aerogel that is an attractive feature of
this material for daylight applications.
3.4. Physical properties
The properties listed below are affected by the
conditions used during the manufacturing process
and post-processing.
Table 1: Aerogel technical characteristics.
Property Value
Apparent density 0.003-0.35 g/cm
3

Internal surface area 600-1000 m
2
/g
% Solids 0.13-15%
Mean pore diameter ~20 nm
Primary particle diameter 2-5 nm
Index of refraction 1.0-1.05
Thermal tolerance To 500 C
Coefficient of thermal
expansion
2.0-4.0 x 10
-6

Poissons ratio 0.2
Youngs modulus 10
6
-10
7
N/m
2

Tensile strength 16 kPa
Fracture toughness ~0.8 kPa*m
1/2

Dielectric constant ~1.1
Sound velocity through
the medium
100 m/sec

4. APPLICATIONS AND INTEGRATION IN
BUILDING ENVELOPES: INFLUENCE ON
ENERGY PERFORMANCE
The production and investigation of aerogels took
place during the course of studies devoted to glass.
But aerogels are expensive and for this reason
aerogel applications are limited. Currently the main
applications of aerogel are:
Industrial insulation for high temperatures
Building and construction, high performance
insulation
Space industries
Equipment manufacturer, trains, airplanes, ships,
laptops
Outdoor gear and apparel
Since aerogels are translucent and have a low
thermal conductivity, they are very good thermal
insulators and many studies and evaluations have
considered the use of aerogels to insulate various
parts of buildings. These applications sometimes
appear impractical because of the aerogel assembly
high cost. However, more and more the unusual
properties of aerogels (good thermal insulation and
light transmission) are being required by developers,
designers, contractors and building users.
The main uses of aerogel insulations
commercially available are:
Insulation translucent units: double and triple
glazed units, polycarbonate panels, U channel
glass, GRP panels, PTFE membrane.
Aerogel blanket with high thermal efficiency and
good compression strength.
Thin strips of aerogel applied between wall
framing to prevent heat loss through the frame
elements.
From a life cycle building perspective, aerogels
are expensive at the beginning compared with other
insulation materials, but their performance helps to
save energy considering the building and faade
design life.

Figure 4: Thickness comparison chart.
5. CASE STUDY: NEW MUNCH MUSEUM IN
OSLO
The design of an envelope in Northern countries,
where the climate conditions are very different to the
ones most architects are used to, poses challenges
that must be carefully addressed taking into account
different points in the selection of the faade
materials at the earliest stages of design.
The faade and cladding of the Munch Museum
and the Sternesen Museum Collections in Oslo is an
even more compelling task, given the architectural
intentions of the building. The design has to find a
careful balance between natural light, views, thermal
performance, solar control, energy efficiency,
buildability and maintenance.
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5.1. Climatic conditions
The two graphs below summarize the
comparison between the annual temperatures of the
cities of Oslo (above) and London (below).

Figure 5: Oslo conditions.

Figure 6: London conditions.
The average temperature in Oslo rapidly
decreases in winter, reaching average minimum
values of -12 C. In summer the temperature remains
more stable than in London. The difference between
night and day is not as big as in London.
In winter, cloud coverage in Oslo is higher and
more constant than in London.
A psychometric diagram shows that the average
humidity is high throughout the year in Oslo, thus
condensation in general, and specifically with
thermal bridges is an issue to consider during the
design.

Figure 7: Psychometric.

Figure 8: Horizontal illuminance July conditions.
As shown above, the horizontal illuminance peak
value (due to external sun in July) is 75.000 lux
outside. The average horizontal illuminance during
the brightest month (July) is 50.000 lux.
5.2. Energy saving main goals
The main drivers for the design and engineering
of the Munch Museum envelope were:
Reduction of heat transmission.
Building programme. Selection of two different
spaces: opaque and translucent, and transparent
areas, both with low heat transmittance levels.
Low thermal conductivity. Each cladding type was
analyzed to reduce its thermal conductivity (U-value),
by using high performance glass and insulation and
reducing the percentage of glazed areas when
needed. Very low conductivity values had to be
achieved in both glazed and opaque areas.
Air tightness. We aimed to reduce air
permeability to the bare limits both in the glazed and
opaque areas, to reduce heat loss from the inside.
Enhancement of external views and natural
lighting.
The amount of glazing is higher in the areas
where views and natural light is most required:
restaurant at the top of the building, offices, main
entrance. A specific system was designed in each
case to prevent excessive solar radiation (solar
control) and heat gain (low U value)
Direct external views have been maximized on all
floors and elevations in these areas. The use of
automatic outer screens allows the combination of
sun protection, indirect light and views.
Air humidity and temperature control.
To avoid interstitial condensation formation, the
vapour control layer will be placed on the warm side
of the thermal insulation layer, which, in cold
climates, is the inner one. In fact, the internal
moisture content in Oslo is very often higher than the
external one and therefore it moves from inside to
outside due to the vapour pressure difference.
Correction of thermal bridges was also important to
avoid any risk of surface and interstitial
condensation.
5.3. Cladding types
Together with the architects, Herreros
Arquitectos, the Arup Faade Engineering project
team first identified a number of five main cladding
types covering the envelopes and roofs of the
building.
Opaque faades, vertical.
Translucent faades.
Transparent faades, vertical.
Transparent faades, inclined.
Opaque horizontal.
The aim of this paper is to focus on the
translucent areas of the faade where the aerogel is
located. This area is around 2,300m2 and the whole
faade surface is around 11,000m2. The images
below show the elevations where the silica aerogel
insulation is located.

Figure 9: SW and NE elevation of the museum.
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MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 355
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5.4. Building envelope physics: Thermal
properties
A qualitative comparison between the museum
designed by Herreros Arquitectos and a baseline
building was carried out for the more unfavorable
elevation, the West faade.
The baseline building was designed following the
Norwegian code parameters (TEK 2007):
20% of glazing surface.
U= 0.18 W/m2K for the opaque areas.
U= 1.20 W/m2K for the vision areas.
In general terms, the more the faade reduces
the heat gain/loss through its envelope, the better the
building performs and the lower the energy demands
will be.
In winter, the heat loss due to the low external
temperature through the transparent faade is
greater than the heat gain. In Herreross project, the
west envelope is transparent and translucent: it
offsets the heat loss and allows natural light to enter
reducing the energy used for electricity. In the
baseline building with the properties given by the
Norwegian regulation, the heat balance is negative
(heat loss is greater than heat gain), even on a
sunny day. It can be said that the heating loads in
the baseline building are higher than those in the
architects proposal, so the architects proposal
performs better in winter.
In summer, the heat gain via conduction and
convection could be considered negligible. The main
heat gain is caused by solar radiation. In the summer
scenario, the building designed by Herreros performs
slightly worse than the baseline. Nevertheless, since
the contribution of longer winter months and less
electric lights has not been taken into account, the
energy used in the two buildings can be considered
as similar throughout the year.

Figure 10: Summer conditions.

Figure 11: Winter conditions.
The design has attempted to follow or improve
the Norwegian Code TEK 2007 even in a bespoke
volume as our building. Thus:
The U-value of the opaque vertical areas was set
to 0.10W/m2K, 45% lower than the value of
0.18W/m2K considered by the code.
The U-value of the translucent areas with aerogel
is 0.21W/m2K in the centre pane, only 17% higher
than the value of 0.18W/m2K considered by the
code for the opaque areas.
The U value of the transparent areas is
0.80W/m2K, 33% lower than the value of
1.20W/m2K considered by the code.
The preliminary thermal assessment of the worst
faade in thermal terms (West elevation), considering
heat losses throughout the year, shows that this
faade behaves similarly to an equivalent vertical
faade with 20% of openings with the U-values
defined by the code. The remaining faades would
perform better, since their glazed percentage is
smaller.
5.5. Daylight conditions
A sun path diagram shows the different solar
conditions throughout the year at the site. From fall
to spring, the sun remains quite low in the sky (see
graphs below). It implies that the glazed faade
facing North-West seldom receives direct sunlight.

Figure 12: Sunpath in December.

Figure 13: Sunpath in March.
On the other hand, the same diagram in June-
July shows how the sunset hits the West faade of
the Museum, thus creating a situation of heat gains
due to irradiation during the evenings.

Figure 14: Sunpath in June.
Figure 15: West sun in June, evenings.
The most critical period was the first half of July
where the sunlight can penetrate inside the building.
However, in general the low value of solar
transmittance of the glazed faade reduces the heat
gain through the envelope.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
356 MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT
6
5.6. Heat gains through the glass: g-value
The g-value defines the amount of heat gains that
enter the building through its transparent faades.
Due to its orientation, heat gains that can be positive
for the inner space (in winter) are rather low. The
strategy was to gain protection against the
inconvenient heat gains in summer, mainly through
the west faade, with outer automatic screens.
Transparent faades versus highly insulated
faades
The percentage of really transparent faades is
much smaller than the impression one could get with
a first glimpse at the building drawings. The reason is
that the thermal behaviour of the translucent
(insulated) faades is much better than that of a
typical window, thus reducing the amount of thermal
losses and heat gains. The graph below shows the
wider areas that have a 100% transparent glass
surface (without translucent insulation). This amounts
to around 11% of the net usable space.

Figure 16: Main transparent areas in dash.

Heat gain control in summer
The g-value (% of heat that enters the building
through the glass, in relation to the total incident
radiation) is rather low in general because of the
number of glass layers in the faades:
Translucent faade: g-value < 0.30.
Transparent faade, vertical: g-value < 0.35.
Transparent faade, inclined: g-value < 0.35.
The inclined faade facing West at the top of the
tower has the highest radiation in the summer
evenings. The solution to control heat radiation
during those periods is to deploy an automatic outer
Venetian system, connected to the Building
Management System.
6. TRANSLUCENT CONFIGURATION OF
THE FAADE
This is the case of 1/3 of North and South
orientations of the tower, and also most of the West
faade of the tower (except the highest part). The
typical solution is a triple glass curtain wall with
translucent nanogel insulation glazed panels located
at the inner back of the triple glazed unit, an air
chamber for maintenance and an external glazed
faade (curved glass). The behaviour of this double
skin faade during winter is as follows: the external
additional curved skin provides improved insulation
by increasing the external heat transfer resistance.
The reduced air flow and the increased temperature
of the air inside the cavity lowers the heat transfer
rate on the surface of the glass, which leads to
reduction of heat losses. To allow the cavity to help
the faades and inner spaces, the joints between the
curved glass of the outer faade were closed.
During the summer, the warm air inside the cavity
had to be extracted by fan supported ventilation.
The thermal line of this double skin faade is
composed by:
- 10mm clear glass with low emissivity soft coating
( < 0.04) on surface #2;
- 16mm Argon filled cavity;
- 8mm clear glass with low emissivity soft coating (
< 0.04) on surface #4;
- 16mm Argon filled cavity;
- 8mm clear glass;
- 10mm air filled, sealed cavity;
- 8mm clear glass;
- 60mm aerogel;
- 4.4.2 laminated clear glass.
The following pictures show the geometry of the
analysed models of the framing members and the
output in terms of temperature distribution and U-
value of the framing member (UTJ-value) for the
typical aerogel areas:

Figure 17: Middle transom of the aerogel unit -2D model
and temperature distribution.

Figure 18: Mullion of the aerogel unit - 2D model and
temperature distribution.
The centre pane U-value of the above described
unit results 0.32 W/mK. This includes the effect of
the joint between two adjacent aerogel panels. Each
aerogel double glazed panel is 1m x 2m.
7. SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS
- Very interesting material for facades applications:
high performance thermal insulation, very light, good
fire behavior, translucent and able to adapt to future
climate change.
- Assembling technology available on the market is
still in progress and the final costs are very high to be
paid by the developers.
8. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to: Jens Richter (Herreros Arquitectos),
Arlon Hunt (University of California), Eric Ruiz
(Nanogel Cabot), Ignacio Fernndez Solla (Arup
Faades), Jan Wurm (Arup Materials), and Nicol
Guariento (Arup Building physics).
9. REFERENCES
[1] S. S. Kistler, J. Phys. Chem. 34, 52, 1932
[2] Silica Aerogels. Microstructured Materials
Group. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,
University of Energy.
[3] New Munch Museum faades design reports by
Arup Facade Engineering. 2010.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 357

Application of cool materials on solar protection devices to
reduce energy consumption and improve thermal comfort
conditions in residential buildings

Michele ZINZI
1
, Emiliano CARNIELO
2
, Stefano AGNOLI
3

1
ENEA Italian national agency for new technologies, energy and the economic sustainable delvelopment,
Rome, Italy
2
University of Rome Tre, Rome, Italy
2
University of Rome La Sapienza, Rome, Italy
ABSTRACT: Cooling down buildings and cities is becoming a priority as a consequence of the global increase of
air temperatures. This effect determines the increase of the energy consumption for cooling, as well as the
spread of the urban heat island. Cool materials are characterised by high solar reflectance and high solar
emissivity. These two properties allow the material staying cool under the solar radiation. Cool materials
deserved attention during the few past years and they started being used mainly to protect the building roofs.
This paper presents the first results of the potential benefit of cool materials applied on solar protection devices
in residential buildings. External shutters are often used, especially in the Mediterranean countries, for security
reasons and for solar protection during the hot season. These components are generally characterised by high
solar absorbance, due to the typical used colours: brown, deep green, grey. An experimental campaign was
carried out to measure the reflectance of conventional coloured materials versus cool coloured ones. A double
beam spectrophotometer was used for the testing activity. The results were used as input for typical Italian
dwellings, changing some parameters according to: Climatic conditions, insulation level, the presence of a
cooling system, orientation, the position of the dwelling respect to the whole building. The cooling energy
demand was calculated through a dynamic simulation tool. A first assessment on the impact of the technology in
the Italian residential buildings is hence carried out.
Keywords: cool materials, energy, thermal comfort
1. INTRODUCTION
The use of cool materials for building and urban
applications is becoming an appealing strategy,
especially at some latitudes, because of the increase
of the energy consumption for cooling, as well as the
increase of the urban heat island effect in large and
medium urban area. Both aspects are somehow
related to climatic changes and it is expected they
will expand the actual magnitude without efficient
thermal mitigation techniques at urban and building
level. The term cool material refers to a construction
material characterised by two main surface
properties:
a) High solar reflectance ( e), is a measure of the
ability of a surface to reflect the incident solar
radiation. It is defined as the ratio between the
total hemispherical reflectance of a surface
(including the specular and diffuse components)
and the incident radiation, integrated over the
solar spectrum. It is measured on a scale of 0 to 1
(or 0-100%).
b) High thermal emissivity ( ), is a measure of the
ability of a surface to release the absorbed heat.
It is defined as the ratio between the heat flow
radiated away be the material surface at a certain
temperature and the heat flux radiated by a black
body at the same temperature. Infrared emissivity
is measured on a scale from 0 to 1 (or 0-100%).


Many examples of vernacular architecture give
evidence of how light colours were used to reduce
the thermal load in buildings during the hot season.
The Mediterranean area still preserves some of the
most shining examples. Energy and environmental
concerns make this technique interesting again and
several studies demonstrated the positive impact in
terms of increased thermal comfort and reduced
energy loads in buildings and in urban areas [1 to 5].
Most of the study are focused on demonstrating
benefits for several applications: residential and
industry roofing systems, asphalts for roads and
parking lots, coils, PV systems, oil tanks, etc.
Another possible application of cool materials is
for window shutters. Shutters are widely used in
Mediterranean countries as security system for
residential buildings, as well as solar protection
devices. Traditionally wooden made, they are mainly
aluminium based nowadays. One thing remains
unchanged through the time, the application of dark
colours for a better architectural integration: brown,
dark green, red, even black. This solution makes the
window coupled with a dark shutter a potential
source of overheating during the cooling season. The
application of cool materials on solar protection
systems was not yet considered, as well as the
potential energy savings and the thermal comfort
improvement.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
358 MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT
2. PROBLEM APPROACH AND SAMPLE
PREPARATION
Objective of the study was the assessment of a
paint produced with cool pigments applied on
aluminium shutters. Cool pigments are very reflective
in the near infrared range, while they are transparent
in the visible spectrum. The technology allows the
material to maintain the original colour, while the
reflectance in the solar spectrum is increased. These
properties made possible the design of innovative
paint based on the same colour of a conventional
one, but with an increased solar reflectance.
The study was carried out on the usual dark
colours, according to the Italian style for shutters.
The sample preparation was carried out by an Italian
company, which manufactures aluminium products
for the building envelope.
Two different types of paints were tested:
a) Full colours: black, gray and gothic, being the
latter a brown colour with small white dots.
b) Special design reproducing two typical wood
essences (one very dark and one lighter).
A standard product and a cool pigment paint
were used for each sample type. The first step of the
study consisted in the optical characterization of all
the selected samples, in order to evaluate the
improvement of the solar reflectance with the cool
paint application.
The next step consisted in moving from the
materials properties to the building performances in
different Italian climatic zones.
3. OPTICAL MEASUREMENTS
The first part of the study concerns the testing of
some coatings recently developed through a series
of laboratory measurements. The main parameter
that characterizes the product from the energy point
of view is, as mentioned, the solar reflectance. These
spectral measures were performed with a
commercial dual-beam spectrophotometer with
automatic detection, produced by PerkinElmer:
Lambda 950. For the measurements carried out in
this experimental study, the instrument is equipped
with an integrating sphere, which is necessary for
accurate optical measurements of samples with a
non-specular and generically diffusing behaviour.
The scan range is set between 300 and 2500
nanometres and the scan is performed at every
nanometre. The width of the slit is two nanometres in
the visible spectrum and 20 nanometres in the near
infrared spectrum. The scanning speed is about 50
nm/min.
Figures 1, 2 and 3 show the comparison between
the spectral trend of a conventional coating for
aluminium shutters and the same material treated
with cool pigments and characterised by a high
reflectance. Measurements were performed on the
black, gray and gothic samples. The solar integrated
values of the measured curves were calculated
applying the international relevant standards: ISO
9050:2003 and EN 410:1998 procedures. The results
of the solar ( e) and luminous reflectance ( v),
together with colour rendering index Ra are
presented in Table 1.
The difference in solar reflectance is evident in
all cases, increasing between 3 and 4 times for cool
coatings respect to the standard materials. The
difference is even greater in the near infrared
spectrum: in this case the reflectance of the cool
materials increases between 6 (gothic) and 10
(black) times compared to conventional materials.
Black coating reflectance [%]
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
300 500 700 900 1100 1300 1500 1700 1900 2100 2300 2500
wavelength
Cool
Standard

Figure 1: Comparison between a cool and a standard black
coating
Gray coating reflectance [%]
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
300 500 700 900 1100 1300 1500 1700 1900 2100 2300 2500
wavelength
Cool
Standard

Figure 2: Comparison between a cool and a standard gray
coating
Gothic coating reflectance [%]
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
300 500 700 900 1100 1300 1500 1700 1900 2100 2300 2500
wavelength
Cool
Standard

Figure 3: Comparison between a cool and a standard gothic
coating
The chromatic comparison between cool and
standard coatings is very similar for black and gray
and, in fact, the reflectance in the visible spectrum
changes for values of less than 2 per thousand. The
discrepancy increases in the case of gothic colour,
with a difference on the integrated visible spectrum
of about 1% in favour of conventional paint. This
difference can be seen observing the two spectral
curves in the visible region (380-780 nanometres) in
Figure 3.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 359



Table 1: Solar reflectance (e), luminous reflectance (v)
and colour rendering (Ra) of the following materials: black,
gray and gothic.

Blac.
Cool
Blac.

Gray
Cool
Gray

Goth.
Cool
Goth.

e ISO 20.9 4.8 23.3 6.9 23.6 7.9
v ISO 5.0 4.8 8.0 7.9 7.0 8.0
e EN 20.2 4.8 22.6 7.0 22.9 7.8
v EN 5.0 4.8 8.0 7.9 7.0 8.0
Ra 95.1 99.5 94.2 94.9 88.4 88.0
Dark brown coating reflectance [%]
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
300 500 700 900 1100 1300 1500 1700 1900 2100 2300 2500
wavelength
Cool
Standard

Figure 4: Comparison between a cool and a conventional
dark brown background for wood-alike treatment
Light brown coating reflectance [%]
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
300 500 700 900 1100 1300 1500 1700 1900 2100 2300 2500
wavelength
Cool
Standard

Figure 5: Comparison between a cool and a conventional
light brown background for wood-alike treatment
Wood-alike coating reflectance [%]
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
300 500 700 900 1100 1300 1500 1700 1900 2100 2300 2500
wavelength
Test 1
Test 2
Tets 3

Figure 6: Spectral trend of three tests carried on a wood-
alike cool colour painted on a dark brown background
The second set of samples was carried out on
two brown paints. Two different types of brown were
tested, one light and one dark, which have the
function of background in the industrial process for
the production of wood-alike colours.
The comparison between conventional paints and
cool coloured materials shows significant
discrepancies. The solar reflectance increased from
about 26 to 36% for the dark brown and from 30% to
about 36% for the light brown. The chromatic
response is slightly different, as it can be inferred by
the curves of Figures 4 and 5 in the visible band,
between 380 and 780 nanometres. Both the
conventional materials increase their reflectance in
the infrared. Analyzing these results, the light brown
has more potentialities and should be evaluated on
the basis of samples that have a more similar
response in the visible spectrum.
The last set of measures has been dedicated to
materials made of aluminium with a wood-alike
colour, using as background the two colours
previously tested. As expected, the results are in line
with those obtained for the background. The effect of
reflective paint increases the reflectance from 25.9%
to 31.7% for the essence of dark brown wood and
from 28.2% to 33.7% for the essence of light brown
wood. However, one interesting fact concerns the
accuracy of the measure in this testing: the wood-like
colours are characterized by textures, which present
different chromatic gradations of the wood. For this
reason, three tests were performed on each sample
by analyzing grain with different gradations, see
Figure 6. The near-infrared spectra are practically
coincident, while the results change depending on
the point of investigation in the visible spectrum.
A final notation, common to all tested materials,
concerns the near-infrared reflective pigments.
These materials give to the product high reflectance
levels after 1600 nanometres. Whereas the visible
spectrum ends before the 800 nanometres there is a
wide portion of the spectrum (800-1600 nanometres)
in which the reflectance of the product could be
improved, with an average contribution over the
entire solar spectrum estimated around 5-8%. The
reflectance drops again in the periphery of the
infrared spectrum (after 2000 nanometres), but the
energy content of solar radiation at these
wavelengths is so modest that its not necessary to
suggest actions to optimise the spectral response of
the product.
4. NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
The second part of the study is dedicated to
assessing the impact of these products in dwellings,
building category suitable for shutters applications.
Energy performances of envelope components
are a function of several variables. The building
geometry is one of the most important. This study is
focused on a detached single floor house, which
represents a noticeable portion of the Italian dwelling
stock. Cool shutters are, moreover, developed for
seasonal dwellings, typically used in summertime
when the cooling demand of cooled buildings and
overheating are an important issue. Different building
size, shape and geometry lead to different results.
What follows is an example of the technology
potentialities.
Two main building uses were defined:
Calculation of the net energy for a cooled
building. Energy systems efficiencies were not

2. PROBLEM APPROACH AND SAMPLE
PREPARATION
Objective of the study was the assessment of a
paint produced with cool pigments applied on
aluminium shutters. Cool pigments are very reflective
in the near infrared range, while they are transparent
in the visible spectrum. The technology allows the
material to maintain the original colour, while the
reflectance in the solar spectrum is increased. These
properties made possible the design of innovative
paint based on the same colour of a conventional
one, but with an increased solar reflectance.
The study was carried out on the usual dark
colours, according to the Italian style for shutters.
The sample preparation was carried out by an Italian
company, which manufactures aluminium products
for the building envelope.
Two different types of paints were tested:
a) Full colours: black, gray and gothic, being the
latter a brown colour with small white dots.
b) Special design reproducing two typical wood
essences (one very dark and one lighter).
A standard product and a cool pigment paint
were used for each sample type. The first step of the
study consisted in the optical characterization of all
the selected samples, in order to evaluate the
improvement of the solar reflectance with the cool
paint application.
The next step consisted in moving from the
materials properties to the building performances in
different Italian climatic zones.
3. OPTICAL MEASUREMENTS
The first part of the study concerns the testing of
some coatings recently developed through a series
of laboratory measurements. The main parameter
that characterizes the product from the energy point
of view is, as mentioned, the solar reflectance. These
spectral measures were performed with a
commercial dual-beam spectrophotometer with
automatic detection, produced by PerkinElmer:
Lambda 950. For the measurements carried out in
this experimental study, the instrument is equipped
with an integrating sphere, which is necessary for
accurate optical measurements of samples with a
non-specular and generically diffusing behaviour.
The scan range is set between 300 and 2500
nanometres and the scan is performed at every
nanometre. The width of the slit is two nanometres in
the visible spectrum and 20 nanometres in the near
infrared spectrum. The scanning speed is about 50
nm/min.
Figures 1, 2 and 3 show the comparison between
the spectral trend of a conventional coating for
aluminium shutters and the same material treated
with cool pigments and characterised by a high
reflectance. Measurements were performed on the
black, gray and gothic samples. The solar integrated
values of the measured curves were calculated
applying the international relevant standards: ISO
9050:2003 and EN 410:1998 procedures. The results
of the solar ( e) and luminous reflectance ( v),
together with colour rendering index Ra are
presented in Table 1.
The difference in solar reflectance is evident in
all cases, increasing between 3 and 4 times for cool
coatings respect to the standard materials. The
difference is even greater in the near infrared
spectrum: in this case the reflectance of the cool
materials increases between 6 (gothic) and 10
(black) times compared to conventional materials.
Black coating reflectance [%]
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
300 500 700 900 1100 1300 1500 1700 1900 2100 2300 2500
wavelength
Cool
Standard

Figure 1: Comparison between a cool and a standard black
coating
Gray coating reflectance [%]
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
300 500 700 900 1100 1300 1500 1700 1900 2100 2300 2500
wavelength
Cool
Standard

Figure 2: Comparison between a cool and a standard gray
coating
Gothic coating reflectance [%]
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
300 500 700 900 1100 1300 1500 1700 1900 2100 2300 2500
wavelength
Cool
Standard

Figure 3: Comparison between a cool and a standard gothic
coating
The chromatic comparison between cool and
standard coatings is very similar for black and gray
and, in fact, the reflectance in the visible spectrum
changes for values of less than 2 per thousand. The
discrepancy increases in the case of gothic colour,
with a difference on the integrated visible spectrum
of about 1% in favour of conventional paint. This
difference can be seen observing the two spectral
curves in the visible region (380-780 nanometres) in
Figure 3.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
360 MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT
considered since the aim was comparing different
envelope configurations.
Calculation of the thermal comfort conditions in a
not cooled building. The assessment was carried
out in terms of discomfort hours during the
cooling season as a function of the operative
temperature.
The impact of the product was evaluated by
comparing the results obtained for each configuration
with cool or conventional paint for shutters. The
calculations were performed using the Design
Builder interface that supports the EnergyPlus
Calculation Engine, a model based on hourly
analysis of the building thermal behaviour.
4.1. Climatic zones
Three areas of interest were individuated at
national level: Palermo, for southern Italy; Rome for
the centre of Italy and Venice for northern Italy.
These localities were selected for several reasons.
They identify very populated areas of the country,
where shutters are widely used in new and existing
buildings. Moreover their regions are characterised
by a significant seasonal building stock. Palermo has
the most severe summer conditions both in terms of
air temperature and solar radiation levels. Rome and
Venice have a similar climatic severity, even if with a
different mix of air temperature and solar radiation
levels.
4.2. The reference building
The test building implemented for the study is a
simple one level detached house with flat roof and
base floor placed directly on the ground. The
detached house represents a consistent portion of
the national buildings stock, since almost the half of
the existing residential buildings consists of single or
bi-familiar houses. The net area of the building is
99.5 m
2
and the net volume is 308 m
3
, measures
representative of the average Italian dwellings.
The global windows surface is 15 m
2
divided in:
4.5 m
2
on the south and west facade, 3.2 m
2
on the
east and north faade. These values are in line with
national standards and typical design criteria.
Simulations were performed on two envelope
configurations: insulated and not insulated, condition
representative of most of existing buildings. Only one
common value of thermal transmittance was
considered for the not insulated building in the three
climatic zones, while values according to Italian
Standard Reference were taken for the insulated
configuration. Thermal transmittance values are
summarised in Table 2.
The same window was implemented in the three
zones for uniformity comparison. The selected
windows, whose thermal transmittance values are
reported in Table 2, are:
Not insulated window: single glass with wooden
frame, a typical configuration for aged buildings.
Insulated window: a low transmittance double
glazing unit (4-16-4) with wooden frame.
Each window is equipped with Italian typical
shutters. Persiana is a moveable shutter widely used
in Lazio and in many areas of southern Italy, as well
as in several southern European countries, see
scheme in Figure 7 right. Persiana is made of
horizontal lamellae fixed on a wide sash. The
lamellae are steeply tilted, so that only minor solar
radiation reflected by the ground outside diffusely
enters into the building. Scuretto is a moveable thick
shutter, which completely covers the window surface,
typical of several areas in the north of Italy, see
figure 7 left. They are considered equivalent in this
study because both allow high natural ventilation
reducing direct solar gains, while allow secondary
heat transfer due to the absorbed and re-emitted
long wave radiation. A section of the components is
presented in Figure 7.
Table 2: Thermal properties of the building envelope.
Envelope
component
U
not ins.
[W/m2]
U
Palermo
[W/m2]
U
Rome
[W/m2]
U
Venice
[W/m2]
Wall 1.57 0.48 0.36 0.39
Roof 1.52 0.45 0.37 0.35
Base floor 1.57 0.55 0.41 0.38
Window 4.70 1.95 1.95 1.95

Figure 7:Cross section of a window protected by a Scuretto,
left, and Persiana..
As the study involves the optimization of building
performance during summer, it is assumed that the
shutters will always remain closed during the day in
order to minimise the solar gains. Two values of solar
reflectance referring to the back materials were
considered: 4.8% and 20.9%, respectively for
conventional and high reflectance materials.
In the case of not-cooled building, it is assumed
that the window is always open during the 24 hours,
with sunscreen always closed, at least during the
day. An air exchange of 3 ACH is estimated for this
configuration. Even if this is not the optimal passive
strategy, this is what happen in practice in Italian and
south European countries. In the case of cooled
building, it is estimated a cooling systems use of 12
hours, from 9.00 am to 9.00 pm. The power of
cooling system is considered unlimited to ensure the
comfort conditions (air temperature 26 C) whatever
external conditions. During the night, the system is
switched off and the temperature is in free floating
conditions. The air exchanges were set at 0.3 ACH
when cooling system is on and 3 ACH when the
cooling system is switched off.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 361



Because of the constructive features of the
shutters, the direct solar gain is not so important,
while the secondary one is significant because it
represents the portion of solar radiation absorbed by
the element opaque and subsequently radiated to
the indoor environment.
In both cases, the internal gains due to the
presence of people, artificial lighting and household
appliances were set as follows: 5.6 W/m
2
during the
period of energy systems use and 2.8 W/m
2
during
the rest of the time (night time). These values were
selected according to the national standards, which
set the reference internal gains as a function of the
room/building size.
5. RESULTS
The results are grouped according to the two
building uses: with and without cooling systems. The
net cooling demand is considered as main indicator
for the former, operative temperature profiles for the
latter.
5.1. Cooled building
The results are summarised in Figure 8 and 9 for
the insulated and not insulated configurations. The
cooling loads are, as expected, higher in the not
insulated building and the cool shutters have a
positive impact on the energy demand. The cooling
demand decreases of 38 kWh per year in Palermo
(from 929 to 892 kWh), while reductions between 15
and 17 kilowatt-hours were obtained for Rome and
Venice, characterized by smaller energy demands,
respectively 258 and 320 kWh. The relative energy
savings respects to the initial performances are:
4.1% in Palermo, 5.8% in Rome and 5.3% in Venice.
To be noted that the smallest relative saving is the
best absolute saving, because of the most severe
summer climatic conditions in Palermo, Sicily.
The upgrade of the building envelope
performance with insulated components has the
result of reducing the cooling energy demand and, as
a consequence, the absolute energy savings. The
cooling demand decreases of 20 kWh per year in
Palermo (from 585 to 565 kWh), while reductions
between 8 and 9 kilowatt-hours are calculated for
Rome and Venice, whose cooling demands drops
respectively to 105 and 162 kWh. The relative
energy savings are: 3.2% in Palermo, 7.1% in Rome
and 5.3% in Venice.
The results show that cool shutters improve the
cooling performances of this single family house but
the overall impact is limited, because of the small
amount of fenestration surfaces in residential
buildings. Another issue is the impact of the glazing
and frame thermal resistance to the secondary solar
heat transfer due to the shutters solar absorption.
5.2. Not cooled building
The impact of cool shutters is here more evident
than in the cooled building, being the sun-heated
shutters in direct contact with the indoor
environment. The selected performance indicator
used for the analysis is the operative temperature
(to), which takes into account the air temperature of
the thermal zone, as well as the surface
temperatures, including the shutter temperature. The
reference cooling period is from May 15
th
until
September 15
th
.
Not insulated house - net cooling demand [kWh]
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
Palermo Rome Venice
standard shutters
cool shutters

Figure 8: Net cooling demand for the not-insulated house
configuration equipped with conventional and cool shutters
in Palermo, Rome and Venice
Insulated house - net cooling demand [kWh]
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
550
600
650
700
Palermo Rome Venice
standard shutters
cool shutters

Figure 9: Net cooling demand for the insulated house
configuration equipped with conventional and cool shutters
in Palermo, Rome and Venice
The situation is a function according to the
climate severity: 26 C are reached in the 57% of the
period in Palermo and about the 23% of the period in
Rome and Venice for the not insulated building.
Operative temperatures higher than 28 C are
reached in Palermo in the 25% of the period, while in
Rome and Venice in less than the 10%. The
cumulative distribution shows that the number of
hours with operative temperature higher than 26 C
is reduced by 6.6% as an average for the three
localities for the not insulated building when using
the cool shutters. The value increases up to 20% for
the 28 C threshold and to 33% for temperature
above 30 C. The results are summarised in Table 3.
Trends are similar for the insulated building
configuration, even if the intensities change. The
results are summarised in Table 3. There is a
general shift, but limited to few percent units, towards
higher thermal levels in terms of hours above the
fixed threshold. The cumulative distribution shows
that the number of hours with operative temperature
higher than 26 C is reduced by 9.6% as an average
for the three localities. The value increases up to
29% for the 28 C threshold, with a maximum in
Rome with a reduction corresponding to the 43% of
the hours. There is a strong reduction of hours above
30 C in Palermo and Venice, respectively 56% and
31%.

considered since the aim was comparing different
envelope configurations.
Calculation of the thermal comfort conditions in a
not cooled building. The assessment was carried
out in terms of discomfort hours during the
cooling season as a function of the operative
temperature.
The impact of the product was evaluated by
comparing the results obtained for each configuration
with cool or conventional paint for shutters. The
calculations were performed using the Design
Builder interface that supports the EnergyPlus
Calculation Engine, a model based on hourly
analysis of the building thermal behaviour.
4.1. Climatic zones
Three areas of interest were individuated at
national level: Palermo, for southern Italy; Rome for
the centre of Italy and Venice for northern Italy.
These localities were selected for several reasons.
They identify very populated areas of the country,
where shutters are widely used in new and existing
buildings. Moreover their regions are characterised
by a significant seasonal building stock. Palermo has
the most severe summer conditions both in terms of
air temperature and solar radiation levels. Rome and
Venice have a similar climatic severity, even if with a
different mix of air temperature and solar radiation
levels.
4.2. The reference building
The test building implemented for the study is a
simple one level detached house with flat roof and
base floor placed directly on the ground. The
detached house represents a consistent portion of
the national buildings stock, since almost the half of
the existing residential buildings consists of single or
bi-familiar houses. The net area of the building is
99.5 m
2
and the net volume is 308 m
3
, measures
representative of the average Italian dwellings.
The global windows surface is 15 m
2
divided in:
4.5 m
2
on the south and west facade, 3.2 m
2
on the
east and north faade. These values are in line with
national standards and typical design criteria.
Simulations were performed on two envelope
configurations: insulated and not insulated, condition
representative of most of existing buildings. Only one
common value of thermal transmittance was
considered for the not insulated building in the three
climatic zones, while values according to Italian
Standard Reference were taken for the insulated
configuration. Thermal transmittance values are
summarised in Table 2.
The same window was implemented in the three
zones for uniformity comparison. The selected
windows, whose thermal transmittance values are
reported in Table 2, are:
Not insulated window: single glass with wooden
frame, a typical configuration for aged buildings.
Insulated window: a low transmittance double
glazing unit (4-16-4) with wooden frame.
Each window is equipped with Italian typical
shutters. Persiana is a moveable shutter widely used
in Lazio and in many areas of southern Italy, as well
as in several southern European countries, see
scheme in Figure 7 right. Persiana is made of
horizontal lamellae fixed on a wide sash. The
lamellae are steeply tilted, so that only minor solar
radiation reflected by the ground outside diffusely
enters into the building. Scuretto is a moveable thick
shutter, which completely covers the window surface,
typical of several areas in the north of Italy, see
figure 7 left. They are considered equivalent in this
study because both allow high natural ventilation
reducing direct solar gains, while allow secondary
heat transfer due to the absorbed and re-emitted
long wave radiation. A section of the components is
presented in Figure 7.
Table 2: Thermal properties of the building envelope.
Envelope
component
U
not ins.
[W/m2]
U
Palermo
[W/m2]
U
Rome
[W/m2]
U
Venice
[W/m2]
Wall 1.57 0.48 0.36 0.39
Roof 1.52 0.45 0.37 0.35
Base floor 1.57 0.55 0.41 0.38
Window 4.70 1.95 1.95 1.95

Figure 7:Cross section of a window protected by a Scuretto,
left, and Persiana..
As the study involves the optimization of building
performance during summer, it is assumed that the
shutters will always remain closed during the day in
order to minimise the solar gains. Two values of solar
reflectance referring to the back materials were
considered: 4.8% and 20.9%, respectively for
conventional and high reflectance materials.
In the case of not-cooled building, it is assumed
that the window is always open during the 24 hours,
with sunscreen always closed, at least during the
day. An air exchange of 3 ACH is estimated for this
configuration. Even if this is not the optimal passive
strategy, this is what happen in practice in Italian and
south European countries. In the case of cooled
building, it is estimated a cooling systems use of 12
hours, from 9.00 am to 9.00 pm. The power of
cooling system is considered unlimited to ensure the
comfort conditions (air temperature 26 C) whatever
external conditions. During the night, the system is
switched off and the temperature is in free floating
conditions. The air exchanges were set at 0.3 ACH
when cooling system is on and 3 ACH when the
cooling system is switched off.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
362 MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Table 3: Cumulative distribution (number of hours and percentage to the period) of indoor operative temperatures above 26, 28
and 30C for standard and cool shutters. Hours and percentage reduction are also indicated. Not- insulated building
to
[C]
St. shutters
[h]
St. shutters
[%]
Cool shutters
[h]
Cool shutters
[%]
Reduction
[h]
Reduction
[%]
Palermo Not insulated
>26 1707 57.4 1630 54.8 77 4.5
>28 746 25.1 651 21.9 95 12.7
>30 130 4.4 85 2.9 45 34.6
Rome Not insulated
>26 761 25.6 695 23.4 66 8.7
>28 128 4.3 93 3.1 35 27.3
>30 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 ---
Venice Not insulated
>26 740 24.9 690 23.2 50 6.8
>28 246 8.3 203 6.8 43 17.5
>30 40 1.3 27 0.9 13 32.5
Palermo Insulated
>26 1953 65.6 1864 62.6 89 4.7
>28 1006 33.8 858 28.8 148 16.3
>30 175 5.9 86 2.9 89 56.4
Rome Insulated
>26 1044 35.1 904 30.4 140 13.3
>28 236 7.9 137 4.6 99 43.3
>30 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 ---
Venice Insulated
>26 948 31.9 846 28.4 102 10.8
>28 320 10.8 235 7.9 85 26.6
>30 45 1.5 31 1.0 14 31.1

6. CONCLUSIONS
The study demonstrates that cool materials can
be used for shutters and solar protection devices,
increasing the solar reflectance values without
penalizing chromatic solutions, typical of the Italian
architectural tradition. The optical measurement
campaign shows that significant results can be
achieved on some products, while more
improvements are needed for the wood-alike
essences.
It is also important noting that, according to the
spectral curves, it is possible optimizing the
effectiveness of the cool paint since the visible range
ends at 800 nanometres, but the developed coating
reaches the maximum at 1600 nanometres. A
calibrated increase of the spectral reflectance at
lower wavelength, typically immediately after the
visible range, may increase the solar reflectance of
several percentage points.
The calculation performed on the reference
building demonstrated the positive impact of more
reflective envelope components, even if the overall
savings are affected by several geometric and
thermo-physical limitations. Net cooling energy
savings vary between 3.2% and 7.1%. Analyses that
take in account the entire year (heating + cooling)
are needed for continuously used dwellings.
Cool materials are most effectively in reducing
extreme indoor operative temperatures, as
demonstrated by the reduction of hours with more
than 28 and 30 C. To be noted that even if colder in
winter, Venice shows higher cooling demand; this
implies the importance of active and/or passive
cooling solutions even in the north Italian area.
7. REFERENCES
[1] Akbari, H., Bretz, S., Kurn, D., Hartford, H.,
1997. Peak power and cooling energy savings of
high albedo roofs. Energy and Buildings 25
(1997) 117 126.
[2] Akbari, H., Levinson, R., Rainer, L., 2005.
Monitoring the energy-use effects of cool roofs
on California commercial buildings. Energy and
Buildings 37 (2005) 10071016
[3] Synnefa, A., Santamouris, M., Akbari, H. (2007),
Estimating the effect of using cool coatings on
energy loads and thermal comfort in residential
buildings in various climatic conditions, Energy
and Buildings, vol. 39 (11), pp 1167-1174
[4] Synnefa, A., Santamouris, M., Apostolakis, K.
(2007) On the development, optical properties
and thermal performance of cool colored
coatings for the urban environment, Solar
Energy, vol. 81, pp 488497
[5] Zinzi, M., & Fasano, G. (2009), Properties and
performance of advanced reflective paints to
reduce the cooling loads in buildings and
mitigate the heat island effect in urban areas,
International Journal of Sustainable Energy vol.
28 (1), pp 123-139.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 363


The Future Life Cycle of Intelligent Facades
Dr Craig Lee MARTIN & Craig STOTT
1

1
Manchester School of Architecture, United Kingdom
ABSTRACT: The UK building industry accounts for approximately 50% of the nation's total energy consumption;
generating 33% of landfill waste [1]. Reducing both is paramount for a sustainable future. Disproportionate
amounts of energy are currently expended maintaining comfortable internal climates. Intelligent Faades can
play a significant role in reducing this energy demand. Intelligent Faades can also be designed to eliminate
their construction waste through considering their future Lifecycle. In Cradle-to-Cradle McDonough and
Braungart [2] develop James Lovelocks Gaia [3] principles of sustaining existence through closed loop systems
with their eco-effective approach to product design. Modelled on natural processes, Eco-Effective design offers
a paradigm shift away from the be less bad eco-efficient, by promoting waste as food. Upcycling is the
remanufacturing of nutrients, which have fulfilled their primary use, into higher value environmental products. On
this premise future Intelligent Faades should be fully upcyclable. At the end of their designed life all
components should be efficiently removed and returned to a manufacturer to be reused without wastage.
Working alongside faade manufacturer Lindner, architects and Zurich ETH Professors Gramazio & Kohler, and
architects 3XN, enabled this research to fully explore the possibilities of an eco-effective design ethos, and
devise a set of proposals that could facilitate a global reduction in carbon emissions. Through interpreting and
implementing a closed-loop strategy, this paper extends the knowledge of Intelligent Faades day-to-day
operation by exploring their future life cycle and eco-effectiveness; i.e. the potential modes of decommissioning
and upcycling.
Keywords: Eco-Effective, Life Cycle, Faade, Upcycling, Cradle-to-Cradle
1. INTRODUCTION
Can future Intelligent Faades be designed to
encompass their entire life cycle; from inception and
materials through to decommission and upcycling?
To answer this, three areas were considered:
The importance of the living planet Gaia and how
biomimicing natural life cycles is critical for
establishing an eco-effective design strategy.
The relevance of Intelligent Faades and the role
they have to play in rescuing Gaia.
The current state of sustainable design.
The research was conducted in collaboration with
faade manufacturer Lindner, who discussed the
most prevalent issues and provided a series of case
studies to outline the current failings of contemporary
design, and architects Gramazio & Kohler in Zurich
and 3XN in Copenhagen who specialise in advanced
renewable technologies and digital design.
The aim was to pinpoint the key areas currently
obstructing wide-scale adoption of sustainable
development in the area of faade design and to
suggest appropriate strategies for change.
2. CRADLE TO CRADLE: THE LIFEHALT
2.1. The Importance of Lifecycle
James Lovelock proposed the Gaia hypothesis in
the early 1970s, suggesting the earth in its entirety
lives as a single complex entity forming an intricate
interacting system. That system maintains the Earth
in an ideal homeostasis for life to flourish. In return,
life itself acts as a regulator through actions and
evolution. The lack of respect shown Gaia by
humanity has disabled her capacity to manage the
effects of additional greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere, resulting in homeostatic positive
feedback causing runaway global warming.
2.2. Eco-Effective
An attempt to counter the destructive tendencies
of man was proposed by Michael Braungart and
William McDonough in their 2002 text Cradle to
Cradle. It offers a paradigm shift away from the be
less bad eco-efficient, by promoting an Eco-Effective
design strategy where waste equals food. Eco-
Effective design models human industry on natural
processes through its biomimetic approach to the
design of systems. The ideology suggests that all
items we make, use and discard, eventually provide
nutrition for Industry and Nature alike come the end
of their working life. The aspiration is a world in which
all human activity nourishes rather than destroys,
leaving behind a delightful restorative footprint as
opposed to todays degenerative one. In this
philosophy human growth is actually viewed
positively; the greater the consumption, the higher
the abundance of nutrients.
2.3. Contemporary Architectural Barriers
At first glance the notion of increased human
consumption appears heretic to those of the
established sustainable doctrine, however if the
theory is applied it results in a biomimetic design
approach that transforms the manufacture and
consumption of goods into a regenerative force.
Contemporary lifestyles in the developed world are
incredibly wasteful, with many usable or edible
products being Lifehalted in landfill. In 2009 the UK
produced 434million tonnes of waste. 73% of this
went to landfill, even though 90% was recoverable
and could have be recycled, composted or used to
generate energy (This figure must be cut by over two
Table 3: Cumulative distribution (number of hours and percentage to the period) of indoor operative temperatures above 26, 28
and 30C for standard and cool shutters. Hours and percentage reduction are also indicated. Not- insulated building
to
[C]
St. shutters
[h]
St. shutters
[%]
Cool shutters
[h]
Cool shutters
[%]
Reduction
[h]
Reduction
[%]
Palermo Not insulated
>26 1707 57.4 1630 54.8 77 4.5
>28 746 25.1 651 21.9 95 12.7
>30 130 4.4 85 2.9 45 34.6
Rome Not insulated
>26 761 25.6 695 23.4 66 8.7
>28 128 4.3 93 3.1 35 27.3
>30 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 ---
Venice Not insulated
>26 740 24.9 690 23.2 50 6.8
>28 246 8.3 203 6.8 43 17.5
>30 40 1.3 27 0.9 13 32.5
Palermo Insulated
>26 1953 65.6 1864 62.6 89 4.7
>28 1006 33.8 858 28.8 148 16.3
>30 175 5.9 86 2.9 89 56.4
Rome Insulated
>26 1044 35.1 904 30.4 140 13.3
>28 236 7.9 137 4.6 99 43.3
>30 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 ---
Venice Insulated
>26 948 31.9 846 28.4 102 10.8
>28 320 10.8 235 7.9 85 26.6
>30 45 1.5 31 1.0 14 31.1

6. CONCLUSIONS
The study demonstrates that cool materials can
be used for shutters and solar protection devices,
increasing the solar reflectance values without
penalizing chromatic solutions, typical of the Italian
architectural tradition. The optical measurement
campaign shows that significant results can be
achieved on some products, while more
improvements are needed for the wood-alike
essences.
It is also important noting that, according to the
spectral curves, it is possible optimizing the
effectiveness of the cool paint since the visible range
ends at 800 nanometres, but the developed coating
reaches the maximum at 1600 nanometres. A
calibrated increase of the spectral reflectance at
lower wavelength, typically immediately after the
visible range, may increase the solar reflectance of
several percentage points.
The calculation performed on the reference
building demonstrated the positive impact of more
reflective envelope components, even if the overall
savings are affected by several geometric and
thermo-physical limitations. Net cooling energy
savings vary between 3.2% and 7.1%. Analyses that
take in account the entire year (heating + cooling)
are needed for continuously used dwellings.
Cool materials are most effectively in reducing
extreme indoor operative temperatures, as
demonstrated by the reduction of hours with more
than 28 and 30 C. To be noted that even if colder in
winter, Venice shows higher cooling demand; this
implies the importance of active and/or passive
cooling solutions even in the north Italian area.
7. REFERENCES
[1] Akbari, H., Bretz, S., Kurn, D., Hartford, H.,
1997. Peak power and cooling energy savings of
high albedo roofs. Energy and Buildings 25
(1997) 117 126.
[2] Akbari, H., Levinson, R., Rainer, L., 2005.
Monitoring the energy-use effects of cool roofs
on California commercial buildings. Energy and
Buildings 37 (2005) 10071016
[3] Synnefa, A., Santamouris, M., Akbari, H. (2007),
Estimating the effect of using cool coatings on
energy loads and thermal comfort in residential
buildings in various climatic conditions, Energy
and Buildings, vol. 39 (11), pp 1167-1174
[4] Synnefa, A., Santamouris, M., Apostolakis, K.
(2007) On the development, optical properties
and thermal performance of cool colored
coatings for the urban environment, Solar
Energy, vol. 81, pp 488497
[5] Zinzi, M., & Fasano, G. (2009), Properties and
performance of advanced reflective paints to
reduce the cooling loads in buildings and
mitigate the heat island effect in urban areas,
International Journal of Sustainable Energy vol.
28 (1), pp 123-139.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
364 MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT


thirds to meet the EU 2020 target). The construction
industry contributes a significant proportion of this
waste. Hence an eco-effective design strategy for
Intelligent Faades is vitally important.
One architectural component where
environmental improvements could be sought is the
building skin. Contemporary faades from brick built
dwellings to high-rise glazed towers offer little more
than a barrier between inside and out. This primary
function has barely evolved in millennia. The vast
majority of buildings still require; heating and/or
cooling; a national grid delivering power; materials
with high ecological footprints that cannot be reused
after demolition. A comprehensive Intelligent Faade
design would address these issues and many more.
3. LIFECYCLE: THE DESIGN PARADIGM
3.1. Intelligent Faade Typologies
Despite the many guises of Intelligent Faade,
they fall rather comprehensively into three
categories; Insolar Faade, Taxonometric Faade,
and Responsive Faade. These are defined by the
inherent intelligence and what the design is
attempting to achieve. The definitions build on one
another, meaning one configuration can belong to all
three categories, and ideally will do.
An Insolar Faade is a scheme based upon the
principles of solar analysis. It is configured in such a
way as to minimise or maximise the effects of
insolation as required by the building typology.
Taxonometric Faades are those created from a
standard kit of parts. The design should allow for
many configurations, meaning each scheme using
the system can display an individual appearance.
The key to the Taxonometric approach is the ability
to design for decommission. As the componentry is
devised to attach together in a certain sequence, that
sequence can be reversed, enabling the faade to be
safely and efficiently dismantled. The elements can
subsequently be returned to the manufacturer for re-
use in another project, or Upcycled to comply with a
newer design revision. Lindners ECO Fassade
(Fig.1) has been designed to achieve these criterion.
Lindner commissioned PE International to conduct a
full Lifecycle analysis upon the ECO Fassade, the
details of which are discussed in Section 3.2.
Figure 1: Lindners Taxonometric Faade
Responsive faades are those that display
autonomous control. They exhibit an ability to
comprehend and learn from their surroundings,
adjusting behaviour accordingly. The building skin is
not inert, but transforms dynamically to regulate the
internal environment, reducing its power demands.
Ideally they include methods for generating energy.
3.2. Life Cycle Assessment
A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a study and
appraisal of the environmental effects for any given
product. It considers the extraction and creation of
raw material, transportation, manufacture,
construction, decommissioning, and recycling or
waste creation. Extras such as auxiliary material,
packaging, water consumption, amount of recycled
content, waste treatment, and even radioactive
waste should the energy come from a nuclear power
station are also included. LCAs don't however take
into account the usage or efficiency of the item being
evaluated, hence for this report the functional
properties of the faade are not incorporated.
PE International developed the LCA software
GaBi4. The outcomes are classified into energy and
water consumption, waste, and six potential impact
categories: global warming, ozone depletion, abiotic,
summer smog, acidification, and eutrophication.
Whilst incredibly useful the process is complicated,
thus the final figures contain large tolerances.
At their behest, PE International analysed
Lindners new Eco Fassade using GaBi4. The results
are interesting and summarised below, however they
lack context as no others exist for a building faade
system. The total energy consumed in the
manufacture and production phase of three standard
elemental faade types:
Fully Glazed = 2,480 MJ/m
2

Fully Clad = 1,950 MJ/m
2

Part Clad = 3,270 MJ/m
2

The total energy consumed for the faade's
remaining Lifecycle, (transportation, on-site
construction, and decommissioning), up to the point
where the elements are either recycled or discarded:
Fully Glazed = 1,340 MJ/m
2

Fully Clad = 1,300 MJ/m
2

Part Clad = 1,840 MJ/m
2

The Part Glazed configuration consumes the
greatest amount of energy due to the increased
number of elements. Transport contributes less than
1% of the total, with the average material distance
travelled being just 415km. The configuration also
comes last in five of the six impact categories, with
Fully Clad proving best in five out of the six. Overall,
the LCA concluded that two aspects caused the
greatest environmental damage:
Preparation of the anodized aluminium profiles,
due to the amount of water and heat required.
Preparation of the aluminium and steel cladding
in the Part Clad and Fully Clad variants.
Whilst initially surprising that the Fully Glazed
configuration does not pose the greatest primary
threat, construction glass has a series of inherent
problems regarding its possible future reuse and
Upcycling, discussed further in Section 4.4.
The LCA report states that when Fully Glazed,
the Greenhouse Potential is increased by 25% due
to the need for insulated glazing. With a reduction in
CO
2 emissions critical in the fight against global
climate change, it could be argued that this is
actually the greatest environmental threat. This
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 365



reasoning is further strengthened when embodied
energies and power sources are considered.
The LCA report also states the Lindner Eco
Fassade system is almost 100% recyclable,
depending upon the use of a mechanical form of
captive glazing gasket. Mechanical capture results in
larger mullions, which consumes more aluminium.
However, an adhesively glazed system of non-
captive glass fixed with Ethylene Propylene Diene
Monomer (EPDM) is not at all recyclable due to the
inability to separate the glass from the EPDM.
Hence, any design decisions must take into account
the future reusability of the materials.
To add some perspective to the emission
findings, Lindner calculated a comparison. An
average car produces 165g CO
2/km, hence if driven
for a typical annual amount of 10,000km it releases
1,650kg CO2. A typical city office faade can be
estimated to cover 25storeys of a 25m x 25m floor
plan, equalling 10,000m
2
. Assuming a fairly low
figure based upon the LCA findings of 100kg CO2/m
2

the faade manufacture emits a substantial
1,000,000kg CO2.
When considered in such a manner, the
importance of the subject matter becomes
exceptionally pertinent. Gaining an understanding of
these issues and defining methods for reduction is
key to developing a successful Eco-Effective design,
and why the LCA is an incredibly useful exercise.
4. CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE VS
UPCYCLING: INVESTIGATIONS
An Eco-Effective approach offers a solution to the
construction industrys waste issues. It would create
a true closed loop society where waste was no
longer a negative aspect, but a source of nutrients -
waste equals food. Lindner conducted two studies in
addition to the LCA looking into ways of minimising
their ecological footprint.
4.1. Case Study - Harlequin 1
Investigation 1 considered the average recycled
content for new material. It came as a response to a
query raised by a client. BSkyB, with architects Arup
Associates, wanted to design and build Europe's
most sustainable broadcasting venue. The aim was
for Harlequin 1 in Brentford to achieve BREEAM
Excellent and a 35% reduction in carbon footprint
when compared to the previous incarnation. To attain
this BSkyB insisted on a plethora of energy saving
measures including natural ventilation, wind turbines,
a biomass fuelled CHP and rainwater harvesting.
Lindner were contracted to provide an Insolar faade
system. BSkyB prescribed the percentage of
recycled content they desired the faade materials to
contain, detailed in Table 1:
Table 1: BSkyBs Recycled Material Content Specification
for Harlequin 1
Material (external Faades) Recycled Content (by mass)
Aluminium - Extrusion 44%
Aluminium - Sheet 73%
Glass 10 - 20%
Pre-Cast Concrete 45%
Steel 25 - 90%
Lindner approached the request by determining
the greatest percentage of recycled material that
could be included for high quality products. Table 2
shows the six most common materials and their
average recycled content. The values represent
normal, good quality, commercially available
products with a recycled content appropriate to the
creation of high quality Intelligent Faades.
Table 2: Lindners Recycled Material Content
Material
(external Faades)
Recycled Content
(by mass)
Aluminium - Extrusion
Not more than 22%
Normally 22%
Aluminium - Sheet 12 - 95%
Glass 30%
Steel Unknown
Insulation 70%
Gaskets, Silicone & EPDM Nil

BSkyB accepted Lindners findings following an
indepth discussion and analysis of possible methods
to increase the percentages. Whilst not being able to
do so is disappointing, the fact large corporations
and architects such as BSkyB and Arup Associates
are beginning to seriously consider these aspects
bodes well for future improvements and the eventual
adoption of an Eco-Effective design strategy.
An investigation into the future recyclability of
Lindner products, conducted in the UK office under
the leadership of Technical Director John Libby
placed the onus firmly with architects. Libby suggests
designers must gain a fundamental understanding
of the manufacturing process and the ecological
implications of their design decisions. Two material
examples are discussed below, to illustrate Lindner's
position.
4.2. Aluminium
Alloys complicate the upcycling of aluminium.
When specifying products it is vitally important
architects consult their manufacturer, engineer and
supplier to determine which alloy most appropriate
for the job has the smallest environmental impact.
The chosen finishes and coatings applied are equally
significant. A standard anodised finish using simple
oxidisation is the best option, for it leaves the product
fully Upcyclable. Powder coating aluminium involves
the use of a polymer such as polyurethane being
baked onto the outer surface. This is recyclable but
requires the use of a suspected human carcinogen
methylene chloride, or energy intensive abrasive
blasting, both of which damage the underlying
aluminium, causing impurities. Finally, there are
numerous 'non-standard' coatings such as high
silicon for specific conditions such as corrosive
environments. Many of these render the aluminium
completely unusable for future reuse, as such the
appropriateness of specifying aluminium in these
circumstances must be questioned.
4.3. Glass
Glass recycling is widespread and very efficient.
Unfortunately, not all glass is the same, and certain
architectural glass is difficult to Upcycle.
Advancements are continually being made; for
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example, it is now possible to specify PVC-U
windows that can be disassembled at the end of their
working lives. The glass is recycled into cullet, the
aluminium tracks and beadings can be re-used or
Upcycled and the PVC-U frames can be processed
into micronised powder ready for a new moulding.
Glazing suffers from attempting to achieve two
conflicting goals. Its primary function is to allow
natural light in and afford a view out, accompanied
by facilitating solar gain. However juxtaposing these
aims are minimising glare, heat loss and excessive
solar gain. Regrettably, most currently popular
solutions have grave environmental implications for
future upcycling. Low emissivity (Low-E) coatings are
one such case in point. When applied to glass they
reflect radiant infrared radiation, hence keeping heat
energy on the exterior whilst allowing light in the
visible spectrum to pass through. Low-E coatings
work wonderfully well at minimising excessive solar
heat gains, but have proven extremely problematic
for Upcycling. The coatings are usually metallic;
titanium, zinc, chromium, silver, tin or even gold, and
are applied as a hardcoat during the annealing
phase of the float glass process. Once administered
the coatings cannot be removed, even under
extreme temperatures. Consequently any future
product created using cullet from Low-E coated
glazing, literally falls apart as the metallic elements
will not bond. Hence Low-E coating regulate
overheating, yet prohibit any future usage of the
material.
4.4. Case Study Microshade
With an eco-effective mentality Low-E coatings
would simply not be accepted due to their
deficiencies for future Upcycling, alternatives would
be sought and developed. In this case a solution has
been engineered by Danish firm MicroShade in
conjunction with architects 3XN, (Fig.2). A micro
perforated stainless steel lamella strip, just 200m
thick is mechanically fixed within standard double or
triple glazed units, meaning it is fully recyclable. The
micro-perforations are angled to emit a higher
percentage of low-level light, whilst reducing high-
angle sun penetration by 90%. It can be configured
either to appear unnoticeable to the viewer, or to
include a patternation. The concept is so successful
that Low-E coatings and external solar shading
devices are no longer required, resulting in greatly
reduced material consumption and economic costs.
MicroShade is a good example of an eco-effective
product, designed to mitigate an ecological problem
whilst not contributing to one.

Figure 2: Microshade.
One area requiring a drastic rethink is floor to
ceiling glazing. In Britain, any glass located below
800mm from floor height must be laminated safety
glass. This is most commonly formed by sandwiching
a clear pane of Polyvinyl Butyral Plastic (PVB)
between two panes of glass under mild heat and
pressure. The glass adheres to the PVB so actively
that it does not shatter, remaining intact when
broken. PVB is an expensive high performance
thermoplastic polymer; its necessity vastly increases
glazing costs. PVB itself is fully Upcyclable, however
to separate the bonded lamination is such an energy
and labour intensive activity it is not economically
viable, hence scrapped safety glass heads for
landfill. This type of Lifehalt must be addressed in
order to reduce the carbon footprint. Simple design
choices can instantaneously minimise the issue.
One possible solution for areas where safety
glass is required could be the use of biological
adhesives. If the glass and shatter proof layer, not
necessarily PVB, were bonded in this manner, a
biological solvent could harmlessly split the two
come the end of their working life. The technology to
achieve such a product exists, but is not pursued due
to economic constraints. It is areas like these,
requiring high capital expenditure but offering long-
term financial and ecological incentives, where
government funded research should be focused.
4.5. PFI Building Systems
The UK and Australian governments originally
developed Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs) as a
means of funding public projects with private capital.
In its basic form a PFI can be viewed as a means of
reallocating ownership for the functional benefit of
those relinquishing control, and long-term financial
gain of the recipient. In architecture this could be
employed for ecological gains as well. The concept
involves the manufacturers of building materials and
services not relinquishing responsibility for their
product, but effectively leasing them to the client for
a contractually agreed lifespan. Throughout a
buildings working life the manufacturer maintains and
cares for their products, come the end of that life it is
the manufacturers duty to decommission their
property and remove it. The scheme enables new
agreements to be formed - either extending the
existing contract, or facilitating an upgrade.
A PFI Building Systems initiative (PFIBS) makes
commercial and ecological sense. The maintenance
provided by manufacturers throughout a products
working life ensures a product remains in excellent
working condition, reducing building running costs for
the client and ensuring building occupiers are never
dissatisfied. As the manufacturer is contractually
required to repossess the products at a future date,
design for decommissions and upcycling becomes
an integral part. Consequently wastage and raw
material consumption would both significantly
decrease. Naturally the concept is not without its
detractors who question the realistic possibilities
mainly due to the high level of litigation necessary.
There are other hurdles that require overcoming
before PFIBSs become a realisable prospect.
However, the potential advancements of such an
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initiative are significant and warrant further
consideration.
5. INTELLIGENT FAADE FUTURES: THE
REALISATION
5.1. Adaptive Attitudes
Radical reform would be required in order to
adopt a PFIBS. Such a move could only rationally be
realised in a series of small steps, requiring much
greater cohesion between the working partners than
is currently seen. In order to transform the approach,
three concepts must be incorporated into every
construction programme. Once each has been
addressed a truly eco-effective PFIBS will develop.
The three steps are also by no means related solely
to architecture and Intelligent Faades, the theories
can be applied to almost any design field.
5.2. Removal of Non-Upcyclable Materials
Any product that cannot be broken down into its
constituent elements and/or contains materials that
cannot be recycled - cannot be upcycled. Such
products should not be used. Ideally BREEAM and
LEED would perform an LCA on every market
product and material. Components that do not
comply with stringent rules regarding future usage
would be immediately removed from the
marketplace, this being enforced through statutory
Building Regulations. Whilst this may seem a rather
authoritarian way of approaching the subject,
developers looking to cut corners and costs will not
adhere to voluntary codes or suggested guidelines.
As Albert Einstein observed, "No problem can be
solved by the same consciousness that created it.
We need to see the world anew" [4], therefore to
ensure this, ecological design must be stipulated as
a ruling. McDonough & Braungart describe this as
Signalling Your Intention and is part of their Five
Guiding Principles for establishing eco-effective
design. Once this is achieved the consideration of a
material's environmental properties will become
second nature, rather than the add-on it currently is.
5.3. Embracement of Innovative Technologies
Given the need for Upcyclable replacements for
all building componentry currently available on the
market, a great deal of investment is required up
front for this to become a reality. A recent report by
the Committee on Climate Change, an independent
body established to advise the UK government,
called for a substantial increase in the funding
available for sustainable technologies and green
energy [5]. The report suggested the UK had a
unique opportunity during the global economic
recession to become a world leader in the research
and development of ecological endeavour, indeed
not investing would actually prove a false economy.
Whilst the onus is very much on governments to
instate legislation and provide research capital to
ensure eco-effective design is successful, a large
responsibility remains with the architect. Converting
to a new environmentally led design system will
prove an enormous challenge for many
professionals, yet as stated by Brian Anson in 1979,
The Architect who isn't a philanthropist is a
philistine [6]. Numerous firms have made progress;
two exemplars being Zurich firm Gramazio & Kohler
and Danish 3XN.
5.4. Case Studies 3XNs Louisiana Pavilion &
Gramazio & Kohlers Gantenbein Vineyard
The Louisiana Pavilion (Fig.3) exemplifies 3XNs
approach. Based on the closed loop concept, the
Pavilion is designed to fulfil its own energy demands,
be fully Upcyclable, and totally maintenance free.
The structure is built from a bio-composite of natural
flax fibres and cork bonded with Ashlands bio-resin
Envirez. Subsequently it is 100% biodegradable.
Nano-X's TiO2 nanoparticles were applied to the
substrate, meaning the pavilion is self-cleaning under
precipitation as the coating causes the catalytic
oxidation of organic contaminants when under direct
UV sunlight. Flexcells Flexible Photovoltaic panels
harness solar radiation for electricity, as do Noliacs
Piezoelectric crystals which deform under the weight
of visitor footprints. The power is stored and used to
light LEDs at night. The form was originally created
by hand using a Mbius strip. It was subsequently
parametrically modelled using Grasshopper for
Rhino in order for the Engineering and detailed
design work to take place.

Figure 3: 3XNs Louisiana Pavilion.
At the Gantenbein Vineyard in Flsch,
Switzerland, Gramazio & Kohler used a robotic
production method to lay 20,000 bricks precisely, at
the exact interval and angle as prescribed by
programmed parameters (Fig 4). The pattern imitates
abstract oversized grapes, designed using a
generative process replicating grapes falling into a
'basket' - the building volume. Each individual brick
was then digitally rotated to form the constantly
changing simulated image. A robotic arm is directly
driven by the design data, meaning there is no need
for drawings. The digital sequence also controls
applying the bonding agent. This additive process is
intrinsically sustainable, for no waste is ever
generated. If a biologically derived adhesive is
applied, then the entire faade is also upcyclable as
the individual bricks can be separated.

Figure 4: Gantenbein Vineyard by Gramazio & Kohler.
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With reference to these two examples of a
digitally supported eco-effective design and to
previously mentioned research into faade
composition, it can be summarised that for an
Intelligent Faades to fully satisfy a Cradle-to-Cradle
process the following four criteria are critical.
1. The adoption of Private Finance Initiative
Building System (PFIBS);
2. The Removal of non-upcyclable materials
from the marketplace through building
control and regulation.
3. Embracement of Innovative sustainable
Technologies.
4. The utilisation of advancements in
Computer Aided Design. Adoption of
physical methods of representation using
digital fabrication.
6. CONCLUSION
This paper considers the possibility of an
Intelligent Faade capable of encompassing an
entire technological life cycle. From the outset an
understanding of Cradle-to-Cradle concepts was
imperative, leading to a methodology of eco-
effectiveness rather than eco-efficiency. In the
present architectural landscape leading examples of
faade design are increasingly double skins with
integrated building management systems. They
justifiably declare their environmental prowess and
are indeed advancements in an eco-efficient sense.
The next evolution should now enter an eco-
effective era. One inspired by the circular
metabolisms of natural ecosystems. Envisage
facades analogous to leaves that fall in autumn, to
be remoulded and reinvented at the end of their
design life. Not recycled, but upcycled to more
innovative, higher environmental value products.
Facades are changing all around us in any event.
Companies continually rebrand and repackage
themselves, often materialising into replacement
faades. If building frames are considered
permanent, then facades are temporary and capable
of upgrade. To facilitate this design attitude and
government legislation must adapt, in combination
with the adoption of innovative materials and
constructional techniques that have been described
in this study.
If the Cradle-to-Cradle philosophy is to be
completed, it could be argued that the eco-effective
fabrication and management of facades is inevitable
as raw materials become increasingly more difficult
to acquire. While manufacturers such as Lindner are
now apportioning more resources to the
development of these products, any eco-effective
method may only succeed if both client and designer
meet the challenge with similar economic or ethical
foresight.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks must go to John Libby, Ludwig Schmid &
Ulrich Untergehrer from Lindner, Tobias Bonwetsch
& Prof. Matthias Kohler at Zurich ETH and Kasper
Guldager Jrgensen at GXN/3XN.
8. REFERENCES
[1] DEFRA Municipal Waste Management Survey -
England & Wales. London: ONS (2005).
[2] W. McDonough, & M. Braungart, Cradle to
Cradle: remaking the way we think things. New
York: North Point Press (2002).
[3] J. Lovelock, The Revenge of Gaia. London:
Puffin Books (2006).
[4] A. Einstein, Only Then Shall We Find Courage.
New York: Times Magazine (1946).
[5] CCC, Building a Low Carbon Economy. London:
Seacourt (2010).
[6] B. Anson, Ill Fight You for It: Behind the
Struggle for Covent Garden (19661974).
London: Jonathan Cape (1981).
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MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 369
1
Hemp Lime Bio-composite in Construction

A study into the performance and application of hemp lime bio-
composite as a construction material in Ireland.

Patrick Daly
BESRaC, ileeid Zero Energy House, Clonkill, Mullingar, Co Westmeath, Ireland


ABSTRACT: This paper presents the outcome of a scoping study carried out under the Irish Environmental
Protection Agency STRIVE research funding programme into the potential application of hemp lime as a building
material in Ireland.. The study collated a growing body of international research on hemp lime and its increasing
application in construction, and summarised this in terms of the materials properties and performance in relation
to standards and requirements for construction application in Ireland. This paper examines the materials
application in construction, summarises the known material performances, and limitations in cross comparison of
same, and presents a comparison of life cycle data for a hemp lime wall, based on a French study, and a
traditional form of construction in Ireland, partial fill cavity wall construction, based on elemental European data,
undertaken by the authors. Key advantages of the bio-composite were found to be its carbon sequestration
capacity, (which had important impacts on the materials Global Warming Potential), its thermal performance,
especially in dynamic terms with studies indicating favourable decrement delay resulting in stabilisation of
temperature, and important hygroscopic properties which can have positive effects on relative humidity stability.
Keywords: Hemp, Lime, Energy, Environmental Impact, Global Warming Potential, Life Cycle Analysis, Carbon
Sequestration.
1. HEMP LIME
Hemp lime is a bio-composite material formed by
the mixture of the woody core of the hemp plant, also
known as hurd, and a lime based binder. After
setting, the composite forms a rigid lightweight
material and has potential applications to a range of
construction solutions with claimed benefits of good
thermal properties, thermal mass, vapour
permeability, low environmental impact and carbon
sequestration.

2. CONSTRUCTION APPLICATION
2.1. In-situ infill
The predominant use of hemp lime as a bio-
composite in construction to date has been as an
insulating infill cast or sprayed in walls, roofs and
floors. Hemp lime for wall infill is used in combination
with a structural timber frame, the mix being either
poured and tamped into temporary shuttering or
sprayed onto an internal or external permanent
shuttering.[1] For roofs a lighter mix, with better
insulation qualities, can be applied by using an
internal permanent shuttering and by spraying the
mix between the rafters. Hemp lime may also be cast
as a solid floor slab, can serve as a screed and has
been used with under-floor heating. [2]

2.2. Masonry
Hemp lime has been used to manufacture
masonry blocks, generally for non load bearing infill
walls on framed structures, however load bearing
blocks of up to 3N/mm2 have also been developed,
and research has shown higher strength potential
with cement additive. [3] [4]

2.3. Precast Units / Panels
Hemp lime has been applied in the form of large
prefabricated panels by using timber cassettes,
which were filled with a sprayed mix. [5] The wine
society warehouse (Hertfordshire, UK) employed
hemp lime for the construction of a 50,000 m
3

warehouse housing more than 3.5 million bottles of
wine, via the production of pre-fabricated 3.6 by 2.4
m panels of 400mm thick-sprayed material within
timber cassettes. [6]

Such panels can be supported by a structural
frame and provide both insulation and thermal mass.
Precast applications are envisaged as a potential
area for additional application of hemp lime cement
solutions with possible weight, flexural strength and
environmental benefits.

2.4. Other Hemp Applications / Developments
In addition to hemp lime solutions hemp is
already available as quilt insulation with hemp fibre
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insulation batts. [2] Hemp also has potential to be
used in cladding and boarding applications such as
strand board, chip board, fibre board etc. with some
boards already on the market. [2] There are also
developments in hemp magnesium oxide/chloride
and research being conducted on hemp earth/clay
materials. [7]


Figure 1: Hemp-lime being spray applied into a timber
frame with single shuttering. Source Lime Technology

3. HEMP LIME PERFORMANCES
3.1. Structure
The compressive strengths of hemp lime as a
material depends on mix proportions, compaction,
application and intended use (load or non load
bearing). For lightweight infill construction typical
reported values range between 0.5 and 1.0 N/mm
2

for densities between 250 and 990 kg/m3 and
averages around 500 kg/m
3
.[8] The BRE have also
undertaken tests normally used for rigid cellular
plastic with values of 0.458 to 0.836 N/mm
2
reported.
[9]
For masonry, reported values range between 1.0
N/mm
2
(thermal blocks) and 3.0 N/mm
2
(structural
blocks) based on EN 722-1.[10],[11] However,
research shows that with the addition of sand and
cement, with higher densities, hemp lime can reach
greater compressive strengths. [12]

3.2. Fire Safety
Fire tests have been carried out on various
proprietary mixes of hemp lime, both in masonry and
timber frame infill solutions, with successful results.

In terms of resistance to fire, the evidence
indicates that appropriately specified and constructed
hemp lime walls, of certified material, either infill or
masonry blocks, could achieve up to 60 minutes fire
resistance, however mixes could most likely be
developed with higher fire resistances to 90 and
possibly 120 minutes. With appropriate renders, tests
show that specific hemp lime walls can achieve an
A1 spread of flame resistance subject to the % of
organic content in renders. [8]

3.3. Resistance to Moisture / Weathering
The evidence from demonstration projects and
some testing indicates that correctly specified and
detailed hemp lime constructions with appropriate
renders can provide adequate resistance to
moisture.

Water penetration tests on a rendered proprietary
hemp lime mix, in a timber frame infill solution, were
carried out by the BRE (UK), with water spray levels
similar to one year of wind driven rain applied over a
96 hours period. The results showed that absorption
did not exceed an average 50-70mm depth. [9]

The earliest known hemp lime construction dates
over 20 years without known weathering or durability
failures. Importantly lime renders have been used
extensively on many historical buildings and is
known to function as a moisture and weather
resistant layer, once specified and applied correctly.

3.4. Thermal / Energy
Reported hemp lime thermal conductivity values
range between 0.06 and 0.12 W/(mK) depending on
the material mix proportions and density with
corresponding variations in U-values. Subject to
thickness and density contemporary maximum
regulatory U Values in Ireland and the UK have been
achieved and exceeded. [8]

Importantly U values and associated steady state
heat loss are limited in terms of accurately modelling
actual heat flows in buildings, which are dynamic,
and studies have shown important thermal storage
and release characteristics in hemp lime, which could
provide additional thermal performance.

Simulation carried out using WUFI software
shows that a 250mm thick hemp lime wall subject to
sudden cooling of 20C takes 72 hours to reach a
steady state of heat transfer compared to 30 hours in
cellular concrete and 12 hours in mineral wool of the
same thickness. The energy lost from hemp lime in
the first 24 hours is 187KJ/m
2
, which equates to an
average heat loss of 0.11 W/[m
2
.K] despite the fact
the theoretical U-value for this thickness of hemp
lime is 0.29 W/[m
2
.K] [13]. This is evidence of how
dynamic thermal performance can be different from
predictions based on steady state figures.

The same simulation provides evidence of the
ability of hemp lime to almost completely (98.5%)
dampen a sinusoidal change in external temperature
of 20C to 0C over a 24 hour cycle with a time shift
of 15 hours, the time delay of the peak temperature
getting through the wall. This compares to a
dampening of 77.5% for mineral wool with a time
shift of only 6 hours and with a dampening of 95% for
cellular concrete with a time delay of 10.5 hours .

Similar conclusions are reached in another study
where hemp lime is compared to baked clay bricks
and cellular concrete. Materials are submitted to
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various conditions of temperature and relative
humidity. Hemp lime is characterised by lower
temperature variation and it reaches a steady state
after each modification as opposite to the other two
materials where temperature continues to increase
or decrease in the core of the wall. In terms of
relative humidity, hemp lime shows important
variations (around 15%) compared to other materials
for which evolution of RH is rather constant [14].

In situ monitoring of Lime Technology offices built
with 500mm hemp lime infill walls confirms the
simulations mentioned above by showing that
variations of external temperature and relative
humidity result in constant values inside the building
[15]. Hemp lime dynamic thermal properties have
been exploited in the construction of a 4400m2 wine
and beer distribution centre in Suffolk, UK. The
building has the ability to maintain an internal
temperature at between 11 and 13C without the
need for mechanical cooling or heating systems [16].

The materials properties, notably its thermal
inertia, vapour permeability and hygroscopicity, are
also claimed to improve the ability to dampen
external temperature variations, reduce
condensation, buffer moisture levels, and improve
the comfort feeling inside the building.

3.5. Acoustics
Research shows that hemp lime has a high
standard of sound insulation owing to the innate
porosity of the material; this creates a bigger surface
area to absorb sound. In-situ tests carried out on
sound transmission on hemp lime party walls in the
UK Haverhill project measured a sound reduction up
to 57 dB and lab research has given similar results
[9].

As the mass of hemp lime is affected not only by
the mix proportions and resulting material density but
the manufacture process or site application /
compaction, the acoustic properties could be
improved by denser mixes, greater compaction and
thickness, combined with detail solutions such as
use of cavities.

3.6. Materials and Workmanship
The development of hemp lime has lead to a
range of mixes and blend applications both generic
and proprietary, which include minor variations in
hemp, binder and water ratios and more significant
variations in binder constituent ratios and
specification, some of which is proprietary
information. Binder variations include lime type and
proportions, (both hydraulic and hydrated lime),
cement content, and additives.

Research has highlighted important issues
arising from binder blends and overall mix
proportions and methods, which can effect the
material properties and setting behaviour. There is
also a reported competition for water between the
hemp and the lime, which can effect setting and even
binding, with key influencing factors being the
moisture content of the hemp shiv, the ratio of water,
timing of addition of water to mix, the mixing method
and application (hand, mechanical spray
applications), and the type of lime.

As such proper materials and specification are
important for successful application as is experience
and quality in workmanship. It is important that care
is taken to use appropriate materials and mix
proportions, including binder proportions, and that
adequate skill and knowledge is exercised in mixing
and application method, including knowledge of
material quality, equipment, materials, mixes, and
local conditions. Given the innovative aspect of this
material, training is vital for the industry to
successfully use this material.

4. LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS / COMPARISION
4.1. French Hemp Lime LCA
An LCA of hemp lime construction which was
carried out in 2006 and funded by the Ministry of
Agriculture and Fisheries, examined the
environmental impacts over a 100 year period from
both the agricultural and the building process. [17]



Figure 3: Functional unit of the 1 m2 French LCA study
Cast Hemp Lime around timber frame. Source INRA 2006

4.2. Agriculture
In terms of agricultural process, the study
reported the potential environmental impacts of
growing hemp were mainly due to nitrogenous
fertiliser and transport. The effect of nitrogenous
fertiliser consisted of greenhouse gas emissions,
consumption of non-renewable energy resources
and water pollution by nitrates. In terms of transport,
the average distance travelled by the hemp straw in
France was 100 km with resulting energy
consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. There
was also a large amount of dust produced with no
final uses for this waste.

4.3. Construction
In terms of building process, the study highlights
a positive net impact on the greenhouse effect
because the hemp-lime wall acts as a carbon sink
over a period of at least 100 years as more carbon is
captured by the shiv, timber and lime than that
emitted over its lifecycle.

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The production of the lime based binder is what
most contributes to the emission of greenhouse
gases, consumption of non-renewable energy,
formation of photo-chemical ozone and resource
depletion for the overall construction with Hemp
having only a minor contribution by comparison.

Transport is the main contributor to the
destruction of the ozone layer and the second main
contributor in terms of impacts on the consumption of
non-renewable energy and the greenhouse effect.

Table 1: Potential environmental impacts over 100 years
for the construction of 1 m2 of hemp-lime wall cast around a
timber frame. Source: authors adaptation from French LCA
(INRA, 2006)

Hemp
shiv
Other
materials
Resource depletion
(kg Sb eq)
2.8*10
-2
7.7*10
-2
1.2*10
-3
0 0 2.6*10
-2
1.3*10
-1
Atmospheric acidification
(kg SO2 eq)
5.1*10
-2
4.8*10
-2
1.3*10
-3
0 0 5.1*10
-3
1.0*10
-1
Greenhouse effect 100
years (kg CO2 eq)
-45.9 23.1 0.2 -13.6 0 6.7*10
-1
-35.5
Destruction of the ozone
layer (kg CF-11 eq)
7.1*10
-7
3.3*10
-6
3.4*10
-7
0 0 5.7*10
-6
9.9*10
-6
Formation of
photochemical ozone
(kg C2H4 eq)
7.1*10
-4
4.2*10
-3
5.0*10
-5
0 0 3.8*10
-4
5.4*10
-3
Non renewable energy
(MJ)
52.3 265.8 19.9 0 0 56.3 394.2
Air pollution (m
3
) 674 207.2 14.6 0 0 128.2 1024
Water pollution (m
3
) 4.3 2.2 6.1*10
-2
0 0 1.1*10
-1
6.7
Generation of waste (kg) 6 n.a. 0.9 0 0 n.a. 104.9
Impacts
Prod. of raw
materials
Construction Use
End of
life
Transport
(total)
Total


4.4. Comparison to Partial Fill Cavity Wall
A comparison of key environmental indicators
was undertaken on the hemp-lime wall considered in
the French study and a standard Irish partial fill
cavity wall with a matching U-value. The table below
shows the main components making up the
traditional cavity wall assembly.

Table 2: Partial fill cavity wall make up Source: produced by
the author


Density
(kg/m
3
)
Thickness
(m)
lime cement
render 1800 0.02
concrete blocks 2000 0.1
air gap - 0.04
expanded
polystyrene 30 0.06
concrete blocks 2000 0.1
gypsum plaster 1300 0.018


Three major indicators have been compared:
acidification potential, global warming potential, and
non-renewable primary energy. Data for the hemp-
lime wall has been extracted from the French LCA
study, while that for the partial fill cavity wall has
been based on density and volume calculations and
raw data extracted from the Austrian database IBO,
2008 [18].
While data sources are not for the same country,
they are European and should give a indication of
comparative environmental impacts. The comparison
has been made on constructions of the same wall U
Value, to eliminate differences in heat losses and
energy in use etc.

4.5. Acidification Potential
In terms of acidification potential the hemp-lime
wall scores 0.1 kg of SO2eq/m
2
against 0.15 kg of
SO2eq/m
2
for the traditional wall and as such
contributes to the acidification of the environment to
a lesser extent than the partial fill cavity wall.


Table 3. LCA comparison Acidification Potential
Source: produced by the authors



4.6. Primary Energy (non renewable) PEI
The non-renewable primary energy of the hemp-
lime wall is equal to 394.2 MJ/m2 against 528.5
MJ/m2 for the traditional wall system, which is mainly
explained by the lower energy input for the
production of the different materials involved in their
relative construction.

Table 4. LCA comparison Primary Energy Non
Renewable Source: produced by the authors



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4.7. Global Warming Potential (GWP)
The global warming potential (100 years) of the
hemp-lime wall is equal to -35.5 kg CO2eq/m2
against 40,5 kg CO2eq/m2 for the traditional wall
system. The hemp-lime wall has a positive effect on
global warming over its life-cycle because of its
ability to capture carbon in the construction and the
quantity of carbon captured by hemp shiv, timber and
lime exceeds that emitted over their lifecycle. On the
contrary, concrete materials and plastic based
insulation produce high carbon emissions over their
life cycle making the partial fill cavity wall an overall
contributor to global warming.

Table 5. LCA comparison Global Warming Potential (100
years) Source: produced by the authors




4.8. Further Improvements
The environmental performance of hemp straw
could be improved by reducing the application of
nitrogenous fertilizer and by growing hemp varieties
that make the best possible use of the available
nitrogen. The reduction of the travelled distance by
the hemp straw would also improve environmental
performance. Developing final uses for the dust
would further reduce the environmental impact of the
hemp straw.

Improvements in the emissions of greenhouse
gases from the production of lime rely on its
manufacturing industry. Shortening the transport
between the factory producing the lime binder and
distributors would also improve the overall potential
impact of the building stage. The environmental
performance could also be improved at the end-of-
life with additional recycling options or recovery
solutions that would return the sequestered carbon to
the atmosphere as carbon dioxide instead of
methane as in the case of landfills. The wood could
be reused or burned to recover energy, while the
hemp-lime used in composting operations as backfill
or as soil improver

5. CONCLUSION
This paper has provided a summary of the known
principle performance data in relation to hemp lime,
its growing application in construction and claimed
environmental credentials most notable of which are
its carbon sequestration capability, its thermal mass
advantage and moisture properties.

The data collated in this study was from multiple
sources and research centres with variations in
mixes, testing methods, and research objectives etc.
meaning that establishing comparability of testing
data to standards was not always possible and cross
comparisons were sometimes limited or restricted.
As such the report was limited in its information and
only a generic account of the material was possible.

However the weighting of this collated data and
the various demonstration buildings undertaken to
date, does indicate that appropriately specified,
tested and certified hemp lime mixes, applied within
its technical and engineering limitations, in well
detailed and constructed building elements, with
good standards of workmanship, could perform to
many standards and requirements of guidance
documents for building materials applicable in
Ireland.

The study highlighted the limitations in assessing
and comparing hemp lime performance to current
construction standards as many of these standards
were developed to assess the behaviour of
traditional materials that behave in very different
ways to hemp lime, meaning in some cases the
testing methods themselves may be considered
inappropriate or limited. For example compressive
tests / standards for concrete blocks do not reflect
the gradual deformation and failure rate of more
flexural materials such as hemp lime and this issue
was reported at workshops and some studies.

The need for a specific code or standard for
hemp lime as a material in construction with testing
requirements tailored to its specific performance
behaviour was expressed at both industry
consultation and technical workshops. Such a
standard could be best forwarded by some form of
representative body or group, whose formation is
needed and should be supported.

6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper has been written from a scoping study
carried out under support from the Irish
Environmental Protection Agency STRIVE research
programme. Special thanks to Patxi Hernandez for
his assistance in this project and Tom Woolley for his
advice and input.
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8. REFERENCES
[1] Daly P 2007 Lime Hemp Mainstreaming Bio
Composite Construction, Construct Ireland,
Temple Media, Dublin, Ireland.
[2] Bevan R & Woolley T, 2008, Hemp lime
construction. A guide to building with hemp lime
composites, IHS BRE Press, Bracknell,
Berkshire, UK
[3] Chanvribloc, 2009, Le Bloc de Chanvre,
Retrieved March 20
th
2010 from
http://www.chanvribloc.com
[4] Lime Technology, 2009b, Hemcrete Structural
Block Information Sheet. Lime Technology,
2009a, Hemcrete Thermal Block Information
Sheet Retrieved March 20, 2010 from
http://www.limetechnology.co.uk
[5] Modcell, 2010, Modcell Technical Sheet,
Retrieved March 20, 2010 from
http://www.modcell.co.uk
[6] Lime Technology, 2010, Case Studies,
Retrieved January 17, 2010 from
http://www.limetechnology.co.uk
[7] Busbridge, R 2009, Hemp-Clay: an initial
investigation into the thermal, structural and
environmental credentials of monolithic clay and
hemp walls, MSc AEES, Centre for Alternative
Technology, Machynlleth, Powys, Wales, UK
[8] Daly et al, 2011 Hemp Lime Bio-composite as a
Building Material in Irish Construction. EPA
STRIVE Report 2009-ET-DS-2-S2. Scoping
study report undertaken by BESRaC under EPA
STRIVE funding, Dublin Ireland.
[9] Building Research Establishment Ltd (BRE),
2000, DETR Framework Project Report : Field
investigations of the thermal performance of
construction elements as built, Glasgow: BRE
[10] Btschi P, Deschenaux C, Miao B, Srivastava,
NK, 2003, Utilisation du chanvre pour la
prfabrication dlments de construction,
Proceedings of Annual Conference of the
Canadian Society for Civil Engineering,
Moncton, Nouveau-Brunswick, Canada
[11] Btschi P, Deschenaux C, Miao B, Srivastava,
NK, 2004, Caractrisation dune maonnerie
compose dlments en agglomr de
chanvre, Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering,
v. 31(3), pp. 526-539.
[12] Chew P, MacDougall C, 2007, Compressive
Strength Testing of Hemp Mansory Mixtures,
Proceedings of the International Conference on
Sustainability in the Cement and Concrete
Industry, Lillehammer, Norway.
[13] Evrard A & De Herde A, 2005, Bioclimatic
envelopes made of lime and hemp concrete,
Architecture et Climat Universit catholique de
Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
[14] Arnaud L, 2009, Comparative study of hygro
thermal performances of building materials,
Proceedings of the 11th International
Conference on Non-conventional Materials and
Technologies (NOCMAT 2009), Bath, UK.
[15] Lime Technology, 2008a, The Thermal
Performance of Tradical Hemcrete.
[16] M. Lime Technology, 2008b, Temperature
Controlled Warehousing - The Wine Society.
[17] INRA, 2006, tude des caracteristiques
environnementales du chanvre par l'analyse de
son cycle de vie, Ministre de l'Agriculture et de
la Pche
[18] IBO - Austrian Insitute for Healthy and
Ecological Building, 2008, Passivhaus-
Bauteilkatalog - Details for passive Houses, A
catalogue of ecologically related constructions,
Springer, Wien, New York

.

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1
Impact of buildings wall lifespan on Greenhouse
gas index according to the technical solutions
chosen

Marc Mquignon
(a) (b)
, Luc Adolphe
(b)

, Frederic Bonneaud
(a)

(a) LRA- Ecole Nationale Suprieure dArchitecture de Toulouse, France
(b) LMDC- Institut National des Sciences Appliques de Toulouse, France

ABSTRAC: This presentation focuses on the assessment of greenhouse gas emissions produced by
buildings. We separate the contribution deriving from the use of the building to the one depending on the choice
of the technical solutions. Our methodology is based on: (1) considering a wall area unit (i.e. 1sqm); (2)
determining a long time span of service function; (3) choosing a technical solution in agreement with the
specifications; (4) determining the lifespan of each technical solution (5) finding the corresponding greenhouse
gas index in a appropriated database (6) simulating the time evolution of these indicators. Several technical
solutions based on concrete, brick, stone, aerated concrete for example have been considered as well as
lifespan from few years to centuries. The results of these tests are presented. They suggest that there is an
impact of the lifespan on the performance of indicator of greenhouse gas emissions: the best technical solution
considering a short time span may be the worst on a longer duration and vice versa. These initial results
encourage us to examine the consequences on other themes: the impact of lifespan on the other sustainable
development indicators; the impact of lifespan on the other component and entire building.

Keywords: sustainability - lifespan buildings - greenhouse gas - decision making
1. INTRODUCTION
In recent decades, many studies have
addressed the issues of energy consumption by
buildings while in phase of use. They provided
knowledge that lead to the production of many tools.
The energy consumption by buildings has actually
decreased. Thus, the relative share of the energy
needed to achieve the buildings, as well as the
associated environmental impacts, have increased.
The European Committee for Standardization has
established sizing and justification standards for
building structures and civil engineering. In its
EUROCODE 0 edition, the committee recommends
ordinary lifespans for buildings according to use.
The specified lifespan for the calculation of sizing for
ordinary buildings such as housing is 50 years.
Moreover, in the very interesting Environmental and
Health Declaration Notes (FDES) of INIES building
products database, typical lifespans are used to
define the impacts of the Functional Unit (UF).
These lifespans, are identical by definition whatever
the product in the same function of use, do not allow
to measure the impact of lifespan in the
performance comparison.
Regarding the choice of technical solutions
for the manufacture of building, the aim of this study
is to highlight the impact of their lifespan on
greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and to measure
their importance. We propose in this paper to study
the impact of lifespan of a bearing wall facade unit
of a building housing, or 1 sqm, on GHG. The span
of the function to fill in by our wall area unit is fixed.
In order to compare different technical solutions, the
method has been to characterize the need through
functions that must be met by the wall with the help
of the development of synthetic functional
specifications. This document allows us to propose
different technical solutions satisfying all the desired
functions with the same rigor. To assess the GHG
emissions, we use the information provided in the
base FDES from the INIES database, established
on the basis of a full life-cycle assessment (LCA)
which meets the ISO norm from the series 14040. In
a first phase, we will fix on a hypothetical basis the
lifespans of various options and we will evaluate the
cumulative GHG over the life of the desired function.
In a second phase, we will seek to provide a size
scale of the impact from the choice of the technical
solution. Finally, these livespans being not very
objectivable considering our present means, we
present for each of the solutions, changes in
emissions based on changes in their own lifespan.
2

STUDY METHODOLOGY
2.1 Conditions
The studied object is an outside bearing wall unit
from a home style detached house. Location and
environmental constraints are considered average.
They are the same whatever the evaluated technical
solution.
Span of the evaluated function:
The evolution of GHG emissions of this wall unit
is measured for a function of use of 300 years. This
may seem a long time. However, this choice reflects
both the problem and the large number of century-
old homes in our cities. Whereas the function of
accommodation, a duration of 300 years does not
seem so extravagant as the needs may be
considered temporally unlimited. It seems that no
cause is likely to remove the physiological needs, of
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security, belonging and esteem in Maslow's sense,
whatever the time scale considered. Qualitatively,
the needs met by the function are changing but the
old homes, sometimes several centuries old, seem
to adapt to the changing original needs or to meet
new needs [1], [2]. In 2006, in France, more than
5.33 million housing units were over a century old
(source: INSEE).
When the lifespan of the proposed technical
solution is less than that of the function, the
assumption is identical reconstruction and identical
accounted data from those used originally. This
hypothesis is simplistic because technological
developments and means of producing energy are
important. Nevertheless, the results produced in this
article are determined considering current
knowledge and practice.
When lifespan is longer than the remaining term
of the function, the respect of equity will lead us to
include the last index to the "prorata temporis".
Wall unit study Exerpt from simplified
Functional Specifications
The various solutions that are proposed, must
meet the same functional specifications based on
the NF X50-151 standard.
Statement of need:
The element must be able to bear structural and
operating loads of another level while protecting the
interior space and its occupants from external
disturbances.
Identification of the functions of service
Elements of specifications
- Regular carrying function
- Insulation coefficient R=3.7
- Regular interior and exterior finishing



Solutions adopted
Different solutions meeting the specifications in the
same way are available. These solutions are
described in the Table 1.

Outside Finishing Body Isolant Inside
Finishing
mineral coating Concrete block 200mm 170 mm insulator LV plasterboard
mineral coating Wooden structure 200mm insulator LV plasterboard
mineral coating Multi cell brick 40mm insulator LV plasterboard
mineral coating Stone 190 mm insulator LV plasterboard
mineral coating Aerated concrete 200 mm 20 mm insulator LV plasterboard
mineral coating Full solid brick 130mm insulator LV plasterboard
mineral coating shuttered concrete 80mm PSE + 50mm LV plasterboard
Table 1 : Technical solutions used
Notes:
1. It is admitted that the stone solution is not to
be covered with a coating of mortar.
2. Adopte insulation whatever solution is glasswool
3. Strict conformity to the insulating function,
neutralizing energy consumption during the
operational phase, in some cases involves the
addition of a thin insulator. If this design proposal is
not realistic during the production phase, it is kept in
an objective of scientific rigor.
4. Taking into account the impact of greenhouse
gases by steam is in proportion to the thickness of
the insulation.
5. Phenomena of convection are neglected
6. Potential impacts of internal steam transfers on
comfort are neglected.
7. The various technical solutions have different
inertia but the selection of a temperate climate allows
to disregard energy consumption for summer
comfort. This has been checked by tool TRNSYS on
a type house.
8. The system for attaching the insulator is not
considered because there are many different ones
and the corresponding FDES do not exist
9. The insulator is considered as placed inside
10. Internal convection and permeability are
neglected
11. Impacts of thermal bridges varying from one
solution to another are neglected.
12. The solution "raw soil", which performance is
probably good, has not been assessed due to the
lack of data.
Data gathering and critics
The data used are provided by the INIES database
within the Environmental and Health Declaration
Notes (FDES) conducted within the frame of the NF
P01-010 standard. The latter is established on the
basis of the ISO standard 14040 series fixing the
conditions of the life cycle analysis. These are the
values established throughout all the product life
cycle (LCA). These values result from the addition of
emissions through all stages from raw material
extraction to demolition. Only the impacts related to
production facilities are neglected. We can not use
established values of functional units (FU). Typical
lifespans, by definition are identical whatever the
product with the same function, and do not allow a
comparison of performances of different technical
solutions throughout time. How could one imagine
that a solid wood frame has the same lifespan as a
frame made out with trusses? With the objective of
evaluating the impact of lifespan of different technical
solutions on environmental performance and enable
comparison, we use values of the entire cycle.
The index values of GHG emissions of products,
thus retained for full life cycle, are considered
constant over the period of 300 years. This
hypothesis is simplistic because changing
technology and modes of energy production are
important. However, as explained in the paragraph
about the lifespan of the function, the results found in
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this article are determined taking into account current
knowledge and practice.

Note: for wood products and storage of CO2, the
INIES base provides negative values. Other
databases, such as KBOB, provide positive values
and therefore contradictory ones. The concept of
storage of CO2, impacting CO2 emissions is the
subject of different approaches depending on
whether one accepts a storage long enough to be
permanent, forests replanted or not, landfill at the
end, ... Many articles present how difficult
calculations are [3], [4], [5]. As shown, using negative
values of GHG emissions, presents difficulties and
even contradictions. We chose to keep the indexes
from the INIES base, introducing in parallel a value
from the KBOB source.
2.2 Development
1
st
phase: Simulation of GHG emissions
based on lifespan of solutions accepted as
hypothetical
During this first phase, lifespans are determined as
hypothesis according to expert opinions.

Evaluation of lifespans of the proposed solutions
Evaluation of livespans may be the result of
experimental, in reliability, according to statistics or
expert approaches [6]. This is by the method called
according to expert [7], that we retain the
assumptions of lifespans. This method, used within a
first approach based on intervals, allows simulation
that provides approximate results.

Note: lifespan can come from the physical
boundaries of the element itself answering its
function but mostly from the functional obsolescence
of the product or building.

Lifespans are described in the table 2:
Table 2: Estimated lifespan

Data processing
The technique used is cumulative index
values, established in the LCA, during the function of
300 years. This simple technique allows for the
results on span and for observation on the changes
in time accordingly.

2
nd
phase: variable lifespans
Lifespan of a product is difficult to be objectified.
For this reason, during this phase, lifespans of the
different solutions are variables. Evaluation is
performed without any a priori on product lifespans.
This phase assesses the impact of lifespan of the
solution itself on its own results but also allows to
compare the solutions to each other.
3 - RSULTS
Result 1: Processed data in determined conditions
give these results:

Type of wall Kg qCo2 at
70 years
(Column 1)
Kg qCo2
at 300 years
(Column 2)
Wooden frame
INIES index
-5
1
Stone
32
57
Wooden frame
KBOB index
25
107
Concrete block
48
148
Shuttered concrete
86
166
Solid brick
114
178
Multi cell brick
65
200
Aerated concrete
65
211
Table 3 : results index levels at 70 and 300 years

In this table 3, the first column refers to values of

emissions in kg eq CO2 added over 70 years,
including all the components of technical solution
The second column refers to the values of emissions
in kg eq CO2 added over 300 years, including all the
components
Notes: - indicators for the solid brick are specific
calculation from sheets of products of the same
material: full coating brick
-Since there is no FDES reference in INIES for
wood, the impact of the wood solution is assessed
on the basis of other "wood" products.

The variations cumulated of GHG overtime are
represented in the chart 1 below.

:

Type of wall Lifespan
Sources
Insulator LV 40-60 Industrials and
scientists
Exterior rendering 25-35 Technical Director
HLM
Stone 500-1500 On existing
Wood frame 60-80 Chief of mission
cultural heritage
Quebec/ Practitioner
Shuttered concrete 180- 200 Concrete engineer
Solid bricks 250-350 On existing
Concrete blocks 100 Builder
Aerated concrete 100 Builder
Multi cell bricks 100 Builder
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Chart 1: sum of GHG emissions to answer the function
Result 2: Relative importance of the choice of
technical solution considering typical housing
According to the assumption of the first phase,
we can assess the significance of the difference of
impacts between the choices of extreme
performance solutions. The average surface of a
home in France is 91 sqm in 2006 (source: INSEE).
This represents a typical example, about 78 sqm of
bearing wall. Then the result is converted on the
basis of impact of annual trips made with an
average car (120 g CO2/ km).
Less performing solution: aerated
concrete, (kg eq CO2) 211
Most performing solution: bois, (kg
eq CO2) 0,79
Difference for lifespan of function
300 years 210
Annual difference for one home
(10
-3
kg q CO2) 63,69
Equivalent distance in km (based on
an average car exhaust 120x10
-3
Kg
eq CO2) 449,09

Result 3: Impact of lifespan of technical
solutions on GHG
In this second phase, we calculated the level of
GHG emissions to meet the public use for 300
years, depending on lifespan of the technical
solutions chosen. Changes in emissions are
represented by the curves in the chart 2.
The results show profiles of type of the inverted
function y=1/x . We can notice:
- Significant reductions in emissions for extensions
from 50 to 100 years or 150 years;
- The curve of the solution wood INIES index ,
curves on an inverted trend compared to the others.

Chart 2 : Changing of emissions according to lifespan
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4 - DISCUSSION
4.1 Cumulative emissions.
We can see several observations about
table 3 and chart 1.
The wood solution as measured by the
INIES index is the most effective solution, whatever
duration of use of the wall. This would allow total
disappearance of GHG emissions. The negative
value of the wood index (long-term storage of CO2)
can offset greenhouse gases emitted by the mineral
coating (renewed every 30 years) and the insulator
(renewed every 50 years). If we consider the KBOB
index, the performance is different. For a wall which
lifespan is 70 years, the impact is equivalent to that
of the stone solution. After this period, the
wood solution shows a worse performance than
the stone solution with an impact nearly 46% lower
for the stone solution at 300 years. Overall, the
wood solution seems to be a successful solution,
whatever the lifespan. Indeed, except for the
stone solution, whatever the origin of the index
and the expected span of the function it is the most
effective solution. Since the life of a wall is never
known in advance with certainty, this solution limits
the consequences of an early demolition and
deals with uncertainty based on the precautionary
principle.
Note: These results show the contradiction
of the two theories concerning the wood origin of
products. A quick solution to this problem must be
found if one wants to exploit the index values and
consistent results.

The stone solution is effective whatever
the considered lifespan for our wall unit. This solution
allows a significant reduction of between 44 and 73%
emission for a period of 300 years compared to other
solutions (wood INIES index not included). This
performance is achieved through the extremely long
lifespan found, energy requirement restricted at
cutting, transport and implementation and finally with
the absence of coating. In the case of building rapid
obsolescence, the stone can be easily reused.
Considering the current state of technology and
existing products, this is probably the most
recyclable solution.
There is a paradox. These two solutions of
stone and wood which are the most effective
because they do not use energy for their
transformation are the least ones used, at least in
France.
Then, we have less performing solutions.
For a wall lifespan of less than 70 years, the
cellular concrete and multi cell brick solutions,
both having identical results, are preferable to
shuttered concrete and solid bricks solutions.
They provide respectively a reduction of 25% and
43% of emissions. Conversely, if you look at a longer
period than 200 years, shuttered concrete is a more
efficient solution with a reduction of respectively 17%
and 21% compared to the multi cell brick and
cellular concrete . The full brick solution
allows a reduction of 11% and 15% when
respectively compared to the multi cell brick and
cellular concrete . Therefore these latter solutions
have relative performance closely related to their
lifespan.
Note: the mud solution has been discarded for
lack of information related to the absence of FDES.
This is unfortunate because this solution could only
achieve a good performance.
4.2 Relative importance of the choice for the
technical solution
The difference in emissions between the
extreme solutions for a home represents an annual
motor vehicle travel of 449 km. This result reflects
the impact of all the vertical bearing walls of a house
with an average surface. This value does not seem
excessive. However, it is necessary to apply, for
example, to the whole 130 million units in the
European area (source: Eurostat)
4.3 Impact of lifespan of technical solutions on
GHG
This third result allows for more analysis. The interest
of extending lifespan is obvious.
The EUROCODE 0 sets spans for calculations of the
sizing of buildings based on statistical calculation of
failure. If lifespan of 50 years as referred for common
buildings became an objective for professionals, it is
shown that it would not favor an optimization in terms
of GHG emissions. Like shown in chart 3, setting the
target at 100 or 150 years could lead to significant
improved performance. Whatever the solution, to
extend lifespan from 50 to 100 years can reduce
emissions by 50%. The stretch of 300 years allows a
reduction of 83% of emissions.
It is also established that a solution presented as
less performing may be just as good if lifespan is
proportionately longer (dashed red marker).
For example, a wood structure built (KBOB
index source) for 75 years has a similar impact as a
wall made of stone if kept for about 80 years, hollow
concrete blocks for 140 years or cellular concrete for
225 years. Whatever the level of emissions allowed,
there are equivalents on the basis of different
lifespans.

What is required from these observations is:
- To obtain scientifically based assessments of
product lifespans
- To choose products in order to maximize the
impacts of GHG while taking into account the wanted
lifespan of buildings;
- To design the buildings so that they give the best
answer best to changing needs thus timing away
obsolescence;
- To educate the contractor in his choices during
construction or in his decisions between potential
renovation or demolition

Note: The inverted curve of the wood
solution, based on the INIES index, shows that this
index cannot be used in the same manner as other
product indexes. Used as is and as we have done for
other products, it creates an ambiguity or could even
mislead us. Indeed, it leads to absurd paradox: "The
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380 MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT

6
longer the lifespan, less its impact in terms of GHG is
favorable." There would be an incentive to reduce
lifespan by a few years, even a few days without any
conditions about waste during the demolition ... It
seems that this negative value is due to an amalgam
of wood characteristics. It seems necessary to
examine these specific characteristics and provide
consistent information that will show the performance
of valuable wood products
5 - CONCLUSION
This study demonstrates the importance of
lifespan of a building component on GHG
This implies lifespan indications from
EUROCODE to be reviewed. By indicating lifespans
of 50 years for current buildings, and although the
objective is a design based on a calculation of failure
probability, this European standard will result in the
building industry to try to nearer the value for
economy reasons. It seems that for this criterion of
GHG, the standard should encourage greater
performance for the building lifespan. This would
result in significant emission reductions. Lifespans
are much higher than observed in reality.
The analysis of building product impacts in
their life cycle allowed a profound breakthrough in
the field of sustainable development. The FDES
provide on the LCA basis a lot of useful information.
However, the index values of functional units can not
be used as is. The qualities of the products and
technical solutions chosen have obviously an impact
on decisions to keep or demolish a building. How can
one imagine that a frame of trusses has the same
lifespan as the solid wood solution? The demolition
of trusses can be conceived after 50 or 100 years. It
will be harder for the solid wood solution as the
recycling of parts will be reasonably expected.
It is necessary that manufacturers specify
lifespan of their products by using scientifically
established existing assessment tools. Designers
and builders will then be able to adapt their choice
and the quality of their project to the desired
durability. This information would allow the
optimization of emissions. Decisions for renovation
or demolition should also consider the materials that
were used originally in order to cushion the
impact of greenhouse gases from the initial solution.
Moreover, improving the functional flexibility of the
building is expected to delay obsolescence and
extend lifespan. This feature of the building falls
within the architects field of competence and
responsibility.
It remains to study the impact of other
components lifespan and of the building itself on this
index. Is there a lifespan and a choice of optimal
solution considering this criterion?
What are the impacts of lifespan on other indexes
such as the depletion of natural resources, economic
indexes, social indexes or even culture?
Lifespan of a building is an elusive
characteristic. It is often the obsolescence of the
building that generates its demolition and not the
mechanical structure. To design and build in a
responsible way, architect and contractor should be
able to better understand these lifespan issues and
their consequences.
The difficult assessment of wood products requires a
quick consensus that allows to provide usable data in
the choice of technical solutions.
These initial results encourage us to
examine the consequences on other themes: the
impact of lifespan on the other sustainable
development indicators; the impact of lifespan on the
other component and entire building.
6. BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] Simon, Philippe. (1997). Architectures
transformes : Rhabilitations et reconversions
Paris. Paris : pavillon de lArsenal
[2] Latham, Derek. (2001). Creative re-use of
buildings. Volume 1. Shaftesbury : Donhead.
[3] Vial E., Cornillier C., 2009 Accounting for
temporary biomass carbon storage in
environmental Labelling, International
Conference on Carbon Storage in Wood
Products, Brussels, 1 September 2009
[4] Barlaz M (2006): Forest products decomposition
in municipal solid waste landfills: Waste
Management 26 (2006): 321-333
[5] Gustavsson L, Pingoud K, Sathre R (2006):
Carbon dioxide balance of woodsubstitution:
Comparing concrete- and wood-framed buildings.
Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global
Change 11, 667691
[6] Talon A. (2006), Evaluation des scnarii de
dgradation des produits de construction. Thse
de doctorat : Gnie civil : UNIVERSITE BLAISE
PASCAL CLERMONT II 2006.
[7] Bouchon-Meunier B., Marsala C., Logique floue,
principes, aide la dcision, Paris, Lavoisier,
2003.


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MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 381
Waste Management
Various aspects in city of Pune, India.
arti PATIL
Architect, planner M.M. College of architecture, Pune, India
ABSTRACT: Waste is related to the growth and development of human society, it has become a major
environmental issue in India and is directly related to economy, it comprise countless different materials such as
food wastes, packaging in the form of paper, metals, plastic or glass; discarded clothing and furnishing; garden
waste, hazardous and radioactive wastes. Generation of waste depends on many factors like culture and nature of
the people, the socio economic conditions, its commercial importance and its industrial base. Waste in urban areas
would mainly consists of domestic waste, biomedical waste, industrial waste etc. The municipal solid waste
contains organic as well as inorganic matter, a suitable waste processing and treatment technologies can be
adopted by sanitary landfill, incineration, gasification, biodegradation process, anaerobic digestion. A rising urban
population growth, dwindling municipal resources and the complexity of municipal solid waste management have
complicated the relationship between environmental management and public health. High health risks of waste
handling are associated with uncollected solid wastes with improper disposal of solid waste and with recycling.
Planning and technology selection needs to be done to achieve an efficient and sustainable system of solid waste
management. The intent is to look at the various aspects of waste management in context of the city of Pune in
India.
Keywords: municipal solid waste, generation, segregation of waste.
1. INTRODUCTION:
1.1 Indian Urban Development:
The Urban population of India is growing at much
faster rate than the overall rate of population growth.
It has increased by 5 times as compared to the
population growth of 2.5 times during last 5 decades.
It is estimated that about 410 million Indians will be
living in the cities by 2012 and 800 million by 2045.
Table 1: Future prediction of urban population, GDP / capita
and municipal solid waste generation / capita of India
Source: (World fact sheet, 2001) and (World bank, 2003)
Many people are moving to cities because of the
available opportunities and the availability of
infrastructure facilities. The economic growth of India
has also brought in foreign investments and hence is
increasing opportunities for locals. The infrastructure
in the metros of India is under severe stress and will
crumble in a few years if there are no suitable
measures taken. Pollution is increasing,
transportation systems are in disorder, water and
sewage system are decrepit and failing. Due to
urbanization production of municipal solid waste is at
alarming rate.
1.2 Solid Waste Management in Urban areas :
Municipal Solid Waste has been increasing
proportionately with the growth of urban population.
The uncontrolled growth in urban areas has left many
Indian cities deficient in infrastructural services. Solid
waste management has become a major
environmental issue.
Table 2: Solid waste generation rate in Indian Metropolitan
cities
City 1971-73 1986-87 1994
Bangalore 0.32 -- 0.48
Chennai 0.32 -- 0.66
Delhi 0.21 -- 0.48
Mumbai 0.32 -- 0.66
Nagpur 0.22 -- 0.27
Pune 0.24 0.28 0.31
Source: TEDDY, 2001-02
In many cities nearly half of solid waste
generated remains unattended, giving rise to
insanitary conditions especially in densely populated
slums. Disposal in the landfills or uncontrolled
Urban
population
(% in Total)
GDP per
Capita
(%)
Municipal Solid
waste
generation per
capita (Kg /day)
2007 17.35 5.3 0.75
2010 32.43 6.0 0.79
2030 12.28 7.0 0.97
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382 MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT
dumping is the practice followed by most municipal
bodies which poses threat to human health and the
environment because it causes land pollution. In India
composting is used around 10-12% respectively
because composting needs segregation of waste and
sorting is not widely practiced. It is estimated that
about 1,00,000 MT of MSW is generated daily in the
country. Per capita waste generation in major cities
ranges from 0.20kg to 0.6 kg. Generally the collection
efficiency ranges between 70 to 90% in major metro
cities whereas in several smaller cities the collection
efficiency is below 50%.
2. TYPES OF URBAN WASTES
Urban waste in classified as various types
according to the sources it is generated because
each has its own collection and treatment processes.
Urban waste is generated by following variety of
sources
2.1 Household: It is waste generated by household
and basically consists of things that are used in urban
life. Urban household waste consists of papers,
cardboards, glass and plastics. Some of these urban
wastes are recyclable whereas some are not
recyclable.
2.2 Commercial urban waste: It consists of waste
from commercial establishments such as shops,
restaurants, malls etc. These urban wastes mainly
consist of packaging papers waste and organic waste
2.3 Institutional urban waste: This type of urban
waste consists of public and private institute which
belong to service sector. The amount of this urban
waste and its composition is not known.
2.4 Industrial urban waste: Urban industrial waste
is most dangerous as it contains many hazardous
chemicals that pollute environment and cause various
problems fir human life. Industries release heat
waste, waste chemicals, waste residues etc.
2.5 The urban waste landfills that are not often
waterproof often represent groundwater pollution by
release of nitrates and nitrites as well as other
pollutants. Landfill ex filtration and water leakage on
slopes affect adversely the quality of adjoining soil.
Urban waste landfills should therefore be reduced.
2.6 Bio-Medical Waste: Waste generated during
diagnosis, treatment or immunization of human
beings or animals, or in the production or testing of
organisms.
3. SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT FOR
PUNE.
Pune is a rapidly growing city. As its size
increases so does the spewing out of waste. The city
is currently caught in a predicament with large
volumes of waste on one hand and the rising cost,
land requirement and inability of human, technical,
financial resources involved in managing such waste
on the other. Urban waste management is a fast
becoming one of the biggest problems the city is
facing.
Figure 1: Waste characteristics of Pune
Source: Assessment of Status of Municipal Solid Waste
Management in Metro Cities and State Capitals. MPCB and
NEERI
Uncovered garbage collectors, open dumping,
leachate problem, animals roaming freely and
scavengers picking through the waste are a common
sight in all parts of the city. 15 hectares of the allotted
43 hectares for land-filling at Urali- Devachi have
already been filled completely and sealed off
permanently. Waste in the landfill is often burnt. This
produces massive quantities of smoke and dust
resulting in respiratory problems for surrounding
residents. This unscientific method for disposing solid
waste is a major cause for air pollution. It is also
surely a substantial reason for global warming.
In addition, solid waste landfills give rise to
leaching of soil. The leachate generated by these
dumps has high organic contents, soluble salts and
other chemicals. These mix with the ground water
tables, thus polluting them, which in turn spread
diseases like jaundice, cholera etc.
Nevertheless, efforts are now being made to treat
and reduce waste. There are some waste recycling
plants run in the private sector which produce
compost for commercial use. The municipal
corporation is also involved and state of the art
biological decomposition methods for waste treatment
are being applied. However there is a drawback the
(EM) Extra Molecular culture used on waste cannot
treat the non-segregated waste completely, rendering
the process partly useless. Thus solid waste
management at a micro level is essential, where
reduction, segregation and disposal of waste at every
individual level dealt with.
4. WASTE GENERATED :
With the city expanding, Pune has a rapidly changing
waste quantity. The city generates 1200-1300 metric
tonnes of solid waste every day. The per capita
generation varies between 229 to 504 gm/day
amongst different wards. Municipal Solid Waste
contains on an average between 30 to 50% organics,
about 4-6% recyclable and certain constituents
having high calorific value. About 40% of the waste is
generated from households followed by hotels,
restaurants and other commercial establishments
which together account over 50% of the waste
generated. Pune has over 565 healthcare facilities
roughly amounting to 6829 beds. Thus the bio
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MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 383
medical waste generated from these hospitals is
around 2560 kg/day.
5. SEGREGATION OF WASTE, RECYCLE &
REUSE :
Tonnes of garbage is segregated everyday in the
city. Dry waste is separated from wet biodegradable
waste. Recyclable waste is given to agencies which
buy the waste from the generator and re route it to the
recycling process units. Non recyclable waste is
collected in separate containers.
Figure 2: Source wise quantity of waste generation in Pune
Source: Report on Centrally sponsored scheme for solid
waste management and drainage for IAF Airfield Town of
Pune by HUDCO.
KKPKP( Kagad kach patra kashtakari panchayat)
a ragpicker union working in Pune has promoted the
segregation of dry and wet garbage at household
level also Swach a waste pickers organisation help
the corporation; housing societies separate their
wastes into biodegradable waste is decomposed
creating wealth from waste using vermiculture and
non- biodegradable is collected by authorities. Public
bins and garbage collection by use of municipal
trucks is in practice.
Figure 3: Rag pickers at work
Reuse and Recycle segregated by ragpickers or
dumpsite and biodegradable waste is converted into
manure by private companies.
6. THE TRENDS OF TECHNOLOGIES
ADOPTED / AVAILABLE FOR PROCESSING
AND DISPOSAL OF MUNICIPAL SOLID
WASTE ARE:
6.1 Composting / Vermiculture:
Composting is a natural biological process that is
carried out under controlled aerobic (requires oxygen)
or anaerobic conditions( without oxygen). In Pune
composting is widly practiced, over 900 housing
societies are creating wealth from waste using
vermiculture. Decomposing waste on their own has
helped them avail of tax rebate plan.
Figure 4: Household Vermiculture
Vermiculture involves stabilization of organic
waste through the joint action of earthworms and
aerobic microorganisms. Initially, microbial
decomposition of biodegradable organic matter
occurs through extra cellular enzymatic activity
(primary decomposition). Earthworms feed on
partially decomposed matter, consuming fve times
their body weight of organic matter per day. The
ingested food is further decomposed in the gut of the
worms, resulting in particle size reduction. The worm
cast is a fne, odorless and granular product. This
product can serve as a bio fertilizer in agriculture.
Vermi- composting has been used in residences. In
Pune, for Vermi Composting / Bio Composting , 1500
units are in operation ,100 TPD is used in
composting/vermi-composting , 550 units are non
functional which needs to be revived and as a
voluntary participation of citizens more than 300
units are in operation.
6.2 Waste to Energy in terms of Biogas or power
generation
Underthe Waste to Energy' Project, situated
at Aditi Gardens at Magarpatta City, the Property
Management Services Department (PMS) at the
Magarpatta City collects and transports the garbage
to the centralised garbage room. At the Waste
Management Department further processing of the
garbage takes place. The uniqueness of this exercise
is that no municipal garbage trucks are involved in
garbage handling, as the entire process is carried out
in-house.
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384 MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Organic waste is processed through Biogas,
Organic Waste Converter (OWC) and Vermi-
Composting process. Inorganic recyclable waste
including paper, plastic, glass and metal is sorted out
and sold to the vendors. This becomes a great source
of revenue and contributes greatly in subsidising this
exercise. At present, over 5000 flats -owners have
taken possession and the waste collected every day
in Magarpatta City is over 6.5 to 7 tonnes per day.
Out of this, biodegradable waste is over 3,000 kgs.
Non-biodegradable and recyclable waste is over
2,000 kgs. The non-biodegradable, non-recyclable,
inorganic waste that goes for land filling is over 1,500
to 2,500 kgs.
For the Biogas plant the waste form
canteens from the commercial buildings is used. The
generated gas is fed to a 50 KVA Biogas generator
for power generation - which is utilised for pumps to
water the garden. Near about 37 biomethanization
Plants are working in City,taking care of 20 to 25 MTD
of Solid Waste.
Figure 5: Biogas plant at Magarpatta City, Pune
7. INCINERATION :
Incineration is the process of control and
complete combustion, for burning solid wastes. It
leads to energy recovery and destruction of toxic
wastes, for example, waste from hospitals.
The temperature in the incinerators varies
between 980 and 2000 degree Centigrade. One of
the most attractive features of the incineration
process is that it can be used to reduce the original
volume of combustible solid waste by8090%. Some
newer incinerators are designed to operate at
temperatures high enough to produce a molten
material, it may be possible to reduce the volume to
about 5% or even less. In Pune, Passco
environmental solutions, a private organization
collects, segregates and disposes a total of 1500 KG.
Bio-medical waste in the city on a daily basis picked
from more than 400 points.
There is one bio-medical waste disposal
incinerator under P.M.C. run by Passco
environmental solutions in Kailash crematorium
premises, pune and another at P.C.M.C; chinchwad
in Y.C.M. hospital. The facilities are equipped with
incinerators with pollution controlling wet ventury
scrubber, waste autoclave, waste shredder, gas
monitoring device and effluent treatment plant. The
incinerators have the capacity to dispose 150 KG bio-
medical waste every hour.
Figure 6: Incinerators
8. SANITARY LAND FILLING:
Sanitary landflling is an acceptable and
recommended method for ultimate disposal of MSW.
It is a necessary component of SWM, since all other
options produce some residue that must be disposed
off through landflling. Presently, site at Urali Devachi
is used for disposal of solid waste. Various
residential, industrial and agricultural establishments
are situated around this disposal area. The site has
poor air quality and percolation of leachate which has
high concentration of pollutants is responsible for the
contamination of ground water.
Figure 7: Garbage ladfills
Source: www.wieklenssenfilm.nl/images/upload//Garbage
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has
proposed a solid waste management project to
ensure that organic waste is treated and turned into
manure at a site near Yeolewadi.The capacity of the
project would be to treat 500 metric tonnes of solid
waste per day. The project is proposed to be carried
out on a build operate and transfer (BOT) basis. the
municipal corporation has recently acquired 20 acres
of land at Yeolewadi as part of its plan to decentralize
the process of dumping of solid waste at the Urali
garbage depot. The project will facilitate the treatment
of organic waste in an environment friendly way and
the non-organic waste would be recycled.
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MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 385
The PMC has already begun work on two
separate projects at the Urali garbage depot. These
include disposal of 500 metric tonnes of waste by
mechanical composting, and disposal of another 100
metric tonnes by vermicomposting method.
9. PLANNING FOR EFFICIENT AND
SUSTAINABLE SYSTEM
A proper planning and technology selection
needs to be carried out and before implementation,
the present and future ways to manage solid waste
stream need to consider. Majority of the local bodies
find it difficult to manage in improving the collection,
transportation and disposal systems. Therefore
resources can be generated through privatization of
the services. Considering the high cost involved in
waste management, the first priority of local bodies,
even in the case of privatization should be waste
minimization at source. Active participation of citizens
is a prerequisite for waste minimization.
Effective waste minimization can be achieved
only through segregation of waste and diversion at
the source of recyclable material to recycling centers
through scrape-dealers or waste pickers. Door to door
waste collection is absolutely essential for improving
the waste collection efficiency. Organic waste or
biodegradable waste can be treated and disposed off/
used as manure in the premises or it can be given to
local municipality vehicle for further disposal. The
non-biodegradable waste/ recyclable waste can be
sold to the scrap dealers and for other inorganic
hazardous waste MPCB (Maharashtra Pollution
Control Board) and municipality can be contacted.
Construction and demolition waste should be
disposed off separately. Recycling/ reuse of such
wastes should be encouraged.
Excess packaging including plastic and
thermocol that is difficult to recycle should be
eliminated. Composting of kitchen and yard waste of
the household and community level should be
encouraged. Land filling should be limited to material
that cannot be managed through preferable options.
Materials entering land filling should be regulated and
monitored to prevent the introduction of any
hazardous substances. Land filling should be
restricted to non-biodegradable, inert wastes that are
not suitable either for recycling or for biological
processing.
10. CONCLUSION:
Pune as a city, in recent years has been
undergoing a change. Development just for the sake
of development is slowly being overcome to give way
to emergence of careful planning and stress on
sustainability in every aspect of life. The assumption
that the environment has an infinite capacity to
absorb pollutants is shattered. With increasing
awareness about environment related issues, the
mindset of the people is changing and efforts are
being made to minimize the negative impact on the
environment right from the grass root level.
Public participation and creating public
awareness play a crucial role in improving the
Municipal solid waste management system. Social
awareness and initiation is a key factor for a long term
solution to the waste management. Awareness
campaigns are carried out at the local level explaining
the importance of the desirable 3 Rs- Reduce, Reuse
and Recycle. Adoption of decentralized pattern of
solid waste segregation and disposal at it sources has
reduced waste for final disposal considerably.
The bold initiative of PMC in developing a state-
of-the-art landfill facility to handle the MSW generated
by the city of Pune has already marked in reduction of
bad odour and the menace associated with the flies
and birds. A daily earth cover of 15cm thickness and
final cover of 60cm thickness which is applied over
the compacted waste. This practice minimizes
migration of leachate through soil strata, suppresses
foul odour and improves the aesthetic value.
Incineration of solid waste under oxygen
deficient conditions is called gasifcation. The
objective of gasifcation has generally been to
produce fuel gas, which would be stored and used
when required. Gasifcation can also be used for
MSW treatment after drying, removing the inerts and
shredding for size reduction.
Involvement of the private sector, community
participation will lead to socio-economically
sustainable waste management solutions. Pune is
finally confronting the fact that it is our responsibility
to create and maintain a balanced and clean
environment and to live environmentally sustainable
lives.
11. REFERENCES:
1) Amar M.Dhere Chandrasekhar, B. Pawar,
Pratapsingh B. Pardeshi and Dhanraj A. Patil,
Municipal solid waste disposal in Pune City-Analysis
of air and ground water pollution, current science,
vol.95,no.6,25 September 2008,pp773-774
2) ARTI pro Urban Communities and solid waste
Management available at
http://delhigreens.com/2008/03/06/urban-
communities-and-solid-waste-management poses
waste management technology which can recycle
garbage into fuel available at
http://punekar.in/site/2009/05/12/arti-proposes-waste-
management-technology-which-can-recycle-garbage-
into-fuel/
12may 2009
3) Govind Singh, Indian Express, Smart uses of
waste,16 April 2009
4) Vaishali Anagal Sustainable Urban Solid Waste
Management-a case study of Pune, 10th National
Conference on Technological Trends(NCTT09) 6-7
nov2009,pp241-248
5) India States of the Environment, Hazardous
waste: Special reference to municipal solid waste
management, 2001,pp133-149;
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386 MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT
http://cpcb.delhi.nic.in
6) Wealth from Waste, teri; editors,Banwari lal,M R
V P Reddy
7) Sherwood c.Reed,E.Joe Middlebrooks,Ronald
W. Crites; Natural systems for waste management
&treatment.
8) Suchitra, M., Outside: Burnt or buried, garbage
needs land, Down to Earth, 15 March 2007.
9) Allen, R. M., Braithwaite, A. and Hills, C., Trace
organic compound in landfill gas at seven UK waste
disposal sites. J. Environ. Sci. Technol., 1997.
10) Tripathi, R. D. Rai, U. N. and Baghel, V.S., The
challenges of solid waste. Sci. Rep., June 2006.
11) Urali-Devachi Fire Depot Kept Fire, The Indian
Express, Pune, 27 May 2006.
12) Permissible limits of ambient air pollutants.
Central Pollution Control Board, New Delhi;
http://cpcb.delhi.nic.in/standard18.htm
13) Strategic action plan for integrated solid waste
management plan, Pune (Volume 1)
14) Anupam Khajuria, Estimation of municipal solid
waste generation and landfill area in Asian developing
countries Journal of environmental biology;
15) Other web references
http://mpcb.mah.nic.in
http://envfor.nic.in/cpcb
http://www.environment.about.com
http://www.edugreen.teri.res.in
http://www.mcgm.gov.in
http://www.epa.org
http://timesofindia.com
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 387
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN
The application of techno
buildings in Chile
1
Department of Architecture and Built Environment,
ABSTRACT: Techno-mud is a raw earth building technique derived from vernacula
Chile. It reduces impact and cost during construction and facilitates comfortable internal conditions for
occupants. New buildings built in techno
Chile (February 2010). Knowledge base on this technique is inherently practical
and no formal performance testing has been undertaken, and local regulations do not consider it
building technique. This research is
construction type dwelling in Chile.
different Chilean climatic zones using dynamic si
residential building. Results obtained under an adaptive thermal comfort
Chilean building regulations, and identify the possibility of using this material to
different degree of success in all four tested locations by pr
that this building material can achieve a
additional active environmental control features. However there are
would need to be addressed in further research.
Keywords: techno-mud, comfort, thermal performance, earth materials
1. INTRODUCTION
This study is a response to the observation that
techno-mud has a number of beneficial
characteristics to offer designers and occupants, and
that limited documentation of the technique reduces
the potential of the material to be used more widely.
The study focused on defining the measure of
comfort mentioned by its designers and if in its
original location the material in fact successfully aids
in the achievement of thermal comfort when
compared to international standards. The general
aims of this study were to analyse the feasibility of
exporting the material to different locations with
some success, if its performance could be improved
once exported, and whether the material was fit to
meet the local regulation standards.
2. GENERALITIES
2.1. Techno-mud
Techno-mud is a new raw earth, earthquake
resistant technique developed in central C
architectural practice Sur Tierra Arquitectura
term Techno-mud has not been used in
language literature. This is a literal translation from
the name of the technique in Spanish
where tecno is an abbreviation for
and barro corresponds to the Spanish word for
mud. Techno-mud was inspired by two traditional
techniques. It is a mix between the ancient wattle
and-daub, and adobe. The technique has evolved
from a metallic wattle-and-daub to what it is today,
using folded metallic mesh as the main structural
element, made from recycled steel as a primary
TAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x
he application of techno-mud in residential
buildings in Chile A critical review.
Mirentxu ULLOA
1
, Benson LAU
1
Department of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
a raw earth building technique derived from vernacular earth constructions in
reduces impact and cost during construction and facilitates comfortable internal conditions for
techno-mud have successfully resisted the latest large
Knowledge base on this technique is inherently practical and accumulated experience
and no formal performance testing has been undertaken, and local regulations do not consider it
This research is based on the comparison of a techno-mud dwelling to
. The techno-mud model was subsequently improved, and further tested
different Chilean climatic zones using dynamic simulation to predict internal temperatures within a free running
residential building. Results obtained under an adaptive thermal comfort approach predict compliance to the
Chilean building regulations, and identify the possibility of using this material to improve indoor conditions with
different degree of success in all four tested locations by primarily reducing heating loads
that this building material can achieve a satisfactory environmental performance without the need of any
active environmental control features. However there are some concerns for cooling loads which
would need to be addressed in further research.
, thermal performance, earth materials, residential.
This study is a response to the observation that
has a number of beneficial
characteristics to offer designers and occupants, and
that limited documentation of the technique reduces
to be used more widely.
The study focused on defining the measure of
s designers and if in its
original location the material in fact successfully aids
in the achievement of thermal comfort when
compared to international standards. The general
aims of this study were to analyse the feasibility of
ifferent locations with
some success, if its performance could be improved
once exported, and whether the material was fit to
is a new raw earth, earthquake
loped in central Chile by
Sur Tierra Arquitectura. The
has not been used in any English
. This is a literal translation from
the name of the technique in Spanish Tecno Barro,
is an abbreviation for technological
corresponds to the Spanish word for
was inspired by two traditional
techniques. It is a mix between the ancient wattle-
technique has evolved
daub to what it is today,
using folded metallic mesh as the main structural
element, made from recycled steel as a primary
structure, reinforced with vertical steel bars linked to
the foundations of the building. The mud is then
moulded directly over the structure. The mesh is a
flexible element that allows diverse shapes, some of
them quite far from the possibilities provided by the
traditional techniques. Since 2006, the practice has
been using the mixes tested by Gernot Minke
this point on, it can be said that
lightweight construction technique. This is unusual
for earth structures. It basically means the loam has
reduced some of its thermal mass to incorporate air,
and improve insulation. This is where the technique
becomes an interesting analysis subject. Due to its
flexibility and lightness, in order to achieve three
stories of maximum height while maintaining unusual
shapes, load bearing techno
thicker than 21 cm. In the case of non load bearing
walls, optimum thickness reduces to 13 cm.
Figure 1: House in Pealolen. Techno
process. Image courtesy of "Sur Tierra Arquitectura"
found and referred to as tecno barro in Earth
Architecture
2.2. Climatic context, regulation and housing
issues.
Chile is located between latitudes 56 South to
17 South, resulting in a very diverse geograph
climatic conditions. A common factor for all these
climatic areas is the presence of earthquakes. Chile
stands over an area where the Nazca
plates are pushed under the South American plate.
Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
s universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
mud in residential
A critical review.
United Kingdom
r earth constructions in
reduces impact and cost during construction and facilitates comfortable internal conditions for
the latest large earthquake in Central
and accumulated experience,
and no formal performance testing has been undertaken, and local regulations do not consider it as a proper
dwelling to a standard
improved, and further tested in
mulation to predict internal temperatures within a free running
predict compliance to the
improve indoor conditions with
imarily reducing heating loads. The study concludes
environmental performance without the need of any
for cooling loads which
structure, reinforced with vertical steel bars linked to
the foundations of the building. The mud is then
the structure. The mesh is a
flexible element that allows diverse shapes, some of
them quite far from the possibilities provided by the
traditional techniques. Since 2006, the practice has
been using the mixes tested by Gernot Minke
1
. From
it can be said that techno-mud is a
lightweight construction technique. This is unusual
for earth structures. It basically means the loam has
reduced some of its thermal mass to incorporate air,
and improve insulation. This is where the technique
an interesting analysis subject. Due to its
flexibility and lightness, in order to achieve three
stories of maximum height while maintaining unusual
techno-mud walls can be no
thicker than 21 cm. In the case of non load bearing
optimum thickness reduces to 13 cm.
Techno-mud construction
. Image courtesy of "Sur Tierra Arquitectura". Also
found and referred to as tecno barro in Earth
Architecture
2
Climatic context, regulation and housing
Chile is located between latitudes 56 South to
in a very diverse geographic and
climatic conditions. A common factor for all these
climatic areas is the presence of earthquakes. Chile
stands over an area where the Nazca and Antarctic
plates are pushed under the South American plate.
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As a consequence, the country is severely affected
by earthquakes. This is the reason why in terms of
legislation, the existing regulations have a strong
sense of seismic awareness. It is only in recent years
that the need to specify for every distinct climate has
been acknowledged in the Thermal Regulation
3
.
Based initially on ASHRAE standards, the Chilean
Thermal Regulation was planned to be implemented
in three stages. To date, only the first stage is in
operation, focusing on minimum transmittance
requirements for specific materials and building
elements depending on location, in order to avoid
lower temperatures as latitude increases.
Consequently, in colder climatic zones, better
insulation is required. This being the case, the
regulation does not make a point in overheating
parameters, which will be considered at later stages.
Unfortunately, with the exception of adobe, earth
construction materials are not considered by the
regulation. Additionally, as the regulation is based on
a steady state analysis and focussing on
transmittance, it is highly likely that any analysis of
earth constructions from this perspective would result
in a poor performance, as their u-values are
notoriously high for a building construction material.
The issues of residential deficit have been of
great importance to Chilean government since the
early 20
th
century
4
. Although politics and regulations
have changed in the past century, the main goal
remains the same; to eradicate poverty and improve
quality of life. During the past couple of decades,
Chile has seen fast growth when compared to other
Latin American countries
5
. The growing economy in
the nineties has translated into an improvement in
basic services, which has also changed the
perspective of housing regulations.
In the interest of establishing some targets
related to thermal comfort and residential buildings
indoor climate, parametric studies have been carried
out, particularly for the Central Zone in Chile. The
emphasis of such studies was to verify the feasibility
of passive design, considering one construction
technique, and different design features, and
establishing comparisons between them.
Conclusions show that insulation and the
optimization of solar gains are of great importance.
Creating larger openings on the north facing facade
to increase solar gains feature among one of the
main solutions. However, this option needed to be
discarded for not complying with seismic regulation.
The solution was to use a Trombe wall, sacrificing
daylight levels
6
. Results generally show that in order
to achieve thermal comfort, considering an entirely
passive design is a definite possibility
7
. A wide range
for study in the area, considering parametric
simulations, is still available. Due to the variety of
climates in Chile, it is not realistic to assume the
existing results will be applicable throughout the
country.
3. METHODOLOGY
3.1. Defining a generic residential design
The analysed project is a private residence to be
located in Pirque, a southern suburb of the capital
city of Santiago, where density is very low. This
guarantees optimum orientation, and no
overshadowing from neighbouring constructions. The
program considers a family unit of four people,
consisting of two parents and two children. This also
matches the state of the average Chilean family
8
.
Figure 2: General Plan - Courtesy of Sur Tierra
Arquitectura
The building consists of a ground floor
arrangement with three bedrooms and a large
common space serving as main living area and
kitchen, all of them oriented to the north to optimise
solar gains (fig.1). Services and circulations are
south facing. The exterior of the building is shaped in
such a way as to deal with rain water drainage, and
to diminish effects of erosion by rain and prevailing
winds. The walls are also aided by the roof, which
overhangs in some places to provide additional
shelter.
Figure 3: Top to bottom: north, east, south & west facades.
3.2. Thermal performance analysis.
This research is based on the comparison of the
indoor temperature of a residential building, modelled
in EDSL Tas. The modelled buildings consist of a
standard construction model, Model A, and three
subsequent models, B, C and D, where the primarily
assigned material was techno-mud. Each of the four
models was tested considering four different
locations along Chile as the only variable (table 1).
These included the original project location, in
Santiago de Chile, and three other locations
representative of the wide climatic diversity in the
country.
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xx.x SECTION NAME 3
Table 1: All different locations were chosen for their climatic
variety, as well as their geopolitical relevance.
Location Lat-Long Climate
Regulation
Zone
0 Santiago
3326 S,
7039 O
Continental
Mediterranean
Zone 3
1 Antofagasta
2338 S,
7024 O
Arid coastal with
overcast skies Zone 1
2 Concepcion
3646 S,
7303 O
Warm
temperate, wet
season and high
RH
Zone 4
3 Pta. Arenas
5310 S,
7056 O
Cold semi arid
with wet season
Zone 7
A total of sixteen simulations were conducted as
follows:
Base Case MODEL A: Initial model with
traditional construction materials.
Model A is a standard timber construction that
complies with the thermal regulation by changing
insulation specs of vertical elements of the envelope
according to location (table 2). Results from this
models were used to establish the minimum basic
parameters for acceptable indoor temperatures in
free running thermal regulation compliant residential
buildings, as current regulation does not establish
any such parameters. The percentage of hours
within comfort range resulting from this model was
considered the minimum acceptable results by which
further models were compared.
Case 1 MODEL B: Techno-mud Project.
The project will be modelled considering techno-
mud as the main construction material (table 4), and
tested in its original location, and three others. It
doesnt consider any additional strategies.
Case 2 MODEL C: Internal insulation.
From the analysis of Model B, the first proposed
measure for improving performance is one design
variable. This variable consisted of insulation panels
to be used on the outside of certain walls, only during
the winter season. This model was tested in all four
locations.
Case 3 MODEL D: Optimization of solar gains.
From the analysis of Model C, a second change
is proposed. In this case it refers to the orientation.
The project has a north east orientation, which in this
model is changed to an absolute north orientation.
This is an evolution of Model C. It considers the
insulation panels as well as the new orientation. This
model was also tested in all four locations.
Each of the previous models was simulated a
total of four times, one for each location.
.
Table 2: General assumptions for main vertical elements in
the building envelope in Base Case MODEL A (Standard
Model), according to locations, as specified in the thermal
regulation.
Standard structural wall (Muro 2 in regulation)
Loc Thickness U-value Insulation spec
0-2 134mm 0.84
20mm Exp. Polystyrene
10/

1 134mm 1.15
20mm air gap. No insulation
required.
3 174mm 0.45
60mm Exp. Polystyrene
10/

Table 3: General assumptions for other materials in Base

Case MODEL A (Standard Model), not affected by
thermal regulation, and common to all locations.
Element Thickness
U-value
W/mK
Insulation spec
Wall 124mm 0.592 50mm mineral wool
Roof 200mm 0.261 Glass fibre
Floor 255mm 0.29
None, Additional
1000mm soil
Table 4: General assumptions for techno mud elements in
Case 1 MODEL B, and subsequent techno-mud models
(common to all locations)
Element Thickness
Conductivity
W/mK
U
W/mK
Density
Kg/m
Thermal
Capacity
kJ/mK
Wall 200mm 0.56 2.8
1140 1200
Partition 120mm 0.56 4.6
1140 1200
Roof 200mm 0.187 0.93
720 518
Floor 200mm 3.75
3.3. Performance prediction assumptions
Techno mud modelling: The architects started
their experimentation based on Minke
9
, who
mentions that lightweight straw loam has a density of
1,200 kg/m3 or less, and has been tested to have a
conductivity of 0.5 W/mK. Density has been proved
to be reduced to 700 kg/m. These extra lightweight
loams have been tested to have a conductivity of 0.2
W/mK or less. In order to export these values to the
building simulator, materials with similar
characteristics were chosen to model the structural
techno mud walls (envelope), and the extra light
techno mud roof (table 4).
Dependant variables: The only dependant
variable considered was the weather data. This is the
case for all models, with the exception of the Base
Case, which was adapted for each location to comply
with the Chilean thermal regulation, which mentions
the most relevant parameter to influence internal
conditions in winter is the level of insulation of the
walls.
Independent Variables:
Design: All design features such as glazed area,
orientation, geometry, shape, layout, have remained
constant throughout all simulations. The residence
was simulated considering four occupants: two
adults and two children.
Occupation: Occupation settings were based on
studies about the use of time in Santiago
10
. In these
studies, the main observation is that occupation is
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390 MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT
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4 xx.x SECTION NAME
more intense during weekends than working days.
This pattern was assumed for the whole year.
Ventilation: Due to the extremely different
climates (which vary from extreme arid to extreme
cold areas), assuming an invariable pattern of
opening and closing of windows depending on
different ventilation strategies or occupancy, was
considered to be counterproducti
comparison purpose of the study, as this would
influence results too greatly. The models were
therefore considered to be air tight, with an even and
constant infiltration of 0.2 air changes per hour, 24
hours a day.
Internal heat gains: According to occupation,
internal gains consider lighting gains (bulbs), kitchen
appliances, and occupants.
3.4. Setting comparison standards
Although an initial analysis based on the standard
approach was considered, the final results were
analyzed under the adaptive comfort approach
The comfort ranges varied with each location
5). These ranges were taken from the analysis of the
weather files from Energy Plus
12
, as analyzed by the
Weather Tool 2.0. The range used to analyze the
models also considers the building to be a free
running construction, which generally lowers the
colder temperatures allowed within the comfort
neutrality zone.
The results were analyzed and compared
considering each hour of the year, and classifying
them into one of the following thre
Above comfort, Within comfort, and Below
comfort, with special attention to hottest and coldest
week of the year. Additionally, an overheating
benchmark was also applied
13
. The above comfort
index included all the overheating hours.
Table 5: Analysed results for Location 0: Santiago (Zone 3
in regulation classification).
LOC 0 0 1 1 2
max min max min max
Jan 25 21 25 21 23
Feb 25 21 25 21 23
Mar 24 20 24 20 22
Apr 22 18 24 20 21
May 20 16 23 19 20
Jun 18 14 22 18 19
Jul 19 15 21 17 19
Aug 19 15 22 18 19
Sep 20 16 23 19 20
Oct 22 18 24 20 21
Nov 24 20 24 20 22
Dec 25 21 25 21 23
4. RESULTS
4.1. Analysis
Some expected repetitive patterns could be
observed during the analysis of results, such as
similar indoor temperature behaviour curves for all
locations and simulations, regardless of outside
temperatures. This can be explained due
limitations. In order to simplify the process and focus
on the resulting temperatures, the study has not
considered factors such as humidity or any other
27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13
more intense during weekends than working days.
This pattern was assumed for the whole year.
Due to the extremely different
climates (which vary from extreme arid to extreme
cold areas), assuming an invariable pattern of
opening and closing of windows depending on
different ventilation strategies or occupancy, was
considered to be counterproductive to the
comparison purpose of the study, as this would
influence results too greatly. The models were
therefore considered to be air tight, with an even and
constant infiltration of 0.2 air changes per hour, 24
g to occupation,
internal gains consider lighting gains (bulbs), kitchen
Setting comparison standards
Although an initial analysis based on the standard
approach was considered, the final results were
comfort approach
11
.
The comfort ranges varied with each location (table
from the analysis of the
, as analyzed by the
The range used to analyze the
ing to be a free
running construction, which generally lowers the
colder temperatures allowed within the comfort
The results were analyzed and compared
considering each hour of the year, and classifying
them into one of the following three categories:
Above comfort, Within comfort, and Below
comfort, with special attention to hottest and coldest
week of the year. Additionally, an overheating
. The above comfort
index included all the overheating hours.
Analysed results for Location 0: Santiago (Zone 3
2 3 3
min max min
19 20 16
19 19 15
18 18 14
17 17 13
16 16 12
15 15 11
15 15 11
15 15 11
16 16 12
17 17 13
18 18 14
19 19 15
Some expected repetitive patterns could be
observed during the analysis of results, such as
similar indoor temperature behaviour curves for all
locations and simulations, regardless of outside
temperatures. This can be explained due to the test
limitations. In order to simplify the process and focus
on the resulting temperatures, the study has not
considered factors such as humidity or any other
passive strategy, like night time cooling. Ventilation
strategies were replaced by even i
which lead to expected overheating during summer.
Design features have also remained constant,
although the building was designed for better
performance in its original location in the Santiago
area. Occupancy patterns, and therefore lig
appliances gains, have also been simplified.
A usual occurrence in heavyweight buildings
where earth is the main construction material, higher
indoor temperatures are usually achieved during
night time. This was the registered case in most of
the simulations run for this study, although
mud can be considered to be a lightweight earth
material. This can be used to the advantage of
heating or cooling strategies, and needs to be
considered during early stages of design, together
with general layout and other strategies.
In the particular case of the analyzed residence,
the higher temperatures were reached around 22:00
hrs, usually in the bedrooms. This can be explained
due to the house layout, where bedrooms openings
take up most of the north facing faade
very notorious effect especially in the analysis of
overheating and temperatures above comfort range.
In the case of the bedrooms, the occupied hours
occurred between 21:00 hrs and 10:00 hrs the
following day. Additionally, the hi
temperature for activities carried out in bedrooms, as
specified by CIBSE, is of 23C
helped in producing a high percentage of hours of
discomfort above the thermal neutrality zone. Figure
38 shows above comfort percen
always greater than in the living areas
Figure 4: Comparative graphic, showing the percentage of
hours within comfort range for each location, for each
(adaptive comfort). The results for Model A (all locations)
are the minimum standard with which subsequent results
were measured.
4.2. Summary
This study has defined that
used as a sound construction material in certain
areas in Chile, forming and supporting the building
Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
passive strategy, like night time cooling. Ventilation
strategies were replaced by even infiltration rates,
which lead to expected overheating during summer.
Design features have also remained constant,
although the building was designed for better
performance in its original location in the Santiago
area. Occupancy patterns, and therefore lighting and
appliances gains, have also been simplified.
A usual occurrence in heavyweight buildings
where earth is the main construction material, higher
indoor temperatures are usually achieved during
night time. This was the registered case in most of
simulations run for this study, although techno-
can be considered to be a lightweight earth
material. This can be used to the advantage of
heating or cooling strategies, and needs to be
considered during early stages of design, together
ayout and other strategies.
In the particular case of the analyzed residence,
the higher temperatures were reached around 22:00
hrs, usually in the bedrooms. This can be explained
due to the house layout, where bedrooms openings
facing faade. This has a
very notorious effect especially in the analysis of
overheating and temperatures above comfort range.
In the case of the bedrooms, the occupied hours
occurred between 21:00 hrs and 10:00 hrs the
following day. Additionally, the higher operative
temperature for activities carried out in bedrooms, as
specified by CIBSE, is of 23C
14
. This sum of factors
helped in producing a high percentage of hours of
discomfort above the thermal neutrality zone. Figure
38 shows above comfort percentage In bedrooms is
always greater than in the living areas.
Comparative graphic, showing the percentage of
hours within comfort range for each location, for each model
The results for Model A (all locations)
tandard with which subsequent results
were measured.
This study has defined that techno-mud can be
construction material in certain
forming and supporting the building
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
MATERIAL (ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS) / WASTE MANAGEMENT 391
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low
envelope while successfully maintaining indoor
temperatures within comfort standards. The study
shows the standard can be raised when
is applied as main construction material in free
running buildings.
More specifically, techno-mud
successfully applied in Location 0, Location 1 and
Location 2. These correspond to Zone 1, Zone 3 and
Zone 4 of the Chilean Thermal Regulation
7 & 8).
The first observation when analysing results from
the adaptive comfort approach is that
threshold adjusts to allow in lower minimum
temperatures during the cold season, generally
reducing the need for extra heating in winter months.
This renders the readings generally less successful
in term of dealing with higher temperatures. On the
other hand, none of the models ha
additional techniques to reduce cooling loads, apart
from the use of techno-mud. There are still
improvements to be studied in this regard.
Figure 5: Summer indoor temperatures in techno mud
model are considerable lower than those obtaine
standard model.
Figure 6: Results are less successful for techno mud during
the coldest week, although there is some improvement.
Figure 7: In colder locations, summer indoor temperatures
in techno mud building are also lower, although the
27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13
xx.x
while successfully maintaining indoor
emperatures within comfort standards. The study
shows the standard can be raised when techno-mud
is applied as main construction material in free
mud can be
successfully applied in Location 0, Location 1 and
ation 2. These correspond to Zone 1, Zone 3 and
Zone 4 of the Chilean Thermal Regulation (tables 6,
The first observation when analysing results from
the adaptive comfort approach is that the lower
in lower minimum
temperatures during the cold season, generally
reducing the need for extra heating in winter months.
This renders the readings generally less successful
in term of dealing with higher temperatures. On the
other hand, none of the models have considered
additional techniques to reduce cooling loads, apart
. There are still
improvements to be studied in this regard.
ndoor temperatures in techno mud
model are considerable lower than those obtained for the
Results are less successful for techno mud during
the coldest week, although there is some improvement.
indoor temperatures
in techno mud building are also lower, although the
difference is not as pronounced.
Figure 8: Both models behave in similar ways during
coldest week in a colder location.
In the adaptive comfort approach, where
discomfort percentage is greater for temperatures
above comfort, Model B, which considers
mud only, becomes the most successful solution in
terms of achieved comfort (figs. 5 & 7)
from the standard analysis,
average indoor temperatures. In that scenario Model
B was the best to deal with high temperatures. This
is not only repeated here, but enhanced, since higher
acceptable temperatures tend to be lower in this
approach. At the same time, lower temperatures are
dealt with by the adaptive range itself, which allows
them, reducing the need for additional cooling (fig.
6), with the exception of the coldest location (fig. 8)
Table 6: Analysed results for Location 0: Santiago (Zona
Zone 3 in regulation classification)
Min. desired comfort % (hrs)
Achieved comfort % (hrs)
Elements to watch Direct solar gains, diurnal variation
Weaknesses High % of hours above comfort
Strengths
Further improvements Summer ventilation, night time
Table 7: Analysed results for Location 1: Antofagasta (Zona
1 in regulation classification)
Min. desired comfort % (hrs)
Achieved comfort % (hrs)
Elements to watch
Weaknesses
Strengths
Further improvements
Table 8: Analysed results for Location 2: Concepcion (Zona
4 in regulation classification)
Min. desired comfort % (hrs)
Achieved comfort % (hrs)
Elements to watch
Weaknesses
Strengths
Further improvements
Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 5
fference is not as pronounced.
Both models behave in similar ways during
coldest week in a colder location.
In the adaptive comfort approach, where
discomfort percentage is greater for temperatures
above comfort, Model B, which considers techno-
only, becomes the most successful solution in
(figs. 5 & 7). As we saw
from the standard analysis, techno-mud lowers
average indoor temperatures. In that scenario Model
B was the best to deal with high temperatures. This
ot only repeated here, but enhanced, since higher
acceptable temperatures tend to be lower in this
approach. At the same time, lower temperatures are
dealt with by the adaptive range itself, which allows
need for additional cooling (fig.
6), with the exception of the coldest location (fig. 8)
Analysed results for Location 0: Santiago (Zona
Zone 3 in regulation classification)
35%
60%
Direct solar gains, diurnal variation
High % of hours above comfort
Very low heating load
Summer ventilation, night time
ventilation, shading
Location 1: Antofagasta (Zona
42%
66%
Direct solar gains
High % of hours above
comfort
No heating loads
Ventilation, shading
Analysed results for Location 2: Concepcion (Zona
34%
52%
Direct solar gains and heat
losses.
High heating loads
Low heating load
Insulation, solar gains
optimization
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6 xx.x SECTION NAME
Table 9: Analysed results for Location 3: Punta Arenas
(Zona 7 in regulation classification)
Min. desired comfort % (hrs) 33%
Achieved comfort % (hrs) 36%
Elements to watch Heat losses and cold winds.
Weaknesses Very high heating loads
Strengths No apparent strengths
Further improvements Air tightness and insulation,
solar gains optimization
5. CONCLUSIONS
When analyzing the results obtained from all the
different models, this study took two different
approaches, both in regards to thermal comfort
ranges, and concentrating on the indoor
temperatures achieved.
One of the analyses took a standard approach,
where minimum and maximum indoor operative
temperatures were set as the lower and higher limits
for a comfort neutrality zone, and remained stable
throughout all locations and models. Under this
perspective, most of the techno-mud models proved
to be up to the required minimum standards of
comfort when compared to a Chilean Thermal
Regulation compliant model. They also improved
performance by reducing indoor temperatures and
overheating with different levels of success. The
main issue remaining to be solved when applying
these comfort parameters is related to the
temperatures below the comfort range, and the
heating loads resulting from this especially during the
winter months. Further testing is needed to verify
whether these issues can be improved by additional
passive strategies.
A second analysis was undertaken, this time
considering the adaptive comfort approach, where
the comfort range depends on the location. In this
scenario, the techno-mud buildings managed not
only to match the minimum standards set by the
Chilean Thermal Regulation compliant model, but to
improve results. Here, because the comfort ranges
allow lower temperatures within the comfort neutrality
zone, the heating loads are considerably reduced,
changing the focus of issues remaining to be solved.
In this case, the main concern lies with the
temperatures above the comfort range, and the
resulting cooling loads at different times of the year.
Because the models used in this study are generic
models which do not take into account any other
passive strategies, it is highly likely that if appropriate
passive strategies such as natural ventilation, night
time cooling, daylight management etc, are applied
to the models, the cooling loads could potentially be
substantially reduced, improving overall
performance. This study proves that techno-mud
has a much wider application potential in the building
industry in Chile. The relatively low tech building
technique, low material and building cost and
potentially shorter construction time would make this
material a good alternative and sustainable building
material alongside the usual building materials like
concrete and brick.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special thanks to Sur Tierra Arquitectura, for
providing the raw material with which this research
was possible and to architect Pablo Alvear, who
provided a permanent link to the architectural
practice.
7. REFERENCES
[1] Ronald Rael, Earth Architecture, 1st ed.
(Princeton Architectural Press, 2008).
[2] Gernot Minke, Building with Earth: Design and
Technology of a Sustainable Architecture, 1st
ed. (Birkhuser Basel, 2006).
[3] www.iconstruccion.cl/mart
[4] Jos Pablo Arellano, Polticas Sociales Y
Desarrollo: Chile 1924-1984, ed. Corporacin de
Investigaciones Econmicas para Amrica
(Santiago, Chile: CIEPLAN, 1985).
[5] www.bcentral.cl/prensa/resumen-
estudios/dtbc365.htm
[6] Ernst Muller, Proc. IV Congreso Nacional de
ENergia COCIM, Valparaiso Chile (2000).
[7] Ernst Muller, Proc. VII Encontro Nacional sobre
Conforto no Ambiente Construido (ENCAC),
Curitiba, PR - Brasil (2003)
[8] /www.ine.cl/canales/chile_estadistico/estadistica
s_sociales_culturales/est_sociales_culturales.ph
p
[9] Gernot Minke, Building with Earth: Design and
Technology of a Sustainable Architecture, 1st
ed. (Birkhuser Basel, 2006).
[10] /www.ine.cl/canales/chile_estadistico/estadistica
s_sociales_culturales/est_sociales_culturales.ph
p
[11] J. F. Nicol and M. A. Humphreys, Energy and
Buildings 34, no. 6 (July 2002): 563-572.
[12] EnergyPlus Energy Simulation Software by the
U.S. Department of Energy.
[13] Chartered Institution of Building Services
Engineers CIBSE, Environmental Design:
CIBSE Guide A, 7th ed. (London: CIBSE, 2006).
[14] Ibid.
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xx.x SECTION NAME 7
[1] Gernot Minke, Building with Earth: Design and
Technology of a Sustainable Architecture, 1st
ed. (Birkhuser Basel, 2006).
[2] www.iconstruccion.cl/mart/
[3] Jos Pablo Arellano, Polticas Sociales Y
Desarrollo: Chile 1924-1984, ed. Corporacin de
Investigaciones Econmicas para Amrica
(Santiago, Chile: CIEPLAN, 1985).
[4] www.bcentral.cl/prensa/resumen-
estudios/dtbc365.htm.
[5] Ernst Muller, Estudios parametricos con
simulaciones termicas para viviendas con
climatizacion pasiva en la zona central de
Chile., in (presented at the IV Congreso
Nacional de Energia COCIM, CONAE 2000,
Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria,
Valparaiso, Chile: IV Congreso Nacional de
Energia COCIM, CONAE 2000, 2000).
[6] Ernst Muller, Analise e propostas de desenho
passivo para edificacoes habitacionais na zona
central do Chile, in (presented at the VII
Encontro Nacional sobre Conforto no Ambiente
Construido (ENCAC), Curitiba, PR - Brasil,
2003).
[7] www.ine.cl/canales/chile_estadistico/estadisticas
_sociales_culturales/est_sociales_culturales.php
[Accessed August 18, 2009].
[8] Gernot Minke, Building with Earth: Design and
Technology of a Sustainable Architecture, 1st
ed. (Birkhuser Basel, 2006).
10
[9] J. F. Nicol and M. A. Humphreys, Adaptive
thermal comfort and sustainable thermal
standards for buildings, Energy and Buildings
34, no. 6 (July 2002): 563-572.
[10] EnergyPlus Energy Simulation Software by the
U.S. Department of Energy.
[11] Chartered Institution of Building Services
Engineers CIBSE, Environmental Design:
CIBSE Guide A, 7th ed. (London: CIBSE, 2006).
[12] Ibid.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY
(INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 397
The Representative Day Technique in the Analysis
of Thermal Comfort in Outdoor Urban Spaces
Roberta COCCI GRIFONI
1
, Giovanni LATINI
2
, Simone TASCINI
1
1
School of Architecture and Design, Camerino University, Ascoli Piceno, Italy
2
Marche Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy.
ABSTRACT: The aim of this study is to evaluate the possibility of assessing the diurnal variation of PMV
thermal comfort index by introducing the Representative Day technique in order to obtain information on
correlation between thermal comfort and meteorological parameters. The representative day is constituted by
the actual data of the day, in the considered period, where the sum of the mean-square differences among its
evaluated or monitored quantities, averaged within each hour, and the same quantities for all other days at the
same hour is minimised. This technique can prove to be a very important tool for identifying both anomalous and
standard behaviours of comfort indices within the selected period in outdoor urban spaces. In this paper a
preliminary evaluation of the methodology for the representative day of PMV index is presented.
Keywords: Thermal, comfort, least representative day, representative day, PMV
1. INTRODUCTION
Thermal comfort is often faced with the task of
using large amounts of data that yields meaningful
information concerning the thermal sensation. In fact,
thermal perceptions and preferences of individuals
outdoors cannot be entirely explained by the energy
balance of the human body. They are also affected
by psychological and behavioural factors or the so-
called thermal adaptation. To examine the effect of
thermal adaptation on seasonal outdoor thermal
comfort, a lot of interviews with concurrent
micrometeorological measurements are usually
conducted.
It is possible to present the data concisely and
meaningfully using certain procedures, without
displaying the values for each observation taken
from the population.
Once, meteorological and thermal comfort data
have been collected it is essential to interpret these
data correctly. In particular, it is important to interpret
data by using appropriate statistical analysis and the
analysis of thermal comfort presupposes a synthesis
of information derived from temporal data series. It is
important to deal with realistic data and an actual day
should be considered, but the widely used typical
day is not an actual day. In a typical day hourly
meteorological data are generally obtained by means
of temporal averages. A temporal average is
operated over data acquired at the same hour of
each day belonging to the entire period considered. It
allows the assessment of the daily oscillations of the
monitored quantities. An alternative to the typical day
is the representative day.
In this paper a preliminary evaluation of the
methodology for the representative day in order to
evaluate the thermal sensation is presented. A large
data base has been considered for the evaluation in
a complex coastal area, namely Ascoli Piceno which
is an interesting city in a central region of Italy
(Marche) comprising valleys, hills, urban and
industrial zones. Results, in terms of monitored
quantities obtained applying both approaches, have
been compared showing good agreement. The
representative day allows to appreciate daily
variations of comfort condition but it is a real day, a
characteristic not retained by the typical day.
2. THE REPRESENTATIVE DAY
The representative day RD [1] is constituted by
the actual data of the day, in the considered period,
where the sum of the mean-square differences
between its estimated quantities, averaged within
each hour, and the same quantities for all other days
at the same hour is minimised. In fact the main
advantage of the representative day, compared to
the typical day, is that it is an actual day, identified by
a precise date. This allows the identification of the
associated meteorological parameters, and the
definition of thermal comfort characteristics.
The representative day is a daily data set, which
is characterised by the least differences with respect
to all the 24-hour estimations of the considered
temporal series. In general it is used the typical day
(TD) but it could be defined as a fictional day,
whose hourly values are given by the parameter
means, calculated, hour-by-hour, over all the days of
the period of study. The period may be a month,
season, year, or grouping of particular days that
share the features one wishes to study.
However, since the TD is not a real day, this form
of evaluation provides a presentation averaged over
the hourly trend, which cannot take account of the
variations characterising the actual behaviour of the
quantity under examination. The TD can be
considered as an extreme case: for an infinite series
of data, the RD tends toward the TD. Therefore, the
TD can be considered an asymptotic limit for the RD.
This technique can prove to be a very important
tool for identifying both anomalous and standard
behaviours of thermal comfort within the selected
period and establishing measures of assessment
and control.
The least square matrix can be written as:
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398 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
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( )
24
2
1
ij ki kj
k
A c c
=
=

i,j = 1,2...N (1)

where N is the number of days in the time period
for which the representative day is calculated and cki
is the comfort parameter of the i-th day at the k-th
hour.
Ai indicates the sum of all the squared residuals
of the i-th line (or column, Aij being a symmetrical
matrix with all zeros in the main diagonal):
1
N
i ij
j
A A
=

=

(2)
The representative day (RD) is the one with the
lowest sum, i.e. the i-th day where Ai is the smallest
of the quantities obtained:
min(Ai) RD (3)
The introduced methodology allows the
evaluation of the least representative day (LRD),
that is the day which maximises the sum of squared
residuals:
max (Ai) LRD (4)
In this study the least representative day can
correspond to an anomalous situation of thermal
sensation.
2.1. The representative Index
The representativity of a representative day can
be mathematically expressed by the adimensional
index (DI):
( )
( )

= =
= =

=
N
i k
ik k
N
i k
ik k
c c
c
DI
1
24
1
2
1
24
1
2
(5)
where
k
c
is the mean hourly value of the typical
day at the k-th hour and
k

is the mean hourly

parameter of the representative day at the k-th hour.
It is an adimensional quantity that is closer to
unity for the most representative day of the observed
period. When DI is equal to 1, this value denotes that
the most representative day coincides with the
typical day. In the same way the least representative
day can also be normalised, but the value of DI will
be greater than 1, showing the low degree of
representativity of the estimated day.
3. THERMAL COMFORT
3.1. Urban Comfort and thermal indices
Human thermal comfort is defined by ASHRAE
(American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air
Conditioning Engineers INC) as the state of mind
that expresses satisfaction with the surrounding
living or working environment.
Since the 1960s, heat-balance models of the
human body are accepted in the assessment of
thermal comfort. The basis for these models is the
energy balance equation for the human body (6)
which describes energy flows body/environment:
M +W + R + C + E
D
+ E
RD
+ E
SW
+ S = 0 (6)
Where,
M: the metabolic rate (internal energy
production),
W: the physical work output,
R: the net radiation of the body,
C: the convective heat flow,
ED: the latent heat flow to evaporate water
diffusing through the skin (imperceptible
perspiration),
ERD: the sum of heat flows for heating and
humidifying the inspired air,
ESw: the heat flow due to evaporation of sweat,
S: the storage heat flow for heating or cooling the
body mass.
The differences between the various existing
models are attributable to the complementary
parameterizations related to personal data required
to solve eq.6.
In the last years many outdoor climatic and
comfort indexes have been elaborated; one of the
first and still very popular heat-balance models is the
comfort equation defined by Fanger [2].
In this paper the widely used biometeorological
index, PMV (Predicted Mean Vote) was selected. It is
an objective measure of the thermal comfort
sensation, and Fanger [2] derived this indicator from
an indoor-use comfort model based on his
investigations on the thermal comfort of over 1000
people in an artificial climate chamber, where several
climate parameters as well as human clothing and
activity could independently be varied [3]. PMV
predicts how a large sample of human beings would
characterise their comfort sensation according to the
meteorological environment, the level of their activity
and their clothing using the values of the originally
seven-point (from 3 to +3) ASHRAE comfort scale
(Table 1). This comfort scale at around 0 is
characterized as comfortable, higher and lower
values indicate increasing probability of thermal
discomfort as well as stress due to heat and cold
conditions, respectively. In (extreme) real weather
conditions, PMV can be higher than +3 or lower than
3 [4].
Table 1: Valuation scale of the thermal environment
PMV
Evaluation Thermal
Environment
+3 Hot
+2 Worm
+1 Slightly warm
+0.85
Acceptable thermal
condition
-0.5<PMV<+0.85 Comfortable
-0.85
Acceptable thermal
condition
-1 Cool
-2 Cold
-3 Extremely cold

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One of the recently used bioclimatical model is
the RayMan model, which is well-suited to calculate
radiation fluxes because it considers more precisely
the effect of a complex urban structure [5]. Among
others a final output of the model is in polar co-
ordinates about the area including the sun path of
the observation day at the place, with the shadow of
buildings, trees, or other obstacles and sky view
factor. All the evaluations of PMV were performed
with this model.
3.2. The case study area
All the evaluations are carried out for Ascoli
Piceno in the Marche region, a location in central
Italy at 42, 50N, 13, 37E and 154 above sea leve l
(Fig. 1). The Marche climate is categorised as
Mediterranean, with hot and humid summers and
cool winters.

Figure 1: location of Ascoli Piceno town in Italy.
During the typical summer months (beginning in
May and continuing through September) the air
temperature (Ta) can reach 38 Celsius degrees and
the daily Ta amplitude can be relatively wide. The
atmospheric moisture content sometimes reaches
very high levels (RH = 70%). On the contrary, winters
are short and cold, especially at night (reaching
freezing point).
The living conditions during summer periods are
becoming very difficult because of higher summer
temperatures in recent years.
Weather data from meteorological stations
belonging to ASSAM (Agenzia Servizi Settore
Agroalimentare Marche) have been used to obtain
daily and monthly mean values of summer months of
the main meteorological parameters to compare with
climatic values referred to the period 1971-2000. The
investigation was performed in the summer of 2008.
In the summer 2008 the mean daily temperature
anomalies showed a generally accentuated warming
with respect to the average conditions of July and
August, according to the series data 1971-2000. The
portion of the region that suffered the main warming
was the Adriatic seaside, particularly the coasts of
medium-lower Adriatic Sea, where the daily
temperature anomalies reached also the values of
+6-7C with respect to the mean values of the perio d.
Ascoli Piceno is a medieval town laying at the
confluence of Tronto River with Castellano Creek,
surrounded by mountains on three sides. The study
area is a central city zone, precisely a redevelopment
area where a carbon and graphite industry was
formerly located. The domain simulated is made of
two long buildings (270 m and 240 m) with height of
15m, separated by a large square of a constant width
of 100 m (Fig.2)
.

Figure 2: aerial photography of the area study
3.3. Rayman Model
The evaluation of the thermal comfort condition
can be objectified and quantified using integrated
index that consider the micro climatic environment
parameters and the work-related energy metabolic
expenditure MET, and the typology of clothing
(thermal insulation CLO) commonly used.
Among these indexes, the most precise one
reflecting the influence of the above mentioned
physical and physiological variables on thermal
comfort is PMV (Predicted Mean Vote).
Synthetically, it comes from the equation of the
thermal balance whose result is compared to a scale
of psycho - physical health and expresses the
average opinion (average foreseen vote) about the
thermal sensations of a group of subjects
The model RayMan [6], used to estimate PMV
values, estimates the radiation fluxes and the effects
of clouds and solid obstacles on short wave radiation
fluxes. The final output of this model is the calculated
mean radiant temperature, which is required in the
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energy balance model for humans and the Predicted
Mean Vote (PMV) that is also required for the
assessment of urban bioclimate.
Rayman model a versatile tool to simulate
numerically thermal comfort indices. It can be used at
points where data related to the radiation
environment, like shapes of surround buildings and
meteorological parameters, is available to input into
the model (Fig.3).


Figure3: main window of Rayman
4. DATA ANALYSIS
In order to evaluate the usefulness of the
Representative Day technique, summer monthly
periods were analysed over nine years (2001-2009).
The relative investigations have been often
further complicated by gaps in data series and, more
in general, by the huge mass of data to be
processed.
Typical day, representative day and least
representative day have been valuated and while the
typical and representative day proceed in the same
way, the least representative day shows different
trend for the PMV thermal comfort index.
The possibility of studying a few, rather
paradigmatic scenarios, suggestive of singular or
standard conditions, would be of considerable help,
at least in reducing the amount of data needed to
shape up the study of the actual scenarios.
The calculated PMV indices and meteorological
data measured during July and August 2008 have
been employed as an example of application.
Figures 4 and 5 show the data related to PMV
thermal comfort index:



Figure4: Representative day (RD,24 August), least
representative day (LRD,30 August) and typical day (TD) of
PMV during August 2008

Figure5: Representative day (RD, 25 July), least
representative day (LRD, 15 July) and typical day (TD) of
PMV during July2008
In both cases (Fig.4, Fig.5) the representative
day (RD) and the typical day (TD) present the same
course. Examining graphical representation of the
least representative day (LRD), we can notice that
PMV shows the same trend of the typical and
representative day, although with higher values of
comfort index in the central part of the day.
Combining meteorological data and thermal comfort
indices (PMV) we can observe that in August month
the least representative day is the warmer day ( see
figures 6 and 7) during the analysis period.


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Figure6: Temperature behaviour during August 2008

Figure6: Temperature behaviour on 30 August 2008
5. CONCLUSION
Due to the difficulty of controlling the outdoor
thermal environment, it is important to provide
thermal comfortable condition which meet occupants
expectation.
Thermal comfort data are a series of
measurements of meteorological parameters and
thermal indices taken continuously or intermittently,
and they may have been collected over a short or
long period of time. The procedures required for
summarizing and analysing the data may be
represented by an estimate of the representative
day. The absolute advantage of the representative
day method is that it is constituted by the data of an
actual day, belonging to the considered period. A
preliminary evaluation of the methodology for the
representative day and the least representative day
for predicted mean vote (PMV) has been presented
in an urban area. The good agreement between the
representative and the typical day is a further
indication that the representative day should be
preferred to interpret thermal comfort behaviour.
6. REFERENCES
[1] Tirabassi T., Nassetti S., Short Communication:
The representative day, Atmos. Environ., 33,
(1999), 2427.
[2] Fanger, P.O. Thermal comfort. McGraw-Hill,
New York , (1972)
[3] Hppe P Heat balance modelling. Experientia
49, (1993), 741.
[4] Mayer H, Hppe P. Thermal comfort of man in
different urban environments. Theor Appl
Climatol, 38, (1987), 43.
[5] Matzarakis, A.Validation of modelled mean
radiant temperature within urban stuctures. AMS
Symposium on Urban Environment, Norfolk,
USA, (2002), 7.3.
[6] Matzarakis, A., Rutz, F., Mayer, H. Proc. of
PLEA, Modeling the thermal bioclimate in urban
areas with the RayMan model, (2006), 449.
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 403

1
An optimized model for a thermally comfortable
Dutch urban square

Sanda Lenzholzer
Wageningen University, chair group landscape architecture

ABSTRACT: Is there a model for a thermally comfortable mid-sized urban square in the Dutch climate context
which offers sufficient wind protection and a good distribution of sun- and shade places? To answer this
question, a research by design process was followed. This process included the design of different alternatives
of spatial configurations that were expected to generate thermal comfort in different seasons. These
configurations were then tested with Envi-met

simulations on their effects for different seasons and different

squares. The research by design process showed that for the Dutch context of mid- sized urban squares the
most optimal model that could be developed and tested, were sequences of urban shelterbelts. These consist
of 25 m high deciduous trees and have transparent wind screens in the trunk space. The urban shelterbelts,
when placed perpendicular to the dominant Southwesterly winds both protect the squares from these winds and
also offer sufficient shaded situations. This optimized model can be used to address thermal comfort in urban
square design, but it needs to be adjusted to each place and embedded in the integral design of a square.
Keywords: urban squares, outdoor comfort, research by design
1. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
Microclimate- ignorant design of public squares is
problematic. This is, amongst other reasons, caused
by the lack of knowledge about microclimate
responsive design amongst urban designers [1, 2]. A
way to make climate knowledge more accessible, is
the generation of easy to use design guidelines.
In order to create such design guidelines, it is
often helpful to use a research by design process.
Research by design is understood as the
development of knowledge by designing, studying
the effects of this design, changing the design itself
or its context, and studying the effects of the
transformations. The TOTE model from systems
analysis may be recognized in this: Test Operate
Test Exit. [3] . Therefore- similar to the methods
used in engineering or in R&D, design alternatives
are developed and then tested through simulations of
the future situation. The alternatives that score most
optimal can be considered as design guidelines [4].
This paper describes the path of generating such
spatial patterns for climate- responsive design and
testing of these patterns on their effects. Firstly, I
specify the underlying typical Dutch climate
situations for outdoor sojourn. These form a
framework for the climate design proposals as well
as a basis for the microclimate simulations.
Secondly, I outline the relevant scientific
microclimate knowledge for generating patterns that
are expected to improve microclimate on Dutch
squares. Eventually, I describe the design process
which was done for two different case- squares, the
Spuiplein in The Hague and the Grote Markt in
Groningen, both located in the Netherlands. From
this, I draw conclusions on optimized models for
microclimate responsive design of Dutch squares.
2. RELEVANT DUTCH CLIMATE
SITUATIONS
The main climate situations that have to be
addressed in outdoor space design are described in
this section. This includes design for different
seasons and respecting peoples perception of
microclimate. Earlier research has shown that
microclimate perception relates to the more salient or
extreme situations [5] . This mainly concerned wind
problems because these situations come about more
often in the Dutch situation. Apart from that we can
expect that more heat waves will occur in the future
and that also these will affect peoples long-term
microclimate perceptions. Deduced from that, I
assume that hot situations will become salient in the
future as well. Hence, the two situations windy and
hot form the starting point for the analysis of
situations relevant for thermal comfort in outdoor
spaces.
These two quite contrary situations and their
impact on the two squares in Den Haag and
Groningen were simulated in the microclimate
simulation software ENVI-met

for the existing

situation of the squares spatial settings.
The climate data used were based on the
average data from the Royal Dutch Climate Institute
KNMI for the weather stations close to the respective
cities (see windroses and temperatures in [6]). The
first input dataset described a windy day is a typical
day at the beginning or end of the outdoor seasons,
when stronger winds occur and the sun altitude is
lower. In this case the 15th of November was chosen
because around that time longer shadows occur than
at the beginning of the outdoor season. For the wind
situation a typical (and in the Netherlands
predominant) cyclonic climate situation is chosen
with the prevailing wind direction Southwest. These
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404 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
Southwest winds are generally stronger than from
other directions [7]. The entire set of simulation input
data for the windy situation can be seen in input
data windy and the simulations of the existing
situation on maps existsit-sims on the website [8].
The second input dataset represented a day
within a heat wave in summer where the impact of
the direct sun radiation and heat emission from the
environment can be problematic. The day chosen
was 21st of June because it is the longest day of the
year and it is also the day with the shortest shadow
patterns. For the wind situation a typical anticyclonic
weather situation was chosen with the rather soft
Easterly winds that are typical for these situations.
The entire set of simulation input data for this
situation can be seen in input data hot and the
simulations of the existing situation on maps existsit-
sims on the website [8].
3. SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE BASIS FOR
MICROCLIMATE COMFORT PATTERNS
To generate preliminary patterns for thermal
comfort in Dutch squares, the microclimate literature
was consulted. The factors that can actually be
influenced by smaller scale urban design are wind
and mean radiant temperature [9].
In a coastal country like The Netherlands wind
speeds are generally higher and in the Dutch
climate, wind protection can help significantly to
achieve better thermal comfort in outdoor places.
This wind protection is most effective when it buffers
the strong and predominant South Westerlies. In
order to generate simple patterns for wind protection
elements, basic quantitative knowledge was used to
specify the cavity and wake areas around wind
shelter elements. The most common general
guideline is based on Ngeli [10]. Although also
other rules of thumb were developed later that are
partly conflicting with Ngelis, this rule is most often
cited in the literature. Because of that, I used
Ngelis rule. It describes the general effects of wind
screening objects with different densities on the size
of the sheltered area at the leeside, depending on
the height of the screening objects. This rule of
thumb concerns obstacles that are at least 12 times
as long as their height (see fig. 1).


Figure 1: Wind protected area behind a medium- dense
obstacle according to Ngeli, adapted from Oke 1987
The most important parameter for the influence of
mean radiant temperature is sun and shadow
[11,12]. The patterns of sun and shadow can
nowadays easily be simulated in 3D- design software
and therefore SketchUp shadow simulations were
used as a tool in this research by design to conduct
first studies on sun and shadow patterns.
4. PRELIMINARY SPATIAL PATTERNS
FOR MICROCLIMATE COMFORT
I translated the requirements for optimized sun-
and shadow situations and wind adaptation into
spatial patterns by making desk-estimations based
on the rules of thumb on wind shelter discussed
above and through SketchUp shadow simulations.
Here, certain options that would not be viable in
public square design practice, like too dense
covering by pergolas, roofs, trees or other objects
were avoided. Microclimate adaptation elements also
must not subdivide the place too much on eye- level
because that can negatively influence the feeling of
safety. The patterns I considered most appropriate
are described in the following.
4.1 Generation of preliminary patterns for wind
protection
For the windy day simulated for the two squares
it became apparent that the wind speeds in the
central areas of the squares can easily reach 4m/s
and higher in the existing situation. In order to create
a comfortable situation for sojourn, the wind speed
has to be reduced at least 50%. Therefore, wind
buffering screens were selected that, when
distributed in a proper sequence, are expected to
bring wind speed reductions of 50% over the whole
area. All of these screens should be directed
perpendicular [13] to the South-West in order to
block the prevailing (and also strongest) winds in the
most efficient way. Since vegetative materials or
other permeable elements are more efficient in
creating longer wakes [10], I decided to use such
permeable elements. The preliminary pattern I
considered useful was a 15m tall row of trees with
transparent medium dense windscreens in the trunk
areas. This transparent screen is chosen because it
does not hamper the possibility to oversee the
square which is important for the publics feeling of
safety. I call this an urban shelterbelt (fig. 2).

Figure 2: principle of the urban shelterbelt
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 405
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4.2 Generation of preliminary pattern for sun- and
shadow comfort
People prefer a small- scaled distribution of
sunny and shaded areas on the square. This way it
is easy to make a choice between sunny or shady
places without having to move over long distances. I
generated series of shadow simulation patterns for
common shading devices that can be placed in many
squares without hampering the functions. The
elements that were most viable on the squares were
mid-sized trees (15 m high and 15 m crown diameter,
see fig. 3). This was considered the most suitable
preliminary pattern because it suggests to offer
benefits throughout the whole outdoor season.


Figure 3 tree- shadow pattern for all outdoor seasons
projected in non- shaded areas of a square of 100 x 100 m
These preliminary patterns for wind and shade
were combined in the next step and then tested
further in ENVI-met

microclimate simulations.
5. TESTING ALTERNATIVES ON THE
CASE- SQUARES
5.1 General method
In this section I document the process of
generating and testing climate responsive patterns
for Dutch squares of medium to large size. The
preliminary patterns described in the preceding
subchapter were combined and projected on the
squares Spuiplein, Den Haag and the Grote Markt in
Groningen.
Since the simulation software did not offer
possibilities to model the urban shelterbelt with its
different structures of trees and artificial windscreens,
this was substituted with a structure completely
consisting of vegetation in the simulation input.
The alternatives for new patterns were simulated
on their microclimatological effects with the same
input data that were used to simulate the existing
situation in the squares described earlier. The
simulation results of the existing situation and the
alternatives were compared for five points in time per
day: 9,11,13,15 and 17 hrs. In order to evaluate
effects of the new alternatives, simulations of the
different alternatives were compared to the
simulations of the existing situation. This is described
separately for the alternatives on the website [8].
All the alternatives were assumed to improve
thermal comfort. In this testing phase the Predicted
Mean Vote (PMV) value became the most important
indicator for thermal comfort improvement. This index
combines all the important microclimate factors and
thus also shows how, for instance, shadow- casting
elements have effects on the wind field and how
wind- buffering elements also cast shadow.
5.2 Developing and testing alternative 1
The first alternative was derived from the
preliminary patterns: a combination of a a medium
dense urban shelterbelt of 15 m height and a 40 x 40
m grid of 15 m high shadow trees with open trunk
space and a dense crown (fig. 4).


Figure 4 Alternative 1: urban shelterbelt 15 m high and 40 x
40 m grid 15 m high shadow trees projected on Spuiplein,
Den Haag
The first patterns were then simulated for their
effects on microclimate over whole days in the
windy and hot situation for the two locations in Den
Haag and Groningen. The differences in PMV on
pedestrian level (1.60 m) can be seen in graphical
form and a textual specified discussion on the
website [8], posters on altern1-sims and table 1 ).
From the simulations of this alternative projected
on both squares, some conclusions could be drawn
which had impact on the development of the second
alternative. Concerning the shadow patterns of the
trees, the shades in the autumn situation showed
unexpectedly low PMV values. This seemed
somewhat unrealistic because trees have lost foliage
in autumn and thus cast less shadow. Therefore I
decided to simulate the trees in a foliated and
defoliated state in following alternatives.
The wakes of the urban shelterbelt were
considerably smaller than expected. This had
consequences for the settings in later alternatives.
In alternative 1, in both squares the PMV values
improved slightly for the entire square and
surroundings, when compared to the existing
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406 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
situation. In the hot situation the PMV values
changed up to one PMV unit towards comfortably
cooler and in the windy, cooler situation the PMV
values changed up to one PMV unit towards
comfortably warmer in large areas of the two
squares. From the simulations it was not possible to
conclude why this general improvement occurs. It
seems that this effect is based on the higher
roughness in the wind field, as well as the general
climate buffering effect of vegetation on air
temperature. Since I wanted to find out if this effect
of vegetation is important, I developed alternative 2
with more vegetation.
5.3 Developing and testing alternative 2
Due to the simulations for alternative 1 showing
that the wind shelter effects of the urban shelterbelt
of 15m height were not reaching far enough, in
alternative 2 the shelterbelt was heightened to 25m.
Also, the shelterbelt was entirely closed as opposed
to the first alternative where a shade tree with an
uncovered trunk area was inserted (which showed a
too strong funneling effect). The shadow effect of
trees in alternative 1 during the autumn days was too
strong, so more attention was given to the species of
trees selected as shadow trees. The selection of
species for the shadow trees was now based on the
times when foliation starts. Tree species that develop
foliage late and cast it early are suitable. In summer
the foliage should be as dense as possible for
efficient shading and in all other seasons the shade
should be as minimal as possible. Tree sorts that
have these foliation properties are Acer rubrum,
Fraxinus pennsylvatica, Juglans nigra, Liriodendron
tulipifera and Tilia cordata [14].


Figure 5 Alternative 2: urban shelterbelt 25 m high and 25 x
25 m grid 15 m high shadow trees projected on Spuiplein,
Den Haag
In order to represent the seasonal foliage
properties appropriately, the simulation- input data
for the autumn situation were adjusted. The shadow
trees were given a lower leaf area density (LAD)
value of LAD 0.2 and the urban shelterbelt was
simulated with slightly more foliage of LAD 0.5,
representing a species such as Fagus sylvatica that
keeps some foliage over winter and is thus assumed
to bring about better wind protection than an entirely
bare tree. Since I assumed that the trees have an
overall positive effect on PMV I also decided to
densify the shadow tree pattern to 25 x 25 m.
The effects of the second alternative (25 m high
medium dense shelterbelt and 25 x 25 m grid of 15
m high dense trees, fig. 5) were then simulated for
microclimate effects over whole days in the windy
and hot situation for the two locations in Den Haag
and Groningen. The resulting differences in PMV on
pedestrian level can be seen on the website [8],
posters on altern2-sims and table 2.
The results of the simulations for alternative 2
indicated that there was- again- a slight improvement
on PMV for the whole square and surroundings, but
this was not significantly more than in alternative 1.
In the hot situation the PMV values changed up to
one PMV unit towards comfortably cooler and in the
windy, cooler situation the PMV values changed up
to one PMV unit towards comfortably warmer. So the
assumption that more trees bring a significant effect
for PMV could not be confirmed.
Furthermore, the results showed that the effect of
shade overruling wind buffering effects of trees was
still prominent, even though seasonal differences in
leaf densities were now taken into account in the
simulations.
Also with respect to the wind situation, the weak
buffering effects in alternative 1 occurred again in
this alternative, showing much shorter wakes than
expected. A medium dense shelterbelt of 25 m
height still seems not sufficient to keep the wind
speeds considerably lower for the entire squares.
5.4 Developing and testing alternative 3
In the preceding simulations one important effect
occurred between the influence of shade and wind
shelter: the shadows of the trees seemed to have
such a strong local effect on PMV that they can
balance out their own wind buffering effects or the
wind buffering effects of other trees. This effect was
very evident in the windy autumn day situations and
especially in the second alternative where
significantly more shadow trees were used than in
the first alternative. In the cooler seasons, the
shadow trees, albeit the fact that they have little
foliation, seem to have a strong negative effect on
PMV. Therefore, in the third alternative I abolished
trees that only serve to cast shadow. For trees that
also buffer wind, the situation is different. Their
shadows also cause cooler areas in spring and
autumn, even though their wind shelter effect might
be minimized by the shadow. On the other hand,
they also generate wind protected areas that are
largely situated in the sun and are therefore much
more comfortable in spring and autumn.
The earlier simulations showed that the wind
buffering effects of the vegetation seemed to have a
smaller spatial extension than was expected based
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 407
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on the scientific literature. For example, increasing
the height of the urban shelterbelt in the second
alternative had rather limited effects, whereas
according to the literature a shelterbelt of this height
should have been more than sufficient to create a
50% wind reduction for the entire squares. This
might have to do with the fact that the shelterbelt had
shorter length extensions than 12x h.
Therefore, I decided to use several urban
shelterbelts in sequence for improvement of the wind
situation. The chosen distance between shelterbelts
was based on the lower foliage density values during
spring and autumn when the wind situation is most
problematic. I assumed that a distance of 50 m
between the urban shelterbelts, which is only 2 x h of
the shelterbelt itself, should offer ample wind
protection.

Figure 6 Alternative 3: urban shelterbelts 25 m high with 50
m distance projected on Spuiplein, Den Haag
The impacts of the third alternative (25 m high
medium dense urban shelterbelt in sequence of 50
m) were then simulated for microclimate effects over
whole days in the windy and hot situation for the
two locations in Den Haag and Groningen. The
resulting differences in PMV on pedestrian level can
be seen on the website [8], posters on altern3-sims
and table 3.
Alternative 3, in comparison to the other two
alternatives shows the best effects, but it still could
be more optimal. The simulated wind buffering effect
was not as strong as expected, but this also might be
attributable to the way how the urban shelterbelt was
simulated. As mentioned earlier, due to the
limitations of the simulation software it had to be
substituted with a vegetation element, whereas the
actual urban shelterbelt should consist of trees and
an artificial transparent wind screen in the trunk
space. Considering all the literature consulted (albeit
some conflicting assertions), in an area of 2 x h
behind a wind screen, the wind protection should be
more efficient than the simulations suggest.
I could have continued to study and research
more fine-tuned options through research by
design. But due to the limitations of the simulation
software as well as the inexplicable results of some
simulations (see general remarks in overview of
simulation results, website [8], tables 1-3) I doubt if
the simulation tools were sufficiently developed to
conduct a more refined research by design. The
uncertainties about causes and effects made it
increasingly difficult to generate fine-tuned design
hypotheses and it was uncertain if the simulations
will truthfully predict the effects and verify or falsify
the design hypotheses. Therefore, I decided to
terminate the process after generating this
alternative because it clearly shows better results
than the first alternatives and is a very evident
improvement compared to the existing situation.
Due to these significant improvements it can be
called an optimized model for a climate- responsive
design of a Dutch square. This pattern with its focus
on wind protection is also expected to appeal to
peoples spatial microclimate expectations in a
positive way. As mentioned earlier, Dutch peoples
microclimate perception is mainly focused on wind
effects. Hence, in urban design responding to
microclimate perception, strong images should be
offered that suggest wind protection. This optimized
model is expected to offer such cues for wind-
protection due to the smaller scaled rhythm of spatial
enclosure and clear visual suggestion of wind
protection by the urban shelterbelts.
6. AN OPTIMIZED MODEL FROM
RESEARCH BY DESIGN
The optimized model pattern (alternative 3) can
be easily used as a design layer for microclimate
response in the beginning of the design process. In
general, this pattern can be used in all parts of North
Western European cities that have similar climate to
the Netherlands. It is vital that the model pattern is
introduced at the beginning of the design process of
a square refurbishment or design of a new square.
When this pattern is not included early it will be very
difficult to introduce the required structural changes
in a later design phase. The model can be
compromised with other design requirements (e.g.
functions, aesthetics) and offers some flexibility. For
example, the urban shelterbelts can be placed on a
slightly larger distance from each other or their
orientation can be changed with some degrees
without losing too much of their effects. When
circulation requires this, also some smaller areas can
be opened in the shelterbelts. Also, making the
transparent wind screens under the trees movable
will enable the passage of vehicles (e.g. when a
market has to be installed) and slow traffic flows. As
long as this urban shelterbelt pattern is not getting
entirely disrupted in the integrated practical design
process, this pattern will always help to improve the
local microclimate. Since this model will get adjusted
by carving or twisting, clustering etc. to a site in the
further integrated design process, the results will
always be site-specific solutions and no square that
was designed according to this model will be like the
other.
Although the generation of such models by
research by design, as shown in this example,
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408 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
generally seems a clear and straightforward process,
this is often not the case. In this research by design,
for example, the generation of a model with the help
of scientific literature was problematic due to
conflicting assertions in the scientific literature. For
the designer who has not developed this
fundamental knowledge it is not possible to make
sense of these contradictions. Similarly, ambiguous
simulation results make it difficult to generate clear
design hypotheses on cause- and effect relations of
design interventions. Although simulations can be a
very useful tool to predict climate, they are only as
precise as their underlying mathematical models and
the way how these are integrated in the simulations.
Fortunately, simulation tools are in constant
development and are calibrated to make better
predictions. In the future they will be increasingly
useful to be integrated into research by design
processes.
I have shown that a research by design process
can help to generate optimized design patterns. The
optimized climate responsive design model I
developed can be helpful for many Dutch square
design or refurbishment projects. However, there are
also public space design projects where it will not be
possible to apply this rather generic pattern or where
it has to be compromised to such an extent that it
loses its effect. In those cases, small scaled design
solutions that are precisely fitted to the place can be
useful.
7. REFERENCES
[1] Eliasson, I. (2000). "The use of climate
knowledge in urban planning." Landscape and
Urban Planning, 48(1-2), pp. 31-44.
[2] Katzschner, L. (2006). "Behaviour of People in
Open Spaces in Dependence of Thermal
Comfort Conditions", R.Compagnon, P. Haefeli,
and W. Weber, (eds.), PLEA 2006 - The 23rd
Conference on Passive and Low Energy
Architecture. City: PLEA, Universit de Genve,
Haute Ecole Spcialis de Suisse occidentale:
Geneva.
[3] de Jong, T. M., and van der Voordt, D. J. M.
(2002). "Types of Study by Design", in T. M. de
Jong and D. J. M. Van der Voordt, (eds.), Ways
to study and research urban, architectural and
technical design. Delft: Delft University Press, p.
455)
[4] Breen, J. (2002). "Design driven research", in T.
M. de Jong and D. J. M. van der Voordt, (eds.),
Ways to study and research urban, architectural
and technical design. Delft University Press,
Delft, pp. 137-146.
[5] Lenzholzer, S. (2010). "Engrained experience-a
comparison of microclimate perception
schemata and microclimate measurements in
Dutch urban squares." International Journal of
Biometeorology, 54(2), pp. 141-151.
[6] www.knmi/klimatologie/normalen1971-
2000/per_station.html
[7] www.knmi/kd/normalen1971-
2000/station_gegevens.html
[8] https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B7o18sRGc11
bNzQ5NmRlYjctYTJmMS00NDQ4LWEyZDktNm
UzZWI3YjMxNDEw&hl=en&authkey=CKCyrfAD
[9] Brown, R. D., and Gillespie, T. J. (1995).
Microclimatic landscape design : creating
thermal comfort and energy efficiency, New
York [etc.]: Wiley, pp. 10, 71
[10] Ngeli, W. (1946). "Weitere Untersuchungen
ber die Windverhltnisse im Bereich von
Windschutzstreifen." Mitteilungen Schweizer.
Anstalt Forstliches Versuchswesen (24), pp.
659-737.
[11] Brown, R. D., and Gillespie, T. J. (1995).
Microclimatic landscape design : creating
thermal comfort and energy efficiency, New York
[etc.]: Wiley, pp. 112-117,
[12] Matzarakis, A. (2001). Die thermische
Komponente des Stadtklimas,
Habilitationsschrift, Universitt Freiburg,
Freiburg., p.160-198)
[13] Dierickx, W., Gabriels, D., and Cornelis, W. M.
(2002). "Wind tunnel study on oblique
windscreens." Biosystems Engineering, 82(1),
pp. 87-95.
[14] Brown, R. D., and Gillespie, T. J. (1995).
Microclimatic landscape design : creating
thermal comfort and energy efficiency, New York
[etc.]: Wiley, p. 116)
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 409
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve,
Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain
2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
Exploring outdoor climates and urban design in a
historic square in Dublin
gota SZCS
1
, Gerald MILLS
2

1
University College Dublin, School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Policy, Dublin, Ireland
ABSTRACT: Historic places in cities are often preserved during urban renewal schemes, and as such, are
designed to encourage public use of the outdoor environment. However, climatic considerations are rarely taken
into account and the renewed place may create a visually interesting environment that is unpleasant from a
climatic viewpoint. In this study, the microclimate of an open urban square and adjacent waterfront near central
Dublin is investigated using computational simulation. The major consideration in this climatic environment is
shelter from excessive wind at the level of the pedestrian. The research presented here examines the renewed
urban environment to evaluate whether the design promotes outdoor use by examining the wind climatology and
associated thermal and mechanical comfort of pedestrians.
Keywords: wind comfort, microclimate modelling, ENVI-met, Dublin

1. INTRODUCTION
The Grand Canal Square in Dublin has had a rich
history. It is located at the eastern end of the Grand
Canal and served as a connector between the canal
system and the port of Dublin. The urban fabric of
the place consisted of large warehouses and
terraced housing that fitted its purpose as a place
where goods were moved. It was also, until the
middle of the twentieth century, a gas works site. By
this time however, the area was in decline, the roles
of Dublin Port and the Canals had changed and
cleaner forms of energy generation were adopted [1].
The renewal of the site began in late 90s and
followed a pattern established elsewhere in Europe
by placing emphasis on designing an urban quarter
that incorporates commercial, residential and cultural
functions. The result is an urban square of extended
size surrounded by office buildings, a hotel,
apartment blocks and a theatre, situated at the
waterfront. The place was created for outdoor use
and was designed as an entity (Fig. 1).
The research presented here examines the
environmental conditions of this new urban space
using a simulation model. While the results
presented here are preliminary, the project will
develop climatologies of urban spaces in Dublin that
are designed for outdoor use and evaluate their
potential use based on outdoor comfort criteria.

Figure 1: View of Grand Canal Dock Square
2. STUDY AREA
Ireland lies on the very western boundary of
Europe, between latitude 51 and 55N and longitude
5 and 10W. The two major elements shaping
Irelands climate are the proximity of the Atlantic
Ocean (and the Gulf Stream) and the westerly
atmospheric circulation that ensures Irelands climate
is dominated by maritime influences [2].
Irelands climate may be described as middle-
latitude, marine west-coast (Cfb according to
Kppens classification). It has a mild climate with a
small annual temperature range around a mean
temperature of 9C. Precipitation occurs throughout
the year with receipt ranging from 800 to 2,800 mm
across the country. Mean annual wind speed is
consistently high, with mean values of 7 ms
-1
in the
northwest. The prevailing wind direction is south-
westerly, off the Atlantic Ocean. Dublins climate is
less windy and wet than the average for Ireland.
Although the annual rainfall in Dublin is just 1000mm,
it receives this over 150 days as low intensity events
[3]. Not surprisingly then, cloud cover is often
extensive and annual number of bright sunshine
hours is relatively low. Rain and high winds are the
two sources of outdoor discomfort in Dublin.
The study area, the Grand Canal Square (Fig. 2
and 3) is located on the east side of the city close to
the mouth of the Liffey River.

Figure 2: View of Grand Canal Theatre and Square
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2 xx.x SECTION NAME
The study area is about 250 x 250 m
2
and is
comprised of several substantial structures: the
Grand Canal Theatre (designed by the architect
Daniel Libeskind); a tinted glass office building
designed by Duffy Mitchell ODonoghue and a luxury
hotel designed by Manuel Aires Mateus. The square
itself was designed by Martha Swartz. It features a
composition of a red carpet extending from the
theatre into and over the dock on a cantilever-like
continuation and a green carpet of vegetation
crossing it over. The square has granite-paved paths
allowing movement in straight line or in sharp angle.
Benches provide for visitors places to rest and enjoy
the closeness of water.

Figure 2: Arial view of Grand Canal Square (circle) and
adjacent study areas (ellipses). 1 - theatre building, 2 -
hotel, 3 - office building. Source: www.googleearth.com
3. COMFORT IN OUTDOOR LOCATIONS
Human biometeorology emphasizes the
increasing importance that is placed on environment
and human health and to their interrelationships. It is
essential to explore these when approaching
problems related to decreased use of outdoor
spaces [4]. Thermally pleasant and comfortable
outdoor spaces noticeably influence the amount and
type of human physical activity [5] and creation of
comfortable spaces is needed in order to satisfy
outdoor recreational users [6]. The way people
perceive the thermal environment is related to
changes occurring in body temperature due to heat
loss or gain. Environmental factors, such as air
temperature, radiation, relative humidity and wind
velocity effect heat dissipation from the human body.
Air temperature and relative humidity can hardly be
altered at a great extent by architectural means at an
outdoor location. Nevertheless, the effect of
radiation and wind velocity can be attenuated or
reinforced by man-made structures; however their
influence cannot be eliminated.
Wind represents one of the chief differences
between outdoors and indoors. Even a light wind will
exceed the typical intensity of air movement that
could be experienced in an indoor environment.
Wind exerts two kinds of effect on people: direct
effect that is often described as mechanical effect
of wind force concerning both people and items,
such as umbrella, accoutrements, dust etc., and
thermal effect, the more indirect influence of wind
affecting thermal comfort when combined with
humidity, solar radiation and temperature [7]. Wind
can be characterised by both a mean flow and a
turbulent component. The standard deviation of wind
statistics captures the property of gustiness, which
is responsible for many features of wind discomfort,
including difficulty in maintaining balance when
walking. Other wind effects are dependent on the
mean speed, such as the energy expended to move
ahead against a strong steady wind [7].
In an Irish context, rain and wind are the two chief
environmental factors that affect the most outdoor
activity. The former significantly limits the time
available for outdoor activity. In fact, there is no
doubt that, in practice, the time lost to informal
outdoor recreation due to precipitation is generally
appreciably greater than its strict duration. Desire to
avoid getting wet will usually cause abandonment of
the activity before rain has started, and a delay in
quitting shelter until the subsequent cessation of the
rain seems well established [8].
There is nothing that design can do to alter the
outdoor rainfall environment apart from provided
covered walkways and building canopies. However,
there are a number of design strategies that can
manage the outdoor wind environment and promote
the use of outdoor spaces.
Regarding the effect of wind in urban spaces, the
first events associated with discomfort, i.e.
pronounced sensation of wind on the face or hair
disturbance occur at wind force 2 and 3 on the
Beaufort scale [9]. Experiments carried out in wind
tunnel provided basis for establishing wind speed
criteria for different types of activity. Not only the
threshold wind speed value itself but also the
percentage of time during that the threshold value
can be exceeded is of importance. Table 1 presents
the wind criteria chosen in terms of average wind
speed and gust equivalent mean speed (taking into
account the peak fluctuation of the wind) - for three
types of activity: walking, standing and sitting. It is
based on 20% probability of exceedance [7].
According to this approach, for standing maximum
3.9 m/s, while in case of sitting activity outdoors, 2.6
m/s maximal wind velocity is acceptable. The
threshold value for walking is about twice as high as
for sitting: 5.4 m/s. Wind speeds exceeding 5.4 m/s
are regarded as unsuitable for any outdoor activity.

Table 1: Example of simple criteria based on 20%
probability of exceedance [6]
Activity
Comfortable
ranges (m/s)
Uncomfortable for any activity > 5.4
Walking 0 5.4
Standing 0 3.9
Sitting 0 2.6
4. METHODOLOGY
4.1. Background climate
As a first approach, wind environment is
assessed towards natural or background climate
characteristics recorded at the closest site collecting
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meteorological data: Dublin Airport. The data have
been recorded at 10 meters height, at an open,
obstacle-free area and characterise a chosen
reference year, 2005.
Occurring mean hourly average wind speed data
of the chosen reference year have been qualified
either unsuitable or suitable for sitting, standing or
walking activity according to the presented criteria
(Table 1). Table 2 shows that during more than 80%
of the reference year - altogether 7448 hours out of
8760 - climatic conditions are suitable for outdoor
activity in Dublin. During 1312 hours of the year the
wind speed exceeds the 5.4 m/s wind comfort
threshold value resulting in excessive wind,
unsuitable for any type of outdoor activity.
The extent to which built environment modifies
microclimate at the selected location has been
described in relation to background climate. This
method allows demonstrating whether the designed
urban setting contributes to the reduction or
enhancement of the airflow intensity. The selected
location has been tested for four different wind
directions (north, east, south, west) with a wind
speed of 8 m/s measured at a height of 10 meters.
Table 2: Frequency of occurrence of specific wind speed
intervals suitable for three types of outdoor activity: sitting,
standing and walking

4.2. Computational simulation
ENVI-met, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
model is used to examine the microclimate of the
Grand Canal Square and adjacent waterfront. ENVI-
met is a freely available program developed by Prof.
Michael Bruse [10] that simulates airflow (both mean
and turbulent characteristics) in a neighbourhood
comprised of obstacles in the form of buildings and
vegetation. It also simulates energy exchanges
occurring at surfaces.
The program requires input data that are
contained in two files: the area input file and the
configuration file. The former consists of a three-
dimensional grid that is used to outline building,
vegetation and ground surfaces. Fig. 3 depicts the
Grand Canal Square input area file. Light grey grids
represent vegetation (trees and turf), while dark grey
grids represent buildings. The water surface of the
canal, the paved and asphalted surfaces have also
been modelled by ENVI-met (however they are not
visible on Fig. 3).
The configuration file contains the date, desired
time period of study (length of simulated time period),
time step, roughness length of the zone and
meteorological data related to the simulation, such
as wind speed and direction, relative and specific
humidity and atmosphere temperature.


Figure 3: Area input file representing the Grand Canal
Dock Square and its surroundings
5. RESULTS
5.1. Actual configuration
Airflow has been modelled by ENVI-met for four
wind directions in the selected area, in order to map
airflow patterns facilitating the detection of discomfort
due to mechanical nuisance of wind. The results
have been presented in terms of outdoor activity type
whose practice is associated to the defined wind
speed interval. Four points located at the following
representative zones of the selected area have been
chosen: A central point located at the bay of the
square, B viewpoint at the cantilever slab reaching
over the canal, C westerly waterfront, D northern
waterfront.
Fig. 4 depicts wind environment in case of
northern wind. Light grey colour indicates zones
suitable for long term sitting and standing, middle
grey those for walking, while dark grey shows
locations where average wind speed exceeds 5.4
m/s and makes places unsuitable for the practice of
any outdoor activity.

Figure 4: Iso-plates representing wind speed (in m/s) in
case of northern wind at pedestrian height
In case of northern wind the square - situated on
the leeward side of the hotel building - is protected.
So is the northern waterfront area (point D) and the
cantilever viewpoint providing sheltered environment
suitable for long-term sitting and standing,
respectively. In contrast, the west waterfront (point C)
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2 xx.x SECTION NAME
The study area is about 250 x 250 m
2
and is
comprised of several substantial structures: the
Grand Canal Theatre (designed by the architect
Daniel Libeskind); a tinted glass office building
designed by Duffy Mitchell ODonoghue and a luxury
hotel designed by Manuel Aires Mateus. The square
itself was designed by Martha Swartz. It features a
composition of a red carpet extending from the
theatre into and over the dock on a cantilever-like
continuation and a green carpet of vegetation
crossing it over. The square has granite-paved paths
allowing movement in straight line or in sharp angle.
Benches provide for visitors places to rest and enjoy
the closeness of water.

Figure 2: Arial view of Grand Canal Square (circle) and
adjacent study areas (ellipses). 1 - theatre building, 2 -
hotel, 3 - office building. Source: www.googleearth.com
3. COMFORT IN OUTDOOR LOCATIONS
Human biometeorology emphasizes the
increasing importance that is placed on environment
and human health and to their interrelationships. It is
essential to explore these when approaching
problems related to decreased use of outdoor
spaces [4]. Thermally pleasant and comfortable
outdoor spaces noticeably influence the amount and
type of human physical activity [5] and creation of
comfortable spaces is needed in order to satisfy
outdoor recreational users [6]. The way people
perceive the thermal environment is related to
changes occurring in body temperature due to heat
loss or gain. Environmental factors, such as air
temperature, radiation, relative humidity and wind
velocity effect heat dissipation from the human body.
Air temperature and relative humidity can hardly be
altered at a great extent by architectural means at an
outdoor location. Nevertheless, the effect of
radiation and wind velocity can be attenuated or
reinforced by man-made structures; however their
influence cannot be eliminated.
Wind represents one of the chief differences
between outdoors and indoors. Even a light wind will
exceed the typical intensity of air movement that
could be experienced in an indoor environment.
Wind exerts two kinds of effect on people: direct
effect that is often described as mechanical effect
of wind force concerning both people and items,
such as umbrella, accoutrements, dust etc., and
thermal effect, the more indirect influence of wind
affecting thermal comfort when combined with
humidity, solar radiation and temperature [7]. Wind
can be characterised by both a mean flow and a
turbulent component. The standard deviation of wind
statistics captures the property of gustiness, which
is responsible for many features of wind discomfort,
including difficulty in maintaining balance when
walking. Other wind effects are dependent on the
mean speed, such as the energy expended to move
ahead against a strong steady wind [7].
In an Irish context, rain and wind are the two chief
environmental factors that affect the most outdoor
activity. The former significantly limits the time
available for outdoor activity. In fact, there is no
doubt that, in practice, the time lost to informal
outdoor recreation due to precipitation is generally
appreciably greater than its strict duration. Desire to
avoid getting wet will usually cause abandonment of
the activity before rain has started, and a delay in
quitting shelter until the subsequent cessation of the
rain seems well established [8].
There is nothing that design can do to alter the
outdoor rainfall environment apart from provided
covered walkways and building canopies. However,
there are a number of design strategies that can
manage the outdoor wind environment and promote
the use of outdoor spaces.
Regarding the effect of wind in urban spaces, the
first events associated with discomfort, i.e.
pronounced sensation of wind on the face or hair
disturbance occur at wind force 2 and 3 on the
Beaufort scale [9]. Experiments carried out in wind
tunnel provided basis for establishing wind speed
criteria for different types of activity. Not only the
threshold wind speed value itself but also the
percentage of time during that the threshold value
can be exceeded is of importance. Table 1 presents
the wind criteria chosen in terms of average wind
speed and gust equivalent mean speed (taking into
account the peak fluctuation of the wind) - for three
types of activity: walking, standing and sitting. It is
based on 20% probability of exceedance [7].
According to this approach, for standing maximum
3.9 m/s, while in case of sitting activity outdoors, 2.6
m/s maximal wind velocity is acceptable. The
threshold value for walking is about twice as high as
for sitting: 5.4 m/s. Wind speeds exceeding 5.4 m/s
are regarded as unsuitable for any outdoor activity.

Table 1: Example of simple criteria based on 20%
probability of exceedance [6]
Activity
Comfortable
ranges (m/s)
Uncomfortable for any activity > 5.4
Walking 0 5.4
Standing 0 3.9
Sitting 0 2.6
4. METHODOLOGY
4.1. Background climate
As a first approach, wind environment is
assessed towards natural or background climate
characteristics recorded at the closest site collecting
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is exposed to northern wind and generates a wind
environment unsuitable for the practice of any long-
term outdoor activity (Fig. 4).
Street canyons with north-south axis off the main
square, and having open ends are also exposed to
northern wind that results in high wind speeds and
again, a wind environment that impedes any kind of
long-term outdoor activity. In addition, these streets
get small amount of sunshine since buildings are
high compared to the width of the street. Lack of
direct solar radiation together with intense airflow
leads to unpleasant thermal ambience.
Airflow pattern in case of southern wind shows no
significant difference regarding the centre of the
square and the westerly waterfront (point C).
However, southern winds cause the occurrence of
high velocities at the viewpoint (point B) annulling in
this manner comfort (Fig. 5).

Figure 5: Iso-plates representing wind speed (in m/s) in
case of southern wind at pedestrian height
In case of westerly winds the centre and the
westerly waterfront points are protected by the
theatre and the office blocks. Both points (A and C)
situated at the leeward side of the buildings
represent areas of moderate airflow where long term
seating activity is envisageable (Fig. 6).

Figure 6: Iso-plates of wind speed (in m/s) in case of
westerly wind at pedestrian height
The wind environment at the viewpoint reaching
over the canal (point B) remains suitable for standing
and walking, however northern waterfront
(represented by point B) is uncomfortable since
exposed to strong wind.
The situation is much different in case of eastern
wind: the square, the northern waterfront such as the
viewpoint (B) are unprotected and swept by strong
winds. No practice of long term outdoor activity is
facilitated by the wind on the viewpoint; while the
square and the northern waterfront remain suitable
for walking and standing, respectively (Fig. 7).
Western waterfront (point C) is located on the lee
side of the residential buildings situated on the other
side of the canal which provide shelter. Wind speeds
are within a range that is tolerable for sitting and
standing.

Figure 7: Iso-plates of wind speed (in m/s) in case of
eastern wind at pedestrian height

The results show that the area of interest is
particularly sensitive to wind direction. The viewpoint
situated on the cantilever slab, representing the
continuity of the path leading to the theatre and
floating over the canal is a specially exposed place
where for the tested wind speed in the best case
long term standing activity can be envisaged. In
contrast, the central zone of the theatre square
remains relatively protected in case of all four
simulated wind directions and facilitates long-term
outdoor activity. The waterfront zones - represented
by points C and D - are sensible to wind directions
parallel to streets they (point C and D) are aligned
with.
Table 3 summarizes the type of outdoor activity
that can be carried out depending on the wind
environment at the investigated locations, in function
of wind direction. The waterfront zones - represented
by points C and D - are sensible to wind directions
parallel to streets they (point C and D) are aligned
with.
Table 3: Adequate proposed long-term outdoor activity in
function of wind environment; UC stands for uncomfortable
Point North East South West
A sitting walking standing sitting
B standing UC UC standing
C UC standing UC sitting
D sitting UC walking UC
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5.2. Introduction of a shelterbelt
The existing wind environment of the investigated
area presents characteristics that can surprise
pedestrians and create unpleasant conditions, such
as rapid changes in terms of wind speed within
relatively short distances. Existing wind environment
can be moderated by means of architecture and
landscape design. A first attempt investigating the
impact of a shelterbelt comprising four wind screens
of dense hedge placed onto the waterfront corner at
the junction of the square and a narrow street
oriented north-south off the main square. In case of
northern wind the area protected by the shelterbelt
becomes suitable for long-term sitting and standing -
including the zone where in the existing configuration
excessive wind was frequent: the viewpoint on the
cantilever slab floating over the canal (Fig. 7).

Figure 7: Iso-plates of wind speed (in m/s) in case of
southern wind - Configuration with shelterbelt.

This example demonstrates that with a relatively
small intervention wind environment can significantly
be moderated. Further study aims to examine how
other areas exposed to intense airflow can be
protected by natural or constructed wind screens.
6. CONCLUSION
The present example shows how renewed urban
structure shapes through its morphological
characteristics natural climate, creating conditions
that are either uncomfortable or suitable for practice
of different outdoor activities.
Microclimatic conditions have often not been part
of the planning process of public urban spaces,
created during urban renewal schemes. These
spaces have been created with the aim of
encouraging outdoor civic life and activity. Their
success is strongly related to climatic conditions
experienced in situ by pedestrians. In an Irish context
shelter from excessive wind is the principal climatic
concern. In consequence, the study focuses on
mechanical nuisance associated with wind. Using
meteorological data collected at Dublin Airport it has
been demonstrated that during the major part of the
year wind conditions facilitate long-term outdoor
activity at the selected location.
Wind environment at four representative locations
situated at the studied area have been presented for
four wind directions. The results reveal that airflow
characteristics between buildings are strongly related
to the morphology, in other terms, the geometrical
characteristics of the urban fragment. The
microclimate created between the buildings is very
sensitive to orientation of streets relative to wind
direction, to heights and forms of buildings and also
to the distance between buildings.
The paper aims to highlight that urban planning
has consequence on microclimate, comfort and
health of habitants; that is why climatic
characteristics should be integral part of the planning
process.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research project is financed by the IRCSET
Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and
Technology.
The authors express their gratitude to
Dr. Bernadett Balzs for her guidance through the
familiarization with the program ENVI-met.
8. REFERENCES
[1] http://www.ddda.ie/ Article online: Grand Canal
Square is rapidly becoming the commercial and
cultural heart of the area
[2] P. K. Rohan, The Climate of Ireland (1975)
Dublin, The Stationery Office.
[3] http://www.met.ie/climate/ Climate of Ireland
[4] J. K. Vanos, J. S. Warland, T. J. Gillespie, N. A.
Kenny. Review of the physiology of human
thermal comfort while exercising in urban
landscapes and implications for bioclimatic
design. Int J Biometeorol (2010) 54:319334
[5] N. Gaitani, G. Mihalakakou, M. Santamouris, On
the use of bioclimatic architecture principles in
order to improve thermal comfort conditions in
outdoor spaces. Build Environ (2007) 42:317
324
[6] R. D. Brown, T. J. Gillespie, Estimating outdoor
thermal comfort using a cylindrical radiation
thermometer and an energy budget model. Int J
Biometeorol (1986) 30(1):4352.
[7] American Society of Civil Engineers. Task
Committee on Outdoor Human Comfort, Outdoor
Human Comfort and its Assessment: State of
the art (2003)
[8] L. S. Leech, A provisional assessment of the
recreational quality of weather in summer, in
terms of thermal comfort and the adverse effect
of rainfall. Irish Meteorological Service Technical
Note No. 47 (1985)
[9] J. Gandemer, A. Guyot, Intgration du
phnomne vent dans la conception du milieu
bati. Guide mthodologique et conseils
pratiques (1976)
[10] M. Bruse, ENVI-met website (2004) Online:
http://www.envimet.com
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve,
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4 xx.x SECTION NAME
is exposed to northern wind and generates a wind
environment unsuitable for the practice of any long-
term outdoor activity (Fig. 4).
Street canyons with north-south axis off the main
square, and having open ends are also exposed to
northern wind that results in high wind speeds and
again, a wind environment that impedes any kind of
long-term outdoor activity. In addition, these streets
get small amount of sunshine since buildings are
high compared to the width of the street. Lack of
direct solar radiation together with intense airflow
leads to unpleasant thermal ambience.
Airflow pattern in case of southern wind shows no
significant difference regarding the centre of the
square and the westerly waterfront (point C).
However, southern winds cause the occurrence of
high velocities at the viewpoint (point B) annulling in
this manner comfort (Fig. 5).

Figure 5: Iso-plates representing wind speed (in m/s) in
case of southern wind at pedestrian height
In case of westerly winds the centre and the
westerly waterfront points are protected by the
theatre and the office blocks. Both points (A and C)
situated at the leeward side of the buildings
represent areas of moderate airflow where long term
seating activity is envisageable (Fig. 6).

Figure 6: Iso-plates of wind speed (in m/s) in case of
westerly wind at pedestrian height
The wind environment at the viewpoint reaching
over the canal (point B) remains suitable for standing
and walking, however northern waterfront
(represented by point B) is uncomfortable since
exposed to strong wind.
The situation is much different in case of eastern
wind: the square, the northern waterfront such as the
viewpoint (B) are unprotected and swept by strong
winds. No practice of long term outdoor activity is
facilitated by the wind on the viewpoint; while the
square and the northern waterfront remain suitable
for walking and standing, respectively (Fig. 7).
Western waterfront (point C) is located on the lee
side of the residential buildings situated on the other
side of the canal which provide shelter. Wind speeds
are within a range that is tolerable for sitting and
standing.

Figure 7: Iso-plates of wind speed (in m/s) in case of
eastern wind at pedestrian height

The results show that the area of interest is
particularly sensitive to wind direction. The viewpoint
situated on the cantilever slab, representing the
continuity of the path leading to the theatre and
floating over the canal is a specially exposed place
where for the tested wind speed in the best case
long term standing activity can be envisaged. In
contrast, the central zone of the theatre square
remains relatively protected in case of all four
simulated wind directions and facilitates long-term
outdoor activity. The waterfront zones - represented
by points C and D - are sensible to wind directions
parallel to streets they (point C and D) are aligned
with.
Table 3 summarizes the type of outdoor activity
that can be carried out depending on the wind
environment at the investigated locations, in function
of wind direction. The waterfront zones - represented
by points C and D - are sensible to wind directions
parallel to streets they (point C and D) are aligned
with.
Table 3: Adequate proposed long-term outdoor activity in
function of wind environment; UC stands for uncomfortable
Point North East South West
A sitting walking standing sitting
B standing UC UC standing
C UC standing UC sitting
D sitting UC walking UC
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ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx. x SECTION NAME 1
THERMAL COMFORT IN URBAN PUBLIC SPACES:
CASE STUDIES IN PEDESTRIAN STREETS IN CITIES OF
SAO PAULO STATE, BRAZIL
Maria Solange Gurgel de Castro Fontes
1
, Cristiane Dacanal
2
, Carolina Lotuffo Bueno-
Bartholomei
3
, Marialena Nikolopoulou
4
, Lucila Chebel Labaki
5

1
Architecture, Arts and Communication Faculty, University of So Paulo State Jlio de Mesquita Filho,
Bauru, Brazil
2
Civil and Engineering Faculty, University of de Campinas, Campinas, Brazil
3
Science and Technology Faculty, University of So Paulo State Jlio de Mesquita Filho, Presidente Prudente
Brazil,
4
Kent School of Architecture, University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom
5
Civil and Engineering Faculty, University of de Campinas, Campinas, Brazil
ABSTRACT: This paper is part of a more comprehensive project that aimed to analyze the users' thermal comfort
in convivial urban spaces and linear spaces in different cities of Sao Paulo State. The research has the purpose of
contributing to advance studies on thermal comfort in those spaces in Brazil, based on the methodology developed
by RUROS Project (Rediscovering the Urban Realm and Open Spaces). This paper shows case studies
developed in three pedestrian streets located in the cities of Campinas, Bauru and Presidente Prudente. By
monitoring the microclimatic variables (air temperature and humidity, air velocity and global solar radiation,
simultaneously with structured interviews) it was possible to evaluate the Actual Thermal Comfort (ASV) and the
calculated one through PET (Physiological Equivalent Temperature). The results presented different limits for
neutral temperature in each one of the evaluated cities. However, 59,5% of the total analysed sample indicated
comfort limits ranging from 18 to 26 C. The results also showed that hot weather conditions are more critical for
pedestrians and highlighted the necessity of a requalification of those spaces aiming to improve the microclimatic
characteristics and consequently to influence the users thermal satisfaction.
Keywords: open urban space, thermal comfort, pedestrian streets
1. INTRODUCTION
The urban spaces have environmental
characteristics that include physical and microclimatic
aspects of social significance, they influence the
change of human behaviour and can make them
more or less attractive. As exposed by Lynch [1], the
spaces also gain significance according to the urban
context, composed of nodes, edges, paths and
landmarks.
In general, the nodes or focal points are
characterized by human permanence collective
activities [2]. The paths or linear spaces have a more
fluid function and are characterized by the
nonpermanence. Nevertheless, the environmental
quality of the public spaces and their localization can
transform their use.
Thus, the spaces designed for circulation, such as
streets and sidewalks, can be transformed in a
convivial space. The same way, the spaces without
enough environmental qualities can become
problematic and subsequently empty urban space [3].
Which characteristics should spaces to walk have,
so that they became attractive to the population and
were considered safe and pleasant places?
The subspace presence, i.e. fewer focal points in
the linear spaces, contributes for the transformations
in places to visit [4]. The presence of urban furniture
(benches, tables, flowerbeds, lamps, among others)
is highlighted by the population as well. Apart from
the presence of unusual elements provoking the
sense of surprise to the pedestrian, the public spaces
have to be attractive in their boundaries (walls,
buildings and shorelines), because it is through it that
it is possible to access other activities [2]. The best
examples are the pedestrian streets limited by
commercial, services or historical buildings. The focal
spaces, which acquired use of nonpermanence, link
the activities of the boundaries. Good examples are
the squares in central area that have bus or subway
stations.
The success of the linear spaces chosen to be
pedestrian routes is in its microclimate. The
pedestrian prefers shade and nice temperature in hot
climate. Therefore, the presence of trees, marquises
and covered porticos are favorable to thermal
comfort.
Regarding the microclimates, it is important to
emphasize that they are influenced by open space
layouts, vegetation and green surfaces in general,
water presence and material surfaces. Microclimates
are also affected by wind exposition, which is the
main regulator of humidity and thermal sensation
among others. For this reason, the special typology,
the presence of various vegetation strata (grass,
bushes and trees) and material characteristics can be
decisive in urban public space quality and
consequently in users thermal satisfaction,
determinative factor for the use and local time
permanence.
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Evaluating comfort in open public spaces is a
complex subject and the inter-relation between
numerous and different parameters are necessary.
Even though the microclimatic parameters greatly
affect the comfort sensation, they are not the only
determinatives to evaluate the thermal environment
[5]. The existent difference between users` comfort
sensation (Actual Sensation Votes-ASV) [6] and the
calculated one (Physiological Equivalent Temperature
- PET) [7] is related to the great influence of
psychological adaptation over the comfort state,
which involves the naturalness, thermal expectation,
thermal experience, memory, physiological
acclimatization, possibilities of sun or shade
exposition and environmental stimulus [8].
Aiming to characterize public linear spaces and
verify how the environmental physical aspects
interfere in the microclimate, in the pedestrian thermal
comfort (according to PET et index and ASV) and in
the use and appropriation of space, this research
presents case studies in cities of the State of Sao
Paulo, Brazil. The methodology was based on
RUROS Project - Rediscovering the Urban Realm
and Open Space [6]. For such, two linear spaces
(pedestrian streets) and a punctual space, which has
a function of crossing space (linear space) with
physical characteristics and diverse microclimates,
were chosen.
2. CASE STUDIES
The public linear spaces researched took place in
three cities of the state of So Paulo, Brazil
Campinas (latitude 22 48 South and longitude 47
03 West), Bauru (latitude 2221 South and longitude
4901 West) and Presidente Prudente (latitude
2207' South and longitude 5123' West). The three
cities are characterized by cool and dry winter and
hot and humid summer.
The spaces evaluated are located in the
downtown area of those cities. It is observed that the
pedestrian route in urban centers is associated with
the presence of commerce, services and public
transport. Therefore, those areas are characterized
by intense pedestrian flux and many times they are in
conflict with vehicle traffic. They are densely
populated regions, with tall buildings, predominantly
of commercial use.
In Campinas the research was performed in
Largo do Par (Fig. 1), a punctual space which
service as linear space and which has permanence
subspace. The square, located on one of the main
avenues of the city, Francisco Glicrio avenue, has
historical and cultural value and was established in
the middle of the nineteenth Century, gaining the
status of public urban space at the end of that same
century.
During its many celebrations, it received some
equipments bandstand, water-fountain, coffee
monument, among others. Its memorable value
motivated its registration as national asset in 2008.
Its most important functions are associated with the
presence of public transport (regional and municipal
buses) and taxi and the presence of hotels and
commerce in the neighborhood. The square has
equipment such as playground, fast food commerce
and newsstand.
Largo do Par square is surrounded by buildings
of 2 up to 10 floors, painted in different colors (the
paint is faded). Its pavement is made of black and
white stones known as Portuguese stone. The
gardens are well defined, with several plant species
of different sizes. The benches are made of wood and
cast iron. The fountain and other urban furniture are
built in concrete, masonry and cast iron. The
playground is surrounded by an iron fence, its
equipment is made of wood and its ground covered
with sand.
In Bauru the study took place on Batista de
Carvalho pedestrian street mall (Fig. 2). That street
has a significant historical importance, for it used to
be the entrance gate for the passengers who
disembarked at Noroeste do Brasil Railway Station.
After the decline of the rail transport in Brazil, the
street, which connects Machado de Melo square to
Rui Barbosa square, became an attraction point for
commerce, achieving regional impact. In 1992 the
street became pedestrian restrict use, time when
public equipments were implanted such as benches,
garbage bins, lamps, porticos, among others.
The commercial buildings in brick masonry, each
painted in different colors, are usually of two and
three floors and the pavement is made of Portuguese
stone in white and black interpolated with concrete
strips. The urban furniture is made of wood and
concrete (benches and flowerbeds) and the porticos
are of metallic structure. Some porticos have
transparent polycarbonate shelter in blue.

Figure 1: Focal space Largo do Par that work like a linear
space Campinas. Source: Google Earth.

Figure 2: Pedestrian street Batista de Carvalho Bauru.
Source: Google Earth.
In Presidente Prudente the study took place on
Nicolau Maffei pedestrian street (Fig.3). The
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xx. x SECTION NAME 3
pedestrian exclusive use occurred in the beginning of
the 80`s in the downtown area. There is an intense
flux of pedestrians of different ages, especially adults,
who make use of commerce, banks services in the
area or just as a passage to perform other activities.
Apart from the existing commerce shops there is also
the presence of shadow economy commerce. The
urban equipments implanted on the pedestrian street
are: benches, public phone booths, garbage bins,
flowerbeds and tables and chairs of the food shops.
This pedestrian street, shaded by two storied
buildings and trees, is also paved with white and
black Portuguese stones. The benches and
flowerbeds are made of concrete and wood and the
buildings of brick masonry with faades painted in
different colors.


Figure 3: Pedestrian street Nicolau Maffei Presidente
Prudente. Source: Google Earth.
In general the analyzed public spaces have a
characteristic in common - the Portuguese stones
used for pavement. In Brazil those stones, which
have in their composition limestone and basalt
(thermal conductivity of 1,6 and 2,9 W/m.K), are
widely used for pavement in public squares and
pedestrian streets, due to their flexibility in
composition. Concrete and wood are also widely used
materials, especially in urban furniture. The
characteristic of the materials used in the
surrounding buildings are similar as well (thermal
conductivity between 0,70-1,05 W/m.K) and the
faades are painted of varied colors (absorptance
between 0,20 and 0,97 and emissivity of 0,9).
Figures 4, 5 and 6 present images of the analyzed
public spaces and the solar chart overlapped on
hemispherical photographs in each data monitoring
local. These images show the urban geometry (in
each one of them) and urban arborization influence
(in Campinas and Presidente Prudente) in the Sky
View Factor (SVF) and consequently at periods of
direct solar radiation incidence during the year.

Figure 4: Monitoring point in Campinas and solar chart
overlapped on fisheye photo (SVF = 0,245)



Figure 5: Monitoring points (1, 2 and 3) in Bauru and solar
chart overlapped on fisheye photos (SVF: P1 = 0,403,
P2 = 0,259 and P3= 0,313)



Figure 6: Monitoring points (1, 2 and 3) in Presidente
Prudente and solar chart overlapped on fisheye photos
(SVF: P1 = 0.152, P2 = 0,248 and P3 = 0,150)
3. METHODOLOGY
The investigation about the thermal comfort
conditions in 3 pedestrian streets in the cities of
Campinas, Bauru and Presidente Prudente, located
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2 xx. x SECTION NAME
Evaluating comfort in open public spaces is a
complex subject and the inter-relation between
numerous and different parameters are necessary.
Even though the microclimatic parameters greatly
affect the comfort sensation, they are not the only
determinatives to evaluate the thermal environment
[5]. The existent difference between users` comfort
sensation (Actual Sensation Votes-ASV) [6] and the
calculated one (Physiological Equivalent Temperature
- PET) [7] is related to the great influence of
psychological adaptation over the comfort state,
which involves the naturalness, thermal expectation,
thermal experience, memory, physiological
acclimatization, possibilities of sun or shade
exposition and environmental stimulus [8].
Aiming to characterize public linear spaces and
verify how the environmental physical aspects
interfere in the microclimate, in the pedestrian thermal
comfort (according to PET et index and ASV) and in
the use and appropriation of space, this research
presents case studies in cities of the State of Sao
Paulo, Brazil. The methodology was based on
RUROS Project - Rediscovering the Urban Realm
and Open Space [6]. For such, two linear spaces
(pedestrian streets) and a punctual space, which has
a function of crossing space (linear space) with
physical characteristics and diverse microclimates,
were chosen.
2. CASE STUDIES
The public linear spaces researched took place in
three cities of the state of So Paulo, Brazil
Campinas (latitude 22 48 South and longitude 47
03 West), Bauru (latitude 2221 South and longitude
4901 West) and Presidente Prudente (latitude
2207' South and longitude 5123' West). The three
cities are characterized by cool and dry winter and
hot and humid summer.
The spaces evaluated are located in the
downtown area of those cities. It is observed that the
pedestrian route in urban centers is associated with
the presence of commerce, services and public
transport. Therefore, those areas are characterized
by intense pedestrian flux and many times they are in
conflict with vehicle traffic. They are densely
populated regions, with tall buildings, predominantly
of commercial use.
In Campinas the research was performed in
Largo do Par (Fig. 1), a punctual space which
service as linear space and which has permanence
subspace. The square, located on one of the main
avenues of the city, Francisco Glicrio avenue, has
historical and cultural value and was established in
the middle of the nineteenth Century, gaining the
status of public urban space at the end of that same
century.
During its many celebrations, it received some
equipments bandstand, water-fountain, coffee
monument, among others. Its memorable value
motivated its registration as national asset in 2008.
Its most important functions are associated with the
presence of public transport (regional and municipal
buses) and taxi and the presence of hotels and
commerce in the neighborhood. The square has
equipment such as playground, fast food commerce
and newsstand.
Largo do Par square is surrounded by buildings
of 2 up to 10 floors, painted in different colors (the
paint is faded). Its pavement is made of black and
white stones known as Portuguese stone. The
gardens are well defined, with several plant species
of different sizes. The benches are made of wood and
cast iron. The fountain and other urban furniture are
built in concrete, masonry and cast iron. The
playground is surrounded by an iron fence, its
equipment is made of wood and its ground covered
with sand.
In Bauru the study took place on Batista de
Carvalho pedestrian street mall (Fig. 2). That street
has a significant historical importance, for it used to
be the entrance gate for the passengers who
disembarked at Noroeste do Brasil Railway Station.
After the decline of the rail transport in Brazil, the
street, which connects Machado de Melo square to
Rui Barbosa square, became an attraction point for
commerce, achieving regional impact. In 1992 the
street became pedestrian restrict use, time when
public equipments were implanted such as benches,
garbage bins, lamps, porticos, among others.
The commercial buildings in brick masonry, each
painted in different colors, are usually of two and
three floors and the pavement is made of Portuguese
stone in white and black interpolated with concrete
strips. The urban furniture is made of wood and
concrete (benches and flowerbeds) and the porticos
are of metallic structure. Some porticos have
transparent polycarbonate shelter in blue.

Figure 1: Focal space Largo do Par that work like a linear
space Campinas. Source: Google Earth.

Figure 2: Pedestrian street Batista de Carvalho Bauru.
Source: Google Earth.
In Presidente Prudente the study took place on
Nicolau Maffei pedestrian street (Fig.3). The
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
418 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
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4 xx. x SECTION NAME
in Sao Paulo State, Brazil, was conducted in different
weather conditions (cool and dry, hot and dry and hot
and humid), during 6 days in each one of the cities, in
the period of September 2008 until March 2009.
These cities are characterized by cool and dry winter
and hot and humid summer.
Microclimatic data (air and global temperature, air
humidity, global solar radiation and air velocity) were
collected with the mobile meteorological station (fig.
7), developed by the Applied Physics and
Environmental Comfort Laboratory from UNICAMP
(University of Campinas-SP).
Simultaneously with the acquisition of the
microclimatic data, questionnaires were applied
randomly to the users of the spaces in order to
identify their profile and thermal sensation (Actual
comfort). Issues affecting the use of space (usage
patterns, preferences within the area, among others),
and the frequency of use were also investigated. The
preparation of the questionnaire was based on the
RUROS Project [6].



1.Temperature sensor
to globe thermometer;

2.Datalogger to register
temperature and
humidity;

3. Anemometer Omni
directional;

4.Net Radimetro
(piranometer and
pirgeometer);

5.Datalogger (Campbell
Scientific / CR1000)
Figure 7: Photo of the mobile meteorological station
The microclimatic monitoring together with a
questionnaire allowed to analyse the Actual Thermal
Comfort (ASV), obtained through questionnaires,
with calculated thermal comfort using PET
(Physiological Equivalent Temperature) [7].
For questions about Actual sensation of thermal
comfort (Actual Votes Sensations - ASV), the
respondents were questioned about their trial chill
through a 5-point scale ranging from "very cold" (-2)
to "very hot" (+2) [8].
The PET index was calculated by the software
"Rayman" (version 1.2) developed by the
Meteorological Institute of Freiburg [7]. In each
measuring point were recorded hemispheric photos in
order to calculate the sky view factor (SVF) using the
same software.
4. RESULTS
The analysis of Thermal Comfort in pedestrian
streets in three cities of the interior of Sao Paulo State
highlight differences between Calculated and Actual
Thermal Comfort and a great users thermal
sensibility to the weather daily and seasonal
changes, which influence the users permanence
length of time in the evaluated spaces.
Table 1 brings the average values of the
microclimatic conditions of the users exposition
during fieldwork in the cities of Campinas, Bauru and
Presidente Prudente. The data highlight the
significant microclimatic differences in the morning
and afternoon periods among those cities.

Table 1 Microclimatic conditions during monitoring
days in the cities of Campinas, Bauru and Presidente
Prudente
Cities


Campinas Bauru Presidente.
Prudente
M A M A M A
Temperature ( C)
Mean
Mmin
Mmax
25,1
21,7
28,2
27,7
26,1
30,1
26,8
22,7
30,5
29,9
25,4
35,2
16,0
10,0
24,6
28,0
22,5
32,6
Humidity (%)
Mean
Mmin
Mmax
52,5
44,7
58,3
51,5
41,6
62,8
52,5
41,9
62,4
40,5
28,2
59,9
64,6
52,2
79,1
41,3
37,1
48,9
Wind (m/s)
Mean
Min
Max
0,7
0,2
1,0
0,8
0,2
1,3
1,1
0,7
1,9
1,2
0,8
2,1
1,1
0,7
1,7
1,0
0,9
1,2
Global Solar Radiation (w/m2)
Mmin
Mmax
- 95
270
- 383
462
304
562
40
282
50
408
- 33
549
Legend: M morning A - Afternoon
Mmin Mean minimum Mmax - Mean maximum

In mild climatic conditions, with cold and dry
weather, it was observed a great percentage of the
PET within of the range limits from 18-23 C [9]. In
relation to ASV, for those same conditions it was
observed a balance between people who felt
comfortable and uncomfortable. However, in hot and
humid weather conditions, the PET temperatures
were out of those limits and the ASV showed a larger
percentage of uncomfortable people, reaching 100%
in some periods, whose air temperature exceeded 30
C.
In the thermal discomfort conditions, caused by
high temperatures and high or low relative air
humidity, many users refused to answer the
questionnaires claiming the need to leave the place
as quickly as possible. Others appointed possible
solutions to improve the local microclimatic conditions
such as shelter for sun radiation protection and the
presence of water fountain.
The great users thermal sensibility observed in
the pedestrian streets analyzed in this paper are in
contrast with the study of thermal comfort in convivial
urban spaces (squares and parks). The analysis on
green public spaces in these three cities of the state
of Sao Paulo, Brazil [10], helped to identify that an
environmental performance associated with other
aspects such as circulation, activities and presence of
niches contribute to a good evaluation by users of the
spaces and consequently interfere with their
perception of thermal comfort, even in adverse
conditions.
The figs. 8, 9 and 10 show graphs at range PET
temperature grouped according to thermal sensation.
The range of PET temperature to 50% of the
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 419
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xx. x SECTION NAME 5
individuals varied from 20 to 29C in Campinas, 21 to
30 C in Bauru and 14 to 24C in Presidente
Prudente.


Figure 8: Graphs with the comfort range to pedestrian
street in city of Campinas (PET x ASV).

Figure 9: Graphs with the comfort range to pedestrian
street in city of Bauru (PET x ASV)

Figure 10: Graphs with the comfort range to pedestrian
street in city of Presidente Prudente (PET x ASV)

The PET temperature analysis (Fig 11), for
ASV=0), shows a major frequency for the strip
between 18 and 30 C (70% of the sample) and major
concentration at 24 C.
Fig. 12 gathers all the pedestrian streets analyzed
and relates the PET temperature range to 235 people
(of the total of 519 interviewees) who declared that
the thermal sensation in the moment was neither
cool nor warm. The PET for all interviewees had
great variation, the lowest 0,2 C and the highest
40,1C. The average PET temperature value was
21,6 C and the median was 22 C.
The PET temperature range, which includes 50%
of the individuals who felt comfortable, varied from
17,5 to 25,3 C. However, as well as in the individual
analysis for each city, that strip temperature overlays
other vote range that indicates thermal discomfort.
Comparing those results with the thermal comfort
limits proposed for the city of So Paulo, Brazil [10] ,
which varies from 18 to 26C, were found 59% of the
total sample (i.e. 308 from 519). Considerable part of
the individuals within that strip of PET temperature
declared their thermal sensation as warm - 18.5%
and as cool - 17,5 % as represented in Figs. 12 .
Similar analysis on green public spaces in the
same cities of Sao Paulo State allowed to identify
70% of all individual who responded neutral
temperature within those limits.

Figure 11: Histogram for PET temperature in pedestrian
streets for ASV=0.


Figure 12: PET temperature range and Actual sensation
vote
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
4 xx. x SECTION NAME
in Sao Paulo State, Brazil, was conducted in different
weather conditions (cool and dry, hot and dry and hot
and humid), during 6 days in each one of the cities, in
the period of September 2008 until March 2009.
These cities are characterized by cool and dry winter
and hot and humid summer.
Microclimatic data (air and global temperature, air
humidity, global solar radiation and air velocity) were
collected with the mobile meteorological station (fig.
7), developed by the Applied Physics and
Environmental Comfort Laboratory from UNICAMP
(University of Campinas-SP).
Simultaneously with the acquisition of the
microclimatic data, questionnaires were applied
randomly to the users of the spaces in order to
identify their profile and thermal sensation (Actual
comfort). Issues affecting the use of space (usage
patterns, preferences within the area, among others),
and the frequency of use were also investigated. The
preparation of the questionnaire was based on the
RUROS Project [6].



1.Temperature sensor
to globe thermometer;

2.Datalogger to register
temperature and
humidity;

3. Anemometer Omni
directional;

4.Net Radimetro
(piranometer and
pirgeometer);

5.Datalogger (Campbell
Scientific / CR1000)
Figure 7: Photo of the mobile meteorological station
The microclimatic monitoring together with a
questionnaire allowed to analyse the Actual Thermal
Comfort (ASV), obtained through questionnaires,
with calculated thermal comfort using PET
(Physiological Equivalent Temperature) [7].
For questions about Actual sensation of thermal
comfort (Actual Votes Sensations - ASV), the
respondents were questioned about their trial chill
through a 5-point scale ranging from "very cold" (-2)
to "very hot" (+2) [8].
The PET index was calculated by the software
"Rayman" (version 1.2) developed by the
Meteorological Institute of Freiburg [7]. In each
measuring point were recorded hemispheric photos in
order to calculate the sky view factor (SVF) using the
same software.
4. RESULTS
The analysis of Thermal Comfort in pedestrian
streets in three cities of the interior of Sao Paulo State
highlight differences between Calculated and Actual
Thermal Comfort and a great users thermal
sensibility to the weather daily and seasonal
changes, which influence the users permanence
length of time in the evaluated spaces.
Table 1 brings the average values of the
microclimatic conditions of the users exposition
during fieldwork in the cities of Campinas, Bauru and
Presidente Prudente. The data highlight the
significant microclimatic differences in the morning
and afternoon periods among those cities.

Table 1 Microclimatic conditions during monitoring
days in the cities of Campinas, Bauru and Presidente
Prudente
Cities


Campinas Bauru Presidente.
Prudente
M A M A M A
Temperature ( C)
Mean
Mmin
Mmax
25,1
21,7
28,2
27,7
26,1
30,1
26,8
22,7
30,5
29,9
25,4
35,2
16,0
10,0
24,6
28,0
22,5
32,6
Humidity (%)
Mean
Mmin
Mmax
52,5
44,7
58,3
51,5
41,6
62,8
52,5
41,9
62,4
40,5
28,2
59,9
64,6
52,2
79,1
41,3
37,1
48,9
Wind (m/s)
Mean
Min
Max
0,7
0,2
1,0
0,8
0,2
1,3
1,1
0,7
1,9
1,2
0,8
2,1
1,1
0,7
1,7
1,0
0,9
1,2
Global Solar Radiation (w/m2)
Mmin
Mmax
- 95
270
- 383
462
304
562
40
282
50
408
- 33
549
Legend: M morning A - Afternoon
Mmin Mean minimum Mmax - Mean maximum

In mild climatic conditions, with cold and dry
weather, it was observed a great percentage of the
PET within of the range limits from 18-23 C [9]. In
relation to ASV, for those same conditions it was
observed a balance between people who felt
comfortable and uncomfortable. However, in hot and
humid weather conditions, the PET temperatures
were out of those limits and the ASV showed a larger
percentage of uncomfortable people, reaching 100%
in some periods, whose air temperature exceeded 30
C.
In the thermal discomfort conditions, caused by
high temperatures and high or low relative air
humidity, many users refused to answer the
questionnaires claiming the need to leave the place
as quickly as possible. Others appointed possible
solutions to improve the local microclimatic conditions
such as shelter for sun radiation protection and the
presence of water fountain.
The great users thermal sensibility observed in
the pedestrian streets analyzed in this paper are in
contrast with the study of thermal comfort in convivial
urban spaces (squares and parks). The analysis on
green public spaces in these three cities of the state
of Sao Paulo, Brazil [10], helped to identify that an
environmental performance associated with other
aspects such as circulation, activities and presence of
niches contribute to a good evaluation by users of the
spaces and consequently interfere with their
perception of thermal comfort, even in adverse
conditions.
The figs. 8, 9 and 10 show graphs at range PET
temperature grouped according to thermal sensation.
The range of PET temperature to 50% of the
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
420 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
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6 xx. x SECTION NAME
5. CONCLUSION
The studies performed in the pedestrian streets of
the three cities of So Paulo state, Brazil presented
different thermal comfort limits in each one of the
spaces evaluated. Besides, differences between the
Calculated Thermal Comfort (by PET index) and
Actual Thermal Comfort (obtained by questionnaire)
in mild climate conditions (dry and cold weather) and
similarities in more adverse conditions (hot and humid
or hot and dry weather) were found.
In the first case the calculated thermal comfort
identified a larger number of people who felt
comfortable while the ASV showed a balance
between satisfied and dissatisfied people. In the
second case, it was observed a great percentage of
dissatisfied people in both forms of comfort
evaluation.
Those results show that hot weather are more
critical for the pedestrians and lead to the necessity of
a requalification of those spaces aiming to improve
their microclimatic conditions and consequently
influence the users thermal satisfaction and a longer
permanence of the user in those spaces.
In spite of different thresholds for PET, in each
one of the spaces assessed, the range of
temperature, which includes 59,5% of all individuals
who have responded neutral thermal, range from 18
to 26C (308 of 519 individuals). This range of
variation comes in accordance with the limits of
comfort for the PET proposed for the city of Sao
Paulo, Brazil [10], adjusted in relation to the range of
18 to 23 C [9].
It has also been observed a superposition of the
sensation votes in every one of the cases evaluated.
Thus, it should be emphasized the importance of
intensifying similar research in each one of the cities
evaluated with the objective of defining more
accurately the limits of thermal comfort and to
calibrate the values of PET. However, it is
recommended the evaluation of Actual Thermal
Sensation (ASV) with ranges of continuous values
(e.g. a range of values between 0 and 9, referring to
the extreme cold and very hot). That may be possible
with the use of the continuous scale, replacing the
categorical variables of five points, and it will probably
allow more precise delimitation of PET values of
temperature for different thermal sensations in
pedestrian streets.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The financial support from FAPESP (Fundao
de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de So Paulo,
Brazil) to more comprehensive project co-ordinator for
Prof. Dr. Lucila Chebel Labaki (FEC-UNICAMP,
Brazil).
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outdoor thermal comfort models. In: PLEA -
International Conference on Passive and Low
Energy Architecture, 23rd, 2006. Proccedings
Genve, 2006: 515-522.
[11] FONTES, M. S. G. F; BUENO-BARTHOLOMEI,
C. L.; DACANAL, C.; LABAKI, L. C.;
NIKOLOPOULOU, M.. Thermal comfort in open
public spaces: studies in green areas in cities of
the Sao Paulo State, Brazil. In: INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE ON PASSIVE AND LOW
ENERGY COOLING FOR THE BUILT
ENVIRONMENT, 3RD, 2010, Rhodes,
Proceedings Rhodes, 2010.

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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 421
Elaboration of a methodological guide of sound
ambiences to evaluate urban soundscapes:
the ASTUCE Research Project
Catherine SEMIDOR
1
, Henry TORGUE
2
, Jacques BEAUMONT
3
, Aline BARLET
1
,
Julien DELAS
2
, Ccile REGNAULT
2
and Flora GBEDJI
1
1
GRECAU, ENSAP Bordeaux University, Talence, France
2
CRESSON, ENSAG, Grenoble, France
3
INRETS, Bron, France
ABSTRACT: The first results of the research project ASTUCE were presented in a previous paper (ICA 2010).
The goal of the project is to develop a global approach that helps local authorities, decisions makers, urban
planners and town designers in the decision making process. By collecting information about the urban sound
environment, identifying those that satisfy the city dwellers expectations and those that have to disappear or be
modified, short- and long-term strategies will then be validated in complement of the noise action plans in line
with the European Environmental Noise Directive. The present paper deals with those elements that should form
the basis of the methodological guide. This toolbox is based on the analysis and the synergy of specific sound
markers related to the urban centrality and highlighted during the ASTUCE project. It has to assist its future
users to find a balance between their objectives and the specific noises that belong to each urban site, its
activities, morphology, practices and evolution over time. This paper shows that there are no ready-made
solutions, but based on the existing situation a reflection could be made as to whether and under which
conditions the quality of the environment in terms of soundscape could be improved.
Keywords: urban soundscape, outside acoustic comfort, town design strategy, methodological guide
1. INTRODUCTION
The name of this project, ASTUCE, is an
acronym that gathers Ambiances Sonores,
Transports Urbains, Cur de ville et Environnement:
Sound Ambiences, Urban Transport, City centre and
Environment. This research project is aiming to
provide a relevant methodology to improve the
environmental quality of city centres by integrating
the sensitive character of urban sound ambiences
and the city dwellers sound experience.
Two goals have to be reached:
First, to gather and compare different methods to
study city centre sound ambiences.
The second goal of this project is to develop a
guidebook to help local authorities, urban planners
and town designers in the decision making process
about sound ambiences (study, design and
management). This discourse not only fits into the
framework of a suppression of the harmful effects
due to noise but, in a more particular way, in the
prospect of a contribution to the environmental sound
quality of the urban centres.
Three approaches by three French laboratories:
GRECAU (research group on environment,
architectural & urban design School of Architecture
and Landscape- Bordeaux)
CRESSON (centre for research on sonic space
& urban environment - School of Architecture -
Grenoble)
INRETS (national transport research institute -
Bron).
The methods of GRECAU are based on
recordings of soundscapes, surveys and
observations about uses and perceptions of city
dwellers. The methods of CRESSON are based on
the memory of the city dwellers and on their
imagination from and with urban soundscape.
INRETS is a research institute specialised about
transports. Their methods are mainly quantitative,
using measures, modelisation and simulation. The
three teams worked at the same time on the same
site.
The methods, the quantitative and qualitative
analysis, and the results are exchanged and critically
compared in order to determine their
complementarities and/or their exclusiveness of
application, from subjective to rational.
The two case studies sites are the historical
centres of Bordeaux and of Grenoble.
In each city, there are several modes of
transportation among which the tramway
Similarities in functions, urban activities and
transports
Differences according to urban morphologies:
- a large square in Bordeaux (Place Pey-Berland:
cathedral in the middle of a large place surrounded
by the tramway)
- a U-shaped street in Grenoble (Rue Flix-
Poulat: one narrow street which is an important axis
of the downtown area).
The in situ survey organisation and some first
results were presented in a previous paper (ASTUCE
Research Project: one way to evaluate urban
soundscapes, ICA 2010) by the authors.
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6 xx. x SECTION NAME
5. CONCLUSION
The studies performed in the pedestrian streets of
the three cities of So Paulo state, Brazil presented
different thermal comfort limits in each one of the
spaces evaluated. Besides, differences between the
Calculated Thermal Comfort (by PET index) and
Actual Thermal Comfort (obtained by questionnaire)
in mild climate conditions (dry and cold weather) and
similarities in more adverse conditions (hot and humid
or hot and dry weather) were found.
In the first case the calculated thermal comfort
identified a larger number of people who felt
comfortable while the ASV showed a balance
between satisfied and dissatisfied people. In the
second case, it was observed a great percentage of
dissatisfied people in both forms of comfort
evaluation.
Those results show that hot weather are more
critical for the pedestrians and lead to the necessity of
a requalification of those spaces aiming to improve
their microclimatic conditions and consequently
influence the users thermal satisfaction and a longer
permanence of the user in those spaces.
In spite of different thresholds for PET, in each
one of the spaces assessed, the range of
temperature, which includes 59,5% of all individuals
who have responded neutral thermal, range from 18
to 26C (308 of 519 individuals). This range of
variation comes in accordance with the limits of
comfort for the PET proposed for the city of Sao
Paulo, Brazil [10], adjusted in relation to the range of
18 to 23 C [9].
It has also been observed a superposition of the
sensation votes in every one of the cases evaluated.
Thus, it should be emphasized the importance of
intensifying similar research in each one of the cities
evaluated with the objective of defining more
accurately the limits of thermal comfort and to
calibrate the values of PET. However, it is
recommended the evaluation of Actual Thermal
Sensation (ASV) with ranges of continuous values
(e.g. a range of values between 0 and 9, referring to
the extreme cold and very hot). That may be possible
with the use of the continuous scale, replacing the
categorical variables of five points, and it will probably
allow more precise delimitation of PET values of
temperature for different thermal sensations in
pedestrian streets.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The financial support from FAPESP (Fundao
de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de So Paulo,
Brazil) to more comprehensive project co-ordinator for
Prof. Dr. Lucila Chebel Labaki (FEC-UNICAMP,
Brazil).
REFERENCES
[1] LYNCH, K. (1960). The Image of the City.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press,
Cambridge, MA.
[2] PERSON, E. (2006). Espaos de permanncia e
passagem: contribuio para a elaborao de
diretrizes ambientais e de acessibilidade para o
desenho urbano. Dissertao de Mestrado em
Arquitetura e Urbanismo. Braslia, Universidade
de Braslia.
[3] JACOBS, J. (1961). The Death and Life of Great
American Cities. Penguin Books, London, p. 221.
[4] ROMERO, M. B. (2001). A arquitetura
bioclimtica do espao pblico. Braslia, Editora
da Universidade de Braslia.
[5] CHRISOMALLIDOU, N.; CHRISOMALIDIS, M.;
STILIDIS, L.; THEODOSIOU, T.; KIUGA, L.
(2003). Rehabilitation of open space under
bioclimatic criteria. In: CONFERENCE ON
PASSIVE AND LOW ENERGY
ARCHITECTURE, 20th, 2003, Santiago.
Proceedings Santiago: Universidad Catlica do
Chile, 2003.
[6] NIKOLOPOULOU, M; LYKOUDIS, S (2006).
Thermal comfort in outdoor urban spaces:
Analysis across different European countries.
Building and Environmental, 41, November 2006:
1455-1470.
[7] MAYER, H.; HPPE, P. (1987). Thermal comfort
of man in different urban environments.
Theoretical and Applied Climatology, v. 38: 43-
49.
[8] NIKOLOPOULOU,M.; STEEMERS K. (2003)
Thermal comfort and psychological adaptation as
a guide for designing urban spaces. Energy and
Buildings, v. 35: 95101.
[9] MATZARAKIS, A.; RUTZ, F.; MAYER, H.(2000).
Estimation and calculation of the mean radiant
temperature within urban structures. In:
Biometeorology And Urban Climatology At The
Turn Of The Millenium (ed. By R. J. de Dear, J.
D> Kalma, T. R. Oke and A. Auliciems): selected
papers the conference ICB-ICUC`99, Sydney,
WCASP-50, WMO/TD.
[10] MONTEIRO, L. M; ALUCCI, M.P. Calibration of
outdoor thermal comfort models. In: PLEA -
International Conference on Passive and Low
Energy Architecture, 23rd, 2006. Proccedings
Genve, 2006: 515-522.
[11] FONTES, M. S. G. F; BUENO-BARTHOLOMEI,
C. L.; DACANAL, C.; LABAKI, L. C.;
NIKOLOPOULOU, M.. Thermal comfort in open
public spaces: studies in green areas in cities of
the Sao Paulo State, Brazil. In: INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE ON PASSIVE AND LOW
ENERGY COOLING FOR THE BUILT
ENVIRONMENT, 3RD, 2010, Rhodes,
Proceedings Rhodes, 2010.

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422 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
2. COLLECTION OF SOUNDSCAPE'S
ACTUAL EXPERIENCE
2.1. Data from the Soundwalks
To conduct its research on urban soundscape [1],
GRECAU developed the soundwalk method, taking
inspiration from the work proposed by K. Lynch [2].
As the method has been described in numerous
publications [3] [4], only the principle will be given
here. As stereoscopic vision gives a three-
dimensional effect, stereo listening creates a realistic
sound environment. Binaural recordings provided
following routes which are specific for the studied
urban space, are used to characterize the spatial
distribution of sound energy, especially to
differentiate the spaces according to their
morphology: open (square, plaza etc.) or closed (U-
shaped street, courtyard and so on). All along the
routes photos are taken in order to keep evidences
of the urban morphology and the occurring significant
sound events.
The analysis of the acoustic images and the
listening to binaural recordings made during the
soundwalks in each city at different times allowed to
identify areas with their characteristic sounds which
vary little during all the day. This site segmentation
can be done according to different criteria, also
complementary: urban morphology, types of activities
or sound ambiences. The decision to do the two
soundwalks always in parallel gives a more refined
approach to this fractionation.
The analysis of the recorded soundscapes
revealed animated sequences characterized by a
lot of human activities, such as cafe terraces or
pedestrian walkways (Equivalent Sound Level higher
in the medium frequencies range on the acoustic
images), and some other ones characterized by car
traffic and public transportation (Equivalent Sound
Level higher in the low frequencies range on the
acoustic images), and quieter ones where sound
sources of natural origin are clearly perceived (lower
background noise level).
This sequencing revealed in Bordeaux 7 zones,
identified in colour in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Splitting in zones of the Place Pey-Berland related
to sound sequences".
In Grenoble, the sequencing can also define six
zones identified in colour in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Splitting zones of the Rue Flix Poulat related to
sound sequences".
Related tables (Table 1 for Bordeaux and table 2
for Grenoble) give a very condensed description of
the sound characters of each zone based on
comments from the listening and the analysis of
soundwalks. The detailed comments have to be
illustrated by the acoustic images (quantitative
representation of the contents of the recordings) of
each zone in order to complete the evaluation of the
sound quality of the site.
Table 1: Summary comments from the listening and
analysis of the sound walks in Bordeaux
Zone Main sound
identity
Sound sources to
remember
1 Calm in an open
space
Sound of the fountain
and the chirping of
birds emerge with the
passage of trams, cars,
motorcycles.
2 Fairly noisy in
an almost
closed space
Cars, motorcycles and
trams
3 Noisy in an
almost closed
space
Sounds of footsteps,
discussions, nature
(birds,), cars,
motorcycles and trams
4 Very noisy in an
open space
Tram, crossing roads,
car park exit
5 Fairly quite in an
open space
Sounds of discussions,
playing (football, skate-
board) and of singing
birds
6 Very noisy in an
almost closed
space
Cars, scooters and
trams
7 Calm in an open
space protected
by the cathedral
Sounds of discussion,
footsteps and outdoor
cafs
The Place Pey-Berland brings many urban
activities together, each with a particular sound,
composing a multifaceted soundscape.
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 423
Table 2: Summary comments from the listening and
analysis of the sound walks in Grenoble
Zone Main sound
identity
Sound sources to
remember
1 Very narrow and
noisy U-shaped
area
Trams, cars,
motorcycles and
cycles.
2 Fairly noisy in an
almost open space
Pedestrians and
trams
3 Fairly noisy in a
well differentiated
space on each
side of the
tramway in a U-
shaped street
Carousel, shops,
trams, some motor
vehicles,
conversations and
sound of footsteps
4 Fairly quite in an
almost open space
Cafes, restaurants,
ice cream sellers,
fountain, traffic
5 Very mechanical
ambiance sound in
a narrow U-
shaped street
Trams, motor
vehicle, rollers and
skaters, and sound
of footsteps
6 Very noisy in a
very narrow U-
shaped street
Open shops,
conversations,
cars, scooters and
trams
The rue Flix Poulat unites a fairly standard
combination of problems related to the management
of a miscellaneous soundscape of a city centre.
2.2. Data of urban morphology
An analysis grid of elements of the urban space
completes the commentaries on the recordings and
the photographs. The data are collected and
arranged by means of tracings illustrated with photos
and drawings, and then transferred on index cards
and / or maps that can be inserted into GIS-type
databases. They relate to traditional data such as
shapes, materials, dimensions of buildings and may
be supplemented by urban planning data. The other
urban elements listed and transcribed by means of
tracings are the modes of transport, the various
activities potential noise sources whether from
human, mechanical or natural (wind, water, wildlife
and so on) origin. The items identified are grouped
into 3 categories:
Morphology of the site: soil, buildings,
vegetation, urban furniture.
On-site activities: modes of transportation,
human activity, mechanical activity.
Other elements (sound sources): water, air,
fauna etc.
The data from the survey of urban space are
those used by the urban planners of the city. Thus
they are necessary to evaluate the quality of the
sound environment. For the ASTUCE project they
were one of the criteria for selecting sites, one with
rather large open spaces and the other U-shaped
one very closed.
They will also be common to all project partners.
At the 2 sites the cornice outlines of the faades are
very close to the balconies, mostly paired with ornate
stone coverings. The data obtained are the building
heights, topography of the parcel, nature of soil
materials, the presence of vegetation, water in all its
forms and types of urban furniture at different scales.
The Place Pey-Berland in Bordeaux is the heart
of the city as it is the location of the cathedral St
Andr and the City Hall. Since the implementation of
the tramway in late 2003, two lines cross and have a
stop on one part of the square where also motor
vehicles are authorized. The other part is only
pedestrian and serves as a purely pedestrian
forecourt to the church and the town hall with the
terraces of cafes at the edge of the square. Although
sliding sports are forbidden, the forecourt is used by
many skaters and rollerbladers.
The site is surrounded by three to five-level
buildings mostly housing administrative offices. It is a
very mineral area (much of the ground is covered
with slabs of granite and gravel) despite the
presence of a few trees around it. Although there is
plenty of street furniture (benches, lighting masts,
traffic lights, bollards, tramway shelters etc.), the
area of the square is large enough not to seem
crowded.
One of the traffic lanes used by the tram is
oriented north-south, the other east-west. On the
east side, the forecourt of the Palais de Justice with
its fountain with cascading water has been integrated
into the study site. On the north side, a small square
with trees (Place Jean Moulin) is an appendage that
can not be dissociated from this area.
The rue Flix Poulat in Grenoble is the major axis
of the downtown area. It covers the 200 meters
separating the Place Victor Hugo and the Place
Grenette (which can be considered as its extension
to the north) and changes then in the rue Raoul
Blanchard oriented westward. Two tramway lines
pass through this street with two stations at each
end. Although officially pedestrian, bicycles,
rollerbladers and, despite everything, many motor
vehicles pass through the street related to its
residential and commercial functions. The whole
Place Grenette, occupied by sidewalk cafes and at
the north edge by a fountain, is rather mineral.
This overall vertically U-shaped and tree-planted
street has horizontally a trapezoidal shape and is
lined with buildings whose height is very
homogeneous (6 floors). It is a very crowded space
with very diverse street furniture from plant and
flower boxes to a bandstand and carousel with
wooden horses. It is crossed by several streets that
are not all pedestrian.
2.3. Psycho-environmental data
In the framework of this project, the collection of
sensitive data is based on the method of a
questionnaire survey of a sample of passers-by on
the sites. The environmental study captures the
overall context of occupation of different spaces in
order to interpret the fine sound environmental
assessments collected. The urban noise is
considered here both recontextualized and
articulated to the various aspects of the physical and
social environment since the subjects perceive their
environment in a poly-sensorial way and the
perception of one aspect influences the perception of
the others.
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424 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
The questionnaire consists of 16 questions,
composed mainly of closed questions and scales of
judgement, so that the filling out of the
questionnaires are relatively fast and easy to achieve
(10 minutes). During the two research campaigns
simultaneously carried out with the collection of other
data, 60 subjects in Bordeaux and 53 in Grenoble
agreed to participate in this survey.
We have taken great care in constructing our
samples in terms of personal characteristics such as
the distribution between men and women and the
representation of different age groups across all
sites. Despite this, the different age groups and
different occupational groups, although almost all
present in our samples, are not represented in equal
proportions.
Concerning the composition of the soundscape,
the Place Pey Berland appears rather
heterogeneous, although some sources are common
to all sequences. This diversity seems consistent
with the various functions of this public space. First,
the tram is both the source cited by most subjects
and most often identified as the most representative
source of the site (except in a sequence where the
fountain is the most characteristic source). Cars are
also very present even if they do not pass directly in
the zones 7 and 5 in particular. Conversations are
perceived all over the place, although to a lesser
extent in the zones 6 and 4 (less frequented by
pedestrians). Finally, the tram horn is also a
remarkable source of the square, since it is common
to 5 of the 7 zones. Only the birdsong is perceived as
enjoyable on a large part of the Place Pey Berland
and by a large majority of the subjects. The tram is a
rather popular sound source in many zones. Besides
this, it is the only traffic source which is described as
pleasant. As for annoying sources, we find mostly
traffic-related sounds such as cars and motorcycles /
mopeds.
The soundscape of the rue Flix Poulat is
essentially composed of 4 sources present in almost
all sequences: the conversations, footsteps, cars and
trams, the most representative source of the street
(except for zone 4 where the fountain is the most
characteristic source).
The most pleasant sources are related to the
human presence (conversations, footsteps and
restaurants / cafes), while the most disturbing
sources are more related to traffic noises (cars,
trucks etc.). The disturbing aspect of these sources is
also frequently associated with the incongruity of its
presence in a space reserved for pedestrians and
tram.
The solutions proposed to improve the acoustic
comfort are the same on both sites, i.e. either an
elimination of these sources or their masking by
music, vegetation, installation of a fountain etc.
About the temporal evolution of the sound
environment of the two sites, about one of two
subjects believes that the acoustic ambience of the
place or the street changes during the same day and
identifies two main opposed periods in Bordeaux
(rush hour/off peak time, day/night or with/without
tram) and unrelated to neither opposition, neither
complementarity in Grenoble.
The atmosphere on the Place Pey Berland, taken
as a whole, is rather pleasant in the evening and
during the off-peak time; it was during this latter
period that the place is considered to be the quietest.
In contrast, day and rush hours are two periods
where the soundscape of the Place is considered
rather unpleasant and rather noisy.
As for the rue Flix Poulat, the soundscape is
particularly pleasant at night, it was during this period
that the place is quieter. In contrast, the day and the
afternoon are two periods where the soundscape is
considered rather unpleasant and noisy.
3. COLLECTION OF THE IMAGINATION ON
THE SOUNDSCAPE
3.1. The qualified sequences
The sequencing of the site is the first analytical
work organizing the results achieved by the
commented walks of CRESSON [5]. A downtown
tour, in an in appearance homogeneous territory,
reveals thresholds, zones, markings that identify
sensitive sequences (which means that the senses
reveals them) commonly shared. The sequencing is
a crucial way of understanding the urban space for
the description and the uses.
On the one hand, the space is split according to a
segmentation shared by its users and, on the other
hand, each sequence is qualified by a perceptible
colour and an associated image, a dominant feature
or judgement. If the division leads to some
consensus, the qualification process gives a range of
comments which reflect the views sometimes
opposing, divergent and often linked to various
practices of those same spaces. What is striking,
however, in our survey, is the convergence of
images of a dominant qualifying feature of the site
from which diverge experiences and opinions.
The spatial division of the sequences crosses the
morphology, uses and sensitive criteria. When a
discontinuity is expressed, a new sequence is
mentioned. Anthropological function of spatial
appropriation, the division may tend to increase the
levels and areas, sometimes exaggerating the
importance of certain nuances. But these individual
tendencies are corrected by the collective review of
results.
3.2. Status of collected comments
In the methodology of Cresson, interviews are
fully registered in order to transcribe them word for
word, with their doubts, their silences, their
repetitions, their findings and platitudes, including
what is drawn on oral communication and
verbalization elements. We get a full collection of
basic and key expressions, without omissions or
additions. This sum, which represents nearly 500
pages for this research, is the plain text that tells the
way the respondents relate their urban space.
Their words express a multitude of diverse
information: practical attitudes but also points of
view, images, anecdotes, stories, rumours, feelings,
judgments and so on. The technique of guided
qualitative interviews provides access to elements
comprising a complex situation that combines spatio-
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 425
temporal aspects, experienced and projected
aspects. Among the expressions collected three
registers must be distinguished:
- The actual practices ("I do this", "I'm going
there"), relating to the factual description of actions
and sites,
- Opinions, judgments ("I think we should act
on...", "installation of such equipment is an
improvement because of...") that express feelings
and pronounce a positive or negative opinion,
- Images that refer to a metaphor and the field of
poetry (the area is a "spider web", "a fortress", a
"hive", a "nest" etc).
These three modalities mix and are rarely
isolated. Although the issues can induce one or the
other, the collected comments are most of the time,
free enough to keep a real polyvocity and its
broadness of expression. By crossing the actual
practices, explicit discourses and images, the plain
text looks like a panorama that reflects the
complexity of the site and referred time.
The entire text of transcribed interviews actually
gives access to thousands of information units that
constitute the raw material of the analysis, consisting
of micro-descriptions, fugitive or developed notes,
attitudes, practices, anecdotes, judgments, images
and sensations, exposed as a puzzle that reveals in
a photographic way, the collective vivid words for an
approached situation.
The objective of this collection of raw information
is to make perceptible the emergence of different
words which directly reflects the plurality of the lines
of force, of cohesion or conflict, and which acts in a
given territory.
Living in, in the sense of invested space, reveals
plural and contradictory discourses that need to be
understood as it belongs for a big part to an
imaginary world. The words of residents express
stories, opinions and also mythical narratives related
to a specific lexical field [6].
4. PROPOSALS FOR A METHODOLOGICAL
GUIDE: SOUND AMBIENCES AND CITY
CENTRE
After the phase of comparing and pooling the
results of our methods, we extrapolate our common
process developed from two particular cases, a
description and intervention tool on urban noise
situations: The Guide of urban sound environment
first presented in general terms, then in the form of a
toolkit specific to each context.
The principle is to model a situation by describing
simultaneously twelve balances between polarities,
both purely quantitative and purely qualitative or
mixed. It consists of creating an organizer of the
descriptive elements distributed according to a series
of bi (or multi)-polarities.
4.1. The sound markers of centrality: twelve
balances
The modelling of each site, or any urban
situation, is achieved through the use of twelve
sound balances (markers) characterizing the site.
Each balance describes the state of equilibrium
between polarities. The position of the twelve cursors
shows the current status of the situation and can, in
simulating a change on the one or the other, project
an adjustment/improvement or a correction.
The balances are grouped into three categories:
Contextual balances
1. The balance of urban morphologies
What is the equilibrium of general forms
(silhouettes, skyline, height, volume, open, L, U etc)?
Between built and unbuilt, between low and high,
compact and spaced
2. The balance of surfaces and facade materials
Between continuous and discontinuous, between
absorption, diffusion and reflection, between
architectural styles and so on
3. The balance of soil materials
The soil considered as reflecting element and as
sound source. What proportion between the various
coatings (hard minerals, grains or gravel, soil
plants)?
4. The balance of vegetation
Taking into account proportion, nature and noise
impacts of plant material.
5. The balance of noise impacts of urban furniture
To treat by category: Art, running water and
fountains, bus or tram, benches, trash cans, signage
elements etc
Acoustic balances
6. The balance of sound sources
The balance between natural sounds (climatic
elements and fauna), human sounds and mechanical
noises.
7. The balance of sound levels
Low/High. Quantitative indicators of the site:
multiple Leqs, emergences, background noise etc
8. The balance of frequencies (or frequency
signatures)
The balance between the bass, midrange and
treble
Functional balances
9. The balance of flows
The balance of the various modes of
transportation, the relationship crossed spaces /
parked spaces, the density ratio (residential or of
use) and so on
10. The balance of activity types
Work, leisure, shopping, home and so on with
their sub-categories
11. The balance of temporalities
The distribution of different periods and sound
rhythms: day / night, time of day, week / weekend,
sun / rain, school time / vacation time, winter /
summer etc
12. The balance of site-specific sound signals
Identify and describe the sound symbols and
identifiers of the place, characteristic but not unique
(bells, bells of horses and so on), those that are
unique (Big Ben, bell tram etc).
4.2. A methodological toolkit for each specific
site
Three steps describe the process of approaching
a particular urban situation:
- The cutting in qualifying sequences (spatial and
temporal) involving different scales and their nesting.
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426 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
How the site adjusts the differentiated zones,
according to various criteria of analysis (physical,
spatial and social)?
- What are the emerging characters (spatial,
architectural, sound, functional, users etc)? How this
site does manage the equilibrium of the different
balances?
- In the current situation in the project: on which
cursors do we take action to promote the new
desired equilibrium? What to do and what to avoid.
What tasks and what competencies are required?
By developing a multidisciplinary tool for the
description of urban soundscapes, this research is
aims not only to eliminate a nuisance due to an
overload of noise but in a more particular way to
contribute to the environmental quality of urban life,
as different local stakeholders have the compelling
need for indicators that link the physical, spatial and
social aspects.
5. CONCLUSION
The indicators, which combine subjective and
rational elements, are involving not only the
knowledge of experts observing the site but also the
expertise of residents and practitioners who reveal
by their stories the objective facts, the feelings and
projections. This guide does not replace the methods
of each spatial discipline but intents to be a
framework for an open mutual dialogue. It is in the
intersection of measurements and calculations of
physical data (the measured data (NF S 31-130) and
the noise maps of each city analysed by INRETS are
not presented here, but the quantitative results from
the soundwalks illustrated by acoustic images fit with
their values), technical and aesthetic descriptors of
spatial data, effective practices, experiences and
representations of feelings in situ, that the changing
and complex reality can be approached.
By proposing indicators adapted to the
qualification of urban environmental noise in addition
to the prescribed indicators as the Lden or the Lnight
which are used for the noise maps, this project would
like contribute to show all the interest and the
potential of sound for city management and design.
Let us listen to our cities. The urban life is a
composition of mechanical, natural and human
sounds, as a sound signature. Beyond all other
classifications, every city has its own sound identity.
The approach of the ASTUCE research project
articulates the three main elements in the field of
sounds: acoustics, spatial organisation and social
representations.
This project aims to show the interdisciplinary
importance of sound, its potentiality in the
development and management of our cities and
wishes to contribute by offering new tools to assist all
concerned parties.
If we do not attempt the methodological
experimentation by offering new tools, we do not give
any chance to seize and act on inherently
interdisciplinary phenomena.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors acknowledge the support of a
research grant from ADEME. They also are grateful
to all the students who participated very efficiently in
this research during their training course at GRECAU
or at CRESSON.
7. REFERENCES
[1] R.M. Schafer, The tuning of the world, (A. Knopf
ed, NY, 1976).
[2] K. Lynch, The image of the city, (The MIT Press,
Cambridge, 1960)
[3] C. Smidor, "Listening to a city with the
soundwalk method". Special Issue
"Soundscape" Acta Acustica united with
Acustica, vol. 92, 959-964 (2006)
[4] GRECAU-Bordeaux, "Recommendations for
Soundscape Design". Silence European
Research Project WP I 2005, Convention Polis
6th PCRD, Final Report, (February 2007)
[5] J.-P.Thibaud, "La mthode des parcours
comments". in L'espace urbain en mthodes.
(Dir. M Grosjean and J.-P Thibaud, Ed.
Parenthses, Marseille 2001), pp. 79-99.
[6] H. Torgue, L'imaginaire des sons. (La
GoGraphie. "Gographie et musique", Editions
Glnat, Grenoble, 2009)
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ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July
2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 1
Adaptive Outdoor Comfort Model Calibrations for a
Semitropical Region
Mate THITISAWAT, Kasama POLAKIT, Jean-Martin CALDIERON, Giancarlo MANGONE
College for Design and Social Inquiry, Florida Atlantic University, Fort Lauderdale, USA.
ABSTRACT: This paper is a part of a research project funded by Architectural Research Centers Consortium
(ARCC) and Florida Atlantic University (FAU). The project focuses on finding a way to assess outdoor comfort
and developing design criteria for a semitropical region of South Florida. A series of surveys were conducted in
the summer and fall seasons to obtain participants sensation votes corresponding to recorded climatic
parameters. More data need to be gathered for the calibration and validation. This paper attempts to evaluate
different models using the survey data, and identify strong candidates for further study. The models were all
based on Predicted Mean Vote (PMV), an index traditionally used to assess indoor comfort. Results from the
PMV equation exhibited a promising trend, but needed some adjustments. It was found that a calibration alone
could not improve its prediction. After some computational experiments with different adjustment strategies, five
model candidates yielded high rates of agreement with Actual Sensation Votes (ASV). Adaptive and separated
calibration approaches applied to the PMV compensated participants psychological adaptation to the outdoor
condition. They improved the PMV-based models predictions considerably.
Keywords: outdoor comfort, PMV, model calibration, semitropical region, adaptation
1. INTRODUCTION
South Florida is located in a semitropical region
that has a unique climate compared with the rest of
the country. Before the popularity of the air
conditioning technology, people in South Florida
learned to create and live in favourable
microclimates. Their attempt towards thermal
adaptation is reflected in historic building designs
and lifestyles. Unfortunately, the old lifestyles and
passive design strategies have been replaced with
the new energy guzzling technology that guarantees
a comfortable environment defined by indoor comfort
standards. A current design practice of both indoor
and outdoor spaces in the region emphasizes more
on appearances, and standardized construction
methods than the design strategies.
This summer-fall pilot study includes
investigations on assessment methods of the
outdoor comfort, and compensation for adaptation.
After the pilot study, methods will be selected for
further developments. More study will be conducted
for other seasons to complete the developments of
selected assessment methods. Subsequently, this
research project will also propose design criteria and
implications for the design of outdoor spaces for
cities in the semitropical area. The proposed
assessment methods and criteria will promote energy
saving and heightened human comfort.
The study on outdoor comfort can be used to
support design decision of outdoor public spaces.
Extending the use of the spaces through a good
design practice has the potential of increasing
outdoor activity, leading to increases in commercial
revenue, property values, and opportunities for social
interactions. In addition, a good outdoor
microclimatic condition can improve the indoor
comfort level [1].
Four sites are chosen for the study. They are
urban public spaces. They include two pedestrian
corridors (Las Olas Blvd., and Riverwalk), and
plaza/park like spaces (FAU Plaza, and Main Library
Park). The surveys are conducted during daytime
when people use the public spaces more. Two of the
sites have more manmade features, and the other
two have more natural elements (vegetations and a
river).
2. LITERATURE REVIEWS
2.1. Challenges in Outdoor Comfort Studies
The thermal quality of the outdoor environment
varies significantly from the typical controlled interior
thermal environment. Outdoor environment have
greater fluctuations in temperature, humidity, air
movement, radiant heat, solar radiation. Moreover,
the complexity of the outdoor environment influences
the variety of these parameters. Humans feel
comfortable in a wider range of thermal conditions
when inhabiting exterior environments because they
feel they do not have control over the factors that
determine the thermal qualities of the space [2].
It is recognized that the thermal comfort is not
defined only by the environmental parameters.
Human psychology also has a strong influence in the
perception of comfort. Therefore, it is important to
include psychological adaptation parameters, namely
naturalness, expectations, experience (short/long-
term), time of exposure, perceived control, and
environmental stimulation [3].
Although a widely use thermal comfort indicator
such as Predicted Mean Vote (PMV), and adjusted
PMV have shown to be able to predict thermal
comfort in general, they are not able to fully account
for the wide variation between objective and
subjective comfort evaluation. The psychological
adaptation parameters have a variant percentage of
impact, and should be considered in relation to
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whether these parameters can impact design
decisions, and vice versa. Research has shown that
quantifiable, microclimatic physical parameters can
only account for approximately 50% of the variation
between subjective and objective comfort evaluation.
In depth quantification and correlation between
psychological adaptation parameters presented here
and their impact on thermal comfort has not yet been
rigorously developed. However, research has shown
that a thermal comfort model that excludes
psychological adaptation is not adequate for
predicting outdoor thermal comfort [4].
2.2. Methodologies Used in Previous Studies
Several methods have been employed by
previous studies. They can be classified as follow:
1. A statistical approach (linear and nonlinear
regression analysis) is confined to certain
predefined relationships, and climatic ranges.
The advantage of its simplicity. It does not
require an iterative calculation.
2. A steady state thermo-regulatory equation is
typically used in indoor comfort assessment.
Its combination of physics and statistics
present high potential for the assessment.
3. Dynamic methods are more advantageous
over the statistical approach because it is
more universally applicable.
2.3. Outdoor Comfort Indicators
Different research projects have different
preferences for comfort indicators. Examples of the
indicators include:
1. PMV is described by a curve fit equation
based on human thermal regulation and
empirical data of sensation votes. The PMV
calculation requires a convergence, thus
iterative calculation.
2. Percentage of People Dissatisfied (PPD) is
based on the PMV.
3. Physiologically Equivalent Temperature
(PET) is based on thermo-regulatory
capacities of a human body [1, 5]. It is based
on the Munich Energy Balance Model for
Individuals (MEMI).
4. Frequentation map based on the method of
Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) to simulate how
virtual pedestrians move through an open
space. Human thermoregulatory system and a
model simulating microclimate conditions are
used to simulate pedestrian motion and
individual decisions. It establishes space-time
dynamics reflecting a time lag in the human
response. A model based on smooth fuzzy
logic is used to simulate the decision for the
movement [6].
The PMV is selected for evaluation and
calculation development. It is called revised PMV
whose calculation is based on [7]. A research
question is whether the widely used indoor comfort
index like PMV can be adjusted and improved for the
outdoor comfort assessment.
3. SURVEYS AND DATA
3.1. Survey Questionnaire
A 9-point thermal sensation scale is shown with
its numerical equivalent in Table 1. It is an extension
of the ASHRAE scale, and different from the Bedford
scale.
Table 1:9-point thermal sensation scale
Bedford ASHRAE 9-point
Very hot 4
Much too hot Hot Hot 3
Too hot Warm Warm 2
Comfortably warm Slightly warm Slightly warm 1
Comfortable Neutral Neutral 0
Comfortably cool Slightly cool Slightly cool -1
Too cool Cool Cool -2
Much too cool Cold Cold -3
Very cold -4
Beside the sensation vote, the following
information is acquired.
- Age - Clothing items
- Gender - Exposure to the sun
- Skin color - Height
- Weight - Place of origin
- Starting time - Date
- Sensation perception of comfort, humidity,
wind speed, and sunlight,
- Activity performed in the last 15 minutes
- Clothing addition/removal needed
- Outdoor exposure duration
- Average hours of outdoor exposure
- Average hours of air condition exposure
Chun recommends that the information of activity
performed 15 minutes prior to the survey may
improve the prediction [8]. It also suggests that the
exposure to the air conditioned environment affects
the thermal sensation. In addition, point
measurements of skin and clothing temperatures are
also taken. Using the spot measurements in the PMV
equation does not yield as agreeable results as using
iteratively calculated clothing and skin temperatures.
3.2. Climatic Data Acquisition
Various data loggers and sensors are employed
to collect climatic data. A portable thermal comfort
monitoring unit is used to record dry and wet bulb
temperature, relative humidity, and mean radiant
temperature. A hot wire air velocity sensor is
attached to it. This monitoring unit is attached to a
tripod.
Two pyranometers are connected to a datalogger
to collect global and diffuse radiation. Each
pyranometer is mounted on a wooden box attached
to a tripod used to raise the sensors up 3 feet high,
an approximate height of the body core [9]. The one
measuring the diffuse radiation is shaded by a
semicircular shield to block out direct radiation. In
this phase of the model development, shortwave
radiation data are not used since the recorded mean
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radiant temperature include the effect from the
radiation. Nevertheless, the radiation data will be
used in a subsequent study.
The data recording is synchronized, and a
sampling frequency of 1 minute is applied. Averaged
data recorded 10 minutes prior to each sensation
voting are used with each set of survey data. More
information about the data can be found in a
complementary paper [10].
4. MODEL CALIBRATION
An assessment development starts with revisiting
an empirical equation developed to predict indoor
comfort through the PMV. The equation is a
combination of physical and empirical models. The
physical model is a thermoregulatory model of the
human body, and the empirical model defines
thermal sensation as a function of a thermal load or
thermal storage. The thermal load represents the
imbalance or an unknown quantity of the heat loss
and heat gain through the body. The
thermoregulatory equation is based on a heat
balance equation that accounts for:
S: Heat storage
M: Metabolism
W: External work
R: Heat exchange by radiation (from the outer
surface of clothing)
C: Heat exchange by convection (from the
outer surface of the clothing)
K: Heat exchange by conduction (through
clothing)
E: Heat loss by evaporation (sweating)
RES: Heat exchange by respiration (latent and
sensible/dry heat)
The heat balance equation of the body is
expressed as:

S = M W R C K - E - RES (1)

The calculation requires information of dry bulb
temperature, wet bulb temperature, relative humidity,
air velocity, mean radiant temperature, metabolism
rate, and clo value (insulating value of the clothing).
When the heat storage (S) becomes zero, the heat
balance is reached.
The PMV is used to predict the thermal
sensation, a seven-point scale (hot, warm, slightly
warm, neutral, slightly cool, cool, cold). The
sensation scale is known as ASHRAE scale. The
prediction relies on an empirical model as a function
of the thermoregulatory equation. It is based on an
exponential fit curve in the following equation:

PMV = (0.303*e
-0.036M
+0.028)*S (2)

Programming codes for this study is based on [7].
Actual Sensation Votes (ASV) from surveys are
compared with calculated PMV to investigate the
prediction of the PMV equation (Figure 1). The Root
Mean Square Error (RMSE) is employed as an
indicator for the predictive power or prediction
agreement. A low RMSE indicates that the prediction
agrees with the collected data. The RMSE between
the PMV and ASV is 1.2382. When the PMVs are
negative, most participants feel comfortable. This
shows that they adapted to the cooler condition.
Nevertheless, the calculated PMV exhibits the same
trend as the ASV. Therefore, it is reasonable to try to
improve the prediction by recalibrating the equation.

Figure 1: Scattergraph showing the predictive power of the
PMV equation

Calibrations and recalibrations in this paper are
performed in Matlab using lsqcurvefit function. The
first recalibration attempts to curve fit equation (2).
The new equation (PMV2) can be expressed as:

PMV2 = 0.3278*e
(-0.0355*M)
+0.0362)*S (3)

A simulation is performed using equation (3) and
collected data as inputs. Figure 2 compares
simulation or calculation results of the PMV2 equation
and the ASV. The RMSE between them is 1.5039
indicating that the prediction using equation (3) is
worse than that of the PMV equation. This indicates
that calibration alone cannot guarantee a better
prediction. Some strategies must be developed to
improve the agreement of the results.
Figure 2: Scattergraph showing the predictive power of the
recalibrated PMV equation

There is a difference of the agreement in hot and
cold conditions. The human body uses different
mechanisms for regulating its temperature [5].
Therefore, the next trial is to perform separate
recalibrations. The adaptive comfort temperature is
used to separate the data into two sets. An equation
for the most likely comfort temperature (Tc) shown
below is developed by [11].

Tc = 13.5 + 0.54 To (4)
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where To is the outside air temperature. The two
distinct data sets are (i) Tc To, and (ii) Tc < To. The
separately recalibration results in the following
equations:

PMV3 = Fi*S (5)
where Fi is a curve fit equation.
If Tc To
F1 = -0.4005*e
(-0.0342*M)
+0.0284 (6)
If Tc < To
F2 = 0.4371*e
(-0.0325*M)
+0.0196 (7)

Figure 3 compares the prediction of the
separately recalibrated PMV (PMV3) equation and
the ASV. The RMSE between the ASV and the
separately recalibrated PMV is 0.7043, which is a
considerable improvement over the last two
equations.

Figure 3: Scattergraph showing the predictive power of the
separately recalibrated PMV equation

To identify the next strategy, results from the
original PMV equation are investigated. A
comparison between the temperature difference ( |To
- Tc| ), and prediction error ( |ASV PMV| ) is
performed (Figure 4). Despite few disagreements,
there is a trend demonstrating that the magnitude of
the prediction error increases as the temperature
difference grows. Therefore, an adaptive adjustment
using the temperature difference may be a good
candidate that can be used to compensate the
prediction error, and to improve the PMV equation.

Figure 4: Sorted temperature difference and PMV prediction
errors
Currently, there are not enough data points and
range in order to conclude whether the relationship
between the difference and the error should be linear
or polynomial. In addition, more studies should be
performed in order to find relationships between the
prediction error and other parameters.
A calibration of the PMV equation is performed
without the knowledge of the relationships. The
following equations are obtained from the calibration
using the linear compensation. The new PMV
equation is called PMVFAU1.

PMVFAU1 = F3*S+0.8150*|To - Tc| (8)
where
F3 = -0.4465*e
(-0.0635*MW)
+0.0282 (9)

Figure 5 indicates a similar agreement compared
with Figure 3. The idea of using the adaptive comfort
temperature to adjust the PMV equation shows some
promise. The RMSE between the ASV and the
PMVFAU1 equation is 0.6826.

Figure 5: Scattergraph showing the predictive power of the
PMV-FAU1 equation

Following the success of PMV3 equation, the
separate calibration is applied to the next attempt.
The calibration yields the following equations:

If Tc To
PMVFAU2 = F4*S+0.6407*|To - Tc| (11)
where
F4 = -3.5915*e
(-0.0815*M)
+0.0248 (10)
If Tc < To
PMVFAU2 = F5*S-0.8199*|To - Tc| (13)
where
F5 = 8.0380*e
(-0.0884*M)
+0.0405 (12)

Figure 6: Scattergraph showing the predictive power of the
PMV-FAU2 equation
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Figure 6 shows similarity to the last two
attempts. The RMSE between the ASV and the PMV
with a separate adaptive adjustment (PMVFAU2) is
0.6082. The improvement over PMVFAU1 is less than
0.1 in the RMSE. Furthermore, PMVFAU1 is less
complicated with regard to the computation.
To compensate for psychological adaptation and
expectation that increase human tolerance to warmer
or cooler conditions an adjustment to the PMV
equation is proposed by [4, 12]. A new equation is
called PMVnew.

PMVnew = 0.8*(PMV DPMV) (14)
where
DPMV = -4.03+0.0949*To+0.00584*RH+
1.201*(M* Icl)+0.000838*To
2
(15)

The RMSE between the ASV and calculated
PMVnew is 1.9005. The RMSE and Figure 7 indicate
that in order to adopt the equation, the PMVnew
equation needs a recalibration with the data from this
climate.

Figure 7: Scattergraph showing the predictive power of the
PMVnew equation

The recalibration of the PMVnew equation (14 and
15) leads to PMVnew2 equation (16 and 17).

PMVnew2 = 0.6574*(PMV-DPMV2) (16)
where
DPMV2 = -21.2043+1.3601*To-0.7592*RH-
0.0422 *M*Icl-0.0225*To
2
(17)

Figure 8: Scattergraph showing the predictive power of the
PMVnew2 (recalibrated PMVnew equation)

Figure 8 shows a considerable improvement over
the calculated PMVnew. The RMSE between the ASV
and calculated PMVnew2 is 0.6982. The predictive
powers of PMVnew2 and PMVFAU1 equation are
comparable.
The separate calibration strategy has produced
improvements. Together with PMV recalibration, it is
again applied to the next attempt leading to equation
(18-24).

If Tc To
PMV new3 = 0.1727*(PMVrecalibrated-DPMV3) (18)
where
PMVrecalibrated = F6*S (19)
F6 = -2.0212*e
(0.0007*M)
+2.3841 (20)
DPMV3 = 3.2351-1.9070*To +5.4480*RH +
0.8830*M*Icl+0.0545*To
2
(21)
If Tc < To
PMVnew3 = 0.3078*(PMVrecalibrated-DPMV3) (22)
where
F6 = 0.2407*e
(0.0004*M)
-0.1893 (23)
DPMV3 = -8.9164+0.0167* To -8.1784*RH+
0.2197*M*Icl+0.0149* To
2
(24)

This last attempt yields the RMSE of 0.6064.
Figure 9 shows noticeable improvement over the last
attempt. Thus far, this attempt generates the most
agreeable results.

Figure 9: Scattergraph showing the predictive power of
the PMVnew3 (separately recalibrated PMVnew equation)
Table 2 presents a comparison among different
equations. There are five candidates that perform
considerably better than their predecessors. Two of
them do not require separate calculations. The best
four namely, PMVFAU1, PMVFAU2, recalibrated
PMVnew, and separately recalibrated PMVnew, are
based on the adaptive adjustment.
Table 2: A comparison of different equations

Assessment RMSE Separation
PMV 1.2382 No
Recalibrated PMV 1.5039 No
Separately recalibrated PMV 0.7043 Yes
PMVFAU1 0.6826 No
PMVFAU2 0.6082 Yes
PMVnew 1.9005 No
Recalibrated PMVnew 0.6982 No
Separately recalibrated PMVnew 0.6064 Yes
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5. CONCLUSION
The paper presents a series of equation
calibrations. Strategies for the calibrations are based
on the PMV and a previously proposed adjustment.
Recalibration of the previously calibrated equation
does not always guarantee better prediction
agreement. The recalibrated PMV equation does not
produce improvement unlike the recalibrated
PMVnew. The paper presents a series of equation
development strategies. Based on a preceding
calibration and evaluation, a subsequent strategy is
selected.
There are three successful strategies included in
the paper. The first one is developed from the
agreement between the magnitude of adaptation and
the difference between the outside temperature and
estimated comfort temperature. The second one is
the separation of the data using the previously
proposed comfort temperature as a dividing point.
The other successful strategy is the recalibration of
the adjusted PMV equation called, PMVnew.
Based on the fact that humans have different
biological strategies to deal with the heat and the
cold, a separation between the two conditions is
made. The adaptive comfort temperature equation is
used for the separation. Separately calibrated
equations perform better than those calibrated as
universal equations. In total, five calibrated equations
perform better than their precedents.
6. FUTURE WORKS
The calibrations are performed on data collected
in the summer and fall. Therefore, they cannot be
used as universal assessment. More studies need to
be conducted with more data that cover a wider
range of climatic conditions, clothing, and activities.
Furthermore, the equations need to be validated
using a different set of data.
In addition, the research team plans to study
possibility of the dynamic assessment, which
requires detailed measurements. For instance, we
found that the spot measurements of skin and
clothing temperatures do not yield agreeable results
when used in the PMV equation. Those
temperatures are estimated through iterative
calculations to find convergences. Thermographic
measurements may yield better estimates of the
average temperatures.
The collected data can be used to study different
aspects of the outdoor comfort, for example,
differences in the thermal sensation among genders,
age groups, places of origin, and average duration of
outdoor stay.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research project was funded by the ARCC
and FAU. Associate Professor Aron Temkin has
agreed to match the ARCCs funding. Gerard
Clinton, the Assistant Dean, has been supervising
the funding transfer and budget management. Nima
Upadhayay, Michael Goodwin and Patrick Kondziola
assisted with the surveys.
8. REFERENCES
[1] Hppe, P., Improving Indoor Thermal Comfort by
Changing Outdoor Conditions. Energy and
Buildings, 1990. 15-16: p. 743-747.
[2] Spagnolo, J. and R.d. Dear, A Field Study of
Thermal Comfort in Outdoor and Semi-outdoor
Environments in Subtropical Sydney, Australia.
Building and Environment, 2003. 38(5): p. 721-
738.
[3] Nikolopoulou, M. and K. Steemers, Thermal
Comfort and Psychological Adaptation as a
Guide for Designing Urban Spaces. Energy and
Buildings, 2003. 35(1): p. 95-101.
[4] Hoof, J.v., Forty years of Fangers model of
thermal comfort: comfort for all? Indoor Air
2008. 18: p. 182-201.
[5] Hppe, P., Different aspects of assessing indoor
and outdoor thermal comfort. Energy and
buildings, 2002. 34: p. 661-665.
[6] Bruse, M. Simulating Human Thermal Comfort
and Resulting Usage Patterns of Urban Open
Spaces with a Multi-Agent System. in the 24th
International Conference on Passive and Low
Energy Architecture (PLEA). 2007. Singapore
[7] Int-Hout, D., Thermal Comfort Calculations: A
Computer Model. ASHRAE Transactions, 1990.
96(1): p. 840-844.
[8] Chun, C., et al., Thermal Diary: Connecting
Temperature History to Indoor Comfort. Building
and Environment, 2008. 43: p. 877-885.
[9] Chalfoun, N.V. Thermal Comfort Assessment of
Outdoor Spaces Using MRT and Fish-eye Lens
Photography of Architectural Scale Models: A
Case Study of the ARTS OASIS Plaza at the
University of Arizona, USA. in the 18th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy
Architecture.2001. Florianopolis, Brazil.
[10] Caldieron, J.-M., et al. Statistical Model
Evaluations and Calibrations for Outdoor
Comfort Assessment in South Florida. in PLEA
2011: Architecture and Sustainability
Development. 2010. Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
[11] Nicol, J.F. and M.A. Humphreys, Adaptive
Thermal Comfort and Sustainable Thermal
Standards for Buildings. Energy and Buildings,
2002. 34: p. 563-572.
[12] Humphreys, M.A. and J.F. Nicol, The Validity of
ISO-PMV for Predicting Comfort Votes in Every-
day Thermal Environments. Energy and
Buildings, 2002. 34: p. 667-687.


PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 433
Proposal of an outdoor thermal comfort index:
empirical verification in the subtropical climate
Leonardo Marques MONTEIRO, Marcia Peinado ALUCCI
Department of Technology, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
ABSTRACT: This paper presents a research that proposes a thermal comfort index, allowing the prediction of
thermal adequacy in urban outdoor spaces. It also considers an empirical verification of the proposed model in
subtropical climate conditions. The method adopted is experimental inductive, by means of field research of a
total of ninety-eight micro-climatic situations and over two thousand and five hundred applied questionnaires of
thermal sensation perception and preference. Deductive method is also applied, by means of regression
analysis, considering seventy-two different micro-climatic conditions. The results are verified by empirical
research considering the results from twenty-six different micro-climatic conditions gathered in different urban
situations from the previous survey. The significance of the results is considered through comparison with the
results obtained by simulation of different predictive models and their respective indexes. The results from the
proposed equation, compared with those from the others predictive models, showed that, for the specific
subtropical microclimatic conditions, they present better correlations with the data gathered.
Keywords: outdoor thermal comfort, microclimate, subtropics
1. INTRODUCTION
This paper presents a research that proposes a
thermal comfort index, allowing the verification of the
thermal adequacy of outdoor spaces in the
subtropics. The method adopted is experimental
inductive, by means of field research of micro-
climatic variables and subjective answers, and
deductive, by means of regression analysis. The
significance of the results is verified by comparison
with the ones obtained in different urban situations
from the previous ones.
2. PREDICTIVE MODELS
This study considered twenty-two predictive
models and their indexes. They will be here briefly
presented in order to perform later correlation of their
results with the results of the empirical research.
Houghten et al. [1], of ASHVE laboratories,
propose, in 1923, the Effective Temperature (ET), as
determined by dry and wet bulb temperature and
wind speed. Vernon & Warner [apud 2], in 1932
propose the Corrected Effective Temperature (CET)
substituting dry bulb temperature with globe
temperature. Siple & Passel [3], in 1965, develop the
Wind Chill Temperature (WCT) from the data
obtained with experiences in Antarctica. Belding &
Hatch [4], in 1965, propose the Heat Stress Index
(HSI), relying on a thermal balance model with
empirical equations for each exchange. Yaglou &
Minard [5], in 1957, propose the Wet Bulb Globe
Temperature (WBGT). ISO 7243:1989 [6] gives an
alternate equation for situations under solar
radiation.
Gagge [7], in 1967, presents the New Standard
Effective Temperature (SET*), defining it as the air
temperature in which, in a given reference
environment, the person has the same skin
temperature (tsk) and wetness (w) as in the real
environment. Givoni [8], in 1969, proposes the Index
of Thermal Stress (ITS), which considers the heat
exchanges, metabolism and clothes. Originally, it did
not consider the radiation exchanges. Masterton &
Richardson [9], in 1979, propose the Humidex, an
index calculated based on air temperature and
humidity. It is used by the Environment Canada
Meteorological Service to alert people of the heat
stress danger.
Jendrizky et al. [10], in 1979, developed the
Klima Michel Model (KMM). It is an adaptation of
Fangers model [11], with a short wave radiation
model, computed in the mean radiant
temperature.Vogt [12], in 1981, proposes the
evaluation of thermal stress through the required
sweat rate (Swreq). This index was adopted by ISO
7933:1989 [13]. Dominguez et al. [14], in 1992,
present the research results of the Termotecnia
Group of Seville University, also based on Vogt [12].
The authors accept low sweat rates according to the
conditioning required. Brown & Gillespie [15], in
1995, propose an outdoor Comfort Formula based
on thermal budget (S) with particularities in its terms.
Aroztegui [16], also in 1995, proposes the
Outdoor Neutral Temperature (Tne), based on
Humphreys [17] and taking into account the solar
radiation and air speed. Blazejczyk [18], in 1996,
proposes the Man-Environment Heat Exchange
model (Menex), based on thermal balance. The
author proposes three criteria, which are supposed
to be considered as a whole: Heat Load (HL),
Intensity of Radiation Stimuli (R) and Physiological
Strain (PhS). He also proposes the Subjective
Temperature Index (STI) and the Sensible
Perspiration Index (SP). DeFreitas [apud 19], in
1997, presents the Potential Storage Index (PSI) and
the Skin Temperature Equilibrating Thermal Balance
(STE), both using the Menex Model. Hppe [20], in
1999, defines the Physiological Equivalent
Temperature (PET) of a given environment as the
equivalent temperature to air temperature in which,
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
434 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
in a reference environment, the thermal balance and
the skin and core temperatures are the same of that
found in the given environment.
Givoni & Noguchi [21], in 2000, describe an
experimental research in a park in Yokohama,
Japan, and propose the Thermal Sensation Index
(TS). Bluestein & Osczevski [22], in 2002, propose
the New Wind Chill Temperature (NWCT), through a
physical modelling of a face exposed to wind.
Nikolopoulou [23], in 2004, presents the works
developed by the project Rediscovering the Urban
Realm and Open Spaces (RUROS), proposing the
actual sensation vote (ASV).
3. METHODS
3.1. Empirical data
The procedures were done following guidelines
and data from [24, 25, 26, 27, 28]. On the field
researches, seventy-two different micro-climatic
scenarios were considered and one thousand and
seven hundred and fifty questionnaires were applied
during summer and winter of two consecutive years,
in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The procedures are
briefly presented in the following paragraphs.
For the measurements and application of
questionnaires, three bases (Figure 1) were set: the
first one under open sky, the second one under a
tensioned membrane structure, and the third one
shaded by trees. In each one of the three bases,
micro-climatic variables (mean radiant temperature,
air temperature, air humidity and wind speed) were
measured and a hundred and fifty people answered
a questionnaire, in six different hours of the day.
These people came from different regions of Brazil.
Further studies will consider not only the results from
acclimatized ones, but also comparatively the results
from those who were not acclimatized.





Figure 1: three bases: the first one under open sky, the
second one under a tensioned membrane structure and the
third one shaded by trees.

The questionnaire considered questions of
personal characteristics (sex, age, weight, height),
acclimatization (places of living and duration) and
subjective responses (thermal sensation, preference,
comfort and tolerance). Pictures were taken of
everyone who would answer the questionnaire, in
order to identify clothing and activity. A forth base, at
10m high, was set for measuring meteorological
parameters (global radiation and wind speed). The
equipment used in each base was the following.
Under open sky: meteorological station ELE model
EMS, data logger ELE model MM900 EE 475-016.
Shaded by trees: meteorological station Huger
Eletronics model GmbH WM918 and personal
computer for data logging. Under tensioned
membrane structure: station Innova 7301, with
modules of thermal comfort and stress, and data
logger Innova model 1221. At 10m high:
meteorological station Huger Eletronics model GmbH
WM921 and a piranometer Eppley.
In each base, globe temperature was also
measured through 15cm grey globes and
semiconductor sensors, storing the data in Hobo
data loggers. The measurements were done in
intervals of one second, and the storage was done in
intervals of one minute, considering the average of
measurements.
The limits in which the empirical data were
gathered are: air temperature (ta) = 15C~33C;
mean radiant temperature (mrt) = 15C~66C;
relative humidity (rh) = 30%~95%; wind speed (va) =
0,1m/s~3,6m/s. It should also be mentioned that,
although it is not a limiting factor for normal
situations, the maximum and minimum clothing
thermal insulation values found were 0,3 and 1,2 clo,
with mean values between 0,4 and 0,9 clo.
Considering the Typical Reference Year (TRY)
[29] for Sao Paulo, the ranges presented represent
92% of the general climatic situations during day
time. On the other hand, if it is necessary to make an
extrapolation, it must be done carefully and would
better be object of further researches.
3.2. Modelling
The multiple linear regression to be presented
was obtained considering the data from the seventy-
two microclimatic situations, regarding the application
of one thousand and seven hundred and fifty
questionnaires.
tsp= -3,557 + 0,0632 ta + 0,0677 mrt +
+ 0,0105 ur - 0,304 va [1]
with: r= 0,936; r2= 0,875; r2aj= 0,868; se= 0,315;
P< 0,001.
where: tsp= thermal sensation perception
[dimensionless], ta = air temperature [oC], mrt =
mean radiant temperature [oC], rh = relative humidity
[%], v = air velocity [m/s]

Considering the thermal sensation perception
(tsp), following the categories of the applied
questionnaires, result from -0,5 to 0,5 means
neutrality; from 0,5 to 1,5 means warm; from 1,5 to
2,5 means hot; above 2,5 means very hot; from -0,5
to -1,5 means cool; from -1,5 to -2,5 means cold;
and below -2,5 means very cold.
Table 1 presents a statistic resume of the
constant and the four dependent variables and Table
2 presents the analysis of variance.

PLEA 2011 - 27
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 435
Table 1: Statistic summary of the constant and the four dependent
variables
c se t p VIF
ct -3,557 0,249 -11,17 <0,001
ta 0,0632 0,0143 3,796 <0,001 2,101
mrt 0,0677 0,011 -2,803 <0,001 1,135
rh 0,0105 0,00305 2,220 <0,001 2,089
va -0,304 0,0053 12,861 <0,001 1,915
where: ct= constant, c = coefficient, se= standard
error, t= statistical test t, p= significance, VIF=
variance inflation factor.
Table 2: Analysis of variance
DF SS MS F p
Regression 4 46,667 11,667 117,44 <0,001
Residual 67 6,656 0,0993
Total 71 53,323 0,751
where: DF= degrees of freedom, SS= sum of
squares, MS= mean square, F= statistical test F, p=
significance.

Monteiro & Alucci [30], reviewing the state of the
art of outdoor thermal comfort modelling researches,
observe that there is a tendency to use equivalent
temperatures instead of interpretative ranges, since
an equivalent temperature itself, without an
interpretative range, would give a notion of the
thermal sensation, taking into account a reference
environment.
In this research, in order to propose an equivalent
temperature model, the following assumptions to the
reference environment where done: mrt = ta; rh=50%
and va=0 m/s. Considering these assumptions, the
relationship between the air temperature of the
reference environment and the thermal sensation
perception is the following:
ta,re = 23,395 + 7,639 tsp [2]
where: ta,re = air temperature of the reference
environment [oC], tsp = thermal sensation perception
[dimensionless].

By equations 1 and 2, the following equation is
proposed, where TEP stands for the proposed
Temperature of Equivalent Perception, in oC.
TEP = -3,777 + 0,4828 ta + 0,5172 mrt +
+ 0,0802 rh - 2,322 va [3]
The Temperature of Equivalent Perception (TEP)
of a given environment can be defined as a thermal
sensation scale which presents values numerically
equivalent to those of the air temperature of a
reference environment (mrt=ta, rh=50%, and va=0) in
which the thermal sensation perception is the same
to the one verified in the given environment.
Following equation 2, one may observe that the
air temperature of neutrality, in the case of a
reference environment, is approximately equal to
23,4C. Yet the advantage of equivalent
temperatures is the intuitive interpretation of their
values, it is also interesting to provide a interpretative
range, since the intuitive interpretation is only
possible after the exposition to several environments
and their respective equivalent temperatures. In the
Discussion topic of this paper interpretative ranges
for the Temperature of Equivalent Perception (TEP)
will be proposed.
Considering the applicability of the proposed
equation, the limits in which the Temperature of
Equivalent Perception (TEP) is valid are the ones
verified for the empirical research. Table 3 presents
the limits of the microclimatic variables, in which TEP
is based. Further studies to be developed, with more
comprehensive empirical data, would test the validity
of the results beyond those limits.

Table 3: Limit values for microclimatic variables
variable min max
ta (
o
C) 15,1 33,1
mrt (
o
C) 15,5 65,5
rh (%) 30,9 94,7
va (m/s) 0,1 3,6
TEP (
o
C) 13,7 45,3
Table 4 presents the interpretative ranges for the
Temperature of Equivalent Perception (TEP),
considering the results found in the empirical
researches.
Table 4: Temperature of Equivalent Perception (TEP)
TEP (
o
C) Sensation
> 42,5 very hot
34,9 ~ 42,4 hot
27,3 ~ 34,8 warm
19,6 ~ 27,2 neutrality
12,0 ~ 19,5 cool
4,4 ~ 11,9 cold
< 4,3 very cold
4. VERIFICATION
The results presented are verified by empirical
research considering the results from twenty-six
different micro-climatic conditions gathered in
different urban situations from the previous survey.
Figure 2 present these different urban configurations.


Figure 2: three bases for the verification of the results:
the first one in an urban canyon, the second on under open
sky, and the third one shaded by trees.
in a reference environment, the thermal balance and
the skin and core temperatures are the same of that
found in the given environment.
Givoni & Noguchi [21], in 2000, describe an
experimental research in a park in Yokohama,
Japan, and propose the Thermal Sensation Index
(TS). Bluestein & Osczevski [22], in 2002, propose
the New Wind Chill Temperature (NWCT), through a
physical modelling of a face exposed to wind.
Nikolopoulou [23], in 2004, presents the works
developed by the project Rediscovering the Urban
Realm and Open Spaces (RUROS), proposing the
actual sensation vote (ASV).
3. METHODS
3.1. Empirical data
The procedures were done following guidelines
and data from [24, 25, 26, 27, 28]. On the field
researches, seventy-two different micro-climatic
scenarios were considered and one thousand and
seven hundred and fifty questionnaires were applied
during summer and winter of two consecutive years,
in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The procedures are
briefly presented in the following paragraphs.
For the measurements and application of
questionnaires, three bases (Figure 1) were set: the
first one under open sky, the second one under a
tensioned membrane structure, and the third one
shaded by trees. In each one of the three bases,
micro-climatic variables (mean radiant temperature,
air temperature, air humidity and wind speed) were
measured and a hundred and fifty people answered
a questionnaire, in six different hours of the day.
These people came from different regions of Brazil.
Further studies will consider not only the results from
acclimatized ones, but also comparatively the results
from those who were not acclimatized.





Figure 1: three bases: the first one under open sky, the
second one under a tensioned membrane structure and the
third one shaded by trees.

The questionnaire considered questions of
personal characteristics (sex, age, weight, height),
acclimatization (places of living and duration) and
subjective responses (thermal sensation, preference,
comfort and tolerance). Pictures were taken of
everyone who would answer the questionnaire, in
order to identify clothing and activity. A forth base, at
10m high, was set for measuring meteorological
parameters (global radiation and wind speed). The
equipment used in each base was the following.
Under open sky: meteorological station ELE model
EMS, data logger ELE model MM900 EE 475-016.
Shaded by trees: meteorological station Huger
Eletronics model GmbH WM918 and personal
computer for data logging. Under tensioned
membrane structure: station Innova 7301, with
modules of thermal comfort and stress, and data
logger Innova model 1221. At 10m high:
meteorological station Huger Eletronics model GmbH
WM921 and a piranometer Eppley.
In each base, globe temperature was also
measured through 15cm grey globes and
semiconductor sensors, storing the data in Hobo
data loggers. The measurements were done in
intervals of one second, and the storage was done in
intervals of one minute, considering the average of
measurements.
The limits in which the empirical data were
gathered are: air temperature (ta) = 15C~33C;
mean radiant temperature (mrt) = 15C~66C;
relative humidity (rh) = 30%~95%; wind speed (va) =
0,1m/s~3,6m/s. It should also be mentioned that,
although it is not a limiting factor for normal
situations, the maximum and minimum clothing
thermal insulation values found were 0,3 and 1,2 clo,
with mean values between 0,4 and 0,9 clo.
Considering the Typical Reference Year (TRY)
[29] for Sao Paulo, the ranges presented represent
92% of the general climatic situations during day
time. On the other hand, if it is necessary to make an
extrapolation, it must be done carefully and would
better be object of further researches.
3.2. Modelling
The multiple linear regression to be presented
was obtained considering the data from the seventy-
two microclimatic situations, regarding the application
of one thousand and seven hundred and fifty
questionnaires.
tsp= -3,557 + 0,0632 ta + 0,0677 mrt +
+ 0,0105 ur - 0,304 va [1]
with: r= 0,936; r2= 0,875; r2aj= 0,868; se= 0,315;
P< 0,001.
where: tsp= thermal sensation perception
[dimensionless], ta = air temperature [oC], mrt =
mean radiant temperature [oC], rh = relative humidity
[%], v = air velocity [m/s]

Considering the thermal sensation perception
(tsp), following the categories of the applied
questionnaires, result from -0,5 to 0,5 means
neutrality; from 0,5 to 1,5 means warm; from 1,5 to
2,5 means hot; above 2,5 means very hot; from -0,5
to -1,5 means cool; from -1,5 to -2,5 means cold;
and below -2,5 means very cold.
Table 1 presents a statistic resume of the
constant and the four dependent variables and Table
2 presents the analysis of variance.

PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
436 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
Three criteria were established for comparing the
simulation results with the new field research results
aiming to verify the significance of the results
provided by the new proposed predictive model.
The first criterion is the correlation between the
results of the model parameter and the results of the
thermal sensation responses obtained in the field
study. The second criterion is the correlation
between the results of the index and the results of
the thermal sensation responses obtained in the field
study. The last one is the percentage of correct
predictions.
Concerning the indexes based on equivalent
temperatures, the criterion for interpretation of the
indexes used was the one by De Freitas [19]. Yet the
author proposes this one only for effective
temperatures, it was used for other equivalent
temperatures because no other references were
found; except for STI, for which was used Blazejczyk
[18].
All the criteria are based on results concerning
new empirical field researches, performed during
summer and winter, in three different locations, in
another neighbourhood of Sao Paulo, using the
same procedures established before, and
considering twenty-six new micro-climatic scenarios
and the mean thermal sensation responses for each
one of this scenarios (eight hundred and fifty eight
applied questionnaires).
Aiming better results to the specific evaluation of
open spaces of Sao Paulo, a calibration was
performed in order to fit the results from the
simulations to the results found in the empirical
researches. In order to do so, each index was
linguistically compared to seven values (the same
used in the field researches): three positive ones
(warm, hot, very hot), three negative ones (cool, cold,
very cold) and one of neutrality (negative values do
not apply for models that consider only hot
environments).
The calibration was done through iterative
method, changing the range limits of each index in
order to maximize the correlation between its results
and those found in the empirical researches. The
calibration could be done, also iteratively, to
maximize the percentage of correct predictions.
However, it was assumed that is more important to
assure the maximization of the correlation between
the results of the index and those from empirical
data, once this correlation expresses the tendency of
correctly predicting other situations.
5. RESULTS
Table 4 presents the final results considering the
comparison criteria presented. This table presents
the correlation modules between field study results
and simulation results, without and with the
calibration process presented.
In the table: C= Correlation with the model
parameter; Co= Correlation with the original index
without calibration; Po= Percentage of correct
predictions without calibration; Cc= Correlation with
the index with calibration; and Pc= Percentage of
correct predictions with calibration.
Table 4: Correlation between new field study and simulation
results from different predictive models
Index C Co Po Cc Pc
ET* 0,73 0,66 23% 0,74 55%
CET* 0,85 0,81 41% 0,83 66%
OT 0,66 0,62 34% 0,72 55%
EOT* 0,61 0,64 45% 0,76 48%
WCTI 0,70 0,60 14% 0,64 35%
HSI 0,74 0,66 14% 0,69 48%
WBGT 0,83 - - 0,80 55%
SET* 0,70 0,66 11% 0,69 59%
ITS 0,75 0,65 43% 0,75 55%
HU 0,56 0,55 25% 0,57 43%
PMV 0,65 0,64 39% 0,78 57%
Swreq 0,82 - - 0,83 57%
W 0,77 - - 0,66 53%
Swreq 0,81 0,60 45% 0,85 64%
S 0,84 0,67 59% 0,76 52%
Tne 0,71 0,61 36% 0,70 57%
HL 0,86 0,76 41% 0,86 68%
PhS 0,78 0,78 52% 0,78 55%
R 0,74 0,43 18% 0,56 24%
STI 0,82 0,80 14% 0,78 39%
SP 0,76 0,66 52% 0,73 55%
ECI 0,67 0,74 50% 0,76 53%
PSI 0,81 0,79 27% 0,79 41%
STE 0,68 0,67 27% 0,77 41%
PET 0,75 0,75 32% 0,78 52%
TS 0,63 0,61 32% 0,72 48%
NWCTI 0,58 0,54 15% 0,59 30%
ASV 0,76 0,67 30% 0,78 34%
TEP 0,85 - - 0,86 66%
6. DISCUSSION
Considering Table 4, one may observe that the
best results without calibration are provided by the
Potential Storage Index (PSI), calculated using the
MENEX model proposed by Blazejczyk [18]. This
index presented correlations of 0,86 and 0,76;
respectively for its model parameter and its original
index. The percentage of correct predictions, also
without calibration was one of 41%, one of the
highest among the original indexes. Following Table
4, one may affirm that, before the proposal of the
Temperature of Equivalent Perception (TEP), for the
specific case of evaluating outdoor spaces on the
subtropics, the best index would be the Perceived
Equivalent Temperature, calculated using the MEMI
model proposed by Hoppe [20]. Although it provided
poorer results considering the first interpretative
ranges, with the calibration process the new ranges
provided the best results among the studied indexes:
correlations of 0,86 and 0,68; respectively for the
model parameter and the calibrated index. The
percentage of correct predictions, with calibration,
was 68%.
Keep on following Table 4, one may observe that
the results of the proposed Temperature of
Equivalent Perception (TEP) provides better results
than all the other indexes, even when compared with
the results form the calibrated indexes. Its
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 437
correlations are of 0,85 for the model parameter and
0,85 for the index. The percentage of correct
predictions achieved 96%, the highest among all the
results. In the topic about modelling, it was argued
that the advantage of equivalent temperatures is the
intuitive interpretation of their values. On the other
hand, it is also interesting to provide an interpretative
range, since the intuitive interpretation is only
possible after the exposition to several environments
and their respective equivalent temperatures. One
may observe that the criteria used to evaluate the
model predictions allow successive verifications. The
first correlation verifies the possible potential of the
model. In other words, it verifies the sensibility of the
model, showing how well the model parameter
results vary in function to variations of thermal
responses. The second correlation does the same,
but specifically with the interpretation criteria of the
indexes. The final criterion gives the percentage of
correct predictions, telling how well the model is
performing.
Considering the calibration, we can observe that
it provides better correlation with the new empirical
data gathered and consequently greater percentage
of correct predictions. Considering the results found,
it is more interesting to use a model with a better first
correlation (the correlation between the model
parameter and the field subject responses) than a
one with a greater percentage of correct predictions
but with a poor first correlation, because a good first
correlation means that the models, once calibrated
with empirical data, has a good potential to correctly
predict the thermal sensations. As one may see, the
Temperature of Equivalent Perception (TEP),
proposed in this work, presents the highest
correlation between the model parameter and the
field subject responses, leading also to the highest
correlation between the index and the field subject
responses. Finally, it presents also the best results in
term of percentage of correct predictions.
One may also notice that, before proposing the
Temperature of Equivalent Perception, the best
results would be given by the Potential Storage Index
(PSI), calculated using the MENEX model proposed
by Blazejczyk [18], or by the Physiological Equivalent
Temperature (PET), calculated using the MEMI
model proposed by Hoppe [20]. One may see that
both indexes are estimated by means of a thermo-
physiological balance model, which needs several
iterations to provide reliable results. The
Temperature of Equivalent Perception (TEP) not only
presented as good results as those compared to the
empirical data gathered, but also provides a simpler
model to estimate outdoor thermal comfort, since it
relies on only one multiple linear equation.
7. FINAL CONSIDERATION
The research provided a simple, easy-to-use and
reliable index to assess thermal comfort in outdoor
spaces in a subtropical climate. Thus, the main
contribution of this paper is to provide a thermal
comfort index which can be properly used for
predicting thermal comfort in outdoor spaces in a
subtropical climate. The experimental comparative
study of different outdoor thermal comfort predictive
models allowed the verification of the results.
Comparing the results from the equation generated
from multiple linear regression analysis to the ones
from the predictive models, one may observe that the
equation found, which culminated in the proposal of
the Temperature of Equivalent Perception, presents
good correlations with the data gathered in new
scenarios.
8. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the Fundacao de
Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo
(FAPESP) and the Conselho Nacional de
Desenvolvimento Cientfico e Tecnolgico (CNPq),
for the financial support in this research.
9. REFERENCES
[1] Houghten, F.C.; Yaglou, C.P. Determining lines of
equal comfort. ASHVE Transactions, 29, 1923.
[2] Williamson, S. P. (coord.). Report on wind chill
temperature and extreme heat indices: evaluation and
improvement projects. Washington: OFCMS
Supporting Research, 2003.
[3] Siple, P. A.; Passel C. F. Measurements of dry
atmospheric cooling in subfreezing temperatures.
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society,
89 (1), p.177-199, 1945.
[4] Belding, H. S.; Hatch, T. F. Index for evaluating heat
stress in terms of resulting physiological strain.
Heating, Piping, Air Conditioning, 27, p.129-42,
1955.
[5] Yaglou, C. P.; Minard, D. Control of heat casualties at
military training centers. A.M.A. Archives of
Industrial Health, 16, p. 302-16, 1957.
[6] International Organization Standardization. ISO 7243.
Hot environments: estimation of the heat stress on
working man, based on the WBGT-index (wet bulb
globe temperature). Genve: ISO, 1989.
[7] Gagge, A. P.; Stolwijk J. A. J.; Hardy, J. D. Comfort
and thermal sensations and associated physiological
responses at various ambient temperatures. Environ.
Res., 1, p. 1-20, 1967.
[8] Givoni, Baruch. Man, climate and architecture. New
York: John Wiley & Sons, 1969.
[9] Masterton, J. M.; Richardson, F. A. Humidex: a
method of quantifying human discomfort.
Environment Canada, CLI 1-79. Ontario,
Downsview: Atmospheric Environment Service,
1979.
[10] Jendritzky, Gerd et al. Klimatologische Probleme
ein einfaches Verfahren zur Vorhersage der
Wrmebelastung, in Zeitschrift fr angewandte Bder
und Klimaheilkunde. Freiburg, 1979.
[11] Fanger, P. O. Thermal comfort: analysis and
application in environment engineering. New York:
McGraw Hill, 1970.
[12] Vogt, J.J. Ambiances thermiques. In: Scherrer, J. et
al. Prcis de physiologie du travail, notions
dergonomie, Masson, 2
me
dition, 217-263 1981.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
438 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
[13] ISO. ISO 7933. Hot environments: analytical
determination and interpretation of thermal stress
using calculation of required sweat rate. Genve: ISO,
1989.
[14] Dominguez et al. Control climatico en espacios
abiertos: el proyecto Expo'92. Sevilla: Universidad de
Sevilla, 1992.
[15] Brown, Robert D.; Gillespie, Terry J. Microclimatic
landscape design: creating thermal comfort and
energy efficiency. New York: John Wiley & Sons,
1995.
[16] Aroztegui, Jos Miguel. ndice de Temperatura
Neutra Exterior. In: Encontro Nacional Sobre
Conforto No Ambiente Construdo (ENCAC), 3,
1995, Gramado. Anais... Gramado: ENCAC, 1995.
[17] Humphreys, Michael A. Field studies of thermal
comfort compared and applied. BRE Current Paper,
75/76, London, 1975.
[18] Blazejczyk, Krysztof. Menex 2002. http://www.
igipz.pan.pl/klimat/blaz/menex.htm. 2002. Visited in
24/04/2004.
[19] Blazejczyk, Krysztof; Tokura, Hiromi; Bortkwcz,
Alicja; Szymczak, W. Solar radiation and thermal
physiology in man. In: International Congress of
Biometeorology & International Conference on
Urban Climatology, 15, 1999, Sydney. Selected
Papers from the Conference... Geneva: World
Meteorological Organization, p. 267-272, 2000.
[20] Hppe, Peter R. The physiological equivalent
temperature: a universal index for the
biometeorological assessment of the thermal
environment. Int. J. Biomet., 43, p. 71-75, 1999.
[21] Givoni, Baruch; Noguchi, Mikiko. Issues in outdoor
comfort research. In: Passive And Low Energy
Architecture, 17, 2000, Cambridge. Proceedings...
London: J&J, p. 562-565, 2002.
[22] Bluestein, M.; Osczevski, R. Wind chill and the
development of frostbite in the face. Preprints, 15th
Conference on Biometeorology and Aerobiology,
Kansas City, MO: Amer. Met. Soc., p. 168-171, 2002.
[23] Nikolopoulou, Marialena (org). Designing Open
Spaces in the Urban Environment: a Bioclimatic
Approach. Atenas: CRES, 2004.
[24] ASHRAE. Handbook of fundamentals. Atlanta:
ASHRAE, 2005.
[25] ISO. ISO 7726. Ergonomics: instruments for
measuring physical quantities. ISO: Genve, 1998.
[26] ISO. ISO 9920. Ergonomics of the thermal
environment: estimation of the thermal insulation and
evaporative resistance of a clothing ensemble. ISO:
Genve, 1995.
[27] ISO. ISO 10551. Ergonomics of the thermal
environment: assessment of the influence of the
thermal environment using subjective judgment
scales. ISO: Genve, 1995.
[28] ISO. ISO 8996. Ergonomics: metabolic heat
production. ISO: Genve, 1990.
[29] Goulart, S. et al. Climatic data for energetic
evaluation of buildings in fourteen Brazilian cities.
Florianpolis: UFSC, 1998.
[30] Monteiro, L.M.; Alucci, M.P. Outdoor thermal
comfort: numerical modelling approaches and new
perspectives. In: Passive And Low Energy
Architecture, 22, 2005, Beirut. Proceedings... 2005.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 439
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July
2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
Evaluation of comfort conditions and sustainable
design of urban open spaces in Crete
MARIANNA TSITOURA
1
, MICHAILIDOU MARINA
2
, THEOCHARIS TSOUTSOS
3

Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete, GR-73100 Chania, Greece

ABSTRACT: The thermal environment in outdoor public spaces and their use is highly relevant to individuals
thermal comfort perception. Since climatic conditions directly affect the use and activities of outdoor spaces,
they should be taken into account when designing public spaces. Especially in Southern Europe, due to the
extended use of outdoor spaces during summertime where the urban heat island phenomenon is present, a
more sustainable design is very critical for their viability. This present paper reveals the strong relationship
between the microclimate and the outdoor comfort conditions through field surveys conducted in four different
urban open spaces in Crete. Thermal indices like PMV (Predicted Mean Vote), PET (Physiologically Equivalent
Temperature) and SET (Standard Effective Temperature), WBGT (Wet bulb globe temperature)are used to
evaluate the assessment of urban microclimate and then are compared in order to find the most suitable for the
Mediterranean microclimate. In this way every designer can simply affect the sustainability of the urban open
place with the control of the microclimatic conditions into it and can easily predict the levels of comfort of his
proposal. The deviations of these microclimate factors that are proved to affect the individual thermal comfort, in
the Mediterranean climate of Crete, are simulated using the numerical microclimate model ENVI-met (Bruse and
Fleer 1998). ENVI-met uses data from the area design, vegetation, climate, materials and translates them into
microclimate maps of present and future. In this way develops the ability to the designer to evaluate with high
accuracy the comfort conditions of every outdoor design and its effect on the surrounding microclimate. Field
measurements on a central park of Chania one day per month validates the accuracy of the simulation using
ENVI-met, afterwards several design and vegetation scenarios are tested in order to conclude in the most viable
in terms of comfort solution. The aim of this study is not only to evaluate the most suitable value of every
microclimatic factor for the individual perception of comfort so as to provide a specialized model of comfort in the
Mediterranean areas but also to find the way for achieving the desired microclimatic conditions through a
proposed sustainable design.
Keywords: Outdoor comfort; microclimatic monitoring; field surveys; sustainable design
1. INTRODUCTION
One of the most fundamental issues in the
structure and use of every type of city is the urban
open space. Its type and use is directly affected by
the habitants and vice versa the habitants quality of
life and social status is related with the open urban
space design [1,2]. The major factor that determines
the quality of the open urban spaces is the climate
conditions that occur in the micro scale environment
[3]. Humidity levels, especially in hot climates and
coastal regions [4,5] the mean radiant temperature as
well as the cold air supply within the urban space
affect the health [6] and well being of the citizens
therefore the development of the whole city area in
several ways, affect on tourism [7,8], affect on the
local market, affect on the residences [9]. Especially
in islands this relationship is more evident because
the majority of the open space is in the form of a
large central square in the city center [10]; in this way
every intervention to the open space may have
obvious beneficial results in the sustainability of the
whole urban system [11]. With the study of the
severable microclimatic factors in relation with the
comfort factors of people using them can determine
the basic parameters of sustainable design [12]. This
realization, in fact provides the basic cause for further
study about the determination of these parameters
[13-15]. The initial findings of the current research
study aims to implement additional information about
the correlation between the microclimatic
characteristics of open urban spaces and the comfort
votes of people using them [16].
One of the fundamental issues in human comfort
is the human biometeorology. Human biometeorology
issues are studied since 1750 and several indices are
developed in order to explain the energy that is
exchanged between the human body and the outdoor
environment. Some of these indices are based in two
parameters and some include a total exchange
model. The most reliable indices are the Standard
Predictive Index of Human Response approach [17],
and Out_SET* [18] which combine the man-
environment heat exchange (MENEX) model [19], the
Thermal Environmental Index [20].
In this context, microclimatic conditions have
begun being viewed as integral to the success of an
open space as they determine critical parameters for
the use of outdoor spaces in the urban environment.
[21,22].
This paper goes further, examining the way
microclimatic conditions, such as air temperature,
solar radiation, relative humidity and wind speed and
direction, in relation with psychological factors affect
the use of urban open spaces in a Mediterranean
island climate, concentrating on the surveys carried
out in four different cities in Crete, Greece [23]. The
aim of the paper is to provide the basic rules which
can be used for a sustainable design of open urban
spaces in every type of Mediterranean island and
secondly to organize the basic steps and method for
achieving that. These basic rules with the use of
simulation results are implemented to a central park
in Crete, through this way, can be calculated the
exact impact that the microclimate can have in the
comfort levels in every point of the park and finally
end to a more sustainable design proposal.
[13] ISO. ISO 7933. Hot environments: analytical
determination and interpretation of thermal stress
using calculation of required sweat rate. Genve: ISO,
1989.
[14] Dominguez et al. Control climatico en espacios
abiertos: el proyecto Expo'92. Sevilla: Universidad de
Sevilla, 1992.
[15] Brown, Robert D.; Gillespie, Terry J. Microclimatic
landscape design: creating thermal comfort and
energy efficiency. New York: John Wiley & Sons,
1995.
[16] Aroztegui, Jos Miguel. ndice de Temperatura
Neutra Exterior. In: Encontro Nacional Sobre
Conforto No Ambiente Construdo (ENCAC), 3,
1995, Gramado. Anais... Gramado: ENCAC, 1995.
[17] Humphreys, Michael A. Field studies of thermal
comfort compared and applied. BRE Current Paper,
75/76, London, 1975.
[18] Blazejczyk, Krysztof. Menex 2002. http://www.
igipz.pan.pl/klimat/blaz/menex.htm. 2002. Visited in
24/04/2004.
[19] Blazejczyk, Krysztof; Tokura, Hiromi; Bortkwcz,
Alicja; Szymczak, W. Solar radiation and thermal
physiology in man. In: International Congress of
Biometeorology & International Conference on
Urban Climatology, 15, 1999, Sydney. Selected
Papers from the Conference... Geneva: World
Meteorological Organization, p. 267-272, 2000.
[20] Hppe, Peter R. The physiological equivalent
temperature: a universal index for the
biometeorological assessment of the thermal
environment. Int. J. Biomet., 43, p. 71-75, 1999.
[21] Givoni, Baruch; Noguchi, Mikiko. Issues in outdoor
comfort research. In: Passive And Low Energy
Architecture, 17, 2000, Cambridge. Proceedings...
London: J&J, p. 562-565, 2002.
[22] Bluestein, M.; Osczevski, R. Wind chill and the
development of frostbite in the face. Preprints, 15th
Conference on Biometeorology and Aerobiology,
Kansas City, MO: Amer. Met. Soc., p. 168-171, 2002.
[23] Nikolopoulou, Marialena (org). Designing Open
Spaces in the Urban Environment: a Bioclimatic
Approach. Atenas: CRES, 2004.
[24] ASHRAE. Handbook of fundamentals. Atlanta:
ASHRAE, 2005.
[25] ISO. ISO 7726. Ergonomics: instruments for
measuring physical quantities. ISO: Genve, 1998.
[26] ISO. ISO 9920. Ergonomics of the thermal
environment: estimation of the thermal insulation and
evaporative resistance of a clothing ensemble. ISO:
Genve, 1995.
[27] ISO. ISO 10551. Ergonomics of the thermal
environment: assessment of the influence of the
thermal environment using subjective judgment
scales. ISO: Genve, 1995.
[28] ISO. ISO 8996. Ergonomics: metabolic heat
production. ISO: Genve, 1990.
[29] Goulart, S. et al. Climatic data for energetic
evaluation of buildings in fourteen Brazilian cities.
Florianpolis: UFSC, 1998.
[30] Monteiro, L.M.; Alucci, M.P. Outdoor thermal
comfort: numerical modelling approaches and new
perspectives. In: Passive And Low Energy
Architecture, 22, 2005, Beirut. Proceedings... 2005.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
440 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July
2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 3
res: Respiratory evaporative heat exchange [W/m
2
]
For the calculation of PMV used the software
Envimet 3.1.
Common microclimatic data with the PMV
(Predicted Mean Vote) require two other indexes:
PET (Physiologically Equivalent Temperature) and
out SET (Standard Effective Temperature) [27]. All
those thermal indices are well documented and
include important meteorological and thermo-
physiological parameters so as to define the total
comfort [28]. The scale that are measured is in
o
C but
the parameters required in the model are both
climatic (air temperature, humidity, radiation
environment, wind speed and direction) but also
physical characteristics of every interviewee (age,
sex, weight, height, clothes, metabolism rate) [29].
A full application of these thermal indices on the
energy balance of the human body gives detailed
information about the effect of the thermal
environment on every human. For the calculation of
PET and out SET it is used the Rayman model
designed by Matzarakis [6,8,29] for every single
interview. According to the results of mean values of
these calculations, the mean PET value during
summer is on the too hot group whereas the mean
PET value during winter is on the comfort group.
The same applies also to the out SET values with a
slight difference in the summer. The PET values are
recorded relatively high in summer due to the high
sun radiation levels.
All the indices were calculated for all the
squares both in summer and winter and the results of
their comparison with the actual votes are quite
similar. Figure 1 shows the exact value of each one
of those indices in summer and winter for the hours
of the interview, only for Talo square in Chania. From
the comparison of the indices with the actual
sensation votes can be assumed that:
- out SET index is directly affected by the solar
environment that is why appears so unstable
- WBGT index is quite close to the air temperature
and cannot describe at all the comfort levels
- PMV index, cannot describe the comfort during
summer but it can predict the increase or the fall of
the comfort votes quite realistically
After the linear regression of each one of these
indexes with the actual sensation votes from the
interviews of all the squares is found that the PMV
index can better predict the comfort votes with the
implication of the model : ASV = PMV x 0.16 + 0.22
(R
2
= 0.72).
Figure 1: Thermal indices value for Talo square in Chania
for winter and summer

4. SIMULATION USING ENVIMET 3.1
4.1. Validation of Envimet 3.1
ENVI-met uses data from the area design,
vegetation, climate, materials and translates them
into microclimate maps of present and future. In this
way the designer obtains the ability to evaluate with
high accuracy the comfort conditions of every outdoor
design and its effect on the surrounding microclimate.
Field measurements on a central park of Chania, one
day per month validates the accuracy of the
simulation using ENVI-met. Several design and
vegetation scenarios are tested in order to conclude
in the most viable in terms of comfort solution.
There have been some recent studies using
ENVI-met to simulate the effect of urban vegetation
on microclimate [30-35].
In this study, simulation software ENVI-met is
used, as a three-dimensional numerical model
designed to simulate the surface-plant-air interactions
in urban environment in a microclimate scale, with a
typical resolution of 0.5 to 50m in space and 10
seconds in time [36]. Typical areas of applications
are Urban Climatology, Architecture, Building Design,
and Environmental Planning and so on. Although it is
not open source, ENVI-met is a freeware program
based on different scientific research projects under
constant development [36].
This is a parametric study based on typical
Mediterranean island urban park morphology. A
layout plan based on one central park in Chania in
Crete, Greece is chosen. The park is situated in the
center of the city and is surrounded by high traffic
roads. Despite the high density of the urban
environment and the large open space that it covers
(20.000 m
2
), the park is not used extensively neither
by the pedestrians nor by people who want to relax.
Although it has recently been designed and
enhances several kinds of uses (pond, playground,
benches etc), it seems quite deserted. Even one
refreshment kiosk that was inside the area of the park
is closed. Firstly Envimet 3.1 is validated with the
comparative study of real time weather data obtained
with measurements within the park for 8 hours every
month from May to November, with the simulation
data produced by Envimet 3.1 for the same hours
and days of the measurements (Fig.2). In this
validation Envimet is found to be quite accurate in
simulating urban microclimate parameters. Especially
for the factors of air temperature and relative
humidity, which are the two factors that directly affect
comfort, the results from the simulation were quite
representative of the actual values.
After the validation for the accuracy of the data
produced as well as the comparison of the index
PMV as calculated with the use of Envimet with the
actual sensation votes from on site interviews on four
different open urban spaces in Crete, simulations are
designed and run respectively to calculate the index
of PMV and to evaluate the comfort conditions in the
study area.

PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July
2011
2 xx.x SECTION NAME
2. METHOD
In order to ensure the sustainability of the design
processes this survey is divided in two basic steps.
In the beginning surveys were conducted in four
different sites in Crete in order to determine the
comfort levels of the open urban spaces in Crete. A
questionnaire survey and physical measurements at
the same time was used to assess the thermal
comfort of visitors. The questionnaire included
questions about comfort, physical evidence and
psychological evidence and the microclimatic data
were measured by one weather station which was
placed in the middle of every square and several
portable sensors for more detailed data of the exact
place of every interview.
Afterwards with the actual sensation votes and
the measured data is enabled the calculation of
several outdoor climate indices and the selection of
the more representative of the actual votes. This
index is simulated using the software Envimet 3.1
after its validation of the data produced for the
summer months June to September. Because the
comfort votes are found to be very low during the
summer period and not so low during winter, the
survey is focused on the summer period.
To conclude after the simulation of the selected site
without any intervention, a more sustainable design is
proposed and the new comfort levels are compared
with the existing ones.
3. SURVEY
3.1. Interviews
In order to examine the variety of the several
urban climates within Crete all the four sites that were
selected enhance different characteristics
considering their vegetation, their location and their
use. The first one is within the historical center of
Chania, on the coastal zone, the second one is
between the shopping center and the port in
Rethymnon the third one is in the shopping center of
Heraklion and the fourth is located on a mountainous
area near Heraklion called Archanes. In each of the
four cities participating in the project two case
studies, one in the winter (February 2009) and one in
the summer (July 2009), were conducted from 10 am
to 4 pm. Each site was monitored for a representative
day each season; the climate conditions of the days
of the survey were afterwards compared to the mean
climatic conditions at every city for this season so as
to confirm the effectiveness of the data measured.
The field surveys involved detailed microclimatic
monitoring with the use of a portable mini-weather
station, with sensors conforming to ISO 7726 [24],
while people were studied in the open space
environment through structured interviews and
observations, to evaluate the comfort conditions in a
scale of five levels from very bad (-2) to very good
(+2) their experience and their perception of the
environment. The weather station, which was put in
the middle of every square, saved values of air
temperature (
o
C), air velocity (m/s), relative humidity
(%) and sun radiation (W/m
2
) every 5 mins whereas
several values of portable sensors were saved on the
place and time of the interview (one questionnaire
per person). All the thermal indexes calculated were
based in the values measured and the answers given
by every person separately. The questionnaires were
completed only by the people who actually used the
squares and stayed in them at least for 5 mins.
Subjects thermal sensation and comfort vote were
recorded by face-to-face interview while subjects
demographic background, clothing and activities
were recorded by observation. The results of the
questionnaire survey were correlated with the micro-
meteorological data.
During the questionnaire survey the people
involved were carefully selected in order to contain all
the different age groups and sexes present and also
the special characteristics and use of the different
squares. This paper focuses on issues related to the
use of space, as opposed to peoples evaluation of
the comfort conditions.
3.2. Thermal indexes
The thermal comfort can be described with the
use of certain indices. Some of them are used in the
current study :
-WBGT takes only climatic data into account such
as air temperature, radiant heat, solar radiation, air
movement
-PMV has solid base in the indoor environment but
takes into account relevant factors and the affect
thermal sensation
-PET and out SET are for outdoor environments.
PET does not calculate individual parameters and out
SET takes personal parameters for one standard
type of person.
The ISO 7730 defines thermal conditions of outdoor
environment in which the probability of a negative
vote is minimized. The index Predicted Mean Vote
PMV and the index Predicted Percentage
Dissatisfied are based on ISO 7730 and are taking
into account the climatic parameters in conjunction
with the relevant factors affecting the thermal
sensation of each respondent (clothing, metabolic
rate, eating or drinking) [25]. The PMV-index
describes the comfort levels with the prediction of the
possible votes taking into account meteorological
factor in combination with human biometeorology
values [26]. The value of the index is between -7
which means too cold and +7 which means too hot
and the value of zero represents the comfort vote.
With this scale the closest the value of the PMV index
is to 0 the better are the comfort levels for the human.
Still this index cannot take into account the
psychological factors described and that is why there
are certain differences of the value of the PMV and
the real votes on the field surveys We can calculate
the PMV values with the formula [25]:
PMV= (0.303*e
-0.036*M
+ 0.028)*[M-W)-H-Ec-Cres- Eres]
M:Metabolic rate. The rate of transformation of chemical
energy into heat and mechanical work by aerobic and
anaerobic activities within the body [W/m
2
]
W: Effective mechanical power [W/m
2
]
: Dry Heat Loss. Heat loss from the body surface through
convection, radiation and conduction [W/m
2
]
c: Evaporative heat exchange at the skin, when the person
experiences a sensation of thermal neutrality. [W/m
2
]
Cres: Respiratory convective heat exchange [W/m
2
]
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 441
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July
2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 3
res: Respiratory evaporative heat exchange [W/m
2
]
For the calculation of PMV used the software
Envimet 3.1.
Common microclimatic data with the PMV
(Predicted Mean Vote) require two other indexes:
PET (Physiologically Equivalent Temperature) and
out SET (Standard Effective Temperature) [27]. All
those thermal indices are well documented and
include important meteorological and thermo-
physiological parameters so as to define the total
comfort [28]. The scale that are measured is in
o
C but
the parameters required in the model are both
climatic (air temperature, humidity, radiation
environment, wind speed and direction) but also
physical characteristics of every interviewee (age,
sex, weight, height, clothes, metabolism rate) [29].
A full application of these thermal indices on the
energy balance of the human body gives detailed
information about the effect of the thermal
environment on every human. For the calculation of
PET and out SET it is used the Rayman model
designed by Matzarakis [6,8,29] for every single
interview. According to the results of mean values of
these calculations, the mean PET value during
summer is on the too hot group whereas the mean
PET value during winter is on the comfort group.
The same applies also to the out SET values with a
slight difference in the summer. The PET values are
recorded relatively high in summer due to the high
sun radiation levels.
All the indices were calculated for all the
squares both in summer and winter and the results of
their comparison with the actual votes are quite
similar. Figure 1 shows the exact value of each one
of those indices in summer and winter for the hours
of the interview, only for Talo square in Chania. From
the comparison of the indices with the actual
sensation votes can be assumed that:
- out SET index is directly affected by the solar
environment that is why appears so unstable
- WBGT index is quite close to the air temperature
and cannot describe at all the comfort levels
- PMV index, cannot describe the comfort during
summer but it can predict the increase or the fall of
the comfort votes quite realistically
After the linear regression of each one of these
indexes with the actual sensation votes from the
interviews of all the squares is found that the PMV
index can better predict the comfort votes with the
implication of the model : ASV = PMV x 0.16 + 0.22
(R
2
= 0.72).
Figure 1: Thermal indices value for Talo square in Chania
for winter and summer

4. SIMULATION USING ENVIMET 3.1
4.1. Validation of Envimet 3.1
ENVI-met uses data from the area design,
vegetation, climate, materials and translates them
into microclimate maps of present and future. In this
way the designer obtains the ability to evaluate with
high accuracy the comfort conditions of every outdoor
design and its effect on the surrounding microclimate.
Field measurements on a central park of Chania, one
day per month validates the accuracy of the
simulation using ENVI-met. Several design and
vegetation scenarios are tested in order to conclude
in the most viable in terms of comfort solution.
There have been some recent studies using
ENVI-met to simulate the effect of urban vegetation
on microclimate [30-35].
In this study, simulation software ENVI-met is
used, as a three-dimensional numerical model
designed to simulate the surface-plant-air interactions
in urban environment in a microclimate scale, with a
typical resolution of 0.5 to 50m in space and 10
seconds in time [36]. Typical areas of applications
are Urban Climatology, Architecture, Building Design,
and Environmental Planning and so on. Although it is
not open source, ENVI-met is a freeware program
based on different scientific research projects under
constant development [36].
This is a parametric study based on typical
Mediterranean island urban park morphology. A
layout plan based on one central park in Chania in
Crete, Greece is chosen. The park is situated in the
center of the city and is surrounded by high traffic
roads. Despite the high density of the urban
environment and the large open space that it covers
(20.000 m
2
), the park is not used extensively neither
by the pedestrians nor by people who want to relax.
Although it has recently been designed and
enhances several kinds of uses (pond, playground,
benches etc), it seems quite deserted. Even one
refreshment kiosk that was inside the area of the park
is closed. Firstly Envimet 3.1 is validated with the
comparative study of real time weather data obtained
with measurements within the park for 8 hours every
month from May to November, with the simulation
data produced by Envimet 3.1 for the same hours
and days of the measurements (Fig.2). In this
validation Envimet is found to be quite accurate in
simulating urban microclimate parameters. Especially
for the factors of air temperature and relative
humidity, which are the two factors that directly affect
comfort, the results from the simulation were quite
representative of the actual values.
After the validation for the accuracy of the data
produced as well as the comparison of the index
PMV as calculated with the use of Envimet with the
actual sensation votes from on site interviews on four
different open urban spaces in Crete, simulations are
designed and run respectively to calculate the index
of PMV and to evaluate the comfort conditions in the
study area.

PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July
2011
2 xx.x SECTION NAME
2. METHOD
In order to ensure the sustainability of the design
processes this survey is divided in two basic steps.
In the beginning surveys were conducted in four
different sites in Crete in order to determine the
comfort levels of the open urban spaces in Crete. A
questionnaire survey and physical measurements at
the same time was used to assess the thermal
comfort of visitors. The questionnaire included
questions about comfort, physical evidence and
psychological evidence and the microclimatic data
were measured by one weather station which was
placed in the middle of every square and several
portable sensors for more detailed data of the exact
place of every interview.
Afterwards with the actual sensation votes and
the measured data is enabled the calculation of
several outdoor climate indices and the selection of
the more representative of the actual votes. This
index is simulated using the software Envimet 3.1
after its validation of the data produced for the
summer months June to September. Because the
comfort votes are found to be very low during the
summer period and not so low during winter, the
survey is focused on the summer period.
To conclude after the simulation of the selected site
without any intervention, a more sustainable design is
proposed and the new comfort levels are compared
with the existing ones.
3. SURVEY
3.1. Interviews
In order to examine the variety of the several
urban climates within Crete all the four sites that were
selected enhance different characteristics
considering their vegetation, their location and their
use. The first one is within the historical center of
Chania, on the coastal zone, the second one is
between the shopping center and the port in
Rethymnon the third one is in the shopping center of
Heraklion and the fourth is located on a mountainous
area near Heraklion called Archanes. In each of the
four cities participating in the project two case
studies, one in the winter (February 2009) and one in
the summer (July 2009), were conducted from 10 am
to 4 pm. Each site was monitored for a representative
day each season; the climate conditions of the days
of the survey were afterwards compared to the mean
climatic conditions at every city for this season so as
to confirm the effectiveness of the data measured.
The field surveys involved detailed microclimatic
monitoring with the use of a portable mini-weather
station, with sensors conforming to ISO 7726 [24],
while people were studied in the open space
environment through structured interviews and
observations, to evaluate the comfort conditions in a
scale of five levels from very bad (-2) to very good
(+2) their experience and their perception of the
environment. The weather station, which was put in
the middle of every square, saved values of air
temperature (
o
C), air velocity (m/s), relative humidity
(%) and sun radiation (W/m
2
) every 5 mins whereas
several values of portable sensors were saved on the
place and time of the interview (one questionnaire
per person). All the thermal indexes calculated were
based in the values measured and the answers given
by every person separately. The questionnaires were
completed only by the people who actually used the
squares and stayed in them at least for 5 mins.
Subjects thermal sensation and comfort vote were
recorded by face-to-face interview while subjects
demographic background, clothing and activities
were recorded by observation. The results of the
questionnaire survey were correlated with the micro-
meteorological data.
During the questionnaire survey the people
involved were carefully selected in order to contain all
the different age groups and sexes present and also
the special characteristics and use of the different
squares. This paper focuses on issues related to the
use of space, as opposed to peoples evaluation of
the comfort conditions.
3.2. Thermal indexes
The thermal comfort can be described with the
use of certain indices. Some of them are used in the
current study :
-WBGT takes only climatic data into account such
as air temperature, radiant heat, solar radiation, air
movement
-PMV has solid base in the indoor environment but
takes into account relevant factors and the affect
thermal sensation
-PET and out SET are for outdoor environments.
PET does not calculate individual parameters and out
SET takes personal parameters for one standard
type of person.
The ISO 7730 defines thermal conditions of outdoor
environment in which the probability of a negative
vote is minimized. The index Predicted Mean Vote
PMV and the index Predicted Percentage
Dissatisfied are based on ISO 7730 and are taking
into account the climatic parameters in conjunction
with the relevant factors affecting the thermal
sensation of each respondent (clothing, metabolic
rate, eating or drinking) [25]. The PMV-index
describes the comfort levels with the prediction of the
possible votes taking into account meteorological
factor in combination with human biometeorology
values [26]. The value of the index is between -7
which means too cold and +7 which means too hot
and the value of zero represents the comfort vote.
With this scale the closest the value of the PMV index
is to 0 the better are the comfort levels for the human.
Still this index cannot take into account the
psychological factors described and that is why there
are certain differences of the value of the PMV and
the real votes on the field surveys We can calculate
the PMV values with the formula [25]:
PMV= (0.303*e
-0.036*M
+ 0.028)*[M-W)-H-Ec-Cres- Eres]
M:Metabolic rate. The rate of transformation of chemical
energy into heat and mechanical work by aerobic and
anaerobic activities within the body [W/m
2
]
W: Effective mechanical power [W/m
2
]
: Dry Heat Loss. Heat loss from the body surface through
convection, radiation and conduction [W/m
2
]
c: Evaporative heat exchange at the skin, when the person
experiences a sensation of thermal neutrality. [W/m
2
]
Cres: Respiratory convective heat exchange [W/m
2
]
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
442 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July
2011
4 xx.x SECTION NAME
Fig.2 : Comparison of simulation results with measurements
in the park

Wind speed (m/s)
Temperature (
o
C)
Relative Humidity (%)
Solar Radiation (W/m
2
)
4.2. Proposal
The current design of the park enhances different
uses and levels. The problems in the design are
mostly located in the cover materials that are used
and also in the dispersion of trees and greenery.
As is shown in figure 3, although in some points
the trees are quite dense, mostly these areas have
no benches or sitting infrastructure. The selection of
the trees is also an important factor. All the trees
planted are tall, characterized by low density and with
canopy perimeter. This affects the kind of shadow
they provide and their contribution in the protection of
solar radiation. The trees are mostly located in the
four entrances of the park and not so much in the
middle of it and inside the park are no protected
places to sit or relax.
In addition the paving materials inside the park
are mostly concrete and paving blocks that cannot
absorb any kind of heat or radiation and contribute to
the low comfort levels of the park.
Another factor that is not beneficial for the comfort
is the small lake that is placed on the lowest level of
the park and it is surrounded by non accessible
areas. In this way the water which is beneficial to the
comfort levels cannot reach the visitor who needs
special attention in order to observe it. The primary
design located another lake on the top level of the
square (Fig. 4) but this lake was never filled with
water.
The proposed design focuses on simple changes
that could easily be implemented. The greenery
problem is solved with the planting of additional trees
and the replacement of the ones that are quite
narrow and without leave density. The extra trees are
placed near the sitting areas in the centre of the park.
Also the concrete and paving stones are replaced
with planted bricks with light colour and sandy soil
and the second lake is filled with water.
The results from the simulation of the PMV of the
proposal (Fig.5) are compared with the results of the
current design of the park (Fig.4). As can be
assumed the boosted greenery had various effect
both on the areas close to them and as well
contributed to the total microclimate change. The
green areas were united and their effect on the
comfort is multiplied. The concrete floors do not show
any improvement for the PMV index but the
simulation showed some improvement on the solar
radiation and temperatures of the surface.
From the comparison of the PMV of the proposal
design with the current design in two points of the
park (Fig.6) is obvious that with simple interventions
the PMV index can change from 0.1 to 0.5 points in a
scale of 6. This percentage of improvement is quite
beneficiary to the sustainability of the whole park.
The water surface contributes a lot to this
improvement and actually gives to a large sitting area
which was useless, the microclimate needed for
thermal comfort.
Figure 3 : The central park in Chania, Study area,

Point 2
Point 1
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 443
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July
2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 5
Figure 4 :PMV of the current design

Figure 5 : PMV of the Proposal design


Fig.6 : Current and Proposals PMV value


5. CONCLUSION
This study is conducted in several different steps.
The final goal was to define the basic parameters that
affect the comfort levels on open urban spaces in
Mediterranean areas and to implement a simple
design proposal to justify the possible change in the
sustainability of every kind of outdoor space.
The study is based on the hypothesis that the
comfort conditions in each square comes as a result
of the interaction of all the microclimatic parameters
together. Especially for Crete it is assumed that air
temperature and solar radiation are the most critical
factors for achieving comfort and humidity and wind
speed affect the comfort vote only when temperature
conditions are not natural. The share of people who
feel comfortable during the interview in Crete is about
67% annually. It is worth noticing that all squares in
the study have been redesigned over the last three
years, so can be assumed that the design solutions
were made without any study of the comfort
conditions prevailing in them. This fact can boost the
basic purpose of this study as it is obvious that every
attempt of designing open urban space can take into
account the site specifications, the people habits and
the local weather parameters in order to assure that it
will become a live open place of social interaction.
For the quantification of the comfort levels several
indices were calculated. Index Wet Bulb Globe
Temperature finds great accordance with the air
temperature but cannot predict successfully the
comfort votes. Other indexes like PET and SET have
taken personal factors into account but they dont
reflect in great accordance the vote for comfort of the
interviews. The best fitted index is the Predicted
Mean Vote, as calculated by the Envimet software in
relation with Botworld tool.
Taken into account the results from the
questionnaires a different urban park is selected in
order to implement the findings and to evaluate the
improvement possibilities. This park is located in the
center of Chania and enhances different uses and
spaces. Live measurements for 5 months on the park
area in relation with simulations with Envimet 3.1
software provides the validation results needed for
further research. After the validation of the software
used, basic measures are proposed in order to
improve the PMV index and furthermore the comfort
levels of the square. The comparison of the proposal
with the current design showed remarkable
improvement about 15% better of the current state
only with simple changes in the green areas and
pavement materials.
For the effectiveness of this simulation results,
further measurements are needed as well as a
specialized analysis of full representation of climatic
behavior of each month. This would assist the design
of insular cities through the design of outdoor spaces
and eventually the use of these spaces, by allowing
for different activities to be carried out and social
interaction to take place, giving life back to the
islands open spaces. Ultimately, such systematic
knowledge can contribute to the sustainable
development of island communities of the future.
6. REFERENCES
[1] I.Eliasson, I. Knez, U. Westerberg, S.Thorsson,
Fredrik Lindberg (2007)Climate and behaviour in
a Nordic city Landsc. and Urb. Plan.: 82 7284
[2] M.Alcoforado, Henrique Andrade, Antnio Lopes,
Joo Vasconcelos(2009)Application of climatic
guidelines to urban planning. The example of
Lisbon (Portugal) Landsc.&Urb.Plan.90,5665
[3] A.Ishii, S.Iwamoto, M.Amashita, T.Atayama and
Y.Shiotsuki (1993)An Experimental Study On
The Effect Of Humidity On Thermal Sensations Of
People In Summer J.Therm. Biol. Vol. 18, No. 5/6
387-391
[4] R.J.De Dear, ME.Fountain(1994)Field exp. on
occupant comfort and office thermal environments
in a hot-humid climate, ASHRAE Transactions
100(2): 457-474.
X (m)
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140
Y

(
m
)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
130
140
<Left foot> <Right foot>
parko_JULY 14:00:00 04.07.2010
x/y cut at z= 4
N
PMV Value
1.4
1.9
2.4
2.9
3.4
3.9
4.4
4.9
5.4
5.9
X (m)
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140
Y

(
m
)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
130
140
<Left foot> <Right foot>
parko_JULY 14:00:00 04.07.2010
x/y cut at z= 4
N
PMV Value
1.4
1.9
2.4
2.9
3.4
3.9
4.4
4.9
5.4
5.9
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July
2011
4 xx.x SECTION NAME
Fig.2 : Comparison of simulation results with measurements
in the park

Wind speed (m/s)
Temperature (
o
C)
Relative Humidity (%)
Solar Radiation (W/m
2
)
4.2. Proposal
The current design of the park enhances different
uses and levels. The problems in the design are
mostly located in the cover materials that are used
and also in the dispersion of trees and greenery.
As is shown in figure 3, although in some points
the trees are quite dense, mostly these areas have
no benches or sitting infrastructure. The selection of
the trees is also an important factor. All the trees
planted are tall, characterized by low density and with
canopy perimeter. This affects the kind of shadow
they provide and their contribution in the protection of
solar radiation. The trees are mostly located in the
four entrances of the park and not so much in the
middle of it and inside the park are no protected
places to sit or relax.
In addition the paving materials inside the park
are mostly concrete and paving blocks that cannot
absorb any kind of heat or radiation and contribute to
the low comfort levels of the park.
Another factor that is not beneficial for the comfort
is the small lake that is placed on the lowest level of
the park and it is surrounded by non accessible
areas. In this way the water which is beneficial to the
comfort levels cannot reach the visitor who needs
special attention in order to observe it. The primary
design located another lake on the top level of the
square (Fig. 4) but this lake was never filled with
water.
The proposed design focuses on simple changes
that could easily be implemented. The greenery
problem is solved with the planting of additional trees
and the replacement of the ones that are quite
narrow and without leave density. The extra trees are
placed near the sitting areas in the centre of the park.
Also the concrete and paving stones are replaced
with planted bricks with light colour and sandy soil
and the second lake is filled with water.
The results from the simulation of the PMV of the
proposal (Fig.5) are compared with the results of the
current design of the park (Fig.4). As can be
assumed the boosted greenery had various effect
both on the areas close to them and as well
contributed to the total microclimate change. The
green areas were united and their effect on the
comfort is multiplied. The concrete floors do not show
any improvement for the PMV index but the
simulation showed some improvement on the solar
radiation and temperatures of the surface.
From the comparison of the PMV of the proposal
design with the current design in two points of the
park (Fig.6) is obvious that with simple interventions
the PMV index can change from 0.1 to 0.5 points in a
scale of 6. This percentage of improvement is quite
beneficiary to the sustainability of the whole park.
The water surface contributes a lot to this
improvement and actually gives to a large sitting area
which was useless, the microclimate needed for
thermal comfort.
Figure 3 : The central park in Chania, Study area,

Point 2
Point 1
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
444 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July
2011
6 xx.x SECTION NAME
[5] T.P.Lin.(2009)Thermal perception, adaptation
and attendance in a public square in hot and
humid regions Build. & Env. 44(10): 2017-2026.
[6] A.Matzarakis & H.Mayer. (2000) Atmospheric
Conditions And Human Thermal Comfort In Urban
Areas11th Seminar on Environmental Protection
Environment and Health. 20.-23, Thessaloniki,
Greece, 155-166
[7] J.M.Hamilton M.A.(Hons) MCD.(2005)Tourism,
Climate Change and the Coastal Zone Thesis
Department Wirtschaftswissenschaften der
Universitt Hamburg
[8] A.Matzarakis.(2000) Assessing climate for
tourism purposes: Existing methods and tools for
the thermal complex Meteorolog. Institute,
University of Freiburg
[9] VDI. (1998) Methods for the human
biometeorological evaluation of climate and air
quality for the urban and regional planning Part I:
Climate. VDI guideline 3787. Part 2. Beuth: Berlin
[10] .ravadinos, T.Vlastos, D.Emmanouil,
D.Marinos ,Kouris, .emos, G.Siskos,
.Sbonias, T.soutsos (1999) Introduction to the
natural and urban environment volume B1" .
Open Greek University, Patra: pp 115-130
[11] A.Stamou, I.Katsiris, A.Schaelin (2008)
Evaluation of thermal comfort in Galatsi Arena of
the Olympics Athens 2004 using a CFD model
Applied Thermal Eng., Volume 28, 1206-1215
[12] W.Kuttler.(2002)Local cold air and its
significance for the urban climate, University of
Essen, Essen, Germany
[13] M.Nikolopoulou, S.Lykoudis (2007): "Use of
outdoor spaces and microclimate in a
Mediterranean urban area", Build.& Env.42 3691
[14] T.P.Lin, A.Matzarakis, R.Hwang (2010):
"Shading effect on long-term outdoor thermal
comfort". Building and Environment 45 213221
[15] B.Givoni and M.Noguchi (2004) Outdoor Comfort
Responses of Japanese Persons, Plea 2004 The
21th Conference on Passive and Low Energy
Architecture. Eindhoven, The Netherlands
[16] M.A.Antar,H.Baig (2009)Conjugate conduction-
natural convection heat transfer in a hollow
building block Applied Thermal Engineering,
Volume 29, Is. 17-18, P. 3716-3720
[17] A.PGagge, A.P. Fobelets, Berglund, P.E. (1986):
A standard predictive index of human response
to the thermal environment ASHRAE Trans., 92,
709-731
[18] K. Blazejczyk. (1994) New climatological-and
physiological model of the human heat balance
outdoor (MENEX) and its applications in
bioclimatological studies in different scales
Zeszyty IgiPZ PAN, 28, 27-58
[19] T.Horikoshi, T.Tsuchikawa, Y.Kurazumi, N.
Matsubara (1995) Mathematical expression of
combined and separate effect of air temperature,
humidity, air velocity and thermal radiation on
thermal comfort Archives of Complex
Environmental Studies, 7, 9-12
[20] P.O.Fanger. (1970),Thermal Comfort, Analysis
and Application in Environment Engineering
Danish Technical Press, Copenhagen
[21] S.Thorsson, M.Lindqvist, S.Lindqvist (2004)
Thermal bioclimatic conditions and patterns of
behaviour in an urban park in Goteborg, Sweden
Int. Journal of Biometeorology 48(3): 149-156
[22] G.R.McGregor, M.T.Markou, A.Bartzokas, B.D.
Katsoulis (2002) An evaluation of the nature and
timing of summer human thermal discomfort in
Athens, Greece Climate research.Vol. 20: 8394
[23] M.Tsitoura.(2009)Comfort conditions in urban
open spaces in Crete Thesis,Dep.Env.Eng.,
TUC, Palenc conference 2010
[24] ISO 7726 (1985)Thermal environments
instruments and methods for measuring physical
quantities Geneva
[25] SHRAE Standard (2004) Thermal
Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy
ANSI/ASHRAE 55
[26] A.P.Gagge, AP.Fobelets, LG.Berglund (1986)A
standard predictive index of human response to
the thermal environment ASHRAE Transactions
92: 709-731
[27] J.Spagnolo, RJ.de Dear (2003)A field study of
thermal comfort in outdoor and semi-outdoor
environments in subtropical Sydney Australia
Building and Environment 38(5):721-738.
[28] H.Andrade, M-J.Alcoforado (2007) Microclimatic
variation of thermal comfort in a district of Lisbon
(Telheiras) at night Theoretical and Applied
Climatology 92(3-4): 225-237.
[29] A.Matzarakis, F.Rutz, H.Mayer(2007) Modeling
radiation fluxes in simple and complex
environmentsapplication of the RayMan model
Int J Biometeorol 51:323334
[30] F.Ali-Toudert, H.Mayer, (2007). Effects of
asymmetry, galleries, overhanging facades and
vegetation on thermal comfort in urban street
canyons Solar Energy, 81, 742 754.
[31] R.Emmanuel, H.Rosenlund, E.Johansson,
(2007)Urban shading a design option for the
tropics? A study in Colombo, Sri Lanka Int.
Journal of Climatology, 27, 1995 2004
[32] M.Fahmy, S.Sharples, (2009) On the
development of an urban passive thermal comfort
system in Cairo, Egypt Building and Env.
[33] J.Spangenberg, P.Shinzato, E.Johansson,
D.Duarte (2008) Simulation of the Influence of
Vegetation on Microclimate and Thermal Comfort
In the City of So Paulo Rev. SBAU, Piracicaba,
v.3, n.2, p. 1 19
[34] C.Yu, W.N.Hien, (2006)Thermal Benefits of City
Parks Energy and Buildings 38, pp.105 120.
[35] 2009 Y.Wang, E. Ng (2010)Parametric study on
microclimate effects of different greening
strategies in high density city Conf.Palenc 2010
[36] M.Bruse, (2009) ENVI-met v. 3.1 Beta
Available at: <http://www.envi-met.com>
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 445
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
Urban Heat Island Study on Building Morphology
related with Micro-climate Condition and Energy
Consumption within Singapore Commercial Area
Nyuk Hien WONG
1
, Steve KARDINAL JUSUF
1
, Marcel IGNATIUS
1

1
Department of Building, National University of Singapore, Singapore
ABSTRACT: Urbanization has been a majority in cities. In 2008, for the first time in human history, more than
half of human population live in cities and towns. By 2030, it is predicted the urban population could reach 5
billion, with urban growth concentrated in Africa and Asia. Singapore, widely known as the red dot within South
East Asia region, will be highly affected with the current urbanization issue. Singapore has become one of the
world leading financial centres, where the country is also a highly cosmopolitan world city, with a key role in
international trade and finance. On the other hand, the economic growth also attracts investors and foreign
workers. The population increase within a small island has pushed the government to do land reclamation and
build high rise buildings. The vertical growth in building construction without proper planning means only one
thing; it will intensify the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon. This paper will look into the different urban
settings within Singapore commercial district, to see how the building configuration affects the micro-climate
condition within urban area. By using Geographic Information System (GIS), The Screening Tool for Estate
Environment Evaluation (STEVE) and coupled with TAS, a baseline condition of the urban condition can be
developed. Consequently, further study will take a look how the result will affect the energy consumption by
using a hypothetical building placed in the study area under different scenarios. In the end, the study aims to
provide informative analysis of current and future city planning, for designers, urban planners, and researchers.
Keywords: urban heat island, prediction tool, urban morphology, energy consumption
1. INTRODUCTION
Related with UHI study, Givoni [1] explored
the climatic characteristics relevant to urban and
building design in hot humid and in hot-dry tropical
regions, respectively. Location of towns in a region,
density of the built-up area and building's
configurations, orientation and width of streets, are
the urban design elements which affect and can
modify the urban microclimate.
Urban density is one among other major UHI
factors which determines not just urban ventilation
conditions, but as well as the urban temperature. A
preliminary study regarding this urban temperature
which was done within different commercial area [2]
in Singapore, shows that with some urban
configurations, an urban area with high density of
buildings can experience strong heat island effect,
From the case studies, they strongly implicate that
density of the built-up areas and the ratio of buildings
heights to the distances between them has strong
effect on the UHI magnitude.
Consequently, UHI effect has direct consequence
toward energy consumption. Santamouris [3] in his
study regarding climatic measurement in Athens,
Greece, found that where the mean heat island
intensity exceeds 10
o
C may double the cooling load
of urban buildings, and in higher set point
temperatures, the peak electricity load for cooling
purposes became tripled.
This paper aims to study on how UHI
consequences can be mitigated by greenery, and
how it will also have an effect on energy
consumption. By using GIS, greenery with various
Green Plot Ratio (GnPR) values will be simulated in
several urban setting scenarios under different
parameters.
GnPR is a planning instrument for ecological
sustainability in cities [4]. The GnPR is based on a
common biological parameter called the leaf area
index (LAI), which is defined as the single-side leaf
area per unit ground area. The GnPR is the average
LAI of the greenery on site and is presented as a
ratio that is similar to the building plot ratio (BPR)
currently in use in many cities to control maximum
allowable built-up floor area in a building
development.

Figure 1: Allocated green plot ratio (GnPR) values based on
ground cover (the values are rounded from data
summarised by Scurlock et al [5]
2. HYPOTHESIS
Hypothetically, the plantation of greenery on the
site will eventually decrease temperature both in the
afternoon and evening. Therefore, it will affect the
building cooling load, which will result in energy
consumption reduction.
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6 xx.x SECTION NAME
[5] T.P.Lin.(2009)Thermal perception, adaptation
and attendance in a public square in hot and
humid regions Build. & Env. 44(10): 2017-2026.
[6] A.Matzarakis & H.Mayer. (2000) Atmospheric
Conditions And Human Thermal Comfort In Urban
Areas11th Seminar on Environmental Protection
Environment and Health. 20.-23, Thessaloniki,
Greece, 155-166
[7] J.M.Hamilton M.A.(Hons) MCD.(2005)Tourism,
Climate Change and the Coastal Zone Thesis
Department Wirtschaftswissenschaften der
Universitt Hamburg
[8] A.Matzarakis.(2000) Assessing climate for
tourism purposes: Existing methods and tools for
the thermal complex Meteorolog. Institute,
University of Freiburg
[9] VDI. (1998) Methods for the human
biometeorological evaluation of climate and air
quality for the urban and regional planning Part I:
Climate. VDI guideline 3787. Part 2. Beuth: Berlin
[10] .ravadinos, T.Vlastos, D.Emmanouil,
D.Marinos ,Kouris, .emos, G.Siskos,
.Sbonias, T.soutsos (1999) Introduction to the
natural and urban environment volume B1" .
Open Greek University, Patra: pp 115-130
[11] A.Stamou, I.Katsiris, A.Schaelin (2008)
Evaluation of thermal comfort in Galatsi Arena of
the Olympics Athens 2004 using a CFD model
Applied Thermal Eng., Volume 28, 1206-1215
[12] W.Kuttler.(2002)Local cold air and its
significance for the urban climate, University of
Essen, Essen, Germany
[13] M.Nikolopoulou, S.Lykoudis (2007): "Use of
outdoor spaces and microclimate in a
Mediterranean urban area", Build.& Env.42 3691
[14] T.P.Lin, A.Matzarakis, R.Hwang (2010):
"Shading effect on long-term outdoor thermal
comfort". Building and Environment 45 213221
[15] B.Givoni and M.Noguchi (2004) Outdoor Comfort
Responses of Japanese Persons, Plea 2004 The
21th Conference on Passive and Low Energy
Architecture. Eindhoven, The Netherlands
[16] M.A.Antar,H.Baig (2009)Conjugate conduction-
natural convection heat transfer in a hollow
building block Applied Thermal Engineering,
Volume 29, Is. 17-18, P. 3716-3720
[17] A.PGagge, A.P. Fobelets, Berglund, P.E. (1986):
A standard predictive index of human response
to the thermal environment ASHRAE Trans., 92,
709-731
[18] K. Blazejczyk. (1994) New climatological-and
physiological model of the human heat balance
outdoor (MENEX) and its applications in
bioclimatological studies in different scales
Zeszyty IgiPZ PAN, 28, 27-58
[19] T.Horikoshi, T.Tsuchikawa, Y.Kurazumi, N.
Matsubara (1995) Mathematical expression of
combined and separate effect of air temperature,
humidity, air velocity and thermal radiation on
thermal comfort Archives of Complex
Environmental Studies, 7, 9-12
[20] P.O.Fanger. (1970),Thermal Comfort, Analysis
and Application in Environment Engineering
Danish Technical Press, Copenhagen
[21] S.Thorsson, M.Lindqvist, S.Lindqvist (2004)
Thermal bioclimatic conditions and patterns of
behaviour in an urban park in Goteborg, Sweden
Int. Journal of Biometeorology 48(3): 149-156
[22] G.R.McGregor, M.T.Markou, A.Bartzokas, B.D.
Katsoulis (2002) An evaluation of the nature and
timing of summer human thermal discomfort in
Athens, Greece Climate research.Vol. 20: 8394
[23] M.Tsitoura.(2009)Comfort conditions in urban
open spaces in Crete Thesis,Dep.Env.Eng.,
TUC, Palenc conference 2010
[24] ISO 7726 (1985)Thermal environments
instruments and methods for measuring physical
quantities Geneva
[25] SHRAE Standard (2004) Thermal
Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy
ANSI/ASHRAE 55
[26] A.P.Gagge, AP.Fobelets, LG.Berglund (1986)A
standard predictive index of human response to
the thermal environment ASHRAE Transactions
92: 709-731
[27] J.Spagnolo, RJ.de Dear (2003)A field study of
thermal comfort in outdoor and semi-outdoor
environments in subtropical Sydney Australia
Building and Environment 38(5):721-738.
[28] H.Andrade, M-J.Alcoforado (2007) Microclimatic
variation of thermal comfort in a district of Lisbon
(Telheiras) at night Theoretical and Applied
Climatology 92(3-4): 225-237.
[29] A.Matzarakis, F.Rutz, H.Mayer(2007) Modeling
radiation fluxes in simple and complex
environmentsapplication of the RayMan model
Int J Biometeorol 51:323334
[30] F.Ali-Toudert, H.Mayer, (2007). Effects of
asymmetry, galleries, overhanging facades and
vegetation on thermal comfort in urban street
canyons Solar Energy, 81, 742 754.
[31] R.Emmanuel, H.Rosenlund, E.Johansson,
(2007)Urban shading a design option for the
tropics? A study in Colombo, Sri Lanka Int.
Journal of Climatology, 27, 1995 2004
[32] M.Fahmy, S.Sharples, (2009) On the
development of an urban passive thermal comfort
system in Cairo, Egypt Building and Env.
[33] J.Spangenberg, P.Shinzato, E.Johansson,
D.Duarte (2008) Simulation of the Influence of
Vegetation on Microclimate and Thermal Comfort
In the City of So Paulo Rev. SBAU, Piracicaba,
v.3, n.2, p. 1 19
[34] C.Yu, W.N.Hien, (2006)Thermal Benefits of City
Parks Energy and Buildings 38, pp.105 120.
[35] 2009 Y.Wang, E. Ng (2010)Parametric study on
microclimate effects of different greening
strategies in high density city Conf.Palenc 2010
[36] M.Bruse, (2009) ENVI-met v. 3.1 Beta
Available at: <http://www.envi-met.com>
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3. METHODOLOGY
Case studies areas from the preliminary study
were chosen to be the sites for simulation purpose.
To explore this aspect, the study will use a typical
office building, which will be put under different
temperature profiles which have been generated
from previous study on greenery. The temperature
profiles generated are based on the urban climate
map which is made by coupling GIS and STEVE, a
temperature predictor [6].


AREA #1

Open Town
Centre study
case

AREA #2

Mixed-density
Fringe study
case

AREA #3

High Density
Commercial
District study
case

Figure 2: three different case study areas, where each has
several placement points for the hypothetical office building.
For this purpose, TAS software is chosen as a
suitable tool in order to run simulation in different
weather profile, because it has been extensively
used for previous energy study regarding faade
performance [7]. By using TAS to calculate the
cooling load, a comparative study between different
urban setting scenarios can be done to see how
building configurations coupled with greenery can
actually mitigate the UHI effect.
Table 1: Matrix of different urban settings within the study
case area, with various urban parameters, where each of
these will be placed a hypothetical office building.

Buffer Area
(50 m radius)
B
l
d
g

F
t
p
r
i
n
t

(
%
)

R
o
a
d

A
r
e
a


(
%
)

A
v
g

B
l
d
g

H
e
i
g
h
t

(
m
)

S
k
y

V
i
e
w

F
a
c
t
o
r

W
a
l
l

A
r
e
a


(
s
q

m
)

1

0 61 0 0.8 0
2

52 0 12 0.4 8099
3

18 70 12 0.6 2957
4

50 37 24 0.2 12400
5

59 14 8 0.3 4927
6

43 26 45 0.1 21016
7

51 47 79 0.2 36765
8

57 29 105 0.2 43155


Figure 3: the hypothetical office buidling layout, which is
used for cooling load calculation in TAS using temperature
profiles from different zones.
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xx.x SECTION NAME 3
The placement points will be in 50 meter radius
buffer area which includes all the urban physical
parameter, with the following grouping:
1) Buffer zone 1-2, are from AREA #1
2) Buffer zone 3-5, are from AREA #2
3) Buffer zone 6-8, are from AREA #3

Afterwards, 2 different approaches of
implementing greenery will be put into each case
study with the consideration of GnPR values. :
1) Value Target approach; by inputting GnPR
values, with the assumption that each area will
be planted greenery elements to achieve the
certain GnPR values. The following area the
GnpR value targets:
Scenario 1A: GnPR value target=1
Scenario 1B: GnPR value target=2
Scenario 1C: GnPR value target=3
Table 2: The greenery implementation from the design
approach, by strategically put the road side trees. Each tree
will be positioned at 6m distance between them.
Buffer 1 Buffer 2

Buffer 3 Buffer 4

Buffer 5 Buffer 6

Buffer 7 Buffer 8

2) Design Target approach, by strategically
putting grass and trees into the sites, where
each tree will be assigned 2 different types of
trees. The following are the scenarios for design
target simulation:
Scenario 2A: all open spaces (apart from
roads) are grass planted surface (turf, Leaf
Area Index or LAI=1)
Scenario 2B: Intermediate Canopy trees
planted (crown size 3m, LAI=3)
Scenario 2C: Dense Canopy trees planted
(crown size 6m, LAI=4)


Figure 4. For scenario 2B, Intermediate Canopy tree type
is used, such as A, B and C. While tree D, E, and F are
some examples of Dense Canopy type; which are used for
scenario 2C.Source: Leaf Area Indexof Tropical Plants [8].
Thus, a temperature profile for each area can be
generated, where it will be used as a weather data
input for TAS simulation in order to calculate the
cooling load of the hypothetical building. All the
scenarios from both period will be compared with the
condition where all the surface is paved.
From TAS itself, the simulation was run two
times, for both afternoon (9AM-6PM) and evening
period (6PM-6AM), with assumption that the internal
condition for both periods is the same. The simulated
office building uses mechanical ventilation (air
conditioning) for both afternoon and night load
calculations.
These two different calculations are meant to see
how the building configurations and greenery
placement could affect both temperatures during the
afternoon and the heat island phenomenon after
sunset in tropical climate within the urban area.
4. SIMULATION RESULT
4.1. GnPR Value Target Simulation
From this simulation study, it can be seen that a
modification of surface with greenery can eventually
boost the cooling load reduction. All the case studies
show the same effect.
In the first simulation for the afternoon period
from 9am-6pm (see Figure 4 and Table 3), it
illustrates that even with GnPR value of 1, it can
reduce cooling load up until 1.31% (zone 6). Based
on the baseline condition (paved), zone 3 has the
highest cooling load number, because it has the
biggest road percentage, and lesser building area
which results in lesser overshadowing effect.
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4 xx.x SECTION NAME
Therefore, the surface has direct impact of the solar
radiation during the day.
Meanwhile, zone 5 has the lowest cooling load,
because the area has an adequate open space,
lesser pavement, and high buildings to provide
shadowing onto the pedestrian level. In general,
greenery with the minimum GnPR of 1 can reduce
afternoon cooling load averagely by 0.80%, and with
the increase of GnPR value by another 1 and 2, can
furthermore decrease the cooling load by 0.14% and
0.26% respectively.


Figure 4: Cooling load (in kilowatts), for afternoon period
with different GnPR values implementation.
Table 3: Cooling load reduction (%) on afternoon period
(9am-6pm) compared with the pavement surface condition.
Zone GnPR=1 GnPR=2 GnPR=3
1 0.26 0.38 0.50
2 0.90 1.08 1.21
3 0.85 0.98 1.10
4 0.86 0.98 1.10
5 0.89 1.01 1.14
6 1.31 1.44 1.56
7 0.62 0.75 0.87
8 0.71 0.93 1.05

The role of greenery in mitigating heat island
effect during the night time, in term of energy
consumption, shows a similar trend line (see Figure 5
and Table 4). It has been studied that evening time is
urban heat island critical period within the urban
environment, since this is the time when all the heat
absorbed during the day (through hard pavement
and building walls) is being emitted back to the
environment, causing higher temperature and ended
up increasing the cooling load.
Zone 3 as the one with largest pavement area,
has the most severe heat island impact. While zone
6,7, and 8 (from area #3, high density CBD), have
high level of cooling load, given that this area
comprises high-rise buildings and dense
configurations, which means more wall area. Zone 5,
which has low pavement percentage and wall area,
appears to have lesser heat island impact.
Related to the greenery implementation, GnPR of
1 can reduce evening cooling load averagely by
0.84. Moreover, the more cooling load reduction is
achievable by increasing GnPR value by 1 and 2.
The simulation shows that it can subsequently
decrease the cooling load by 0.18% and 0.34%. As
for zone 2 and zone 6, they have been benefited
from the GnPR modification, where they have the
most cooling load percentage reduction (more than
1%).


Figure 5: Cooling load (in kilowatts), for evening period
with different GnPR values implementation.
Table 4: Cooling load reduction (%) on evening period
(6pm-6am) compared with the pavement surface condition.
Zone GnPR=1 GnPR=2 GnPR=3
1 0.47 0.63 0.79
2 1.24 1.40 1.57
3 0.83 0.99 1.15
4 0.97 1.13 1.29
5 0.84 1.00 1.16
6 1.25 1.42 1.58
7 0.65 0.81 0.97
8 0.50 0.80 0.96
4.2. GnPR Value Target Simulation
For the second run of simulation, 3 types of
greenery are planted differently. For scenario 2B and
2C, intermediate and dense canopy tree types are
used, where its crown size and height dimension will
reduce the sky view factor. Therefore, the
modification of GnPR is followed by the sky view
factor reduction consequently.
Since the GnPR modification is based on the
design approach, its value depends on the number of
trees and the open space area for grass plantation.
From the afternoon period chart (see Figure 6
and Table 5), the trend is similar with the previous
result, although the significant difference is
noticeable at the gap between scenario 2B and 2C. It
turns out that the GnPR increase followed by the sky
view factor reduction results in further cooling load
decrease. Averagely, the average reduction
percentage from scenario 2B to 2C is about 0.36%,
where the biggest drop happens at zone 2 (this
buffer are does not have any road/pavement, means
the open space is wholly covered with grass). Zone 1
has the least reduction, since it comprises no
buildings, and a large area of pavements.

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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 449
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xx.x SECTION NAME 5

Figure 6: Cooling load (in kilowatts), for afternoon period
by putting grass and road side trees. (Legend : C=tree
crown size)
Table 5: Cooling load reduction (%) based on design target
strategy during afternoon period (9am-6pm) compared with
the pavement surface condition.(Legend : C=crown size, in
meter, LAI=leaf area index)
Zone
Grass
LAI=1
+Tree
C=3,LAI=3
+Tree
C=6,LAI=4
1 0.18 0.45 0.65
2 0.90 1.06 1.66
3 0.75 0.94 1.26
4 0.75 0.87 1.29
5 0.80 0.92 1.35
6 1.23 1.27 1.54
7 0.51 0.60 1.01
8 0.71 1.04 1.25

Therefore, no over-shadowing from buildings
results in more direct solar radiation hitting the
ground to be absorbed by hard surface. In some
areas, the lack of open spaces (such as zone 7 and
8), resulting in lesser cooling load reduction. From
this result, it is understandable that the tree acts as
canopy to minimize the solar heat gain from the sun,
as it is also reducing the sky view factor value.


Figure 7: Cooling load (in kilowatts), for evening period by
putting grass and road side trees. (Legend : C=tree crown
size)



Table 6: Cooling load reduction (%) based on design target
strategy during evening period (6pm-6am) compared with
the pavement surface condition.(Legend : C=crown size, in
meter, LAI=leaf area index)
Zone
Grass
LAI=1
+Tree
C=3,LAI=3
+Tree
C=6,LAI=4
1 0.37 0.63 0.79
2 1.16 1.40 1.57
3 0.68 0.99 1.15
4 0.83 1.13 1.29
5 0.71 1.00 1.16
6 1.14 1.42 1.58
7 0.49 0.81 0.97
8 0.50 0.80 0.96
Meanwhile, for the night period (see Figure 7 and
Table 6), the significant gap between scenarios can be
seen clearly between 2A and 2B, with cooling load
reduction percentage difference about 0.29% (the average
additional GnPR value from 2A to 2B is 0.28). On the other
hand, the reduction from 2B to 2C is about 0.16% more. But
overall, the trees (both intermedieate and dense canopy
type) plantation gives averagely 1% reduction of the total
cooling load for evening period.
5. CONCLUSIONS
This paper shows not just how greenery has
positive impact towards both urban temperature and
reducing energy consumption, but also how to
implement 2 different approaches of using GnPR into
some urban setting case studies. The Value Target
strategy is the theoritical approach by using STEVE
tool calculation to quickly determine how far the
GnPR can reduce the temperature in urban areas.
The first simulation already shows the increase of
GnPR values and replacing the surface materials
into green helps mitigating heat island effect,
especially during the evening period.
Meanwhile the Design Target strategy, shows
that by strategically planting the trees in logical
manner (in this case by a simple arrangement of
road side trees), with a certain type of trees results in
even more better performance of energy
consumption. This is a simple example on how the
designers and urban planners are required to be
more active in planning and modifying the greenery
implementation within a city.
Planting greenery either by a simple turfing or
trees planting not just provide urban canopy for the
pedestrians during the afternoon, but also reducing
the heat emmitance during the night, since the trees
has reduced the amount of heat absorption on the
pavement and road surfaces. Therefore, this will
benefit the building performance, especially in the
dense area. In the end, urban parameters such as
openess, building heights, and road surface area
affect both outdoor temperature and building cooling
load. Greenery is one of the best possible strategy to
reducing the energy consumption and creating a
better thermal condition within urban spaces.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper could not have been written without Prof.
Wong Nyuk Hien who not only served as my
supervisor but also encouraged and challenged me
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6 xx.x SECTION NAME
throughout my academic program. He and my other
colleagues, Dr. Steve Kardinal Jusuf, Nedyomukti
Imam Syafii, and Terrence Tan, guided me through
the process, never accepting less than my best
efforts. I thank them all.
7. REFERENCES
[1] B. Givoni. Atmospheric Environment. 26B
(1992), 406.
[2] N.H. Wong, S.K. Jusuf et al. 3
rd
International
Conference Palenc 2010, Rhode Island
Greece (2010), Conference Paper.
[3] M. Santamouris. The Canyon Effect. London,
James & James Science (2001).
[4] O.B. Lay. Landscape and Urban Planning. 63
(2003), 197-211.
[5] J.M.O. Scurlock, Asner et al. Global Leaf Area
Index Data from Field Measurements, 1932-
2000. Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed
Active Archive Center, Oak Ridge, University.
http://www.daac.ornl.gov.
[6] S.K. Jusuf and N.H. Wong. 2
nd
International
Conference on Countermeasures to Urban Heat
Islands. Berkeley, United States (2009).
[7] N.H Wong, W. Liping et al. Energy and Buildings
37 (2005), 563.
[8] P.Y. Tan and A. Sia. Leaf Area Index of Tropical
Plants. National Parks Board, Singapore (2009).


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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 451
The influence of occupation modes on building
heating loads: the case of a detached house located
in a suburban area
Tatiana DE MEESTER
1
, Anne-Franoise MARIQUE
2
, Sigrid REITER
2
1
Architecture et climat, Universit catholique de Louvain, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium
2
Local Environment: Management & Analysis (LEMA), University of Lige, Lige, Belgium
ABSTRACT: Occupants behaviour is known to have a great influence on energetic demand, management and
consumptions of a building. However, parameters related to inhabitants lifestyle are often neglected in energetic
studies and researches that often focus on insulation, ventilation or climate. In this context, the aim of the paper
is to investigate the influence of three parameters related to human behaviour (the family size and the modes of
occupations, the management of the heating system and the management of the heated area) on the housing
heating loads of a standard dwelling. The case study chosen for this analysis is a detached house located in a
suburban area. Five levels of insulation are tested (no insulation, an intermediate level corresponding to 3 cm of
insulation, the current standard for new buildings in the Walloon region of Belgium, the low energy standard and
the passive house standard) in order to highlight the impact and the interactions between occupation modes and
insulation levels. The relevance of the adaptation of the living area of the house according to the evolution of the
family size is finally discussed.
Keywords: thermal simulation, energy consumptions, human behaviour, comfort, building performances
1. INTRODUCTION
The use of mathematical models and simulation
tools is often presented as the most credible
approach to model the comportment of a building
and predict the heating consumptions, in a global
vision of sustainability. This approach allows to take
into account a large number of parameters which are
known to act upon energetic behaviour, management
and consumptions of a building and to carry out
parametric variations in order to test the impact of
different strategies. If the level of insulation, the
ventilation or the climate are often discussed in the
literature, especially as far as retrofit is concerned,
the influence of the composition of the household, its
evolution through the whole life cycle of a dwelling or
the behaviour of the occupants, which evolve over
time while the house remains a fixed and unchanged
size, are more rarely debated. However, these
parameters have a huge impact on the energetic
invoice of a household. Building operations and
maintenance, occupants activities and indoor
environmental quality, all related to human
behaviour, are indeed known to have an influence as
great as or even greater than climate, building
envelop and energy systems [1].
In the actual context of growing interests in
sustainable development and increasing energy
prices, more and more households pay attention to
their energetic consumptions, especially as far as
heating consumptions are concerned [2] while a
large part of the population, and namely elderly
owners, stay reluctant to undertake heavy renovation
works. The age of the occupants seems namely to
have a huge impact on heating loads, and
particularly on the occupancy rate and the comfort
temperature [3]. Moreover, researches have shown
that in general, technical improvements were
preferred over behavioural measures and especially
shift in consumption. Further, home energy-saving
measures seemed to be more acceptable than
transport energy-saving measures [4]. The behaviour
and preferences of inhabitants and the solutions
adopted by the households to reduce their
consumptions can thus vary in a wide proportion and
cannot be apprehended by one only standard type of
household in simulations, as it is generally the case.
In this context, the paper aims at comparing the
variations of three parameters related to human
behaviours and occupation modes: the family size
and the modes of occupations, the management of
the heating system (thermostat) and the
management of the heated area (the inhabitants
occupy the ground floor and the first floor or just the
ground floor). These three parameters are then used
and combined in order to determine the evolution of
the occupancy of the house during its life cycle.
The chosen case study for this analysis is a
detached house located in a suburban area because
this type of house represents a large part of the
building stock and of the total energy consumptions
related to housing in the Walloon region of Belgium,
where urban sprawl is particularly familiar [5, 6].
The methodology, simulation tools and main
assumptions used in this research are summarized in
section 2. Then, the impact of the three studied
parameters on the evolution of heating loads and
internal conditions are presented and finally
discussed for five significant levels of insulation.
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452 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
2. METHODOLOGY AND ASSUMPTIONS
2.1. The TAS thermal simulation software
TAS is a software package for the thermal
analysis of buildings. It includes a 3D modeller, a
thermal/energy analysis module, a systems/controls
simulator and a 2D CFD package. CAD links are also
provided into the 3D modeller as well as report
generation facilities. It is a complete solution for the
thermal simulation of a building, and a powerful
design tool in the optimisation of a buildings
environmental, energy and comfort performance. [7]
2.2. The climate
The climate of the northern part of Europe is a
temperate climate. The Brussels meteorological data
are used. Data comprise the hourly data of
temperature, humidity, global solar radiation, diffuse
solar radiation, cloud cover, dry bulb temperature,
wind speed and wind direction. In the analysis of the
heating consumptions, a whole typical year is used
[8]. The maximum and minimum temperatures, for
the considered year are 34.9 C and -9,1C.
2.3. The studied building
The studied building is a detached house with a
south-east oriented facade. It is a two-storeyed
house, located in a suburban area. Figure 1 shows
the plans of the 2 floors of the building. The ground
floor is composed of a living room, a kitchen, an
office, a hall and a cloakroom. The first floor
comprises 4 attic bedrooms and an attic bathroom.
The windows are located on the 2 gables. One
bedroom has a roof window. The house also
includes a cellar and an attic. The house has a
surface area of 182 m.
2.4. The thermal characteristics
The analysis presented in this paper take into
account 5 levels of insulation of the house: a level
without insulation (NI) neither in the walls nor in the
roof and the slab [9, 10], a level with 3 cm of
insulation in the walls, roof and slab (3cm) [9, 10],
the current standard (CS) for new buildings in
Belgium [9, 10, 11, 12], a low energy level (LE) [9,
10, 13] and the passive house standard (PHS) [9, 10,
12, 14]. The main thermal characteristics of walls and
windows are summarized in the Table 1.
Double-glazed windows are used in the four first
cases and replaced by triple-glazed windows in the
passive house. The natural ventilation (NV)
corresponds to the opening of the windows from 5
pm till 6 pm (30 % of the surface of the window
opened). The mixed-mode ventilation (with
mechanical exhaust (ME)) and the mechanical
ventilation (MV) work when the house is occupied.
The ventilation has three speeds. The third and the
most substantial one corresponds to the
requirements of the Belgian ventilation standard [9].
The first speed, the most applied in practice, is worth
1/3 of the third one and is used in our simulations.

Figure 1: Plans of the ground floor and the attic floor of the
studied house
2.5. The internal gains
The more the building is efficient, the more
internal conditions have an influence on the heating
consumptions of the building. The modelling of
internal gains must be representative of the reality.
Thanks to the multizone modelling adopted in the
analysis, internal gains can be adjusted in each
room, according to the moment of the day and the
occupation mode.
The following heat emissions are used in the
simulations [9, 13] :
- Occupation: 80W per person (the number of person
varies from 0 to 5 according to the occupation mode)
- Fridge and deep freeze: 0.85 kWh/day
- Washing-up: 0.3*1.1 kWh/use
(65 uses/(year.person))
- Appliances: 50kWh/(year.person)
- Television : 150W (1, 2 or 3hours/day)
- Computer: 70W (0, 1, 2 or 10hours/day)
- Cooking: 912W (0.5, 1 or 1.5hours/day)
- Lighting: 6W/m
- Shower: 1486W/shower (0, 24 or 48 minutes/day)
Table 1: Main thermal properties of the 5 studied levels of insulation.
Levels of
insulation
Roof
(W/mK)
External
walls
(W/mK)
Ground
floor
(W/mK)
Windows
(W/mK)
Airtightness
(vol/h)
Ventilation
Annual
heating
requirement
(exigency)
NI 3.586 1.757 1.874 1.22 0.6 NV -
3cm 0.972 0.758 0.880 1.22 0.6 NV -
CS 0.3 0.4 0.4 1.22
0.39 (7.8h
-1
under 50Pa)
NV -
LE 0.265 0.326 0.395 1.22
0.1 (2h
-1
under 50Pa)
ME
60
kWh/(m a)
PHS 0.129 0.147 0.199 0.774
0.03 (0.6h
-1
under 50Pa)
MV with
heat
recovery
15
kWh/(m a)
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 453
Total internal gains used in each thermal
simulation depend on the chosen occupation mode
and thus on combinations of the treated parameters.
The reference value comes from a monitoring and is
worth 2.57 W/m [15].
2.6. The parametric variations
The study presented in this paper aims at
comparing the influence of three parameters related
to human behaviour and occupation mode on the
heating loads. The studied parameters and their
variations are presented below.
The first parameter deals with the family size and
the corresponding occupation mode. Two types of
family composition are considered and allow to target
and to characterize the four following occupation
modes.
- Occupation mode 1 (OM1): an active couple works
outside the house during the day while their three
children go to school.
- Occupation mode 2 (OM2): a self-employed or
unemployed couple works/stays at home during the
day while their three children go to school.
- Occupation mode 3 (OM3): an active couple
without children works/stays outside during the day.
Five cases are discussed.
- Occupation mode 4 (OM4): a retired couple, not
very active, spends a lot of time at home. Two cases
are discussed.
The second parameter deals with the
management of the heating system. This modelling
is based on three types of management of the
thermostat, that depend on the occupation mode.
The three studied cases are :
- T1: 20 C in the occupied rooms with a drop to 16
C at night and during the day. The heating season
begins the first of October and ends the first of May
- T2: 20 C in the occupied rooms with a drop to 16
C at night. The heating season begin the first of
October and ends the first of May.
- T3: 21C in the occupied rooms, all over the year ,
during day and night.
The last parameter is the management of the
heated area. The size of a family and its activities
evolve over time while the house has a fixed and
unchanged size but sometimes, people remove in a
part of the house which became too big for them
(after the departure of children for example, facing
the difficulty of climbing stairs,...). In the simulations,
the house is occupied either completely (ground floor
and the first floor (GF)) or only partially (just the
ground floor (G)). In this case, we consider that the
office is transformed into a bedroom.
2.7. The studied cases
Several cases can be arised from the
combination of the parameters presented in the
previous section. The nine studied cases are
summarized in Table 2 (OM is the occupation mode,
T1, T2 and T3 are the temperature settings, a cross
in the GF column means that both the ground floor
and the first floor are occupied (totally or partially)
while a cross in the G column means that only the
ground floor is occupied).
Table 2: The 9 case studied in the simulations
OM GF G T1 T2 T3
Case 1.1 1 x x
Case 2.2 2 x x
Case 3.3 3 x x
Case 3.4 3 x x
Case 3.5 3 x x
Case 3.6 3 x x
Case 3.7 3 x x
Case 4.8 4 x x
Case 4.9 4 x x
3. RESULTS
The results are presented in 4 parts:
1. the analysis of the 2 cases representing a family
with children (case 1.1 and case 2.2),
2. the analysis of the 5 cases representing an active
couple without children (cases 3.3 to 3.7),
3. the analysis of the 2 cases representing a retired
couple (case 4.8 and case 4.9) and
4. the analysis of the 3 extreme cases representing
3 of the 4 modes (the cases 1.1, 3.4 and 4.9).
Table 3 presents the heating loads of the 9
simulated cases for the 5 levels of insulation. In the
first part of the table (part A), the total heating loads
calculated for the house are divided by the total
surface area of the house (182m) in each case
because if the occupied and heated area changes,
the position of the insulation stays the same in each
case. In the second part (part B), the total heating
loads calculated are divided by the occupied and
heated area (182m if the house is totally occupied
by a family (the cases 1.1 and 1.2), 138m if the
ground floor and the first floor are partially occupied
by a couple (the cases 3.3, 3.4, 3.6 and 4.8) and
91m if only the ground floor is occupied by a couple
(the cases 3.5, 3.7 and 4.9)).
3.1. OM 1 and 2 : couple with 3 children
Table 3 shows that case 1.1 is more energy-
efficient than case 2.2 for all the levels of insulation
tested, excepted for the passive case. Proportionally,
the biggest difference between these two cases is
observed at this passive level: the difference in
heating loads between cases 1.1. and 1.2 reaches
2.28 kWh/(m.year) (28.73%). For the other levels of
insulation, the difference between the two cases is
contained in a range between 0.75% and 8.28%
(from 0.45 to 14.98 kWh/(m.year)). This table also
reveals the importance of the level of insulation. The
change from one level of insulation to another
permits a huge reduction in heating loads. Moreover,
for both considered cases, the greatest energy
reductions are visible when the passive standard is
reached. In general, the change from one level of
insulation to the higher one is very interesting and
has a greater impact than the benefit gained from
occupation modes case 1.1 on case 2.2.
3.2. OM3 : active couple without children
If heating loads are divided by the heated area
(Part B of Table 3), 4 of the 5 cases relating to the
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454 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
Table 3: The heating loads of the 9 studied cases (in kWh/m). The first part of the table (A) presents the total heating loads
divided by the total surface area of the house (182m). The second part (B) presents the heating loads divided by the occupied
area (182m, 138m or 91m according to the corresp onding occupation mode).
third occupation mode do not meet the passive
house standard. If the heating loads for cases 3.3 to
3.7 are divided by the total surface area of the
house, the passive standard is respected. The
values of cases 3.6 and 3.7 are indeed nearly
beyond the bounds, especially since these cases are
considered only with a speed 1 ventilation rate.
The low energy standard is not reached for case
3.5 and 3.7 (Table 3B) if the occupied area is
considered but is reached when the total surface is
used (Table 3A).
The heating demands vary a lot according to the
occupation mode (Table 3A). The two extreme cases
are case 3.5 and case 3.6, The differences between
these two cases vary from 98.81 kWh/(m
2
.year) for
the non insulation case (42.77%) to 3.17
kWh/(m
2
.year) for the passive house standard
(19.93%). The average of the differences is worth
30.10%. In general, the more the building is
insulated, the more the difference between the cases
decreases. The impact of behaviour becomes thus
less huge and less marked. These two cases
develop opposite behaviours. According to Table 3B,
the two extreme cases are cases 3.3 and 3.7. The
differences between heating loads are contained in a
range between 153.18 kWh/(m
2
.year) for the non
insulated case and 15.15 kWh/(m
2
.year) for the
passive house standard. The average of the
differences is worth 46.89%, which means that a
couple, living in a house with 3cm of insulation, with
a behaviour similar to case 3.7, can consume as
much as a couple living in a non-insulated house
with a more responsive and better managed
behaviour. In general, if the building has a good
insulation, the impact of the behaviour, compared
with heated squared meters, can be proportionately
as high as the impact of changing from a level of
insulation to a better one.
This result highlights the very low equilibrium
between comfort and good energy management. If
people have very different schedules, it is quite
interesting to be able to switch on by remote control
the heating and the ventilation which allows to trigger
the revival of the heating system. Lowering the day
temperature from 20 C to 16 C can make a saving
of about 10%, by comparing cases 3.3 and 3.4.
A very good insulation will reduce the
consequences of the carelessness of people or of
their no energy-efficient behaviour. But the reduction
of consumptions remains and is thus easily
improvable!
3.3. OM4: retired couple not very active
The occupation mode related to retired couple
that is not very active and stays at home during the
day is less energy-efficient because the house is
more often occupied which means more heat, more
light, more cooking times. Moreover, thermal comfort
is the basis of the notion of comfort for elderly
households. This occupation mode requires a great
need for heat and that is not negotiable. Note that
heating loads predicted by these simulations are low
compared to real consumptions generated by some
elderly households behaviours, for example
maintaining indoor air temperature at 26C all over
the year during day and night.
Occupying just a part of the house (here the
ground floor), is energetically more interesting.
According to Table 3A, if the house is not insulated,
the difference between cases 4.8 (the ground floor
and the first floor are partially occupied) and 4.9 (the
ground floor, only, is occupied) is worth 39.28
kWh/(m
2
.year) (18.29%) but this difference is only
worth 0.38 kWh/(m
2
.year) (2%) in the passive house.
According to Table 3B, the average of the
differences between these 2 cases is about 21%
(contained in a range between 6.83 and 47.16
kWh/(m
2
.year)). But these 2 cases do not concern
the same surface area and thus the most consumers
in terms of kWh/(m.year), the case 4.8, gives the
Case 1.1 Case 2.2 Case 3.3 Case 3.4 Case 3.5 Case 3.6 Case 3.7 Case 4.8 Case 4.9
A.) kWh/m (Heating loads are divided by the total surface area of the house (182m))
NI 180.13 195.11 154.78 170.70 132.19 231.00 178.71 214.71 175.43
3 cm 96.46 101.30 92.94 101.35 88.25 132.15 115.16 122.76 111.96
CS 59.53 59.08 60.50 64.92 59.69 80.75 74.54 74.88 71.62
LE 28.46 31.03 30.18 36.19 31.99 44.82 39.74 40.69 36.99
PHS 7.25 5.16 11.88 13.28 12.76 15.93 15.39 13.54 13.15
B.) kWh/m (Heating loads are divided by the occupied area (182, 138 or 91m))
m 182 182 138 138 91 138 91 138 91
NI 180.13 195.11 205.40 226.53 265.46 306.55 358.88 310.73 352.28
3 cm 96.46 101.30 123.34 134.50 177.22 175.37 231.25 177.67 224.83
CS 59.53 59.08 80.29 86.15 119.87 107.16 149.68 108.37 143.82
LE 28.46 31.03 40.05 48.02 64.24 59.48 79.79 58.89 74.29
PHS 7.25 5.16 15.76 17.62 25.61 21.14 30.91 19.59 26.41
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 455
impression to consume less than the case 4.9. It
might be interesting to bring in a density factor. Once
again, the impact of the occupation mode in terms of
kWh/m.year decreases if the insulation of the house
is better.
3.4. Comparison between 3 representative
occupation modes: synthesis
This section aims at comparing the heating loads
results related to 3 extreme occupation modes. The
3 selected cases are case 1.1. (an active couple
working outside the house during the day with three
children going to school), case 3.4 (an active couple
without children working outside the house during the
day), and case 4.9 (a retired couple not very active,
staying at home with a higher comfort temperature).
The more the building is insulated, the more the
occupation mode is marked. The comparison
between case 1.1 and case 3.4 (Table 3A) highlights
that the difference between heating loads is
contained in a range between 5.24% (9.44
kWh/(m
2
.year)) for a non-insulated house and
45.42% (6.03 kWh/(m
2
.year)) for the passive house
standard. The difference in heating loads between
the two modes related to a couple without children
(cases 3.4 and 4.9) are relatively low. The average of
the differences is indeed worth 5.74%. Figure 2
shows that if the building is not insulated, the
occupation mode related to the family with three
children is the higher consumer of energy. But this
occupation mode with children becomes more
efficient than the two others modes if the house is
insulated. That also reveals the importance of
internal gains.
Figure 2: Heating loads (kWh/(m.year)) based on the 5
levels of insulation tested for cases 1.1, 3.4 and 4.9 (In this
figure, heating loads are divided by the total surface area of
the house (182m)).
If we consider now the second part of Table 3
(where heating loads are divided by the occupied
area), the differences between the three studied
cases are more important. The average of the
differences between case 1.1 and case 3.4 (range
from 10.38 to 46.39 kWh/(m
2
.year)) and between
case 3.4 and case 4.9 (range from 8.79 to 125.76
kWh/(m
2
.year)) are worth 36%. Case 1.1 remains the
most interesting one for any level of insulation thanks
to the largest heated area, to the numerous internal
gains and to the better management of the heating
system.
The differences between the cases increase with
the level of insulation even if the difference of heating
load between cases 3.4 and 4.9 and case 1.1 is
more marked if heating loads are divided by the
occupied area, as it can be seen on Figure 3.
Figure 3: Heating loads (kWh/(m.year)) based on the 5
levels of insulation tested for cases 1.1, 3.4 and 4.9 (In this
figure, heating loads are divided by the occupied area).
4. DISCUSSION
This section aims at discussing the impact of
these occupation modes during the life cycle of the
house. Indeed, several occupation modes can follow
one another during the life of a house. To assess
their impact on the life expectancy of the studied
house, 4 assumptions of occupation are established
for a period of time of 100 years and summarized in
Table 4. For example, in A1, the house is occupied
during 45 years by a family with 3 children (case 1.1)
then by an active couple without children (case 3.4)
during 30 years and finally by a retired couple (case
4.9) during 25 years.
Table 4 : Years of occupation of each occupation mode, for
a life cycle of 100 years : 4 assumptions
Average heating loads calculated for the four
scenarii of occupation presented in Table 4, and
divided by the heated area, are summarized in Table
5. In two cases (A2 and A4), the requirements of the
passive house standard are not met. The more the
building is insulated, the more the difference of
heating in % increases between the two cases. In the
passive house standard, this difference reaches
26.18% (4.51 kWh/(m
2
.year)) between A2 and A3,
that are the 2 extreme cases.
If the size of family evolves over time, the size of
the house and its occupation modes should also be
adapted. This strategy would allow to reduce the
heating consumptions during the whole life cycle of
the building. The aim is to maximize the occupation
of the house. But that can lead to significant works of
adaptation (extra kitchen, independent entrances,
etc.). The insulation and possibilities of thermal
improvement of the building must also be taken into
account in order to choose the best option.
A1 A2 A3 A4
Case 1.1 45 25 60 25
Case 3.4 30 50 25 55
Case 4.9 25 25 15 20
Total 100 100 100 100
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456 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
Table 5 : Average heating loads (in kWh/(m.year)) of a
house on his life (100 years) based on the assumptions of
occupation modes presented in Table 4.
5. CONCLUSION
Nine types of occupancy of a standard detached
house located in a Belgian suburban area have been
determined by combining several representative
types of households, occupation modes and thermal
preferences (management of the thermostat).
Thanks to multi-zone thermal simulations performed
with a dynamic thermal simulation software (TAS),
heating loads have been calculated for these nine
case studies and for four combinations of the most
representative ones during the life cycle of the
building (100 years).
These analyses have highlighted the importance
of internal gains related to the different modes of
occupation, their influence on heating loads for the
studied levels of insulation and the significance to
take into account several types of households and
occupation modes in thermal studies.
These analyses have particularly highlighted that
the more the building is insulated, the more the
lifestyle, namely through internal gains, influence
proportionally the heating loads even if, in terms of
kWh, this impact decreases. These results
emphasize that the number of inhabitants and their
presence in the house can reduce the heating loads.
However, insulation is paramount and increasing the
insulation of the house always gives better results
than just adapting the occupation mode.
For the studied building, the model that presents
the lower heating loads is the active couple working
outside with three children, because, in this case, the
number of inhabitants is quite adapted to the size of
the house. The balance between optimal comfort and
good management of the energy is very low and
particularly if people have varied schedules. It is thus
quite interesting to be able to switch on by remote
control the heating and ventilation systems which
allows to trigger the revival of the heating.
Last but not least, a more responsible behaviour
can easily improve the energy balance of a house.
Buildings thermal improvements are also very
efficient but take more time and money to be
realized. To heighten public awareness of the impact
of their lifestyle is thus crucial and can quickly lead to
significant reductions in the total energy
consumptions of a family.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research is funded by the Walloon Region of
Belgium in the framework of the Suburban Areas
Favouring Energy efficiency, project (SAFE). The
authors express their thanks to the research team of
Architecture et Climat, at the Universit catholique de
Louvain.
7. REFERENCES
[1] W. Hilderson, E. Mlecnik, J. Cr, Potential of
Low Energy Housing Retrofit: insights from
building stock analysis, Belgian Science Policy,
2010. www.lehr.be.
[2] L. Mettetal, La question nergtique dans
lhabitat priv: le profil dterminant des
mnages, Note rapide; n476, IAU Ile-de-
France, juin 2009.
[3] L. Mettetal, Les pratiques nergtiques des
mnages du priurbain, Note rapide, n485, IAU
Ile-de-France, novembre 2009.
[4] W. Poortinga, L. Steg, C. Vlek, G. Wiersma,
Household preferences for energy-saving
measures : A conjoint analysis, Journal of
Economic Psychology 24, 4964, 2003.
[5] C. Kints, La rnovation nergtique et durable
des logements wallons. Analyse du bti existant
et mise en vidence des typologies de
logements prioritaires, LEHR, Architecture &
Climat, UCL, septembre 2008. www.lehr.be.
[6] A-F. Marique, S. Reiter, A method to assess
global energy requirements of suburban areas at
the neighbourhood scale. Proc. of the 7
th
International IAQVEC Conference on Indoor Air
Quality, Ventilation and Energy Conservation in
Buildings, Syracuse, New York, 2010.
[7] A.M., Jones, EDSL Ltd., TAS, Software package
for the thermal analysis of buildings. 13/14
Cofferidge Close, Stony Stratford, Milton
Keynes, Mk11 1BY, United Kingdom, 2010.
[8] IWEC Weather Files (International Weather for
Energy Calculations) from ASHRAE, American
Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-
Conditioning Engineers, Inc, Atlanta, USA, 2009.
[9] W. Feist, Logiciel de conception de maison
passive 2007 PHPP2007, Passivhaus Institut,
Darmstadt, novembre 2007.
[10] NORME NBN D50-001, Dispositifs de ventilation
dans les btiments d'habitation, Bruxelles, NBN,
2008.
[11] NORME NBN B 62-002, Performances
thermiques de btiments. Calcul des coefficients
de transmission thermique (valeurs U) des
composants et lments de btiments. Calcul
des coefficients de transfert de chaleur par
transmission (valeur HT) et par ventilation
(valeur Hv), Bruxelles, NBN, 2008.
[12] C. Delmotte, Rglementation sur la performance
nergtique des btiments : du nouveau
Bruxelles et en Wallonie, Les Dossiers du
CSTC, N4, Cahier n1, 2008.
[13] www.ibgebim.be, May 2010.
[14] www.maisonpassive.be, May 2010.
[15] A. De Herde, M. Bodart, Les conclusions de
Pliade, Universit catholique de Louvain,
Architecture et Climat, 1994.
A1 A2 A3 A4
NI 237.09 246.37 217.55 240.08
3 cm 139.96 147.57 125.22 143.05
CS 88.59 93.91 78.83 91.03
LE 45.78 49.70 40.22 48.38
PHS 15.15 17.23 12.72 16.79
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 457
A Review of Thermal Comfort Criteria for Naturally
Ventilated Buildings in Hot-Humid Climate with
Reference to the Adaptive Model
Doris Hooi Chyee TOE
1,2
, Tetsu KUBOTA
1

1
Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan
2
Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru, Malaysia
ABSTRACT: This paper discusses the appropriateness of the existing thermal comfort criteria for naturally
ventilated buildings in hot-humid climate, focusing especially on the adaptive comfort standard (ACS) by
ASHRAE Standard 55-2004, based on literature review. The review covered studies related to general thermal
comfort in hot-humid climate from the early attempts until present. The review revealed that thermal comfort was
achieved in diverse environments in naturally ventilated buildings. Nevertheless, there were few research
attempts to develop a comprehensive thermal index for hot-humid climate that could be applied across a wide
range of thermal conditions. Thermal indices which account for the effect of evaporative heat transfer at high air
movement were applied in less than 20% of the studies found in this review. Recent studies were greatly
influenced by and, in turn, supported the adaptive model. However, the applicability of the current ACS, given in
operative temperature, may be limited to low air movement conditions in hot-humid region. In order to be useful
for both low and higher range of air velocities, a new adaptive comfort standard using SET*, or thermal indices
developed to account for evaporative heat loss, may be more appropriate for naturally ventilated buildings in hot-
humid climate.
Keywords: thermal comfort, hot-humid climate, natural ventilation, adaptive model
1. INTRODUCTION
Standards for thermal comfort play a role in
informing decisions related to building cooling and
heating, which, in turn, have considerable
implications on building energy demand [1]. Since
natural ventilation is one of the important passive
cooling techniques for improving thermal comfort in
hot-humid climate, comprehensive thermal comfort
criteria which include the evaluation of evaporative
heat loss may be needed in this climatic region,
especially for the naturally ventilated buildings. This
is important to ensure occupants satisfaction with
the thermal environment as well as reduce air
conditioning to conserve energy. Although numerous
significant thermal comfort standards have been
proposed based on extensive studies, most of the
criteria were developed for conditioned spaces in
moderate or cold climates using controlled climate
chambers [2-4].
The recent adaptive model puts forward field
evidence that occupants demand different thermal
comfort conditions in conditioned buildings compared
to naturally ventilated buildings [5]. Subsequently,
the adaptive comfort standard (ACS) was proposed
in ASHRAE Standard 55-2004 [2] to specify thermal
comfort criteria for naturally ventilated buildings. The
adaptive model shows that acceptable indoor
temperature depends on outdoor climate. Although
development of the ACS included some studies in
the tropics, its applicability to hot-humid climate has
not been verified.
This paper discusses the appropriateness of the
existing thermal comfort criteria for naturally
ventilated buildings in hot-humid climate, focusing
especially on the adaptive comfort standard (ACS)
by ASHRAE [2], based on literature review. The
review covers studies related to general thermal
comfort in hot-humid climate from the early attempts
until present, and the ACS.
2. REVIEW RESULTS
2.1. Early Attempts in Hot-Humid Climate
Early thermal comfort studies in the tropics were
conducted mainly to understand the thermal comfort
requirements of occupants and examine the
relationship of the physical parameters (air
temperature, radiant temperature, air velocity and
humidity) to thermal sensation. Among the earliest
surveys performed are those by Webb [6,7] and Ellis
[8] in the 1950s, followed by Wyndham [9], Rao and
Ho [10] and Sharma and Ali [11,12]. All the surveys
were carried out in naturally ventilated buildings
under the subjects normal daily routine and clothing.
Particular interest was given to analyze the prevailing
outdoor climate, adequacy of indoor air movement,
occupants behaviour and feeling of skin wetness. It
is evident that research on thermal comfort in
naturally ventilated buildings is not new in the tropical
region. However, relatively few studies can be found
in the literature before 1990.
Some thermal indices were developed as a result
of the above studies. These include the Singapore
Index [7], Equatorial Comfort Index [13], Thermal
Stress Index [11] and Tropical Summer Index [12].
Prior to the development of these indices, comfort
temperatures were indicated using the Effective
Temperature (ET) [6,8]. It should be noted that all the
above early indices evaluate the effects of air
movement and humidity on thermal sensation.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
458 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
However, the early tropical indices were not widely
used after their establishment and not developed
further to produce a more comprehensive index, as
the Standard Effective Temperature (SET*) [14] was
from ET.
2.2. Recent Attempts in Hot-Humid Climate
Many thermal comfort studies can be seen in hot-
humid region in the recent two decades (1990-2010).
These studies can be generally classified into climate
chamber studies and field studies. Although some
climate chamber studies [15-20] have been
conducted in hot and humid conditions, our review
found that field studies were still by far more popular
than climate chamber studies in the tropics. This is
probably because emerging researchers during the
recent period were more attracted to the adaptive
model, which calls for field studies.
In particular, this period coincided with the
commencement of ASHRAE RP-884 [21], the project
which contributed to the development of ACS (see
Section 2.3). Some of the recent field studies [22-26]
in the tropics participated in ASHRAE RP-884 and
were included in the meta-analysis that produced the
adaptive algorithm. Each study surveyed both
naturally ventilated and air-conditioned buildings for
comparison purposes except for one study [23]. The
trend to compare arose out of consciousness of
energy use in building cooling and this group of
studies signifies the beginning of such trend in hot-
humid climate.
Numerous other field studies were carried out in
naturally ventilated buildings [27-41], air-conditioned
buildings [42-50] and combination of both in the
same study [51-59]. The field studies in naturally
ventilated buildings in a way can be seen as a
continuation of the early attempts to further
determine the thermal comfort requirements of
occupants (see Section 2.1). They were also
performed under occupants ordinary daily activity,
clothing and environment. Nevertheless, they did not
continue to utilize the tropical indices developed from
those early surveys. Measurements of all physical
variables were taken in the major studies, yet recent
researchers were mostly found to report comfort
conditions using simple indices such as air
temperature, operative temperature and globe
temperature. One of the reasons given was these
indices provided higher correlations with the
subjective assessments [27]. Another reason was to
compare their results with other recent field studies
and existing thermal comfort standards [34,38].
In all, studies which encountered higher air
velocities reported that comfort temperatures voted
by respondents also increased accordingly
[27,29,36,39,49,56]. One of the studies [27] claimed
that the cooling effect of air movement was observed
only at air velocities greater than 0.3 m/s, and the
highest recommended air velocity found in this
review is 3 m/s [29]. Although absolute values of the
air velocities and corresponding comfort
temperatures differed among the studies, it is
agreeable that poor ventilation was probably the
most important reason for the discomfort of
occupants in naturally ventilated buildings in the
tropics [58].
2.3. Adaptive Comfort Standard (ACS)
The adaptive comfort standard (ACS) was
formalized in a standard for the first time in ASHRAE
Standard 55-2004 [2] based on meta-analysis of
ASHRAE RP-884 field studies [21]. Its formulation is
documented in Refs. [60,61]. The ACS determines
acceptable indoor operative temperature for naturally
ventilated buildings based on the mean monthly
outdoor air temperature [2]. It places no limit on air
velocity, humidity and clothing, which reflects its
intention to encourage use of such adaptive controls.
It is important to note that the choice of a suitable
thermal index in the adaptive algorithm has been
repeatedly given attention [21,60-62]. At present, the
terms in the ACS algorithm are mean monthly
outdoor air temperature and indoor operative
temperature which considers only convective and
radiative heat exchanges. Existing literatures inform
that pragmatism was the priority in selecting the two
terms, thus the simple indices prevailed over more
complex ones. As reported in [61], there was a
decision change from using ET* to air temperature to
characterize the outdoor climate for ease of use by
practitioners. On the other hand, it is acknowledged
that the operative temperature achieved the best
correlations with thermal sensation votes in a
majority of the database among four major indices
(ET*, PMV and SET*) [60].
3. DISCUSSION
3.1. Research Trend in Hot-Humid Climate
The above review distinguished thermal comfort
studies in hot-humid climate into early attempts (pre-
1990) and recent attempts (1990-2010). The early
phase concentrated on two fundamental aspects: (1)
understanding thermal comfort requirements of
occupants in naturally ventilated buildings; and (2)
developing thermal index. Together with the recent
attempts, it has been clarified that occupants require
higher air velocities at higher air temperatures to
expedite sweat evaporation and still feel comfortable
in hot-humid climate. However, for the latter aspect,
few early attempts were found resulting in limited
development of tropical indices to assess the effect
of evaporative heat loss.
Fig. 1 shows the share of thermal comfort studies
reviewed in this paper [2,6-12,15-20,22-59] which
used thermal indices that include and exclude
evaporative heat loss. As shown, only about 12% of
the studies used the early indices, i.e. ET, Singapore
Index, Equatorial Comfort Index and Tropical
Summer Index. As before, these early indices
include the evaluation of evaporative heat loss.
Combining both early indices and SET*, Fig. 1
depicts that less than 20% of the studies found in this
review applied thermal indices which account for the
effect of evaporative heat transfer at high air
movement. In comparison, more than 80% of the
reviewed studies applied other indices, i.e. air
temperature, operative temperature, globe
temperature, ET* and equivalent temperature.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 459

Early
Indices
11.5%
SET*
5.8%
Other
Indices
82.7%
n=52

Figure 1: The share of thermal comfort studies which
include (early indices and SET*) and exclude evaporative
heat loss (other indices).
The recent attempts emerged as a continuation
of the former aspect of the early phase and also out
of curiosity to examine the closeness of thermal
perceptions in hot-humid climate compared to major
standards including ASHRAE Standards 55, PMV
and ACS. On the whole, recent studies were greatly
influenced by and, in turn, supported the adaptive
model. Although there are increasing concern and
efforts to develop thermal comfort criteria for hot-
humid climate, the process to standardize a set of
thermal comfort criteria in this region has not taken
place. Furthermore, considering that thermal comfort
was achieved in diverse environments in naturally
ventilated buildings, there is still a weak area in
terms of development and validation works for a
comprehensive thermal index that could be applied
across a wide range of thermal conditions.
3.2. Appropriateness of the ACS
The adaptive comfort standard (ACS) applies a
simple thermal index, i.e. operative temperature, to
characterize indoor comfort temperature. The simpler
temperature index is sufficient and in a way very
useful when indoor thermal environment is close to
the standard environment, which is at low air velocity
and 50% relative humidity [62]. However, the
conditions may not be so in hot-humid climate
especially when high air velocity is essential, and
promoted by the adaptive model, to aid evaporative
heat loss by sweat. This deficiency may be observed
in two ways. First is the use of a thermal index which
considers only convective and radiative heat
exchanges, i.e. operative temperature, as explained
above. Second is not specifying the acceptable (and
required) range of air velocities for the corresponding
comfort temperatures even though the ACS does not
restrict air velocity to any limit. To be used as a
standard particularly for hot-humid climate, this may
bring two implications under provision of the
required air velocities to building occupants and
underestimation of the potential for higher comfort
temperatures under increased air velocities.
To discuss the above deficiency further, comfort
temperatures have been clustered in groups
according to the thermal index used and
corresponding mean air velocity for the comfort
condition. Fig. 2 presents the comfort temperatures
reported in hot-humid climate studies which provide
air velocity data [6-8,10-12,19,20,22-24,27,29,33-
36,39-41,43-46,48-50,52,54,56,58] as a function of
the mean monthly outdoor air temperature. They are
shown separately for naturally ventilated buildings
(Fig. 2a) and air-conditioned buildings (Fig. 2b).
Mean monthly outdoor air temperatures were
obtained from the respective papers and if not given,
they were sourced from Refs. [63-65] according to
the survey months and locations reported in the
papers. In Fig. 2a, the ACS [2] 80% and 90%
acceptability limits are indicated for evaluating the
criteria for naturally ventilated buildings while in Fig.
2b, the ASHRAE [2] 0.5 clo comfort zones are shown
for the same purpose for air-conditioned buildings.
As illustrated in Fig. 2a, the ACS acceptability
limits generally agree well with neutral temperatures
reported from field studies in naturally ventilated
buildings under air velocities below 0.3 m/s. This can
be said of the early indices and also other indices,
although there is no criterion using SET* to be
compared. Nevertheless, some upper limits from the
same air velocity group, particularly other indices, are
2-3C above the ACS upper limit. Under higher air
velocities, some of the neutral temperatures which
used other indices exceed the ACS upper limit by
about 2C while some of the corresponding comfort
limits are up to 6C above and 1C below the ACS
acceptability limits. In comparison, both neutral
temperatures and comfort limits which applied early
indices are within the ACS acceptability limits while
neutral SET* are near the ACS lower limit, even
under air velocities of 0.3 m/s or more (Fig. 2a).
Although occupants different expectation and
acclimatization might have contributed to the
diversity in comfort temperatures, the difference seen
between the two air velocity groups for other indices
is most likely due to the effect on evaporative heat
loss of different levels of air movement. The analysis
implies that the current ACS, given in operative
temperature, may be applicable to naturally
ventilated buildings in hot-humid climate in low air
movement conditions. Even that, neutral
temperatures using other indices tend to be in the
upper half of the ACS comfort band (Fig. 2a). To be
useful for both low and higher range of air velocities,
a new adaptive comfort standard using SET*, or
thermal indices developed to account for evaporative
heat loss, may be needed and more appropriate for
hot-humid climate.
For air-conditioned buildings, Fig. 2b shows that
the comfort temperatures found in this review are
less spread out than those for naturally ventilated
buildings even though the range of mean monthly
outdoor air temperature is similar (cf. Fig. 2a). This is
quite logical as the air-conditioned buildings mostly
encountered relatively constant indoor environment
regardless of outdoor climate. Nevertheless, some of
the neutral temperatures under air velocities below
0.3 m/s using other indices still exceed above and
below the ASHRAE comfort zone (ET*) by more than
1C, and the corresponding comfort limits by more
than 3C. This could be partly due to the clothing
worn with insulation lower and higher than 0.5 clo.
Neutral temperatures applying SET* also fall within
and above the ASHRAE comfort zone (SET*) (Fig.
2b). Under higher air velocities, most of the neutral
However, the early tropical indices were not widely
used after their establishment and not developed
further to produce a more comprehensive index, as
the Standard Effective Temperature (SET*) [14] was
from ET.
2.2. Recent Attempts in Hot-Humid Climate
Many thermal comfort studies can be seen in hot-
humid region in the recent two decades (1990-2010).
These studies can be generally classified into climate
chamber studies and field studies. Although some
climate chamber studies [15-20] have been
conducted in hot and humid conditions, our review
found that field studies were still by far more popular
than climate chamber studies in the tropics. This is
probably because emerging researchers during the
recent period were more attracted to the adaptive
model, which calls for field studies.
In particular, this period coincided with the
commencement of ASHRAE RP-884 [21], the project
which contributed to the development of ACS (see
Section 2.3). Some of the recent field studies [22-26]
in the tropics participated in ASHRAE RP-884 and
were included in the meta-analysis that produced the
adaptive algorithm. Each study surveyed both
naturally ventilated and air-conditioned buildings for
comparison purposes except for one study [23]. The
trend to compare arose out of consciousness of
energy use in building cooling and this group of
studies signifies the beginning of such trend in hot-
humid climate.
Numerous other field studies were carried out in
naturally ventilated buildings [27-41], air-conditioned
buildings [42-50] and combination of both in the
same study [51-59]. The field studies in naturally
ventilated buildings in a way can be seen as a
continuation of the early attempts to further
determine the thermal comfort requirements of
occupants (see Section 2.1). They were also
performed under occupants ordinary daily activity,
clothing and environment. Nevertheless, they did not
continue to utilize the tropical indices developed from
those early surveys. Measurements of all physical
variables were taken in the major studies, yet recent
researchers were mostly found to report comfort
conditions using simple indices such as air
temperature, operative temperature and globe
temperature. One of the reasons given was these
indices provided higher correlations with the
subjective assessments [27]. Another reason was to
compare their results with other recent field studies
and existing thermal comfort standards [34,38].
In all, studies which encountered higher air
velocities reported that comfort temperatures voted
by respondents also increased accordingly
[27,29,36,39,49,56]. One of the studies [27] claimed
that the cooling effect of air movement was observed
only at air velocities greater than 0.3 m/s, and the
highest recommended air velocity found in this
review is 3 m/s [29]. Although absolute values of the
air velocities and corresponding comfort
temperatures differed among the studies, it is
agreeable that poor ventilation was probably the
most important reason for the discomfort of
occupants in naturally ventilated buildings in the
tropics [58].
2.3. Adaptive Comfort Standard (ACS)
The adaptive comfort standard (ACS) was
formalized in a standard for the first time in ASHRAE
Standard 55-2004 [2] based on meta-analysis of
ASHRAE RP-884 field studies [21]. Its formulation is
documented in Refs. [60,61]. The ACS determines
acceptable indoor operative temperature for naturally
ventilated buildings based on the mean monthly
outdoor air temperature [2]. It places no limit on air
velocity, humidity and clothing, which reflects its
intention to encourage use of such adaptive controls.
It is important to note that the choice of a suitable
thermal index in the adaptive algorithm has been
repeatedly given attention [21,60-62]. At present, the
terms in the ACS algorithm are mean monthly
outdoor air temperature and indoor operative
temperature which considers only convective and
radiative heat exchanges. Existing literatures inform
that pragmatism was the priority in selecting the two
terms, thus the simple indices prevailed over more
complex ones. As reported in [61], there was a
decision change from using ET* to air temperature to
characterize the outdoor climate for ease of use by
practitioners. On the other hand, it is acknowledged
that the operative temperature achieved the best
correlations with thermal sensation votes in a
majority of the database among four major indices
(ET*, PMV and SET*) [60].
3. DISCUSSION
3.1. Research Trend in Hot-Humid Climate
The above review distinguished thermal comfort
studies in hot-humid climate into early attempts (pre-
1990) and recent attempts (1990-2010). The early
phase concentrated on two fundamental aspects: (1)
understanding thermal comfort requirements of
occupants in naturally ventilated buildings; and (2)
developing thermal index. Together with the recent
attempts, it has been clarified that occupants require
higher air velocities at higher air temperatures to
expedite sweat evaporation and still feel comfortable
in hot-humid climate. However, for the latter aspect,
few early attempts were found resulting in limited
development of tropical indices to assess the effect
of evaporative heat loss.
Fig. 1 shows the share of thermal comfort studies
reviewed in this paper [2,6-12,15-20,22-59] which
used thermal indices that include and exclude
evaporative heat loss. As shown, only about 12% of
the studies used the early indices, i.e. ET, Singapore
Index, Equatorial Comfort Index and Tropical
Summer Index. As before, these early indices
include the evaluation of evaporative heat loss.
Combining both early indices and SET*, Fig. 1
depicts that less than 20% of the studies found in this
review applied thermal indices which account for the
effect of evaporative heat transfer at high air
movement. In comparison, more than 80% of the
reviewed studies applied other indices, i.e. air
temperature, operative temperature, globe
temperature, ET* and equivalent temperature.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
460 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
temperatures, which were all reported in other
indices, are above the ASHRAE comfort zone (ET*).
In general, the above analysis supports the
distinction between thermal comfort criteria for
naturally ventilated and air-conditioned buildings as
proposed by the adaptive model.
Given that the variability of comfort temperatures
are different for naturally ventilated and air-
conditioned buildings, Figs. 3 and 4 compare their
frequency distributions of neutral temperature and
comfort band respectively. For naturally ventilated
buildings, the neutral temperatures average about
28C with a standard deviation of 1.96C on the
whole (Fig. 3a). The corresponding comfort bands
average about 6C with a standard deviation of
2.43C (Fig. 4a). Overall, these statistical values are
higher than those of air-conditioned buildings (cf.
Figs. 3b and 4b). However, it should be carefully
noted that the present database is highly dominated
by other indices. It can be seen that for naturally
ventilated buildings, average neutral temperature in
early indices and SET* combined is 3C lower and
average comfort band in early indices is almost
3.5C narrower than those of other indices
respectively (Figs. 3a and 4a). These differences are
probably due to the effects of evaporative heat loss
provided by air movement that is considered in early
indices and SET*, but not in other indices. On the
other hand, average neutral temperature in SET* is
quite close with that of other indices for air-
conditioned buildings (Fig. 3b). This analysis further
implies the need to consider using comprehensive
thermal indices to fully evaluate thermal comfort for
naturally ventilated buildings in hot-humid climate.
4. CONCLUSION
The above review revealed that the applicability
of the current ACS, given in operative temperature,
may be limited to low air movement conditions in
naturally ventilated buildings in hot-humid region. In
order to be useful for both low and higher range of air
velocities, a new adaptive comfort standard using
SET*, or thermal indices developed to account for
evaporative heat loss, may be more appropriate for
hot-humid climate.

























Figure 2: Comfort temperature from the reviewed studies in hot-humid climate. (a) Naturally ventilated building; (b) Air-
conditioned building.
16
18
20
22
24
26
28
30
32
34
36
38
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
C
o
m
f
o
r
t

T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(

C
)
Mean Monthly Outdoor Air Temperature (C)
Air velocity < 0.3 m/s
Early Indices-upper limit
Early Indices-neutral
Early Indices-lower limit
Other Indices-upper limit
Other Indices-neutral
Other Indices-lower limit
Air velocity 0.3 m/s
Early Indices-upper limit
Early Indices-neutral
Early Indices-lower limit
SET*-upper limit
SET*-neutral
SET*-lower limit
Other Indices-upper limit
Other Indices-neutral
Other Indices-lower limit
ACS in ASHRAE [2] 80% acceptability limits (t
o
)
ACS in ASHRAE [2] 90% acceptability limits (t
o
)
(a)
16
18
20
22
24
26
28
30
32
34
36
38
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
C
o
m
f
o
r
t

T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(

C
)
Mean Monthly Outdoor Air Temperature (C)
Air velocity < 0.3 m/s
SET*-upper limit
SET*-neutral
SET*-lower limit
Other Indices-upper limit
Other Indices-neutral
Other Indices-lower limit
Air velocity 0.3 m/s
Other Indices-upper limit
Other Indices-neutral
Other Indices-lower limit
ASHRAE [2] 0.5 clo (summer) comfort zone (SET*)
ASHRAE [2] 0.5 clo (summer) comfort zone (ET*)
(b)
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 461

0
5
10
15
20
25
30
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34
F
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y

(
%
)
Neutral Temperature (C)
Early Indices SET* Other Indices
Ave. : 28.13
STD : 1.96
n : 40
(a)

0
5
10
15
20
25
30
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34
F
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y

(
%
)
Neutral Temperature (C)
Early Indices SET* Other Indices
Ave. : 26.00
STD : 1.72
n : 35
(b)

Figure 3: Frequency distribution of neutral temperature from
the reviewed studies in hot-humid climate. (a) Naturally
ventilated building; (b) Air-conditioned building.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
F
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y

(
%
)
Comfort Band (C)
Early Indices SET* Other Indices
Ave. : 6.11
STD : 2.43
n : 20
(a)

0
5
10
15
20
25
30
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
F
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y

(
%
)
Comfort Band (C)
Early Indices SET* Other Indices
Ave. : 3.90
STD : 1.47
n : 13
(b)

Figure 4: Frequency distribution of comfort band from the
reviewed studies in hot-humid climate. (a) Naturally
ventilated building; (b) Air-conditioned building.
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study was supported by grant from the Asahi
Glass Foundation. Scholarship from The Hitachi
Scholarship Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.
6. REFERENCES
[1] G.R. Milne (1995), The energy implications of a
climate-based indoor air temperature standard,
in: F. Nicol, M. Humphreys, O. Sykes and S.
Roaf (Eds.), Standards for Thermal Comfort, E &
FN Spon, London, 182.
[2] ASHRAE (2004), ASHRAE Standard 55-2004:
Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human
Occupancy, ASHRAE Inc., Atlanta.
[3] BSI (2006), BS EN ISO 7730:2005, Ergonomics
of the Thermal Environment Analytical and
Interpretation of Thermal Comfort Using
Calculations of the PMV and PPD Indices and
Local Thermal Comfort Criteria, BSI, London.
[4] P.O. Fanger (1972), Thermal Comfort: Analysis
and Applications in Environmental Engineering,
McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York.
[5] G.S. Brager and R.J. de Dear (1998), Energy
and Buildings 27 (1), 83.
[6] C.G. Webb (1952), Journal of the Institution of
Heating and Ventilating Engineers 20, 189.
[7] C.G. Webb (1959), British Journal of Industrial
Medicine 16, 297.
[8] F.P. Ellis (1953), Journal of Hygiene 51, 386.
[9] C.H. Wyndham (1963), British Journal of
Industrial Medicine 20, 110.
[10] K.R. Rao and J.C. Ho (1978), Building and
Environment 13 (3), 161.
[11] M.R. Sharma and S. Ali (1979), A thermal stress
index for warm, humid conditions in India,
Educational Building Report 14, UNESCO
Regional Office for Education in Asia and
Oceania, Bangkok.
[12] M.R. Sharma and S. Ali (1986), Building and
Environment 21 (1), 11.
[13] F.A. Chrenko (Ed.) (1974), Bedfords Basic
Principles of Ventilation and Heating, third ed.,
HK Lewis & Co. Ltd., London.
[14] A.P. Gagge, A.P. Fobelets and L.G. Berglund
(1986), ASHRAE Transactions 92 (Part 2), 709.
[15] R.J. de Dear, K.G. Leow and A. Ameen (1991),
ASHRAE Transactions 97 (Part 1), 874.
[16] R.J. de Dear, K.G. Leow and A. Ameen (1991),
ASHRAE Transactions 97 (Part 1), 880.
[17] A.M. Abdul Shukur (1993), Human thermal
comfort in tropical climates, Doctoral Thesis
(unpublished), University College London,
London, cited in: A.M. Ismail (1996), Wind-driven
natural ventilation in high-rise office buildings
with special reference to the hot-humid climate
of Malaysia, Doctoral Thesis (unpublished),
University of Wales College of Cardiff, Wales.
[18] M. Zainal (1993), Proc. INDOOR AIR 93, Vol. 6,
Helsinki Finland, 157.
[19] K. Shimura, T. Horikoshi and S. Miyamoto
(1996), Proc. INDOOR AIR 96, Vol. 1, Nagoya
Japan, 281.
[20] H. Kubo, N. Isoda and H. Enomoto-Koshimizu
(1997), Building and Environment 32 (3), 211.
temperatures, which were all reported in other
indices, are above the ASHRAE comfort zone (ET*).
In general, the above analysis supports the
distinction between thermal comfort criteria for
naturally ventilated and air-conditioned buildings as
proposed by the adaptive model.
Given that the variability of comfort temperatures
are different for naturally ventilated and air-
conditioned buildings, Figs. 3 and 4 compare their
frequency distributions of neutral temperature and
comfort band respectively. For naturally ventilated
buildings, the neutral temperatures average about
28C with a standard deviation of 1.96C on the
whole (Fig. 3a). The corresponding comfort bands
average about 6C with a standard deviation of
2.43C (Fig. 4a). Overall, these statistical values are
higher than those of air-conditioned buildings (cf.
Figs. 3b and 4b). However, it should be carefully
noted that the present database is highly dominated
by other indices. It can be seen that for naturally
ventilated buildings, average neutral temperature in
early indices and SET* combined is 3C lower and
average comfort band in early indices is almost
3.5C narrower than those of other indices
respectively (Figs. 3a and 4a). These differences are
probably due to the effects of evaporative heat loss
provided by air movement that is considered in early
indices and SET*, but not in other indices. On the
other hand, average neutral temperature in SET* is
quite close with that of other indices for air-
conditioned buildings (Fig. 3b). This analysis further
implies the need to consider using comprehensive
thermal indices to fully evaluate thermal comfort for
naturally ventilated buildings in hot-humid climate.
4. CONCLUSION
The above review revealed that the applicability
of the current ACS, given in operative temperature,
may be limited to low air movement conditions in
naturally ventilated buildings in hot-humid region. In
order to be useful for both low and higher range of air
velocities, a new adaptive comfort standard using
SET*, or thermal indices developed to account for
evaporative heat loss, may be more appropriate for
hot-humid climate.

























Figure 2: Comfort temperature from the reviewed studies in hot-humid climate. (a) Naturally ventilated building; (b) Air-
conditioned building.
16
18
20
22
24
26
28
30
32
34
36
38
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
C
o
m
f
o
r
t

T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(

C
)
Mean Monthly Outdoor Air Temperature (C)
Air velocity < 0.3 m/s
Early Indices-upper limit
Early Indices-neutral
Early Indices-lower limit
Other Indices-upper limit
Other Indices-neutral
Other Indices-lower limit
Air velocity 0.3 m/s
Early Indices-upper limit
Early Indices-neutral
Early Indices-lower limit
SET*-upper limit
SET*-neutral
SET*-lower limit
Other Indices-upper limit
Other Indices-neutral
Other Indices-lower limit
ACS in ASHRAE [2] 80% acceptability limits (t
o
)
ACS in ASHRAE [2] 90% acceptability limits (t
o
)
(a)
16
18
20
22
24
26
28
30
32
34
36
38
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
C
o
m
f
o
r
t

T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(

C
)
Mean Monthly Outdoor Air Temperature (C)
Air velocity < 0.3 m/s
SET*-upper limit
SET*-neutral
SET*-lower limit
Other Indices-upper limit
Other Indices-neutral
Other Indices-lower limit
Air velocity 0.3 m/s
Other Indices-upper limit
Other Indices-neutral
Other Indices-lower limit
ASHRAE [2] 0.5 clo (summer) comfort zone (SET*)
ASHRAE [2] 0.5 clo (summer) comfort zone (ET*)
(b)
PLEA 2011 - 27
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462 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
[21] R.J. de Dear, G. Brager and D. Cooper (1997),
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Romero, J. Ochoa, M. Perez, O. Resendiz and
A. Llamas (2009), Proc. PLEA2009, Quebec City
Canada, 498.
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Carmeliet and H. Verschure (2009), Building and
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 463
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
Comfort temperatures and comfort range in low cost
dwellings in arid climate.
Luis Carlos Herrera,
1
Gabriel Gmez-Azpeitia
2
, Pavel Ruiz
3
and Adolfo Gomez
4
(1) University of Ciudad Juarez- ISTHMUS Norte, Mexico; (2) University of Colima, Mexico; (3) University of
Chiapas, Mexico; (4) University of Colima, Mexico.
ABSTRACT: This paper presents the results of a field study on thermal comfort of inhabitants of low cost dwellings
in two cities of the northern arid region of Mexico: Chihuahua (lat: 28N, long: 106W) and Ciudad Juarez (lat: 31N,
long: 106W). The field study was conducted upon the adaptive approach of thermal comfort, and according the ISO
10551 requirements. The survey was applied to 531 inhabitants of dwellings built by the Chihuahua State Housing
Institute, during two periods in 2010: cold season (February) and hot season (July). Given that the climate of the
region has features of asymmetric climates, so called by Nicol (1993), the data obtained in the field study was
analyzed by the Averages for Thermal Sensation Intervals Method (ATSI) (Gomez-Azpeitia et alt, 2009). The
research has as objectives to carry out an assessment of this kind of housings offered by the local government and
to propose recommendations for the design of new dwellings.

Keywords: thermal comfort, arid climate, adaptive approach neutral temperature.
1. INTRODUCTION
The present paper presents the results of a field
study made in the cities of Juarez and Chihuahua,
located in the state of Chihuahua, in northern Mexico.
The study was done to evaluate if the low cost
housings promoted by the Chihuahua's State Housing
Institute favors the inhabitants' thermal comfort, with
the goal of making recommendations directed to
improve the comfort levels in the designs of new
dwellings.
Figure 1: Map of Mexico
The city of Chihuahua is located in latitude 28N,
longitude 106W and a height of 1425masl. Ciudad
Juarez is in latitude 31N, longitude 106W and
1150masl.
Figure 2: Chihuahua and Juarez location.
2. CLIMATE
The climate in Chihuahua is considered dry and
extreme. The yearly average temperature fluctuates
between 10.08C and 29.9C with extremes up to
41.3C in summer and -12.8C in winter. The average
relative humidity is 52.4% with minimums of 14.4%.
The climate in Juarez is considered dry, extreme
and with medium relative humidity. The yearly
average temperature fluctuates between 10.03C and
25.8C with extremes up to 45.0C in summer and -
23.0C in winter. The average relative humidity is
46.6%, with minimums of 29.4%.
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464 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
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2 xx.x SECTION NAME
Figure 3: Monthly Average Temperatures in Chihuahua.
Figure 4: Monthly Average Temperatures in Juarez.
3. METHOD
The investigation method was of the transversal
type. Surveys were applied in each city in two
different seasons denominated winter (February
2010) and summer (July 2010). A total of 531 surveys
were applied during the whole research. Of these,
272 were in the winter season, 146 in Chihuahua and
126 in Juarez; 259 were made in summer season,
123 in Chihuahua and 136 in Juarez.
The selection of the houses and the work area
was determined together with the Chihuahua's
Housing Institute. Housing states were chosen in
Chihuahua and Juarez with progressive growth,
whose initial built surface is 23.76 m
2
.
The surveys were made inside the houses during
day hours. Only people between 14 and 70 that
hadn't just showered or had been cooking were
surveyed.
The questionnaires were designed complying with
ISO 10551 [3] and other studies, including the
personal suggestions of B. Givoni during an academic
visit at University of Colima, Mexico in 2003. The
process and instruments comply with ISO 7726 [4] so
the generated data are considered Class I, as
classified by Brager and de Dear [4].
Simultaneously to the survey we register inside the
housings dry bulb temperature (DBT), wet bulb
temperature (WBT), relative humidity (RH), black
globe temperature (BGT), and unidirectional wind
speed (WS)
The answers of the subjects under the survey
were organized according to the scale of ASHRAE [5]
(table 1).
Table 1: Vote or value appreciation of the people
interviewed.
Value Vote or appreciation
1 Very cold
2 Cold
3 Some cold
4 Niether heat nor cold
5 Some heat
6 Heat
7 Very hot
To analyze the results and obtain the neutral
temperature and the range of thermal comfort, the
method called Averages for Thermal Sensation
Intervals Method (ATSI) (Gomez-Azpeitia et alt, 2009)
[1], for "asymmetric climates [2] was used.
This method was developed in order to avoid the
bias generated when the answers to thermal
sensation from volunteers on field studies tend to
move towards one end of the scale, leaving the other
end without answers. In such conditions, the neutral
temperature (Tn) obtained through a conventional
method does not represent peoples true opinions.
The development of the method is based in the
adaptive focus of thermal comfort, which implies the
interaction of physical and biological variables
(climate, metabolism, clothing) along with
psychological ones (adaptation, tolerance,
desirability). [2]
During the survey's application, the climate data
inside the house that was captured was dry bulb
temperature (DBT), wet bulb temperature (WBT),
black globe temperature (BGT), relative humidity (RH)
and wind speed (WS).
Once we collected the data, distribution
ranges were established for each answer interval. To
do so, the standard deviation (s) is added to the
mean temperature (Tm) for each interval.
Theoretically, this first range includes two thirds of
people who expressed the same thermal sensation.
The procedure is repeated by adding 2s to the Tm,
which would theoretically include almost all people
who recorded the same thermal sensation.
Finally, a linear regression is applied to the
standard deviations obtained, in order to determine
the lines corresponding to the limits for a wide range
defined by Tm 2s, and for a close range defined by
Tm s. The same procedure has to be done with
mean temperatures. In this way, we created a chart
for each season. The intersection of each regression
line with ordinate four representing neutral thermal
sensation, determines the neutral temperature
according to the ATSI method, as well as the
temperatures limiting the comfort ranges (see figures
5, 6, 9 and 10).
4. RESULTS
4.1 Chihuahua
In winter, a neutral temperature (Tn) of 18.70C,
was obtained with an upper limit of 21.41C and a
lower one of 16.20C. The close range in this case
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xx.x SECTION NAME 3
was of 5.22C (-2.5C, +2.72C) and the wide range
of 9.92C (-4.4C, +5.52C) (figure 5).
Figure 5: Application of the ATSI Method on data collected in
Chihuahua in winter.
During summer the value of Tn was 29.19C, with
an upper limit of 30.89C and a lower one of 27.44 C.
The close range was of 3.45C (-1.75C, +1.70C)
and the wide range of 6.89C (-3.55C, +3.34C)
(figure 5).
In this season the upper and lower limits of the
comfort range have a lesser extent in comparison
with those of the winter season. The results show us
that when the season is cold the lower limit is smaller
than the upper and when the season is hot this
condition is inverted.
Figure 6: Application of the ATSI Method on data collected in
Chihuahua in summer.
The extent of the annual Tn is 10.49C, the close
range is of 14.69C and the wide range of 18.23C.
Table 2: Ranges magnitude in K degrees, Neutral
Temperature (Tn) and Comfort Limits values in C degrees.
Chihuahua, Mexico.
1) Winter. (February)
Close Range Wide Range Tn
MRL
5.22 9.92
18.70
Lower
Limit
Upper
Limit
Lower
Limit
Upper
Limit
16.20 21.41 14.30 24.22
2) Summer. (June)
Close Range Wide Range Tn
MRL
3.45 6.69
29.19
Lower
Limit
Upper
Limit
Lower
Limit
Upper
Limit
27.44 30.89 25.64 32.53
Figure 7: Comparison between the Dry Bulb Temperature
(DBT) and Neutral Temperatures (Tn) inside the different
ranges, Chihuahua in winter.
Figure 8: Comparison between the Dry Bulb Temperature
(DBT) and Neutral Temperatures (Tn) inside the different
ranges, Chihuahua in summer.
4.2 Juarez
In winter, a Tn of 18.45C was obtained, with an
upper limit of 19.96C and a lower one of 17.14C.
The close range in this case was of 2.82C (-1.31C ,
+1.51C) and the wide range of 6.76C (-2.55C,
+4.21C) (figure 9).
Figure 9: Application of the ATSI Method on data collected in
Juarez.
In summer, the Tn was 29.54C, with an upper
limit of 31.44C and a lower limit of 27.33C. The
close range in this case was of 4.11C (-2.21C,
+1.90C) and the wide range of 7.19C (-4.54C,
+2.65C) (figure 10). The ranges have a lesser exte nt
in comparison with those found for Chihuahua.
DBT
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4 xx.x SECTION NAME
Figure 10: Application of the ATSI Method on data collected
in Juarez.
The extent of the annual Tn is 11.09C, the close
range of 14.30C and the wide range of 16.29C.
Table 3: Ranges magnitude in K degrees, Neutral
Temperature (Tn) and Comfort Limits values in C degrees at
Juarez.
1) Winter. (February)
Close Range Wide Range
Tn
MRL
2.82 6.76
18.45
Lower
Limit
Upper
Limit
Lower
Limit
Upper
Limit
17.14 19.96 15.90 22.67
2) Summer. (June)
Close Range Wide Range
Tn
MRL
4.11 7.19
29.54
Lower
Limit
Upper
Limit
Lower
Limit
Upper
Limit
27.33 31.44 25.0 32.19
Figure 11: Comparison between the Dry Bulb Temperature
(DBT) and Neutral Temperatures (Tn) inside the different
ranges, Juarez in winter.
Figure 12: Comparison between the Dry Bulb
Temperature (DBT) and Neutral Temperatures (Tn)
inside the different ranges, Juarez in summer.
4.3 Comparison with another method.
We compared the Neutral Temperatures from the
field study with results obtained through the
Auliciems formula [6]:
Tn = 17.6 + .31 (To)
Where:
To = Monthly Mean Outdoor Temperature
Also we compared the amplitude of comfort
ranges from the field study with the amplitude of
1.75 proposed by Auliciem and Szokolay [7]
We find that in Chihuahua the neutral temperature
obtained from the field data in winter is 3.1 C lower
than the neutral temperature calculated according
Auliciem. In turn, the neutral temperature in summer
from field data is 3.7 C upper than the neutral
temperature calculated according Auliciem (table 4).
Table 4. Tn summary of calculated and collected in
Chihuahua.
Concept
Chihuahua
Winter Summer
Field
Study
Auliciem
Field
Study
Auliciem
Tn 18.70 21.85 29.19 25.50
Lower limit 16.20 20.10 27.44 23.75
Upper limit 21.41 23.60 30.89 27.25
Close range 5.22 3.50 3.45 3.50
All data in Celsius degree.
In Juarez the neutral temperature obtained from
the field data in winter is 2.4 C lower than the neutral
temperature calculated according Auliciem. In turn,
the neutral temperature in summer from field data is
3.2 C upper than the neutral temperature calculated
according Auliciem (table 5).
Table 5. Tn summary of calculated and collected in Juarez.
Concept
Jurez
Winter Summer
Field
Study
Auliciem
Field
Study
Auliciem
Tn 18.45 20.80 29.54 26.36
Lower limit 17.14 18.30 27.33 24.61
Upper limit 19.96 23.30 31.44 28.11
Close range 2.82 3.50 4.11 3.50
All data in Celsius degree.
In winter 91% of the people in Chihuahua and
90% in Juarez consider from tolerable to perfectly
tolerable the thermal environment inside their houses
at the time of the survey. In summer it's reduced to a
73% in Chihuahua and 82% in Juarez.
4. PROPOSALS
The similarity of the preferred temperatures found
in the cities of the study in both seasons, except in
the close range in Winter where there's a bigger
extent in Chihuahua, allows us to make joint
proposals.
For the winter season the strategies are:
conventional heating, solar heating, use of thermal
mass materials, ventilation control and humidification
(figures 13 and 14).
DBT
DBT
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xx.x SECTION NAME 5
Figure 13: Psychometric chart. Winter Chihuahua.
Figure 14: Psychometric chart. Winter Juarez.
For the summer season the strategies are: solar
heating in the mornings, solar protection, use of
thermal mass materials, selective ventilation, night
convective cooling, night infrared radiation and
evaporative cooling (figures 15 and 16).
Figure 15: Psychometric chart. Summer Chihuahua.
Figure 16: Psychometric chart. Summer Juarez.
5. CONCLUSIONS
The percentages of votes found inside the ranges
of comfort allow pertinent decision taking to
accomplish adequate comfort levels and a significant
reduction of energy consumption through architectural
design.
The tolerance of the interior climate indicates that
people consider their houses to be in better climate
conditions in winter than in summer. Nevertheless,
70% and 78% in winter and 58% and 56% in summer
in Chihuahua and Juarez respectively answered that
the house conditions were tolerable, which means a
high number of people at the acceptance limit of their
housings.
Among the architectonical proposals produced by
this investigation we find the following:
Correct orientation and dimension of openings.
Higher width in walls with high thermal mass
materials.
Roof insulation.
Solar protection for windows.
Better ventilation, thus doors and interior walls,
and the design of the exterior windows, must
be improved.
Higher interior height.
It's necessary to extend the period of study to
include the transition season.
6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To Chihuahua's Housing Institute for the support
and facilities to realize this study.
7. REFERENCES
[1] Gomez-Azpeitia, G. Bojrquez, P. Ruiz, R.
Romero, J. Ochoa, M., Prez, O. Resndiz
and A. Llamas - Comfort Temperatures inside
Low-Cost Housings: Case: Six Warm Climate
Cities in Mexico. In: Architecture Energy and
the Occupants Perspective. Proceedings of
the 26th International Conference on Passive
and Low Energy Architecture. Les Presses de
lUniversit Laval, Quebec, Canada, pp. 498-
503., (2009).
[2] J.F. Nicol - Thermal comfort A handbook for
field studies toward an adaptive model"-
University of East London- London, (1993)
[3] ISO 10551 Assessment of the influence of
the thermal environment using subjective
judgement scales Standards Organization,
Geneva, (1995).
[4] [14] Brager, G. and de Dear, R. Thermal
adaptation in the built environment: a literature
review. Energy and Buildings, 27, 83-96.
(1998).
[5] American Society of Heating, Refrigerating
and Air conditioning Engineers.
ANSI/ASHRAE 55-2004: Thermal
environmental conditions for human
occupancy. Atlanta. (2004).
[6] A. Auliciems - Towards a psycho-physiological
model of thermal perception - Int J of
Biometeorology (1981), 109-122
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6 xx.x SECTION NAME
[7] A. Auliciems and S. Szokolay, - Thermal
Comfort PLEA Notes. Note 3. Passive and
Low Energy Architecture International. Design
tools and techniques. (1997).
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ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July
2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
Occupant Behaviour and Energy Performance in
Dwellings: A Case Study in the Netherlands
Merve BEDIR
1
, Evert HASSELAAR
1
, Laure ITARD
1
1
OTB Research Institute for Built Environment, TUDelft, Delft, the Netherlands
ABSTRACT: Occupant behaviour is claimed to be an important aspect of energy performance in dwellings, and
mostly underestimated before post occupancy. Research conducted on the relationship between occupant
behaviour and energy performance applies a variety of data collection methods: reporting [e.g. questionnaire],
and observation [e.g. monitoring]. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the different data collection methods
about occupant behaviour and the relationship models they propose between occupant behaviour and energy
performance, based on a case study in the Netherlands. The first step is a literature analysis. Afterwards, data
on occupant behaviour in a case study house in the Netherlands is collected through questionnaire, and
monitoring. Results are about [1] an evaluation of the literature on modelling the relationship between occupant
behaviour and energy performance, and [2] the comparison of the reported and observed behaviour.
Keywords: occupant behaviour, energy performance, dwellings, questionnaire, monitoring
1. INTRODUCTION
Research on energy performance of dwellings
covers thorough investigation of the behavioural
performance in the post occupancy process, as well
as the aspects that are involved in the design and
building processes. There has been extensive
progress on the building physics aspects of energy
performance; concerning methods and practices for
specification of building geometry, material
properties, and external conditions. However, the
resolution of input information regarding occupancy
is still rather low. Recent and ongoing research
attempts to construct models for passive and active
occupancy effects on building performance, physical
and psychological descriptions of occupancy [1].
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the different
data collection methods about occupant behaviour
and the relationship models they propose between
occupant behaviour and energy performance, based
on a case study in the Netherlands. The research
questions are: [1] what are the existing methods of
modelling behaviour and energy performance?
What are their approaches of data collection, how
do they process data, and [2] what kind of
behavioural information is generated from different
methods of data collection? Namely, questionnaire:
reported, monitoring: observed. In this paper,
behaviour is considered as: presence patterns in a
space, together with the actual heating [thermostat
setting and radiator control] and ventilation patterns
[operation of windows, grids, and mechanical
systems], and the use of lighting and appliances.
Examples of methods of data collection,
questionnaire, and monitoring are explained and
compared, in terms of the detail level of the
collected data, the data analysis, and the
relationships they propose between occupant
behaviour and energy performance. Different
approaches towards modelling behaviour and
energy performance relationship in buildings,
namely deductive and inductive, are explained in
the literature section. The observed [monitored] and
reported [questionnaire] behavioural patterns of the
users are generated from a case study house in the
Netherlands. The data collected through each
method is compared to reveal the differences about
the way behavioural patterns are expressed.
Results are about [1] an evaluation of the literature
on modelling the relationship between occupant
behaviour and energy performance, and [2] the
comparison of the reported and observed
behaviour.
2. LITERATURE
Methodology towards modelling the influence of
occupant behaviour on the energy performance of
buildings follows two main approaches: The
deductive and the inductive. This terminology refers
to the data processing track and the hierarchy of
data used in the analysis. Deductive approach
utilizes data on the characteristics of household and
energy consumption, and income levels to find
statistical correlation between the energy
performance and occupant behaviour, and the
inductive approach calculates the energy
performance of a building based on actual
occupancy patterns determined by presence,
circulation, and operation of lighting, system
management devices and appliances.
2.1. Deductive Behavioural Models
Emery et al [13] made a long-term study of
residential home heating consumption and the
occupant behaviour, where they investigated the
lifestyles and behavioural patterns in four identical
single-family houses in Washington, between the
years 1987 and 2002. They found that the space
heating behaviour had been similar and constant,
with essentially no difference in the sensitivities and
their standard deviations, even though these should
have been strongly influenced by the different
ventilation strategies of the several families. Space
heating behaviour did not change, envelope
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6 xx.x SECTION NAME
[7] A. Auliciems and S. Szokolay, - Thermal
Comfort PLEA Notes. Note 3. Passive and
Low Energy Architecture International. Design
tools and techniques. (1997).
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tightness did not seem to degrade and the
sensitivities remained constant. Guerra Santin et al
[2], conducted a research on the Dutch housing
stock based on three surveys applied so far
[WOON, KWR, and OTB], and she found that the
occupant behaviour affect energy use by 4.2% in
the old and 12% in the new stock, while the building
characteristics share on the energy use is 42% on
the total building stock. In her later study, Guerra
Santin conducted a further analysis on the OTB
sample, which was based on recently built dwellings
[after 2000], determining user profiles and the
underlying factors of these user profiles. She
revealed the underlying groups of occupant
behaviour variables as appliances and space,
energy intensive, media, ventilation, and
temperature comfort, and a relationship with energy
consumption was found only for the first three
variables. Gaceo et al [8] conducted a study on the
Spanish residential stock, comparing the assumed
user profiles on indoor temperature preferences
from the national standard [assumed] with the ones
from a database [actual] that collected data over
700 dwellings in Spain. They found that the
assumed user profiles on indoor temperature
underestimate the actual by 26% in energy
performance, 19% in cooling energy demand and
35% in heating energy demand.
2.2. Inductive Behavioural Models
Building performance simulation could help a
great deal on predicting the influence of occupant
behaviour on the energy performance of buildings.
For the last decade, research has focused on
statistical models of behaviour, since the methods in
existing simulation programs lack precise
representation of the dynamics of behaviour [9].
Bourgeois developed the sub hourly occupancy
control [SHOCC] model that considers windows,
lighting, blinds and equipment use and in his study
in an office space, where he combined his model on
behaviour with the building performance simulation
tool Esp-r, he found that the manual control of
lighting switches lead to 50% primary energy
requirement decrease [7]. However, the SHOCC
model is about an office space for two people, so
this model lacks the aspects of behaviour of more
people and more detailed behavioural patterns in
relation to use of other spaces, circulation, etc.
Tabak et al [10] developed a model on the use
of space and the circulation between spaces
[USSU], using actual behavioural information: This
model is based on the resource management model
[elements: persons, abstract spaces, facilities]
combined with an activity schedule. The resource
management model includes two different models,
one for organization of the people and one for the
building. The activity scheduler is made up of 8
different elements: skeleton activities, interaction
between activities, intermediate activities, gaps in
schedules, overlaps in schedules, joining activities,
appropriate location, and required movement time.
He validated the model by observing behaviour with
Radio Frequency Identification [RFID]. Page et al [6]
developed a model for predicting presence in office
spaces, leaving out the amount of days of total
absence and the movement in and out of the
offices. Hoes et al [11] combine the models of
Bourgeois and Tabak, on the use of space and the
movement patterns in Esp-r, in order to develop a
more articulated model on interaction between the
user and its environment and complex mobility
prediction. Tanimoto et als [12] research on single
dwellings in Tokyo propose a method to predict the
peak energy requirement for cooling, combining an
algorithm that generates short-term events that are
likely to occur in residences, with the stochastic
variations in these short-term events.
Research about simulating behaviour either by
statistics and/or by simulation programs, deal with
office spaces on a single zone model, or more
zones with less details on use, and more articulation
on movement. This underlines the gap of modelling
occupant behaviour in residences, in a manner that
involves both the use of space and circulation
patterns, and in relation to the dwelling energy
performance.
Figure 1: The inductive and deductive models of explaining
occupant behaviour-energy performance relationship
In terms of the kind of data used, deductive
approach works with general household
characteristics like presence, habitual use of
systems and appliances, and energy consumption
levels depending on energy consumption bills,
income, rent levels, whereas the inductive approach
works with the actual behavioural data about
presence, circulation and operation patterns. The
time frequency of the collected data may change
from deductive to inductive approach, recording
behaviour in the frequency of a period [3 months, a
year etc.] in the deductive, and in the frequency of a
minute, an hour, etc. in the inductive approach.
Survey is the most common method of collecting
data in deductive approach, however in the
inductive, monitoring and/or observation of
behaviour are preferred. In terms of the analysis of
the data, deductive approach mainly uses statistical
methods, and inductive approach might work with
both statistics and simulation. Considering the
differentiation of outputs; a big part of the research
with deductive approach estimate the influence of
Climate,
household
characteristics,
energy bills,
systems,
appliances
Survey
Questionnaire
Interview
Occupant
behaviour-
Energy
performance
Statistics
Presence
Circulation/
operation
Monitoring
Observation
Energy
performance
Statistics

Occupant
behaviour
Simulation

D
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m
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behaviour on energy performance from 1 to 12% [2,
3, 4, 5], whereas the behaviour models built up with
the inductive approach calculate the impact of
behaviour on energy performance as from 20-50%
[3, 6, 7, 8].
3. METHODOLOGY
The methodology of this research is based on
post occupancy evaluation, which includes a
questionnaire, monitoring, and investigation on
architectural drawings, and EPA [Energie Prestatie
Advies] report, and inspection in the case study
dwelling. First, the method of data collection on
dwelling characteristics and occupant behaviour, in
a single family house in the Netherlands, is
explained: Monitoring provides data about the
presence, lifestyle and the actual behaviour of the
occupant on the use of appliances and lighting, and
the constant and intermittent electricity consumption
levels of the appliances. Data about behavioural
patterns at home is also collected by a
questionnaire. Inspection, architectural project
drawings and the EPA report altogether provide the
data about the design and construction
characteristics of the case study dwellings; room
dimensions, envelope properties, heating and
ventilation systems used in the house, and cladding
materials. Data analysis is based on the comparison
of data collected by monitoring and questionnaire.
3.1. Description of the household and the case
study house
The household is composed of a couple of a
man [63] and a woman [61]. There has been no
change in the household for the last year, and the
couple has been living in the same house for the
last 32 years. Both have lived in the Netherlands
since they were born and have university degree,
working 32 and 24 hours a week. The couple owns
the dwelling, which is a row house and the previous
house that they lived in was the same type.
The dwelling is constructed in 1928. The house
is a typical row house with a net floor area of 123,3
m
2
. It has a living room with an open kitchen on the
ground floor; one bedroom, two study rooms, and a
bathroom on the first floor; a hobby room, a storage
area, and a guest room on the third floor. There had
been a change in the layout of the house; a 0,8m x
5,66m greenhouse space had been added to the
northwest part of the house, to the living room.
[Figure 2]. The heating system is HE107 [high
efficiency 107%] individual boiler for heating and hot
tap water. There is a natural ventilation system, with
windows, grids and exhaust ducts in kitchen and
bathroom. There are 4 m
2
PV panels on the roof,
facing southwest. The average yearly gas use for
heating, domestic hot water and cooking is 965 m
3
[656 m
3
for heating, 310 m
3
hot tap water] [from the
EPA report: calculated value] and it was 1223 m
3
in
the period of 2007 and 2008 [from the
questionnaire: actual consumption value].

Figure 2: Floor plans and cross section of the case study
dwelling
3.2. Questionnaire
In the case study house, first the monitoring was
conducted [in the winter period], and then the
occupants were asked to fill in the questionnaire,
which was done by the male partner. The data
collected through the questionnaire is about
dwelling characteristics, household characteristics,
primary energy consumption figures, actual
behaviour about heating and ventilation behavioural
patterns and use of lighting and equipments. A
detailed explanation of the data used in this
research is given in Table 1.
3.3. Monitoring
The case study house in the Netherlands was
monitored for 11 days between 10 and 21 January
2010. The aim of monitoring was to observe
behaviour about presence, equipment use, lighting
behavioural patterns, heating and ventilation
management, considering the weather conditions
during this period.
Data was collected by remote sensors
monitoring lighting fixtures, household devices,
radiator and indoor temperatures, relative humidity
levels, windows, and doors. These sensors are of
two kinds: [1] power nodes connected to the lighting
fixtures and appliances, and [2] battery nodes
monitoring the windows, doors, temperature, and
humidity levels in the house. In addition to the data
collected in the house, weather data on wind speed,
ambient pressure, temperature, humidity, solar
irradiance, and rain was collected. The data was
transferred with around 6 minutes interval by a GPS
system and recorded in a database that could be
checked online and simultaneously through a web
interface. The sensors were calibrated at the back
office.
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Table 1: Data collected through the questionnaire
Dwelling
properties
-Dwelling type
-Number of rooms
-Functions of rooms
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Household
properties
-Household size
-Age
-Presence
-Occupation [rooms]
-Occupation [duration]
Heating
behaviour
-Heating system type
-Radiator use [hours-setpoint]
-Thermostat use
[hours-setpoint]
Ventilation
behaviour
-Ventilation system type
-Use of windows
[room-hours-opening]
-Use of grids
[room-hours]
-Use of exhaust
[hour-setpoint]
Use of
appliances
-Appliances in the house
-Hours that appliances are
used, daily
-Hours that appliances are
used, weekly
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Use of
lighting
-Number of lighting fixtures in
the living room
-Number of lighting fixtures in
the rest of the house
4. RESULTS
The questionnaire applied to the household
provides information about the lifestyle of the
occupants. In addition, monitoring during a week,
gives further details about the discrete behaviour of
the users about the use of spaces and appliances.
4.1. Reported Behaviour in the Case Study
House
Presence [Figure 4]: During the week, the man
is at home between 19.00 and 07.00, and the
woman is at home between 17.00 and 07.00. The
living room is occupied between 18.00-19.00 and
23.00-24.00 by 1 person and 20.00-21.00 by 2
people. The kitchen is occupied between 06.00-
07.00, and 19.00-20.00 by two people, and 17.00-
18.00 by one person. The couple occupies the
bedroom between 24.00 and 06.00. During the
weekend, the couple is at home between 13.00 and
10.00. The living room is occupied between 16.00-
17.00 by 1 person, 17.00-21.00 and 08.00-10.00 by
2 people. The presence pattern in the bedroom at
the weekend is different than the weekday pattern,
which is, between 23.00 and 08.00. The couple
spends time in their study rooms, one for two hours
[21.00-23.00], and the other for an hour [21.00-
22.00] in the study room, and for another hour in the
hobby room [22.00-23.00].
Presence at home during the week
Presence in living room during the week
Presence at home during the weekend
Presence in living room during the weekend
Figure 4: Presence patterns at home during the week
Heating Control [Figure 5]: The heating
system in the house is controlled by the master
manual thermostat in the living room, and slave
radiators. During the weekdays, there are two
reported patterns of thermostat control: Weekdays
except Thursday, the thermostat is at 13 C
between 22.00 and 16.00. Between 16.00 and
18.00 the thermostat is at 15 C, between 18.00 and
19.00 at 16 C and between 19.00 and 23.00, 17
C. Thursdays, the thermostat is at 13 C between
22.00 and 06.00. Between 06.00 and 09.00 the
thermostat is at 14 C, 09.00-17.00 at 15 C, 17.00 -
18.00 at 16 C, and 18.00-22.00 at 17 C.
At the weekends, the thermostat is at 13 C
between 22.00-08.00, 15 C between 08.00-10.00,
13 C between 10.00-12.00, 15 C between 12.00-
15.00, 16 C between 15.00-17.00, 17 C between
17.00-20.00, and 18 C between 20.00-22.00.
Thermostat control in the week [exc. Thursday]
Thermostat control on Thursday
Thermostat control at the weekend
Figure 5: Thermostat control patterns during the week
The radiator has a control system of 1-5 and off.
In the living room, kitchen, and bathroom, the
radiators are always on set 5. In the attic, bedroom,
and guest room, the radiators are always off. In the
study room 2, the radiator is always on level 3, in
the study room 1 the radiators are on 4 between
00.00 and 19.00, and on 5 between 19.00 and
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00.00. In the hobby room, the radiators are on 1
between 00.00 and 18.00, and on 5 between 18.00
and 00.00. The weekend pattern of radiator control
is the same with the weekday pattern.
Use of thermostat settings displays that non
presence means 13 C, and presence means 15 C
-least, and 17 C -most. The use of the radiator taps
is less, because the temperature in house is
regulated mostly by the master thermostat. The
thermostat setpoint is changed very frequently.
Ventilation Control: For ventilation, existing
system in the dwelling is natural ventilation, namely
windows, grids, and exhaust duct. The couples
previous house had only windows for ventilation.
The windows are operated as either always open or
closed. Only in the bathroom, the windows are
always kept open at a chink.
In the winter, the windows are kept open all day
in the attic [storage], bedroom, guest room, and
hobby room. In the rest of the rooms, the windows
are kept closed. In the summer, the living room
windows are kept open for 2 hours in the morning,
between 06.00 and 08.00, and for 6 hours in the
evening, between 17.00 and 23.00. The windows
are kept open all day in the attic [storage], bedroom,
guest room, and hobby room. The study room 1
windows are open between 06.00 and 08.00, and
20.00 and 00.00.
The grids are controlled in the same way in the
winter, and in the summer: the living room, kitchen,
study rooms grids are always kept open, and the
others are always kept closed.
Unlike the operation of the thermostat,
ventilation behaviour in the dwelling seems quite
constant.
Lighting and Appliances: The reported
behaviour on the use of appliances is given in Table
2. In addition to these patterns mentioned in Table
5, 3 loads of washing are made per week, in 30 C,
40 C, and 50 C. 3 energy-saving lamps exist in th e
living room, and 1 energy-saving lamp in the rest of
the house. There are 4 halogen-lamps in the living
room and 8 in the rest of the house. 3 devices are
always on the stand by mode in the living room, and
9 of them in the rest of the house.
4.2. Observed [Monitored] vs. Reported
[Questionnaire] Behaviour
The data obtained about behaviour through
monitoring displays that the two weeks data on the
use of space are almost the same in Week 1 and
Week 2. So it could be said that the behaviour is
consistent. The data collected in the bedroom about
use pattern have not been able to be followed
efficiently, through lighting and appliances, because
of monitoring drawbacks.
Lifestyle and use of spaces:
- Following the data obtained by both the
questionnaire and the monitoring, it could be said
that the second floor is the most occupied floor of
the house.
- In the questionnaire, presence at home at the
weekend is mentioned as between 13.00 and 10.00;
but, further explanation on the activities in this
period is not mentioned. Monitoring data shows that
the study room 2 or the hobby room is occupied by
the female partner between 21.00 and 24.00 during
the week, and between 13.00 and 16.00 during the
weekend.
- Behavioural patterns differ between an at home
day than a not-at home day. Same differentiation
cannot be observed for week and weekend
behavioural patterns. For example, during an at
home day in the week and at the weekend, the
computer is used for 2 hours and 58 minutes on
average, but during a not-at home day, in the week
and at the weekend, the computer is used for 32
minutes on average. Same pattern could be
observed with the use of wireless internet.
- Data collected by monitoring proposes a more
arbitrary use of kitchen and living room, unlike it is
mentioned in the questionnaire. Spatial organization
might be an important aspect here, since there is
not an exact spatial differentiation of the kitchen and
living room.
- Monitoring data proposes the occupation of the
kitchen as, between 08.00 and 09.00 in the
morning, not between 06.00 and 07.00 as
mentioned in the questionnaire.
Table 2: Reported and monitored use of appliances
Reported Monitored
Day
[min]
Week
[hours]
Day
[min]
Week
[hours]
TV 100 10 - -
Comp./monitor 60 8 32/238 16,13
Comp./laptop NA 1 - -
Stereo/radio 15 2 - -
Wirel. internet - 1 23/130 9,09
Dvd player 90 5 - -
Disc recorder 60 5 - -
Wirel. phone 1440 148 34/NA 238
Coffee mach. 9 0,5 - -
Toaster 10 1 - -
Elec. oven/grill 10 1 - -
Gas oven 5 0,5 - -
Exhaust hood 15 2 122 14,14
Fridge 1440 148 Cont. Cont.
Freezer 1440 148 - -
Wash machine - 180 - -
Flatiron 5 0,5 - -
Iron 3 0,2 - -
Lighting and appliances:
The computers are used twice as much as
stated in the questionnaire. Wireless telephone is
used for a longer period than it is mentioned in the
questionnaire. The exhaust hood could also said to
be used longer, but this appliance is monitored
together with the light in the kitchen, so it has to be
confirmed with further monitoring. Some of the
appliances listed in the questionnaire are not
monitored, so an exact comparison cannot be made
between the reported and monitored behaviour in
terms of the use of appliances.
5. CONCLUSIONS
The research questions addressed in this paper
are: [1] the existing methods of modelling behaviour
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and energy performance, and [2] what kind of
behavioural information is generated from different
methods of data collection. Regarding the first
question, it appears to be that the inductive models
estimate the influence of occupant behaviour on the
energy performance to be more than the deductive
models estimate it to be. Another point is that the
deductive approach works with the behaviour data
collected with a higher time frequency, which gives
more information about the habitual behaviour. This
might be risky considering that it is not known how
influential habitual and/or discrete behaviour is on
the energy performance of the dwelling. On the
other hand, the inductive approach has a drawback
of working with a high detail level, which is hard to
obtain, especially working at household level.
Collected data through monitoring and
questionnaire provide insight to occupant behaviour.
In reference to the reported data, heating control
behaviour seems strongly related with the lifestyles
of the occupants. This could be observed through
the thermostat control pattern in relation to sleeping
hours, and departure and arrival schedules of the
occupants. Besides, the thermostat use shows a
wide variety of operation, whereas the radiator taps
are mostly kept at a certain set. In terms of the
control of the ventilation, a less presence-dependent
but constant operation pattern is observed. The
tendency in reporting behaviour is to express about
habitual behaviour.
Monitoring, on the other hand, gives more
information about discrete behaviour. In other
words, the non-repetitive actions could better be
observed via monitoring. In addition, more
difference is observed in behavioural patterns on at
home and not-at home days than weekdays and
weekends. The differences between reported and
observed behaviour could be important in terms of
the calculations of occupants influence on the
energy performance of dwellings.
This paper is about direct behaviour, namely,
presence, control of lighting, appliances, heating,
and ventilation. However, the other side of the
behaviour mentioned as indirect in the literature
[reaction to the changes of comfort levels] rises the
question of an analysis in terms of direct and
indirect behaviour. In this respect, it could be
predicted that monitoring can provide more detailed
information about indirect behaviour.
6. REFERENCES
[1] Mahdavi, A. Prglhf C. (2009) User behaviour
and energy performance in buildings.
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der TUWien, Vienna, 1-13
[2] Guerra Santin, O. Itard, L. Visscher, H. (2009)
The effect of occupancy and building
characteristics on energy use for space and
water heating in Dutch residential stock. Energy
and Buildings v. 41, is. 11, 1223-1232
[3] Andersen, R. V. (2009) Occupant behaviour
with regard to control of the indoor
environment, PhD thesis, Department of Civil
Engineering, Technical University of Denmark
[4] Vringer, K. (2005) Analysis of the ernergy
requirement for household consumption Milieu
en Natuur Planbureau, Bilthoven. Proefschrift.
ISBN: 90-6960-130-3
[5] Tommerup, H. Rose, J. Svendsen, S. (2007)
Energy-efficient houses built according to the
energy performance requirements introduced in
Denmark in 2006 Energy and Buildings 39-10,
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[6] Page, J. Robinson, D. Morel, N. Scartezzini, J.
L. (2008) A generalized stochastic model for
the simulation of occupant presence. Energy
and Buildings 40, 83-98
[7] Borgeois, D. (2005) Detailed occupancy
prediction, occupancy-sensing control and
advanced behavioural modeling with-in whole-
building energy simulation PhD Thesis,
IUniversite Laval, Quebec
[8] Gaceo, S.C. Vazquez, F.I. Moreno, J.V. (2009)
Comparison of standard and case-based user
profiles in buildings energy performance
simulation. In 11th International IBPSA
Conference. Glasgow, Scotland (27-30 July)
584-590
[9] Rijal, H:.B. Tuohy, P. Humpreys, M.A. Nicol,
J.F. Samuel, A. Clarke, J. (2007) Using results
from field surveys to predict the effect of open
windows and thermal comfort on energy use in
buildings Energy and Buildings 39 [7] 823-836
[10] Tabak, V. de Vries, B. Dijkstra, J. Jessurun, J.
(2006) Interaction in activity location
scheduling. In Proceedings of the 11
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[11] Hoes, P. Hensen, J.L.M. Loomans, M.G.L.C. de
Vries, B. Bourgeois, D. (2008) User behaviour
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43, 610-619
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 475

1
Occupant interaction with the interior environment
in Greek dwellings during summer
Aikaterini DRAKOU
1
, Aris TSANGRASSOULIS
1
, Astrid ROETZEL
2
1
Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece
2
School of Architecture and Building, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

ABSTRACT: User behaviour significantly affects energy consumption simulation estimates, which can
consequently influence architectural design decisions at an early stage. Different regional behavioural patterns
could, therefore, hinder the applicability of certain architectural and environmental strategies. Through
questionnaires analysis and field studies, this study investigates the pattern use of manual control of windows,
shading and air condition units, in residential buildings in Greece, during summer. Initial findings of the analysis
indicate significant interaction of Greek residents with the building shell, in their effort to maintain comfort.
Keywords: comfort, occupancy
1. INTRODUCTION
Building occupants interact with the building shell
and its systems in order to satisfy their needs for
comfort. This interaction can either benefit the
utmost from the sustainable design techniques of the
building or result in higher energy consumption due
to lifestyle choice. It is, therefore, important to take
occupant interaction with the interior environment
into account when designing buildings. For example,
different building construction techniques may be
inconsistent with regional behavioural patterns.
The common practice of highly energy-efficient
buildings promotes minimum interaction of the
occupant with the building shell, while according to
Leman and Bordass [1] people become more
tolerant when they are able to control their
environment. However, there is little reported on the
subject from Greece, especially in residential
environments.
In most Greek dwellings natural ventilation is
used throughout the year, while the use of air
conditioning, although limited, is rapidly increasing
[2]. In this context, the present study investigates
occupant behaviour in Greek dwellings and
apartments in summer, through subjective surveys
(questionnaires) and field studies. The aim of the
study is to analyse the pattern use of manual control
of windows, shading and air condition units, with the
aim of correlating this pattern with indoor and
outdoor conditions in a later phase of this research.
2. RESEARCH METHODS
The climate in Greece is typical of the
Mediterranean climate: mild and rainy winters,
relatively warm and dry summers and, generally,
high solar radiation throughout most of the year. In
terms of climatology, the year can be broadly divided
into two main seasons: the cold and rainy period
lasting from mid-October until the end of March, and
the warm and non-rainy season lasting from April
until September. The hottest months in Athens
(longitude: 23.7, latitude: 38, Greek climatic zone B),
are July and August, with monthly average
temperatures of 27.5
o
C. The annual average
temperature is 18.55 C, which makes this city one of
the warmest in Europe [3]. In combination with the
dense urban grid, the satisfaction of high cooling
load is particularly difficult.
The study consists of two parts: a) subjective
surveys (questionnaires) and b) field studies. The
study was conducted in the summer (July to
September) of 2010, using samples of respondents
and dwellings from the four climatic zones of Greece.
2.1. Questionnaires
Greek residential building stock is concentrated
mainly in cities, where thermal comfort during
summer is a challenge due to the dense urban grid,
thus, a sample of respondents scattered throughout
cities all over Greece was used. The connection to
the sample was produced by university students
coming from different parts of the country.
The questionnaires were delivered to the subjects
either in a hard copy or in a digital format by email.
The subjects were given one week to fill in the
questionnaire, which aimed to investigate subjective
sensation, preference and satisfaction with regard to
the indoor environmental conditions and highlight
patterns of occupant behaviour concerning a typical
summer day and not the day of the survey.
The questionnaire was divided into ten sections:
building information, window size, ventilation, IAQ,
view, shading, use of daylight and artificial lighting,
thermal comfort, use of cooling systems, behavioural
patterns in using various controls and their efficacy
on a typical summer day. It was a comprehensive
questionnaire to facilitate a better insight into the
occupants interaction pattern with the building shell
and their level of satisfaction with the current indoor
environmental conditions. In order to measure
sensation, satisfaction and preference either a five-
point scale ranging from (-2) to (+2) with neutral (0)
in the middle, or a seven-point scale from (-3) to (+3)
with neutral (0) in the middle was used. For example,
for thermal preference the five-point scale was as
follows: much cooler (-2), a bit cooler, no change (0),
a bit warmer and much warmer (+2), while for
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476 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
2
humidity sensation, the seven-point scale was as
follows: very dry (-3), dry (-2), almost dry (-1), neutral
(0), slightly humid (+1), humid (+2), very humid (+3).
Of the questionnaires distributed, 109 have been
returned. The length and the complexity of the
questionnaire probably caused some difficulties to
the respondents.
.
2.2. Field studies
In addition to the questionnaire analysis, short
term field studies were carried out in a number of
houses in four climatic zones of Greece.
Window status, shading control, occupant
behaviour, indoor (temperature, relative humidity)
and outdoor climatic conditions were monitored, in
an attempt to investigate how Greek houses and
residents behave during summer.
Monitoring was carried out in August and
September 2010. Temperature measurements were
taken indoors and outdoors at time intervals of 1 min.
Greek families typically spend most of their time in
the living room, which is consequently the space
where people interact most with the building
envelope, so the analysis focuses on the living room
conditions.
A temperature and humidity data logger was
used in living rooms and on balconies to measure
the indoor and outdoor thermal conditions. The data
loggers were placed at the centre of each room at a
height of approximately 85cm. The data logger on
the balcony was put in a place protected from direct
sun, rain and wind, and it was not in contact with any
other surface. The behavioural pattern of changing
the state of windows, shading and cooling systems
has been derived from the residents notes on their
daily routine, as declared.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1. Location, building types, envelope
characteristics and sample profile
The survey sample consists of 44 male and 65
female participants (40.4% and 59.6% respectively).
Approximately 50% of the participants are between
40 and 60 years old, 42% is in the 20 to 40 year old
age group and only 8% are over 60. The
respondents come from 14 cities of Greece
distributed across all four different climatic zones of
the country (Zone A: 14.7%, Zone B: 24.8%, Zone C:
39.4%, Zone D: 21.1%).
The predominant (64%) type of residence of the
survey sample is an apartment, which is
representative of Greek urban reality, while 19% of
the respondents live in a detached house and 17%
in a house in contact with other buildings. The
majority (approximately 60%) of the residences are
located in the city centre (48% apartments, 7%
houses in contact with other buildings, 5% detached
houses), whereas the remainder are located in the
suburbs (33%) and in the countryside (7%).
Building age is an important factor as it may be
an indication of the construction type. For example, a
Greek building over 30 years old has no thermal
insulation, as the regulation for thermal insulation in
Greece was not established until 1979. The age of
residences in the sample is distributed as follows:
34% less than 10 years old, 45% between 11-30
years old and 21% over 30 years old.
The significant majority (96%) of the participants
houses are conventional Greek constructions, i.e.
concrete post and beam construction with cement
plastered and brick in-fill walls. The Other category
(4%) included a mix of conventional construction with
steel or a mix of stone construction with timber.
66% of the subjects stated that the period they
have lived in their current house is more than 5
years, 27% chose between 1-5 years and only 6%
less than a year. This distribution suggests that the
participants have already formed a behavioural
pattern for the house they live in, so their responses
have a certain significance.
Natural ventilation was used for IAQ in all survey
residences, while some occupants owned AC units
which were used for cooling.
3.2. Respondents evaluation of their indoor
environmental conditions
Occupants were asked to evaluate their indoor
environment during summer by expressing
sensation, level of satisfaction and preferences for
certain conditions. Fig. 1 shows that occupants, on
average, are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with
their indoor temperature during a typical summer
day. The standard deviation of the sample though, is
large, indicating a variety of satisfaction levels
among the occupants. The subjective temperature
sensation, on average, is neutral to warm, while all of
the respondents in the survey prefer to be a bit
cooler or much cooler. Concerning the indoor air
quality the sample is satisfied, but the standard
deviation of the humidity sensation vote (close to
neutral on average), indicates some complaints
about humid, mainly, or dry air. Even though all the
occupants are not dissatisfied with the window size,
they would prefer a larger one. The daylight levels,
on average, are perceived as acceptable to high, but
the standard deviation of the sample is large,
indicating various levels of daylight. Similar
comments apply to view satisfaction, while noise
levels in residences appear to be acceptable to low.
The main observation is that, on average, the
participants characterise the majority of the indoor
environmental conditions, as neutral, with a slight
trend towards good, but a large standard deviation is
noticed. Moreover, it is clearly stated that all the
occupants would prefer to feel cooler to much
cooler during a typical summer day, even though
their mean temperature satisfaction vote is close to
acceptable. The mean overall satisfaction vote of the
participants for the house as a whole (taking into
account any possible parameter and not only indoor
environmental conditions) tends to be slightly
satisfied.

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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 477

3
Figure 1: Respondents evaluation of their indoor
environmental conditions. (Mean values with standard
deviation)
3.3. Reasons for occupant interaction with
windows
As residential buildings in Greece are, on
average, naturally ventilated, the control of windows
and balcony doors is the main way to achieve
thermal comfort and good IAQ during summer.
Hence, the window opening type plays an
essential role in the ventilation rates, and
consequently in the user behaviour. A wide variety of
window opening types is available. Sliding and side
hung windows are the most common type used in
Greece. In the survey, 59% of the participants use
sliding windows, while 34% side hung windows. The
usual percentage of window opening during summer
is 50-59% (43% of responses) and 100% (24%
responses). As it was not clearly defined in the
question whether the percentage of opening refers to
the whole glazing surface or to the feasible opening
depending on the window opening type, some of the
responses of 50% opening may correspond to the
sliding windows, indicating maximum use of the
feasible opening area of the window.
As fig. 2 shows, the primary (67%) reason for
opening a window during summer is the
improvement of IAQ. A secondary reason is the
decrease in indoor temperature (32%), while only 1%
voted for acoustical connection to the external
environment. The results reflect the importance of
good IAQ to the occupants. On the other hand, the
prevention of overheating is, by far (64%), the most
important reason for closing a window during
summer (fig. 3). Occupants are trying to maintain
thermal comfort by using the buildings high thermal
mass and by minimising the heat gains through open
windows. Protection from external noise is another
important reason for closing the window.
3.4. Ventilation
Regarding the possibility of cross ventilation, 79%
reported that this is possible, while 21% not. Where
cross ventilation is possible, it is commonly used
daily (72%), or at least often (4-6 times/week)

Figure 2: Distribution of reasons for window opening during
summer.

Figure 3: Distribution of reasons for window closing during
summer.
(17%). The majority (43%) use cross ventilation in
the morning, primarily to improve IAQ (32%) and
secondly for thermal comfort (11%) (fig.4). On the
other hand, occupants who prefer night cross
ventilation (31%), are more interested in improving
thermal comfort (28%) than IAQ (4%). Therefore, the
predominant pattern derived from the study is daily
use of cross ventilation during the morning to
improve IAQ.

Figure 4: Distribution of cross ventilation with the time of
day and the reason.
Apart from cross ventilation, night ventilation
seems to be a common passive measure to provide
thermal comfort during the day in the summer period.
56% of participants use night ventilation daily and
21% 4-6 times per week (fig. 5). Where no use or
rare use of night ventilation was reported (9%),
security reasons and use of AC during the night were
responsible.
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478 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
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Figure 5: Distribution of the use of night ventilation
3.5. Frequency of window alteration
depending on the time of day
Fig. 6 presents the frequency of altering the
window state during a typical summer day and how
this behaviour is distributed across different times of
the day. A strong interaction of occupants with
windows is noticed, as 45% of the sample change
the window state 2-3 times/day, 30% more than 3
times/day and only 16% 1 time/day. Thus, modern
Greeks still interact considerably with the building
shell, trying to adapt to the changing environmental
conditions throughout the day. There is a tendency
for occupants to change the window state mostly
when they wake up (31%), and slightly less when
they spend many hours in the house (26%). A
smaller portion of the participants (19%) alter
windows when they leave the house. On the other
hand, there is a dependency between the frequency
of window use and the time of day. Therefore, the
majority of participants that control window state 2-3
times/day, interact with the windows mainly when
they spend many hours in the house and not in the
morning, as the largest part of the sample reported.
Consequently, it is concluded that the amount of time
spent at home affects the time of day that occupants
interact more with the windows.

Figure 6: Window alteration frequency with time of use.
3.6. Use of shading reasons and pattern of
use
According to the survey participants, the most
important reason for opening the shading is to
facilitate room ventilation (42%), followed by
increasing daylight levels (39%) and keeping visual
connection with the external environment (10%). A
small proportion of the subjects (7%) stated that they
never open the shading during summer. On the other
hand, the predominant reason for closing the
shading is to achieve a decrease in indoor
temperature (69%), followed by a decrease in
daylight levels (12%). Other secondary reasons are
glare protection and more privacy. Therefore, it is
noticed that opening of the shading is determined by
IAQ, as is window opening, while the closing of
shading is determined by indoor temperature, as is
the case of window closing.
The frequency pattern of shading use is similar to
that of window use. The majority of the occupants
(49%) change shading state 2-3 times/day, 26%
once per day, 13% 1-3 times/week, 9% rarely or
never alter it, but only 4% control the shading more
than 3 times/day. This 4% is significantly smaller
than the corresponding 30% concerning window use.
So even though the majority of the occupants control
both windows and shading 2-3 times/day, the
frequency of interaction with windows is considerably
higher in total.

Figure 7: Shading alteration frequency with time of use.
Fig. 7 shows the distribution of the frequency of
shading use according to the time of day. People
who adjust the shading 2-3 times/day do it mostly
when they wake up (18%) and secondly when they
spend many hours at home (14%). In contrast,
people who stated that they change the shading
once per day, mainly do it when they spend many
hours at home. Occupants that interact most with the
shading (only 4% of the sample), more than 3
times/day, do it mainly when they return home (2%).
Correspondingly, results for the time of day that
people control most their shading, irrespective of the
frequency of shading use, show that 31% of
occupants control the shading when they spend
many hours at home, and 26% when they wake up.
Most of the sample (71%) shade, the 75-100% of the
window surface.
3.7. Cooling systems
Regarding cooling systems, 70% of the survey
subjects reported that they have AC in the house,
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 479

5
approximately 45% have a type of fan and only 8%
do not have a cooling system (fig. 8).
Fig. 9 shows that July and August are the months
that cooling systems are most in use. As expected,
August accounted for the largest percentage of use
for both AC and fans.
Early afternoon hours (13:0017:00) seem to be
the time of day with least thermal comfort as the
majority (68%) of the subjects use cooling systems
during this period (fig. 10). The following hours
(17:00-20:00) account for 41% of the cooling use,
while there is a significant proportion of the
occupants (28%) that make use of cooling systems
during the night (24:00-08:00).

Figure 8: Distribution of cooling systems.

Figure 9: Distribution of cooling systems use by month.

Figure 10: Use of cooling systems by time of day.
Fig. 11 describes the relationship between
frequency of night ventilation use, subjective
sensation of humidity of the air and use of AC during
night hours. The most interesting remark is that 50%
of the occupants that stated they use night ventilation
daily also use AC during the night. An explanation
might be given by their sensation vote for humidity of
the air, which is mainly perceived as neutral (33%).
These subjects simultaneously use AC during the
night to improve indoor temperature and night
ventilation to maintain IAQ.
According to fig. 12, the mean temperature set in
AC is 24,53
o
C (STD= 2,56), while the mean highest
temperature at which they are willing to set AC in
order to save energy, is 26,33
o
C (STD= 1,88). The
difference between the means is only 1,8
o
C which
indicates that survey subjects are not ready to
compromise their comfort in order to save energy.

Figure 11: Distribution of AC use during the night according
to frequency of night ventilation and perceived level of
humidity.

Figure 12: Preferred and maximum acceptable cooling
setpoints (average and STD.)
4. MONITORING
In addition to the questionnaire analysis, a short
term monitoring study measuring air (accuracy
0.5C (-20 to 50C)) and surface temperatures,
relative humidity and illumination levels was carried
out, during summer conditions, in a number of
houses. To achieve this, small sensors were
placed around the house for a period of at least two
days. The scope of this work was to verify the results
of the questionnaire analysis, comparing the
responses with the interior conditions when some
change in openings occurred.
The example below presents results from a
naturally ventilated 80 m
2
flat in Greek climatic Zone
B, built during 2000 (fig. 13). The building is well
protected by other buildings to the south and north
with east/west facing openings, shaded by large
balconies.

Figure 13: View of the house (Source: Bing maps)
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480 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
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The graph in fig. 14 presents two successive
days with the first having all openings closed and the
residents absent, while in the second openings are
modified by occupants. The indoor temperature
remains steady at 28,3
o
C when the flat is unoccupied
with openings and shutters closed - an expected
behaviour, since the building has high thermal mass
and the internal and external gains remain stable.
With the arrival of the occupants, the windows and
shutters are opened and ventilation thus reduces the
indoor temperature. However, this reduction is quite
small (~1
0
C), despite cross ventilation being used, as
a consequence of the buildings heavyweight
construction and the protection provided by adjacent
buildings and large balconies.
Multi-storey apartment buildings in a row are the
typical type of residence in Greece. A dense urban
grid comprised by this type of building decreases the
effectiveness of natural ventilation to provide thermal
comfort. Consequently, the pattern described in fig.
14 might explain the simultaneous use of AC units
and openings during the night, which arose from the
questionnaire analysis, since natural ventilation
alone cannot significantly decrease temperature on
calm days.
5. CONCLUSIONS
This study presented some of the initial findings
of a questionnaire and field study analysis on the
occupant interaction with the interior environment in
Greek dwellings during summer.
On average, the participants characterise the
majority of the indoor environmental conditions, as
neutral, with a slight trend towards good, but a large
standard deviation is noticed, probably because of
the relatively small size of the sample. Even though
the mean temperature satisfaction vote is close to
acceptable, all the survey occupants prefer to feel
cooler to much cooler during a typical summer
day.
It has also been found that most occupants
control window state and shading 2-3 times/day.
Improvement of IAQ is the main reason for window
opening, while facilitation of room ventilation
constitutes the main reason for opening the shading.
Prevention of overheating is the principal reason for
closing windows or shading. The majority of the
occupants control both windows and shading 2-3
times/day, but the frequency of interaction with
windows is considerably higher in total.
Survey participants prefer to use cross ventilation
daily, during the morning, to improve IAQ, while daily
use of night ventilation is preferred too.
Use of AC is increasing in Greece, with 70% of
the survey subjects owning AC units in the house.
The paradox is that these subjects simultaneously
use AC during the night (to improve indoor
temperature) and night ventilation (to maintain good
IAQ).
Further research is needed, however, to verify
the preliminary results of this survey. The difficulty of
questionnaire surveys and field studies, especially in
residences, in Greece should be taken into account
for further research.
Because of the lack of previous studies for
occupant behaviour in residences in Greece, the
results of this study may form a foundation for the
monitoring of the evolution of user behaviour in
Greek houses, as architectural thinking and practice
change. They could also form a basis for a better
understanding of the interaction of the resident with
the interior environment, which can help improve
energy simulation estimates. It could also be
investigated whether different construction
techniques (such as mechanically ventilated low
thermal mass dwellings) are affected by the Greek
pattern of occupant behaviour.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The work of this paper has been funded by the
Bodossaki Foundation. The authors would like to
thank the people who participated in the survey.
7. REFERENCES
[1] A. Leaman, B. Bordass, Productivity in
buildings: the killer variables, Building Research
& Information 27 (1) (1999) 420.
[2] Plan of Action of Energy Performance. In the
frames of Directive 2006/32/EC Athens, June
2008
[3] www.hnms.gr
Figure 14: Temperature monitoring over two successive days.
6 September
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 481
Exploiting adaptation and transitions
Learning from environments beyond the boundaries of comfort
Natalia Kafassis
1
1
Environment and Energy Studies Programme, Architectural Association, London, UK
ABSTRACT: The research presented here is originally work submitted as a post-graduate dissertation in
Sustainable Environmental Design from the Architectural Association. The object of this dissertation was the
investigation of transitions and the way they are experienced by users according to criteria of adaptation,
comfort and pleasure, mostly from a thermal point of view. The literature review, revealed the importance of
variability in conditions and of stimulating milieus as a necessary condition of successful environments.
According to this, design implications linked with spatial and temporal diversity were introduced, most important
of which are transitional spaces. The second and most important part of the study was the testing of different
types of transitions via simple experiments, resulting in their experiential (comfort, stimulation and pleasure
related) assessment. The final outcome was the production of generic conclusions related to the experience of
transitions, the categorisation of transition types according to their potential to accommodate different
behavioural requirements related to a transitional spaces programme and finally the linkage between different
transitional spaces to their most appropriate transition type (as thermal and visual sequencing) to provide
comfort and delight.

Keywords: adaptation mechanisms, transitions, thermal and visual comfort, delight.

1. INTRODUCTION
This study is the final part of a year-long research
strategy on the potential of enriching the architectural
and sensorial experience of a building through the
voluntary exploitation of environmental parameters,
particularly in transitions. As Hawkes [1] states: the
most memorable and remarkable architectural
environments often break the bounds of convention.
They discover the combinations of environmental
elements that, by some particular emphasis or
relationship, enrich the experience of inhabitation.
This sentence very elaborately links the crucial
research topics of this study: the remarkable
combination of environmental elements is related to
the perception of variability in conditions, and the
experience of inhabitation leads to the topic of
human reaction to environmental elements, relating
the topic to adaptation mechanisms.
The investigation of transitions will be the main
research topic of this piece of work, and its focal
point will be to determine the implication of different
transition types, as sequencings of environmental
conditions, in the perception of comfort and the
pleasurable appreciation of space, all of which
participate in the architectural and sensorial
experience of buildings.
2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
2.1. Concepts and principles
Various parameters affect thermal comfort and
adaptability [2]. They can be distinguished in
environmental variables (air temperature, radiant
temperature, relative humidity, air velocity, etc), and
occupant parameters, separated in organic (age,
sex, state of health, national characteristics, etc.) and
external (human activity level, clothing, social
conditions).
The most important characteristic of thermal
interaction between man and environment, though,
as underlined by Herschong [3], is that thermal
interaction is never neutral; it involves a change in
body temperature. Thermal nerve endings are heat-
flow sensors; what they tell us is how we lose or gain
heat. Its from the change in our own body
temperature that we are able to judge the
temperature of an external object.
Herschong continues by explaining that thermal
sensors can experience a type of fatigue. The
nerves are more attuned to notice change than
steady state conditions in the environment.
According to Bell, this can be explained
physiologically by receptors firing less frequently
upon repeated exposure to a stimulus. [4] This is the
basis of human adaptation mechanisms.
Physiological neutrality (thermal equilibrium),
while being a precondition for it, does not necessarily
mean comfort. Other factors are also involved in the
process of adaptability like past experience, socio-
cultural factors, habits, expectation, etc. [5]
Psychological factors are thus at least as important
as physiological ones.
According to Herschong there is an underlying
assumption, being that the best thermal
environment never needs to be noticed. Despite
admitting the possibility of variation and a wider
comfort zone, the idea of neutrality as a thermal
optimum persists. However, well-being is beyond
comfort, the environment must also be
stimulating.
A Study by Mudri [6] has shown that comfort
and pleasant conditions might actually be in
conflict. She argues that a comfortable environment,
6
The graph in fig. 14 presents two successive
days with the first having all openings closed and the
residents absent, while in the second openings are
modified by occupants. The indoor temperature
remains steady at 28,3
o
C when the flat is unoccupied
with openings and shutters closed - an expected
behaviour, since the building has high thermal mass
and the internal and external gains remain stable.
With the arrival of the occupants, the windows and
shutters are opened and ventilation thus reduces the
indoor temperature. However, this reduction is quite
small (~1
0
C), despite cross ventilation being used, as
a consequence of the buildings heavyweight
construction and the protection provided by adjacent
buildings and large balconies.
Multi-storey apartment buildings in a row are the
typical type of residence in Greece. A dense urban
grid comprised by this type of building decreases the
effectiveness of natural ventilation to provide thermal
comfort. Consequently, the pattern described in fig.
14 might explain the simultaneous use of AC units
and openings during the night, which arose from the
questionnaire analysis, since natural ventilation
alone cannot significantly decrease temperature on
calm days.
5. CONCLUSIONS
This study presented some of the initial findings
of a questionnaire and field study analysis on the
occupant interaction with the interior environment in
Greek dwellings during summer.
On average, the participants characterise the
majority of the indoor environmental conditions, as
neutral, with a slight trend towards good, but a large
standard deviation is noticed, probably because of
the relatively small size of the sample. Even though
the mean temperature satisfaction vote is close to
acceptable, all the survey occupants prefer to feel
cooler to much cooler during a typical summer
day.
It has also been found that most occupants
control window state and shading 2-3 times/day.
Improvement of IAQ is the main reason for window
opening, while facilitation of room ventilation
constitutes the main reason for opening the shading.
Prevention of overheating is the principal reason for
closing windows or shading. The majority of the
occupants control both windows and shading 2-3
times/day, but the frequency of interaction with
windows is considerably higher in total.
Survey participants prefer to use cross ventilation
daily, during the morning, to improve IAQ, while daily
use of night ventilation is preferred too.
Use of AC is increasing in Greece, with 70% of
the survey subjects owning AC units in the house.
The paradox is that these subjects simultaneously
use AC during the night (to improve indoor
temperature) and night ventilation (to maintain good
IAQ).
Further research is needed, however, to verify
the preliminary results of this survey. The difficulty of
questionnaire surveys and field studies, especially in
residences, in Greece should be taken into account
for further research.
Because of the lack of previous studies for
occupant behaviour in residences in Greece, the
results of this study may form a foundation for the
monitoring of the evolution of user behaviour in
Greek houses, as architectural thinking and practice
change. They could also form a basis for a better
understanding of the interaction of the resident with
the interior environment, which can help improve
energy simulation estimates. It could also be
investigated whether different construction
techniques (such as mechanically ventilated low
thermal mass dwellings) are affected by the Greek
pattern of occupant behaviour.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The work of this paper has been funded by the
Bodossaki Foundation. The authors would like to
thank the people who participated in the survey.
7. REFERENCES
[1] A. Leaman, B. Bordass, Productivity in
buildings: the killer variables, Building Research
& Information 27 (1) (1999) 420.
[2] Plan of Action of Energy Performance. In the
frames of Directive 2006/32/EC Athens, June
2008
[3] www.hnms.gr
Figure 14: Temperature monitoring over two successive days.
6 September
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482 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
with an absence of visual tensions, might also be
perceived as monotonous, dull or depressive. What
separates pleasure from comfort is the presence of
some environmental tension, a sensorial stimulation.
Already in 1973, Fanger claimed that it is not
always ideal to have constant thermal environments
because it can increase fatigue, lower stimulation
and performance, etc. This phenomenon is called
climate monotony and is often the risk when
opting for centrally controlled, artificially maintained
thermal conditions. Alison Kwok[7] warns of thermal
boredom. Since comfort is a psychological
phenomenon, and human beings have a need for
sensory stimulation, she argues for variations in
thermal environment and fluctuations in internal
temperatures to counteract this.
Variability is thus a characteristic of
environments which is not only tolerated but actually
preferred.
Pushing one step further is the theory considering
the human appreciation for extreme environmental
conditions. Not only neutrality is to be excluded,
there is also scope to accept a certain degree of
thermal stress. There are numerous examples in our
everyday life which justify this hypothesis, which
reveal the enjoyment of extreme thermal
experiences. Some anecdotal examples of these
cited in Kwok are: Sitting in front of a fire (dramatic
radiant asymmetry), Sunbathing at the beach (then
jump into the cold ocean to cool down), Sauna and
hammam baths that push our core temperature
towards the thresholds of safety and tolerance. After
reaching those limits, running outside and roll in the
snow or jump into the frozen lake, ultimately forcing
our core temperatures in the opposite direction.
The question is: What makes this out of comfort
experience pleasurable? Herschong notes that
places of thermal extremes have their opposites right
next to each other. For physiological reasons, the
movement from one to another allows maintaining
thermal balance and thus provides the safety to
enjoy fully both extremes, without threatening our
health. Sauna and Turkish baths fans also claim that
it improves ones health and builds resistance to cold
and heat. The second reason is aesthetic. Each
extreme experience is made more acute by contrast
to the other.
This proves that thermal balance doesnt have to
suggest steady neutral conditions. The question now
is whether there is the potential to use this trend in
everyday life and to what extent.
Architectural design can influence thermal
sensations. The careful consideration of
environmental parameters during architectural
conception can have a huge impact in the perception
of space and the feeling of well-being of its users.
Not to mention that, from an aesthetic point of view,
this can also be a way to enrich the architectural
experience of buildings and bestow them a higher
significance.
Environmental diversity was proven as the
principal way to give simultaneous varied thermal
conditions to choose from.
Merghani[8] analyses the effects of spatial
diversity (diversity between spaces) on thermal
satisfaction and energy consumption. If we increase
the range of thermal zones available within a
building, the adaptive opportunity of the occupants
increases.
A way to promote spatial diversity with a dynamic
relation to external conditions, are transitional
spaces. These mitigate and sequence sudden
temperature drifts by providing gradual step changes
in environmental conditions. Transitional spaces also
increase the number of microclimates available
simultaneously to suit different comfort needs.
2.2. Research precedents
A number of studies based both on experiments
in climate chambers and on fieldwork have dealt with
the subjects discussed above. In 1990, Knudsen and
Fanger [9] investigated the impact of temperature
step-changes on thermal comfort through a series of
experiments in climate chambers, which exposed
subjects to thermal up-steps and down-steps. These
studies revealed: 1) Step changes of operative
temperature are felt instantly and response is usually
stronger in down-steps than up-steps. 2) There is
greater sensitivity to cold steps than to warm steps.
3) The speed of adaptation to new thermal conditions
depends on whether the change is towards or away
from comfort. 4) It is the rate of change of the
temperature that is important in comfort rather than
the actual temperature. 5) warm steps are better
than cold steps since they are more likely to trigger
behavioural responses.
Field research by Nicol and Pagliano [10]
indicates the extent and rapidity of adaptation and
thus of the acceptable temperature drifts within a
given period. They consider adaptation, both as a
psycho-physiological mechanism but also from a
behavioural approach, with people making
adjustments to accommodate to the conditions
(adaptive opportunity). During a single day,
temperature drifts should vary little from the
customary temperature, meaning no more than +/-
2K. More than this is likely to attract attention and
cause discomfort. The cumulative change of
temperature over a week should not exceed +/-3K to
allow for behavioural adjustments.
Nikolopoulou [11] exposes the factors that affect
adaptation and influence peoples actions to achieve
it. According to her, the psychological dimension of
adaptation involves a reaction which does not
depend on the magnitude of a particular stimulus but
on the amount of information a person has on it. This
difference in thermal perception is attributed on the
following factors: Naturalness, Expectation,
Experience,Time of exposure and Perceived control.
Merghani describes several field studies
investigating on the behavioural adaptation patterns
facilitated by environmental diversity. Fieldwork
revealed the impact of environmental diversity in
traditional houses on the temperature sensation and
satisfaction of its users. Studies observed space-use
patterns and behavioural adaptation strategies and
revealed that movement from one space to another
was largely motivated by the thermal profile of each
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 483
room. People were always occupying the spaces that
were within or closer to their comfort zone. This
space would change during the course of the day.
Potvin [12] conducted field research on
environmental comfort in transient conditions. He
states that transitions may be developed to produce
a sense of continuity or contrast, by changing the
degree of environmental stimuli like brightness,
temperature, sound and air flow. This choice
depends on whether the transition is happening
towards or away from comfort, since adaptation is
faster toward comfort and the change is more easily
tolerated. For this reason he advises a subliminal
adaptation (below the threshold of sensation) when
moving from a more comfortable environment to a
less comfortable one.
Chun [13] conducted research on thermal
comfort in transitional spaces. This was done
through climate chamber experiments with people
moving from one room to another, doing different
activities. The objective was to determine how
comfort and temperature perception is influenced by
a persons relative position in a sequence of
temperatures as well as preceding and current
activities. Results showed the same temperature was
evaluated differently if the subject came from a
cooler or from a warmer temperature room. This
tendency was named relative evaluation tendency
and was verified further in field studies.
They further proved that users of transitional
spaces, if walking with fast temperature changes,
can adapt very widely their thermal sensations. This
disproves the need for a narrow range of
temperature conditions in transitional spaces.
3. ANALYTIC WORK/EXPERIMENTS
3.1. Methodology &Description of experiments
Following this theoretical review, a set of simple
experiments was conducted in order to verify the
very subjective and sometimes romantic theories
and assumptions.
The aim was to investigate different types of
transitions, or sequences, starting from the most
conventional ones and adding more extreme and
pleasure related ones as theories have introduced,
and the way they can trigger adaptive reactions and
lead to comfort and delight. These extreme
transitions also relate to the introduction of
discomfort as a temporary step of the sequence and
check the theory stating that this can have a
pleasurable overall result.
The main issues to investigate, and to confirm
were type of transitions (subtle, gradual, contrasted,
with cold or warm steps), the impact of contrast
(from imperceptible to shocking) as well as the
influence of the other senses, like vision, by changes
in light levels and colour. This would be achieved by
passing the subject through different types of
transitions materialised by passing ones hand in
buckets of water of different temperatures,
representing in a simplified way (time and means not
allowing otherwise) how the actual transition would
take place (fig. 1). First, a pilot study (2 subjects) was
conducted to confirm that the experiment types and
the questionnaire were relevant, understandable and
conclusive. The final experiments were conducted on
15-20 subjects, varying for each experiment. Every
subject only took each experiment once, since
surprise/expectation were crucial parameters to
analyse and was asked to not discuss it afterwards
so as not to compromise the results of the next
subjects.
Figure 1: Typical experiment set representing one type of
transitions between 3 temperatures.
3.2. Interpretation of results
During the experiment, the subjects were asked
to fill in a questionnaire assessing temperature
estimation, pleasure scale and stimulation
levels(overall results processed as in seen in fig. 2).
Figure 2: Graphs showing the combined results for one
experiment, for each criteria separately and overall.
Finally a web diagram was created for each
transition type which synthesized all the results,
highlighted the high and low points of each and
made all results comparable (as seen in fig. 3).
Figure 3: Web diagrams showing the results of one set of
experiments. This allows for a clear view of each transitions
high and low points and makes comparisons easy.
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484 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
4. RESEARCH OUTCOMES/APPLICATIONS
4.1. General conclusions from the experiments
Types of transitions and temperature sequences
Gradual transitions prove most effective overall,
whether outside or within comfort boundaries.
Contrasted transitions are less effective in
temperature perception but they are more
stimulating.
There is potential in voluntarily putting people in
uncomfortable conditions as a transitional step
and still have a positive end result. When going
back to comfort conditions (in the last step), these
seem more pleasant by opposition than the same
conditions reached gradually. This type of
sequence proves also to be the most stimulating.
Experiential differences between warm steps and
cold steps
In general warm steps are lowering stimulation
and cold steps increasing stimulation levels
The same temperature difference in cold
temperature steps is generally more perceptible
and less easy to tolerate than in warm steps.
Perception and appreciation of contrasts
Contrast increase leads to stimulation increase
Contrast is generally experienced very differently
whether the conditions are within comfort (warm
contrasts in this case) or out of comfort (cold
contrasts). In out of comfort conditions, contrast
is generally unfavorably viewed.
Within comfort conditions a certain level of
contrast can actually be beneficial. Too much
contrast can be counter-effective. Temperature
estimation is affected.
The higher the contrast, the higher the pleasure
ratings.
Impact of the speed of the visual change on
temperature perception
A fast visual transition, meaning a high light
change in a short time, has more potential to
attract attention. Increasing the speed of light
changes gives a more visual than thermal
character to the transition. More gradual light
changes are less noticeable. This also means
that fast visual transitions are more effective in
distracting from thermal changes than gradual
and slow visual sequences which allow
concentrating on the thermal.
Gradual transitions in general prove more
effective in estimating the temperature closer to
comfort.
Fast visual transitions are characterised as more
pleasant than slow visual transitions. They are
also generally more expectable.
Parallel versus opposite transitions
Parallel transitions are in general more
expectable than opposite ones, especially for
colour.
No link/distinction was established between
opposite/parallel transition and temperature
estimation. In both cases, a gradual change will
be more effective than an abrupt one (both in
light and temperature).
Thermal associations: Neutral versus coloured light
In general people recognise the association
between colour and temperature (a warmer
colour is associated with a warmer temperature).
Coloured light is strongly associated with
temperature, much more than neutral.
When temperature stays the same throughout the
sequences, a warming up in colour has the effect
of a cooler estimation of that same temperature.
4.2. Practical applications/ implications for the
design of transitional spaces
The final part of this research was to put together
all the results gathered from the experiments and
give them practical applications. The objective here
is to assess and categorise all the transition
types that were tested and find out for which type of
transitional space they have potential for.

First of all, it is essential to define how these
spatial or behavioural characteristics of a transitional
space influence the environmental conditions
necessary to provide comfort, as defined from the
theories. The table below (table 1) links the above
two.
For example, a high metabolic rate in the
transitional space will require conditions with low
stimulation levels. Stimulation can have the effect of
increasing metabolic rate further and should thus be
avoided. The same reasoning applies to all other
conditions.
Table 1: Behavioural characteristics linked to the
environmental conditions necessary to provide comfort.

The next table (table 2) shows a typical set of

transition types tested and summarises its
comfort/pleasure assessment. According to this, and
the first table, these features match a few
programmatical requirements and thus make each
transition potentially more appropriate for a specific
type of occupant conditions.

PLEA 2011 - 27
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 485
Table 2: Typical set of transitions tested and their comfort
assessment, leading to a programmatical potential.
For example, a gradual transition in warm
conditions, by leading people to perceive
temperatures cooler than they are, has the potential
to accept activities with a high metabolic rate and/or
clo value. The perception of it as subliminal makes it
appropriate for conditions relatively outside of
comfort.

Finally, the last table (table 3) shows, inversely,

the requirements of a certain number of transitional
spaces[14], leading to the most appropriate type of
thermal and environmental sequencing for them, to
effectively provide comfort and delight.
Transitional spaces are categorised into outdoor
or indoor dominant, to determine how much indoor
comfort criteria apply. The occupant related criteria,
mostly based on behavioural and psychological
criteria (referring to Nicolopoulou[15]) determine the
type of sequencing that will be most suitable.

For example, a hotel lobby would benefit from

highly contrasted warm transitions, with either warm
or cold steps. Cold transitions can accept any
contrast as long as a warm step (over comfort) is
involved. The visual sequencing should follow
coloured light changes in general, preferably fast.
For every type of transitional space, the same
methodology applies to find its most suitable
transition type/thermal sequencing.

This grid can provide a sort of guideline for

design, which can be interpreted in countless ways.

Table 3: Table showing a certain number of transitional

spaces and their most appropriate transition type to lead
people into comfort.
PLEA 2011 - 27
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486 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)

Financial Motivation to Improve Thermal Comfort
and Reduce Carbon in Office Buildings

Joshua KATES
1

1
Built Ecology, London, United Kingdom
ABSTRACT: The link between thermally comfortable office environments and occupant satisfaction (measured
by improved productivity, reduced staff leave and reduced staff turnover) is well understood. Traditionally,
refurbishment financial models take into account capital cost, operational energy and maintenance costs but do
not account for increases in occupant satisfaction. This methodology masks a key input to effective decision
making as staff wages are one of the largest costs to a company. This paper demonstrates that retrofitting
existing office buildings to improve thermal comfort will provide a positive Net Present Value (NPV) proposition
to building occupiers while simultaneously reducing energy and carbon. Thermal comfort modelling was used to
test four passive design initiatives: increased insulation, performance glazing, external shading and thermal
mass optimisation. By using Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) as an indicator for increased occupant satisfaction, this
paper presents a holistic financial model of four key passive design options.
Keywords: comfort, carbon, productivity, passive design
1. INTRODUCTION
This paper has been written to help associate a
hard dollar value against the so called soft benefits of
adopting passive design alternatives specifically,
productivity benefits associated with improved
thermal comfort.
Traditionally, refurbishment financial models take
into account capital cost, operational energy and
maintenance costs but do not account for increases
in occupant satisfaction. This methodology masks a
key input to effective decision making as staff wages
are one of the largest costs to a company.
Six variables are used to address thermal comfort
holistically: air temperature, radiant temperature,
humidity, air speed, clothing and activity rate.
Standard HVAC equipment only controls air
temperatures and sometimes humidity. Passive
design measures can be used to effectively control
radiant temperatures in the space by reducing solar
gain and stabilising radiant temperatures throughout
the day.
Radiant temperatures account for around 40% of
perceived temperature in a space and are therefore
an important aspect in maintaining thermally
comfortable environments and creating productive
work environments.
This paper analyses the Net Present Value and
the carbon intensity of a traditional 1960s office
building and the affect of four different passive
design refurbishment options: increased insulation,
performance glazing, external shading and exposing
the thermal mass.
This paper provides analysis through the
following steps:
Determining an appropriate average cost to
associate with the employment of an
average office worker.
Reviewing the costs and causes of
productivity as it relates to thermal comfort.
Determine the appropriate passive design
alternatives and their related costs
Determine the Net Present Value and
energy intensity of each passive design
option
1.1. Modelling software
Thermal Analysis Software (TAS) was used in
order to estimate the thermal comfort and carbon
intensity of the various options in this study. TAS
uses fully dynamic calculations to provide an
accurate insight into the building envelope response
as well as space and surface temperatures, internal
loads and energy consumption.
A Test Reference Year (TRY) weather file based
on historical records of radiation, temperature,
humidity, sunshine, wind speed and direction for
every hour of the year was used.
2. THERMAL COMFORT
2.1. Designing for Thermal Comfort
The thermal comfort of a building is defined in the
International Standard ISO 7730:2005 [1]. Thermal
comfort is primarily made up of six contributing
factors:
Air temperature
Radiant temperature
Humidity
Air velocity
Clothing levels
Activity rate
Thermal comfort is a measure of how comfortable
the indoor environment is perceived to be by its
occupants. Thermal comfort modelling is used to give
an indication as to the proportion of occupants who
notice warmth or coolness in a space. As the
For example, in the last case of the hotel lobby, a
warm transition with a warm step might be
interpreted as an atrium left to slightly overheat in the
summer. This would mean that the user would enter
the transitional space/lobby from the warm outside,
to find even warmer conditions. This will influence
him to feel much more comfortable by contrast when
reaching his comfortable hotel room than if the
same conditions had been reached gradually. This in
its turn can lead to energy savings since the hotel
lobby will have much less cooling needs. It is even
conceivable that the hotel room itself will have less
cooling needs because this temperature contrast
might make the user tolerant to slightly warmer
conditions as well.
5. CONCLUSION
This study explained and developed the
processes of thermal adaptation and the need for
variability. Transitional spaces, as the main source of
this diversity, were then investigated to determine
how and to what extent different types of
environmental sequencing can influence the
perception users have of the conditions.
The experiments conducted procured interesting
results, mainly related to the impact that different
types of sequences can have in the perception of
temperature, to the experience and the appreciation
of contrasts as well as to the influence the visual
world can have on thermal sensation.
These findings generally concurred with the
related literature and the existing theories.
Different transition types were assessed and
categorised, their high and low points highlighted, to
determine for which type of transitional space they
have potential for.
Subsequently, the requirements (space and
occupant behaviour related) of a certain number of
transitional spaces was established to make
correlations between these and the above mentioned
transition type potential.
The final outcome was to assign the most
appropriate transition type to each transitional space,
so as to provide most effectively comfort and
pleasure.
The current investigation, because of limited
means, time and experiment samples and subjects,
does not have the scale to produce incontestable
conclusions. However, the end result, after a more
profound research following the same methodology,
could give birth to a valuable guideline for the
architectural and environmental design of transitional
spaces.
6. REFERENCES
[1] Hawkes,D(2007), The Environmental
Imagination. Routledge, p203
[2] Auliciems A. & Szokolay S.V. (1997), Thermal
Comfort, PLEA note 3
[3] Heschong, L. (1979). Thermal Delight in
Architecture. MIT Press Bell (2001), p76
[4] Bell, P.A. et al (2001). Environmental
Psychology. Fifth Edition. Hartcourt College
Publishers
[5] Auliciems(1997), p16
[6] Mudri, L. and J.D. Lenard (2000). Comfortable
and/or pleasant ambience: conflicting issues.
PLEA 2000 Conference in Cambridge, UK, , p
599
[7] Kwok, Alison G. (2000). Thermal Boredom.
PLEA July 2000, Cambridge, England.
[8] Exploring thermal comfort and spatial diversity,
in Steemers, K., M.A. Steane (Eds. 2004).
Environmental Diversity in Architecture.
Spon Press, pp195-212
[9] Knudsen H.N. & Fanger P.O. (1990). The
impact of temperature step-changes on
thermal comfort. Indoor Air 90, p757-61
[10] From Pagliano L., Sustainable Summer
Comfort: Comfort Model. Austrian Energy
Agency, Vienna
[11] In Steemers & Steane (Eds 2004), pp101-120
[12] Potvin A. (2000). Assessing the microclimate
of urban transitional spaces. PLEA 2000
Conference in Cambridge, UK, , p 581 & Potvin
A., A.L. LHeureux, B. Saricoglu, K.
Zarnovican.(2002) Assessing environmental
comfort Proceedings of the PLEA 2002
Conference in Toulouse
[13] Chun, C., Kwok, C., Tamura, A., (2004) Thermal
comfort in transitional spaces basic
concepts: literature review and trial
measurement. Building and environment,
vol.39, issue 10, p1187-1192 & Chun, C.,
Tamura, A., (2005) Thermal comfort in urban
transitional spaces. Building and environment,
vol.40, p633-639
[14] Chosen from Chun (2004)
[15] In Steemers & Steane (Eds 2004), pp101-120
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 487

Financial Motivation to Improve Thermal Comfort
and Reduce Carbon in Office Buildings

Joshua KATES
1

1
Built Ecology, London, United Kingdom
ABSTRACT: The link between thermally comfortable office environments and occupant satisfaction (measured
by improved productivity, reduced staff leave and reduced staff turnover) is well understood. Traditionally,
refurbishment financial models take into account capital cost, operational energy and maintenance costs but do
not account for increases in occupant satisfaction. This methodology masks a key input to effective decision
making as staff wages are one of the largest costs to a company. This paper demonstrates that retrofitting
existing office buildings to improve thermal comfort will provide a positive Net Present Value (NPV) proposition
to building occupiers while simultaneously reducing energy and carbon. Thermal comfort modelling was used to
test four passive design initiatives: increased insulation, performance glazing, external shading and thermal
mass optimisation. By using Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) as an indicator for increased occupant satisfaction, this
paper presents a holistic financial model of four key passive design options.
Keywords: comfort, carbon, productivity, passive design
1. INTRODUCTION
This paper has been written to help associate a
hard dollar value against the so called soft benefits of
adopting passive design alternatives specifically,
productivity benefits associated with improved
thermal comfort.
Traditionally, refurbishment financial models take
into account capital cost, operational energy and
maintenance costs but do not account for increases
in occupant satisfaction. This methodology masks a
key input to effective decision making as staff wages
are one of the largest costs to a company.
Six variables are used to address thermal comfort
holistically: air temperature, radiant temperature,
humidity, air speed, clothing and activity rate.
Standard HVAC equipment only controls air
temperatures and sometimes humidity. Passive
design measures can be used to effectively control
radiant temperatures in the space by reducing solar
gain and stabilising radiant temperatures throughout
the day.
Radiant temperatures account for around 40% of
perceived temperature in a space and are therefore
an important aspect in maintaining thermally
comfortable environments and creating productive
work environments.
This paper analyses the Net Present Value and
the carbon intensity of a traditional 1960s office
building and the affect of four different passive
design refurbishment options: increased insulation,
performance glazing, external shading and exposing
the thermal mass.
This paper provides analysis through the
following steps:
Determining an appropriate average cost to
associate with the employment of an
average office worker.
Reviewing the costs and causes of
productivity as it relates to thermal comfort.
Determine the appropriate passive design
alternatives and their related costs
Determine the Net Present Value and
energy intensity of each passive design
option
1.1. Modelling software
Thermal Analysis Software (TAS) was used in
order to estimate the thermal comfort and carbon
intensity of the various options in this study. TAS
uses fully dynamic calculations to provide an
accurate insight into the building envelope response
as well as space and surface temperatures, internal
loads and energy consumption.
A Test Reference Year (TRY) weather file based
on historical records of radiation, temperature,
humidity, sunshine, wind speed and direction for
every hour of the year was used.
2. THERMAL COMFORT
2.1. Designing for Thermal Comfort
The thermal comfort of a building is defined in the
International Standard ISO 7730:2005 [1]. Thermal
comfort is primarily made up of six contributing
factors:
Air temperature
Radiant temperature
Humidity
Air velocity
Clothing levels
Activity rate
Thermal comfort is a measure of how comfortable
the indoor environment is perceived to be by its
occupants. Thermal comfort modelling is used to give
an indication as to the proportion of occupants who
notice warmth or coolness in a space. As the
PLEA 2011 - 27
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488 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)

proportion of occupants noticing a certain thermal
environment increases, the level of thermal comfort
deteriorates. Where this proportion of dissatisfied
occupants is low, the level of thermal comfort is
considered to be good.
The international standard (ISO 7730:2005) has
been created for determining thermal comfort. PMV
is the benchmark for the International Standard.
Conditions under different PMV levels are described
in Table 1 below.
Table 1: Seven-point thermal sensation scale [1]
Predicted Mean Vote
(PMV)
Internal Conditions
+3 Hot
+2 Warm
+1 Slightly warm
0 Neutral
-1 Slightly cool
-2 Cool
-3 Cold

Predicted Mean Vote is based on a
mathematically generated response, based on
empirical data of what each person in the space
would vote if asked for their opinion on the state of
the indoor environment, with each person selecting
one of the options in the table above. The PMV is the
mean result from all those votes.
Most air-conditioning systems will be able to
maintain PMV levels within 1 for most of the space
most of the time. Air-conditioning systems which
address radiant temperatures (such as chilled
ceilings) can improve this and usually maintain
thermal comfort conditions within 0.5.
However, in a typical office building with a VAV
system, air temperature and sometimes humidity are
the only factors that are adequately addressed by the
HVAC design. Radiant temperature (primarily driven
by the temperature of the ceiling and the floor) is not
controlled, and air velocity can be erratic and cause
discomfort, with many occupants complaining about
draught.
Radiant temperatures are particularly important
as they account for around 40% of the means
through which we perceive what the temperature is
but are often not controlled.
Passive measures of increased insulation,
improved glazing, exposing thermal mass and
external shading can be used to effectively control
radiant temperatures.
3. LEAVE, TURNOVER AND
PRODUCTIVITY
3.1. Cost of employing staff
The average cost of employing a member of staff
can be calculated by taking into account the following
different sources: salary, superannuation, additional
employee on-costs and overheads.
Taking into account these costs the average cost
of employing each staff member in Sydney, Australia
is assumed to be AUD$65,872 which is AUD$4,391
per m
2
at an average density of 1 person per 15 m
2
.
Costs are based on the following information:
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported
the average salary for full time NSW
workers in 2004 was AUD$49,818 [2].
Superannuation is also paid by the
employer in NSW, at a minimum rate of 9%
[3]. This increases the effective average
salary package cost to the employer to
AUD$54,294.
Payroll Tax, Long Service Leave, Sick
Leave provisions and Workers
Compensation are taken as being an
additional 5.5% of the total salary package
cost [4] which increases the effective
average salary package cost to the
employer to AUD$57,280.
Overheads including the cost of rent, office
facilities including computer equipment,
support staff, utilities and fringe benefits
account for a further 15% of the total salary
package [5] increasing the effective average
salary to the employer to AUD$65,872.
Table 2 breaks down these costs to the
employer.
Table 2: Breakdown of cost of employing staff
Average salary AUD$49,818
Superannuation AUD$4,483
On-costs AUD$2,986
Overheads AUD$8,592
Total cost of employment
per employee
AUD$65,872
Total cost of
employment per m
2

NLA
AUD$4,391
3.2. Staff productivity
A number of assumptions about productivity must
first be established before estimating costs and
benefits of improved productivity. This paper
assumes that there is no theoretical cap to the
potential for improving productivity when considering
marginal improvements.
Additionally, this paper assumes that an
improvement in productivity affects all tasks linearly
and proportionately.
This paper uses the annual expenditure on staff
per m
2
as the benchmark for measuring productivity.
This means that for each 1% improvement in
productivity, the average business will produce an
additional AUD$43.91/m2/year in revenue. In reality,
revenue generated by staff in a successful business
is significantly higher than their cost to the business,
but this approach allows for an extra level of
conservatism in calculations of benefits.
3.3. Absenteeism, sick leave and voluntary
separation
The reasons for absenteeism, sick leave and
voluntary separation are varied and poorly
documented, both by the private and public sectors.
Generally, reasons for unapproved leave can be
divided into sections: illness contracted in the office;
illness contracted outside the office; work related
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 489


stress; non-work related stress; lack of motivation
and other factors.
Of these various factors, only illness contracted
inside and outside the office environment will be
exacerbated by poor thermal comfort in the work
place.
Voluntary separation or churn creates costs
associated with finding, interviewing and training new
employees. The reasons for staff turnover are only
partly due to unhealthy or poor physical working
environments.
As with sick leave, the reasons for staff turnover
are complex and varied. Some of the reasons for
voluntary separation are: retirement; external
opportunities; staff conflict; dissatisfaction;
displacement by partner and family moving location
and finally dissatisfaction with the workplace.
While improved thermal comfort could potentially
reduce the amount of absenteeism, sick leave and
voluntary separation, these factors have been
omitted from this study based on lack of adequate
information to assess the costs.
4. SELECTION OF OPTIONS FOR
COMPARISON
A standard 1960s office base option design in
Sydney, Australia will be considered by this study.
Four commercial refurbishment options have been
selected based on feasibility, predicted thermal
comfort benefit and energy/carbon reduction.
4.1. Base option Standard Office 1960s build
The base option for this study is derived from the
typical approach to designing commercial office
buildings in Australia. This approach is based on the
use of Australian Standards as design guides and is
characterised as follows:
8am to 6pm occupied office hours (Monday
to Friday)
Lighting Gain 12W/m2
Equipment Gain 7 W/m2
Occupant Gain 1 person/15m2
Infiltration 0.5 air changes per hour in
perimeter zones
A central air-handling and conditioning plant
supplying cold air to office spaces, with
variations in the quantity of air supplied
used to control the overall temperature.
Figure 1 below depicts a visual representation of
the base option office building from the Thermal
Analysis Software where the following dimensions
have been modelled to represent a typical office
block:
50m X 50m square dimensions with a 25%
central core and facilities area
3m floor to ceilings with full width glazing
and 1m sill height and 10% aluminium
window framing


Figure 1: Visual representation of base option office building
4.2. Option 1 - Base option with increased
insulation
The passive design refurbishment for Option 1 is
the injection of bead insulation into the wall cavity.
The purpose of this insulation is to decrease the
amount heat conduction into the space and also to
decrease the energy required for the HVAC system.
Base option whole wall thermal conductivity
equal to R0.80. Option 1 whole wall thermal
conductivity equal to R0.36.
4.3. Option 2 - Base option with performance
glazing
The passive design refurbishment for Option 2 is
the replacement of the glazing with performance
glazing. The purpose of installing performance
glazing is to reduce the amount of solar gain into the
space lowering radiant temperatures and reducing
the load on the HVAC system.
Base option double glazing Solar Heat Gain
Coefficient (G-value) equal to 0.68. Option 2
performance glazing Solar Heat Gain
Coefficient equal to 0.35.
4.4. Option 3 - Base option with external shading
The passive design refurbishment for Option 3 is
the introduction of external shading. The purpose of
external shading is to reduce the amount of solar
gain into the space lowering radiant temperatures
and reducing the load on the HVAC system.
The base option has no external shading.
Option 3 has assumed a 1:1 shading ratio
for refurbishment (i.e. 2m horizontal shading
for 2m high glazing).
4.5. Option 4 - Base option with exposed thermal
mass
The passive design refurbishment for Option 4 is
exposing the thermal mass. The purpose of exposing
thermal mass is to stabilise radiant temperatures in
the space over the day improving comfort conditions
and reducing the load on the HVAC system.
Base option ceiling to floor construction is
ceiling tiles, air gap, concrete, and carpet.
Refurbishment option 4 removes the carpet
and the ceiling tiles thus exposing the
thermal mass on both the floor and ceiling.
5. QUANTIFYING IMPROVED INDOOR
ENVIRONMENT QUALITY
5.1. Staff Productivity
Predicted Mean Vote has been related to staff
productivity in several studies in terms of different

proportion of occupants noticing a certain thermal
environment increases, the level of thermal comfort
deteriorates. Where this proportion of dissatisfied
occupants is low, the level of thermal comfort is
considered to be good.
The international standard (ISO 7730:2005) has
been created for determining thermal comfort. PMV
is the benchmark for the International Standard.
Conditions under different PMV levels are described
in Table 1 below.
Table 1: Seven-point thermal sensation scale [1]
Predicted Mean Vote
(PMV)
Internal Conditions
+3 Hot
+2 Warm
+1 Slightly warm
0 Neutral
-1 Slightly cool
-2 Cool
-3 Cold

Predicted Mean Vote is based on a
mathematically generated response, based on
empirical data of what each person in the space
would vote if asked for their opinion on the state of
the indoor environment, with each person selecting
one of the options in the table above. The PMV is the
mean result from all those votes.
Most air-conditioning systems will be able to
maintain PMV levels within 1 for most of the space
most of the time. Air-conditioning systems which
address radiant temperatures (such as chilled
ceilings) can improve this and usually maintain
thermal comfort conditions within 0.5.
However, in a typical office building with a VAV
system, air temperature and sometimes humidity are
the only factors that are adequately addressed by the
HVAC design. Radiant temperature (primarily driven
by the temperature of the ceiling and the floor) is not
controlled, and air velocity can be erratic and cause
discomfort, with many occupants complaining about
draught.
Radiant temperatures are particularly important
as they account for around 40% of the means
through which we perceive what the temperature is
but are often not controlled.
Passive measures of increased insulation,
improved glazing, exposing thermal mass and
external shading can be used to effectively control
radiant temperatures.
3. LEAVE, TURNOVER AND
PRODUCTIVITY
3.1. Cost of employing staff
The average cost of employing a member of staff
can be calculated by taking into account the following
different sources: salary, superannuation, additional
employee on-costs and overheads.
Taking into account these costs the average cost
of employing each staff member in Sydney, Australia
is assumed to be AUD$65,872 which is AUD$4,391
per m
2
at an average density of 1 person per 15 m
2
.
Costs are based on the following information:
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported
the average salary for full time NSW
workers in 2004 was AUD$49,818 [2].
Superannuation is also paid by the
employer in NSW, at a minimum rate of 9%
[3]. This increases the effective average
salary package cost to the employer to
AUD$54,294.
Payroll Tax, Long Service Leave, Sick
Leave provisions and Workers
Compensation are taken as being an
additional 5.5% of the total salary package
cost [4] which increases the effective
average salary package cost to the
employer to AUD$57,280.
Overheads including the cost of rent, office
facilities including computer equipment,
support staff, utilities and fringe benefits
account for a further 15% of the total salary
package [5] increasing the effective average
salary to the employer to AUD$65,872.
Table 2 breaks down these costs to the
employer.
Table 2: Breakdown of cost of employing staff
Average salary AUD$49,818
Superannuation AUD$4,483
On-costs AUD$2,986
Overheads AUD$8,592
Total cost of employment
per employee
AUD$65,872
Total cost of
employment per m
2

NLA
AUD$4,391
3.2. Staff productivity
A number of assumptions about productivity must
first be established before estimating costs and
benefits of improved productivity. This paper
assumes that there is no theoretical cap to the
potential for improving productivity when considering
marginal improvements.
Additionally, this paper assumes that an
improvement in productivity affects all tasks linearly
and proportionately.
This paper uses the annual expenditure on staff
per m
2
as the benchmark for measuring productivity.
This means that for each 1% improvement in
productivity, the average business will produce an
additional AUD$43.91/m2/year in revenue. In reality,
revenue generated by staff in a successful business
is significantly higher than their cost to the business,
but this approach allows for an extra level of
conservatism in calculations of benefits.
3.3. Absenteeism, sick leave and voluntary
separation
The reasons for absenteeism, sick leave and
voluntary separation are varied and poorly
documented, both by the private and public sectors.
Generally, reasons for unapproved leave can be
divided into sections: illness contracted in the office;
illness contracted outside the office; work related
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
490 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)

combination of thermal criteria (air velocity, clothing,
etc.) and the type of task undertaken (thinking or
typing).
Kosonen and Tan in [6] derive Equations (1) and
(2) below for typing and thinking tasks in regard to
productivity loss. The equations were derived
parametrically by making use of three relevant
studies whereby real life tests were carried out to
determine how various climatic conditions impacted
thinking and typing tasks. These experiments were
then reconstructed into PMV results and expanded to
understand how thermal comfort impacts productivity
across the full PMV spectrum.

For typing tasks:

y = -60.543x
6
+ 198.41x
5
183.75x
4
8.1178x
3
+
50.24x
2
+ 32.123x + 4.8988 (1)

For thinking tasks:

y = 1.5928x
5
1.5526x
4
10.401x
3
+ 19.226x
2
+
13.389x + 1.8763 (2)

where y = Productivity Loss and x = PMV Index

These two equations can be used to derive
various PMV vs Productivity Loss curves for various
permutations of thinking and typing tasks.


Figure 2: Various thinking and typing permutations of
productivity loss vs PMV curves [6]


As this paper seeks to model an average office
building the basis of calculations will be to use the
50% thinking and 50% typing curve for all the
productivity calculations.
5.2. Productivity Results
Thermal Analysis Software (TAS) was used to
dynamically model the base option and four passive
design refurbishment options to obtain Predicted
Mean Vote results averaged over 12 separate zones
for each hour of the year. Each PMV result was then
matched to the corresponding level of productivity
loss as described by the productivity loss equations
as represented in Figure 2.
These productivity losses were then summed
over the year to create a single percentage annual
productivity of the staff across the floor area. Figure
3 presents the final productivity results for each of
the modelled options where 100% represents a
perfect productivity.
70.0%
75.0%
80.0%
85.0%
90.0%
95.0%
100.0%
Base Option
Option 1 -
Added
Insulation
Option 2 -
Performance
Glazing
Option 3 -
External
Shading
Option 4 -
Exposed
Thermal
Mass
A
n
n
u
a
l

p
r
o
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y


(
%
)

Figure 3: Annual productivity results based on modelled
thermal comfort
Figure 3 shows that none of the options has
an100% annual productivity. For this to occur, the
PMV would have to equal -0.21 for each of the 12
zones for every occupied hour.
These data demonstrate that the introduction of
insulation decreases the annual productivity by 0.8%.
The explanation for this is that increased thermal
insulation prevents heat escaping overnight therefore
increasing radiant temperatures for the following
morning.
The installation of performance glazing and
external shading improves the productivity by 9.9%
and 9.0% respectively. These two options are the
most effective methods of those modelled to control
the radiant temperatures in the space and optimise
the Predicted Mean Vote values in the space to
improve productivity. Exposing thermal mass has a
1.0% positive effect on annual productivity.
6. ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
This section integrates the cost benefits obtained
from alternative passive design measures with the
capital costs of each option. The intent of this section
is to demonstrate the cost implications of the various
passive design measures when incorporating the
productivity of the staff.
6.1. Capital costs of passive design measures
Table 3 presents the capital cost of each of the
passive design options. Each of the options has
been assumed to have no maintenance costs
associated with their implementation, which is one of
the major benefits of passive design.
Table 3: Capital cost of various passive design
refurbishment options
Passive design
refurbishment
Capital Cost
Injection of bead
insulation into
wall cavity
AUD$15/m
2
of wall
Performance
glazing
AUD$1,000/m
2
of glazing
External shading AUD$500/m
2
of shading
Exposing
thermal mass
AUD$100/m
2
of floor
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 491


6.2. Cost savings
Each of the passive design options not only
impacts the thermal comfort but also the cooling load
in the space. Figure 4 presents the results for the
change in cooling load relative to the base option.
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
Base Option Option 1 -
Added
Insulation
Option 2 -
Performance
Glazing
Option 3 -
External
Shading
Option 4 -
Exposed
Thermal Mass
C
h
a
n
g
e

i
n

c
o
o
l
i
n
g

l
o
a
d

(
%
)

Figure 4: Percentage change in cooling load for each
passive design option
As with productivity, the addition of insulation
prevents heat escaping overnight therefore
increasing the cooling load for the following morning.
However, the installation of performance glazing,
external shading and exposing the thermal mass all
decrease the cooling load by 44%, 42% and 3%
respectively.
Figure 5 shows the cooling load change in terms
of annual cost based on an average electrical tariff of
AUD$0.10/kWh. The cooling load reduction is
directly related to the carbon intensity of the office
space. That is, as the cooling load decreases so
does the carbon intensity.

0.00
1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
6.00
7.00
8.00
9.00
Base Option Option 1 -
Added
Insulation
Option 2 -
Performance
Glazing
Option 3 -
External
Shading
Option 4 -
Exposed
Thermal Mass
C
o
o
l
i
n
g

l
o
a
d

c
o
s
t

(
$
/
m
2
/
y
e
a
r
)

Figure 5: Cost of cooling per m
2
per year for each passive
design option
6.3. Staff productivity results
Figure 6 presents the results for the staff
productivity gains for each of the passive design
refurbishment options on a meter squared per year
basis.
The productivity gains are based on potential
additional revenue created from the increased
productivity as calculated and shown in Figure 4 and
additional revenue as described in Section 3.2.

-$100
$-
$100
$200
$300
$400
$500
Base Option
Option 1 -
Added
Insulation
Option 2 -
Performance
Glazing
Option 3 -
External
Shading
Option 4 -
Exposed
Thermal
Mass
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y

g
a
i
n

b
a
s
e
d

o
n

P
M
V

a
n
d

c
o
s
t

o
f

s
t
a
f
f

(
$
/
m
2
/
y
e
a
r
)

Figure 6: Productivity gain in AUD$ per m
2
for each passive
design option
These results can be compared with those of
cooling load reduction in Figure 5 to see that
productivity gain is larger nearly by a factor of 100.
This highlights the holistic importance of taking into
account staff productivity.
6.4. Net Present Value
The Net Present Value (NPV) is a financial model
that takes into account capital costs as well as all
future cash flows either positive or negative
throughout a particular timeframe. The timeframe
chosen for this NPV analysis is 10 years.
Figure 7 presents the Net Present Value
proposition to an employer of each passive design
option and demonstrates the large benefit when
looking at performance glazing and external shading
in particular.
Taking the best performing option of performance
glazing, these figures indicate that a Net Present
Value of approximately AUD$5,000,000 can be
earned by this refurbishment option taking into
account energy saving and increased productivity of
staff through better thermal environment.
-$500
$0
$500
$1,000
$1,500
$2,000
$2,500
$3,000
Base Option
Option 1 -
Added
Insulation
Option 2 -
Performance
Glazing
Option 3 -
External
Shading
Option 4 -
Exposed
Thermal Mass
N
e
t

P
r
e
s
e
n
t

V
a
l
u
e

p
e
r

m
2

(
A
U
D
$
)

Figure 7: Net Present Value per m
2
for each passive design
option
7. CASE STUDY
Council House 2 (CH2) as pictured in Figure 8 is
the City of Melbournes new office building in
Australia. When upgrading from their previous
building, CH1, the client was very keen to design and
build an innovative building that included both
passive and active design measures.
Some of the initiatives included performance
glazing, external shading, exposed thermal mass
and above compliance insulation in combination with
night purge.

combination of thermal criteria (air velocity, clothing,
etc.) and the type of task undertaken (thinking or
typing).
Kosonen and Tan in [6] derive Equations (1) and
(2) below for typing and thinking tasks in regard to
productivity loss. The equations were derived
parametrically by making use of three relevant
studies whereby real life tests were carried out to
determine how various climatic conditions impacted
thinking and typing tasks. These experiments were
then reconstructed into PMV results and expanded to
understand how thermal comfort impacts productivity
across the full PMV spectrum.

For typing tasks:

y = -60.543x
6
+ 198.41x
5
183.75x
4
8.1178x
3
+
50.24x
2
+ 32.123x + 4.8988 (1)

For thinking tasks:

y = 1.5928x
5
1.5526x
4
10.401x
3
+ 19.226x
2
+
13.389x + 1.8763 (2)

where y = Productivity Loss and x = PMV Index

These two equations can be used to derive
various PMV vs Productivity Loss curves for various
permutations of thinking and typing tasks.


Figure 2: Various thinking and typing permutations of
productivity loss vs PMV curves [6]


As this paper seeks to model an average office
building the basis of calculations will be to use the
50% thinking and 50% typing curve for all the
productivity calculations.
5.2. Productivity Results
Thermal Analysis Software (TAS) was used to
dynamically model the base option and four passive
design refurbishment options to obtain Predicted
Mean Vote results averaged over 12 separate zones
for each hour of the year. Each PMV result was then
matched to the corresponding level of productivity
loss as described by the productivity loss equations
as represented in Figure 2.
These productivity losses were then summed
over the year to create a single percentage annual
productivity of the staff across the floor area. Figure
3 presents the final productivity results for each of
the modelled options where 100% represents a
perfect productivity.
70.0%
75.0%
80.0%
85.0%
90.0%
95.0%
100.0%
Base Option
Option 1 -
Added
Insulation
Option 2 -
Performance
Glazing
Option 3 -
External
Shading
Option 4 -
Exposed
Thermal
Mass
A
n
n
u
a
l

p
r
o
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y


(
%
)

Figure 3: Annual productivity results based on modelled
thermal comfort
Figure 3 shows that none of the options has
an100% annual productivity. For this to occur, the
PMV would have to equal -0.21 for each of the 12
zones for every occupied hour.
These data demonstrate that the introduction of
insulation decreases the annual productivity by 0.8%.
The explanation for this is that increased thermal
insulation prevents heat escaping overnight therefore
increasing radiant temperatures for the following
morning.
The installation of performance glazing and
external shading improves the productivity by 9.9%
and 9.0% respectively. These two options are the
most effective methods of those modelled to control
the radiant temperatures in the space and optimise
the Predicted Mean Vote values in the space to
improve productivity. Exposing thermal mass has a
1.0% positive effect on annual productivity.
6. ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
This section integrates the cost benefits obtained
from alternative passive design measures with the
capital costs of each option. The intent of this section
is to demonstrate the cost implications of the various
passive design measures when incorporating the
productivity of the staff.
6.1. Capital costs of passive design measures
Table 3 presents the capital cost of each of the
passive design options. Each of the options has
been assumed to have no maintenance costs
associated with their implementation, which is one of
the major benefits of passive design.
Table 3: Capital cost of various passive design
refurbishment options
Passive design
refurbishment
Capital Cost
Injection of bead
insulation into
wall cavity
AUD$15/m
2
of wall
Performance
glazing
AUD$1,000/m
2
of glazing
External shading AUD$500/m
2
of shading
Exposing
thermal mass
AUD$100/m
2
of floor
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
492 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)


Figure 8: Picture of CH2 from front showing external
shading (left) and inside showing exposed thermal mass
(right)
Extensive third party studies were carried out on
CH2 to determine the occupant productivity pre- and
post-occupancy in the form of surveys, indoor
environment quality monitoring, indoor air quality
monitoring and focus group interviews of occupants.
While impossible to separate which design
initiatives accounted for which gain in productivity,
the conclusions can be summarised as a 10%
increase in productivity [7] as shown in Figure 9
below.
-8.0%
-6.0%
-4.0%
-2.0%
0.0%
2.0%
4.0%
6.0%
CH1 CH2
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y

L
o
s
s
/
G
a
i
n

Figure 9: Perceived productivity from CH1 to CH2 [7]
8. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Acknowledging that thermal comfort increases
the productivity of a buildings occupant unmasks a
key driver in understanding the financial motivation
for undertaking passive design retrofit options.
Examining the case study performance as well as
the performance glazing and external shading
initiatives modelled demonstrates the powerful
incentives that exist to include productivity as a
metric for effective decision making in refurbishment
projects.
The decrease in energy usage per year is
approximately AUD$5/m
2
/year whereas the increase
in revenue from these initiatives is approximately
AUD$450/m
2
/year (i.e. the cooling load savings
account for around 1% of the financial motivation
when considering passive design refurbishment
options).
This paper has laid out a methodology that can
be applied to an actual building to more holistically
assess various refurbishment options within a sites
context.

9. LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER STUDIES
There are a number of limitations to this paper
and a number of further studies to generate more
accurate results.
This study has not considered the potential
negative productivity benefits due to reduced daylight
through the use of performance glazing or external
shading. This must always be considered in actual
building design.
This study has used the Sydney climate which is
a cooling based climate. The results and passive
design options selected are highly dependent on
whether the climate is heating or cooling based and
would require adjustment accordingly.
10. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to take this opportunity to thank WSP,
in particular Matthew Payne of Built Ecology, a
specialist environmental division of WSP for his
support in giving me the time and inspiration required
to write this paper. I would also like to thank Andrew
Corney of Built Ecology for providing some of the
fundamental ideas behind this paper. Particular
thanks to Beatrice Hon for her valuable guidance and
support, as always.
11. REFERENCES
[1] BRITISH STANDARDS INSTITUTE (2005) BS
EN ISO 7730:2005: Ergonomics of the thermal
environment Analytical determination and
interpretation of thermal comfort using
calculation of the PMV and PPD indices and
local thermal comfort criteria. United Kingdom:
British Standards Institute.
[2] AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS (2009)
Employee Earnings and Hours, Australia, Aug
2008 [WWW]. Available from:
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/63
06.0/ [Accessed 15/11/2010].
[3] AUSTRALIAN TAX OFFICE (2010) Compulsory
employer contributions [WWW]. Available from:
http://ato.gov.au/individuals/content.asp?doc=/c
ontent/00250233.htm&page=3&H3 [Accessed
15/11/2010].
[4] NSW GOVERNMENT (2010) Payroll tax [WWW]
Office of State Revenue. Available from:
http://www.osr.nsw.gov.au/taxes/payroll/
[Accessed 15/11/2010].
[5] DG & AB MAXWELL CONSULTING
ACCOUNTANTS (2004) Corporate overheads of
local governments. NSW: DG & AB Maxwell
Consulting Accountants, pp. 1-15.
[6] Kosonen, R. and Tan, F. (2004) Assessment of
productivity loss in air-conditioned buildings
using PMV index. Energy and Buildings, 36 (10),
pp. 987-993.
[7] CSIRO (2008) Indoor Environment Quality and
Occupant Productivity in CH2 Building: Post
Occupant Summary. Melbourne: CSIRO, pp. 1-
38.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 493

The Summer Performance of the BASF House
Lucelia RODRGUES
1
, Mark GLLOTT
2

1,2
University of Nottingham, Nottingham UK
ABSTRACT: Since its opening in January 2008, the BASF House, part of the Creative Energy Homes (CEH)
project, has attracted significant attention from the public and the scientific community. The two main aspects of
the design brief were energy efficiency and affordability, hence the interest in the project. The house was built to
achieve Code for Sustainable Homes (CfSH) level 4 using Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) and
incorporating Phase Change Materials (PCM) and an Earth-Air Heat Exchanger (EAHE) together with great
reliance on passive design measures to achieve thermal comfort. A critical evaluation of the home's thermal
performance and users comfort over the summer of 2009 (May to August) was undertaken. This paper reports
on the results of that analysis which are being made public for the first time.
An analysis of the data shows that, taking the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE)
criteria as a benchmark, most of the house was comfortable except for the bedrooms which presented some
overheating in this period with temperatures above 25
o
C more than 20% of the time, above 26
o
C around 10% of
this period and above 28
o
C between 1 and 2% of the time. Despite those readings, the occupiers said they felt
comfortable throughout the summer and appreciated being able to control the opening of the windows and the
spacious feel of the rooms. These results raised an interesting discussion about thermal comfort benchmarks
and reality as well as its dependency on other factors such as the overall space experience, daylight, visual
contact with the outside and opportunities to interact and control your own environment. The study also allowed
for an insight into the effectiveness of the use of the PCM and EAHE systems.
Overall, the BASF House prototype was found to be comfortable and pleasant over the summer. However, there
are opportunities for improvement of its design before it is taken into a larger scale development.
Keywords: Energy Efficiency, Thermal Comfort, Low-energy Housing, Summer Overheating, Phase Change
Materials, Earth-Air Heat Exchanger
1. INTRODUCTION
Due to an underlying problem in the long term
housing supply, which has not met its demand for
many years, the British government announced in
2007 that it is committed to increase the rate of
house-building by a new target of 240,000 additional
homes a year in order to complete 2 million dwellings
by 2016 [1]. Simultaneously, an ambitious target has
been set since 2007 for all new houses to meet net
carbon dioxide emissions (zero carbon) from 2016 in
an attempt to tackle climate change and meet the
targets set by the Kyoto Protocol that came into force
in 2005 [2].
n order to deliver more houses of better quality
at a faster rate, the government and its agencies
prioritised the modernisation of the housebuilding
sector through the promotion of Modern Methods of
Construction (MMC). Stricter building regulations and
new building standards such as the Code for
Sustainable Homes (CfSH) have also been
implemented to support the construction of more
energy efficient and sustainable dwellings. MMC
have the potential to meet the new regulations and
standards, and produce better quality homes that
may use less energy for space heating but may also
create homes that are more susceptible to
overheating. Hence the paradox lies on the fact that
a rising demand for cooling may be a result of the
effort to reduce energy demand for heating [3].
The University of Nottingham is at the forefront of
the research on these issues with the creation of the
Creative Energy Homes (CEH see www.creative-
energy-homes.co.uk), a 7 house project located on
Green Close on the university campus [4]. The
project provides a unique research facility aiming to
stimulate sustainable design ideas primarily using
MMC and promote new ways of providing affordable,
environmentally sustainable housing. Each CEH
dwelling is fully monitored to provide quantitative
data on environmental conditions, energy
performance characteristics, micro-generation output
and occupancy behaviour. Qualitative data has also
been collected.
The BASF house, designed by Derek Trowell
Architects and built by BASF with the support of the
Department of Architecture and Built Environment,
was the second house to start on the CEH project
and its construction was completed in January 2008.
Claire Farrar, leader of the project, announced "In
building the BASF House in Nottingham, we took into
consideration a number of issues affecting the
construction industry: tightening of carbon emissions
used in buildings, shortage of affordable housing,
shortage of skilled Labour, lack of available building
land and energy performance [5].
2. THE BASF HOUSE
The BASF House is a compact experimental
house that functions as a conventional dwelling.
Performance data of the occupied house have been
collected since January 2009. The main aspects
outlined on the house's brief were that the home was
intended to be energy efficient achieving CfSH Level
4, in addition to being economical and affordable.


Figure 8: Picture of CH2 from front showing external
shading (left) and inside showing exposed thermal mass
(right)
Extensive third party studies were carried out on
CH2 to determine the occupant productivity pre- and
post-occupancy in the form of surveys, indoor
environment quality monitoring, indoor air quality
monitoring and focus group interviews of occupants.
While impossible to separate which design
initiatives accounted for which gain in productivity,
the conclusions can be summarised as a 10%
increase in productivity [7] as shown in Figure 9
below.
-8.0%
-6.0%
-4.0%
-2.0%
0.0%
2.0%
4.0%
6.0%
CH1 CH2
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y

L
o
s
s
/
G
a
i
n

Figure 9: Perceived productivity from CH1 to CH2 [7]
8. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Acknowledging that thermal comfort increases
the productivity of a buildings occupant unmasks a
key driver in understanding the financial motivation
for undertaking passive design retrofit options.
Examining the case study performance as well as
the performance glazing and external shading
initiatives modelled demonstrates the powerful
incentives that exist to include productivity as a
metric for effective decision making in refurbishment
projects.
The decrease in energy usage per year is
approximately AUD$5/m
2
/year whereas the increase
in revenue from these initiatives is approximately
AUD$450/m
2
/year (i.e. the cooling load savings
account for around 1% of the financial motivation
when considering passive design refurbishment
options).
This paper has laid out a methodology that can
be applied to an actual building to more holistically
assess various refurbishment options within a sites
context.

9. LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER STUDIES
There are a number of limitations to this paper
and a number of further studies to generate more
accurate results.
This study has not considered the potential
negative productivity benefits due to reduced daylight
through the use of performance glazing or external
shading. This must always be considered in actual
building design.
This study has used the Sydney climate which is
a cooling based climate. The results and passive
design options selected are highly dependent on
whether the climate is heating or cooling based and
would require adjustment accordingly.
10. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to take this opportunity to thank WSP,
in particular Matthew Payne of Built Ecology, a
specialist environmental division of WSP for his
support in giving me the time and inspiration required
to write this paper. I would also like to thank Andrew
Corney of Built Ecology for providing some of the
fundamental ideas behind this paper. Particular
thanks to Beatrice Hon for her valuable guidance and
support, as always.
11. REFERENCES
[1] BRITISH STANDARDS INSTITUTE (2005) BS
EN ISO 7730:2005: Ergonomics of the thermal
environment Analytical determination and
interpretation of thermal comfort using
calculation of the PMV and PPD indices and
local thermal comfort criteria. United Kingdom:
British Standards Institute.
[2] AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS (2009)
Employee Earnings and Hours, Australia, Aug
2008 [WWW]. Available from:
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/63
06.0/ [Accessed 15/11/2010].
[3] AUSTRALIAN TAX OFFICE (2010) Compulsory
employer contributions [WWW]. Available from:
http://ato.gov.au/individuals/content.asp?doc=/c
ontent/00250233.htm&page=3&H3 [Accessed
15/11/2010].
[4] NSW GOVERNMENT (2010) Payroll tax [WWW]
Office of State Revenue. Available from:
http://www.osr.nsw.gov.au/taxes/payroll/
[Accessed 15/11/2010].
[5] DG & AB MAXWELL CONSULTING
ACCOUNTANTS (2004) Corporate overheads of
local governments. NSW: DG & AB Maxwell
Consulting Accountants, pp. 1-15.
[6] Kosonen, R. and Tan, F. (2004) Assessment of
productivity loss in air-conditioned buildings
using PMV index. Energy and Buildings, 36 (10),
pp. 987-993.
[7] CSIRO (2008) Indoor Environment Quality and
Occupant Productivity in CH2 Building: Post
Occupant Summary. Melbourne: CSIRO, pp. 1-
38.
PLEA 2011 - 27
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494 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
The house was designed to be a terrace house
although just one unit has been built as a prototype.
t puts great reliance on passive design and the
south facing sunspace is a primary contributor to
heating and ventilation.
2.1. The Design
The BASF House has an untraditional look due
primarily to its ventilation strategies and selection of
materials (Figure 1). t is a 3-bedroom house
composed of around 100m
2
divided into ground and
first floors.
The ground floor includes an unheated 'buffer
space' on the north side that acts as an entrance
lobby, houses the control system and is also used as
storage for bikes and biomass fuel. This floor has an
open plan except for two rooms, the toilet and the
utility room, where the equipment (such as the
biomass boiler, solar thermal hot water cylinder and
rainwater harvesting control system) are housed. The
house is naturally ventilated and the staircase is
located in the middle of the plan allowing for warm air
to flow to the first floor by stack effect. Air is
exhausted by windows placed close to the roof ridge
line on the north facade.
The first floor has two main south bedrooms, one
smaller north bedroom and a family bathroom. There
are no windows on the East and West faade so the
house can be built as a terrace or semi-detached
house in future developments.
The southern elevation comprises a fully glazed
double-height sunspace contained within the house
volume designed to contribute to the home space
heating requirements in winter. The space has a
number of different opening apertures to ensure that
both of the glazed screens to the sunspace can be
opened or closed to facilitate heating or cooling. t
also has external shading and internal blinds. House
drawings are shown in Figures 2, 3 and 4.
This house should be considered as a system
that combines diverse strategies such as shading,
buffer zones, compactness of design, highly
insulated building fabric, double-glazing windows,
phase change materials (PCM) on the ceilings, an
earth-air heat exchanger (EAHE) for cooling and pre-
heating of air, and natural ventilation by stack effect
to achieve its desired performance.
PCMs work by storing latent heat for later release
during a material's change of phase (e.g. solid to
liquid). n this case the material used was a gypsum
board containing wax with a melting/solidifying
temperature of 23
o
C and a much higher heat storage
capacity than ordinary plasterboards. n the BASF
House, 100m
2
of a board containing PCM was
distributed on the ceiling of the living room,
bedrooms southwest and southeast and the
sunspace. The product used was the BASF Knauf
Micronal DS 5000 X Smartboard with a melting point
of 23
o
C as suggested by BASF. Each 1m
2
of the
board contains 3kg of PCM and each 1kg of the
PCM has a latent heat storage capacity of 110kJ.

Figure 1: The BASF House

Figure 2: The BASF House's ground floor plan with the
EAHE layout

Figure 3: The BASF House's first floor plan
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 495


Figure 4: The BASF House's diagrammatic section
EAHEs, also known as ground pipes, work by
using the thermal mass of the earth as a heat sink to
condition air that is then delivered to the space. The
EAHE installed was a commercial system called
Awadukt Thermo produced by Rehau. The system
has filters in the inlet and an anti-microbial pipe inner
layer (silver lining) in the pipes to avoid problems
with air quality. Pipes are made of polypropylene with
enhanced heat transfer. Any condensation is
pumped to a soak-away. The total length is 36m and
it is buried at a depth of 1.5m. The pipes layout can
be seen in Figure 2. Both strategies, PCM and
EAHE, were installed in the house to substitute the
thermal mass that would traditionally be available on
walls and floors, unavailable because of the house's
chosen construction methods.
n winter, in order to ensure the comfort of the
occupants, a biomass boiler can be activated to
deliver heat through a trench located on the ground
floor along the sunspace. Air from the EAHE is
delivered either to the sunspace to be further heated
by the sun or to supply grills located under a trench
heater along the glazed perimeter of living room.
Warm air from the sunspace can be delivered to the
house through openings at ground and first floor. n
summer, the sunspace windows can be opened and
the higher windows on the top of the house can be
used to extract warm air encouraging stack effect.
Further cooling can be supplied by the EAHE and
excess heat can be absorbed by the PCM.
The opening and closing of the central windows
can be controlled manually or activated automatically
by the home automation system (WebBrick). The
system can also control the EAHE, the boiler, the
lighting and electricity. Sensors have been
distributed measuring temperature, humidity, energy
use and other aspects of the house performance. A
full post-occupancy evaluation is being undertaken
as part of another project at the University of
Nottingham.
2.2. MateriaIs and Construction Methods
The techniques chosen for the building of the
house are all considered MMC. The materials used
have been chosen due to their practicality, high
performance and the ability to be prefabricated off-
site speeding up the construction. The whole house
was constructed in 25 weeks at a cost of just over
70k (according to BASF based on a 20 house
development, value to be confirmed).
The foundations used a system which included
steel trays filled with concrete (Roger Bullivant
System First) and surrounded by a type of insulation
developed by BASF called Neopor. Neopor is a type
of extruded polystyrene sheet (EPS) enhanced with
graphite for a lower conductivity and higher density.
t was also used to produce the insulated concrete
formwork (CF) that composed the ground floor walls.
The concrete used to fill the CF also had enhanced
thermal properties. The first floor walls and the roof
were constructed using structural insulated panels
(SPs) and took just a couple of days to be built on-
site. An extra layer of insulation was added on floors,
walls and roof to ensure an overall U-Value of
0.15W/m
2
K.
The ground floor wall was finished with a
reinforced rendering and the first floor walls and roof
were finished with a metal cladding covered with
BASF coatings for solar heat management (Figure
1). The windows, external doors and curtain walling
were made of PVC-U (polyvinyl chloride un-
plasticised). The windows are double glazed argon
filled with a U-Value of 1.66W/m
2
K. The external
curtain wailing is double glazed (for structural
strength), air filled with a U-Value of 2.7W/m
2
K and
the internal is argon filled with a U-Value of
1.7W/m
2
K.
3. MONITORED DATA
There are 19 temperature sensors installed in
different locations in the BASF house, some of them
measuring air temperature, one measuring PCM
surface temperature and others installed in various
items of equipment. n addition, the WebBrick system
encompasses 3 humidity sensors, 9 energy meters,
a lux meter and a pyranometer. Unfortunately there
are no sensors recording the opening and closing of
doors or windows.
The house was occupied by research students
working at the University of Nottingham. A couple
used the southwest bedroom and a single student
occupied the southeast one during the investigated
period. t was difficult to find a pattern of use of the
house as the inhabitants worked a few minutes away
from the house and were able to 'visit' the house
during day time and even work in there. n addition,
the house receives hundreds of visitors per month
through the CEH demonstration programme.
3.1. Scope and Method
Dallas DS18B20 temperature sensors with an
accuracy of 0.5
o
C were installed and calibrated.
The temperature data has been recorded every 6
minutes and a comma separated data file has been
produced every day. As this work focuses on the
summer performance, data from May to August of
2009 was downloaded, processed and analysed.
The data were reduced to a reading for every hour
for every sensor, including external temperatures.
This set of data collected on-site was called the
'Base Case' and compared against the CBSE
criteria for thermal comfort.
The CBSE benchmark for summer temperatures
in the living room is 26
o
C, which should not be
exceeded; if that benchmark is exceeded, it should
not be for longer than 1% of the time above 28
o
C or it
is considered overheating. n bedrooms the desirable
The house was designed to be a terrace house
although just one unit has been built as a prototype.
t puts great reliance on passive design and the
south facing sunspace is a primary contributor to
heating and ventilation.
2.1. The Design
The BASF House has an untraditional look due
primarily to its ventilation strategies and selection of
materials (Figure 1). t is a 3-bedroom house
composed of around 100m
2
divided into ground and
first floors.
The ground floor includes an unheated 'buffer
space' on the north side that acts as an entrance
lobby, houses the control system and is also used as
storage for bikes and biomass fuel. This floor has an
open plan except for two rooms, the toilet and the
utility room, where the equipment (such as the
biomass boiler, solar thermal hot water cylinder and
rainwater harvesting control system) are housed. The
house is naturally ventilated and the staircase is
located in the middle of the plan allowing for warm air
to flow to the first floor by stack effect. Air is
exhausted by windows placed close to the roof ridge
line on the north facade.
The first floor has two main south bedrooms, one
smaller north bedroom and a family bathroom. There
are no windows on the East and West faade so the
house can be built as a terrace or semi-detached
house in future developments.
The southern elevation comprises a fully glazed
double-height sunspace contained within the house
volume designed to contribute to the home space
heating requirements in winter. The space has a
number of different opening apertures to ensure that
both of the glazed screens to the sunspace can be
opened or closed to facilitate heating or cooling. t
also has external shading and internal blinds. House
drawings are shown in Figures 2, 3 and 4.
This house should be considered as a system
that combines diverse strategies such as shading,
buffer zones, compactness of design, highly
insulated building fabric, double-glazing windows,
phase change materials (PCM) on the ceilings, an
earth-air heat exchanger (EAHE) for cooling and pre-
heating of air, and natural ventilation by stack effect
to achieve its desired performance.
PCMs work by storing latent heat for later release
during a material's change of phase (e.g. solid to
liquid). n this case the material used was a gypsum
board containing wax with a melting/solidifying
temperature of 23
o
C and a much higher heat storage
capacity than ordinary plasterboards. n the BASF
House, 100m
2
of a board containing PCM was
distributed on the ceiling of the living room,
bedrooms southwest and southeast and the
sunspace. The product used was the BASF Knauf
Micronal DS 5000 X Smartboard with a melting point
of 23
o
C as suggested by BASF. Each 1m
2
of the
board contains 3kg of PCM and each 1kg of the
PCM has a latent heat storage capacity of 110kJ.

Figure 1: The BASF House

Figure 2: The BASF House's ground floor plan with the
EAHE layout

Figure 3: The BASF House's first floor plan
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
496 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
temperature is 23
o
C and the temperatures should not
exceed 25
o
C but if they do they should not stay
above 26
o
C for more than 1% of the time [6].
3.2. ResuIts
The data analysis show that the living room,
dining room and kitchen (named living area) are
within the CBSE suggested comfortable
temperatures and overheating levels in the sunspace
are below expected and at acceptable levels,
especially if the first floor of the sunspace is not
considered habitable (Figure 5).
However, some overheating can be observed in
the bedrooms. There is also a difference between
the southwest (25% of the time over 25
o
C) and
southeast (23% of the times over 25
o
C) bedrooms
(Figure 5). This could be due to a number of
reasons: firstly the southwest bedroom was either
occupied by 2 people or empty for periods while the
southeast bedroom was occupied by just 1 person.
Secondly, they are used in different ways: when the
users were in the house, the door of the southwest
bedroom was kept open during the daytime so it
received greater quantities of warm air from the rest
of the house. When the users were away the door
and windows were kept closed. The top windows of
the southeast bedroom were more frequently
opened. Unexpectedly overheating is seen even in
the north bedroom, possibly because its door was
also kept open most of the time (the bedroom was
unoccupied and being used for storage during this
period).
These bedrooms were occupied by students who
also may use them in the day (especially because
the house is shared so the bedroom is effectively the
only totally private space) so overheating may be an
issue not only at night. Nevertheless analysis of the
data has shown that overheating happens also at
night, especially in the southwest bedroom were the
peak temperature between 7pm and 6am over the
period (May to August) was found to be 31.8
o
C. This
bedroom was found to reach temperatures above
23
o
C between 7pm and 6am for 9% of the period and
above 26
o
C for 3.6%. This is considered overheating
according to the CBSE criteria.
July, the month with the highest temperatures
that year, was chosen as an example. Figures 6, 7, 8
and 9 are representatives of this month. Figures 7
and 9 show temperatures above 24
o
C in the south
bedrooms even at night in warmer days.
The bedrooms presented similar pattern of
behaviour even though the north bedroom was
always colder (Figures 7 and 9). f compared with the
bedrooms, the living area presented a much 'flatter'
pattern with less temperature variation between day
and night (around 2
o
C). The south bedrooms
presented between 4 and 5
o
C of variation and
reached 30
o
C on the hottest day. The peak
temperatures in the 3 bedrooms were similar during
the 4 months, around 29 to 31
o
C, while in the living
room it was 27
o
C. The average temperature in the
north bedroom was around 22
o
C, 1
o
C higher than the
living room and 1.5
o
C lower than the south
bedrooms.
Figure 5: Percentage of time outside comfort zone
Figure 6: Temperatures of the living area, sunspace, PCM
and EAHE in July
Figure 7: Temperatures of the living area and bedrooms in
July
Figure 8: Temperatures of the living area, sunspace, PCM
and EAHE in the first 2 days of July
Figure 9: Temperatures of the living are and bedrooms in
the first 2 days of July

PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 497


This illustrates that the high temperatures in
these spaces are not due to solar radiation (as this is
blocked in this period of the year) but only due to air
movement and envelope exposure. Furthermore,
even though temperatures in the bedrooms drop at
night, they are still higher than the limits suggested
by CBSE. Regrettably there is no data to support the
understanding of how the ventilation contributed to
these results.
Throughout July the temperatures in the top of
the sunspace did not go below 20
o
C and reached
30
o
C. t is worth noting that at this time of year the
sunspace was fully shaded (consequently there were
no contributions from direct solar gains) and the
ventilation was controlled by the occupants. n
addition, the sunspace has PCM boards on the
ceiling and has received cold air from the EAHE
whenever that was activated by the users.
Unfortunately the system does not record when the
EAHE fan was on or off but in Figure 6 one can
distinguish periods when the EAHE outlet in the
living area presents a flatter pattern. n Figure 8 the
contribution of the EAHE can be clearly seen.
n addition to the expected stack effect, other
factors influenced the resultant temperatures in the
sunspace such as the delivered fresh air from the
EAHE at around 16
o
C at ground floor level (when the
fan was on), the accessibility of the ground floor
windows, which tended to be used more often than
the first floor windows, and the size of openings. The
ground floor of the sunspace has an openable area
to the outside of around 8m
2
whilst the first floor has
an effective opening area of 0.64m
2
. To the house's
interior, the sunspace has an effective opening area
of 6.7m
2
to the living area (ground floor), just 0.4m
2

to the circulation on the first floor (through where
most of the warm air was designed to be extracted)
and around 4m
2
to each bedroom. At a higher level,
inside each bedroom there is a window with 0.3m
2
of
effective opening and in the circulation space
another window with the same area. This puts great
reliance on the use of the bedroom windows and
sliding doors to ventilate the sunspace, which might
cause problems such as the overheating of the
bedrooms (as demonstrated here) and/or noise and
privacy issues.
3.3. The Effectiveness of the PCM Boards
The temperature readings in Figures 6 and 8
were recorded on the bottom surface of the PCM
board, positioned on the ceiling of the living area (the
temperature sensor is sandwiched between the PCM
board and a plasterboard added for fire protection).
As may be seen in Figures 6, the PCM closely
follows the living area temperature pattern although
there is a small time delay which results in about 1
o
C
difference in the coolest periods (nights). Even
though one can look at the temperatures of the PCM
board on the living room ceiling (Figures 6 and 8) it is
not possible to quantify its contribution to the indoor
environment as there are no other areas that it can
be compared against.
Nonetheless a study of the percentage of time
the PCM was within its phase change zone (19 to
24
o
C, most of the changing occurring between 21
and 23
o
C) shows that it did not spend enough time
below that zone to completely solidify on a daily
basis (although it is difficult to tell if the PCM is liquid
or solid within that temperature range). This can be
seen in Figure 10: the PCM was between 19 and
24
o
C for almost 90% of the studied period which may
suggest that it was not effective in helping control the
indoor temperature each day. This emphasises the
need for cooling in order to discharge the heat from
the PCM.
The PCM may, however, have contributed to a
comfortable indoor temperature in different ways. For
example, it may have helped by generating a surface
with a stable temperature possibly altering thermal
transfer through the element it is a part of, and the
thermal sensation due to surface radiant
temperatures; but once more these hypotheses
cannot be proven.

Figure 10: Percentage of time of PCM within19 and 24
o
C
4. THE OCCUPANTS' VIEW
The author has asked the house occupiers if they
felt any overheating in the bedrooms at night and the
answer was "yes but not to the point of feeling
uncomfortable. Two of the occupants agreed that
the volume of the room helped with feeling
comfortable and that the cultural factor was crucial.
One, Chilean, said she preferred her room to be
warmer. The other, who is English, said she places
"a greater importance on air quality and ventilation
than temperature so opened the windows even in
cooler periods. Both say they would keep the sliding
doors and sunspace internal windows opened at
night in warmer periods but rarely the high level
window due to noise pollution from the main road not
far away.
Despite the fact that the small sample might be
not indicative of a cultural pattern, these comments
raised 2 interesting issues. Firstly, it suggests that
people with different cultural background might feel
comfortable at different conditions and might use
similar rooms in a different way. Secondly, they both
mention the large volume of the room as being a
contributor to comfort. There is no doubt that a room
with larger volume would present less overheating
than one with a smaller volume when subjected to
the same inputs. However, it must be noted that the
air temperatures were measured at the occupiers'
level, which means that they are readings of the
temperatures the occupiers were actually
experiencing. n addition, the only windows that were
kept regularly opened were the internal ones (the
high level ones that could encourage more stack
ventilation were rarely used) meaning little air
movement inside the space. Consequently the
temperature is 23
o
C and the temperatures should not
exceed 25
o
C but if they do they should not stay
above 26
o
C for more than 1% of the time [6].
3.2. ResuIts
The data analysis show that the living room,
dining room and kitchen (named living area) are
within the CBSE suggested comfortable
temperatures and overheating levels in the sunspace
are below expected and at acceptable levels,
especially if the first floor of the sunspace is not
considered habitable (Figure 5).
However, some overheating can be observed in
the bedrooms. There is also a difference between
the southwest (25% of the time over 25
o
C) and
southeast (23% of the times over 25
o
C) bedrooms
(Figure 5). This could be due to a number of
reasons: firstly the southwest bedroom was either
occupied by 2 people or empty for periods while the
southeast bedroom was occupied by just 1 person.
Secondly, they are used in different ways: when the
users were in the house, the door of the southwest
bedroom was kept open during the daytime so it
received greater quantities of warm air from the rest
of the house. When the users were away the door
and windows were kept closed. The top windows of
the southeast bedroom were more frequently
opened. Unexpectedly overheating is seen even in
the north bedroom, possibly because its door was
also kept open most of the time (the bedroom was
unoccupied and being used for storage during this
period).
These bedrooms were occupied by students who
also may use them in the day (especially because
the house is shared so the bedroom is effectively the
only totally private space) so overheating may be an
issue not only at night. Nevertheless analysis of the
data has shown that overheating happens also at
night, especially in the southwest bedroom were the
peak temperature between 7pm and 6am over the
period (May to August) was found to be 31.8
o
C. This
bedroom was found to reach temperatures above
23
o
C between 7pm and 6am for 9% of the period and
above 26
o
C for 3.6%. This is considered overheating
according to the CBSE criteria.
July, the month with the highest temperatures
that year, was chosen as an example. Figures 6, 7, 8
and 9 are representatives of this month. Figures 7
and 9 show temperatures above 24
o
C in the south
bedrooms even at night in warmer days.
The bedrooms presented similar pattern of
behaviour even though the north bedroom was
always colder (Figures 7 and 9). f compared with the
bedrooms, the living area presented a much 'flatter'
pattern with less temperature variation between day
and night (around 2
o
C). The south bedrooms
presented between 4 and 5
o
C of variation and
reached 30
o
C on the hottest day. The peak
temperatures in the 3 bedrooms were similar during
the 4 months, around 29 to 31
o
C, while in the living
room it was 27
o
C. The average temperature in the
north bedroom was around 22
o
C, 1
o
C higher than the
living room and 1.5
o
C lower than the south
bedrooms.
Figure 5: Percentage of time outside comfort zone
Figure 6: Temperatures of the living area, sunspace, PCM
and EAHE in July
Figure 7: Temperatures of the living area and bedrooms in
July
Figure 8: Temperatures of the living area, sunspace, PCM
and EAHE in the first 2 days of July
Figure 9: Temperatures of the living are and bedrooms in
the first 2 days of July

PLEA 2011 - 27
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498 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
volume of the room was of little thermal importance
in the readings and possibly more significant from a
visual point of view. The southwest bedroom can be
seen in Figure 11.
They also mentioned that they turned the
automated system off and preferred to manually
open and close windows and that this allowed them
to control their environment and contributed to their
comfort.

Figure 11: The sunspace and southwest bedroom
The author has also asked the users why they
have not used the EAHE more often if the
temperatures were high. The answer was simple:
"initially we did not know how or when to use the
system but now we tend to use it a lot more often
even in winter to induce ventilation and the
distribution of warm air".

5. CONCLUSION
The BASF House is a prototype house that was
built as part of the Creative Energy Homes project
using a variety of MMC techniques. The house
exploits passive design strategies for most of its
space conditioning. The southern elevation is a
double height sunspace that works as a buffer for the
living area and for 2 of the 3 bedrooms of the house.
The ventilation of these zones uses mainly air that
has to pass through the sunspace. Some of the
exhausting of over warmed air from the sunspace is
also expected to occur through these zones.
On site data from the BASF House was collected
from May to August 2009. An analysis of the data
shows that the bedrooms presented overheating in
this period with temperatures above 25
o
C more than
20% of the time, above 26
o
C around 10% of this
period and above 28
o
C between 1 and 2% of the
time. This can be attributed to the sizes of the high
level outlets designed to exhaust warm air and to the
fact that they are not often used, especially at night,
because of noise issues. t may also be a result of
the reliance on the bedroom openings for the overall
functioning of the house's ventilation strategy.
However, the occupiers say that even though it
felt warm it did not bother them. They suggested it
was due to the volume of the room. As the
temperatures were measured at the occupier's
height, and the position and functioning of the
windows allowed for little air movement, the volume
should not have interfered with the thermal
experience of the tenants. t might have interfered in
a visual perceptive way only: occupiers might have
felt it was fresher because the bedrooms felt big and
airy rather than because the temperature was at a
comfortable level
This raises an interesting discussion about
thermal comfort benchmarks that should potentially
move away from prescriptive values to an adaptive
approach. Firstly, comfort is highly subjective and, as
the house users pointed out, possibly due to their
different cultural backgrounds they are prepared to
accept different levels of overheating. Secondly, it
depends on other factors such as the overall space
experience, daylight, visual contact with the outside
and opportunities to interact and control your own
environment. Thirdly, people do not want to ignore
their thermal senses: provided that there is no
thermal stress, overheating might be welcomed as a
reminder of the summer outside.
Although surface temperatures of the installed
PCM board were recorded, its benefits could not be
measured. However, it was possible to see that the
PCM stayed within its phase change temperature
range for almost 90% of the studied period. That
suggests that the PCM did not have an opportunity to
discharge the heat and re-solidify to be ready for a
new cycle, which should ideally happen on a daily
basis. This emphasises the need for additional
cooling of the boards. Despite working well, the
EAHE's was initially rarely used by the occupiers but
should contribute more for a comfortable
environment in the future.
t is clear that the risk of overheating in houses in
the UK exists now and may become a bigger issue in
the future with warmer temperatures. There are
many ways to mitigate it but ultimately it is the design
that dictates the effectiveness of any strategy. n the
case of the BASF House, there are opportunities to
improve the prototype before it becomes part of
larger developments.
6. REFERENCES
1. Department for Communities and Local
Government, Homes for the future: more affordable,
more sustainable, T.S.o.S.f.C.a.L. Government,
Editor. 2007b, Communities and Local Government:
London.
2. Department for Communities and Local
Government, Definition of Zero Carbon Homes and
Non-Domestic Buildings: Consultation. 2008:
London.
3. Rodrigues, L., An Investigation into the Use
of Thermal Mass to Improve Comfort in British
Housing, in Department of Architecture and Built
Environment. 2009, University of Nottingham:
Nottingham.
4. Gillott, M., L.T. Rodrigues, and C. Spataru,
Low-carbon housing design informed by research.
Proceedings of the CE - Engineering Sustainability,
2009. 163(2): p. 77-87
5. Farrar, C. The BASF House. 2009;
Available from: www.energyefficiency.basf.com
/ecp1/EnergyEfficiency/en/content/show_houses/UK/
01_Relevant_ssues/Relevant_ssues [Accessed on
20
th
of August 2009].
6. CBSE, Guide A: Environmental Design. 7th
ed. 2006, London: Chartered nstitution of Building
Services Engineers.
The authors would like to thank BASF and partners
for supporting the project.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 499

GREEN SCHOOL: EnvironmentaI Performance and
Perception
A post occupancy evaluation of two Singapore schools
NURUL AN SAADON, BENG-KANG TAN
Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore, Singapore
ABSTRACT: Do green-certified schools live up to their rating and perform at a higher environmental level than
other typical schools? Does the green branding of a school have any influence on the perception of the users in the
way they think and use the building? In this study, qualitative and quantitative post occupancy evaluations of two
schools are carried out to investigate these questions, and the scope is confined to the assessment of green
schools in Singapore. The selected green school is assessed for its environmental performances, and its electricity
and water consumptions are compared to another standard school. Occupant surveys and photographic walk-
throughs were also carried out, to find out if the environmental image of the school has any influence on aspects of
user perceptions and awareness. This study identified that the green credential of the school does affect the
perceptions of the users, and the building does have a better environmental performance in certain areas.
Keywords: green, schools, environmental performance, perception
1. INTRODUCTION
Currently, the initiative of building green schools in
Singapore (a country in the tropics, 1 22' 0" N / 103
48' 0" E) is only in its infancy. Not only do green
schools lessen environmental impact, it has also been
proven that they can successfully bring about
significant health benefits and higher learning
productivity for students as well as teachers. [1,2]
A survey conducted for the US Green Building
Council (USGBC) in 2007 [3] showed that education
buildings had the highest projected annual growth
rates for green buildings. n due course, a school's
degree of sustainability will eventually become its
symbol of status. However, upon being awarded its
"green status, does the green credential affect the
attitudes and perceptions of the users? More
importantly, does the building perform to expectations
(or surpasses expectations), in terms of
environmental performance, as compared to a non-
green building?
This paper seeks to answer these questions in
the post-occupancy evaluation of a selected green-
rated primary school in Singapore and compare the
results to that of a standard local primary school. A
similar study has been done in UK [4,5,6] but none in
Singapore. Singapore schools have classrooms that
are naturally ventilated and only staff room and some
special rooms are air-conditioned.
2. SELECTED CASE STUDIES
The key questions that guided the investigative
direction of this study are:
1) s the green school (HW School) performing
better environmentally than a standard school (PR
Primary School)?

2) What impact does the environmental design
have on perceptions of the school and on
environmental awareness?
2.1. HW Primary SchooI (HWS)

Figure 1: Front elevation view of the new HW School
HWS, being the very first sustainable school in
Singapore and awarded the Green Mark Gold Award
(a Singapore green building rating system), was
selected as the main case study. The new school was
relocated to its new premise in January 2009. The
school of 20,768 m GFA has 1,258 students and 73
staff, as of 2009.
The two narrow classroom blocks are tilted 45
degrees in order to have a North-South orientation to
minimize exposure to sunlight. The classrooms
surround an amphitheatre, an informal area for the
students to relax and play. The other areas are the
admin block, multi-purpose hall, indoor sports hall,
canteen, the playfield and the play court. t is the only
local school to have a roof-garden.

volume of the room was of little thermal importance
in the readings and possibly more significant from a
visual point of view. The southwest bedroom can be
seen in Figure 11.
They also mentioned that they turned the
automated system off and preferred to manually
open and close windows and that this allowed them
to control their environment and contributed to their
comfort.

Figure 11: The sunspace and southwest bedroom
The author has also asked the users why they
have not used the EAHE more often if the
temperatures were high. The answer was simple:
"initially we did not know how or when to use the
system but now we tend to use it a lot more often
even in winter to induce ventilation and the
distribution of warm air".

5. CONCLUSION
The BASF House is a prototype house that was
built as part of the Creative Energy Homes project
using a variety of MMC techniques. The house
exploits passive design strategies for most of its
space conditioning. The southern elevation is a
double height sunspace that works as a buffer for the
living area and for 2 of the 3 bedrooms of the house.
The ventilation of these zones uses mainly air that
has to pass through the sunspace. Some of the
exhausting of over warmed air from the sunspace is
also expected to occur through these zones.
On site data from the BASF House was collected
from May to August 2009. An analysis of the data
shows that the bedrooms presented overheating in
this period with temperatures above 25
o
C more than
20% of the time, above 26
o
C around 10% of this
period and above 28
o
C between 1 and 2% of the
time. This can be attributed to the sizes of the high
level outlets designed to exhaust warm air and to the
fact that they are not often used, especially at night,
because of noise issues. t may also be a result of
the reliance on the bedroom openings for the overall
functioning of the house's ventilation strategy.
However, the occupiers say that even though it
felt warm it did not bother them. They suggested it
was due to the volume of the room. As the
temperatures were measured at the occupier's
height, and the position and functioning of the
windows allowed for little air movement, the volume
should not have interfered with the thermal
experience of the tenants. t might have interfered in
a visual perceptive way only: occupiers might have
felt it was fresher because the bedrooms felt big and
airy rather than because the temperature was at a
comfortable level
This raises an interesting discussion about
thermal comfort benchmarks that should potentially
move away from prescriptive values to an adaptive
approach. Firstly, comfort is highly subjective and, as
the house users pointed out, possibly due to their
different cultural backgrounds they are prepared to
accept different levels of overheating. Secondly, it
depends on other factors such as the overall space
experience, daylight, visual contact with the outside
and opportunities to interact and control your own
environment. Thirdly, people do not want to ignore
their thermal senses: provided that there is no
thermal stress, overheating might be welcomed as a
reminder of the summer outside.
Although surface temperatures of the installed
PCM board were recorded, its benefits could not be
measured. However, it was possible to see that the
PCM stayed within its phase change temperature
range for almost 90% of the studied period. That
suggests that the PCM did not have an opportunity to
discharge the heat and re-solidify to be ready for a
new cycle, which should ideally happen on a daily
basis. This emphasises the need for additional
cooling of the boards. Despite working well, the
EAHE's was initially rarely used by the occupiers but
should contribute more for a comfortable
environment in the future.
t is clear that the risk of overheating in houses in
the UK exists now and may become a bigger issue in
the future with warmer temperatures. There are
many ways to mitigate it but ultimately it is the design
that dictates the effectiveness of any strategy. n the
case of the BASF House, there are opportunities to
improve the prototype before it becomes part of
larger developments.
6. REFERENCES
1. Department for Communities and Local
Government, Homes for the future: more affordable,
more sustainable, T.S.o.S.f.C.a.L. Government,
Editor. 2007b, Communities and Local Government:
London.
2. Department for Communities and Local
Government, Definition of Zero Carbon Homes and
Non-Domestic Buildings: Consultation. 2008:
London.
3. Rodrigues, L., An Investigation into the Use
of Thermal Mass to Improve Comfort in British
Housing, in Department of Architecture and Built
Environment. 2009, University of Nottingham:
Nottingham.
4. Gillott, M., L.T. Rodrigues, and C. Spataru,
Low-carbon housing design informed by research.
Proceedings of the CE - Engineering Sustainability,
2009. 163(2): p. 77-87
5. Farrar, C. The BASF House. 2009;
Available from: www.energyefficiency.basf.com
/ecp1/EnergyEfficiency/en/content/show_houses/UK/
01_Relevant_ssues/Relevant_ssues [Accessed on
20
th
of August 2009].
6. CBSE, Guide A: Environmental Design. 7th
ed. 2006, London: Chartered nstitution of Building
Services Engineers.
The authors would like to thank BASF and partners
for supporting the project.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
500 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)


Figure 2: Zoning of areas in HWS
The new green school contrasted with its older,
smaller building which was ranked worst against other
primary schools in Singapore for its electrical and
water consumption. The green features adopted were
the use of Solatube to bring in light from external into
1
st
storey foyer space, energy-efficient lighting,
limiting the depth of most classrooms to not more
than 9.5m to allow for natural daylighting, use of
water-saving sanitary wares, use of light-weight roof
garden system over the classroom blocks and
providing CO sensor for library & staff room.
2.2. PR Primary SchooI (PRPS)

Figure 3: Front elevation view of PRPS

As of 2009, PRPS has a GFA of 15,223 m and a
population of 1,669 students and 141 staff. Despite
not being a "green school, it is clear that PRPS takes
its environmental responsibilities seriously. The
school's walls are covered with environmental
awareness messages and energy conservation
reminders written by the Energy Conservation
Committee. t organizes special days like Green Day
or Earth Week to further instil environmental
consciousness in each of its students.
PRPS was upgraded in 2000 but it was not
planned and designed to be a sustainable school.
Two of the classroom blocks are organized along a
spine of green courtyard space, shielded away from
the sunlight but the other two special rooms blocks
and the gable end of another classroom block are
exposed to the eastern sun.


Figure 4: Zoning of areas in PRPS
3. QUANTITATIVE STUDY
3.1. Overview
Environmental parameters were measured at
regular intervals over a two-week period; 10-24 July
2009 at both schools. Hobo meters were placed at
two similar locations in one upper primary classroom
(windows exposed to the Eastern sun) and in the
middle of the staff room, for each of the two schools.
The temperature, relative humidity and lighting levels
of both spaces were measured, recorded and
analysed.
Energy and water consumption patterns of the two
schools were compared to the local benchmark of
50
th
percentile for consumptions recorded for
Singapore Primary Schools in 2006-2008 (the local
benchmark data for the years 2008-2011 are not
available) as well as Maintained Primary Schools in
England from 2002-2003. [7]
3.2. EIectricity Consumption of both schooIs
Table 1: HWS & PRPS Electricity Consumption (per m)
Year
HWS
(kWh/m/
yr)
PRPS
(kWh/m/
yr)
Bench
mark
(LocaI)
Bench
mark
(UK)
2002 - - - 37.0
2006 95.8 37.8 40.7 -
2007 88.2 37.4 37.8 -
2008 88.5 35.8 - -
2009 25.7 39.6 - -
2010 23.9 40.7 - -

f we were to compare its consumption
based on square meter, HWS's old premise was
consistently ranked as one of the worst primary
schools in Singapore for its energy usage in previous
years. There was a tremendous improvement in
energy savings after the school moved into a bigger
building in 2009. This is commendable as the new
building is about five times the size of the old building
and it is usual that new school buildings consume
more energy for the first few months of occupancy.
Yet, it consumes much less energy than its older,
smaller building.
PLEA 2011 - 27
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 501

3.3. Water Consumption
Table 2: HWS & PRPS Water Consumption (per m)

For HWS, the increase in water consumption for 2010
was mainly the result of leakage from the
underground main water supply pipes to the water
tanks on the roof. The leak was only rectified in early
June 2010. PRPS's overall water consumption figures
were higher than those of HWS.

3.4. PhysicaI Data Measurement (Hobo Meter)
Table 3: HWS and PRPS Physical Data Measurement
*the room has aircondition
3.5. Findings from the Quantitative Study
To have a more accurate understanding of the
consumption patterns of both schools, the 2009 and
2010 eIectricaI and water consumption figures
were also included in Tables 1 and 2 above. The
tables indicate that HWS is definitely performing
better environmentally, as compared to PRPS. The
energy savings may be attributed to the installation of
energy-efficient lightings in the entire school since
according to the school's operation manager, lighting
consumes the highest percentage of energy on an
annual basis than cooling. The only air-conditioned
areas are the staff room and some special rooms.
HWS's eIectricaI consumption of 25.7 and 23.9
kWh/m/yr in 2009 and 2010 respectively (table 1) is
commendable as it is lower than the local benchmark
of 37.8 kWh/m/yr in 2007 and lower that the UK
benchmark for 'good practice' quoted in the DCSF

[5]
for the top 25 percent of UK schools. This clearly
indicates that the Green Mark building is performing.
HWS also fared better than PRPS in water
consumption based on per square metre (table 2).
However, both schools' figures are still lesser than
DCSF 'typical' benchmark.
The Iighting IeveIs for HWS met the minimum
requirement of 500 Iux (equivalent to about 46
Ium/sqf) for teaching, working and reading, while
PRPS have lower lighting levels for both areas. Both
schools have nearly the same temperature readings.
4. QUALITATIVE STUDY
4.1. Overview
This comprises a Post Occupancy EvaIuation by
carrying out a survey based on 'Building Use Studies
Occupant Survey and Reporting Method', a
questionnaire-based survey and benchmarking tool
developed by Adrian Leaman from BuiIding Use
Studies (BUS) in the UK [8]. The aim of the occupant
survey was to find out the level of satisfaction of the
staff with comfort, the school design, whether the
environmental image of their schools had any impact
on their user perceptions, and their environmental
awareness. A simpler survey was also done for
students.
Field studies, participant observations and
photographic-walkthroughs were carried out as well.

4.2. BUS Occupant Survey for Staff
4.2.1. HWS
58 out of 60 forms were returned for HWS. 30% of
the respondents surveyed are under thirty years old,
and majority is female; making up 75% of the total
staff population. The respondents are mostly the
teaching staff, and 90% of them have been working at
HWS for more than a year and thus have experienced
working in the previous building.
The summary of the overall results for HWS is
shown in the diagram below.


Figure 5: Summary of HWS staff survey results
Green squares represent mean values significantly better or
higher than both the international benchmark and scale
midpoint. Amber circles are mean values no different from
international benchmark. Red Diamonds are mean values
worse or lower than international benchmark and scale
midpoint.[8]

n general, HWS performed well on most of the
assessment criteria when the survey findings are
compared against the international benchmark,
comprising of schools from countries all over the
world. The staff seems to be satisfied with the overall
comfort levels within the school, and majority
preferred the new school building to the previous
building.
Year
HWS
(m/m/yr)
PRPS
(m/m/yr)
Bench
mark
(UK)
2002 - - 0.680
2008 - 0.453 -
2009 0.291 0.320 -
2010 0.296 0.434 -
Data Measured
HWS
CIassroom /
Staff Room*
PRPS
CIassroom /
Staff Room*
Light Intensity
(Ium/sqf)
30-50 /
35-60
10-25 /
10-30
ReIative
Humidity (%)
65-77 /
50-65
55-72 /
38-50
Temperature (C)
30-31 /
24-26.5

30-31 /
24.5-27.5

PLEA 2011 - 27
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502 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)


Figure 6: HWS Comfort Index
The comfort index is calculated by averaging the
tabulated scores of each of these comfort variables
i.e. temperature, air, lighting and noise levels. HWS
scored an approximate 78% for its comfort index;
indicating that the staff finds the new building a
comfortable place to work in.


Figure 7: HWS Satisfaction Index
The satisfaction index is derived from the
calculation of the average of these other four
variables- design, needs, health and productivity.
HWS scored an approximate 68% for this satisfaction
index, signifying that the staff is only slightly satisfied
with the conditions of this building.

4.2.2. PRPS
The response rate for PRPS was 50%. Only 30
out of 60 forms were returned by the staff. All the
respondents surveyed are over thirty years of age,
and 73% of them are female. 93% of the staff has
been working in PRPS building for more than a year.
The summary of the overall results for PRPS is
shown in the diagram below.


Figure 8: Summary of PRPS staff survey results
n general, PRPS appears to be performing
exceptionally well on all the assessment criteria,
scoring better than the international benchmark for all
the different variables. t is interesting to note the high
score for its "image to visitors despite it not being a
green school. This may have been attributed to
PRPS's active involvement in environment related
activities and also the various awards it had won in
such activities. Comfort levels are satisfactory and the
staff seems to be pleased with the school design and
facilities.


Figure 9: PRPS Comfort Index
PRPS scored an approximate 76% for its comfort
index (variables comprising of temperature, air,
lighting and noise); indicating that the staff finds the
school building a rather comfortable place to work in.


Figure 10: PRPS Satisfaction Index
PRPS scored an impressive 81% for its
satisfaction index. This indicates a high level of
satisfaction amongst the staff with their school
building.

4.3. Students' Survey
4.3.1. BuiIding EvaIuation Surveys
A separate, simpler survey was given out to the
students. The survey forms were distributed to three
upper primary level classes; one each from the
primary 4, 5 and 6 classes. n total, 116 student
survey forms were returned for HWS and 84 for
PRPS.


PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 503


Figure 11: Answer samples from Question 12 of Building
Evaluation Survey handed out to the students

4.3.2. Photographic WaIk-Through
Six students from each school were selected to
participate in a photographic walk-through after they
had completed the building evaluation. This process
started with an introduction of the study. They were
then given a paper each to write down 6 places they
were asked to think about, and to capture a
photograph of each of these 6 required places:
1) Favourite part of the school;
2) Worst part of the school;
3) A place that can be improved. Why? How?;
4) An area that is too warm or too cold;
5) An area that is too bright or too dark;
6) An area that is too noisy

They were then handed out digital cameras to
begin their individual photographic walk-through and
were given 15 minutes to return with the 6
photographs taken. Upon their return, the reasons
behind the selection of captured images were then
discussed.

4.4. Findings from QuaIitative Study
4.4.1. Findings from Staff's BUS Occupant
Survey Study
HWS staff was much more informed of general
green issues than the staff from PRPS. 81% of HWS
staff felt that their school is environmentally friendly
and many were able to name the different green
features of their school. On the other hand, most
PRPS staff could not name environmentally friendly
features. This further strengthens the hypothesis that
a school's green credential does have an influence on
the perceptions of the users of the building.
There were not much difference between the
comfort index from staff for both schools even though
one is a green school design.
nterestingly, PRPS staff has a higher satisfaction
levels despite the building not being a green design.
This may be due to the staff occupying the building
for a longer period of time and more accustomed to
their school environment compared to the staff in the
new HWS building.

4.4.2. Findings from Students' Surveys and
WaIk-Through
The findings from the students' survey, in contrast
to the staff's surveys, seem to point to a greater
satisfaction level with their school environment, by
students from HWS compared to their peers in PRPS.
100% of HWS students like being in their school
compound (90% of whom prefer the new school
building to the older one), as compared to only 91%
of PRPS students. A larger percentage of HWS
students also feel more comfortable, are able to
concentrate well in class, and do not fall ill easily
during school term. 51% of HWS students felt that the
temperature is just right compared to 40% of PRPS
students, even though the measured classroom
temperatures were the same in both schools.
The results from the last question of the students'
survey appear to be consistent with the findings of the
staff survey. For the last question, the students were
asked to describe or draw their dream green school.
HWS students were able to describe or draw with
greater details the features that they would like for
their dream school, as compared to the PRPS
students who mostly wished for more plants, ponds,
recycling bins. t is also interesting to note that
majority of the PRPS students surveyed had drawn in
air-conditioning units for their "green school, unaware
of the environmental consequences of installing them
in all the classrooms in the school.
PRPS students were more concerned about their
comfort levels when answering the question, while
HWS students were consciously drawing in or
describing environmentally friendly features in their
dream school. Many of the PRPS students surveyed
were not able to comprehend the term
"environmentally friendly and thus were not able to
answer confidently.
Similar to the findings from the staff survey, HWS
students appear to be more environmentally aware
than the ones in PRPS. This study has clearly
demonstrated that the environmental image of HWS
does create a positive impact on some aspects of
user perceptions and awareness.
5. CONCLUSION
From the findings, the pilot green school in
Singapore, HWS, is indeed performing better
environmentally compared to a typical school, PRPS,
which is much smaller in size compared to HWS. The
green school's electricity and water consumption for
per square metre is much lower than a typical school.
This shows that green schools do bring about greater
benefits.
However, the green school did not perform better
in terms of thermal comfort based on site
measurements. nterestingly, even though the
temperature is the same in both schools, more
students in the green school felt that their classroom
temperature is just right and felt comfortable. This
may be due to the green features in the school
contributing to a positive perception of comfort. The
green school did have better lighting level compared
to the non-green school.
The green credential does affect the perception of
the users. The findings show that students and staff
of the green school are more environmentally inclined
as there is a higher level of awareness of the school's
features and physical environment than the students
and staff of the non-green school.
Nevertheless, this study also concludes that it is
not just the physical environment that needs to be


Figure 6: HWS Comfort Index
The comfort index is calculated by averaging the
tabulated scores of each of these comfort variables
i.e. temperature, air, lighting and noise levels. HWS
scored an approximate 78% for its comfort index;
indicating that the staff finds the new building a
comfortable place to work in.


Figure 7: HWS Satisfaction Index
The satisfaction index is derived from the
calculation of the average of these other four
variables- design, needs, health and productivity.
HWS scored an approximate 68% for this satisfaction
index, signifying that the staff is only slightly satisfied
with the conditions of this building.

4.2.2. PRPS
The response rate for PRPS was 50%. Only 30
out of 60 forms were returned by the staff. All the
respondents surveyed are over thirty years of age,
and 73% of them are female. 93% of the staff has
been working in PRPS building for more than a year.
The summary of the overall results for PRPS is
shown in the diagram below.


Figure 8: Summary of PRPS staff survey results
n general, PRPS appears to be performing
exceptionally well on all the assessment criteria,
scoring better than the international benchmark for all
the different variables. t is interesting to note the high
score for its "image to visitors despite it not being a
green school. This may have been attributed to
PRPS's active involvement in environment related
activities and also the various awards it had won in
such activities. Comfort levels are satisfactory and the
staff seems to be pleased with the school design and
facilities.


Figure 9: PRPS Comfort Index
PRPS scored an approximate 76% for its comfort
index (variables comprising of temperature, air,
lighting and noise); indicating that the staff finds the
school building a rather comfortable place to work in.


Figure 10: PRPS Satisfaction Index
PRPS scored an impressive 81% for its
satisfaction index. This indicates a high level of
satisfaction amongst the staff with their school
building.

4.3. Students' Survey
4.3.1. BuiIding EvaIuation Surveys
A separate, simpler survey was given out to the
students. The survey forms were distributed to three
upper primary level classes; one each from the
primary 4, 5 and 6 classes. n total, 116 student
survey forms were returned for HWS and 84 for
PRPS.


PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
504 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)

sustainable, but also, the methods of teaching and
learning are important to instil an attitude of
incorporating sustainability in our daily lifestyles. This
is evident in the results of the PRPS staff survey,
where a large percentage of the staff felt greater
satisfaction with their school even though PRPS may
not be a green building. This satisfaction largely
stems from the fact that PRPS has a strong
environmental ethos.
Two factors -- physical environment and individual
awareness -- need to come hand in hand for the
education industry in Singapore to establish a
systematic change for all schools in Singapore. Not
only do we need to achieve a higher benchmark for
green schools in Singapore using a tool like Green
Mark, it is also imperative to inculcate environmental
awareness and increase environmental knowledge in
school staff and students to create a greater sense of
social responsibility for a sustainable built
environment.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are grateful to Adrian Leaman from
Building Use Studies (UK), Architect Mr Wong from
Architects Vista, Goh M.S. from MOE, Steve K. Jusuf
from NUS, HWS Vice Principal Mrs Sim-Tan E.P.,
HWS Operations Manager Mr Young K.M. and PRPS
Vice Principal Ms Tan G.H. and PRPS Operations
Manager Mr Wai S.C., for enthusiastically supporting
this study and providing all the required information
for both the schools.
7. REFERENCES
[1] A. Taylor, and K. Enggass, Linking architecture
and education: sustainable design for learning
environments, Albuquerque: University of Mexico
Press (2009).
[2] A. Ford, Designing the Sustainable School,
Victoria, Australia: The mages Publishing Group
Pte.Ltd (2007).
[3] DfES, Building Bulletin 95 Schools for the Future,
London, The Stationary Office (2002). Available
at
http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/_doc/3149/bulletin9
5[1].pdf
[4] Sharples, S et al, A post occupancy evaluation of
a UK sustainable school: performance and
perception (2007).
[5] DfES, Design of Sustainable Schools - Case
Studies, London, The Stationary Office (2006).
Available at
http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/_doc/10675/Sustai
nCS.pdf
[6] BSRA, Delta, Primary School Carbon
Footprinting: A Special Report for the 2007
BSRA Briefing, UK (2008). Available at
http://www.usablebuildings.co.uk
[7] DfES, Energy and Water Benchmarks for
Maintained Schools in England: 2002-03.
Available at
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s0004
49/SFREandW2602-web.pdf
[8] A. Leaman, The UK Building Use Studies.
Available at http://www.usablebuildings.co.uk

PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 505
Importance of occupants adaptive b
sustainable thermal comfort in apartments in India
1
College of Art and Design,
ABSTRACT: Thermal comfort is essential for user satisfaction in a building and poor indoor comfort often forces
the user to take high energy intensive solutions to restore comfort. Indias energy consu
sector is increasing phenomenally. There are no thermal comfort standards in India or recent research reported
in this field. Indian comfort standards are based on ASH
like adaptation of occupants into consideration.
by the occupants were vital for indoor thermal comfort in apartments. We found the comfor
obtained through the field study in apartments to be way above the one specified in the codes. Fangers
Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) used by practitioners was always higher than the actual thermal sensation recorded
in the field study. Furthermore, we found occupants displaying thermal empathy adapting better. These findings
critically question the application of the current temperature standards and the PMV for the design of the thermal
environments in India, with far reaching energy implicati
demonstrate the importance of adaptation and how adaptation
Keywords: Adaptive thermal comfort, Field study in Apartments, Comfort temperature, Comfort standards
1. INTRODUCTION
Raison d'tre of building design effort is
providing thermal comfort to the occupant
comfort is essential for user satisfaction
while the desired indoor temperature usually
decides the energy bill. The indoor environment in
naturally ventilated (NV) buildings greatly depends
on the local climate and the way environmental
controls are used. The harshness of the effect of
outdoor climate can be modified by the use of
controls. Users can modify the thermal environment
using common controls like operable w
fans.
Thermal comfort research in India is extremely
limited [1] with no thermal comfort standards
Indian Codes. Energy consumption in Indian
residential buildings is increasing phenomenally and
is highest among the Asia Pacific Partnership
countries [2]. About 73% of the energy consumed in
Indian residential buildings is used for lighting (28%)
and ventilation controls (fans - 34%; Air coolers
7%; A/c - 7%) to provide thermal and visual comfort
indoors [3]. For a populous nation like India, the
ramifications of this high energy use are serious.
While environmental controls are important in
reducing the need for high energy solutions,
perceived usefulness of a particular control will
change from time to time depending on conditions
[4]. Behavioural use of controls links the physiology/
psychology of the body and the physics of the
building [5]. It is thus, a major link in the dynamic
interaction between buildings and their occupants.
The use of controls is never an isolated action, but is
part of a feedback loop and is the result of
occupants very complex behaviour.
These feedback mechanisms embodied in the
adaptive principle create an order in the relationship
between outdoor climate and comfort temp
Importance of occupants adaptive behaviour for
thermal comfort in apartments in India
MADHAVI INDRAGANTI 1

Design, Princess Nora Bint Abdul Rahman University, Riyad, Saudi Arabia
Thermal comfort is essential for user satisfaction in a building and poor indoor comfort often forces
energy intensive solutions to restore comfort. Indias energy consu
increasing phenomenally. There are no thermal comfort standards in India or recent research reported
in this field. Indian comfort standards are based on ASHRAE Standard-55, which do not take many local factors
like adaptation of occupants into consideration. Here we show that various thermal adaptation methods followed
by the occupants were vital for indoor thermal comfort in apartments. We found the comfor
obtained through the field study in apartments to be way above the one specified in the codes. Fangers
Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) used by practitioners was always higher than the actual thermal sensation recorded
re, we found occupants displaying thermal empathy adapting better. These findings
critically question the application of the current temperature standards and the PMV for the design of the thermal
environments in India, with far reaching energy implications in a developing country like India. Our results
demonstrate the importance of adaptation and how adaptation was impeded by many factors.
Adaptive thermal comfort, Field study in Apartments, Comfort temperature, Comfort standards
Raison d'tre of building design effort is
providing thermal comfort to the occupant. Thermal
comfort is essential for user satisfaction and health
desired indoor temperature usually
The indoor environment in
naturally ventilated (NV) buildings greatly depends
on the local climate and the way environmental
re used. The harshness of the effect of
outdoor climate can be modified by the use of
the thermal environment
operable windows and
Thermal comfort research in India is extremely
no thermal comfort standards in
Indian Codes. Energy consumption in Indian
residential buildings is increasing phenomenally and
Asia Pacific Partnership
]. About 73% of the energy consumed in
Indian residential buildings is used for lighting (28%)
34%; Air coolers -
7%) to provide thermal and visual comfort
populous nation like India, the
ramifications of this high energy use are serious.
environmental controls are important in
reducing the need for high energy solutions, the
perceived usefulness of a particular control will
to time depending on conditions
]. Behavioural use of controls links the physiology/
psychology of the body and the physics of the
]. It is thus, a major link in the dynamic
interaction between buildings and their occupants.
ls is never an isolated action, but is
part of a feedback loop and is the result of
occupants very complex behaviour.
These feedback mechanisms embodied in the
adaptive principle create an order in the relationship
between outdoor climate and comfort temperature in
a NV building [4]. On the other hand, this order is
broken in a HVAC building as outdoor climate is
decoupled with the indoor environment. Assumable,
the nature of use of controls and the triggers for the
use of controls in residential environme
different from that of the office environments.
There is little research done in understanding the
adaptive use of environmental controls in India. To
fill this gap, the author conducted a field study in
Hyderabad in India in summer and monsoon in
2008. The present paper analyses the way various
controls were used and highlights the importance of
occupants adaptive behaviour for sustainable
indoor thermal comfort in apart
2. METHODS
Hyderabad (N1727 and E78 28 and 540 m
above the mean sea level) has composite climate
with four distinct seasons: summer, monsoon, post
Figure 1: The instruments, instrument set
survey and the survey environments
ehaviour for
thermal comfort in apartments in India
Riyad, Saudi Arabia
Thermal comfort is essential for user satisfaction in a building and poor indoor comfort often forces
energy intensive solutions to restore comfort. Indias energy consumption in residential
increasing phenomenally. There are no thermal comfort standards in India or recent research reported
55, which do not take many local factors
Here we show that various thermal adaptation methods followed
by the occupants were vital for indoor thermal comfort in apartments. We found the comfort temperature
obtained through the field study in apartments to be way above the one specified in the codes. Fangers
Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) used by practitioners was always higher than the actual thermal sensation recorded
re, we found occupants displaying thermal empathy adapting better. These findings
critically question the application of the current temperature standards and the PMV for the design of the thermal
ons in a developing country like India. Our results
was impeded by many factors.
Adaptive thermal comfort, Field study in Apartments, Comfort temperature, Comfort standards
]. On the other hand, this order is
broken in a HVAC building as outdoor climate is
decoupled with the indoor environment. Assumable,
the nature of use of controls and the triggers for the
use of controls in residential environments is quite
different from that of the office environments.
There is little research done in understanding the
adaptive use of environmental controls in India. To
author conducted a field study in
Hyderabad in India in summer and monsoon in
2008. The present paper analyses the way various
controls were used and highlights the importance of
occupants adaptive behaviour for sustainable
indoor thermal comfort in apartments in India.
Hyderabad (N1727 and E78 28 and 540 m
above the mean sea level) has composite climate
with four distinct seasons: summer, monsoon, post

The instruments, instrument set-up for field
survey and the survey environments

sustainable, but also, the methods of teaching and
learning are important to instil an attitude of
incorporating sustainability in our daily lifestyles. This
is evident in the results of the PRPS staff survey,
where a large percentage of the staff felt greater
satisfaction with their school even though PRPS may
not be a green building. This satisfaction largely
stems from the fact that PRPS has a strong
environmental ethos.
Two factors -- physical environment and individual
awareness -- need to come hand in hand for the
education industry in Singapore to establish a
systematic change for all schools in Singapore. Not
only do we need to achieve a higher benchmark for
green schools in Singapore using a tool like Green
Mark, it is also imperative to inculcate environmental
awareness and increase environmental knowledge in
school staff and students to create a greater sense of
social responsibility for a sustainable built
environment.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are grateful to Adrian Leaman from
Building Use Studies (UK), Architect Mr Wong from
Architects Vista, Goh M.S. from MOE, Steve K. Jusuf
from NUS, HWS Vice Principal Mrs Sim-Tan E.P.,
HWS Operations Manager Mr Young K.M. and PRPS
Vice Principal Ms Tan G.H. and PRPS Operations
Manager Mr Wai S.C., for enthusiastically supporting
this study and providing all the required information
for both the schools.
7. REFERENCES
[1] A. Taylor, and K. Enggass, Linking architecture
and education: sustainable design for learning
environments, Albuquerque: University of Mexico
Press (2009).
[2] A. Ford, Designing the Sustainable School,
Victoria, Australia: The mages Publishing Group
Pte.Ltd (2007).
[3] DfES, Building Bulletin 95 Schools for the Future,
London, The Stationary Office (2002). Available
at
http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/_doc/3149/bulletin9
5[1].pdf
[4] Sharples, S et al, A post occupancy evaluation of
a UK sustainable school: performance and
perception (2007).
[5] DfES, Design of Sustainable Schools - Case
Studies, London, The Stationary Office (2006).
Available at
http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/_doc/10675/Sustai
nCS.pdf
[6] BSRA, Delta, Primary School Carbon
Footprinting: A Special Report for the 2007
BSRA Briefing, UK (2008). Available at
http://www.usablebuildings.co.uk
[7] DfES, Energy and Water Benchmarks for
Maintained Schools in England: 2002-03.
Available at
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s0004
49/SFREandW2602-web.pdf
[8] A. Leaman, The UK Building Use Studies.
Available at http://www.usablebuildings.co.uk

PLEA 2011 - 27
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506 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
monsoon and winter. It is the capital city of the state
of Andhra Pradesh in India.
2.1 Field Survey
A field study was conducted in summer (May)
and monsoon seasons (June and July) having great
discomfort. It was done in 45 flats of five apartment
buildings. A total of 33 days were spent in surveys
involving over 113 occupants and a total of 3962
data sets were collected. All the surveys were
conducted by the author herself.
2.2 Outdoor and Indoor Environmental Data
Collection
Daily maximum and minimum temperature and
humidity for all the days of the survey was collected
from the local meteorological station. Mean
minimum outdoor temperatures during summer and
monsoon sample periods were 27.3 C and 24.1 C,
respectively. Mean maximum outdoor temperatures
of the summer and monsoon sample periods were
40.4C and 34.2 C, respectively.
Over the summer study period, the mean 8:30
hrs and 17:30 hrs relative humidity (RH) were 38.6
% and 26.7 %, respectively. The relative humidity in
the monsoon period was relatively higher. The mean
8:30 hrs and 17:30 hrs relative humidity (RH) were
66.1 % and 46.7 %, respectively.
All the four environmental variables: air and
globe temperature, air velocity, and relative humidity
were measured using calibrated digital instruments
following ASHRAEs Class II protocols for field
study [6].The surveys were conducted in two levels:
one day of transverse survey followed by four days
of longitudinal survey in all the months of the survey
in all the flats. Every subject was interviewed thrice
daily to collect morning, afternoon and evening
comfort votes, while simultaneous environmental
measurements were made. The survey was
conducted in living/dining rooms of the surveyed
apartments as shown in Fig.1.Details of survey
questionnaires and data collection are presented in
Indraganti [7]. Subjects metabolic rate and clothing
insulation were estimated based on standard
checklists [6].
ASHRAEs seven point scale of thermal
sensation (3-Warm; 0-Neutral; -3-Cold), ASHRAEs
nominal scale of acceptance (2-Acceptable; 1-
Unacceptable), Nicols five point scale of preference
(2-Much cooler; 0-No change; -2-Much warmer) and
four point scale of skin moisture (3-Profuse; 2-
Moderate; 1-Slightly; 0-None) were used in this
study [6]. In addition, the transverse questionnaire
had questions on sensation and preferences for
other environmental parameters, behavioural and
structural adaptations and tenure.
2.3 Sample Size and Description
Five naturally ventilated mid rise apartment
buildings named KD, SA, RA, KA and RS were
surveyed. These were five to thirty year old 3-6
storied buildings, located in the residential areas of
central and eastern parts of Hyderabad city. These
buildings have plastered brick (115 230 mm thick),
/ hollow cement block walls (150 mm thick), in RCC
frame work, a typical construction used locally. They
have a RCC flat roof of 150 -200 mm with a weather
proof coat of brick jelly concrete (75- 150 mm) on
the top. A few top floor flats in KD, SA and RA were
finished with a false ceiling, whereas one flat in KD
had its roof painted in white reflective paint. The
architectural details of these buildings are presented
in Indraganti [8].
About 35 male subjects (~ 35%) and about 64
female subjects (~65%) voluntarily participated in
the surveys. They were in the age group of 17- 69
years with male and female average age of 40.14
years (SD= ~14.0) and 42 years respectively. They
were all acclimatised healthy Indian nationals living
in the surveyed flats for over 3 months. The sample
size varied slightly in each month, as some subjects
have refused to participate in the surveys.
One of the objectives of the research was to
investigate into the thermal comfort perceptions of
the occupants in the top-floor flats. Hence, 29-48%
of the sample was also taken from the roof exposed
(RE) top-floor flats in all the buildings. Results and
Discussion
2.1. Subjective Thermal Responses
Indoor temperature in summer was very high
(much higher than the skin temperature of 32-34 C)
with very low humidity. Moreover, the thermal
conditions in May were found to be harsh with
inadequate adaptive opportunities available to the
occupants in flats. This resulted in a majority (60%)
voting outside the three central categories of the
sensation scale, expressing discomfort. They (93%)
also preferred a temperature on the cooler side of
the neutrality, despite accepting their thermal
environments (69%) in May, (mean TS = 1.8; mean
TP = 1.3).
2.2. The Adaptive Model of Thermal
Comfort
The adaptive thermal comfort model is a linear
regression model based on field studies. It therefore
integrates various environmental, behavioural and
psychological adaptations and thus forms the basis
for sustainable thermal comfort standards.
In this study, thermal sensation vote was
regressed against indoor globe temperature, which
yielded the relation, TS = 0.31Tg - 9.06, with a
moderate coefficient of correlation of 0.65. A neutral-
temperature of 29.2 C and a comfort range (voting
within -1 to +1) of 26.0 C and 32.5 C was thus
obtained (Fig. 2).

Figure 2: Relationship between actual thermal sensation
and Fangers Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) with indoor
globe temperature (all data, n= 3962). Fangers PMV
always over estimated the thermal sensation.
PLEA 2011 - 27
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 507


This range is much higher than the comfort
range of 23 26 C, specified in the Indian Codes
[3, 9]. It was noted that, very little or no discomfort
was experienced by 80% of the subjects, when the
mean indoor temperature was between 28.7 and
32.5C. Fangers predicted mean vote (PMV) does
not take into account the adaptation and
acclimatization of the occupants, PMV was higher
and had a higher correlation with globe temperature
(Tg), (r = 0.93, all data), similar to Raja and Nicol
[10]( Fig.2).
3. OCCUPANT ADAPTATION FOR
THERMAL COMFORT
3.1. Clothing and metabolism
The occupants adapted through clothing and
metabolism to maintain comfort. Clothing insulation
varied from 0.19 0.84 clo in this study, while
metabolism varied from 0.7 2.0 Met (sleeping
standing working). Understandably, subjects chose
lighter clothing (0.15- 0.3 clo) and took post- meal
siestas during the hot mid-day in summer.
Some men adapted by wearing a lungi (a 2 m X
1.4 m long cloth draped around the waist), and left
the torso bare, during the hot period. Some female
subjects wore lighter clothing during heavy kitchen
work. When these adaptations were restricted, due
to some temporal and other socio-cultural reasons,
they expressed discomfort and gave a high
sensation vote. Older women (age >40yrs) for
example, were usually dressed in saris (clo =
0.55~0.66), a culturally more acceptable costume,
even when other lighter clothing options were
available (long gown = 0.29 clo). However, the sari/
lungi offered women/ men, much better choice in
terms of draping, to change the micro climate
around the body suitably (Fig 3).
3.2. Adaptation through environmental
controls in the room
Windows, doors and curtains
Indoor comfort in naturally ventilated
environments strongly hinges on the use of
environmental controls like doors, windows,
curtains, fans, coolers etc., and the same was
noted down in all the surveys as binary data (0-
closed/ not in use; 1- open/ in use). It was observed
that the occupants used (opened/closed) these
controls rather adaptively as the discomfort
increased and the indoor/outdoor temperature
increased. Similar observation was made by Raja
and Nicol [10]. They were found to be in maximum
use at around the upper limit of comfort zone,
coinciding with thermal comfort vote of +1. (Fig.4). It
was noted that the effect of air movement was most
significant for comfort when the subject is at the
upper limit of comfort temperature.
Contrastingly, at high temperatures, encountered
in Hyderabad in arid summer season, excessive
natural ventilation caused convective and
conductive heat gain and caused radiant heat
discomfort as well. This led to the adaptive closure
of most windows/ doors and curtains (Fig. 4). A
discussion on the use of windows in greater detail is
presented in Indraganti [11].
Impediments in using the controls
The importance of the adaptive use of
environmental controls is well established in
achieving thermal comfort in NV apartments.
Although all the apartments are provided with the
above mentioned controls there were some
impediments found in using them. Most important
impediments were found to be privacy and security
aspects related to the use of controls. More
importantly, the realm (public/ private) into which the
window/ door opened critically hindered the control
operation behaviour of the occupant. In all the
cases where windows / doors opened into the public
realm (ex: corridors etc) higher indoor temperature

Figure 4: Changes in proportion of use of different controls in use with outdoor temperature and thermal sensation (All data, all
months - binned) (POW/ POB/ POC = Proportion of open windows/ balcony doors/ curtains)


Figure 3: Clothing adaptation in women and men using
traditional ensembles. Women/men draped the sari/ lungi
in different ways to suit to the activity, changing the mico-
climate around the body.
Lungi Lungi Saree Saree
PLEA 2011 - 27
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508 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
was recorded and evidence of higher thermal
sensation was found.
Window /door opening behaviour was found to
have improved in tenements with windows/ doors/
balcony enclosures fitted with additional metal grill
shutters and/or bamboo screens. Assumable, these
simple structural adaptations have improved the
safety and privacy of the indoor space, encouraging
the occupants to open the windows/ doors
adaptively during the period of discomfort.
Application of bamboo screens to balconies
prevented radiant heat gain and the hot breezes
from blowing from the exterior while allowing slight
air movement indoors, relieving much of the thermal
stress caused during the overheated period.
3.3. Use of fans air coolers and air
conditioners
To achieve indoor comfort in naturally ventilated
apartments, occupants also adaptively used various
electrical controls like ceiling fans, air coolers and air
conditioners etc, [10]. The use of controls also
depends on the indoor and outdoor temperatures.
The effect of air movement on comfort is equivalent
to a drop in indoor temperature of up to 4C.
Ceiling fan is the most commonly used low-
energy environmental control and is significant to
human thermal comfort. Raja et al [10] present a
very interesting fact on the use of fans, that in
buildings with lesser open windows, people resort to
using electro mechanical controls like fans higher.
This finding corroborates the finding of Hwang et al,
[12]. While all the surveyed environments were fitted
with fans, only about 28% of them were fitted with
air coolers, where as the availability of air
conditioners was higher (42%). The occupants in
this study were found to be using the fans, coolers
and air conditioners as the discomfort/ indoor
temperature increased. However, their use varied
substantially among different buildings and subject
groups (Fig. 5). Understandably, use of air coolers
and air conditioners was found to be highest in
higher economic groups (Gr-1 and Gr-2).
It was observed that the indoor temperatures in
RE flats were higher than their lower floor
counterparts, due to the intense solar heat gain from
the roof. Moreover, other adaptive semi-permanent
controls required for thermal comfort were also
found to be inadequate/ missing. As a result,
availability/ use of air coolers, and air conditioners
were found to be highest in RE flats. More
importantly, their use continued beyond the summer
also in RE flats, while it had stopped in LF flats after
summer. Their use put a constant demand for much
cooler indoor temperatures and resulted in thermal
indulgence of the occupant.
On the contrary, use of fans was found to be
higher in LF flats. This was due to the fact that,
ceiling fans re-circulated the hot air accumulated
beneath the ceiling, aggravating discomfort. Hence,
the subjects in RE flats preferred coolers and air
conditioners or in a few cases, pedestal fans to
ceiling fans. Importantly, use of coolers and A/c s
brought the indoor temperature close to the skin
temperature, (32 34 C) relieving much of thermal
distress. Coolers and A/cs were beginning to be in
use when the mean outdoor temperature was
around 28.5- 31.3 C. Higher first cost and
maintenance were found to be the major
impediments in using the air conditioners. A detailed
discussion on the use of electrical controls is
presented in Indraganti [13].
3.4. Semi-permanent Structural Adaptation
Use of semi permanent controls was found to be
very important to maintain the indoor micro climate.
Their use and other aspects related to their use
were recorded in the transverse survey. It was found
that the occupants of flats have used some semi
permanent controls adaptively, to control the heat
flow. It is inferred that the use of plants in the
immediate exterior is most commonly adopted
control measure whereas, wetted khus mats,
reflective paint on the roof, roof wetting and interior
plants are found to be least in use (fig.6, fig.7).
It is imperative to note that plants in the
immediate exterior are used by the subjects more as
an ornamental feature than in response to the
thermal stimuli. An expensive treatment like sun
control film on the windows is adopted very highly by
the occupants in KD than by other occupants (69%
~ 0%). Floor wetting is adopted by the subjects
more as a routine practice, than as an adaptive
thermal control measure (36% ~ 5%). It is
interesting to note that a simple but effective
adaptive measure like the use of wetted khus mats
has not been found to be in use in any of the
apartment buildings studied. This is possibly due to
the problems associated with the procurement and
maintenance of this control measure.

Figure 5: (A) Distribution of controls available and in use (All data); (B) Change of proportion of controls in use with thermal
sensation (%) (All data) (pf = proportion of fans in use; Aclr = air coolers; paclr = proportion of air coolers in use; pac =
proportion of air conditioners in use)
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 509


In the roof exposed (RE) flats (fig.7), the use of
false ceiling is found to be mostly in use only in
higher economic groups, viz: GR-1(KD) and GR-2
(SA, RA), while simple measures like roof wetting
and reflective paint on the roof were not used much.
On further investigation during the survey it was
found that, most of the occupants were unaware of
the efficacy of these controls, and that the false
ceiling is used mostly as part of the interior
decoration.
A few occupants have extended the shade to the
windows adaptively, while a few subjects in KA have
wetted the roofs in the evening in May. Interestingly,
tenant occupied flats were least fitted with such
semi-permanent environment controls. More
importantly, most occupants were ignorant about the
efficacy of these simple semi-permanent controls in
containing excessive heat gain through roofs in
summer. This calls for knowledge dissemination and
statutory guidelines, especially pertaining to the
controls for roof exposed flats to achieve thermal
comfort adaptively [14].
Behavioural and Psychological Adaptation
As explained in section 3.1, the adaptive
opportunities available to the occupants of flats were
grossly inadequate in summer. Moreover, the
occupants faced harsh thermal environments in
summer in roof exposed (RE) flats, due to the
intense solar exposure and high indoor temperature.
Assumable, air conditioners offered immediate
gratification from thermal discomfort. As a result,
other environmental and behavioural adaptation
methods were found to be little in use by these
occupants. Moreover, the tolerance levels of the
occupants using the A/c s were also found to be
limited. This was reflected by the lower regression
neutral temperature of the RE subjects.
Understandably, clothing adaptation in subjects with
easy access to higher order environmental controls
was found to be more dominated by fashion than
thermal requirements. As a result, these subjects
chose to use ensembles with higher clothing
insulation. On the other hand, clothing adaptation in
women was also limited by socio-cultural limitations
and local practices also.
Subjects in lower economic classes (KA and RS)
had little access to the high energy intensive
controls. As a consequence, they have adapted
through clothing, metabolism (reduced activity
during mid-day) physical environmental and other
behavioural adaptation methods as well. On the
contrary, these subjects have opened the windows/
doors, used lesser clothing like shorts and long
gowns during the mid-day and moved adaptively to
a cooler zone of the house, took cold water etc
[15,16].
Behavioural adaptation was found to be higher in
groups less exposed to lower temperatures. They
have adapted through a more frequent use of a
variety of behavioural control actions in summer.
The most favourite adaptive behavioural actions
were found to be staying in airy place and drinking
cold water (fig.8).
Importantly, women subjects, and older subjects

Figure 7: Distribution of semi-permanent controls adopted
by the occupants in different apartment buildings
transverse survey

Figure 8: Proportion (%) of use of various Behavioural
adaptation actions: indicating these actions in very limited
use in the monsoon months of June and July than in the
summer month of May.
Figure 6: Distribution of semi-permanent controls adopted by the occupants in different apartment buildings transverse
survey
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510 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
(>40yrs), and subjects in intermediate and lower
economic groups and owners have shown higher
proclivity to various modes of adaptation. They have
accepted the thermal extremes that were
encountered in domestic environments better and
have displayed thermal empathy. As a result,
subjects expressing thermal empathy tolerated
thermal adversities better.
As shown in Fig. 8, behavioural adaptation was
found to be higher in summer than in the monsoon
months, when thermal adversities were mitigated
(June and July). It was observed that the occupants
used various methods of adaption, viz: personal
environmental, psycho-behavioural, clothing and
metabolic adaptations to remain comfortable at high
indoor temperatures encountered in summer, in
addition to the structural adaptations undertaken to
their home environments.
4. CONCLUSIONS
Following Class II protocols, a thermal comfort
field study conducted in apartments in summer and
monsoon season identified that subjects adapted
through clothing, activity, various environmental and
behavioural adaptations to remain comfortable.
The comfort temperature of the subjects was
found to be way above the one specified in the
Indian standards. Over 60% of the subjects were
uncomfortable in summer due to the poor adaptive
opportunities available to them in apartments.
Fangers PMV always overestimated the thermal
sensation.
More importantly when the adaptation methods
were inadequate, as in summer, the subjects
especially in roof exposed flats expressed higher
discomfort and resorted to the use of high energy
controls like air conditioners when these were
affordable to them.
Adaptive behaviour of window/ door opening
was critically impeded by privacy and security which
in turn adversely affected the indoor temperature
and thermal comfort indoors. In addition, several
other impediments were noted in the adaptive use of
various other controls.
The importance of occupants adaptive
behaviour for achieving thermal comfort was
highlighted in this analysis. Therefore, to achieve
sustainable indoor thermal comfort, this study calls
for special adaptive measures for apartments,
especially in the top floors to enable subjects to
remain comfortable even at high temperatures.
5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to profoundly thank Hom B. Rijal, of
Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo,
Michael Humphreys and Nicol Fergus of Oxford
Brooks University Kavita D Rao of JANFA
University, India and VS Prasad Indraganti for their
help and guidance.
6. REFERENCES
[1] Sharma, M. R., and Ali, S. Tropical Summer
Indexa study of thermal comfort in Indian
subjects. Building and Environment, 21 (1)
(1986) 1124.
[2] Bin, S., and Evans, M. Building Energy Codes
in APP Countries, 2008, Seoul, Korea: APP
Building and Appliances Task Force; 2008.
[3] BEE. Energy Conservation Building Code 2007.
Bureau of Energy Efficiency.
[4] Nicol, J., and Humphreys, M. Adaptive thermal
comfort and sustainable thermal standards for
buildings. Energy and Buildings, 34(2002) 563-
572.
[5] Brager, G. S., Paliaga, G., and de Dear, R...
Operable Windows, Personal Control. ASHRAE
transaction, Vol.110, Part 2, pp 17-35, (2004).
[6] ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals. Atlanta:
American Society of Heating Refrigeration and
Air-Conditioning Engineers Inc, 2005.
[7] Indraganti, M., Thermal comfort in naturally
ventilated apartments: Findings form a field
study in Hyderabad, Applied Energy 87 (2010)
866883
[8] Indraganti, M., Using the adaptive model of
thermal comfort for obtaining the indoor neutral
temperature: Findings form a field study in
Hyderabad, Building and Environment 45
(2010) 519536
[9] BIS. National Building Code. Bureau of Indian
Standards; 2005.
[10] Raja, I., Nicol, J. F., McCartney, K. J., &
Humphreys, M. (2001). Thermal comfort: Use of
controls in naturally ventilated buildings. Energy
and Buildings, 33 (2001) 235-244.
[11] Indraganti, M. (2009a). Adaptive use of Natural
ventilation for thermal comfort in Indian
apartments. Building and Environment
45(2010)1490-1507.
[12] Hwang, R.-L., Cheng, M.-J., Linc, T.-P., & Hod,
M. C. (2008). Thermal perceptions, general
adaptation methods and occupant's idea about
the trade-off between thermal comfort and
energy saving in hothumid regions. Building
and Environment (2009; 44(6):1128-34.
[13] Indraganti, M., Behavioural adaptation and the
use of environmental controls for thermal
comfort in apartments in India, Energy and
Buildings 42 (2010)1019-25
[14] Indraganti, M. Thermal comfort and adaptive
use of controls in summer: An investigation of
apartments in Hyderabad. Hyderabad: PhD
Thesis, JNAFA University, India, 2009.
[15] Heidari, S. New Life Old Structure. Windsor
Conference (2006).
http://nceub.org.uk/uploads/Heidari.pdf.
[16] Rijal, H. B., Yoshida, H., and Umemiya, N,
Investigation of the thermal comfort in Nepal.
Building Research and sustainability of the built
environment in the tropics. Jakarta- Indonesia:
International Symposium, 14-16 October 2002
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 511
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx. x SECTION NAME 1
The climate/comfort comparison and the basis of
sustainable design.
Impact of climate change and technological development.
Luca FINOCCHIARO
1
, Mark MURPHY
2
, Tore WIGENSTAD
2
, Anne Grete HESTNES
1

1
Department of architectural design history and technology, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway
2
Sintef Building and infrastructure, Trondheim, Norway
ABSTRACT: The comparison between climate and comfort represents the basis of sustainable design and
determines the grade of complexity coming across the design process. A relatively simple approach, aiming to
maximize solar heat gains and minimize thermal losses during the whole year, traditionally characterized
bioclimatic design in cold climates. Today, however, the use of stringent envelopes in combination with the
elevated internal gains that characterize office buildings is questioning traditional assumptions and implying the use
of strategies for cooling, ventilation and solar control also in cold climates. Most of those strategies in order to work
properly require external conditions sometimes not available in cold countries. These contradictions are leading
architectural design of cold climates office buildings into a new complexity. In this study the results of an analysis
conducted on the impact of climate change and technological development of new architectural components and
materials on sustainable design are presented. The study shows how the comparison between climate and comfort
could be integrated with the evaluation of the increase of temperatures due to internal heat production. This
method provides useful information about natural ventilation and cooling strategies and their increased potential.
Keywords: cold, climate, comfort, office, psychrometric
1. INTRODUCTION
The comparison between the exterior and the
desired internal comfort conditions represents not
only a fundamental tool to define which passive
strategies should be adopted inside a certain climatic
context but also influences the grade of complexity of
the design process. In order to ensure proper comfort
conditions, a relatively simple approach, aiming at
maximizing solar heat gains and minimizing thermal
losses during the whole year, traditionally
characterized architectural design in cold climates.
New regulations in force, aiming at improving the
environmental behaviour of the building stock, are
however today implying the use of extremely stringent
envelopes, characterized by a high air-tightness and
insulation. The use of these envelopes permits to
significantly reduce the heating demand in wintertime
but, when combined with elevated internal loads, can
generate overheating problems in the hot season.
The use of cooling equipment has for this reason
become a must even in extremely cold climates,
significantly increasing the energy demand of office
buildings. This is not questioning the convenience of
using such hermetic envelopes, still giving big
advantages for environmental control, but leading the
architectural design of cold climates office buildings
into a new complexity. Passive strategies once
peculiar of different climatic contexts are today, in
fact, expanding their geographic boundary of
applicability to colder regions. This implies a reflection
on the whole architecture of this functional typology,
questioning traditional assumptions around their
design in such climatic context [8].
In such a scenario an even higher grade of
uncertainty is arisen by climate change that forecasts
an increase in the mean temperatures and
precipitations within the next decades [1].
Environmental sensitivity of the architectural form and
adaptability to changing external conditions is
therefore fundamental to ensure energy efficiency.
Inside this scenario, which one is the real impact of
climate change and technological development on the
architectural design process of low energy buildings?
In this study the results of analyses conducted on the
comparison between the environmental requirements
of office buildings and cold climates is presented. The
impact of climate change and the use of stringent
envelopes on this comparison was investigated. The
analysis and comparison of the climate with the
human comfort requirements is usually done through
the use of the psychrometric chart where both climatic
conditions and comfort requirements can be plotted.
This diagram becomes in this study an essential tool
for evaluating also the shift of temperatures due to
internal gains. All the simulations served as
preliminary analyses for the project of refurbishment
of the Venstres office building, located in Oslo,
developed by two students at the department (fig.1).

Figure 1: The Venstres Hus office building, Oslo.
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The shift of temperatures generated by the
internal heat gains imprisoned inside the envelope
has been plotted on the psychrometric chart thanks to
the use of a weather analysis tool (usually based on
monitored data but this time forced to analyse data
created and imported from a different software) in
combination with TRNSYS (simulation software able
to evaluate the robustness of the different variables
considered in the analyses). The new range of T and
w values calculated in TRNSYS become the basis on
which determine the proper passive strategies to
cope with overheating problems and calculate the
increase of hours spent within the comfort zone
(evaluated by the weather tool on the base of a
comparison with the thermal neutrality zone defined
by Szokolay [5]).
2. THE CLIMATE/COMFORT COMPARISON
In the physical acception of the environment the
comparison between climate and architecture, basis
of sustainable design, has three main protagonists:
the external conditions determined by the
interaction between the climatic factors and the
natural and built environment - the comfort
requirements of the interior spaces, and the envelope
- climatic moderator between the first two entities.
The shell, commonly integrating different measures
for improving the environmental behaviour of the
architectural form, regulates the thermal exchanges
and interactions between the first two protagonists,
exterior and interior, between climate and
architecture. Thermal corrections caused by the shell
should aim at creating internal environmental
conditions as close as possible to the desired comfort
requirements.
The main focus of this study is the sustainable
design of low energy office buildings [2] and the
selection of the different low energy strategies that
could be used in a specific climatic context (Oslo,
5955N 1045E). The hypothesis is that the thermal
corrections caused by elevated internal loads that
characterize this functional typology, in combination
with the use of stringent envelopes (respecting the
regulations today in force), is questioning the
appropriateness of a direct comparison between the
comfort zone and the external climatic conditions and
subverting traditional assumptions around
architectural design of cold climates office buildings.
The natural deviation of the main temperatures due to
the elevated thermal gains has in fact to be plotted
and analysed inside the Psychrometric contextually
with the comparison between climate and
architecture. This would give evidence of the
increased need for cooling in cold climates office
buildings and provide useful information about the
use and potential of natural ventilation and passive
cooling strategies, leading the architecture of cold
climates office buildings into new scenarios.
Analyses were conducted on an intermediate plan
of the Venstres building in TRNSYS and were used
as preliminary analyses for a refurbishment of the
building aiming at improving its environmental
behaviour. Main focus of these first analyses was
therefore the quantification of this shift of
temperatures and its representation inside the
psychrometric chart in a scientific way. This thermal
correction based on the respect of the regulations
today in force in Norway, was assumed as a system
of measures already embodied in the DNA of new
office buildings, and was assumed as a starting point
for defining the potential and convenience of
integrating new systems.
2.1. Climate change and potential of strategies
for cooling and natural ventilation
On the basis of a study conducted by the RegClim
authority in Norway, a significant increase in the
mean temperatures and precipitations is going to
affect the country within the next decades [1]. This will
be even more evident in the western coast where
most likely climate change will lead to hot and humid
summer periods. According to this study the climate
of Oslo will get close to the present Goteborg one
within the next 10 years and to the Copenhagen one
within the next 60 years. This shift of temperatures
will extend the overheating problems over a longer
period than today. Compared to Oslo, Copenhagen is
in fact characterized by less rigid winters and longer
warm seasons (from May to August temperatures
might scarcely exceed the comfort zone). The
deviation between the comfort zone and the
distribution of the climatic conditions during the whole
year determines the number of heating and cooling
degree-hours. A comparison between Oslo and
Copenhagen shows however that the forecasted
increase in temperatures would result in a
significantly lower number of heating degree-hours in
the colder months but not in the cooling degree-hours
in the warmer ones (Fig.2).

Figure 2: Oslo and Copenhagen: Hourly temperature profile.
Heating and cooling degree hours.
This means that the use of strategies for cooling
and natural ventilation is not yet required for a
significant number of hours. The increase of
temperatures due to climate change will affect also
the potential of the strategies for natural ventilation
and cooling in the overheated months. In fig. 3 this
variation of the potential is translated into a
percentage increase in the number of hours spent
within the comfort zone each month (calculated using
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the monthly thermal neutrality zone defined according
to Szokolay formulas).
The use of the psychrometric chart suggests the
same low energy strategies - passive solar heating
and thermal mass for most of the year - for both Oslo
and Copenhagen. In an intermittently used and
heated building, like an office, however, massive
construction might imply longer heating up periods in
the morning and the stored heat would be dissipated
overnight, thus wasted. Light materials might
therefore result more convenient. The eventual
increase of temperatures just affect then, to a small
extent, the environmental behaviour of the building
and the efficiency of the strategies adopted but do not
suppose the use of different strategies. Natural
ventilation and cooling strategies still maintain a
relatively low potential, being able to increase the
percentage of hours spent within the comfort zone
only of a small quantity (Fig. 3). These results seem
to clash with empirical experience about the
increased need for cooling of office buildings. Further
analyses are therefore necessary for this typology.
The heat produced by internal gains has to be plotted
as a thermal correction inside the psychrometric chart
giving evidence of the increased need for cooling.
Control potential zones and CPZ and comfort
percentages increases will be evaluated only in a
second moment after these preliminary estimations.

Figure 3: Oslo and Copenhagen: psychrometric chart and

percentages of hours spent in the comfort zone.
3. METHODOLOGY
Different simulations have been performed on a
virtual model of the Venstres office building using the
following group of characteristics reported in table 1
(existing building characteristics, TEK10, PfNS3700
Passivhus standard). All the simulations have been
performed assuming the building working five days a
week - from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. without any sort of
HVAC artificial system for environmental control. This
has been done in order to quantify the spontaneous
variation of air temperature and relative humidity in
the interior spaces due simply to the constructive
characteristics of the building. The air changes rate
has been fixed, in accordance with the Norwegian
regulations in force, as 6 m
3
/(m
2
*h) that, considering
the height of 2,8 meters of our office building, can be
easily converted into 2,14 air changes per hour.
During the other 12 hours of the day when the
building is not active the ventilation airflow has been
assumed being 1,0 ach. TRNSYS have been used
first in order to calculate the variation of temperature
and relative humidity all along the year (8760 hours).
Values have been then exported through Excel to the
Weather-Tool that permitted to plot them on the
psychrometric chart.
Table 1: Families of parameters used for the simulations.
unit Exist. TEK10 prNS3700
U-value
extern. wall
W/m
2
K 0.96 0.18 0.18
U-value
floor on gr.
W/m
2
K 0.40 0.13 0.13
U-value
roof
W/m
2
K 0.40 0.15 0.15
U-value
windows
W/m
2
K 2.8 1.2 0.8
Air
tightness
ach 3.0 1.5 0.5
Cooling set
temper.
C 18 18 18
Heating set
Temper.
C 26 26 26
Occupancy m
2
/p 10 10 10
Lighting
load
W/m
2
11 11 5
Equipment
load
W/m
2
8 8 6
Hours of
operation
h/d 12/5 12/5 12/5

4. RESULTS
The results, presented in figures 4, 5, and 6 show
how the spontaneous increase of temperatures due to
the internal gains is related to the specific
characteristics of the envelope (u-value and air-
tightness of Existing building, TEK10, PrNS3700).
Internal gains due to IT equipment and lighting have
been assumed, in a first time, equal to 19 W/m
2
(11
W/m
2
lighting + 8 W/m
2
equipment). In a second
sequence of analyses the simulations have been
performed with lower internal gains, 11 W/m
2
,
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corresponding to best practice according to Marton
Varga [6]

and in respect of the Passivhus standards
(5 W/m
2
lighting + 6 W/m
2
equipment). Occupancy
has always been assumed being 10 m
2
/person for
both groups of simulations.

Figure 4: Spontaneous shift of temperatures due to internal

gains (19W/m
2
lighting+equipment, 10 occupancy)
The diagram represented in fig. 4 shows that the
shift of temperatures due to internal gains is larger the
more stringent the external envelope is. It has to be
considered that TRNSYS calculate temperatures and
relative humidity variations starting from an arbitrary
initial point (20C; 50%). Thats why in figures 4 and 5
the temperature profile of January is significantly
higher than the other cold months. As reported in the
legend in the bottom the sequence of three shifts of
temperatures has been represented with different
tones of gray, going from the lighter one of the
Existing building parameters up to the almost black of
the Passivhus prNS3700 standard.
Figure 5: Spontaneous shift of temperatures due to internal
gains (11W/m
2
lighting+equipment, 10 occupancy)
Once the shift of temperature has been calculated,
the values have been plotted inside the psychrometric
chart in order to relate them to the thermal comfort
zone (Fig.6). The new range of temperatures and
relative humidity values represent the new starting
point for calculating the increase of hours spent inside
the comfort zone thanks to the use of the different
passive strategies. This increment, as mentioned
above, is calculated by the weather-tool comparing
the T and w distribution with a thermal neutrality zone
calculated according to Szokolay formula. This
fundamental step gives evidence of the implications
of the increased need for cooling on both process and
product of sustainable design.

Figure 6: Spontaneous shift of temperatures due to internal
gains (19W/m
2
lighting+equipment, 10 occupancy).
Psychrometric chart and heating and cooling degree hours.
5. CONCLUSION
On the base of the analyses conducted the direct
comparison between climate and comfort, commonly
assumed as the basis of sustainable design, might in
certain circumstances result not sufficient.
Sustainable design of low energy office buildings
require further analyses in order to cope with the
increased need for cooling due to the elevated
internal gains. Such preliminary analyses - climate-
comfort comparison and increase of temperatures
evaluation are in this study integrated. The
comparison between the comfort zone and the new
range of values of T and w calculated above become
the starting point for defining strategies and
calculating their potential. This shift of temperatures,
as seen, is strongly related to the specific
characteristics of the envelope and can imply the use
of strategies completely different from the ones
suggested by a direct comparison between climate
and comfort. The significant increase of the CDH
(fig.7) gives even more strength to the necessity of
using strategies for cooling and ventilation, today
extending their geographic boundaries of applicability
to cold climate regions.
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Figure 7: Exterior Oslo and interior OSLO+prNS3700:
Psychrometric chart and passive strategies.

Figure 8: Exterior Oslo and interior OSLO+prNS3700:
Increase in the percentage of hours spent within the comfort
zone in case different passive strategies are applied.
6. CONSIDERATIONS ON SUSTAINABLE
DESIGN PROCESS AND ITS PRODUCTS
The study conducted implies a reflection both on
the process of sustainable design and its product.
Implications on the process concern the need of
quantifying the potential thermal deviation coming
from the internal thermal loads including it in the
preliminary climate-comfort comparison. In the case
of office buildings this deviation represents a force
strong enough to completely upset the whole
architectural concept of the building. The increased
potential of strategies for passive cooling and natural
ventilation, together with the larger number of cooling
degree hours, suggest and justify a new approach in
architectural design of low energy office buildings in
cold climates. The permeability of the envelope,
required by the use of strategies for cooling and
natural ventilation, is not in contrast with the tendency
of adopting even higher low energy standards and is
not calling TEK10 or PrNS3700 standards into
question. Control of the thermal exchanges
happening through the envelope is essential for
reducing the heating demand in wintertime. The new
fundamental requirement is, instead, environmental
adaptability to changing conditions, not only of the
envelope itself but of the whole architectural form.
Most energy efficient office buildings today take
advantage of the free heat produced inside the
interior spaces by the thermal loads. Heat is usually
used for partial heating of the outside air before letting
it inside the building by means of a heat exchanger.
This results in significant energy savings. Other
buildings take advantage of intermediate spaces able
to give the architectural form a deeper environmental
sensitivity. Adaptability is in this case enhanced
translating the potential microclimate generated by
the interior heat production in an intermediate space
included between the interior and the exterior. This
type of space is usually characterized by different
phenomena, like the greenhouse effect or thermal air
stratification that influence its environmental
behaviour. Intermediate spaces can have several
forms: they can be as thin as a blades double skin
facades - or as thick as a liveable plazas or atriums.
What is more important for the definition of the low
energy strategy, is that the perimeter of the building
takes possession of small fragments of exterior
spaces whose environmental conditions can be
controlled. Intervening in the interaction between
climate and architecture is now possible in two
different steps; firstly acting in the interaction between
the climate and the microclimate of the in-between
space and secondly in the interaction between the
microclimate and the internal spaces (Fig. 8).
The microclimate generated inside the gap is
usually controlled through different passive strategies,
and can, given its geometrical and specific
characteristics, have completely different
environmental behaviours. Its thermal conditions can
take advantage of the possibility of dialoguing with
both the external and internal spaces. The
contribution of the first skin, including both internal
and in-between space, can, when required and
convenient, be cancelled re-establishing a
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microclimate equal to the exterior thermal conditions.
Such qualities of intermediate spaces enhance
environmental sensitivity and adaptability of the
architectural form. The thermal comparison is also
split in two different steps (fig.9)
.

Figure 9: Sustainable design process

7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper has been written within the ongoing
SINTEF project LECO on low energy commercial
buildings. The authors gratefully acknowledge the
Research Council of Norway.
8. REFERENCES
[1] T. Iversen et al., RegClim Norges Klima om 100
r, Usikkerheter og risiko (2005).
[2] M. Haase, I. Andersen, B. Time and A.G.
Hestnes. Design and future of energy efficient
office buildings in Norway, Building simulation
conference (BS09), Strathclyde (2009).
[3] M. Haase and I. Andersen, The role of passive
cooling strategies for Norway. The international
journal for climate change. Impacts and
responses. Volume 1, Number 3, Common
ground Publishing, (2009) pp. 2x22x4.
[4] Standard Norge, Norsk Standard NS3031:2007.
Beregning av bygningers energytelse, Metode og
data, Pronorm ed. Lysaker (2007).
[5] Steven V Szokolay, Introduction to Architectural
Science. The basis of sustainable design,
Architectural press, (2008)
[6] Marton Varga, Keep Cool. Internal heat loads,
Osterreichische Energiagentur Austrian Energy
Agency (2009).
[7] V. Olgyay, Design with climate: bioclimatic
approach to architectural regionalism, Princeton
University press, Princeton, N.J. (1963).
[8] L. Finocchiaro, T.Wigenstad, A.G. Hestnes,
Relation between form and energy consumption
in Low Energy office buildings. CLIMA2010
conference, Antalya (2010).
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ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
Delivering Quality Indoor Environment in Houses
The Potentials and Impact of Building Materials for Facade
Design in Cairo
Wael SHETA
1,2
, Steve SHARPLES
3
1
University of Sheffield, School of Architecture, Sheffield, United Kingdom.
2
Al-Azhar University, Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo, Egypt.
3
University of Liverpool, School of Architecture, Liverpool, United Kingdom.
ABSTRACT: This paper investigates the building materials which have been used in residential buildings for one
of the new communities around Cairo. The study examines the thermal performance of existing building
materials which have been already used by architects for building faades, and then uses the dynamic energy
simulation package DesignBuilder to try and improve the quality of the environment inside these developments.
Visual surveys and walkthrough investigations were carried out to determine building materials and construction
techniques and 3D models of the dwellings were created incorporating the building materials and thermal
properties which had been used. Alternative facades and materials were then applied and indoor thermal
comfort temperatures assessed.
Keywords: Building materials, indoor environment, dwellings, thermal comfort, building simulation.
1. INTRODUCTION
Improving the thermal performance of buildings
has a great impact upon the built environment. It is
one of the biggest challenges facing architects and
designers nowadays, especially with the growing
concern over the environment and the necessity to
find more sustainable communities for future
generations. Building performance has become a
significant issue around the world, not only in
developed countries but also in the developing
countries - it enhances the quality of indoor
environment and thermal comfort for occupiers and
improves the image and the concept of the
sustainable community, which is still one of missing
links in new Egyptian buildings.
Taking a wide overview of the dwellings in new
urban communities around Cairo which have been
built during the last ten years, one can find a clear
disparity and contradiction between materials used in
construction and the architectural solutions for
facades, taking into account their compatibility with
the existing place and environment. Architects have
found many architectural designs for dwellings and
facades, despite the restrictions in plots area and
very prescriptive regulations. Most of these designs
give the priority to form and number of spaces. They
do not take into account building performance and
environmental conditions to maintain a quality indoor
environment. This was due to many reasons, one of
the most important being that there is no valid
knowledge of the appropriate technologies and
building materials which can be used to achieve the
goal of sustainable buildings that have a quality
indoor environment in Egypt.
Many strategic decisions can be taken to reduce
the heat gain when a faade is designed. The faade
can play the role of environmental filter. This means
great care must be taken in the choice of the wall
materials with respect to their physical properties.
Within this context, building simulation can be used
as a tool to help analyze and predict building
performance and sustainability and also to indicate
how improved environmental design can enhance
the sustainability of buildings and communities.
DesignBuilder was chosen to simulate the thermal
performance of these houses for a range of design
strategies, including the use of different building
materials, wall constructions and an array of
orientations.
The fundamental aim of this paper is to test the
behaviour of different building materials and wall
constructions under Egyptian climatic conditions to
help the choice of these materials more effective
from an environmental standpoint to improve the
thermal behaviour of new housing. Architects,
designers and engineers can be given sustainable
design guidelines to enable appropriate solutions to
be chosen at the early stages of a design to achieve
low energy thermal comfort.
Figure 1: Two-flats /floor building type facades.
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2. BUILDING CHARACTERISTICS
2.1. Visual survey
This paper studies one of the new urban
settlements that have been developed around Cairo,
El-Tagammu' El-Khames, which is considered to be
the new premium residential district of Greater Cairo.
The study focuses on dwellings as they represent the
main sector of this community. The two-flats/floor
building types shown in Figure 1 are typical of many
residential properties found in this settlement, and
that is why it was selected as a case study. This
building consists of a ground floor with an area of
300 square meters and two typical floors with an
area of 330 square meters each. All floors contain
two identical units facing each other. Living space
has been selected to be examined as it is the most
attractive area for occupiers and it combines living,
dining and entertainment activities. In addition, it is
the most adjacent zone of the building to the main
facade. Field investigations for some of these types
of dwellings have examined the thermal behaviour of
this type of building. Excessive heat gain has
occurred in buildings for long periods of the day and
exceeds the comfort zone for the Egyptian climatic
conditions. This result confirms the view that these
building designs do not take into account climate,
site and environmental conditions to maintain a
quality indoor environment. In addition, a visual
survey was carried out by the authors to analyze the
faade, constructional features and explore the
appearance of the community. The building materials
which were used in the main faades were identified.
Figure 2: Construction techniques and building materials.
2.2. Building material and construction
A wide range of building materials and
construction techniques has been used. Concrete
has been used widely for construction rather than
steel - this was due to many factors, such as the
price, easy of moulding and operational quality.
Cement and ordinary red brick are the most common
materials used to construct a buildings external and
internal walls (see Figure 2). Most of the external
walls are single skin. Double walls are rarely used
but cladding on the walls is common. The thickness
of the walls are defined according to the brick
dimensions (25012060 mm) i.e. a wall with 120
mm thick, the so-called Nos toba or half brick, and
the wall which is 250 mm thick, the so-called Toba
(single brick) and so on. A vast range of natural
stones are used in cladding that includes different
types of marble, granite and limestone. In addition a
wide range of paint types and colours are utilised.
Glass was also used in many different types,
thicknesses and thermal properties. The usage of all
these materials partly depends on the owners
viewpoint, his financial ability or the architects view
of the market and the design. There is little thought
about the impact of their choices upon thermal
comfort inside the building. Thermal properties for
building materials, The thermal properties (density,
conductivity and specific heat) for building materials
that are commonly used in construction in Cairo are
shown in Tables 1 and 2.
Table 1: The thermal properties (density, thermal
conductivity and specific heat) of building materials
commonly used in construction in Cairo [1].
Building Material
Density
kg/m
Therm
Cond.
W/mK
Specific
Heat
J/kgK
Red Brick (S) 1790 0.60 840
Red Brick (H) 1950 1.00 829
Cement Brick (S) 1800 1.25 880
Cement Brick (H) 1130 1.60 880
Ytong Brick (Khafaf) 985 0.33 850
Sand Brick (S) 1800 1.59 835
Sand Brick (H) 1500 1.39 811
Table 2: The thermal properties (density and thermal
conductivity) of cladding materials commonly used in
construction in Cairo [1].
Building Material
Density
kg/m
Therm
Cond.
W/mK
Lime Stone 1650 0.93
Sand Stone 2000 1.30
Marble 2600 2.60
Granite 2650 2.90
Cement Rendering 1570 0.95
Gypsum Plastering 1200 0.42
Rough Lime Plastering 1440 0.16
3. METHODOLOGY
3.1. Overview
The relationship between building materials and
indoor thermal quality has been widely investigated;
one can find it as a common denominator in most of
the literatures that addresses building envelope or
passive solar techniques in architecture. Oral et al.
[2] investigated built and physical environment
relationships by reporting building materials as one
of the most critical parameters influencing the design
of the building envelope. Behsh [3] tried to find a
relationship between the U-value and thermal
storage capacity in a study of structure behaviour in
a Mediterranean region. Thomas et al. [4] conducted
a study about the key parameters for selecting
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affordable materials and designing for thermal
comfort for housing in Egypt. Okba [5] discussed
building envelope design as a passive cooling
technique for buildings in Egypt. He highlighted that
great care must be taken in the choice of building
materials for faades and roofs in hot climates.
Physical properties such as thermal conductivity,
resistivity and optical reflectivity must be taken into
account. In addition, one of the recent studies of the
thermal properties of building materials by Clarke et
al. [6] presented the outcome of a large project to
describe the variation of building thermal properties
as a function of temperature and moisture content.
3.2. Criteria
The purpose of the present paper is to investigate
the impact and the potentials of different types of wall
materials with different thermal transmittance value
(U-Values) as related to Egyptian climatic conditions.
The method adopted for this investigation was based
on two criteria - the first is the minimum thickness of
the external wall, which has been set as 120 mm or
half brick. The second is the difference of the wall
thickness (W) i.e. the difference between the width
of the thicker wall and thinner wall in each set, which
should not exceed 100 mm in each set of wall
constructions. Table 3 shows the thickness of all
types of walls and (W) the difference between the
width of the thicker wall and thinner wall in each set.
Table 3: The thickness of all types of walls in mm and
(W), the difference between the width of the thicker wall
and thinner wall in each set.
U-Value
W1
Single
W2
Double
W3
Cladding
W
2.0 205 125 215 90
1.0 315 265 335 70
1.5 285 275 335 60
0.5 485 480 515 35
Table 4: All wall constructions with U-Value of 0.5 W/mK.
Building Material
Thickness
(mm)
S
i
n
g
l
e

1.Thermal plaster 50
2.Ytong brick (Pumice) 400
3.Thermal insulation 20
4.Cement render and paint 15
D
o
u
b
l
e

1.Thermal plaster 30
2.Ytong brick (Pumice) 200
3.Air gap 15
4.Ytong brick (Pumice) 200
5.Thermal insulation 20
6.Cement render and paint 15
C
l
a
d
d
i
n
g

1.Limestone 50
2.Cement render 30
3.Ytong brick (Pumice) 400
4.Thermal insulation 20
5.Cement render and paint 15
Three sets of external wall construction have been
chosen. Single wall, double wall and cladding wall
construction. Each set represents the U-values of
0.5, 1, 1, 5 and 2 W/mK as it is shown in Figure 3.
Tables 4,5,6 and 7 show all sets of wall constructions
for U-Value 0.5,1,1.5 and 2 W/mK respectively.
Table 5: All wall constructions with U-Value of 1.0 W/mK.
Building Material
Thickness
(mm)
S
i
n
g
l
e

1.Thermal plaster 50
2.Ytong brick (Pumice) 200
3.Cement render and paint 35
D
o
u
b
l
e

1.Brick work 100
2.Air gap 10
3.Ytong brick (Pumice) 150
4.Cement render and paint 15
C
l
a
d
d
i
n
g
1.Limestone 50
2.Cement render 20
3.Ytong brick (Pumice) 250
4.Cement render and paint 15
Table 6: All wall constructions with U-Value of 1.5 W/mK.
Building Material
Thickness
(mm)
S
i
n
g
l
e

1.Lime sand plaster 30
2.Cement render 20
3.Brick work 250
4.Cement render and paint 15
D
o
u
b
l
e

1.Brick work 120
2.Air gap 10
3.Brick work 120
4.Cement render and paint 15
C
l
a
d
d
i
n
g
1.Limestone 50
2.Cement render 20
3.Brick work 250
4.Cement render and paint 15
Table 7: All wall constructions with U-Value of 2.0 W/mK.
Building Material
Thickness
(mm)
S
i
n
g
l
e

1.Thermal plaster 20
2.Cement render 30
3.Brick work 120
4.Cement render and paint 15
D
o
u
b
l
e

1.Brick work 50
2.Air gap 10
3.Brick work 50
4.Cement render and paint 15
C
l
a
d
d
i
n
g
1.Limestone 50
2.Cement render 30
3.Brick work 120
4.Cement render and paint 15
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Figure 3: All sets of wall constructions and U-values
3.3 Modelling and simulation Package
The software package being used in this study
was DesignBuilder version 1.8. It uses as its
calculation engine Energyplus 2.2, a powerful
thermal simulation package developed by the US
Department of Energy. EnergyPlus has been
extensively tested and validated analytically [7].
Sheta and Sharples [8] tested and validated
DesignBuilder as a satisfactory simulation package
with which to perform sustainability analysis and
thermal assessment for dwellings in the new Cairo
community. The credibility of the simulation results
allows the use of DesignBuilder in many parametric
studies. Some 3D models of the dwellings (Figure 4)
were created using the building materials and
thermal properties described earlier. Southern
facades have been chosen since they receive large
amounts of heat gain. The window to wall ratio was
20%. Glazing area has been set as 80% with 50%
glazing opening area. All simulations were
undertaken in free running mode without any heating
or cooling systems operating.
Figure 4: Two-flats /floor building model in Designbuilder
(Living space-typical plan- whole building).
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Simulations have been run for the for the hottest
week of the year which represents the summer
season, i.e. summer design week which lasts in
Egypt from 26th of June to 2nd of July. 26th of June
has been selected as a summer design day which
represent the most extreme hot conditions that may
occur. Figure 5 illustrates the results for indoor and
outdoor temperatures from DesignBuilder. The
results from building simulations for all three sets of
wall construction techniques have been gathered. All
living spaces in the southern facade for the whole
building were simulated and temperature profiles for
the ground, first and second floor were analyzed.
Figure 5: The results for indoor and outdoor temperatures
from DesignBuilder [9].
The initial findings from the temperature profiles
for the ground, first and second floor respectively
show that there is a significant difference between
the eastern and western flats which both have
southern facades. Living spaces for south west flats
showed a bigger variation in temperatures compared
to south east flats. This variation has appeared in all
sets of wall constructions for all floors and was
clearly noticed in the ground floors, which can be
interpreted as a result of the suns path during the
summer and afternoon heat gains occurring on this
side of the building that last from noon to sunset for
at least 6 hours a day. That means great care must
be taken for the treatment of the south west faade.
Shades, blinds and overhangs, in addition to
windows ratio, should be taken into account at the
initial design phase to decrease temperatures inside
these spaces.
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In terms of thermal comfort and building
behaviour under Egyptian climate conditions, there
are a number of points worth noting. Results for all
sets show that extreme heat gain occurred in the
building during the day time in the hot summer
season. For the ground floors, all temperature
profiles for all sets of the wall constructions with U-
Values 0.5, 1 and 1.5 W/mK have almost the same
trend, which was clearly revealed in both south east
and south west flats. Although the small difference
between all sets did not exceed 0.5 C, the single
wall construction was always revealing the lowest
temperature profile among all sets. The temperature
profile for the wall construction set with a U-value of
2 W/mK does the same but the peak hours are
spread from noon to 8.00 pm, and revealed a
significant difference reached 1.5 C. Figures 6
illustrates temperature profiles for the ground, first
and second floor respectively for different wall
constructions having a U-Value of 1 W/mK facing
south.

Figure 6: (from the top)The temperature profiles for the
ground, first and second floor respectively for different wall
constructions have 1 W/mK as a U-Value facing southern
facade.
At the same time, all temperature profiles for the
first and second floors for all sets of wall
constructions with U-Values of 0.5, 1 and 1.5 W/mK
acted in the same way and had almost the same
trend with a very narrow difference between them.
The maximum temperature for the trend of U-Values
0.5, 1 and 1.5 W/mK for all walls types were 34.3,
34 and 33.9 C respectively for the first floor and
36.1, 35.7 and 35.5 C respectively for the second
floor. The minimum temperature for the trend of U-
Values 0.5, 1 and 1.5 W/mK for all walls types were
30.9, 30.8 and 30.8 C respectively for the first floor
and 32.2, 32 and 31.9 C respectively for the second
floor. The temperature trends for all types of walls
having the U-value of 2 W/mK are almost the same.
A significant difference occurred in peak hours and
the maximum difference between trends reached 2
C. Figures 7 shows temperature profiles for the
ground, first and second floor respectively for
different wall constructions having a U-Value of 2
W/mK facing south.


Figure 7: (from the top)The temperature profiles for the
ground, first and second floor respectively for different wall
constructions have 2 W/mK as a U-Value facing southern
facade.
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One of the most significant findings to emerge
from these results is that using different types of wall
constructions having the same U-value and keeping
the difference between the thicker and the thinner
wall within 100 mm does not greatly effect the
temperature profiles for indoor spaces. In addition,
the time lag, a significant factor for the heat flow in to
and out of the building, did not have much
significance for these building materials and wall
constructions. This gives designers confidence to
use many types of building materials to explore the
potential and impact of building materials for facade
design in the new Cairo communities.
5. CONCLUSION
This study examined a wide variety of building
materials which could help achieve low energy
thermal comfort for domestic buildings in hot
climates. It was important to provide designers with
simple criteria for material selection and to consider
the options from an environmental standpoint. The
study has focused attention on building materials and
how thermal resistance for wall components can be a
useful guide in determining the appropriate solutions
for building faade design under Egyptian climatic
conditions at the early design stage.
The simulation results show that within the
aforementioned wall thickness criteria for traditional
materials, a single wall with insulation gives the best
indoor operative temperature even thought there is
only a narrow difference between wall sets. In
addition, using a double or a cladding wall could
have more significant effect when both their widths
are increased by 100 mm of the width of the
equivalent single wall which has the same U-Value.
The narrow variances in wall construction sets when
applying these criteria came from the narrow
variances between thermal capacities for traditional
building materials. This leads us to investigate
thoroughly new building materials that have high
thermal capacity. These may be more expensive and
are rarely used. Finally, given that the people in this
community have sufficient financial means, it would
seem viable that non traditional materials could be
used for walls, especially in view of their enhanced,
overall thermal performance.

6. REFERENCES
[1] HBNRC, The Egyptian Code for Thermal
Insulation, Housing and Building National
Research Centre, Cairo - Egypt (2007).
[2] G. Oral and N. Bayazit, Building Envelope
Design with the Objective to Ensure Thermal,
Visual and Acoustic Comfort Conditions,
Building and Environment, Elsevier, 39, 281
287, (2004).
[3] B. Behsh, Building Form as an Option for
Enhancing the Indoor Thermal Conditions, Proc.
The 6th Symposium on Building Physics in the
Nordic Countries, Trondheim Norway (2002).
[4] J.Thomas and F. Hammad, Materials Selection
for Thermal Comfort in Passive Solar Buildings,
Journal of Materials Science, Springer, 41
(2006), 6897-6907.
[5] E. Okba, Building Envelope Design as a Passive
Cooling Technique, Proc. The International
Conference of Passive and Low Energy Cooling
for the Built Environment, Santorini - Greece
(2005), 467-473.
[6] J. Clarke and P. Yaneske, A Rational Approach
to the Harmonisation of the Thermal Properties
of Building Materials, Building and Environment,
Elsevier , 44 (2009), 2046-55.
[7] EnergyPlus,(2009).
http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energypl
us/testing.cfm.
[8] W. Sheta and S. Sharples, A Building Simulation
Sustainability Analysis to Assess Dwellings in a
New Cairo Development, Proc. SimBuild 4th
National conference of IBPSA-USA, New York -
USA (2010), 94-101.
[9] DesignBuilder,(2010).
http://www.designbuilder.co.uk/
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Developing Sustainable School Design in Iran
A thermal comfort survey of a secondary school in Tehran
Sahar ZAHIRI
1
, Steve SHARPLES
2
, Hasim ALTAN
1
1
School of Architecture, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
2
School of Architecture, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
ABSTRACT: Sustainable school design can have a significant effect on improving the physical comfort and
learning performance of pupils. Sustainable design can also reduce the long term impact of school buildings on the
environment. Due to a lack of appropriate sustainable school design guidelines in Iran, it has historically been
difficult to create comfortable and productive learning environments for students. In order to develop sustainable
school design guidelines, it is necessary to assess the current design methods used by the educational authorities
in Iran and to examine the performance of existing schools. This paper describes a series of field studies that used
survey questionnaires and field measurements conducted in a female secondary school in Tehran, Iran, for three
weeks. The measurements assessed thermal conditions during lesson hours in the warm spring period of
April/May. 45 students in two classrooms completed questionnaires as thermal comfort variables such as indoor air
temperature and relative humidity were measured. A comparative analysis was performed on the result of field
studies from the classrooms, which were located on the north and south facing sides of the school. The findings
indicate that most of the occupants found the thermal environment not to be comfortable during the spring.
Keywords: thermal comfort, sustainability, school design, surveys, Tehran
1. INTRODUCTION
Sustainable school design solutions can have a
significant effect on reducing the long term impact of
school buildings on the environment and also
improving the physical comfort and learning
performance of students as well as saving energy [1].
In order to create a comfortable and healthy indoor
educational environment for students, the main
subjects that need to be considered during the design
process are lighting, ventilation, acoustics, and
thermal comfort.
Thermal conditions in the classrooms affect not
only health and comfort, but also students learning
efficiency [2]. Providing an acceptable indoor climate
in a building is necessary in order to make it more
comfortable for occupants and also to control its
energy consumption to make it more sustainable.
Thermal comfort studies can help to frame
sustainable design standards for buildings [3].
In recent years the quality of construction and
school design in Iran has been improved significantly.
However, most of existing schools have been
constructed without concern for the thermal comfort of
the occupants in classrooms. The main reason is the
lack of appropriate design guidelines for creating
comfortable and healthy indoor environments in
Iranian schools. Thermal comfort studies show that
poor thermal environment in classrooms reduce
students productivity. Therefore, a comfortable
classroom will increase students efficiency to study
and reduce energy consumption of school buildings,
which has been increasing in the recent years.
According to the annual report of the Central Bank
of Iran [4], the total number of students aged 6 to 18
was 13.51 million in 2008-09 and 135,453 schools
had been built up in Iran since 1979. The statistics
indicate that there are many school buildings in Iran
with large numbers of students, which underlines the
importance of studying thermal comfort conditions in
Iranian schools.
In order to maximise students ability to learn in a
healthy environment, as well as reducing energy
consumption of school buildings in Iran, there is a
need to provide some guidelines for sustainable
school design in Iran. This study will present the
results of field experiments on thermal comfort in
classrooms in the city of Tehran. School buildings in
Tehran have been chosen as the case studies
because Tehran is one of the biggest cities in Iran
and, compared to other Iranian cities, has the largest
percentage of students in its population. Figure 1
shows the south facade of the school.

Figure 1: South facade of the secondary school in Tehran
The main aims of the research are to identify the
conditions which are considered comfortable by
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
524 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
female secondary school students in Tehran and to
investigate the thermal comfort and indoor air quality
in the classrooms.
2. CLIMATE OF IRAN AND THE CITY OF
TEHRAN
Iran is a country located in the Middle East and
covers over 1,648,195 km, with a land area of
1,531,595 km and a water area of 116,600km. It
extends between latitudes 25N and 40N and
longitude 44E and 63 E.
The city of Tehran is located on the southern
border of the Alborz Mountain. Tehran has hot-dry
summers and cold winters. The climate of Tehran is
generally characterised by its geographic location and
it is usually cooler on the north side compared to the
southern part. The annual precipitation is low and the
average rainfall on the plain is about 218 mm and the
maximum rainfall is about 50 mm in November [5].
Figure 2 shows the average annual temperature
range in Tehran.
Figure 2: Temperature range in Tehran [6]
Moreover, relative humidity reaches 66% in
December and decreases to 27% in July and also the
average dry bulb temperature is 5C in January and
32C in July [6].
3. METHODS AND DATA COLLECTION
In order to achieve the studys aims, a series of
field studies, that used survey questionnaires and
field measurements, were conducted in a four storey
female secondary school for three weeks during
spring. The measurements assessed thermal
conditions during lesson hours in the warm months of
April and May. Overall, 45 questionnaires were
completed in two classrooms on the 4th May 2010 by
the students. Thermal comfort variables were
measured for a three week period, which included the
survey date, by HOBO data loggers. HOBO loggers
tracked temperature and relative humidity inside two
classrooms. Details of the classrooms occupants are
given in Table 1.
A comparative analysis has been performed on
the result of the field studies from the classrooms,
which were located on the north (N) and south (S)
facing sides of the school on the top floor. Later, the
results from the field measurement were compared
with the results of the questionnaire survey.
Table 1: Summary of samples

3.1. Objective Physical Measurement
The school is located in south-west of Tehran and
has four storeys. The measurements assessed
thermal condition of the classrooms during lesson
hours in the warm months of April and May for three
weeks, 26th April 2010 to 15th May 2010, on the top
floor. Thermal comfort variables such as indoor air
temperature and relative humidity were measured by
HOBO loggers. HOBOs were located at a height of
2.0 metres above the floor, on top of the blackboard.
They were collecting indoor temperature and relative
humidity with a logging interval of 15 minutes. Daily
local weather data were also extracted from local
weather station reports. Table 2 presents the means
of indoor temperature and relative humidity as well as
their standard deviations for the two classrooms.
Measurement results were divided in to weekdays
(W), representing 17 days, and weekends (WE),
representing 3 days.
Table 2: Mean indoor temperature, mean relative humidity
and standard deviations in two classrooms for weekdays (W)
and weekends (WE).

From Table 2 it can be seen that the mean indoor
temperature, mean relative humidity and their
standard deviations during the weekdays are higher
than at weekends. Generally, the standard deviation
of indoor air temperature is smaller than the standard
deviation of indoor relative humidity. During the
weekends the school does not have any occupants,
which results in lower humidity levels. However, the
mean temperature of the classroom rises during the
weekdays, possibly due to increasing activity levels in
the classrooms. Moreover, although the school has
an air conditioning system, it is hardly used during the
warm seasons in order to keep energy bills low.
During the three week assessment, the air
conditioning system was kept off and classrooms
were naturally ventilated, which resulted in a higher
temperature range during the weekdays.
3.2. Questionnaire
Assessment of thermal comfort in the classrooms
was based on a questionnaire survey. A total number
of 45 students from classroom N and classroom S
participated in the survey at noon on the 4
th
May
2010. They answered questions on their perception of
Classroom Number taking part
in survey
N (north facing) 23
S (south facing) 22
Total 45


Indoor
temperature
(C)
Indoor
relative
humidity%
Classroom W WE W WE
N
Mean 24.9 24.1 34.0 31.7
S.D 1.3 0.5 6.3 5.8
S
Mean 25.0 24.2 29.3 27.8
S.D 1.5 0.5 7 6.2
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 525


thermal sensation in their classrooms using the 7
point ASHRAE scale. They also voted for their indoor
thermal preferences using the 3 point McIntyre scale.
Two different questionnaires were designed. One was
related to the occupants thermal sensation and the
other was a site record form. All students filled in the
first questionnaire whilst sat in their classrooms and
after performing light activities such as reading or
writing 15 minutes prior to the survey. The main
questions were about students thermal sensation on
the 7 point ASHRAE scale and their thermal
preference on the McIntyre 3 point preference scale
as follows:
How do you feel at the moment?
Cold Cool Slightly cool Neutral
Slightly warm Warm Hot
Would you like to be
Cooler No changes Warmer
Moreover, students were asked to answer
questions about their clothing and activities in the
preceding 15 minutes in order to estimate the
average clothing insulation value and metabolic heat
rate. However, the site record forms were only
answered by a student representative who recorded if
any openings were closed or any air conditioning
systems were working whilst the students were
completing the questionnaires. A comparative
analysis was performed on the results of the field
studies in the classrooms. The results from the field
measurements were compared with the results of the
survey questionnaire.
4. RESULTS
4.1. Indoor Climate
Table 3 shows the means and standard deviations
of climatic variables for each classroom during lesson
hours (7:30am-12:00pm) on the 4th May 2010 in
classroom N and S. The result shows that the mean
indoor air temperatures in both classrooms were
around 23.5C, although the mean outdoor
temperature was cooler at around 18.5C. However,
the mean indoor relative humidity in classroom N was
35.4% and in classroom S was 28.8% while the mean
outdoor relative humidity was 27.8%. The raised
values of the internal parameters over the external
values reflect the internal heat and vapour gains from
student activities.
Table 3: Summary of environmental data during the comfort
survey in classrooms between teaching times (7:30am-
12pm) on the 4th May 2010.

Classroom
N
Classroom
S
Indoor
temp (C)
Mean 23.9 23.6
Standard
Deviation
0.4 0.1
Indoor
RH%
Mean 35.4 28.8
Standard
Deviation
2.1 2.6
Outdoor
temp (C)
18.5
Outdoor
RH%
27.5
Figures 3 and 4 illustrate the mean indoor
temperature (C) and mean indoor relative humidity of
the N and S classrooms during the measurement
period of 4th May 2010 when students answered the
questionnaires. Figure 3 shows that while the indoor
temperature was increasing steadily from 23.0 C in
the morning to above 24.5 C at noon during teaching
hours in classroom N, relative humidity was relatively
constantly between 32% and 38%. On the other
hand, figure 4 presents that indoor air temperature
ranges in classroom S were changing between 23.4
C and 23.8 C consequently.
Generally, in classroom S the temperature was
steady for around half an hour in the morning, and
then it was rising for about an hour, then constant for
about 45 minutes and finally decreasing for around
thirty minutes, reaching 23.5 C at 10:00am. The
temperature changes were then similar until noon.
However, relative humidity was steady most of the
time and it was around 30% till 11:00am and later it
decreased to around 25% at 12:00pm.
Figure 3: Mean indoor temperature and relative humidity
during the survey in classroom N.

Figure 4: Mean indoor temperature and relative humidity
during the survey in classroom S.
4.2. Metabolic Rates and Clothing Insulation
In addition to field measurements, personal
parameters such as metabolic rate and clothing
insulation should be assessed to predict the thermal
comfort of the occupants. In this study, these two
personal factors were estimated according to
ASHRAE Standard 55 [7]. It gives a series of
metabolic rates for typical tasks and clothing
insulation values for typical ensembles. A clothing
28
30
32
34
36
38
40
22
22.5
23
23.5
24
24.5
25
0
7
:
3
0
0
8
:
0
0
0
8
:
3
0
0
9
:
0
0
0
9
:
3
0
1
0
:
0
0
1
0
:
3
0
1
1
:
0
0
1
1
:
3
0
1
2
:
0
0
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h
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%
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

C
Time
Indoor Temperature (C) Indoor RH %
0
10
20
30
40
23
23.2
23.4
23.6
23.8
24
0
7
:
3
0
0
8
:
0
0
0
8
:
3
0
0
9
:
0
0
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:
3
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:
0
0
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0
:
3
0
1
1
:
0
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:
3
0
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2
:
0
0
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T
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p
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C
Time
Indoor Temperature (C) Indoor RH %
PLEA 2011 - 27
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526 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
section on the questionnaire was designed using
checklists of clothing items which students usually
wear in their school environment. Students wore
school uniforms which were a combination of a T-shirt
or sleeveless blouse, thin trousers, socks, shoes,
head wear and a thin long sleeve shirt dress (manto).
Students always wear a manto, trousers and head
wear on top, as these are typical female school
uniforms in Iran. However, they adjust their clothing
under their uniform according to the heating or
cooling seasons. Based on Heidaris studies [8],
clothing insulation for head wear is usually 0.1clo in
the heating season.
Metabolic rate was assumed to be light office
activities, with students seated and reading or writing
15 minutes prior to the survey. Table 4 shows the
average metabolic rate and clothing insulation value
of the occupants in the classrooms during the survey.
Table 4: Average metabolic rate and clothing value of
students during lesson hours in schools.

Comparing the results of the two classrooms, it
can be seen that the mean value of clothing insulation
and metabolic heat rate of the occupants in both
classrooms were the same, which indicates that most
of the students wore clothes with similar insulation
values in the warm months of April and May whilst
they were doing similar activities in the classrooms.
4.3. Thermal Responses
Based on questionnaire survey results, thermal
responses of two classrooms occupants have been
analysed. Figure 5 shows the percentages of thermal
sensation votes on the seven point ASHRAE scale for
classroom N and S on the 4th May 2010. The
questionnaires were filled out at 12:00 pm by 45
students in both classrooms. From figure 5 it can be
seen that in classroom S 43% of the students felt
neutral (comfortable) while answering the
questionnaires. Comparatively, only 30% of the
occupants in Classroom N felt neutral while 35%
voted in the category 2 (slightly warm) of the
ASHRAE scale, which is the highest percentage.
Generally, 84.1% of the occupants in classroom S
voted in the central three categories of the ASHRAE
scale (slightly cool, neutral and slightly warm) but only
60.5% of students in classroom N voted in these
three categories. According to ASHRAE Standard 55
[7], a vote inside the central three categories (-1, 0, 1)
of the ASHRAE scale expresses satisfaction or
acceptance and the results shows classroom S falls
in to this category. Table 3 shows that the mean
indoor temperatures in two classrooms were around
23.5 C. However, relative humidity was 35.4% in
classroom N and 28.8% in classroom S, although
they have nearly the same number of occupants. The
questionnaire results indicate that the windows and
the door of classroom S were being kept open during
teaching hours and the classroom is located on the
southern side of the building. Classroom N is on the
northern side of the building and the windows were
kept open while the door was usually closed during
the teaching hours, which results in a higher humidity
level.
A comparison of simultaneous votes on both the
thermal sensation and preference scale on ASHRAE
and the McIntyre scale has been performed and are
shown in Figures 6 to 8.
Figure 5: Relative frequency of ASHREA thermal sensation
votes on the 4th May 2010 in classrooms N and S.
The results of the thermal preference votes on the
McIntyre preference scale shows that 31.1% of the
occupants voted No change in classroom S and
55.3% preferred to be cooler. However, in classroom
N, the majority of the students voted to be cooler and
only 4.4% preferred no change and no one wanted to
be warmer (Table 5).
Table 5: Percentage of occupants votes on thermal
preferences on 3 point McIntyre scale.
Classroom Cooler No change Warmer
N 95.6% 4.4% 0.0%
S 55.3% 31.1% 13.6%

Comparing the simultaneous votes on both the
thermal sensation of the ASHRAE scale and thermal
preference of the McIntyre scales show that in
classroom N only 4.4% of the occupants voting
Neutral (0) on the ASHRAE scale wanted No
change on the McIntyre scale and 0% wanted to be
warmer but 26.1% preferred to be cooler. On the
other hand, in classroom S, 13.6% of the students
voting Neutral (0) on ASHRAE scale, wanted No
change and 22.7% preferred a cooler environment.
However, 9.1% of the occupants in classroom S
wanted warmer environment (Figures 6, 7, 8).

Figure 6: Percentage preferring no change on ASHRAE
scale votes on the 4th

May 2010 in classroom N and S.
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
P
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c
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o
f

v
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s

(
%
)
ASHRAE scale
N S
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
P
e
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c
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p
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f
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i
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n
o

c
a
h
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(
%
)
ASHRAE scale
N S

Classroom
Number
of
students
Metabolic
heat rate
MET
Clothing
insulation
value
(clo)
N 23 1.0 0.76
S 22 1.0 0.76
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 527


Figure 7 illustrates that in classroom N no one
wanted to be warmer. In contrast, 13.5% of the
occupants voting Neutral (0) and Slightly cool (-1)
on ASHRAE scale preferred to be warmer during the
survey.
Figure7: Percentage preferring to be warmer on ASHRAE
scale votes on the 4th

May 2010 in classroom N and S.
Figure 8 illustrates the percentage of thermal
sensation votes on the ASHRAE scale voting to be
cooler on the McIntyre scale in classrooms S and N. It
can be seen that a large number of students in
classroom N preferred to be cooler compared to
classroom S. In classroom N, 30.4% of students who
voted Warm (+2) on the ASHRAE thermal sensation
scale wanted to be cooler and the same number of
the occupants voting Slightly warm (+1) preferred to
be cooler as well. Comparing the overall percentage
of votes Figure 8 shows that 55.3% of the students
wanted to be cooler in classroom S. In contrast,
95.6% of the occupants in classroom N wanted to be
cooler in their thermal state, which is the majority of
the students. Comparing simultaneous votes between
thermal sensation votes on the ASHRAE scale and
thermal preference votes on the McIntyre scale
shows that neutral sensations are not always the
preferred temperature. Although 84.1% of the
occupant in classroom S voted inside the central
three categories of the ASHRAE scale, which express
satisfaction, and 43% voted Neutral (0), only 13.6%
of the students voting Neutral on the ASHRAE scale
voted No change on the McIntyre scale.
Figure 8: Percentage preferring to be cooler on ASHRAE
scale votes on the 4th May 2010 in classroom N and S.
Tables 6 and 7 present the percentage of the
occupants votes on their perception of relative
humidity and airflow in the two classrooms on the 4th
May 2010.
Table 6: Percentage of occupants votes on their perception
of relative humidity in classrooms during a survey.
Dry Just right Humid
Classroom
N
56.5% 26.1% 17.4%
Classroom
S
18.8% 77.7% 4.5%

It can be seen that more than half of the
occupants in classroom N felt dry although 77.7% of
the students in classroom S felt just right in terms of
relative humidity. Comparing the mean indoor relative
humidity in the two classrooms (Table 3), it can be
seen that while the average level of humidity in
classroom N was higher than classroom S, students
in classroom N felt drier than classroom S (Table 6).
Table 7: Percentage of occupants votes on their perception
of airflow in classrooms during a survey.
Still Just right Breezy
Classroom
N
65.2% 21.7% 13.6%
Classroom
S
4.5% 31.8% 63.6%

Table 7 shows that 65% of the students in
classroom N felt the airflow was still during the
survey. However, 63.6% of the occupants in
classroom S voted breezy during the survey. Overall,
21.7% in classroom N and 31.8% in classroom S
answered just right to their perception of indoor
airflow. As has been mentioned before, the door of
classroom N is usually kept closed during the
teaching hours but the door is open in classroom S so
the majority of students in class N felt drier in their
classrooms and voted Still on their perception of
airflow.
4.4. Neutral Temperature
Neutral temperature is the temperature at which
people experience a sensation which is neither
slightly warm nor slightly cool. At this temperature the
mean votes of the subjects is neutral or at the middle
point of the seven point ASHRAE scale. According to
Heidaris studies [9], the indoor comfort neutral
temperature (Tn) in the city of Tehran depends on the
outdoor temperature (To) and can be found from:
Tn =12.8+0.555To
Based on this equation, the neutral temperature in
the classrooms should be 23.1C during the survey.
Although the mean indoor temperature in both
classrooms was around 23.5 C, only 30% of
students in classroom N and 43% in classroom S felt
neutral and only 4.4% of them in classroom N and
13.6% in classroom S preferred no change on the
ASHRAE scale. This shows that the neutral
0.00%
2.00%
4.00%
6.00%
8.00%
10.00%
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
P
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(
%
)
ASHRAE scale
N S
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
P
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(
%
)
ASHRAE scale
N S
section on the questionnaire was designed using
checklists of clothing items which students usually
wear in their school environment. Students wore
school uniforms which were a combination of a T-shirt
or sleeveless blouse, thin trousers, socks, shoes,
head wear and a thin long sleeve shirt dress (manto).
Students always wear a manto, trousers and head
wear on top, as these are typical female school
uniforms in Iran. However, they adjust their clothing
under their uniform according to the heating or
cooling seasons. Based on Heidaris studies [8],
clothing insulation for head wear is usually 0.1clo in
the heating season.
Metabolic rate was assumed to be light office
activities, with students seated and reading or writing
15 minutes prior to the survey. Table 4 shows the
average metabolic rate and clothing insulation value
of the occupants in the classrooms during the survey.
Table 4: Average metabolic rate and clothing value of
students during lesson hours in schools.

Comparing the results of the two classrooms, it
can be seen that the mean value of clothing insulation
and metabolic heat rate of the occupants in both
classrooms were the same, which indicates that most
of the students wore clothes with similar insulation
values in the warm months of April and May whilst
they were doing similar activities in the classrooms.
4.3. Thermal Responses
Based on questionnaire survey results, thermal
responses of two classrooms occupants have been
analysed. Figure 5 shows the percentages of thermal
sensation votes on the seven point ASHRAE scale for
classroom N and S on the 4th May 2010. The
questionnaires were filled out at 12:00 pm by 45
students in both classrooms. From figure 5 it can be
seen that in classroom S 43% of the students felt
neutral (comfortable) while answering the
questionnaires. Comparatively, only 30% of the
occupants in Classroom N felt neutral while 35%
voted in the category 2 (slightly warm) of the
ASHRAE scale, which is the highest percentage.
Generally, 84.1% of the occupants in classroom S
voted in the central three categories of the ASHRAE
scale (slightly cool, neutral and slightly warm) but only
60.5% of students in classroom N voted in these
three categories. According to ASHRAE Standard 55
[7], a vote inside the central three categories (-1, 0, 1)
of the ASHRAE scale expresses satisfaction or
acceptance and the results shows classroom S falls
in to this category. Table 3 shows that the mean
indoor temperatures in two classrooms were around
23.5 C. However, relative humidity was 35.4% in
classroom N and 28.8% in classroom S, although
they have nearly the same number of occupants. The
questionnaire results indicate that the windows and
the door of classroom S were being kept open during
teaching hours and the classroom is located on the
southern side of the building. Classroom N is on the
northern side of the building and the windows were
kept open while the door was usually closed during
the teaching hours, which results in a higher humidity
level.
A comparison of simultaneous votes on both the
thermal sensation and preference scale on ASHRAE
and the McIntyre scale has been performed and are
shown in Figures 6 to 8.
Figure 5: Relative frequency of ASHREA thermal sensation
votes on the 4th May 2010 in classrooms N and S.
The results of the thermal preference votes on the
McIntyre preference scale shows that 31.1% of the
occupants voted No change in classroom S and
55.3% preferred to be cooler. However, in classroom
N, the majority of the students voted to be cooler and
only 4.4% preferred no change and no one wanted to
be warmer (Table 5).
Table 5: Percentage of occupants votes on thermal
preferences on 3 point McIntyre scale.
Classroom Cooler No change Warmer
N 95.6% 4.4% 0.0%
S 55.3% 31.1% 13.6%

Comparing the simultaneous votes on both the
thermal sensation of the ASHRAE scale and thermal
preference of the McIntyre scales show that in
classroom N only 4.4% of the occupants voting
Neutral (0) on the ASHRAE scale wanted No
change on the McIntyre scale and 0% wanted to be
warmer but 26.1% preferred to be cooler. On the
other hand, in classroom S, 13.6% of the students
voting Neutral (0) on ASHRAE scale, wanted No
change and 22.7% preferred a cooler environment.
However, 9.1% of the occupants in classroom S
wanted warmer environment (Figures 6, 7, 8).

Figure 6: Percentage preferring no change on ASHRAE
scale votes on the 4th

May 2010 in classroom N and S.
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
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ASHRAE scale
N S
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
P
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(
%
)
ASHRAE scale
N S

Classroom
Number
of
students
Metabolic
heat rate
MET
Clothing
insulation
value
(clo)
N 23 1.0 0.76
S 22 1.0 0.76
PLEA 2011 - 27
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528 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
temperature for students aged between 15 and 18 is
slightly different and should be a little lower than the
one which was calculated by Heidari [9].
5. CONCLUSION
Comparing simultaneous votes between thermal
sensation votes on the ASHRAE scale and thermal
preference votes on the McIntyre scale shows that
neutral sensations are not always the preferred
temperature. Although 84.1% of the occupants in
classroom S voted inside the central three categories
of the ASHRAE scale, 43% voted Neutral (0).
Moreover, only 13.6% of the students voting Neutral
on the ASHRAE scale voted No change on the
McIntyre scale. Furthermore, on the 3 point McIntyre
scale, 31.3% of the occupants voted No change in
classroom S and 55.3% preferred to be cooler,
although 13.6% preferred to be warmer. However, in
classroom N, the majority of the students voted to be
cooler but only 4.4% preferred no change and no one
wanted to be warmer. The results show that in
classroom N only 4.4% of the occupants voting
Neutral preferred no change in their thermal state
and 26.1% preferred to be cooler. On the other hand,
in classroom S, 13.6% of the students voting Neutral
wanted no change and 22.7% preferred to be cooler.
These data show that neutral sensations are not
always the preferred temperature. Comparing
classroom N and S it can be seen that a large number
of students in classroom N and S preferred to be
cooler during April-May.
In addition, more than half of the occupants in
classroom N felt dry although 77.7% of the students
in classroom S felt just right in terms of relative
humidity. Comparing the mean indoor relative
humidity in two classrooms it is found that while the
average level of humidity in classroom N was higher
than classroom S, students in classroom N felt drier
than classroom S and it is likely that this was because
the door of classroom N was usually being kept
closed. In terms of airflow, 63.6% of the occupants in
classroom S voted breezy but 65% of the students in
classroom N felt the airflow inside their classroom
was still and that this is the reason for feeling drier.
Moreover, the mean indoor temperatures in the two
classrooms were around 23.5 C. However, relative
humidity was 35.4% in classroom N and 28.8% in
classroom S, although they have nearly the same
number of occupants. The questionnaire results
indicate that the windows and the door of classroom
S were being kept open during teaching hours but in
classroom N the windows were being kept open while
the door was usually closed during the teaching hours
which results in higher humidity levels.
Based on Heidaris findings on neutral
temperature in Tehran [9], the average neutral
temperature in the school is 23.1C and the average
clothing value of the students was 0.76 clo. In
addition, the average indoor temperature in
classrooms during the field studies was 23.5C but
most of the occupants preferred to be cooler. To help
students feel more comfortable in the classrooms, it is
suggested that they wear clothes with lower clothing
value during the spring, although this may be difficult
from a cultural perspective.
This study has indicated that even in the spring
period many of the students in this school were not
thermally comfort. This confirms the view that some
guidelines needed to be developed to help in the
design of sustainable schools in Iran.
6. REFERENCES
[1] Hoffman, P. J. (2009). Making the change to
sustainability: building green builds a better
education. Techniques: Connecting Education
and Careers. pp. 16-21.
[2] CABE. (2010). Creating excellent primary
schools. London: The Commission for
Architecture and the Built Environment.
[3] Nicol, F. & Humphrey, M. A. (2001). Adaptive
thermal comfort and sustainable thermal
standards for buildings. In: NCEUB. Moving
Thermal Comfort Standards into the 21st
Century. Windsor, UK, 5-8 April 2001. London:
Network for Comfort and Energy Use in
Buildings.
[4] CBI. (2009). Annual report of Central Bank of
Iran. Tehran: Central Bank of Iran.
[5] Kasmai, M. (1993). Climatic classification of Iran
(in Persian). Tehran: The Research Centre of
Building and Housing, Ministry of Housing and
Urban Development.
[6] Climate Consultant 4. (2009). Temperature range
in Tehran. Energy design tools [Online]. Available
at: http://www.energy-design-tools.aud.ucla.edu/
[Accessed: 10 August 2010].
[7] ASHRAE. (2004). ASHRAE Standard 55.
Thermal environmental conditions for human
occupancy. Atlanta, GA: American Society of
Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning
Engineers
[8] Heidari, S. (2000). Thermal comfort in Iranian
courtyard housing. Unpublished PhD thesis,
University of Sheffield, UK.
[9] Heidari, S. (2009). Comfort temperature for
Iranian people in the city of Tehran. Honar-Ha-
Ye-Ziba (Memari-va-Shahrsazi), 1(5), pp.5-14.


PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 529
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
A case study into the relation between temperature
and work productivity in offices in the UK

Laura JONES and Pieter DE WILDE
School of Architecture, Design and Environment, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, United Kingdom
ABSTRACT: Research in the field of building performance often focuses on the potential to save energy and
hence reduce building operation costs. However, from a business perspective, energy costs are normally only a
fraction of personnel costs. As a consequence, many businesses are interested in the work productivity of their
employees. Recent research from the USA and mainland Europe aims to link work productivity to temperature in
order to allow building designers and facility managers to optimise operational conditions. However, it is yet to
be demonstrated whether a generic relation between productivity and temperature can indeed be established,
and whether this holds true across the globe. Therefore this presents a small case study carried out in the
Southwest of the UK. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with occupants of all building phases with the
aim of capturing the perception of the interviewees of the relation between temperature and productivity, as well
as relevant contextual factors. The research supports the trends as identified by other publications but indicates
an optimum for the productivity curve that is about 1
o
C lower. Further research is needed to positively establish
whether the UK optimum indeed differs from US and mainland Europe values.
Keywords: temperature, work productivity, offices, case study
1. INTRODUCTION
Building performance is no longer just linked to
energy usage and operation costs. As stated by
Mudarri [1], it is now seen as 'how well the building
services the occupants in the space with comfortable
and healthy conditions that maximise their
performance and productivity. While many different
factors have an impact on productivity [2] and may
lead to distraction/loss of concentration, one prime
driver for maintaining thermal comfort conditions and
ensuring productivity of office workers is the room
temperature. Wheeler and Almeida [3] list as key
affecting factors of productivity: personal space,
climate control, daylight, office design, quiet and the
facilities available. Furthermore length in job,
confidence and practice in the task being carried out,
mental and physical health also affect how
productive individuals are. Sutherland and Cooper [4]
state that it is clear that health, well-being and
quality of work life are associated with performance
and productivity, and so understanding stress and
pressure at work is vital if we wish to create a
productive workplace.
A number of studies have been conducted
concerning the relationship between temperature
and work performance. Heschong [5] concluded in
general that as the temperature increases worker
productivity decreases. Overall a one degree
Celsius increase in air temperature was associated
with a 2 per cent drop in performance. Fang et al [6]
on the contrary believe that office work was not
considerably affected by temperature. They did
however find links to symptoms of Sick Building
Syndrome and found that these were reduced at
lower temperatures and humidity. They interpreted
this as potentially improving productivity through the
subjection of office workers to lower temperature and
humidity, but without providing evidence to support
this relation.
The seminal work on the relation between
temperature and office work performance however is
that of Seppnen, Fisk and Lei [7]. Their research
utilised studies that measured performance against
temperature in office-type work, using statistical
analysis to establish the percentage of performance
change per degree increase in temperature'. Only
studies that utilised objective measures of work
performance were used, in order to develop a
qualitative relationship. This was done with the aim
of identifying cost benefits. Thus combining the
results by Berglund (1990), Federspiel (2002),
Johansson (1975), Link and Pepler (1970), Meese
1984), Niemel (2001 and 2002), Pepler (1968) and
Wyon (1996) they defined the normalised
relationship demonstrated in figure 1.

Figure 1: Graph representing the normalised relation
between temperature and relative work performance.
(Image reproduced from Seppnen, Fisk and Lei [7]).

temperature for students aged between 15 and 18 is
slightly different and should be a little lower than the
one which was calculated by Heidari [9].
5. CONCLUSION
Comparing simultaneous votes between thermal
sensation votes on the ASHRAE scale and thermal
preference votes on the McIntyre scale shows that
neutral sensations are not always the preferred
temperature. Although 84.1% of the occupants in
classroom S voted inside the central three categories
of the ASHRAE scale, 43% voted Neutral (0).
Moreover, only 13.6% of the students voting Neutral
on the ASHRAE scale voted No change on the
McIntyre scale. Furthermore, on the 3 point McIntyre
scale, 31.3% of the occupants voted No change in
classroom S and 55.3% preferred to be cooler,
although 13.6% preferred to be warmer. However, in
classroom N, the majority of the students voted to be
cooler but only 4.4% preferred no change and no one
wanted to be warmer. The results show that in
classroom N only 4.4% of the occupants voting
Neutral preferred no change in their thermal state
and 26.1% preferred to be cooler. On the other hand,
in classroom S, 13.6% of the students voting Neutral
wanted no change and 22.7% preferred to be cooler.
These data show that neutral sensations are not
always the preferred temperature. Comparing
classroom N and S it can be seen that a large number
of students in classroom N and S preferred to be
cooler during April-May.
In addition, more than half of the occupants in
classroom N felt dry although 77.7% of the students
in classroom S felt just right in terms of relative
humidity. Comparing the mean indoor relative
humidity in two classrooms it is found that while the
average level of humidity in classroom N was higher
than classroom S, students in classroom N felt drier
than classroom S and it is likely that this was because
the door of classroom N was usually being kept
closed. In terms of airflow, 63.6% of the occupants in
classroom S voted breezy but 65% of the students in
classroom N felt the airflow inside their classroom
was still and that this is the reason for feeling drier.
Moreover, the mean indoor temperatures in the two
classrooms were around 23.5 C. However, relative
humidity was 35.4% in classroom N and 28.8% in
classroom S, although they have nearly the same
number of occupants. The questionnaire results
indicate that the windows and the door of classroom
S were being kept open during teaching hours but in
classroom N the windows were being kept open while
the door was usually closed during the teaching hours
which results in higher humidity levels.
Based on Heidaris findings on neutral
temperature in Tehran [9], the average neutral
temperature in the school is 23.1C and the average
clothing value of the students was 0.76 clo. In
addition, the average indoor temperature in
classrooms during the field studies was 23.5C but
most of the occupants preferred to be cooler. To help
students feel more comfortable in the classrooms, it is
suggested that they wear clothes with lower clothing
value during the spring, although this may be difficult
from a cultural perspective.
This study has indicated that even in the spring
period many of the students in this school were not
thermally comfort. This confirms the view that some
guidelines needed to be developed to help in the
design of sustainable schools in Iran.
6. REFERENCES
[1] Hoffman, P. J. (2009). Making the change to
sustainability: building green builds a better
education. Techniques: Connecting Education
and Careers. pp. 16-21.
[2] CABE. (2010). Creating excellent primary
schools. London: The Commission for
Architecture and the Built Environment.
[3] Nicol, F. & Humphrey, M. A. (2001). Adaptive
thermal comfort and sustainable thermal
standards for buildings. In: NCEUB. Moving
Thermal Comfort Standards into the 21st
Century. Windsor, UK, 5-8 April 2001. London:
Network for Comfort and Energy Use in
Buildings.
[4] CBI. (2009). Annual report of Central Bank of
Iran. Tehran: Central Bank of Iran.
[5] Kasmai, M. (1993). Climatic classification of Iran
(in Persian). Tehran: The Research Centre of
Building and Housing, Ministry of Housing and
Urban Development.
[6] Climate Consultant 4. (2009). Temperature range
in Tehran. Energy design tools [Online]. Available
at: http://www.energy-design-tools.aud.ucla.edu/
[Accessed: 10 August 2010].
[7] ASHRAE. (2004). ASHRAE Standard 55.
Thermal environmental conditions for human
occupancy. Atlanta, GA: American Society of
Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning
Engineers
[8] Heidari, S. (2000). Thermal comfort in Iranian
courtyard housing. Unpublished PhD thesis,
University of Sheffield, UK.
[9] Heidari, S. (2009). Comfort temperature for
Iranian people in the city of Tehran. Honar-Ha-
Ye-Ziba (Memari-va-Shahrsazi), 1(5), pp.5-14.


PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
530 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
2 xx.x SECTION NAME
The graph shows that as temperature increases
so does performance - up to 21C. When the
temperature raises above 22C performance
decreases. Productivity was found to be at its peak
around 22C. This relationship shown does not
support the theory of the arousal effect, which
suggests that lower temperatures increase
productivity.
Note that not all of the data used was collected
from an office environment, but that laboratory and
classroom studies were also included. Call-centres
accounted for a large proportion of the studies. This
does not necessarily relate to general office work on
a computer, which is the most common office activity.
Furthermore, from a review of the literature regarding
the internal environment and how many factors are
interrelated, it becomes clear that many researchers
believe that the relationship between temperature
and productivity in office work can not be specifically
isolated. Additionally, subjective testing methods can
not be applied to all office work as not all tasks can
be measured purely on the output quantity.
Finally, the authors [7] state that some of the
studies used only two temperatures for comparison.
This therefore does not provide an effective data set;
this difference in accuracy and size of data was
aimed to be accounted for by weighting.

2. PROBLEM AND OBJECTIVE
The majority of the studies relating to
temperature and productivity have been conducted in
the USA or mainland Europe. These geographic
areas are known to have different climates as well as
their own type of dominant HVAC systems The USA
for has large areas with semi arid, desert, and humid
subtropical climates, and many HVAC systems are
air based. In Europe the climate is predominantly
temperate continental, with a higher use of hydronic
heating and cooling systems. Also, different
countries have different working patterns and views
on what constitutes good working conditions.
Furthermore, work in the field of adaptive thermal
comfort [8] indicates that perception of thermal
comfort changes with outdoor conditions. This yields
two interesting questions:
(1) is there indeed one universal relationship
between temperature and relative work performance,
which is relatively stable across different climates
around the globe?
(2) what evidence is there that the relationship as
percieved thus far applies to other locations and
climates, like the temperate maritime climate of the
UK?
The research reported in this paper therefore
aims to collect a dataset for the UK, concentrating on
office work to ensure high continuity and to enable
comparison with previous data.
The main research question and relating sub-
questions are as follows:
What is the perceived relationship between
temperature and work productivity in offices in the
United Kingdom?.
The following sub-questions have also been
investigated:
Are any trends present in office workers
personal temperature comfort zones?
How do office workers perceive productivity and
how do they feel it should be measured?
What are the main factors that affect
productivity in offices?
Is there a relationship between perceived
productivity and the age/construction of the
buildings on the same site?

3. METHODOLOGY
A case study was carried out on a Technology
Campus in the Southwest of the United Kingdom. the
site was selected on the basis of existing industry
contacts, allowing good access to office workers at a
commercial site. The Technology Park sits on a 25
acre site and has been under continuous
development since its inception in 1995. At present
the Park consists of four phases of construction that
accommodate a community of businesses including
its own management team. These four phases
present a range of building types for this study,
whereas location and climate are fully similar for
each investigation. Figures 2 and 3 show images of
phase three and four buildings.



Figure 2: Phase three case study building, located at a
Technology Campus in the Southwest of the UK.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 531
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 3


Figure 3: Phase four case study building, located at a
Technology Campus in the Southwest of the UK.

A series of semi-structured interviews were
conducted at the Technology Park with the aim to
produce largely qualitative data. This has been
chosen as the most suitable data collection method
for this research project because the objectives that
need to be met require in depth information, views of
the individuals and information on behaviour.
Four individuals from each construction phase of
the Park were selected, giving a total sample of
sixteen office workers. The interview sample was
selected by the Technology Park management as
this would prove the least disruptive to the
workplace. However, in setting up the sample they
were asked to ensure that this would contain range
of ages, a relatively even mix of male and female,
and only people working in an office environment.
This method used for selecting interviewees is
convenience sampling which is a non-probability
sampling, meaning that some people are more likely
to be selected than others due to their relationship
with the organisation selecting the participants. It is
likely individuals were selected according to their
availability on the day of the interviews, their job
status, and other 'soft' factors, for instance making it
likely that the more friendly and willing individuals will
be chosen. This however should not have a large
effect on the findings because the status and nature
of the individual should not effect their perception of
temperature and productivity. Also note that it is
difficult however to remove all bias from any study
and develop a truly representative sample [9].
The size of the sample was chosen as a trade-off
between time, cost and precision. A size of sixteen
meant that an even number of individuals could be
selected from each building phase while not making
it too intrusive on the organisation. The population at
the Technology Park is relatively homogenous with
the offices being occupied mainly by its own staff and
small organisations. There will obviously be small
differences between organisations however the basic
setup is the same. This means a smaller sample
could be taken from the total population. The sample
was kept as large as possible to increase the likely
precision of the data and reduce the sampling error;
at the same time it was limited to sixteen as a
reasonable number of interviews that could be
conducted in one working day.
The questioning for the interviews was derived
from the research questions of this study, providing a
good structure to conduct all interviews in a similar
pattern while allowing for the interviewees to give
their own views and opinions. The interviews
involved questions regarding perception of
productivity, temperature and brief details of their job.
The interviewees were also asked to sketch a graph
similar to that of figure 1 to represent their perception
of the relationship between temperature (C) and
productivity (%). The interviews were audio recorded
and transcripts produced.
In addition to the interview structure, a minimal
set of data collection equipment was utilised. An
instrument was brought along to record the
temperature during the interviews, specifically an
Extech RH520A humidity and temperature graphical
data logger. The temperature in the room was stated
during the interview to give the interviewee a gauge
of how that specific temperature feels. The
instrument used is believed to be reasonably
accurate but was uncalibrated. Audio equipment was
used to record the interviews. Full transcriptions were
made of all interviews.
RESULTS
As per research design, results from sixteen
interviews conducted at the Technology Park were
obtained. As described, the sample was obtained via
convenience sampling, and thus may incorporate a
slight bias on the data collected. The organisation
would not see it beneficial to allow those individuals
extremely unhappy with their workplace to be
interviewed, especially regarding the topic of indoor
environment as this will show a negative picture. It
also means that it is unlikely that individuals in higher
positions and those absent due to sickness would be
included in the sample.
The main result obtained from this research is a
series of graphs that describe the interviewees
perception of the relationship between temperature
and work productivity. This material has been
summarised by taking averages over the responses
at each temperature of the data set, as well as
splitting the data according to interviewee attributes
like age group, gender, or building phase from which
they operate. Some typical results are presented in
figure 4 (average overall response), figure 5 (split
between gender) and figure 6 (split according to
building phase).
The majority of the interviewees felt their
productivity was affected by temperature with the
exception of only one individual out of sixteen. In
general they felt their productivity decreased when
they were too hot or too cold, as demonstrated by
figures 4, 5 and 6 . The overall optimum temperature
for being productive suggested by this research is
between 20
o
C and 22
o
C.
The graphs that are split according to gender or
building phase show distinct differences. It appears
that females consider a higher temperature more
productive than males. The trends for the four
distinct building phases are harder to interpret, but
they seem to indicate that there is a substantially
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
2 xx.x SECTION NAME
The graph shows that as temperature increases
so does performance - up to 21C. When the
temperature raises above 22C performance
decreases. Productivity was found to be at its peak
around 22C. This relationship shown does not
support the theory of the arousal effect, which
suggests that lower temperatures increase
productivity.
Note that not all of the data used was collected
from an office environment, but that laboratory and
classroom studies were also included. Call-centres
accounted for a large proportion of the studies. This
does not necessarily relate to general office work on
a computer, which is the most common office activity.
Furthermore, from a review of the literature regarding
the internal environment and how many factors are
interrelated, it becomes clear that many researchers
believe that the relationship between temperature
and productivity in office work can not be specifically
isolated. Additionally, subjective testing methods can
not be applied to all office work as not all tasks can
be measured purely on the output quantity.
Finally, the authors [7] state that some of the
studies used only two temperatures for comparison.
This therefore does not provide an effective data set;
this difference in accuracy and size of data was
aimed to be accounted for by weighting.

2. PROBLEM AND OBJECTIVE
The majority of the studies relating to
temperature and productivity have been conducted in
the USA or mainland Europe. These geographic
areas are known to have different climates as well as
their own type of dominant HVAC systems The USA
for has large areas with semi arid, desert, and humid
subtropical climates, and many HVAC systems are
air based. In Europe the climate is predominantly
temperate continental, with a higher use of hydronic
heating and cooling systems. Also, different
countries have different working patterns and views
on what constitutes good working conditions.
Furthermore, work in the field of adaptive thermal
comfort [8] indicates that perception of thermal
comfort changes with outdoor conditions. This yields
two interesting questions:
(1) is there indeed one universal relationship
between temperature and relative work performance,
which is relatively stable across different climates
around the globe?
(2) what evidence is there that the relationship as
percieved thus far applies to other locations and
climates, like the temperate maritime climate of the
UK?
The research reported in this paper therefore
aims to collect a dataset for the UK, concentrating on
office work to ensure high continuity and to enable
comparison with previous data.
The main research question and relating sub-
questions are as follows:
What is the perceived relationship between
temperature and work productivity in offices in the
United Kingdom?.
The following sub-questions have also been
investigated:
Are any trends present in office workers
personal temperature comfort zones?
How do office workers perceive productivity and
how do they feel it should be measured?
What are the main factors that affect
productivity in offices?
Is there a relationship between perceived
productivity and the age/construction of the
buildings on the same site?

3. METHODOLOGY
A case study was carried out on a Technology
Campus in the Southwest of the United Kingdom. the
site was selected on the basis of existing industry
contacts, allowing good access to office workers at a
commercial site. The Technology Park sits on a 25
acre site and has been under continuous
development since its inception in 1995. At present
the Park consists of four phases of construction that
accommodate a community of businesses including
its own management team. These four phases
present a range of building types for this study,
whereas location and climate are fully similar for
each investigation. Figures 2 and 3 show images of
phase three and four buildings.



Figure 2: Phase three case study building, located at a
Technology Campus in the Southwest of the UK.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
532 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
4 xx.x SECTION NAME
different optimum for each phase. Interestingly there
does not appear to be a trend where older phases
require a higher temperature or vice versa, which
might have been expected due to advances in
technology and engineering capacities. However,
there might be an issue with robustness of the
optimal temperature: the older phases seem to be
much more tolerant, in the sense that the gradient
close to the optimum is less steep. A similar graph
has been produced to study a split over age
categories, but the results are inconclusive.
It must be noted that the graphs produced are
based on a small sample size only, and therefore
must be interpreted with caution. Individual results
vary widely. As an example, one interviewee
suggested that the bandwidth for best productivity is
as narrow as only 2
o
C, whereas another allows for a
range as large as 12
o
C. The same goes for optimal
temperatures, which in the results range from as low
as 12
o
C to as high as 27
o
C. These and similar
effects are likely to underlie the 'spikes' at the edges
of the graphs.

It was evident from conducting the interviews that
some of the individuals had not previously
considered productivity in detail, or asked
themselves what made them most productive.
Several of the interviewees seemed very firm on their
views whilst others found the question regarding
productivity difficult to answer. The majority felt that
productivity should be measured by the quality of the
work produced. Others found they could not provide
an answer for the best way to measure productivity
or concluded that it would be through a mixture of
quality and quantity. One interviewee stated that
productivity is a difficult concept to measure
especially in their job of research. Another was more
vague and stated generally that over a period of time
that you get everything done. Other interviewees
were able to identify that a measure of productivity
should be job specific rather than applying the same
testing to all tasks. Overall this demonstrates that
there is a wide range of knowledge amongst office
workers regarding productivity. Generally those in
more creative jobs felt their work should be
measured on the quality whereas those in more
typical administrative jobs stated productivity should
be measured on the quantity of the work they
complete. The interviews conducted show that even
in office based jobs there is still a wide range of tasks
that are completed. This makes a measure for
productivity very difficult to develop and generalise.

0
1
0
2
0
3
0
4
0
5
0
6
0
7
0
8
0
9
0
1
0
0
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Temperature (C)
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y

(
%
)


Figure 4 Average interviewee perception of the
relationship between temperature and productivity.


0
1
0
2
0
3
0
4
0
5
0
6
0
7
0
8
0
9
0
1
0
0
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Temperature (C)
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y

(
%
)
Femal e
Mal e


Figure 5 Average perception by gender of the relationship
between temperature and productivity.


0
1
0
2
0
3
0
4
0
5
0
6
0
7
0
8
0
9
0
1
0
0
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Temperature (C)
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y

(
%
)
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
Phase 4


Figure 6 Average perception by Technology Park Phase
of the relationship between temperature and productivity.


PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
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Some further salient points made during the
interviews are the following:
Three interviewees had previously been located
in an office in another phase at the Technology
Park. All persons believe they have moved to a
better thermal environment, and that this has
raised their productivity.
One interviewee stated that a deeper
consideration of the consequences of design
decisions is needed, whereas the current focus
seems to overemphasise energy efficiency. This
supports the need for this type of research, as
well as broader Post Occupancy Evaluation
studies.
One interviewee experienced issues with noise
from a metal roof in their previous office and now
believes they are more productive in a newer
office without this distraction. This reinforces the
comment in literature that the temperature-
performance relationship must always be seen
in a wider context.
The interviews have not identified any issues
between job satisfaction and health or number of
sick days. Most of the interviewees rated their
job satisfaction high or relatively high and very
few of them had over 1 day of absence in the
last year. This could be accounted for due to the
location and the ambience at the Technology
Park, which is not located in the centre of the
city and where there is a relaxed and friendly
feel amongst workers. A few of the interviewees
are self-employed which means their job
satisfaction was very high due to enjoyment and
flexibility of the job.

4. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
The results from the research, carried out by
conducting semi-structured interviews with office
workers at a Technology Park in the Southwest of
the UK, lead to the following conclusions:
For offices in the UK a perceived relationship
between temperature and work performance can
be established that is very similar to that
reported by the seminal work in the field [7].
However, the results suggest an optimum for the
productivity curve that is about 1
o
C lower.
As can be expected there are differences
amongst the office workers concerning the
temperature which they believe best for being
productive. The general range identified varies
between 18
o
C and 22
o
C.
Looking at the split over the genders, results
indicate that the perceived relationship is similar;
however females appear to be more productive
at a higher temperature of 22C, as opposed to
a lower temperature of 20C for males.
In terms of measuring work performance, people
in more creative jobs felt their work should be
measured on the quality whereas those in more
typical administrative jobs stated productivity
should be measured on the quantity of the work
they complete.
One avenue for future research is cross-
comparison of findings for different buildings in
terms of optimal temperatures for productivity,
but also in terms of the robustness of the
optimum.
Further research is needed to positively
establish whether the UK optimum indeed differs
from US and mainland Europe values. Due to
the small sample size the work presented in this
paper must be considered as a preliminary study
in this area.

Overall one would expect the relationship
between temperature and relative work performance
to be subject to different contextual factors, like
gender, age, and culture. This would lead to large
uncertainties, and the relationship like depicted in
figure 1 needing to incorporate a significant bandwith
of uncertainty.

5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to thank Mr Derek Prickett,
Associate Lecturer at the University of Plymouth, for
establishing the link with the Technology Park, and
all interviewees that participated in this project.

PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
4 xx.x SECTION NAME
different optimum for each phase. Interestingly there
does not appear to be a trend where older phases
require a higher temperature or vice versa, which
might have been expected due to advances in
technology and engineering capacities. However,
there might be an issue with robustness of the
optimal temperature: the older phases seem to be
much more tolerant, in the sense that the gradient
close to the optimum is less steep. A similar graph
has been produced to study a split over age
categories, but the results are inconclusive.
It must be noted that the graphs produced are
based on a small sample size only, and therefore
must be interpreted with caution. Individual results
vary widely. As an example, one interviewee
suggested that the bandwidth for best productivity is
as narrow as only 2
o
C, whereas another allows for a
range as large as 12
o
C. The same goes for optimal
temperatures, which in the results range from as low
as 12
o
C to as high as 27
o
C. These and similar
effects are likely to underlie the 'spikes' at the edges
of the graphs.

It was evident from conducting the interviews that
some of the individuals had not previously
considered productivity in detail, or asked
themselves what made them most productive.
Several of the interviewees seemed very firm on their
views whilst others found the question regarding
productivity difficult to answer. The majority felt that
productivity should be measured by the quality of the
work produced. Others found they could not provide
an answer for the best way to measure productivity
or concluded that it would be through a mixture of
quality and quantity. One interviewee stated that
productivity is a difficult concept to measure
especially in their job of research. Another was more
vague and stated generally that over a period of time
that you get everything done. Other interviewees
were able to identify that a measure of productivity
should be job specific rather than applying the same
testing to all tasks. Overall this demonstrates that
there is a wide range of knowledge amongst office
workers regarding productivity. Generally those in
more creative jobs felt their work should be
measured on the quality whereas those in more
typical administrative jobs stated productivity should
be measured on the quantity of the work they
complete. The interviews conducted show that even
in office based jobs there is still a wide range of tasks
that are completed. This makes a measure for
productivity very difficult to develop and generalise.

0
1
0
2
0
3
0
4
0
5
0
6
0
7
0
8
0
9
0
1
0
0
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Temperature (C)
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y

(
%
)


Figure 4 Average interviewee perception of the
relationship between temperature and productivity.


0
1
0
2
0
3
0
4
0
5
0
6
0
7
0
8
0
9
0
1
0
0
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Temperature (C)
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y

(
%
)
Femal e
Mal e


Figure 5 Average perception by gender of the relationship
between temperature and productivity.


0
1
0
2
0
3
0
4
0
5
0
6
0
7
0
8
0
9
0
1
0
0
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Temperature (C)
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y

(
%
)
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
Phase 4


Figure 6 Average perception by Technology Park Phase
of the relationship between temperature and productivity.


PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
534 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
6 xx.x SECTION NAME
6. REFERENCES
[1] D.H. Mudarri, The economics of enhanced
environmental services in buildings, in D.
Clements-Croome (ed.) Creating the productive
workplace. 2nd edn. Oxon: Taylor & Francis, pp.
99-112 (2006)
[2] G.R. Newsham, J.A Veitch and K.E. Charles,
Risk factors for dissatisfaction with the indoor
environment in open-plan offices: an analysis of
COPE field study data, Indoor Air, 18 (4) pp.
271-282 (2008)
[3] G. Wheeler and A. Almeida, These four walls:
the real British Office, in Clements-Croome, D.
(ed.) Creating the productive workplace. 2nd
edn. Oxon: Taylor & Francis, pp. 357-377 (2006)
[4] V.J. Sutherland and C.L Cooper, Stress and the
changing nature of work, in Clements-Croome,
D. (ed.) Creating the productive workplace. 2nd
edn. Oxon: Taylor & Francis, pp. 81-96 (2006)
[5] L. Heschong, Windows and office worker
performance: the SMUD Call Center and
Desktop Studies, in Clements-Croome, D. (ed.)
Creating the productive workplace. 2nd edn.
Oxon: Taylor & Francis, pp. 277-309 (2006)
[6] L. Fang, D.P. Wyon, G. Clausen and P.O.
Fanger, Impact of indoor air temperature and
humidity in an office on perceived air quality,
SBS symptoms and performance, Indoor Air, 14
(7), pp.74-81 (2004)
[7] O. Seppnen, W.J. Fisk and Q.H. Lei, Effect of
temperature on task performance in office
environment. Berkeley: Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory (2006)
[8] F. Nicol and M. Humphreys, Derivation of the
adaptive equations for thermal comfort in free-
running buildings in European standard
EN15251, Building and Environment 45 (1), 11-
17 (2010)
[9] A. Bryman, Social research methods. Oxford:
Oxford University Press (2008)
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 535


Fading Shades of Green
Perceptions and Responses to
Working in a Sustainable Office
IDA G. MONFARED
1
, PROFESSOR STEVE SHARPLES
2

1
School of Architecture, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
2
School of Architecture, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
ABSTRACT: During a consolidation project the staff of the UK Border Agency (the Home Office) in Sheffield, UK,
were moved from five conventional buildings to a complex of two new ones, Vulcan House, which were the first
offices in the region to achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating for their sustainable design. However, environmental
assessment methods like BREEAM often underestimate the important role of occupants on the buildings real
performance. After a building becomes occupied the technical measures that once defined the buildings
sustainability will transform into more cultural values which depend on occupant behaviour. The degree of
occupant engagement with the sustainability values of a building not only affects the buildings performance, but
can also reduce or enhance their perception of satisfaction with their environment. This research followed the
experiences of 2000 staff of Vulcan House as a sustainable workplace through a longitudinal study (2008-2009)
of perceptions and satisfaction. This study included interviews and repeated surveys. In the era when the climate
change and environmental issues brought up the urgency to define a new notion of satisfaction, this paper tries to
emphasise that the occupants attitudes are as important as technical measures in achieving buildings with lasting
sustainability.
Keywords: BRREAM, green offices, occupants perception, satisfaction, sustainability.
1. INTRODUCTION
Since the negative impact of built environment on
nature has been acknowledged, environmental
assessment methods like BREEAM, LEED and
Energy Star have been introduced to tackle this
problem. These methods are increasingly promoted
through global and national policies and their appeal
is growing with the professionals in the built
environment sector [1]. However, such methods are
adopted in the early stages of a building life cycle
(design and construction) while the buildings real
performance will start after it becomes occupied.
Sustaining the buildings performance in accordance
with its green design intentions not only depends on
its success to meet the technical design goals, but
also on the behaviour of the buildings end-users (the
occupants). Therefore, the occupants understanding,
expectations and perceptions of a green building
can play an influential role on the buildings real
performance.
The definition of a sustainable building from the
occupants point of view is quite a complex issue. In
those cases were living or working in a green
building is not the result of an individuals choice it
becomes more complicated to clarify if the buildings
green identity remains a priority value from the
occupants perspective. This research addresses this
matter, based on the evidence of a case study in
Sheffield, UK. Vulcan House is a BREEAM
Excellent rated building which is accommodating the
staff of the UK Border Agency (UKBA) in Sheffield,
whom were previously working in five conventional
buildings. Through a longitudinal study this research
tried to identify and highlight the nature of the
relationship between a green building and its
occupants.
2. BACKGROUND
The Building Research Establishment
Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) was
a pioneering method for assessing the environmental
impact of buildings. It was introduced in 1998 in the
UK by the Building Research Establishment and it
has been continually upgraded and improved ever
since. In BREEAM a building is evaluated in
accordance with a series of categories and gains
credits in return for providing evidence of the
designs achievements in these categories. The
main categories are: management, health and well-
being, energy and transport, water, materials, land
use and ecology, and pollution. The overall score will
rank the building in one of six categories:
unclassified, pass, good, very good, excellent and
outstanding. The last category, outstanding, was
introduced in to the 2008 version of BREEAM to be
given to those buildings that in addition to meeting
the excellent rating also gained extra credits for
innovation. The BREEAM credentials in some of the
categories cannot change after the construction of a
building is complete (e.g. land use) but some of the
other categories will depend on how the occupants
use the building (e.g. energy and transport). In
practice, within these categories many interrelated
goals should be fulfilled, and this adds further
complexity to the buildings sustainable performance.
For example, pursuing energy conservation policies
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
6 xx.x SECTION NAME
6. REFERENCES
[1] D.H. Mudarri, The economics of enhanced
environmental services in buildings, in D.
Clements-Croome (ed.) Creating the productive
workplace. 2nd edn. Oxon: Taylor & Francis, pp.
99-112 (2006)
[2] G.R. Newsham, J.A Veitch and K.E. Charles,
Risk factors for dissatisfaction with the indoor
environment in open-plan offices: an analysis of
COPE field study data, Indoor Air, 18 (4) pp.
271-282 (2008)
[3] G. Wheeler and A. Almeida, These four walls:
the real British Office, in Clements-Croome, D.
(ed.) Creating the productive workplace. 2nd
edn. Oxon: Taylor & Francis, pp. 357-377 (2006)
[4] V.J. Sutherland and C.L Cooper, Stress and the
changing nature of work, in Clements-Croome,
D. (ed.) Creating the productive workplace. 2nd
edn. Oxon: Taylor & Francis, pp. 81-96 (2006)
[5] L. Heschong, Windows and office worker
performance: the SMUD Call Center and
Desktop Studies, in Clements-Croome, D. (ed.)
Creating the productive workplace. 2nd edn.
Oxon: Taylor & Francis, pp. 277-309 (2006)
[6] L. Fang, D.P. Wyon, G. Clausen and P.O.
Fanger, Impact of indoor air temperature and
humidity in an office on perceived air quality,
SBS symptoms and performance, Indoor Air, 14
(7), pp.74-81 (2004)
[7] O. Seppnen, W.J. Fisk and Q.H. Lei, Effect of
temperature on task performance in office
environment. Berkeley: Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory (2006)
[8] F. Nicol and M. Humphreys, Derivation of the
adaptive equations for thermal comfort in free-
running buildings in European standard
EN15251, Building and Environment 45 (1), 11-
17 (2010)
[9] A. Bryman, Social research methods. Oxford:
Oxford University Press (2008)
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
536 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
by a building management team could have an
impact on the occupants well-being and satisfaction.
Occupant dissatisfaction with some environmental
conditions might have to be addressed by the
building management team which might, in turn, lead
to the buildings systems being altered, possibly with
less commitment to maintaining the buildings
sustainability performance.
Many studies have been carried out on occupant
satisfaction and, in particular, the occupants
environmental comfort in green buildings [2] [3]. It
has been shown that in terms of the overall score of
some of the environmental aspects, such as the
overall score of lighting conditions, green buildings
received better ratings than their conventional
counterparts. However, when these measures are
divided into their subcategories, this difference is no
longer clear cut. Unmanageable complexity,
overheating problems during summer in passive-
ventilated buildings, and unsatisfactory noise
conditions (as a result of adopting open-plan design
strategies to conserve more energy) are some of the
reported problems with green buildings [4].
Socio-psychologists believe comfort and
satisfaction are not merely dependent on technically
optimal conditions [5]. In some cases, despite
environmental discomfort, the occupants were highly
satisfied with their building as there were other
influential elements involved. For example, there was
a case where, despite the uncomfortable thermal
conditions, occupants could relate to their
organizations mission of having a green building
[6] and it was actually the occupants sense of pride
that contributed to their overall satisfaction. It has
recently been argued that to achieve more success
in sustainable design the notion of comfort has to
change and move beyond its conventional definition
[7]. Another study has discussed how user
performance criteria can be incorporated into
building sustainability rating tools [8].
But, in a more conceptual term, what is occupant
perception of a green building? In particular, when
working in a green office building is a given
requirement and not a voluntary choice, how do the
occupants interact with this situation? What is the
impact of working in a BREEEAM Excellent office
building on the occupants satisfaction with the
building and their expectations? This research tries
to answer these questions based on the experience
of staff in an award winning green office building.
Although it has the empirical limitations of a case
study, it highlights the importance of occupants
attitude towards the concept of sustainability to
achieving a successful sustainable design.

3. CASE STUDY & METHODOLOGY
Coinciding with the UK Government policy on
reducing carbon emission in public buildings, Vulcan
House was commissioned by the Home Office in
Sheffield. It is a complex of two buildings, named
Steel (Figure 1) and Iron (Figure 2), which are
connected by a bridge at the second floor. The new
buildings were designed and built in accordance with
the highest existing standards of sustainable design,
and therefore became the first BREEAM Excellent
office buildings in Sheffield. These buildings have
similar and simple lay-outs, except that Steel is
relatively larger and it benefits from a light-well in the
middle of its cubical shape. Iron is smaller and,
instead of the light-well, there are meeting rooms, a
small stair-well, and some storage space in the
middle of the building. According to BREEAM for
design and construction Steel achieved a score of
79.77 credits and Iron 73.54 credits. Some of the
sustainability related elements of design are: heat
reclaim and circulation systems, prefabrication of
plant and minimal packaging during construction
phase, HFC free cooling and heating plant, and grey
and rain water recycling systems for toilets. During a
consolidation project the staff who were previously
working in five conventional buildings (Figure 3, a-e)
moved to Vulcan House, where they were given
user-guides and introductory tours.












Figure 1: Vulcan House, Steel














Figure 2: Vulcan House, Iron

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 537
The old and new buildings dates of build and
sizes can be summarised as follow:

Previous buildings:
Aspect Court: Late 1960s, refurbished in 2001,
office 5,388 m
2
, 7 floors, steel and concrete
construction
Milton House: Early 1980s, refurbished in early
2000, open plan office 7,283 m
2

Foundry House: Opened in 2002, office 2,107
m
2

Exchange Brewery: Period former brewery
building 1852, converted into office
accommodation in 1990s - 2,335 m
2

Moorfoot: Opened in 1981, open plan office
20,130 m
2


Vulcan House:
Steel: 2008, open plan office 11,100 m
2
.
Iron: 2008, open plan office 7,200 m
2
.




Figure 3: Previous buildings staff had worked in before
moving to Vulcan House

Questionnaires were distributed first in 2008 and
then again in 2009 (both during November with two
week time intervals), which received 928 responses
(50% of 2000 members) and 950 (53% of the 1800
members) respectively. The questionnaires
contained various sections to cover environmental
aspects (in accordance with known similar methods
[9]), distance from windows, issues with lack of
control over environmental conditions, satisfaction
with facility management, likes/dislikes of place of
desk and staff facilities, trends of recycling, travel
plan, and overall satisfaction. The 2009
questionnaire contained further details on occupants
experiences regarding sustainability almost two
years after the building was occupied. Interviews with
focus groups were conducted, with a particular
interest on sustainability, to gain further insight of
staff understanding and expectation from a green
office place, their priorities, and if they found their
new workplace in accordance to their expectations.
Also, the ways of which these issues could be
communicated in a more efficient way between the
management team and staff were discussed.








4. SOME RESULTS
An initial analysis of the relationships between
different variables measured in this study is
presented in this paper, and the scores of some
variables and their differences between groups of
staff moving from their five previous buildings are
presented. Also, the interaction between occupants
and some features which were related to the
buildings green design are discussed.

a. Aspect Court

b. Milton House

c. Foundry House



d. Exchange Brewery e. Moorfoot
by a building management team could have an
impact on the occupants well-being and satisfaction.
Occupant dissatisfaction with some environmental
conditions might have to be addressed by the
building management team which might, in turn, lead
to the buildings systems being altered, possibly with
less commitment to maintaining the buildings
sustainability performance.
Many studies have been carried out on occupant
satisfaction and, in particular, the occupants
environmental comfort in green buildings [2] [3]. It
has been shown that in terms of the overall score of
some of the environmental aspects, such as the
overall score of lighting conditions, green buildings
received better ratings than their conventional
counterparts. However, when these measures are
divided into their subcategories, this difference is no
longer clear cut. Unmanageable complexity,
overheating problems during summer in passive-
ventilated buildings, and unsatisfactory noise
conditions (as a result of adopting open-plan design
strategies to conserve more energy) are some of the
reported problems with green buildings [4].
Socio-psychologists believe comfort and
satisfaction are not merely dependent on technically
optimal conditions [5]. In some cases, despite
environmental discomfort, the occupants were highly
satisfied with their building as there were other
influential elements involved. For example, there was
a case where, despite the uncomfortable thermal
conditions, occupants could relate to their
organizations mission of having a green building
[6] and it was actually the occupants sense of pride
that contributed to their overall satisfaction. It has
recently been argued that to achieve more success
in sustainable design the notion of comfort has to
change and move beyond its conventional definition
[7]. Another study has discussed how user
performance criteria can be incorporated into
building sustainability rating tools [8].
But, in a more conceptual term, what is occupant
perception of a green building? In particular, when
working in a green office building is a given
requirement and not a voluntary choice, how do the
occupants interact with this situation? What is the
impact of working in a BREEEAM Excellent office
building on the occupants satisfaction with the
building and their expectations? This research tries
to answer these questions based on the experience
of staff in an award winning green office building.
Although it has the empirical limitations of a case
study, it highlights the importance of occupants
attitude towards the concept of sustainability to
achieving a successful sustainable design.

3. CASE STUDY & METHODOLOGY
Coinciding with the UK Government policy on
reducing carbon emission in public buildings, Vulcan
House was commissioned by the Home Office in
Sheffield. It is a complex of two buildings, named
Steel (Figure 1) and Iron (Figure 2), which are
connected by a bridge at the second floor. The new
buildings were designed and built in accordance with
the highest existing standards of sustainable design,
and therefore became the first BREEAM Excellent
office buildings in Sheffield. These buildings have
similar and simple lay-outs, except that Steel is
relatively larger and it benefits from a light-well in the
middle of its cubical shape. Iron is smaller and,
instead of the light-well, there are meeting rooms, a
small stair-well, and some storage space in the
middle of the building. According to BREEAM for
design and construction Steel achieved a score of
79.77 credits and Iron 73.54 credits. Some of the
sustainability related elements of design are: heat
reclaim and circulation systems, prefabrication of
plant and minimal packaging during construction
phase, HFC free cooling and heating plant, and grey
and rain water recycling systems for toilets. During a
consolidation project the staff who were previously
working in five conventional buildings (Figure 3, a-e)
moved to Vulcan House, where they were given
user-guides and introductory tours.












Figure 1: Vulcan House, Steel














Figure 2: Vulcan House, Iron

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
538 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
Although this research started after staff moved
to the new buildings, their record of which previous
building they have moved from was kept. It was
interesting to study the influence of new workplace in
various aspects of staff experiences and
expectations and to see if there was a significant
difference between these responses.
4.1. Overall satisfaction with the building
Overall satisfaction was measured on a seven
scale variable, where 1 = Very dissatisfied and 7 =
Very satisfied. In 2008, the score of overall
satisfaction between groups of staff from previous
buildings was significantly different (F (5,918) = 3.43,
p < 0.05, one-way between groups Anova). Here, the
greatest difference was between the scores of staff
from Aspect Court (mean value = 3.88) and
Exchange Brewery (mean value = 4.77). But by 2009
there was no significant difference between the
overall satisfaction scores. That means that almost
two years after moving in to the new building, the
distribution of satisfaction scores between staff from
different previous buildings became homogeneous. It
was also interesting that when staff were asked if
their quality of their work has decreased or increased
since moving to Vulcan House, no significance was
found between the scores of staff from the different
previous buildings.
4.2. Satisfaction with the facility management
In the case of Vulcan House, there were not
many opportunities for the occupants to control their
environmental conditions directly. Instead, any
modification of these conditions was controlled by
the Building Management System (BMS) and a
Facility Management (FM) team. The occupants
could report any problems with their environmental
conditions to a help-desk, after which the FM team
could tune the conditions for that particular location
with the accuracy of an area as specific as each
desk. In practice, this system found management
difficulties. The pattern of location of problematic
areas reported to the help-desk by the occupants did
not match the BMS records of such problems
reported by sensors. This issue raised a general
sense of disappointment with the buildings facility
management and control conditions amongst
occupants. But this dissatisfaction was shared evenly
between staff from different previous buildings. No
statistical significance was found between the scores
of satisfaction/dissatisfaction (5 scale variable) with
FM between groups of staff from different previous
workplaces both in the 2008 and 2009 results.
Although a central control system was also used in
the previous buildings the occupants in those
buildings had more opportunity to modify their
environmental conditions for example, with
openable windows. In the case of Vulcan House, the
reminder of conservative energy policies by the FM
when occupants reported minor problems caused
further frustration rather than any sympathy with the
buildings green identity.

4.3. The occupants perception of the buildings
sustainability
Staff were asked about their perception of the
sustainability or greenness of the two Vulcan
House buildings, Steel and Iron, separately. No
significance was found between the votes of staff
from previous buildings in both cases. Also, they
were asked if they believed that the buildings
sustainable design has reduced or enhanced their
level of comfort, but no significance was found in
their votes. In general, Steel scored slightly better
than Iron, with 5% voting the building to be very
sustainable in comparison with 4% for Iron (in a 7
scale variable, 1 = Very unsustainable, 7 = Very
sustainable).
The in-depth discussion with focus groups during
interviews showed that the majority agreed that
Vulcan House deserved its green credentials.
However, in choosing between a conventional and a
green building, their higher priority was comfort
rather than considerations of if the building was
environmental friendly or not. In response to the
question of did they find Vulcan House in accordance
with their expectation of a sustainable building, there
was a variation of attitudes. When staff were asked if
they preferred the buildings to have special green
features like solar panels and wind-turbines, they did
not support the idea. While they believed that Vulcan
House deserved the credits, they were not quite sure
if it represented a particularly sustainable building.
In general, they agreed that the environmental issues
should be considered as a value, but they could not
relate these issues to their workplace and to their job
pressure. Their demanding and difficult daily jobs did
not leave much space to be particular engaged with
these sustainability subjects. From the members of
staff who were interviewed, those who were more
involved in the primarily stages of the design and
move (consolidation team) were more satisfied with
the building than those who felt their comfort was
compromised for the sake of the buildings
sustainable design. The ways in which knowledge
about the buildings achievements could be
transferred and shared proved to be complicated.
The buildings user-guides, which was given to staff
prior to their move, were found to be too technical
and nothing in the interest of occupants was
highlighted. Although there was a general need for
further knowledge and information, the efficient
means of communication were hard to define and
time had to be reserved to meet the job needs.
For those, who were less satisfied with the
building, there was also a sense of scepticism about
the buildings sustainability. Overall the staff believed
that as their main priority was meeting the job targets
then any other issues were overshadowed and they
believed they had no choice but to get on with any
given conditions.
4.4. Features and facilities
As has been mentioned, Vulcan House does not
have an especially green appearance and features
e.g. green energy generators. From the range of
features and facilities provided in the building, the
two features of a garden at the bottom of the light-
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 539
well and a green roof-garden represented the
buildings greenness more than any others features.
But in terms of their benefits for staff, they scored
quite low in comparison with other facilities, such as
the restaurant. In 2008, 70% found a little or no
benefit in the light-well garden and the score was
50% for the roof-garden. These scores were 73%
and 60% respectively in 2009. In comments made
about these features, staff said they would have
preferred it if the light-well was used as the storage
space instead. The rate of using the provided
recycling facilities has improved from 53% in 2008 to
59% in 2009. In 2009, 27% said the provision of
these facilities has improved, 62% said it has not
changed and 10% said it became worse.
4.5. Travel plan, least successful policy
Although the building has gained 100% BREEAM
credits for its travel plans, this feature was not very
successful in practice. The location of the new
building has good access to public transport.
However, this was true for the previous buildings as
well. Using green modes of transport was highly
promoted since staff moved to Vulcan House and
many incentives, such as subsidised bus tickets and
higher rates for car parks, were introduced. However,
in 2008, 79% said their mode of transport had not
changed since moving, while this rate was 71% in
2009. In 2008 32% used their own cars, 26% used
buses and 2% rode on bicycles. In 2009, these
scores remained almost the same, with 37% using
their own cars, 27% using buses and 2% using their
bikes. In response to the question of had the bicycle
parking and shower facilities affected the staff
choice for mode of transport, 89% in 2008 and 90%
in 2009 said the new facilities did not encourage
them to walk, run or cycle to work.
In the comments made about this issue some of
the staff mentioned that the reason for them for using
their own cars instead of walking was their sense of
insecurity, especially in the evenings around the
buildings neighbourhood. However, this opinion was
not shared by everyone. As the results show, it was
more a matter of habit rather than any other
preferences.
5. DISCUSSION & CONCLUSIONS
During this research the experience of staff in a
new green workplace has been compared with their
previous experiences with conventional office
buildings. Within the early months after moving to the
new buildings, the occupants overall satisfaction
with the building varied between the groups of staff
from different previous buildings. However, this
variation did not remain statistically significant after
two years. Also, the between group votes for
occupants perception of buildings greenness, the
influence of sustainable design on their comfort and
any improvement in their performance since moving
to the new buildings, were not significantly different.
There were not many opportunities for any direct
control over environmental conditions for the
occupants. Here, the results relating to
environmental conditions and controls were in
general agreement with previous studies from other
researchers; the lack of control was reported as an
element of dissatisfaction. But this problem became
amplified on the occasion of environmental
discomfort [10].
The only opportunities to pass the knowledge
relating to the buildings green identity to the
occupants were the provided user-guides and
introductory tours. But in the case of this organization
the highly demanding job did not leave any time and
interest to be spared by the occupants for these
matters. The main priority for the occupants was their
comfort, for which the reputation of the new buildings
(being BREEAM Excellent) had set that target
relatively high. Those who felt that their comfort was
compromised for the sake of sustainability and the
buildings green identity were most dissatisfied with
the building. Those who tolerated any inconvenience
were the same people who were most satisfied with
the building. However, the environmental conditions
for them were not necessarily much better than the
rest of the occupants
The HVAC and lighting systems used in Vulcan
House were quite sophisticated and achieved high
levels of BREEAM credentials. But that
sophistication, combined with the sense of
disappointment felt by some of the occupants
regarding FM performance, did not lead to a
satisfactory balance. It should be mentioned that
some compromises were made by the manufacturers
and engineers during the construction phase and this
is probably common throughout the construction
industry. However, these problems proved to be
difficult to rectify after occupation. In general, fully
centralised control systems are difficult to be
managed, and providing satisfactory environmental
conditions that met the needs of 2000 people proved
to be a demanding task.
One of the measures that showed that the
technical design implementations were not always
guaranteed to be successful in reality was the travel
plan predictions. Whereas according to BREEAM
providing bicycle parking and reducing parking space
is a necessity for a sustainable design, their success
depends on a wide range of measures to be
considered, i.e. an occupants culture and habits. In
the case of Vulcan House, despite providing
incentives and promotions, these features were not
very successful.
It can be concluded that building environmental
assessment methods like BREEAM will merely
provide a platform to build-upon and not a
comprehensive solution for sustainability. These
methods will not guarantee a thoroughly successful
sustainable building for long periods of time unless
they consider occupant influences on the buildings
performance. Sustainability is not a technical feature
which can be implemented in a building design once
and for ever, but it is a flowing measure which needs
a coherent and close relationship between different
parties involved in a buildings performance.
Maintaining a sustainable building is not always a
straightforward and easy task. In the case of green
office buildings what is crucial is the agreement and
effective collaboration between staff and building
Although this research started after staff moved
to the new buildings, their record of which previous
building they have moved from was kept. It was
interesting to study the influence of new workplace in
various aspects of staff experiences and
expectations and to see if there was a significant
difference between these responses.
4.1. Overall satisfaction with the building
Overall satisfaction was measured on a seven
scale variable, where 1 = Very dissatisfied and 7 =
Very satisfied. In 2008, the score of overall
satisfaction between groups of staff from previous
buildings was significantly different (F (5,918) = 3.43,
p < 0.05, one-way between groups Anova). Here, the
greatest difference was between the scores of staff
from Aspect Court (mean value = 3.88) and
Exchange Brewery (mean value = 4.77). But by 2009
there was no significant difference between the
overall satisfaction scores. That means that almost
two years after moving in to the new building, the
distribution of satisfaction scores between staff from
different previous buildings became homogeneous. It
was also interesting that when staff were asked if
their quality of their work has decreased or increased
since moving to Vulcan House, no significance was
found between the scores of staff from the different
previous buildings.
4.2. Satisfaction with the facility management
In the case of Vulcan House, there were not
many opportunities for the occupants to control their
environmental conditions directly. Instead, any
modification of these conditions was controlled by
the Building Management System (BMS) and a
Facility Management (FM) team. The occupants
could report any problems with their environmental
conditions to a help-desk, after which the FM team
could tune the conditions for that particular location
with the accuracy of an area as specific as each
desk. In practice, this system found management
difficulties. The pattern of location of problematic
areas reported to the help-desk by the occupants did
not match the BMS records of such problems
reported by sensors. This issue raised a general
sense of disappointment with the buildings facility
management and control conditions amongst
occupants. But this dissatisfaction was shared evenly
between staff from different previous buildings. No
statistical significance was found between the scores
of satisfaction/dissatisfaction (5 scale variable) with
FM between groups of staff from different previous
workplaces both in the 2008 and 2009 results.
Although a central control system was also used in
the previous buildings the occupants in those
buildings had more opportunity to modify their
environmental conditions for example, with
openable windows. In the case of Vulcan House, the
reminder of conservative energy policies by the FM
when occupants reported minor problems caused
further frustration rather than any sympathy with the
buildings green identity.

4.3. The occupants perception of the buildings
sustainability
Staff were asked about their perception of the
sustainability or greenness of the two Vulcan
House buildings, Steel and Iron, separately. No
significance was found between the votes of staff
from previous buildings in both cases. Also, they
were asked if they believed that the buildings
sustainable design has reduced or enhanced their
level of comfort, but no significance was found in
their votes. In general, Steel scored slightly better
than Iron, with 5% voting the building to be very
sustainable in comparison with 4% for Iron (in a 7
scale variable, 1 = Very unsustainable, 7 = Very
sustainable).
The in-depth discussion with focus groups during
interviews showed that the majority agreed that
Vulcan House deserved its green credentials.
However, in choosing between a conventional and a
green building, their higher priority was comfort
rather than considerations of if the building was
environmental friendly or not. In response to the
question of did they find Vulcan House in accordance
with their expectation of a sustainable building, there
was a variation of attitudes. When staff were asked if
they preferred the buildings to have special green
features like solar panels and wind-turbines, they did
not support the idea. While they believed that Vulcan
House deserved the credits, they were not quite sure
if it represented a particularly sustainable building.
In general, they agreed that the environmental issues
should be considered as a value, but they could not
relate these issues to their workplace and to their job
pressure. Their demanding and difficult daily jobs did
not leave much space to be particular engaged with
these sustainability subjects. From the members of
staff who were interviewed, those who were more
involved in the primarily stages of the design and
move (consolidation team) were more satisfied with
the building than those who felt their comfort was
compromised for the sake of the buildings
sustainable design. The ways in which knowledge
about the buildings achievements could be
transferred and shared proved to be complicated.
The buildings user-guides, which was given to staff
prior to their move, were found to be too technical
and nothing in the interest of occupants was
highlighted. Although there was a general need for
further knowledge and information, the efficient
means of communication were hard to define and
time had to be reserved to meet the job needs.
For those, who were less satisfied with the
building, there was also a sense of scepticism about
the buildings sustainability. Overall the staff believed
that as their main priority was meeting the job targets
then any other issues were overshadowed and they
believed they had no choice but to get on with any
given conditions.
4.4. Features and facilities
As has been mentioned, Vulcan House does not
have an especially green appearance and features
e.g. green energy generators. From the range of
features and facilities provided in the building, the
two features of a garden at the bottom of the light-
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
540 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
managers, and the engagement and dedication of
both of these groups to the buildings green identity.
If this fragile relationship breaks then the greenness
of the building can eventually fade.

6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank Peter Szypko and
Loveday Herridge, members of the Home Office
sustainability management team in Vulcan House,
for their great collaboration with this research for two
years. This study also owes much to Ian Ward and
Edward Murphy, who provided the opportunity for
this study to take place.

7. REFERENCES
[1] Davies, R. (2005), Green Value-Green
Buildings, Growing Assets, Royal Institute of
Chartered Surveyors, London.
[2] Bordass, W., Leaman, A. (2007), Are users
more tolerant of 'green' buildings?" Building
Research and Information, 35 (6): 662-673.
[3] Leaman, A., Thomas, L., Vendenberg, M.
(2007), 'Green buildings: what Australian
building users are saying, EcoLibrium
(November): 22-30.
[4] Abbaszadeh, S., Zagreus, L., Leher, D.,
Huizenga, C. (2006), Occupants satisfaction
with indoor environmental quality in green
buildings, Proceeding of Healthy Buildings,
Lisbon, III, 365-370.
[5] Chappells, H., Shove, E. (2005), Debating the
future of comfort: environmental sustainability,
energy consumption and the indoor
environment, Building Research and
Information, 33 (1), 32-40.
[6] Heerwagen, J., Zagreus, L. (2005), The Human
Factors of Sustainable Building Design: Post-
occupancy Evaluation of the Philip Merrill
Environmental Center, Summary Report,
University of California, Berkeley.
[7] Cole, R. J., Robinson, J., Brown, Z., O'Shea, M.
(2008), Re-contextualizing the notion of
comfort, Building Research & Information, 36
(4), 323-336.
[8] Baird, G. (2009), Incorporating user
performance criteria into building sustainability
rating tools (BSRTs) for buildings in operation,
Sustainability, 1, 1069-1086.
[9] "The Occupants Indoor Environmental Quality
Survey, www.cbe.berkeley.edu/research /briefs-
survey.htm. (2010).
[10] Baird, G., Lechat, S. (2009), Users perception
of personal control of environmental conditions
in sustainable buildings, Architectural Sciences
Review, 52 (2), 108-116.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 541

Definition of occupant behaviour patterns with
respect to ventilation:
An approach to the summer thermal comfort of apartments
from the real estate market in Santiago de Chile
FELIPE ENCINAS PINO
1

1
Architecture et Climat, Universit catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
ABSTRACT: It has been demonstrated that there is a strong relationship between occupant behaviour and the
thermal performance of dwellings. At the same time, some aspects of this behaviour, especially with respect to
natural ventilation, constitute some of the most important sources of uncertainty in the field of building energy
simulations. A survey about perception of thermal comfort and occupant behaviour was carried out in Santiago
de Chile during December 2009 and January 2010 in a pilot case study corresponding to an apartment building.
This paper proposes a methodology based on the systematic application of multivariate statistical techniques
which were applied to the collected data of the survey. The results of the analyses show that daytime ventilation
is not strongly correlated to the perception of thermal comfort, probably because it is mainly oriented to hygienic
purposes. On the contrary, nigh ventilation appears as a very significant predictor for the same dependent
variable. The final objective of these models corresponds to the definition of behaviour profiles which can be
used as hard data to make calculations of energy performance of dwellings more accurate and reliable.
Keywords: summer thermal comfort, occupant behaviour profiles, building energy simulation
1. INTRODUCTION
It has been demonstrated that there is a strong
relationship between occupant behaviour and
thermal performance of dwellings. Indeed, according
to Macdonald et al. (1999), some variables related to
occupant behaviour constitute some of the main
sources of uncertainty in the field of energy building
simulations [1]. In that sense, depending on the
variability of aspects such as scheduled internal
gains or natural ventilation (by means of manually
operable windows), a wide range of variation in the
energy consumption of dwellings may be expected.
Uncertainty and sensibility analyses frequently
deal with this situation, since they can generate a
great range of forecast values based on the
distribution of the input variables. For example, in the
case of the physical properties of building materials,
this variability has been studied and may be obtained
from references as Clarke et al (1999) [2]. However,
Hyun et al (2008) explain that the widely varying
occupant influences - especially related to operable
windows - have not been directly measured or
investigated [3].
At the same time, most of the building energy
simulation programs are deterministic, rather than
probabilistic and consequently their results frequently
are not expressed in probabilistic terms. Additionally,
a considerable difference between the standard
values of ventilation used for simulations and the
ventilation patterns in real occupied dwellings may
be expected. Therefore, if the aim is to represent a
wide range of cases (instead of a singular case
study), it is necessary to characterize the occupant
behaviour in terms of profiles to be used as input
data in energy building simulations.
Due to the link between occupant behaviour and
energy consumption, it is important to define it from
the interaction with the control mechanisms of
windows during both day and night, and also
establishing the reasons for that specific behaviour,
as is recommended by the IEA (1988) [4]. Andersen
et al (2009) indicate that most of the energy building
simulation programs provide possibilities of
regulation of control systems (such as opening /
closing windows), but there are no guidelines for how
the simulated environment should be managed by
the software. Consequently, the definition of a set of
standard behaviour patterns based on the
quantification of real inhabitants behaviour- would
significantly improve the validity of the outcomes of
the simulations [5].
In this context, the obtained behaviour patterns
represent a first approach in the process to obtain a
more real thermal behaviour, since this information
needs to be combined with meteorological data by
means of building performance simulations. The aim
of these numerical simulations is to find a
relationship between occupant behaviour patterns,
ventilation rates and summer thermal comfort.
The final objective of these models corresponds
to the definition of behaviour scenarios which can be
used as hard data to make calculations of energy
performance of dwellings more accurate and reliable.
2. METHODOLOGY
Due to the importance of the occupant behaviour
and ventilation on the thermal behaviour of
apartments it is necessary to collect data about these
aspects based on real sources. Nonetheless, due to
the lack of references in the national state of art, a
survey to obtain this information is required.
managers, and the engagement and dedication of
both of these groups to the buildings green identity.
If this fragile relationship breaks then the greenness
of the building can eventually fade.

6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank Peter Szypko and
Loveday Herridge, members of the Home Office
sustainability management team in Vulcan House,
for their great collaboration with this research for two
years. This study also owes much to Ian Ward and
Edward Murphy, who provided the opportunity for
this study to take place.

7. REFERENCES
[1] Davies, R. (2005), Green Value-Green
Buildings, Growing Assets, Royal Institute of
Chartered Surveyors, London.
[2] Bordass, W., Leaman, A. (2007), Are users
more tolerant of 'green' buildings?" Building
Research and Information, 35 (6): 662-673.
[3] Leaman, A., Thomas, L., Vendenberg, M.
(2007), 'Green buildings: what Australian
building users are saying, EcoLibrium
(November): 22-30.
[4] Abbaszadeh, S., Zagreus, L., Leher, D.,
Huizenga, C. (2006), Occupants satisfaction
with indoor environmental quality in green
buildings, Proceeding of Healthy Buildings,
Lisbon, III, 365-370.
[5] Chappells, H., Shove, E. (2005), Debating the
future of comfort: environmental sustainability,
energy consumption and the indoor
environment, Building Research and
Information, 33 (1), 32-40.
[6] Heerwagen, J., Zagreus, L. (2005), The Human
Factors of Sustainable Building Design: Post-
occupancy Evaluation of the Philip Merrill
Environmental Center, Summary Report,
University of California, Berkeley.
[7] Cole, R. J., Robinson, J., Brown, Z., O'Shea, M.
(2008), Re-contextualizing the notion of
comfort, Building Research & Information, 36
(4), 323-336.
[8] Baird, G. (2009), Incorporating user
performance criteria into building sustainability
rating tools (BSRTs) for buildings in operation,
Sustainability, 1, 1069-1086.
[9] "The Occupants Indoor Environmental Quality
Survey, www.cbe.berkeley.edu/research /briefs-
survey.htm. (2010).
[10] Baird, G., Lechat, S. (2009), Users perception
of personal control of environmental conditions
in sustainable buildings, Architectural Sciences
Review, 52 (2), 108-116.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
542 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
E
N
NE
NW
S
SE
SW
W
-1,0
0,0
1,0
-1,0 0,0 1,0
Factor scores are a sub-product of the PCA
application. Also, they represent a useful result in
order to carry out other multivariate analysis
techniques. Figure 1 presents perceptual maps per
orientation, based on the factor scores obtained
previously by means of the PCA. In this case,
perceptual maps are the graphical expression of the
associations between two components that compose
the solution and where their observations are
clustered by a specific criterion.
Figure 1 shows the perceptual map of C2 vs. C3
in terms of comfortable and not comfortable for
both winter and summer, respectively. According to
this, north orientation was characterised as
comfortable in both seasons, while south oriented
apartments are associated with a favourable and
unfavourable thermal behaviour in summer and
winter, respectively. For both orientations, these
results can be considered as expected.





















Figure 1: Perceptual map of C2 vs. C3 (horizontal and
vertical axis, respectively
4. DISCUSSION
4.1. Application of a discrete choice model to
identify relationships between variables
The logistic regression analysis is a mathematical
model with the aim of predicting the behaviour of a
dependent variable as function of one or more
independent variables. The objective of this model is
to predict the probability of occurrence of an event
with a dependent variable that assumes the value of
1 when the event occurs and zero in the absence of
the event. The prediction is made from a group of
independent variables with explanatory capability
with respect to the dependent variable
The model that predicts the dependent
dichotomic variable Y from multivariate independent
variables X
k
in probabilistic terms corresponds to:

where e is the base of natural logarithms and being

an irrational number, their first digits are 2.71828.
With the aim of predicting the level of incidence of
the variables that determines the perception of
thermal comfort, one question of the survey (Q41)
was expressed as: Do you feel comfortable in your
apartment in terms of thermal comfort? The two
possible answers were yes or no, which convert
this variable in dichotomical. Therefore, the
probability of occurrence of the answer yes (Y=1) in
the question 41, can be expressed through the
following logistic regression function:

where C
1
, C
2
, C
3
and C
4
are the factor scores that
were obtained through the PCA, b
1
, b
2
, b
3
and b
4
are
the coefficients for these variables and a is a
coefficient of the model. According to Hair et al.
(2005), it is recommendable to consider factor scores
for configuring a logistic regression model where the
sample is the same and the independent variables
are orthogonal [6].
Table 3 presents the obtained coefficients for the
logistic regression model proposed for the Q41 of the
survey. These coefficients were obtained by means
of the maximum verisimilitude procedure using
statistical software.
According to the obtained solution, coefficient b
1

is not significantly different from 0, from a statistical
point of view. This means that component C
1
is not
significant to predict the probability of occurrence of
Q41. This situation can be understood from the idea
that daytime ventilation of C1 (which includes both
winter and summer) is mainly oriented to a hygienic
purpose, instead of cooling. This observation is
highly consistent with the study by Andersen et al.
(2009), which proposes that the thermal sensation of
the occupants is not a statistically significant
predictor of the windows opening behaviour [5]. The
reason for this may be explained by the idea that if a
window is opened because the occupants feel too
warm, it will probably stay open until they start to feel
cold. Because of this, occupants with open windows
may have a thermal sensation anywhere between
warm and cold [5].
Another important aspect regarding the obtained
coefficients of Table 3 is the sign of b
3
. As can be
observed, this sign is negative, which means that
while the value of C
3
is higher, the probability that
Q41 can be answered as yes is lower. In other
words, if the thermal sensation of the occupants
during summer is hot, there are more possibilities
that the people feel uncomfortable in their
apartments
Table 3: Obtained coefficients from the multivariate logistic
regression
Coefficients Standard
error
Z value Pr (>|z|)
a 1.97 0.48 4.09 4.38E-05
b
1
0.30 0.30 1.01 3.13E-01
b
2
0.62 0.35 1.77 7.68E-02
b
3
-0.90 0.45 -2.00 4.59E-02
b
4
0.97 0.49 1.99 4.64E-02
Not significantly different from zero
Comfortable (summer)
Not comfortable (summer)
N
o
t

c
o
m
f
o
r
t
a
b
l
e

(
w
i
n
t
e
r
)

C
o
m
f
o
r
t
a
b
l
e

(
w
i
n
t
e
r
)

The pilot case study corresponds to the Edificio
Don Jos, located in the Santiago borough, city of
Santiago. This is an apartment building, constructed
in 1993-1994, with 22 floors and 8 apartments per
floor. The building is situated in an urban
environment, near to the city centre. The survey was
applied to 91 randomly selected apartments in two
summer months (December 2009 and January
2010). The sample size corresponds, consequently,
to 91 cases over a population of 166 apartments.
The margin of error and the confidence level are 6%
and 90%, respectively.
It is important to remember that the scope of the
survey is related to the indoor environment and
occupant behaviour in apartments of Santiago de
Chile based on a pilot case study. Due to this, the
survey frame was considered as appropriate. A most
ambitious experience may be proposed as further
research. In that case, the population of the survey
can be extended to several apartment buildings in
Santiago de Chile.
2.1. Statistical Methods
Factorial analysis is a multivariate analysis
technique that it is used to reduce the dimensions of
a large set of observed variables. The new obtained
variables received the name of factors, defined as a
lineal combination of variables. Also, the method
allows the detection of subjacent dimensions that
belongs to a correlation matrix. According to the
procedure for extracting factors, it is possible to
distinguish the Factor Analysis and the Principal
Component Analysis (PCA). Since the objective of
this study is to obtain a reduction of a large set of
information contained in certain questions of the
survey and perform further analysis with this
information, the procedure of PCA was selected.
Table 1 presents all the variables that were
considered to carry out the PCA. These questions
were selected in order to represent the different
aspects related to the perception of thermal comfort,
natural ventilation and strategies and systems that
affect the thermal behaviour of apartments.
3. RESULTS
Table 2 presents the rotated component loadings,
which give information about the strength of the
relationships between the variables and components.
These loadings are expressed in terms of correlation
coefficients (with values between 0 and 1). According
to the Kaisers criterion (Eigen values >1.0), 4
components were extracted, which account for the
73.2% of variance. At the same time, according to
Hair et al. (2005), communalities below 0.5 should be
probably dismissed, as they do not have enough
explanation for their variances [6]. In the table, it can
be observed that all variables present communalities
that can explain at least the half of their own variance
and therefore should be considered in the model.
In order to improve the interpretation of the
model, a procedure to rotate the factorial axis of the
solution was applied. The objective of the VARIMAX
technique is to maximize the components variance.
For this solution, coefficient values above 0.60 were
considered as significant. As the significance of a
factorial loading depends on the size of the sample,
this reference value was taken for a sample of 85
observations. The sign of the coefficients indicates if
they are positively or negatively correlated with
respect to their corresponding component.
In consequence, the four defined components of
the rotated matrix can be interpreted as:
C1: Daytime ventilation, both in winter and
summer (Q16 & Q20), which are positively correlated
C2: Perception of favourable thermal comfort in
winter (Q6) and avoiding the use of heating
appliances (since it is negatively correlated) (Q27).
Both situations can be related to a good thermal
behaviour since occupants declare they generally do
not feel cold during winter and at the same time they
minimize the use of heating. This phenomenon can
be explained through the specific environmental
conditions of their apartments (e.g. favourable
orientation) or due to particular reasons.
C3: Perception of unfavourable thermal comfort
in summer (Q10) and use of night ventilation (Q24),
which are positively correlated. This situation can be
represented for occupants that describe their
apartments in summer as warm or hot and due to
this, open windows during night time.
C4: Presence of solar protection (Q13), which is
positively correlated
Table 2: Rotated component matrix by means of VARIMAX
Variables
Components
Communalities
C1 C2 C3 C4
Q6 0.02 0.85 -0.02 0.19 0.76
Q10 -0.22 0.15 0.65 0.13 0.52
Q13 0.01 0.00 0.11 0.90 0.82
Q16 0.76 0.20 -0.26 0.24 0.75
Q20 0.86 -0.16 0.14 -0.16 0.81
Q24 0.14 -0.06 0.84 -0.03 0.74
Q27 0.05 -0.71 -0.14 0.44 0.72
Significant variables per each component
Table 1: Considered variables for the Principal Component Analysis (PCA)
Subject Question Variable
Perception of thermal comfort
Q6 Thermal sensation in the apartment during winter
Q10 Thermal sensation in the apartment during summer
Ventilation
Q16 Daytime ventilation in winter
Q20 Daytime ventilation in summer
Q24
Use of night ventilation in summer
Strategies and systems
Q13 Presence of external solar protection
Q27 Use of heating systems in winter
PLEA 2011 - 27
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 543
E
N
NE
NW
S
SE
SW
W
-1,0
0,0
1,0
-1,0 0,0 1,0
Factor scores are a sub-product of the PCA
application. Also, they represent a useful result in
order to carry out other multivariate analysis
techniques. Figure 1 presents perceptual maps per
orientation, based on the factor scores obtained
previously by means of the PCA. In this case,
perceptual maps are the graphical expression of the
associations between two components that compose
the solution and where their observations are
clustered by a specific criterion.
Figure 1 shows the perceptual map of C2 vs. C3
in terms of comfortable and not comfortable for
both winter and summer, respectively. According to
this, north orientation was characterised as
comfortable in both seasons, while south oriented
apartments are associated with a favourable and
unfavourable thermal behaviour in summer and
winter, respectively. For both orientations, these
results can be considered as expected.





















Figure 1: Perceptual map of C2 vs. C3 (horizontal and
vertical axis, respectively
4. DISCUSSION
4.1. Application of a discrete choice model to
identify relationships between variables
The logistic regression analysis is a mathematical
model with the aim of predicting the behaviour of a
dependent variable as function of one or more
independent variables. The objective of this model is
to predict the probability of occurrence of an event
with a dependent variable that assumes the value of
1 when the event occurs and zero in the absence of
the event. The prediction is made from a group of
independent variables with explanatory capability
with respect to the dependent variable
The model that predicts the dependent
dichotomic variable Y from multivariate independent
variables X
k
in probabilistic terms corresponds to:

where e is the base of natural logarithms and being

an irrational number, their first digits are 2.71828.
With the aim of predicting the level of incidence of
the variables that determines the perception of
thermal comfort, one question of the survey (Q41)
was expressed as: Do you feel comfortable in your
apartment in terms of thermal comfort? The two
possible answers were yes or no, which convert
this variable in dichotomical. Therefore, the
probability of occurrence of the answer yes (Y=1) in
the question 41, can be expressed through the
following logistic regression function:

where C
1
, C
2
, C
3
and C
4
are the factor scores that
were obtained through the PCA, b
1
, b
2
, b
3
and b
4
are
the coefficients for these variables and a is a
coefficient of the model. According to Hair et al.
(2005), it is recommendable to consider factor scores
for configuring a logistic regression model where the
sample is the same and the independent variables
are orthogonal [6].
Table 3 presents the obtained coefficients for the
logistic regression model proposed for the Q41 of the
survey. These coefficients were obtained by means
of the maximum verisimilitude procedure using
statistical software.
According to the obtained solution, coefficient b
1

is not significantly different from 0, from a statistical
point of view. This means that component C
1
is not
significant to predict the probability of occurrence of
Q41. This situation can be understood from the idea
that daytime ventilation of C1 (which includes both
winter and summer) is mainly oriented to a hygienic
purpose, instead of cooling. This observation is
highly consistent with the study by Andersen et al.
(2009), which proposes that the thermal sensation of
the occupants is not a statistically significant
predictor of the windows opening behaviour [5]. The
reason for this may be explained by the idea that if a
window is opened because the occupants feel too
warm, it will probably stay open until they start to feel
cold. Because of this, occupants with open windows
may have a thermal sensation anywhere between
warm and cold [5].
Another important aspect regarding the obtained
coefficients of Table 3 is the sign of b
3
. As can be
observed, this sign is negative, which means that
while the value of C
3
is higher, the probability that
Q41 can be answered as yes is lower. In other
words, if the thermal sensation of the occupants
during summer is hot, there are more possibilities
that the people feel uncomfortable in their
apartments
Table 3: Obtained coefficients from the multivariate logistic
regression
Coefficients Standard
error
Z value Pr (>|z|)
a 1.97 0.48 4.09 4.38E-05
b
1
0.30 0.30 1.01 3.13E-01
b
2
0.62 0.35 1.77 7.68E-02
b
3
-0.90 0.45 -2.00 4.59E-02
b
4
0.97 0.49 1.99 4.64E-02
Not significantly different from zero
Comfortable (summer)
Not comfortable (summer)
N
o
t

c
o
m
f
o
r
t
a
b
l
e

(
w
i
n
t
e
r
)

C
o
m
f
o
r
t
a
b
l
e

(
w
i
n
t
e
r
)

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
544 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
0
1
2
3
Morning Noon Afternoon Afternoon
- night
Night
P1 P2 P3 P4
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
P1 P2 P3 P4
Q22: " I open the windows of my apartment in
summer due to it is hot"
Q23: "I close the windows of my apartment in
summer to avoid the overheating of rooms""
Considering the obtained coefficients, the logistic
regression applied can be expressed as:

In this equation, it can be observed that the most

important aspects related to the overall perception of
thermal comfort in the apartment (Q41) are the
presence of solar protection (C
4
), the perception of
summer thermal comfort and night ventilation (both
contained in C
3
). Newly, these weightings can be
considered as expected since the survey was taken
during summer. In that sense, it is not surprising that
with the presence of solar protection, a not excessive
indoor temperature, and night ventilation most of the
people considered their apartment as comfortable
(Y=1, considering that the survey was carried out in
summer).
4.2. Definition of ventilation scenarios by means
of a cluster analysis
The seminal study carried out by Punj & Stewart
(1983) established that cluster analysis is a statistical
method for classification. Indeed, the objective of this
can be defined as the identification of a group of
entities that share certain common characteristics [7].
For the purposes of this research, the hierarchical
technique was chosen as clustering method. This
classifies by stages through a process that follows
the structure of a tree and where each stage of the
process generates a new branch. In this context, the
selection of the factor scores of the PCA as variables
for the procedure is justified since it allows to correct
the interdependencies. Also, the nonequivalence of
metrics between the original variables of the survey
suggests the use of this procedure.
In the range of solutions proposed for the model,
the alternative of 4 clusters was selected as the most
representative, since their groups are consistent and
well defined. Therefore, four profiles (P1, P2, P3 and
P4) were characterized for both winter and summer
from the number of hours of ventilation per day.
Figure 1 presents the number of ventilation hours
per day in summer. As can be observed, P2, P3 and
P4 present a similar behaviour with respect to the
different times of the day. On the contrary, P1
presents a very particular behaviour, since the
highest level of ventilation occurs at noon.
Occupants associated with this profile probably are
not aware of the thermal implications of their
behavioural habits related to ventilation, since
windows are opened in the hottest time of a summer
day in Santiago. Then, when temperature decreases
most of the windows are closed.
This situation is consistent with the declared
reasons for opening or closing windows in summer
collected by means of the survey. Figure 3 presents
the results for two questions (Q22 & Q23) of the
survey with respect to these issues. It can be
observed that the occupants that belong to P1 may
not use natural ventilation as passive cooling
technique, since windows operation is mainly limited
to close them. On the contrary, 75% of the people of
P4 open the windows of their apartments due to the
overheating, which indicates a particular concern
with respect to thermal comfort.

Figure 2: Number of ventilation hours per day in summer
















Figure 3: Results for two questions of the survey with
respect to the reasons for opening and closing windows in
summer per profiles
These ventilation profiles, proposed from the
collected data of the survey represented the first step
to obtain hard data which might be directly applied to
thermal simulations. After that, building performance
simulations were done using TAS software [8]. The
four profiles were applied to a floor layout of the
same building selected for the survey, using also the
collected information of the survey to define internal
gains of the different apartments (between 105 and
115 Wh/m/day, including occupation, lighting and
equipments). Hourly meteorological data for the year
1989 in Santiago de Chile were taken from ASHRAE
(2001) [9], which were also compared and validated
with respect to the monthly values of the NCh 1079-
2008 national standard (based on a period of 30
years of meteorological observations).
The aim of these numerical simulations is to find
a relationship between occupant behaviour patterns,
ventilation rates and thermal behaviour. The
proposed profiles, at the moment, just represent an
intention of ventilation, but they need to be
characterized in terms of their impact on the thermal
comfort of the apartments. Figure 4 presents the
overheating degree hours per orientation according
to the adaptive model of EN 15251 [10] for P1 and
P4 profiles. These results are consistent with regard
to the perception of summer thermal comfort of the
Figure 1 and show that when night ventilation is
being applied, P4 appears as a more efficient regime
to reduce overheating. This suggests that the
thermal performance of night ventilation also
depends on the windows operation during daytime.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 545


-0,50
0,00
0,50
1,00
N NE E SE S SW W NW
-0,50
0,00
0,50
1,00
N NE E SE S SW W NW
T* Wind speed
Wind direction Windows operation
0
10
20
30
0
10
20
30
Outdoor temperature [C]
Summer comfort upper limit [C]
Summer comfort lower limit [C]
Indoor temperature [C]
Indoor temperature applying night cooling [C]
Air change rate [h-1]
Air change rate applying night cooling [h-1]
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
Figure 5 presents curves of temperature and air
change rate in two summer days for the main
bedroom of the western apartment for also P1 and
P4 profiles. Indoor temperatures in both profiles
show the favourable impact of the night ventilation
strategy to reduce the risk of overheating. This also
can also be explained considering the climatic
conditions of Santiago de Chile(due to the difference
between outdoor and indoor temperatures that it is
possible to reach during night-time).
At the same time, the obtained ventilation rates
differ substantively between both profiles, as
consequence of their windows operation regimes.
This situation suggests that windows operation may
be correlated with the ventilation rate, which could be
determined by means of an uncertainty and
sensibility analysis. Figure 6 shows the Pearsons
correlation coefficient of different parameters with
respect to the air change rate in the main bedroom
per orientation. All the variables (windows operation,
T: difference between indoor and outdoor
temperature, wind direction and wind speed) appear
as sensitive variables with respect to the ventilation
rate, which modify their relative level of importance
as function of the higher exposition to opened
windows (as can be observed through the
comparison between P1 and P4). Wind direction and
wind speeds also show important differences in each
profile with respect to orientation, presenting
considerable higher correlations in the exposed
orientations (S, SW, W and NW).

Figure 4: Bubble plots for overheating degree hours
according to the adaptive comfort model of the EN 15251
[10] for P1 and P4 profiles under different conditions

Figure 5: Curves of temperature [C] and air change rate

[h
-1
] in two summer days for the main bedroom of the W
apartment for both P1 and P4. Upper and lower limits of
adaptive summer comfort calculated from EN 15251 [10]

Figure 6: Pearson correlation coefficient for different

parameters from P1 and P4 profiles with respect to air
change rate [h-1] in the main bedroom per orientation
* T = Difference between indoor and outdoor temperature [C]
P1
P4
P1
P4
N NE E SE S SW W NW
Without night cooling With night cooling
P1
P4
Note: The centre point of each bubble is the extent of
overeating measured in degree hours (mean value for the
different spaces). The area of the bubble represents the
standard deviation for the distribution of values including the
same rooms.
N NE E SE S SW W NW
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
546 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)





Thermal Comfort Temperature in Outdoors
for Extreme Warm Dry Climate

Gonzalo BOJRQUEZ-MORALES
1
, Gabriel GMEZ-AZPEITIA
2
, Rafael GARCA-CUETO
3
,
Pavel RUIZ-TORRES
4
, Anbal LUNA-LEN
1

1
Faculty of Architecture and Design, Autonomic University of Baja California, Mexicali, Mexico
2
Faculty of Architecture and Design, University of Colima, Colima, Mexico
3
Institute

of Engineering, Autonomic University of Baja California, Mexicali, Mexico
4
Faculty

of Architecture, Autonomic University of Chiapas, Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico
ABSTRACT: In order to establish bases for right decisions in urban design, it is necessary to estimate the effect
of different meteorological variables on the comfort sensation of people carrying out outdoor activities. Thus,
outdoor thermal comfort must be one of the essential characteristics of urban environment quality. The objective
of the research presented in this paper was to determine the effect of dry bulb temperature on the thermal
sensation of users of outdoor recreational areas in extreme warm dry climate. A correlation field study with
adaptive approach was developed in four periods in the city of Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico. Simultaneously
to the comfort votes of people were registered data of dry bulb temperature, gray globe temperature, relative
humidity and wind speed. A total of 2124 observations were collected for passive activity level (0 to 75 W/m
2
). In
warm and cold periods, the extreme conditions determine characteristics of asymmetric climates. Opposite, in the
periods of transition, the conditions are those characteristic of symmetric climates. Consequently, the collected
data was analyzed with the called method "Averages by Interval of Thermal Sensation (AITS), in order of avoid
the bias generated for the conventional method in asymmetric climates. The adaptation phenomenon is evident
in the changes of neutral temperatures (Tn) values estimated for each study period.
Keywords: Thermal comfort, Outdoors spaces, Neutral temperature, Passive activity, Extreme warm dry climate

1. INTRODUCTION
Knowing the temperature of thermal comfort
outdoors, provides the basis for making a correct
decision in the design of spaces, which can lead to
users being in thermal comfort for the development
of their activities. Outdoors spaces are those that
are created to define nature and create an external
environment for a specific purpose, they are not
covered and are defined by two plans: floors and
walls [1].
The thermal human comfort is defined in ISO
7730 [2] such as that mental condition that express
satisfaction with the thermal environment; that also
can be defined according to Nikolopoulou [3] such
as the psycho-physiological satisfaction of the
human with respect to the climatic conditions of the
surroundings.
The need for research on thermal sensations
perceived outdoors has been observed in events like
the Olympics Games and world fairs [4] as well as
projects such as Rediscovering the Urban Realm
and Open Spaces [3], the contributions of these
works have applications in projects of tourism,
recreational areas or areas of exhibitions.
The time stay in outdoors is less than indoors,
due to the thermal adaptation process, this implies
that the application of a thermal comfort model
developed for indoors has a tendency to
overestimate the actual sensation of the outdoors
users. This discrepancy is greater in low
temperatures compared to high temperatures. In
outdoors, it is not adequate to use a prediction
model, due to the variability of thermal
environments, outdoor conditions and time stay;
while the implementation of the adaptation method
to the being the result of an assessment field is best
suited to outdoors conditions [5].
The objective of this article is to show the
estimation of temperatures of thermal comfort for the
users of outdoors in recreative center, in warm, cold
and periods of transition in a desert climate. The
study was developed with the approach adaptative
of the thermal comfort, by means of the application
of surveys with the scale of sensations of ISO 10551
[6], and measures of dry bulb temperature. Later, a
statistical analysis of stratum of thermal sensation
was done by stratus and a linear regression was
performed to obtain the temperatures and thermal
comfort ranges for passive activity level (0 to 75
W/m
2
).
The warm and cold periods presented
asymmetric climate behaviour, whereas the periods
of transition were symmetrical. The neutral
temperature values obtained in the periods studied,
demonstrate the theory of adaptation applied to the
outdoors, as the temperatures of thermal comfort
changed as the meteorological conditions are
modified.
2. METHOD
There were used the parameters of the approach
adaptative: data source, type of habitat, reactions to
analyse, type of receiver of the information and level
of analysis. For the selection of the approach of this
-0,50
0,00
0,50
1,00
P1 P2 P3 P4
Orientation Layout
Glazing ratio FA/CA*
-0,50
0,00
0,50
1,00
P1 P2 P3 P4
Finally, Figure 7 shows that orientation has the
higher correlation with respect to the obtained
overheating degree hours in comparison to other
design parameters. Facade area/conditioned area
ratio, glazing ratio and layout are the second, third
and fourth variables, respectively, in order of
sensitivity. However, when night cooling is
considered in the assessment, the relative
importance of these parameters can significantly
change, which should be considered by designers.

Figure 7: Pearson correlation coefficient for different design

parameters under different conditions of night ventilation
with respect to the mean value of overheating degree hours
5. CONCLUSIONS
The explanatory analysis carried out through the
PCA and the logistic regression established the
relative importance of the different variables that
determine the perception of thermal comfort of an
apartment in Santiago de Chile. Through these
techniques, the role of ventilation in the thermal
sensation of the occupants was identified,
associating daytime ventilation with hygienic
purposes, while night ventilation appeared directly
related to passive cooling.
These observations are very useful to understand
the perception of occupants about the different
aspects related to the thermal comfort of apartments
in Santiago de Chile. Nonetheless, if one of the
declared objectives of the survey is to provide
information for energy building simulations, it is
absolutely necessary to obtain hard data from the
collected information. This was carried out by means
of a cluster analysis. As was explained, the definition
of ventilation regimes is one of the main sources of
uncertainly in an energy building simulation, mainly
due to its dependence on the inhabitants behaviour
(by means of windows opening). However, if these
ventilation regimes are defined based on a more real
approach, the results of the simulation are more
representative and reliable and in consequence,
uncertainty decreases.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study was carried out as a part of a PHD
Thesis at the Architecture et Climat research centre
from the Universit catholique de Louvain in
Belgium. The study is funded by the Bourse de
coopration au dveloppement from the same
university.
The author would like to thank to Pilar San Martin
Vila and Carlos Aguirre Nez for their support for
the development of the questionnaire survey and the
statistical models, respectively.
7. REFERENCES
[1] Macdonald, IA, Clarke, JA & Strachan, PA 1999,
Assessing uncertainties in building simulation,
Proceedings of Building Simulation 1999, Paper
B-21, Kyoto, Japan.
[2] Clarke, J, Yaneske, P & Pinney, A 1999, The
harmonisation of thermal properties of building
materials, Report CR59/90 of the Building
Research Establishment, Watford, UK.
[3] Hyun, S, Park, C & Augenbroe, G 2008,
Analysis of uncertainty in natural ventilation
predictions of high-rise apartment buildings,
Building Services Engineering Research and
Technology, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 311-326.
[4] IEA 1988, Inhabitant Behaviour with Respect to
Ventilation - a Summary Report of IEA Annex
VIII, International Energy Agency, Energy
Conservation in Buildings and Community
Systems Programme, AIVC - Air Infiltration and
Ventilation Centre.
[5] Andersen, RV, Toftum, J, Andersen, KK, &
Olesen, BW 2009, Survey of occupant
behaviour and control of indoor environment in
Danish dwellings, Energy and Buildings, vol. 41,
pp.11-16.
[6] Hair, J, Anderson, R, Tatham, R, & Black, W
2005, Anlisis Multivariante (Quinta edicin),
Pearson Educacin, S.A., Madrid.
[7] Punj, G & Stewart, DW 1983, Cluster Analysis
in marketing research: review and suggestions
for application, Journal of Marketing Research,
vol. 20, no.2, pp.134-138
[8] EDSL 2010, EDSL TAS, <http://www.edsl.net>.
[9] ASHRAE 2001, IWEC International Weather for
Energy Calculations, ASHRAE, Atlanta
[10] CEN 2007, EN15251:2007 Indoor environmental
input parameters for design and assessment of
energy performance of buildings addressing
indoor air quality, thermal environment, lighting
and acoustics, European Committee for
Standardization, Brussels
* FA/CA = Facade area / conditioned area ratio
Without night cooling
With night cooling
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 547





Thermal Comfort Temperature in Outdoors
for Extreme Warm Dry Climate

Gonzalo BOJRQUEZ-MORALES
1
, Gabriel GMEZ-AZPEITIA
2
, Rafael GARCA-CUETO
3
,
Pavel RUIZ-TORRES
4
, Anbal LUNA-LEN
1

1
Faculty of Architecture and Design, Autonomic University of Baja California, Mexicali, Mexico
2
Faculty of Architecture and Design, University of Colima, Colima, Mexico
3
Institute

of Engineering, Autonomic University of Baja California, Mexicali, Mexico
4
Faculty

of Architecture, Autonomic University of Chiapas, Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico
ABSTRACT: In order to establish bases for right decisions in urban design, it is necessary to estimate the effect
of different meteorological variables on the comfort sensation of people carrying out outdoor activities. Thus,
outdoor thermal comfort must be one of the essential characteristics of urban environment quality. The objective
of the research presented in this paper was to determine the effect of dry bulb temperature on the thermal
sensation of users of outdoor recreational areas in extreme warm dry climate. A correlation field study with
adaptive approach was developed in four periods in the city of Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico. Simultaneously
to the comfort votes of people were registered data of dry bulb temperature, gray globe temperature, relative
humidity and wind speed. A total of 2124 observations were collected for passive activity level (0 to 75 W/m
2
). In
warm and cold periods, the extreme conditions determine characteristics of asymmetric climates. Opposite, in the
periods of transition, the conditions are those characteristic of symmetric climates. Consequently, the collected
data was analyzed with the called method "Averages by Interval of Thermal Sensation (AITS), in order of avoid
the bias generated for the conventional method in asymmetric climates. The adaptation phenomenon is evident
in the changes of neutral temperatures (Tn) values estimated for each study period.
Keywords: Thermal comfort, Outdoors spaces, Neutral temperature, Passive activity, Extreme warm dry climate

1. INTRODUCTION
Knowing the temperature of thermal comfort
outdoors, provides the basis for making a correct
decision in the design of spaces, which can lead to
users being in thermal comfort for the development
of their activities. Outdoors spaces are those that
are created to define nature and create an external
environment for a specific purpose, they are not
covered and are defined by two plans: floors and
walls [1].
The thermal human comfort is defined in ISO
7730 [2] such as that mental condition that express
satisfaction with the thermal environment; that also
can be defined according to Nikolopoulou [3] such
as the psycho-physiological satisfaction of the
human with respect to the climatic conditions of the
surroundings.
The need for research on thermal sensations
perceived outdoors has been observed in events like
the Olympics Games and world fairs [4] as well as
projects such as Rediscovering the Urban Realm
and Open Spaces [3], the contributions of these
works have applications in projects of tourism,
recreational areas or areas of exhibitions.
The time stay in outdoors is less than indoors,
due to the thermal adaptation process, this implies
that the application of a thermal comfort model
developed for indoors has a tendency to
overestimate the actual sensation of the outdoors
users. This discrepancy is greater in low
temperatures compared to high temperatures. In
outdoors, it is not adequate to use a prediction
model, due to the variability of thermal
environments, outdoor conditions and time stay;
while the implementation of the adaptation method
to the being the result of an assessment field is best
suited to outdoors conditions [5].
The objective of this article is to show the
estimation of temperatures of thermal comfort for the
users of outdoors in recreative center, in warm, cold
and periods of transition in a desert climate. The
study was developed with the approach adaptative
of the thermal comfort, by means of the application
of surveys with the scale of sensations of ISO 10551
[6], and measures of dry bulb temperature. Later, a
statistical analysis of stratum of thermal sensation
was done by stratus and a linear regression was
performed to obtain the temperatures and thermal
comfort ranges for passive activity level (0 to 75
W/m
2
).
The warm and cold periods presented
asymmetric climate behaviour, whereas the periods
of transition were symmetrical. The neutral
temperature values obtained in the periods studied,
demonstrate the theory of adaptation applied to the
outdoors, as the temperatures of thermal comfort
changed as the meteorological conditions are
modified.
2. METHOD
There were used the parameters of the approach
adaptative: data source, type of habitat, reactions to
analyse, type of receiver of the information and level
of analysis. For the selection of the approach of this
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
548 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)





Figure 4: Application of surveys.
The fundamental difference of the AITS with the
conventional method is that before obtaining the line
of regression that characterizes the studied sample,
groups or stratum are determined of the same to
calculate the value average and the standard
deviation (SD) of each of them.






























Figure 5: Temperature of thermal comfort with the method
of averages by interval of thermal sensation.
Thus, the regression is not done with all the pairs
of data of the sample, but only with the average
values and ranges are determined by the addition
and subtraction of one or two times the standard
deviation of the sample.
The purpose of this procedure is to determine
the average value of temperature of all the
responses of each level of perceived thermal
sensation. In that manner it was calculated the
average temperature of the individuals that reported
feeling comfort, but also those who expressed other
thermal sensations.
Based on the above, the data collected in the
field study was processed separately according to
each of the seven categories of comfort response of
ISO 10551 [6]. The values were determined for each
of them the average and standard deviation of the
temperatures registered for each collected answer.
When the number of answers for a certain group
was not sufficient to obtain reliable results, the
procedure was omitted and the category was
eliminated.
Once this data was obtained, ranges of
distribution were established for each category of
response. It was made from the average value of
corresponding temperature (TnMean) and the
addition of 1SD, the procedure is repeated and is
added 2SD to the TnMean.
Finally a linear regression was made with the
values that were obtained, to determine the
corresponding lines to the extensive limits of the
range defined by TnMean 2SD, and the reduced
limits defined by TnMean 1SD. Also the same was
done with the values of TnMean. In that way graphs
are obtained for every period of the study. The
intersection of each one of the lines of regression
with the ordinate four (that represents the thermal
sensation of comfort) determines the value of the
neutral temperature according to AITS method, as
well as, the limit values of the ranges of thermal
comfort.
3. RESULTS
The results for period of study and a comparative
analysis is done and presented in this section. It is
necessary mention that with base in data dispersin,
it is considered that the major thermal adaptation
was had when there was a minor dispersion of the
obtained answers.
3.1. Warm period
There were no cold sensations. A tendency of
data towards the values of -2SD in the thermal scale
sensations of neutral, slightly warm and hot was
observed. With regard to values of +2SD, the
tendency was only observed in the scale of
sensations of hot. This was because at this level
of thermal sensation a gain of heat in the thermal
balance of persons was recorded since
temperatures of thermal environment were higher at
37C (average of body temperature) (See figure 6).
The regression lines had a tendency to be
converged with respect to an average line of
regression; accordingly, there was an increased
thermal sensation of hot which represented a
greater adaptation to warm conditions rather than to
cold, as well as, a variability in the conditions of
thermal and psychological adaptation of the
persons.
The neutral temperature was symmetrical with
respect to the ranges of extensive and reduced

Analysis of thermal sensation scale


ASWERS OF THERMAL SENSATION

-2SD -1SD +1SD +2SD Mean

UNIVARIABLE LINEAR REGRESSION
(From of obtained values)
Hot
Warm
Slightly warm
Neutral
Slightly cool
Cool
Cold
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
Reduced range
Extensive range
-2SD -1SD +1SD +2SD TnMean




study also other similar works were reviewed [3, 5,
7].
The study was realized in Mexicali, Baja
California, a city of the northwest of Mexico, that is
situated at a latitude of 3239'54" N, longitude of
11527'21" W, and an altitude of four meters above
sea level. The climate is warm and extremely dry,
with an average maximum temperature of 42C (with
extreme maximum of 52C) and an average
minimum temperature of 8C (with extreme
minimum of -6C) [8]. In figure 1, appears Mexicalis
location.


Figure 1: Location of Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico.
The research was carried out in the YOUTH
RECREATION CENTER 2000, where sports,
outdoor exercises and other living activities are
practiced. This park presents green areas, corridors
of concrete and land, sports fields of basketball,
soccer, baseball and track to trot, as some
administration buildings, gymnasium and area of
special courses (See figure 2).


Figure 2: Youth Recreation Center 2000
A correlation study of dry bulb temperature with
the thermal sensation perceived was developed.
The periods studied are presented in table 1. The
schedules of application of survey were from 07:00
to 21.30.
Table 1: Periods of study of fieldworks.
Period type Periods of study
Warm July 25 to August 10, 2008
Cold 2nd to the 20
th
of January, 2009
Transition
periods
1
st
to the 13
th
of April 2008
October 27 to November 9, 2008
13
th
to the 26
th
of April 2009
The passive activity level was studied (0 to 75
W/m
2
); the metabolic relation of energy consumption
was established based on Fanger [9] and Mondelo
et al., [10]. The passive type activities were: walking,
observing, talking and playing with children in a
peaceful manner. The levels of average clothing
(Clo) of subjects studied by period are presented in
table 2.
Table 2: Clo average of people for period of study.
Period of de study Clo average of people
Warm 0.27 Clo
Cold 0.84 Clo
Periods of transition 0.61 Clo

The selection of meteorological variables to
measure was based on the effect of the same in the
perceived thermal sensation, as well as in the
analysis of some cases of study on thermal comfort
in indoors and outdoors [3, 4, 11] and the norms ISO
7730 [2] and ISO 7726 [12].
The measurements of variables were: dry bulb
temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and gray
globe temperature. Also a thermal stress equipment
was utilized. (See figure 3). As the methodology as
the equipment met the majority of the requirements
of the norm ISO 7726 [12], reason why the
generated data are of Class II [13].













Figure 3: Monitor of thermal stress.
The questionnaire was designed based in ISO
10551 [6] and a manual of application of survey and
manual of instruments was developed.
A sample with a reliability of 95% and precision
of the estimators of 5% was designed. A total of
2122 observations were realized, 389 in the warm
period, 449 in cold period and 1284 in the periods of
transition. The study subjects were men and women
between 12 and 65 years of age, did not include
individuals with irregular biological conditions like
chronic diseases or pregnancy. Some images of
application of surveys appear in figure 4.
The data analysis was carried out with the
method of Averages by Interval of Thermal
Sensation (AITS) [14], which was developed with
base in the proposal of Nicol [15] for asymmetric
climates. A scheme of the mentioned method
appears in figure 5.

Norte
ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA
MEXICALI
M X I C O
BAJA CALIFORNIA
North
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 549





Figure 4: Application of surveys.
The fundamental difference of the AITS with the
conventional method is that before obtaining the line
of regression that characterizes the studied sample,
groups or stratum are determined of the same to
calculate the value average and the standard
deviation (SD) of each of them.






























Figure 5: Temperature of thermal comfort with the method
of averages by interval of thermal sensation.
Thus, the regression is not done with all the pairs
of data of the sample, but only with the average
values and ranges are determined by the addition
and subtraction of one or two times the standard
deviation of the sample.
The purpose of this procedure is to determine
the average value of temperature of all the
responses of each level of perceived thermal
sensation. In that manner it was calculated the
average temperature of the individuals that reported
feeling comfort, but also those who expressed other
thermal sensations.
Based on the above, the data collected in the
field study was processed separately according to
each of the seven categories of comfort response of
ISO 10551 [6]. The values were determined for each
of them the average and standard deviation of the
temperatures registered for each collected answer.
When the number of answers for a certain group
was not sufficient to obtain reliable results, the
procedure was omitted and the category was
eliminated.
Once this data was obtained, ranges of
distribution were established for each category of
response. It was made from the average value of
corresponding temperature (TnMean) and the
addition of 1SD, the procedure is repeated and is
added 2SD to the TnMean.
Finally a linear regression was made with the
values that were obtained, to determine the
corresponding lines to the extensive limits of the
range defined by TnMean 2SD, and the reduced
limits defined by TnMean 1SD. Also the same was
done with the values of TnMean. In that way graphs
are obtained for every period of the study. The
intersection of each one of the lines of regression
with the ordinate four (that represents the thermal
sensation of comfort) determines the value of the
neutral temperature according to AITS method, as
well as, the limit values of the ranges of thermal
comfort.
3. RESULTS
The results for period of study and a comparative
analysis is done and presented in this section. It is
necessary mention that with base in data dispersin,
it is considered that the major thermal adaptation
was had when there was a minor dispersion of the
obtained answers.
3.1. Warm period
There were no cold sensations. A tendency of
data towards the values of -2SD in the thermal scale
sensations of neutral, slightly warm and hot was
observed. With regard to values of +2SD, the
tendency was only observed in the scale of
sensations of hot. This was because at this level
of thermal sensation a gain of heat in the thermal
balance of persons was recorded since
temperatures of thermal environment were higher at
37C (average of body temperature) (See figure 6).
The regression lines had a tendency to be
converged with respect to an average line of
regression; accordingly, there was an increased
thermal sensation of hot which represented a
greater adaptation to warm conditions rather than to
cold, as well as, a variability in the conditions of
thermal and psychological adaptation of the
persons.
The neutral temperature was symmetrical with
respect to the ranges of extensive and reduced

Analysis of thermal sensation scale


ASWERS OF THERMAL SENSATION

-2SD -1SD +1SD +2SD Mean

UNIVARIABLE LINEAR REGRESSION
(From of obtained values)
Hot
Warm
Slightly warm
Neutral
Slightly cool
Cool
Cold
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
Reduced range
Extensive range
-2SD -1SD +1SD +2SD TnMean




study also other similar works were reviewed [3, 5,
7].
The study was realized in Mexicali, Baja
California, a city of the northwest of Mexico, that is
situated at a latitude of 3239'54" N, longitude of
11527'21" W, and an altitude of four meters above
sea level. The climate is warm and extremely dry,
with an average maximum temperature of 42C (with
extreme maximum of 52C) and an average
minimum temperature of 8C (with extreme
minimum of -6C) [8]. In figure 1, appears Mexicalis
location.


Figure 1: Location of Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico.
The research was carried out in the YOUTH
RECREATION CENTER 2000, where sports,
outdoor exercises and other living activities are
practiced. This park presents green areas, corridors
of concrete and land, sports fields of basketball,
soccer, baseball and track to trot, as some
administration buildings, gymnasium and area of
special courses (See figure 2).


Figure 2: Youth Recreation Center 2000
A correlation study of dry bulb temperature with
the thermal sensation perceived was developed.
The periods studied are presented in table 1. The
schedules of application of survey were from 07:00
to 21.30.
Table 1: Periods of study of fieldworks.
Period type Periods of study
Warm July 25 to August 10, 2008
Cold 2nd to the 20
th
of January, 2009
Transition
periods
1
st
to the 13
th
of April 2008
October 27 to November 9, 2008
13
th
to the 26
th
of April 2009
The passive activity level was studied (0 to 75
W/m
2
); the metabolic relation of energy consumption
was established based on Fanger [9] and Mondelo
et al., [10]. The passive type activities were: walking,
observing, talking and playing with children in a
peaceful manner. The levels of average clothing
(Clo) of subjects studied by period are presented in
table 2.
Table 2: Clo average of people for period of study.
Period of de study Clo average of people
Warm 0.27 Clo
Cold 0.84 Clo
Periods of transition 0.61 Clo

The selection of meteorological variables to
measure was based on the effect of the same in the
perceived thermal sensation, as well as in the
analysis of some cases of study on thermal comfort
in indoors and outdoors [3, 4, 11] and the norms ISO
7730 [2] and ISO 7726 [12].
The measurements of variables were: dry bulb
temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and gray
globe temperature. Also a thermal stress equipment
was utilized. (See figure 3). As the methodology as
the equipment met the majority of the requirements
of the norm ISO 7726 [12], reason why the
generated data are of Class II [13].













Figure 3: Monitor of thermal stress.
The questionnaire was designed based in ISO
10551 [6] and a manual of application of survey and
manual of instruments was developed.
A sample with a reliability of 95% and precision
of the estimators of 5% was designed. A total of
2122 observations were realized, 389 in the warm
period, 449 in cold period and 1284 in the periods of
transition. The study subjects were men and women
between 12 and 65 years of age, did not include
individuals with irregular biological conditions like
chronic diseases or pregnancy. Some images of
application of surveys appear in figure 4.
The data analysis was carried out with the
method of Averages by Interval of Thermal
Sensation (AITS) [14], which was developed with
base in the proposal of Nicol [15] for asymmetric
climates. A scheme of the mentioned method
appears in figure 5.

Norte
ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA
MEXICALI
M X I C O
BAJA CALIFORNIA
North
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
550 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)






3.3. Periods of transition
In the thermal sensation of warm, a greater
dispersion of the data was observed, with respect to
another thermal sensations, the previous
represented a lower level of adaptation of the
persons from study to hot sensations. Significant
differences between the levels of adaptation for
each scale of sensation were observed.
A greater variability appeared as temperature
increased, the previous indicated a lower degree of
adaptation to high temperatures in the studied
period, which agrees with the theory of adaptation of
Humpreys and Nicol [16] (See figure 8).


Tn-2SD Tn-1SD TnMean Tn+1SD Tn+2SD
19.2C 22.7C 26.1C 29.5C 32.9C

Figure 8: Neutral temperature and ranges of thermal comfort for passive activit in periods of transition.

3.4. Comparative analysis
A significant variation in the neutral temperature
of each one of the studied periods was observed,
the previous was due to the process of adaptation of
the persons with base in the conditions of the
thermal environment (See table 3).
Table 3: Neutral values and ranges of thermal comfort for
studied period.
Parameters
Warm
period
Cold
period
Periods of
transition
DBTn+2SD 42.2C 26.4C 33.2C
DBTn+1SD 38.5C 22.9C 29.7C
DBTnMean 34.8C 19.3C 26.3C
DBTn-1SD 31.1C 15.7C 22.8C
DBTn-2SD 27.4C 12.2C 19.4C
Extensive range 14.7C 11.8C 13.7C
Reduced range 7.4C 5.9C 6.8C
R
2
(MRL) 0.9999 0.9806 0.9804
DBTn: Dry Bulb Temperature neutral, SD: Standard
deviation, R
2
(MRL): Coefficient of determination of Mean
Regression Line.
The variation between the periods of warmth and
of transition was of 8.5C, whereas the period of
cold and the one of transition was of 7C, however
the variation between extreme climatic periods
(warm to cold) was of 15.5C.
With regard to the ranges of thermal comfort, the
variations were between two and three degrees from
one period to another, which confirmed the
acclimatization phenomenon. The values of the
determination coefficient (R), in the three periods of
study, had values between 0.9804 and 0.9999,
which is why the amount of variation in y is
explained in significant form by the straight line of
regression of the analyzed data.
4. CONCLUSIONS
Based on the obtained results the following
conclusions can be established:
In the periods of warmth and cold, there were
extreme conditions and characteristic of asymmetric
climate, while in the periods of transition conditions
of a tempered climate of symmetrical type were
observed.
The temperature of thermal comfort presented a
significant variation between a period of study and
another one. The adaptation phenomenon was
observed clearly in the exchanges of value of the Tn
for every period of study.
In the warm period a better adaptation to the
conditions of heat was observed, whereas in the
period of cold the best adaptation was to the cold
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
5 15 25 35 45
T
h
e
r
m
a
l


s
e
n
s
a
t
i
o
n
Dry bulb temperature (C)
Extensive range 11.8C
Reduced range 5.9C
Neutral value (comfort)
Mean -2SD -1SD +1SD +2SD




thermal comfort. This is due to the low level of
internal energy generated by persons studied, due
to passive activity, and its thermodynamic
interchange with thermal environment.


Tn-2SD Tn-1SD TnMean Tn+1SD Tn+2SD
27.4C 31.1C 34.8C 38.5C 42.1C

Figure 6: Neutral temperature and ranges of thermal comfort for passive activit in warm period.
3.2. Cold period
It was noted that in addition to the sensations
of cold, the feeling of "slightly warm" was presented,
the above was due to the internal temperature and
metabolic activity levels of clothing (See figure 7).
Also a tendency of convergence of the lines of
regression was observed towards the line of
regression average accordingly the thermal
sensation of cold increased, which indicated a better
adaptation to these conditions of temperature for this
period. The neutral temperature was symmetrical
with respect to the ranges of extensive and reduced
thermal comfort.


Tn-2SD Tn-1SD TnMean Tn+1SD Tn+2SD
13.8 C 16.6 C 19.6 C 22.5 C 25.6C
Figure 7: Neutral temperature and ranges of thermal comfort for passive activit in cold period.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
5 15 25 35 45
T
h
e
r
m
a
l


s
e
n
s
a
t
i
o
n
Dry bulb temperature (C)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
5 15 25 35 45
T
h
e
r
m
a
l


s
e
n
s
a
t
i
o
n
Dry bulb temperature (C)
Neutral value (comfort)
Extensive range 14.7C
Reduced range 7.4C
Mean -2SD -1SD +1SD +2SD
Neutral value (comfort)
Extensive range 11.8C
Reduced range 5.9C
Mean -2SD -1SD +1SD +2SD
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 551






3.3. Periods of transition
In the thermal sensation of warm, a greater
dispersion of the data was observed, with respect to
another thermal sensations, the previous
represented a lower level of adaptation of the
persons from study to hot sensations. Significant
differences between the levels of adaptation for
each scale of sensation were observed.
A greater variability appeared as temperature
increased, the previous indicated a lower degree of
adaptation to high temperatures in the studied
period, which agrees with the theory of adaptation of
Humpreys and Nicol [16] (See figure 8).


Tn-2SD Tn-1SD TnMean Tn+1SD Tn+2SD
19.2C 22.7C 26.1C 29.5C 32.9C

Figure 8: Neutral temperature and ranges of thermal comfort for passive activit in periods of transition.

3.4. Comparative analysis
A significant variation in the neutral temperature
of each one of the studied periods was observed,
the previous was due to the process of adaptation of
the persons with base in the conditions of the
thermal environment (See table 3).
Table 3: Neutral values and ranges of thermal comfort for
studied period.
Parameters
Warm
period
Cold
period
Periods of
transition
DBTn+2SD 42.2C 26.4C 33.2C
DBTn+1SD 38.5C 22.9C 29.7C
DBTnMean 34.8C 19.3C 26.3C
DBTn-1SD 31.1C 15.7C 22.8C
DBTn-2SD 27.4C 12.2C 19.4C
Extensive range 14.7C 11.8C 13.7C
Reduced range 7.4C 5.9C 6.8C
R
2
(MRL) 0.9999 0.9806 0.9804
DBTn: Dry Bulb Temperature neutral, SD: Standard
deviation, R
2
(MRL): Coefficient of determination of Mean
Regression Line.
The variation between the periods of warmth and
of transition was of 8.5C, whereas the period of
cold and the one of transition was of 7C, however
the variation between extreme climatic periods
(warm to cold) was of 15.5C.
With regard to the ranges of thermal comfort, the
variations were between two and three degrees from
one period to another, which confirmed the
acclimatization phenomenon. The values of the
determination coefficient (R), in the three periods of
study, had values between 0.9804 and 0.9999,
which is why the amount of variation in y is
explained in significant form by the straight line of
regression of the analyzed data.
4. CONCLUSIONS
Based on the obtained results the following
conclusions can be established:
In the periods of warmth and cold, there were
extreme conditions and characteristic of asymmetric
climate, while in the periods of transition conditions
of a tempered climate of symmetrical type were
observed.
The temperature of thermal comfort presented a
significant variation between a period of study and
another one. The adaptation phenomenon was
observed clearly in the exchanges of value of the Tn
for every period of study.
In the warm period a better adaptation to the
conditions of heat was observed, whereas in the
period of cold the best adaptation was to the cold
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
5 15 25 35 45
T
h
e
r
m
a
l


s
e
n
s
a
t
i
o
n
Dry bulb temperature (C)
Extensive range 11.8C
Reduced range 5.9C
Neutral value (comfort)
Mean -2SD -1SD +1SD +2SD
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
552 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)




conditions. In the periods of transition the best
adaptation of the study subjects was to the cold
conditions, without registering thermal sensations of
hot.
Based on the variation of amplitude of the
extensive and reduced ranges, in general a better
adaptation was observed to the conditions of cold,
due to experience and expectation, from one period
to another.
The study serves as support in the decision
making of design of exterior spaces in desert
climate, since it allows consideration of the
conditions of thermal comfort of the users, in three
different climatic periods for the same level of
activity.
5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To all the collaborators in the work field, capturing
and analysing data. Projects Thermal comfort and
saving of energy in the economic house in Mexico:
dry and humid warm climate regions, CONAFOVI
2004-01-20 and Economic house in Mexicali:
thermal comfort and saving of energy UABC.
Autonomic University of Baja California and
University of Colima. To Ms. Alicia Ching and Jos
Luis Cadena for all the support in the realization of
this document.
6. REFERENCES
[1] Ashihara, Y. (1982) El diseo de espacios
exteriores. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili.
[2] International Organization for Standardization.
(2005). ISO 7730:2005 (E) Ergonomics of the
thermal enviroment analytical determination
and interpretation of thermal comfort using
calculation of the PMV and PPD indices and
local thermal comfort criteria. Ginebra: Autor.
[3] Nikolopoulou, M. (2004). Designing open space
in the urban environment: a bioclimatic
approach. Attiki: Center for renewable energy
sources.
[4] Pickup, J. and de Dear, R. (2000). An Outdoor
Thermal Comfort Index (OUT_SET*) - Part I -
The Model and its Assumptions. In
Biometeorology and Urban Climatology at the
Turn of the Millennium. WCASP 50: WMO/TD
No.1026. Edited by R.J. de Dear, J.D. Kalma,
T.R.Oke and A. Auliciems. (WMO: Geneva).
pp.279-283.
[5] Hppe, P. (2002). Different aspects of
assessing indoor and outdoor thermal comfort.
Energy and Buildings, 34, 661-665.
[6] International Organization for Standardization.
(1995). ISO 10551:1995 (E) Ergonomics of
thermal enviroment assessment of the
influence of the thermal environment using
subjective judgement scales. Ginebra: Autor.
[7] Givoni, B; Noguchi, M; Saaroni, H; Pochter, O;
Yaacov, Y; Feller, N. and Becker, S. (2003).
Outdoor comfort research issues. Energy and
buildings, 35, 77-86.
[8] Luna, A., Velzquez, N., Gallegos, R. y
Bojrquez G. (2008). Aire acondicionado solar
para conjunto de viviendas en Mexicali, B.C.
Mxico. Revista Informacin tecnolgica 2008,
vol.19, no.1, p.45-56. ISSN 0718-0764.
[9] Fanger P.O. (1986). Thermal environment-
human requirements. The environmentalist.
Volume 6, Number 4, 275-278. Springer
Netherlands.
[10] Mondelo, P; Gregori, E; Comas, S; Castejn E.
y Bartolom E. (2001). Ergonoma 2: Confort y
estrs trmico.(3ra. Edicin). Barcelona:
Universitat Politcnica Catalunya.
[11] Dear de, R; Brager, G. and Cooper, D. (1998).
Developing an adaptive model of thermal
comfort and preferentes. (Final Report on RP-
884). ASHRAE and Macquarie Research Ltd.
[12] International Organization for Standardization.
(1998). ISO 7726:1998 (E) Ergonomics of the
thermal enviroment instruments for measuring
physical quantities. Ginebra: Autor.
[13] Brager, G. and Dear de, R. (1998). Thermal
adaptation in the buil enviroment: a literature
review. Energy and Buildings, 27, 83-96.
[14] Gmez-Azpeitia G. Ruiz P. Bojrquez G. y
Romero R. (2007). Monitoreo de condiciones de
confort trmico. Reporte tcnico CONAFOVI.
2004-01-20. Colima.
[15] Nicol, F. (1993) Thermal comfort A handbook
for field studies toward an adaptive model".
London, University of East London.
[16] Humphreys, M. and Nicol, F. (2002). The
validity of ISO-PMV for predicting comfort votes
in every-day thermal environments. Energy and
Buildings, 34, 667-684.


















PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 553

Thermal comfort in hospital environments
LA Y. DOBBERT
1
, DEMSTENES F. SILVA FILHO
1
, CRISTIANE DACANAL
2
, CLEIDE A.M. SILVA
2

1
Superior School of Agriculture Luiz de Queiroz, University of So Paulo, Piracicaba, Brazil
2
School of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil
ABSTRACT: The important point to be covered and assessed here is the effort that hospitals face when the
environment is considered and this issue depends on a number of factors such as thermal comfort and light
among other functional aspects, such as equipment availability, safety, accessibility and user mobility. The
existence of green areas or gardens at hospitals have a positive influence on the environmental comfort,
especially when related to thermal sensation and satisfaction, as the microclimate is gradually changed by the
vegetation. This study aims at focusing on the thermal comfort evaluation of users at Santa Casa hospital in
Valinhos, SP (Brazil), also provides subsidies for landscaping projects in hospitals. The internal environments
examined differ from the developed function and the contact that the users have with the gardens. The
methodology consists at the measurement of internal environmental conditions and climatic variables and the
simultaneous application of a questionnaire for evaluating the sensation and thermal preference, along with 228
hospital employees. The Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and Predicted Percentage Dissatisfied (PPD), proposed
by Fanger (1970) have been calculated in this paper. The comparison between the actual condition of comfort
declared by respondents and the predicted votes, has exposed differences about these results significantly, as
the percentage for the satisfied is in fact superior to that obtained by PMV. The comparison between
environments in contact or not with the vegetation, has shown similarity between the values but has no
significant difference on the results (p-value <0.05).
Keywords: thermal comfort, hospital environments, microclimate
1. INTRODUCTION
What should be emphasized most is the fact that
open spaces can provide great improvement in the
quality of life in a hospital environment when properly
treated. The green spaces or gardens in hospitals
play an important role in order to promote a social
contact among patients, staff and other users.
Furthermore, the contact with the gardens not only
contributes to the restoration of the mental health
status in patients, but reduces the stress and
improves the thermal comfort, encouraging its use
[1].
Scientific studies regarding the positive human
influence from spaces with vegetation are presented
by Kaplan (2001) [2] remarking the importance of a
view through the window due to an increasing sense
of feeling well. In another study, Kaplan (1993) [3]
points out the benefits from the contact with nature in
the workplace. Ulrich (1984, 1991, 2002) [4]-[5]-[6],
Marcus & Barnes (1999) [7] and Zeisel (2007) [8]
reported through conducted surveys mainly at
hospitals, about the reduction of stress due to the
contact with the nature. The works of Taylor (2001)
[9], Fjeld (2002) [10], Grahn & Stigsdotter (2003)
[11], Hansmann (2007) [12], Hartig et.al. (1997) [13]
and Hartig (2007) [14], have shown positive
responses concerning human contact with
vegetation and landscapes in hospitals, schools and
urban areas, recognizing the healthy influence of
plants and stating that the effects are very important
to people.
As concerns the urban scale, few studies have
been developed with the objective of observing the
influence of vegetation on microclimate, thermal
comfort and quality of open spaces. [15]-[16]. What
can be noticed, in warm climate regions is the
existence of vegetation in open spaces, the design
and appropriate furniture favoring the human
permanence and intensifying the performance of
the populations activities [17]-[18]. Thus, it is highly
recommended that the growing of trees and shrub
species, as far as its known, provide shading is a
major factor really responsible for the thermal
comfort sensation in open spaces.
In addition to cutting solar radiation down, plants
have the ability to modify the microclimate,
increasing humidity and decreasing the air
temperature [19].
The natural characteristics of the trees, provide
shade, improve the air quality and provide also an
aesthetic harmony. The existence of vegetation in
open spaces has an important role in establishing
the relationship between man and nature, ensuring
them best quality of life [20].
Something relevant to be considered at this
point is the hospital setting; the thermal satisfaction
of patients in recovery should be an important factor
in recovering health. It is also important that patients
and staff notice positively the physical aspects of this
environment. The interaction of patients with the
hospital green areas stimulates the development of
activities for inmates and promotes the social
interaction [1], thus the landscaping can be a key to
the quality of the hospital design. Furthermore, the
direct view or the visual contact with the gardens can
influence the sense of well being not only to the
inmates but also to the staff and other users.
In this context, Vasconcelos (2004) [21] has
found, in a survey which was conducted in three
hospitals, the importance of promoting contact with
the outside to increase the sense of well being and
psychological comfort of its users. The patients




conditions. In the periods of transition the best
adaptation of the study subjects was to the cold
conditions, without registering thermal sensations of
hot.
Based on the variation of amplitude of the
extensive and reduced ranges, in general a better
adaptation was observed to the conditions of cold,
due to experience and expectation, from one period
to another.
The study serves as support in the decision
making of design of exterior spaces in desert
climate, since it allows consideration of the
conditions of thermal comfort of the users, in three
different climatic periods for the same level of
activity.
5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To all the collaborators in the work field, capturing
and analysing data. Projects Thermal comfort and
saving of energy in the economic house in Mexico:
dry and humid warm climate regions, CONAFOVI
2004-01-20 and Economic house in Mexicali:
thermal comfort and saving of energy UABC.
Autonomic University of Baja California and
University of Colima. To Ms. Alicia Ching and Jos
Luis Cadena for all the support in the realization of
this document.
6. REFERENCES
[1] Ashihara, Y. (1982) El diseo de espacios
exteriores. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili.
[2] International Organization for Standardization.
(2005). ISO 7730:2005 (E) Ergonomics of the
thermal enviroment analytical determination
and interpretation of thermal comfort using
calculation of the PMV and PPD indices and
local thermal comfort criteria. Ginebra: Autor.
[3] Nikolopoulou, M. (2004). Designing open space
in the urban environment: a bioclimatic
approach. Attiki: Center for renewable energy
sources.
[4] Pickup, J. and de Dear, R. (2000). An Outdoor
Thermal Comfort Index (OUT_SET*) - Part I -
The Model and its Assumptions. In
Biometeorology and Urban Climatology at the
Turn of the Millennium. WCASP 50: WMO/TD
No.1026. Edited by R.J. de Dear, J.D. Kalma,
T.R.Oke and A. Auliciems. (WMO: Geneva).
pp.279-283.
[5] Hppe, P. (2002). Different aspects of
assessing indoor and outdoor thermal comfort.
Energy and Buildings, 34, 661-665.
[6] International Organization for Standardization.
(1995). ISO 10551:1995 (E) Ergonomics of
thermal enviroment assessment of the
influence of the thermal environment using
subjective judgement scales. Ginebra: Autor.
[7] Givoni, B; Noguchi, M; Saaroni, H; Pochter, O;
Yaacov, Y; Feller, N. and Becker, S. (2003).
Outdoor comfort research issues. Energy and
buildings, 35, 77-86.
[8] Luna, A., Velzquez, N., Gallegos, R. y
Bojrquez G. (2008). Aire acondicionado solar
para conjunto de viviendas en Mexicali, B.C.
Mxico. Revista Informacin tecnolgica 2008,
vol.19, no.1, p.45-56. ISSN 0718-0764.
[9] Fanger P.O. (1986). Thermal environment-
human requirements. The environmentalist.
Volume 6, Number 4, 275-278. Springer
Netherlands.
[10] Mondelo, P; Gregori, E; Comas, S; Castejn E.
y Bartolom E. (2001). Ergonoma 2: Confort y
estrs trmico.(3ra. Edicin). Barcelona:
Universitat Politcnica Catalunya.
[11] Dear de, R; Brager, G. and Cooper, D. (1998).
Developing an adaptive model of thermal
comfort and preferentes. (Final Report on RP-
884). ASHRAE and Macquarie Research Ltd.
[12] International Organization for Standardization.
(1998). ISO 7726:1998 (E) Ergonomics of the
thermal enviroment instruments for measuring
physical quantities. Ginebra: Autor.
[13] Brager, G. and Dear de, R. (1998). Thermal
adaptation in the buil enviroment: a literature
review. Energy and Buildings, 27, 83-96.
[14] Gmez-Azpeitia G. Ruiz P. Bojrquez G. y
Romero R. (2007). Monitoreo de condiciones de
confort trmico. Reporte tcnico CONAFOVI.
2004-01-20. Colima.
[15] Nicol, F. (1993) Thermal comfort A handbook
for field studies toward an adaptive model".
London, University of East London.
[16] Humphreys, M. and Nicol, F. (2002). The
validity of ISO-PMV for predicting comfort votes
in every-day thermal environments. Energy and
Buildings, 34, 667-684.


















PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
554 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
interviewed have reported their preference for
environments containing visual pleasant colors,
vegetation, ventilation and natural lighting. It was
also emphasized in this study the benefit brought by
the external environment to patients due to sensory
stimulus caused by natural elements.
A major aspect about the same issue is that
under the ideal working conditions, the thermal
discomfort of the environment is essential to cause
the psychological malaise, the decrease in
production capacity, the physical exhaustion and
other disturbances [22]. The Brazilian Federation of
Hospitals determines that for a comfortable situation
in such environments, the temperature should be 24
C. The Norm number 17 of the Labor Ministry,
however, determines the ambient temperature
around 20 to 23 C, air velocity up to 0.75 m / s and
relative humidity below 40% for workplaces with
intellectual activities and requiring constant attention
[23].
Something relevant to be considered at this
point is the fact that under these considerations, this
study aims at evaluating the thermal comfort of
workers in hospitals, based on ISO 7730 (1995) [24]
and in questionnaires to evaluate the thermal
sensation. Specific objectives were to compare the
thermal comfort, predicted and related by the staff
whose work environment has or not windows
overlooking the gardens of the evaluated hospital.
2. METHODOLOGY
2.1. CaseStudy
Located in So Paulo, Hospital Santa Casa de
Valinhos, lays at 22 57' 47.90S latitude and 47
00'39.95''W longitude, at an altitude of 660m, in
Valinhos city, Sao Paulo, Brazil, was the object of
this project and study.
The climate, according Kppen-Geiger
classification, is Cwa that has warm and rainy
summer, mild and dry winter.
Having 5,704.44 square meters in its building
area, predominantly one-pavement buildings, which
allows the natural lighting and ventilation (Figure 1).
Gardens are enclosed by buildings, adding 7,852.00
square meters and also different vegetation - with or
without trees. The green diversity in the gardens
(Figure 2) changes the level of shading and
microclimate conditions, which may influence the
microclimate and thermal comfort in the indoor
environments.
Due to the location of some rooms in the hospital,
some wards, although across the gardens, have no
direct eye contact with the green spaces or gardens
(Figure 3).



Figure 1: Buildings and gardens of the hospital Irmandade
Santa Casa de Valinhos.


(a) (b)
Figure 2: (a) Garden with more shadow; (b) Garden with
less shadow in the Irmandade Santa Casa de Valinhos, SP
- Brazil.

(a) (b)
Figure 3: (a) environment without view to the garden ; (b)
environment with view to the garden. Local: Hospital
Irmandade Santa Casa de Valinhos.

2.2. Measurement of internal environmental
conditions and climatic variables
Of major importance is the fact that the
environmental conditions and climatic variables
monitoring and the questionnaires application for the
assessment of sensation and thermal preference
were conducted simultaneously during the months of
November - December 2009 and January 2010,
during two different periods of the day: 9:00-10:00h,
13:00-18:00h.
The air temperature (C), relative humidity (%)
and wind speed (m s-1) with the aid of thermo-
anemometer and digital anemometer, positioned at
1.5m tall, were monitored. All measurements were
made internally to working environments, divided into
spaces with or without windows facing the gardens.
Acess
Hospitalization

North
Garden
Garden Garden
Garden Garden
Garden
Street
Administration ER
Surgery room
Pediatrics
Hospitalization
Hospitalization




M
a
t
e
r
n
i
t
y

Services
Kitchen

PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 555


2.3. Real thermal comfort (ASV) and calculated
thermal comfort (PMV e PPD)
For the evaluation of predicted thermal comfort,
this work was based on the ISO 7730 (International
Organization for Standardization) [24], which shows
the thermal sensation predicting method and non
comfort degree for people not exposed to moderate
thermal environments, and also specifies Thermal
acceptable comfort conditions.
The PMV index (Predicted Mean Vote)
represents the average vote of people regarding to
thermal sensation [25], calculated from personal
variables (metabolic energy and thermal resistance)
and environmental variables (temperature and
relative air humidity, wind speed and mean radiant
temperature). The calculation of the PMV and PPD
(Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied) was made by
using the software Conforto 2.02 [26].
For the evaluation of the real thermal sensation -
actual sensation vote (ASV) - 228 hospital staff were
interviewed in their work environment. The
employees were divided into two groups - one with a
view to the gardens (78 respondents) and the other
group did not have a view to the gardens (150
respondents).
3. RESULTS
3.1. Measurement of internal environmental
conditions and climatic variables
The average of the microclimatic variables
(temperature, relative humidity and wind speed) in
hospital settings, with or without windows
overlooking the gardens, shows similarities between
the two groups (Table 1).
Table 1: Comparison of air relative humidity (RH) and air
temperature (T) between environments with and without
gardens contact.
opening windows to
the gardens
RH (%) T (
o
C)
Yes 68.8 (=6.3) 27.1 (=1.1)
No 58.5 (=12.4) 27.5 (=1.7)

Something relevant to be considered at this
point is the fact that there is almost no difference
between the thermal environments (0.4 C on
average higher in environments that are not facing
the gardens), indicating little interference from
gardens in relation to the air temperature of indoor
environments nearby them.
The relative humidity was presented as 10.3%
higher in environments facing the gardens, thus
verifying the potential of green areas in the air
humidification, which is caused by the plants
evapotranspiration.
As concerns wind speed, due to the fact that
environments have to be with closed doors, because
of the risk of contamination, there was almost low
wind speed, except for places where there was a fan.
The average speed measured was 0.02 m s-1 for
both groups. Although the windows that were facing
the gardens, behind closed doors there was no
cross-ventilation, which makes the air exchanges
with the outside slower.
As all the rooms are set on a comfortable
situation according to the Brazilian Federation of
Hospitals, which determines temperature by 24 C,
there was also a disagreement about the Norm 17 of
the Labor Ministry, with air temperatures around 4 C
above the established threshold level and relative
humidity higher. The low air speed according to this
standard.

3.2. Predicted and real thermal sensation
The PMV index concentrates on +1 (Slightly
warm) for both groups of employees interviewed
(Figure 3), indicating a general thermal discomfort in
the workplace environments.
Based on ISO 7730 (1995), the PPD for a
population where 13% of people are under condition
of thermal neutrality, indicates 55% of people
dissatisfied. Comparison of PPD between the two
groups showed no significant differences between
them.
Contrary to the expectations, the PMV showed a
situation of better thermal comfort in environments
that do not have direct contact with the gardens. As
the humidity was elevated during the monitoring
period, the discomfort of the environment facing the
gardens was referred to. Facing higher temperatures
and low air speed, the discomfort rises up with
increasing relative humidity, since the latent heat
loss by sweating becomes smaller.
The actual thermal sensation (ASV), obtained
through questionnaires, concentrates on +0 (Neutral)
for both groups of staff surveyed (Figure 5), with 45%
of the vote. The overall percentage of people with
mild heat down to 35%, which means 37% less than
the PMV (Figure 4).
The percentage of neutral answers is 5% higher
for the group of interviewees whose work
environments are (open) facing to the gardens, in
relation to the other group. However, through the
distribution of votes it has not been possible to
identify any trends in thermal sensation which can be
attributed to the existence of the gardens.
Despite the thermal sensation which tends to be
hot, 63% of the interviewees have answered feeling
thermally comfortable, regardless of no visual contact
with the gardens.
The comparison between the real (ASV) and
predicted (PMV) thermal sensation (Figure 6) leads
us to consider the visible difference between these
indexes, indicating subjectivity in the perception of
comfort and adaptability to human microclimates. As
the PMV indicates 13% neutral, 45% of the
population has related to be in this thermal situation,
61% were comfortable, even feeling mild heat or
heat, indicating that the thermal satisfaction differs
from the thermal sensation.


interviewed have reported their preference for
environments containing visual pleasant colors,
vegetation, ventilation and natural lighting. It was
also emphasized in this study the benefit brought by
the external environment to patients due to sensory
stimulus caused by natural elements.
A major aspect about the same issue is that
under the ideal working conditions, the thermal
discomfort of the environment is essential to cause
the psychological malaise, the decrease in
production capacity, the physical exhaustion and
other disturbances [22]. The Brazilian Federation of
Hospitals determines that for a comfortable situation
in such environments, the temperature should be 24
C. The Norm number 17 of the Labor Ministry,
however, determines the ambient temperature
around 20 to 23 C, air velocity up to 0.75 m / s and
relative humidity below 40% for workplaces with
intellectual activities and requiring constant attention
[23].
Something relevant to be considered at this
point is the fact that under these considerations, this
study aims at evaluating the thermal comfort of
workers in hospitals, based on ISO 7730 (1995) [24]
and in questionnaires to evaluate the thermal
sensation. Specific objectives were to compare the
thermal comfort, predicted and related by the staff
whose work environment has or not windows
overlooking the gardens of the evaluated hospital.
2. METHODOLOGY
2.1. CaseStudy
Located in So Paulo, Hospital Santa Casa de
Valinhos, lays at 22 57' 47.90S latitude and 47
00'39.95''W longitude, at an altitude of 660m, in
Valinhos city, Sao Paulo, Brazil, was the object of
this project and study.
The climate, according Kppen-Geiger
classification, is Cwa that has warm and rainy
summer, mild and dry winter.
Having 5,704.44 square meters in its building
area, predominantly one-pavement buildings, which
allows the natural lighting and ventilation (Figure 1).
Gardens are enclosed by buildings, adding 7,852.00
square meters and also different vegetation - with or
without trees. The green diversity in the gardens
(Figure 2) changes the level of shading and
microclimate conditions, which may influence the
microclimate and thermal comfort in the indoor
environments.
Due to the location of some rooms in the hospital,
some wards, although across the gardens, have no
direct eye contact with the green spaces or gardens
(Figure 3).



Figure 1: Buildings and gardens of the hospital Irmandade
Santa Casa de Valinhos.


(a) (b)
Figure 2: (a) Garden with more shadow; (b) Garden with
less shadow in the Irmandade Santa Casa de Valinhos, SP
- Brazil.

(a) (b)
Figure 3: (a) environment without view to the garden ; (b)
environment with view to the garden. Local: Hospital
Irmandade Santa Casa de Valinhos.

2.2. Measurement of internal environmental
conditions and climatic variables
Of major importance is the fact that the
environmental conditions and climatic variables
monitoring and the questionnaires application for the
assessment of sensation and thermal preference
were conducted simultaneously during the months of
November - December 2009 and January 2010,
during two different periods of the day: 9:00-10:00h,
13:00-18:00h.
The air temperature (C), relative humidity (%)
and wind speed (m s-1) with the aid of thermo-
anemometer and digital anemometer, positioned at
1.5m tall, were monitored. All measurements were
made internally to working environments, divided into
spaces with or without windows facing the gardens.
Acess
Hospitalization

North
Garden
Garden Garden
Garden Garden
Garden
Street
Administration ER
Surgery room
Pediatrics
Hospitalization
Hospitalization




M
a
t
e
r
n
i
t
y

Services
Kitchen

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
556 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
16%
69%
13%
1%
7%
76%
17%
0%
13%
72%
15%
1%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
0 Neutral + 1
Slightly
warm
+ 2 Warm + 3 Hot
Predicted Mean Vote (PMV)
Without green areas view
With green areas view
Total
P
e
r
c
e
n
t

o
f

V
o
t
e
s

Figure 4: Predicted Mean Votes in hospital environments.

1%
43%
40%
15%
3%
48%
25%
24%
2%
45%
35%
18%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
-1 Slightly
cool
0 Neutral + 1
Slightly
warm
+ 2 Warm
Actual Sensation Vote (ASV)
Without green areas view
With green areas view
Total
P
e
r
c
e
n
t

o
f

V
o
t
e
s


Figure 5: Actual sensation votes in hospital environments -
survey results.
P
e
r
c
e
n
t

o
f

V
o
t
e
s
13%
72%
15%
1%
2%
45%
35%
18%
0%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
-1
Slightly
cool
0
Neutral
+ 1
Slightly
warm
+ 2
Warm
+ 3 Hot
PMV ASV
Figure 6: Comparison of predicted mean votes (PMV) and
actual sensation votes (ASV) results.
Apart from and at the same time, regarding the
individual factors that interfere in the PMV, it can be
observed that thermal resistance of clothes had little
contribution to the heat discomfort. The clothes were
generally light, with average thermal resistance of
0.56 clo. But, the metabolic rate indicates some
implications in thermal comfort. The staff performed
light activities, an average of 1.9 met. So, it has been
noticed that the staff group which performs more
physical effort, like the cleaning area workers or
laundry and maintenance workers (3 Met), are the
ones who were feeling the heat more intensively
(PMV +2).
4. CONCLUSION
All the green areas and gardens of Hospital
Santa Casa de Valinhos have been improved
recently with the implementation of new species of
plants. Despite the improved appearance of the
landscape, the trees have not yet gained significant
size and height to modify the internal microclimate of
the hospital environments which have their openings
spaces overlooking these green areas.
What should be emphasized at this point is the
fact that while comparing the microclimate
environments with and without openings to the
gardens; it was observed that the relative humidity
was the climatic variable that best expresses the
influence of vegetation on microclimate, becoming
10.3% higher in environments facing the green
areas. Air temperature has shown no significant
differences, being around 27 C. Wind speed was
low, near zero, in all environments, except in those
with mechanical ventilation.
As the hot, humid and poorly ventilated
microclimate caused discomfort in hospital
environments, although large windows were
overlooking the gardens, there is a need to keep the
bedroom doors closed, because of the risk of
contamination. Consequently, there is no cross
ventilation, which would be interesting so as to
increase the air speed and improve comfort
conditions in this hospital.
There is no statistically significant difference in
the thermal comfort conditions of the hospital staff
that either have or not visual contact with the green
areas. The PMV indicates that 72% of the
interviewees suffer from mild discomfort for heat, and
only 13% were neutral. The PPD indicates about
55% were dissatisfied.
About the stated votes of comfort obtained from
the questionnaires, they have shown a significant
increase in the comfortable population, which is of
45%. The thermal satisfaction was reported by 61%
of the staff indicating the subjectivity of human
perception and also the thermal adaptation.
To sum up, the results have indicated that the
hospital gardens influence the microclimate of indoor
environments. However, in hot climates, high
humidity air can make the conditions worse for the
thermal comfort of the users, in conditions where air
speed is calm.
A final consideration should be to improve the
thermal comfort level, and hereby it is suggested the
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 557


implementation of opposing openings for a better
ventilation performance as well as adequate
standards of hygiene related to health care settings,
to increase the speed of winds. In relation to the
gardens, its suggested the growing of some varied
range of tree species, spaced with tops higher than
the height of the windows, because the foliage can
reduce wind speed.
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Authors would like to thank to CAPES for the
financial support and Santa Casa Hospital
employees who have cooperated with this project.
6. REFERENCES
[1] WHITEHOUSE,S;VARNI,J.W.,SEID,M.,COOPE
R-MARCUS C., ENSBERG, M.J., JACOBS,J.R.,
MEHLENBECK, R.S. (2001) Evaluating a
children's hospital garden environment:
Utilization and consumer satisfaction. Journal of
Environmental Psychology: v.21, p.301-314.
[2] KAPLAN. R. (2001) The Nature View from
Home: Psychological Benefits. Environmental
Behaviour: available at
http://www.sagepublications.com, p.507-541.
[3] KAPLAN. R.; KAPLAN (1993). S. The role of the
nature in the context of the workplace.
Landscape and Urban Planning: v.26, p.193-
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[4] ULRICH,R.S.View through a window may
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p.420-421, 1984 www.sciencemag.org (access
in march, 2007)
[5] ULRICH, R.S. Effects of Interior design on
Wellness: Theory and Recent Scientific
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cts%20of%20Interior%20Design%20on%20Well
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[6] ULRICH, R.S. Health Benefits of Gardens in
Hospitals. Paper for conference, Plants for
People, International Exhibition Floriade, 2002,
10p.
[7] MARCUS C.C.; BARNES, M. Gardens in
Healthcare Facilities: uses, therapeutic benefits
and design recomendations. Martinez,CA: The
Center for Health Design, 1999, 624p.
[8] ZEISEL, J. (2007) Healing gardens for people
living with Alzheimers, in: THOMPSON,C.W.;
TRAVLOU,P. ed. OPEN SPACE-People Space.
NY: Taylor and Francis, 2007 , p. 137-150.
[9] TAYLOR, A., KUO, F., SULLIVAN, W.C., Coping
with ADD, the Surprising Connection to Green
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n 1, 2001, p.54-77.
[10] FJELD,T. The Effect of Plants and Artificial Day-
Light on the Well-Being and Health of Office
Workers, School Children and Health Care
Personnel, Seminar report: Reducing health
complains at work Plants for people, Int. Hort.
Exhib.Floriade, 2002, 10p.
[11] GRAHN. P.; STIGSDOTTER, U.A. Landscape
planning and stress. Urban forestry & Urban
greening, v. 2, n.01, 2003, p. 01-18.
[12] HANSMANN. R.; HUG. S. M.; SEELAND. K.
Restoration and stress relief through physical
activities in forest and parks. Urban Forestry &
Urban Grenning, v. 6, n. 4, 2007, p.213-225.
[13] HARTIG, T.; KORPELA,K; EVANS & GRLING,
A Measure of Restorative Quality in
Environments, Scandinavian Housing &
Planning Research, 1997, v. 14 p.175-194.
16%
69%
13%
1%
7%
76%
17%
0%
13%
72%
15%
1%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
0 Neutral + 1
Slightly
warm
+ 2 Warm + 3 Hot
Predicted Mean Vote (PMV)
Without green areas view
With green areas view
Total
P
e
r
c
e
n
t

o
f

V
o
t
e
s

Figure 4: Predicted Mean Votes in hospital environments.

1%
43%
40%
15%
3%
48%
25%
24%
2%
45%
35%
18%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
-1 Slightly
cool
0 Neutral + 1
Slightly
warm
+ 2 Warm
Actual Sensation Vote (ASV)
Without green areas view
With green areas view
Total
P
e
r
c
e
n
t

o
f

V
o
t
e
s


Figure 5: Actual sensation votes in hospital environments -
survey results.
P
e
r
c
e
n
t

o
f

V
o
t
e
s
13%
72%
15%
1%
2%
45%
35%
18%
0%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
-1
Slightly
cool
0
Neutral
+ 1
Slightly
warm
+ 2
Warm
+ 3 Hot
PMV ASV
Figure 6: Comparison of predicted mean votes (PMV) and
actual sensation votes (ASV) results.
Apart from and at the same time, regarding the
individual factors that interfere in the PMV, it can be
observed that thermal resistance of clothes had little
contribution to the heat discomfort. The clothes were
generally light, with average thermal resistance of
0.56 clo. But, the metabolic rate indicates some
implications in thermal comfort. The staff performed
light activities, an average of 1.9 met. So, it has been
noticed that the staff group which performs more
physical effort, like the cleaning area workers or
laundry and maintenance workers (3 Met), are the
ones who were feeling the heat more intensively
(PMV +2).
4. CONCLUSION
All the green areas and gardens of Hospital
Santa Casa de Valinhos have been improved
recently with the implementation of new species of
plants. Despite the improved appearance of the
landscape, the trees have not yet gained significant
size and height to modify the internal microclimate of
the hospital environments which have their openings
spaces overlooking these green areas.
What should be emphasized at this point is the
fact that while comparing the microclimate
environments with and without openings to the
gardens; it was observed that the relative humidity
was the climatic variable that best expresses the
influence of vegetation on microclimate, becoming
10.3% higher in environments facing the green
areas. Air temperature has shown no significant
differences, being around 27 C. Wind speed was
low, near zero, in all environments, except in those
with mechanical ventilation.
As the hot, humid and poorly ventilated
microclimate caused discomfort in hospital
environments, although large windows were
overlooking the gardens, there is a need to keep the
bedroom doors closed, because of the risk of
contamination. Consequently, there is no cross
ventilation, which would be interesting so as to
increase the air speed and improve comfort
conditions in this hospital.
There is no statistically significant difference in
the thermal comfort conditions of the hospital staff
that either have or not visual contact with the green
areas. The PMV indicates that 72% of the
interviewees suffer from mild discomfort for heat, and
only 13% were neutral. The PPD indicates about
55% were dissatisfied.
About the stated votes of comfort obtained from
the questionnaires, they have shown a significant
increase in the comfortable population, which is of
45%. The thermal satisfaction was reported by 61%
of the staff indicating the subjectivity of human
perception and also the thermal adaptation.
To sum up, the results have indicated that the
hospital gardens influence the microclimate of indoor
environments. However, in hot climates, high
humidity air can make the conditions worse for the
thermal comfort of the users, in conditions where air
speed is calm.
A final consideration should be to improve the
thermal comfort level, and hereby it is suggested the
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558 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
[14] HARTIG, T., Three steps to understanding
restorative environments as health resources, in:
THOMPSON,C.W.; TRAVLOU,P. ed. OPEN
SPACE- People Space.NY: Taylor and Francis,
2007 , p. 163-179.
[15] SPIRN,A.W. O Jardim de Granito: a natureza no
desenho da cidade. So Paulo: Edusp, p.25-52,
1995, 360p.
[16] NIKOLOPULOU, M.; LYKOUDIS, S. Thermal
comfort in Outdoor Spaces: Analysis across
different European countries. Building and
Environment, v. 41, 2006.
[17] FONTES, M.S.G.C.; ALJAWABRA, F.;
NIKOLOPOULOU, M. Open Urban Spaces
Quality: a Study in a Historical Square in Bath-
UK. In 25 th Conference on passive and Low
Energy architecture - PLEA, Dublin 2008,
Proceedings CD-ROM, 7p.
[18] DACANAL, C. Conforto trmico em Espaos
Livres Pblicos: Estudo de Caso em Campinas,
SP. In: ENCONTRO NACIONAL, 10., ;
ENCONTRO LATINO AMERICANO DE
CONFORTO NO AMBIENTE CONSTRUDO,6.,
2009. Natal. Anais... ENCAC, 2009,10p.
[19] OLIVEIRA, L. A.; MASCAR, J. J. Anlise da
qualidade de vida urbana sob a tica dos
espaos pblicos de lazer. Ambiente construdo,
v. 7, n. 2, 2007, p. 59 69.
[20] PIVETTA, K. F. L.; SILVA FILHO, D.F.
Arborizao urbana (Boletim Acadmico), Ed.
Unesp/ FCAV/ FUNEP, 2002, 74p.
[21] VASCONCELOS, R.T.B. Humanizao de
Ambientes Hospitalares: Caractersticas
Arquitetnicas Responsveis pela Integrao
Interior / Exterior. Dissertao de mestrado
apresentada ao programa de Ps-graduao
em Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade
Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianpolis, 2004,
177p.
[22] TALAIA, M. A. R. O Conforto Humano e as
Alteraes Ambientais. Proceedings of the
XXVIII Jornadas Cientficas, La Meteorologia y
El Clima Atlnticos, 5 Encuentro Hispano-Luso
de Meteorologa: La Meteorologa y
Climatologa en los Sectores Pblico y Privado,
CDROM, ISBN: 84-8320-261-1, Badajoz,
Espanha, p.474-483, 2004.
[23] MANUAIS de Legislao Atlas. Segurana e
medicina do trabalho. So Paulo, Atlas. 46,
ed.2001.
[24] INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION FOR
STANDARDIZATION, ISO 7730; Moderate
thermal environments - determination of the
PMV and PPD indices and specifications of the
conditions for thermal comfort, Geneva, 1994.
[25] FANGER, P.O. Thermal comfort Analysis and
applications in environmental Copenhagen:
Engineering, 1970. 244p.
[26] RUAS, A. C.; Sistematizao da avaliao do
conforto trmico em ambientes edificados e sua
aplicao num software. Campinas: Tese
(Doutorado em Engenharia Civil) Universidade
Estadual de Campinas, 182p. 2002.
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 559
Performance of Outdoor Thermal Comfort and
Indoor Heat Flux of Rooftop Lawn Greening in the
Subtropical Climate
Kuo-Tsang HUANG
1
, Chuang-Hung LIN
2
, Han-Hsi LIANG
2
1
Department of Landscape Architecture, National Chiayi University, Chiayi City, Taiwan
2
Department of Architecture, National United University, Miaoli County, Taiwan
ABSTRACT: The benefits of rooftop greening are ascertained in thermal perspective. It effectively reduces the
near surface ambient temperature and the reflected irradiation from the rooftop slab, thus increases the thermal
comfort environment above the lawn and reduces the heat transferred through the rooftop slab. The former
effect enables the potential usage of the rooftop spaces for human activity and helps to alleviate the urban heat
island effect while the latter is able to reduce the interior space cooling load especially in subtropical climate. A
field experiment was carried out in the subtropical central Taiwan to quantify these two performances. Indices of
mean radiant temperature (MRT), wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT), and heat flux rate were used to explain
and discuss the performance of thermal comfort and heat flux of the rooftop lawn. The results confirmed that
rooftop lawn contributes benefits both on its outdoor surrounding environment and the indoor energy beneath.
Keywords: green roof, mean radiant temperature index, wet bulb globe temperature index, heat transfer
1. INTRODUCTION
Taiwan where its central is located right on the
Tropic of Cancer is a fast developed and over
populated island. The climate here is of subtropical
climate characteristic. High concentration of buildings
is very common seen in many urban districts result in
varies urban environmental issues, such as lacking
enough recreation areas, low urban greenery cover
ratios, and moreover the urban heat island effect
(UHI). Green roofs (or planted roofs) as an extension
of urban green areas and recreational open spaces
not only provides visual enhancement, it also
contributes to the thermal benefits in buildings and
their surrounding environments.
There are direct and indirect effects of green roof
from thermal perspective. The direct effects of green
roof are their thermal benefits in reducing surface
temperatures of roofs and heat transfer into the
rooms underneath. It will directly contribute to
improving the indoor thermal environment and
thermal performance of buildings. Indirect effects of
green roofs refer to its potential thermal impacts on
surrounding environment. It will contribute to creating
better outdoor thermal environment and mitigating
the UHI effect [1].
Besides, because most the rooftop zones are of
private estate, low maintenance is usually required to
sustain a rooftop garden. Extensive roof greening
style such as lawn or turf greening is much
favourable and feasible solution due to its lower
maintenance and lower initial cost benefits.
Incentives from the government were also been
proposed to encourage rooftop greening in Taiwan
recently. This is why the lawn planted rooftop is
therefore chosen for studying in this research.
Although several studies on green roofs have been
carried out worldwide, they are limited to certain
locations, climate and planting types. These data are
not directly applicable to the subtropical environment.
The objectives of the research are as follows:
To investigate the environment thermal comfort
enhancement over the rooftop lawn greening.
To understand thermal insulation performance of
the lawn greening which contributes to the
reduction of interior heat gain.
The first subject intend to quantified the reduction
of ambient temperature and the surrounding long-
wave radiation due to the rooftop lawn, which is
essentially the two key factors that affect the
peoples willing of using rooftop as an recreation
purpose. The second subject attempts to quantify the
interior cooling load reduction amount from the lawn
layer insulation perspective.
2. METHODOLOGY
An experiment field of lawn greening were
established on top of a four-storey student centre
building located in National Chiayi University at
Chiayi City, Central Taiwan, where its latitude is of
23.6 degree north. Five meter square lawn planted
area with 10 cm growing medium was created at the
centre of the rooftop to avoid any rooftop object
shading overlay (Fig.1). The surface material of the
rooftop exposed slab is grey concrete tile which is
very common material used for flat roofs in Taiwan.
Space underneath the rooftop experiment field is
public corridor.
Cynodon dactylon was chosen as the rooftop
lawn to plant over the 10 cm-thick Finland KEKKIL
peat moss studied herein, because of its drought and
hot enduring as well as fast growing features.
Furthermore, an additional 3 cm perlite layer for
drainage was placed below the growing medium
separated by a thin nonwoven layer. Therefor a
minimum of 13 cm thick lawn grass layer paved over
the original concrete rooftop was formed. Manual
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
560 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
irrigation was performed when there was no natural
precipitation during a consecutive period of one week
to wet the grass.
The experiment last for over a year and was
carried out from 8
th
September 2008 to 9
th
October
2009. The comparative set (i.e. control set) of the
experiment without rooftop greening where
neighboured to the lawn planted field about five
meters away was also carried out simultaneously
(Fig.2).
Figure 1: A five meter square lawn planted area with 10 cm
substrates were created at the centre of the rooftop
Figure 2: The comparative set of the experiment
Figure 3: Values of varies parameters were constantly
recorded in the data logger every 10 seconds
2.1. Deployment of the measurements
The experiment in the research comprises two
sections, one is for studying outdoor thermal comfort
and another is for understanding the effect of indoor
heat flux reduction.
For measurements of outdoor thermal comfort,
two sets of instruments were placed above the lawn
and the exposed slab respectively. Each set includes
sensors for measuring globe temperature (T
g
), dry-
bulb temperature (i.e. ambient temperature), relative
humidity, wind velocity and naturally ventilated wet-
bulb temperature. All the sensors were horizontally
aligned at the height of one meter above the ground
surface. Instruments used herein includes calibrated
T-type thermocouples placed in the white louver
shelters for measuring ambient temperature, black
globe thermometers were used to measure T
g
,
omnidirectional hotwire air speed transmitters for
measuring wind velocity. Naturally ventilated wet
bulb temperature could be obtained via placing
cotton-wrapped Pt100 sensor within 2/3 water filled
vacuum stainless bottles. Moreover, pyranometer
was installed to record the incident total horizontal
solar radiation that reaches to the surface. All the
values were simultaneously recorded by a Delta GL-
800 data recorder at an interval of 10 seconds
(arranged as in Fig.3).
For measurements of indoor heat flux, another
two sets of instruments were deployed above and
under the floor slab with and without lawn conditions.
Thin heat flux sensors were seamlessly attached
beneath the floor slab with aluminium foil cover over
it to prevent heat intervention from the corridor
making sure the measured values only accounts for
heats that transferred through the floor slab.
Moreover, to further understand the fluctuations of
the surface temperature of the slab due to lawn
greening, several T-type thermocouple wires were
placed above and beneath the floor to fetch values of
surface temperature, as shown in Fig. 4. The indoor
ambient temperatures were also taken measured by
placing thermocouples five centimetres under the
floor slab ceiling.
Figure 4: Sensors deployment in the field (A: globe
temperature, B: ambient temperature & relative humidity, C:
wind velocity, D: naturally ventilated wet bulb temperature,
S: surface temperature, Q: heat flux, SR: solar radiation)
Figure5: Indoor heat flux, surface temperature and indoor
ambient temperature measurement
A
B
C
D
A
B
C
D
S S
S
S
S
SR
T T
Q Q
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 561
2.2. Indices for describing thermal comfort
There were two indices used to describe thermal
environment. The mean radiant temperature (MRT)
is a key variable in thermal calculations for the
human body. It is the uniform temperature of an
imaginary enclosure in which radiant heat transfer
from the human body equals the radiant heat transfer
in the actual non-uniform enclosure [2]. The
simplified calculation method of MRT can be easily
obtainable using the physical measured parameters
as described in Eq. 1. The MRT index is closely
related to parameters including globe temperature
(T
g
), ambient temperature (T
a
) and wind velocity (W
v
).
It can efficiently responses the long-wave radiation
from surrounding environment enclosure which is
considered the most influential factor to the comfort
sensation. Furthermore, the energy balance of one's
body is highly responsive to changes in MRT and is
more suitable and direct for describing human's
thermal sensation.
MRT=T
g
+0.237(W
v
)
0.5
(T
g
-T
a
) (Eq.1)
The wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) index is
widely used for estimating the heat stress potential of
industrial environments concerning activity status. It
is a composite temperature used to estimate the
overall effect of temperature, humidity, and solar
radiation on humans. Ambient temperature (T
a
),
naturally ventilated wet bulb temperature (T
nwb
), and
globe temperature (T
g
) each multiplied by a
corresponding weighted values to calculate WBGT
index as in Eq. 2 [3].
WBGT=0.7T
nwb
+0.2T
g
+0.1T
a
(Eq.2)
3. RESULTS AND DISCCUSION
Although the experiment lasts for one year, it is
rather difficult to process such a huge amount data,
therefore, typical day was selected for analysis. The
day that ten days before it is without precipitation or
cold draft or other exceptional weather conditions is
considered a typical day to rule out unusual weather
influences. Moreover, the daily averaged differences
of dry-bulb temperature, wind velocity and total
horizontal solar radiation of the typical day should all
fall between 1% margin compare to long-term
recorded seasonal data. According to the above
criteria, 10
th
December 2008 and 10
th
June 2009
were selected as typical days for further analysis
each representing winter and summer respectively.
3.1. Surface temperature variation
The top surface temperature diurnal variation of
the typical days selected for winter and summer are
plotted as in Fig. 5. It shows that the variation
patterns from the two seasons, either with or without
lawn, are of similar shape. The major difference is its
absolute values. By comparing the surface
temperature drop in winter, temperature decreases
more on the exposed slab surface than on the lawn
soil surface. With the similar variation pattern
observed from Fig.5, therefore, for the following
discussion, only the selected typical day of summer
is discussed afterward.
Figure 6 reveals that when without lawn greening,
the maximum temperature of the exposed slab
surface could reach 61.3 seven minute later when
solar radiation was at its daily high of 1015 W/m at
12:52. The maximum daily variation of surface
temperature was 35.4. For lawn planted area, the
surface temperature measured during daytime was
not as high as that of the exposed slab surface. The
maximum surface temperature of lawn field was
around 32.4 and the maximum daily variation of
surface temperature was only 3.5 which is much
lower than those measured on the exposed slab
surface. The reason could be due to the combination
effect from the grass leaf shading and the
evaporation of moisture in the soil.
As for the surface temperature beneath the floor
slab, maximum surface temperature of 41.1 was
occur at 17:06, at which time was around four hours
delay when its top surface temperature reaches its
high. For lawn planted area, maximum surface
temperature of 32.3 was occur at 23:04, at which
time was around 10 hours delay comparison to the
exposed slab. It indicates that with a 13cm substrate
layered lawn greening on top of the roof could extend
the time lag of sub-surface temperature to around six
hours. With this effect it could also alleviate the
daytime indoor cooling load by delaying heat transfer
into space.
Figure 5: Surface temperature variation above slab in
different seasons
Figure 6: Diurnal surface temperature variation in summer
3.2. Outdoor thermal comfort performance
On discussing outdoor thermal comfort of spaces
between above lawn and above exposed concrete
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562 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
slab, T
g
, MRT index, WBGT index, ambient
temperature and relative humidity measured at a
height of one meters from above both conditions
were compared. The daily averaged ambient
temperature above the lawn was 0.24 lower than
the exposed slab. After sunset there was significant
reduction of ambient temperature above the lawn
planted area and lasted until the next day sunrise. It
indicates that the lawn constantly lowering the
ambient temperature during non-solar-radiation
period. Maximum difference of 2 was observed at
around 7:00.
The comparison of relative humidity measured at
one meter heights above exposed slab surface and
lawn planted area is shown in Fig.7. When in night
time, lower relative humidity was observed above the
lawn planted area with a maximum difference value
of 10.48%. But when in daytime it was a bit higher by
around 5%, it could be due to the grass transpiration
in daytime that slightly moisturize the surrounding air.
Based on the ambient air temperatures, global
temperatures (T
g
), and wind velocity measured at
one meter heights, the MRT above the exposed slab
surface and lawn area were calculated. The T
g
represents the integrated effects of radiation and
wind. The measured T
g
and calculated MRT were
plotted in Fig.7 and Fig. 8 respectively. There were
obvious differences in T
g
and MRT on above lawn or
exposed slab surface. Maximum differences of T
g
and MRT were 2.6 and 3.19 was occurred at
13:18 when the solar radiation was strongest. It was
due to the surface temperature on the exposed slab
was relatively higher than that of the lawn planted
surface, thus caused long-wave radiation emitted a
lot more from the exposed slab surface resulting in
higher T
g
and MRT occurred. This indicates that lawn
planted field will provide more comfortable
environment for outdoor activities than with exposed
slab conditions during daytime.
On the other side, when during night time, heat
dissipation was more quickly on the exposed slab
surface than on the lawn planted area which leads to
drastic surface temperature drop on the exposed
slab surface. Without solar radiation, the radiation
part of T
g
and MRT mainly depends on the amount of
long-wave radiation emitted from surrounding
surfaces. When in early morning, around 6:00,
surface temperature on the exposed slab surface
reached to a maximum difference of 3 lower than
the lawn planted area, resulting in 0.7 and 0.87
lower the T
g
and MRT encounters on the exposed
slab surface conditions respectively.
Wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) was also
studied in this research, providing more overall view
on the heat stress issue that relates to thermal
comfort. The calculated WBGT was drawn in Fig.7
together with MRT over layered. According to
regulations from Taiwan Council of Labour Affairs,
maximum WBGT of 30.6 for continuously light
work load activity is recommended. With the above
criteria, from sieving the calculated WBGT during
working hours (i.e. from 8:00 to 18:00), there was
52.3% and 63.5% for with and without lawn
conditions respectively that would fall out of the
criteria. There was 11.2% higher probability unable
to meet the criteria on above exposed slab surface
than on above lawn planted area.
Furthermore, according to Hwang & Lin [4], a
research of defining semi-outdoor thermal
environment comfort zone for Taiwan, the result
reveals that while MRT is between 21 to 47 it is
considered comfortable. From this point of view,
there is a probability of 24.79% the MRT above the
lawn will fall out the comfort zone. Compares to the
MRT above the exposed slab, there is 31.74%
probable of falling out the comfort zone, which is
6.95% higher. All the fell-out period is between 8:00
to 16:00 in summer.
3.1. Indoor heat flux fluctuation
On indoor heat flux, a considerable rate of heat
flux was observed under the floor slab with exposed
slab on top. The maximum heat flux, 48.5 W/m,
occurred at 17:07, which was five hours later than
daily maximum total horizontal solar radiation
occurred. Heat gain was observed nearly all day long,
except around five minute period at 8:50 heat loss
was encountered. Diurnal heat flux variation could
reach 50.7 W/m, as indicated in Fig. 9.
Figure 7: Diurnal relative humidity and globe temperature
variation in summer
Figure 8: Calculated MRT & WBGT variation on a summer
day at the height of 1m
For the area with lawn planted condition, most
heat flux observed underneath the floor slab during
daytime was of negative values, i.e. the space was
encountering heat loss. The heat loss began at
approximate 10:00 and continued till around 21:00 at
night, which had positive influence on reducing
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 563
indoor cooling loads during work hours in daytime.
Consecutive indoor heat gain began during the time
period other than heat lost period, which was mainly
at night. There was apparent time lags regarding
heat gains under lawn planted area, as indicated in
Fig.9, solar heat gain during the daytime was lagged
for nearly 14 hours. Comparison with the exposed
slab condition, there was only approximate four
hours lags. Which indicates that with lawn planted
above the rooftop, interior space underneath would
not instantly response to the solar radiation that gain
from top of roof during daytime thus results in less
responsive to outdoor climate.
The diurnal variation range of heat flux under
lawn condition was 11.4 W/m, which is only around
one fifth amount comparing to the exposed slab
condition, the peak heat flux wasnt apparent. The
total heat gain of a day was -0.25 Wh/m with lawn
planted condition and was 19.21 Wh/m without lawn
planted. The lawn had a significant influence on the
amount of heat flux transferred possibly due to its
leafs sun blocking effect and the heat dissipation in
substrate layer by both heat absorption and
evaporation effect.
Figure 10 shows the differences of transferred
heat flux and indoor room temperature between with
and without lawn conditions. Maximum indoor
temperature difference, 3.1 , was detected at
around 16:00 which corresponded to the maximum
heat flux difference, which is around 50 W/m,
occurring time. Comparing to Fig.9 and 10, it shows
that the lawn planted layer provides a good heat
storage as well as heat dissipating means, reducing
the fluctuation range of indoor temperature and
transferred heat flux. The interior space underneath
the lawn planted roof will has more stable indoor
climate which is significantly contributes to improve
thermal comfort and reduce energy consumption.
Figure 9: Diurnal heat flux variation comparison
4. CONCLUSION
In this research, comparisons of outdoor thermal
comfort performance and indoor heat flux between
lawn planted area and exposed slab area were made
through investigating onsite field experiments in
subtropical central Taiwan. Both with lawn and
without lawn planted conditions on top of roof were
established and were taken measurements
simultaneously yearlong for studying varies
parameters reduction effect. Conclusions drawn
from this research are as follows:
1) There was reduction up to 9.12 on average for
top surface temperature, while there was
averaged 4.24 reduction of surface temperature
beneath the slab.
2) Cooling effect from the lawn was confirmed by
comparing the ambient temperature, an average
reduction of 0.24 was detected above the
outdoor lawn planted area, while there was
averaged 1.22 reduction for indoor temperature.
3) Time lag effect of lawn planted area was
confirmed by investigating the diurnal heat flux
variations. There was 19.49 W/m on average
reduction for heat flux and cause extra 10 hours
time lags with lawn planted above the rooftop.
4) Less long-wave radiation emitted from the lawn
planted roof was confirmed through comparisons
of T
g
and MRTs measured on site. Diurnal
averaged 0.99 and 1.16 reduction for T
g
and
MRT were found in the study respectively.
Figure10: Diurnal heat flux & indoor temperature difference
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to express their greatest
appreciation to Taiwan National Science Council for
financial support to the research.
6. REFERENCES
[1] Wong, N.H., et al., Investigation of thermal
benefits of rooftop garden in the tropical
environment. Building and Environment, (2003),
V.38 (2): p. 261-270.
[2] ASHRAE, ASHRAE Handbook Fundamentals
Chapter 8. (2005), Atlanta, USA: American
Soceity of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-
Conditioning Engineers, Inc.
[3] Dukes-Dobos, F. and A. Henschel, Development
of permissible heat exposure limits for
occupational work. ASHRAE Journal, (1973),
V.9: p. 57.
[4] Hwang, R.-L. and T.-P. Lin, Thermal comfort
requirements for occupants of semi-outdoor and
outdoor environments in hot-humid regions.
Architectural Science Review, (2007), V.50 (4): p.
60-67.
slab, T
g
, MRT index, WBGT index, ambient
temperature and relative humidity measured at a
height of one meters from above both conditions
were compared. The daily averaged ambient
temperature above the lawn was 0.24 lower than
the exposed slab. After sunset there was significant
reduction of ambient temperature above the lawn
planted area and lasted until the next day sunrise. It
indicates that the lawn constantly lowering the
ambient temperature during non-solar-radiation
period. Maximum difference of 2 was observed at
around 7:00.
The comparison of relative humidity measured at
one meter heights above exposed slab surface and
lawn planted area is shown in Fig.7. When in night
time, lower relative humidity was observed above the
lawn planted area with a maximum difference value
of 10.48%. But when in daytime it was a bit higher by
around 5%, it could be due to the grass transpiration
in daytime that slightly moisturize the surrounding air.
Based on the ambient air temperatures, global
temperatures (T
g
), and wind velocity measured at
one meter heights, the MRT above the exposed slab
surface and lawn area were calculated. The T
g
represents the integrated effects of radiation and
wind. The measured T
g
and calculated MRT were
plotted in Fig.7 and Fig. 8 respectively. There were
obvious differences in T
g
and MRT on above lawn or
exposed slab surface. Maximum differences of T
g
and MRT were 2.6 and 3.19 was occurred at
13:18 when the solar radiation was strongest. It was
due to the surface temperature on the exposed slab
was relatively higher than that of the lawn planted
surface, thus caused long-wave radiation emitted a
lot more from the exposed slab surface resulting in
higher T
g
and MRT occurred. This indicates that lawn
planted field will provide more comfortable
environment for outdoor activities than with exposed
slab conditions during daytime.
On the other side, when during night time, heat
dissipation was more quickly on the exposed slab
surface than on the lawn planted area which leads to
drastic surface temperature drop on the exposed
slab surface. Without solar radiation, the radiation
part of T
g
and MRT mainly depends on the amount of
long-wave radiation emitted from surrounding
surfaces. When in early morning, around 6:00,
surface temperature on the exposed slab surface
reached to a maximum difference of 3 lower than
the lawn planted area, resulting in 0.7 and 0.87
lower the T
g
and MRT encounters on the exposed
slab surface conditions respectively.
Wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) was also
studied in this research, providing more overall view
on the heat stress issue that relates to thermal
comfort. The calculated WBGT was drawn in Fig.7
together with MRT over layered. According to
regulations from Taiwan Council of Labour Affairs,
maximum WBGT of 30.6 for continuously light
work load activity is recommended. With the above
criteria, from sieving the calculated WBGT during
working hours (i.e. from 8:00 to 18:00), there was
52.3% and 63.5% for with and without lawn
conditions respectively that would fall out of the
criteria. There was 11.2% higher probability unable
to meet the criteria on above exposed slab surface
than on above lawn planted area.
Furthermore, according to Hwang & Lin [4], a
research of defining semi-outdoor thermal
environment comfort zone for Taiwan, the result
reveals that while MRT is between 21 to 47 it is
considered comfortable. From this point of view,
there is a probability of 24.79% the MRT above the
lawn will fall out the comfort zone. Compares to the
MRT above the exposed slab, there is 31.74%
probable of falling out the comfort zone, which is
6.95% higher. All the fell-out period is between 8:00
to 16:00 in summer.
3.1. Indoor heat flux fluctuation
On indoor heat flux, a considerable rate of heat
flux was observed under the floor slab with exposed
slab on top. The maximum heat flux, 48.5 W/m,
occurred at 17:07, which was five hours later than
daily maximum total horizontal solar radiation
occurred. Heat gain was observed nearly all day long,
except around five minute period at 8:50 heat loss
was encountered. Diurnal heat flux variation could
reach 50.7 W/m, as indicated in Fig. 9.
Figure 7: Diurnal relative humidity and globe temperature
variation in summer
Figure 8: Calculated MRT & WBGT variation on a summer
day at the height of 1m
For the area with lawn planted condition, most
heat flux observed underneath the floor slab during
daytime was of negative values, i.e. the space was
encountering heat loss. The heat loss began at
approximate 10:00 and continued till around 21:00 at
night, which had positive influence on reducing
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 565


Redefining Pavilions: Improving Upon Outdoor
Comfort Conditions
A performance study of London pavilions
Ellen CAMERON, Milena STOJKOVIC, Konstantina SARANTI and Olga CONTO
Sustainable Environmental Design Programme, Architectural Association School of Architecture, London, UK
ABSTRACT: Pavilions have become a forum for explorative ideas and design due to their innate connectivity to
the environment and lack of specific performance standards. This study seeks to redefine pavilions according to
their ability to improve upon outdoor conditions. Based on fieldwork and simulations, the inputs of sun and wind,
were assessed to find what made an effective difference in pavilion occupancy patterns. It was found that an
environmental performing pavilion must have access to the limiting factor of comfort as defined by its location
and climate specific criteria in order to maximize occupancy and time spent.
Keywords: outdoor comfort, pavilion structures, sun, and wind.
1. INTRODUCTION
A pavilion can be narrowly defined as an
outdoor shelter whose function is to protect from
extreme environmental conditions of rain, sun, and
wind. It exists in a specific place and time and is
perhaps the most locally microclimatic specific
building type due to its coupling with the
environment. This has made the subject of pavilions
difficult to standardize. CIBSE Guide A
Environmental Design states that the standard does
not cover hot or cold stress in thermally extreme
environments, or comfort in outdoor spaces [1].

Figure 1: Pavilion typology: Coupling to the environment is

determined by the percentage opening to the exterior.
1.1. Key Research Questions
To address the lack of performance standards,
the goals of this study are to: (1) establish which
environmental factors have most influence on the
conditions in a pavilion; (2) establish if there is a
general application of these determinate factors
dependent on climate, surrounding environment and
pavilion type; (3) define environmental performance
criteria for pavilions based the role of the occupant in
terms of program, expectations, perceived control,
physical and psychological adaptation. By combining
these elements, this study then outlines what can be
expected of pavilions as a microclimate modifier and
programmatic device.
1.2. Case Studies
After reviewing built form and occupant use in
pavilions throughout London, the pavilion typology
became defined by two key variables: programmatic
requirements and relative coupling to the
environment (Fig. 1). Spot measurements of wind
speed, lux levels, and temperature were correlated to
occupant observations and interviews to understand
how occupancy and activity over time and space
were affected by environmental conditions. Two
pavilions were analysed in detail: Frank Gehrys
2008 Serpentine Pavilion (Fig. 2) and Hays Galleria
(Fig. 3).

Figure 2: Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2008, as example of a

pavilion with an open programme in an open space.
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566 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)

Figure 3: Hays Galleria is an urban pavilion, which is

occupied year round with open and strict programme
activities.
1.3. London Climate
The London climate can be generally characterized
as the absence of non-extreme conditions
throughout the year but with minute-by-minute
changes on a daily basis. In the UK weather can
give considerable variations of outdoor temperature
at much shorter than monthly intervals [2]. In
London, the mean monthly temperature ranges from
3.4C in February, the coldest month of the year, to
19.7C in July, the warmest month of the year [3].
Frequency of sky types had a similar distribution
throughout each month and yearly averages of 30%
sunny, 42% intermediate, and 27% cloudy skies [4].
2. ANALYTIC WORK
Due to their coupling to the environment,
pavilions are not mechanically cooled, heated or
ventilated. As an outdoor structure for pavilions
T
interior
= T
exterior
, therefore the tools of pavilions to
modulate the environment are mean radiant
temperature and wind. The effects of wind can be
varied through its controlled presence or absence.
Mean radiant temperature is affected by the
protection or enhancement of solar gains and
material characteristics.

2.1. Solar Analysis

In Londons climate with a yearly average
temperature of 10.7C, solar heat gains generally are
needed for increased occupant comfort. In this study,
the amount of solar radiation available (W/m
2
) on
different times of day and year is calculated in each
case study location. To determine the key factors in
modulating solar exposure, on-site observations and
spot measurements were used to calibrate models to
calculate the amount of solar radiation available
(W/m
2
) on different times of day and year in case
study locations. Analysis programs were then used
to simulate different situations and to test potential
control or manipulation of available solar radiation
Shadows are simulated by Ecotect [5],
Illuminance is mapped and measured with Radiance
[6] under conditions of spot measurements with
sunny sky. Satel-Light [4] data for London is used for
percentage frequency of sky types. Direct and diffuse
radiation values are calculated based on Meteonorm
v6 data from case studies respective weather
stations [3].

2.2 Wind Analysis

Wind velocity has the ability to lower

temperatures in summer and winter. It was observed
that spaces with long-term employees were more
enclosed but had increased complaints due to cold
and wind. The analysis sought to understand how
the perception of wind velocity changes depending
on occupant activity and to determine which
velocities of wind are entering the pavilion and how
they may differ from exterior conditions based on
comparison of interior and exterior spot
measurements and Meteonorm 6 data [3]. Equations
were then used to estimate the effect on occupant
comfort in terms of the dT the wind could have on an
occupant in summer and winter conditions. This data
was then correlated to occupant responses in the
pavilions.
Applied equations are from PLEA Note 3 -
Thermal Comfort [7] and Arens [8]

Equation for Summer Cooling [7]:
dT = 6 (v-0.2) 1.6 (v-0.2)2.

Wind Chill Temperature [8]:
WCI = (12.15 + 11.6 (v) v) (33 DBT)
WCT = 33 0.03738 WCI

Each equation had limitations for use due to
assumptions made regarding internal/external
situations, clo, and outside temperature. It is noted
that there may be an innate assumption in comparing
the two equations that indoor situations are a long-
term occupancy while outdoor situations are short
term.
3. OPEN PROGRAM, OPEN SPACE
Open space pavilions have a greater ability to
modulate their environmental characteristics due to
the lack of external structures and buildings affecting
the microclimate conditions. The Serpentine Pavilion
is only occupied in the summer months with mainly
an open program (Fig. 4).
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 567

Figure 4: Frequency of events in the Serpentine Gallery

Pavilion from July 20
th
to October 19
th
. Rain days from Met
Office [9]
3.1. Serpentine Solar Analysis
There are three determinate factors for solar
radiation availability and control in Gehrys
Serpentine Pavilion. In order of importance, the first
is the sky type, followed by materiality and
orientation. Gehry attempts to create a chaotic
environment within pavilion by using the fritting on
the glass canopies as a tool to create a varied
condition of sun and shade throughout the pavilion.
In order for this environmental effect to work the sky
type must be sunny or intermediate skies as there is
no shade when the sky is overcast. The second
factor of materiality deals with the opacity of the
fritting and the transmittance of the clear glass in
relation to the amount of solar radiation allowed into
the space and onto occupants and surface materials.
The orientation affects where the shadow will
fall inside of the pavilion and depends on the time of
year and day.
Sunny skies are needed for the chaotic sun-
shade effect. The pavilion was open in London from
July 19th to October 20th. According to Satel-Light
data, sunny skies would only occur 34.25% of the
time the pavilion was open to the public [4]. This
compares with 81.25% of the time if the pavilion
were located in a climate like Athens, Greece.
Calculations for 12:00 noon on the opening
date, the 20th of July, show the solar radiation levels
at the Serpentine pavilion (Fig. 5). At their highest
level, a potential increase of 8-10 K in the operative
temperature for occupants in non-shaded positions
and dependent on clothing absorption levels (Table
1). This is a very large and substantial increase in
operative temperature for the occupant that could
potentially lead to uncomfortable conditions and
leaving or moving to a shaded position within the
pavilion.

Figure 5: Solar Radiation in Serpentine Gallery Pavilion
2008 after Meteonorm v6 2008 [3]
Smaller increases in operative temperature
occur when an occupant is sitting in a position in full
shade within the pavilion; however, when there are
high levels of diffuse radiation there can still be up to
a 5 K increase, which could make people
uncomfortable. On the other hand in London, where
sunny skies are present only 30.25 % of the time of
the year, it has been observed that most people
enjoy the sun undeterred by potentially
uncomfortable hot or cold temperatures.



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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
568 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)


Table 1: Solar radiation availability and operative
temperature at noon after Humphreys 2006 [1]
Date
%
Shade
Max
Incident
(W/m
2
)
Incident
Radiation
(W/m
2
)
Outdoor
Temp
(C)
Aprox
Operative
Temp.
Increase
(K)
20 -
Jun
5.88 36.88 57.24 20.4 8-10
20
Jun
6.79 45.65 47.57 21 3-5
19
Oct
5.48 40.40 54.12 14.8 5-9
19
Oct
16.39 51.58 32.03 14.8 1-2

The Serpentine Pavilions open space location
with minimal overshadowing by adjacent trees allows
for shading devices to be used for solar control, in
Gehrys case: fritting, to create a variation of
concurrent conditions and therefore a choice to sit in
sun or shade.
3.2. Serpentine Wind Analysis
In the summer London has a prevailing south-
westerly wind, and in the Serpentine, as a
freestanding open situation pavilion, the wind is
unlikely to be obstructed (Fig. 2). Orientation is
therefore important, so a pavilion could react to the
prevailing wind. In terms of temperature, London
summers do not reach high extremes and wind for
cooling purposes is not an imperative.
A sustained wind can be uncomfortable for
occupants, but questionnaires revealed no
complaints of draft or overheating.
For Gehrys pavilion the detrimental effect of
wind was not related to operative temperature
changes causing discomfort, but rather by the wind
in conjunction with rain causing water to fall into the
pavilion, making certain seats and occupants wet.
Open only during the summer months,
calculations show that there was a summer cooling
effect of 2.6 K with spot measured wind speeds of
0.7 m/s. Occupants were also comfortable in wind
speeds above 2.0 m/s. This is important because
74% of the time that the Serpentine pavilion is open,
wind speeds are above 2.0 m/s and spot
measurements showed little to no difference in
interior/exterior wind speeds (Fig. 2). Of the 74%,
15% of the time wind speeds were greater than or
equal to 6.0 m/s, which would be uncomfortable and
according to Penwarden [10]. Total protection from
wind speeds at or above 6.0 m/s would probably not
need to be a design priority, as more than 98% of the
time the pavilion has an open program and people
would either not come or leave the park when wind
speeds are that high.
3.3. Open Program, Open Space Conclusions
Free standing pavilions situated in an open
space enable the architect to use a device to
modulate shading and to choose whether to allow or
mediate solar radiation levels.
Orientation is the determinant factor of
detrimental effects of wind since it is located in an
unobstructed open environment. Additionally, wind
can also very easily become a compound variable
with rain due to the limited protection provided in an
open setting.
4. STRICT PROGRAM, URBAN SETTING
Environmental performance of ground level
pavilions within the urban setting is highly dependent
on the surrounding structures and components of the
urban environment. Hays Galleria is occupied year
round with open and strict program activities.
4.1. Hays Galleria Solar Analysis
Solar access for Hays Galleria is determined
by its height-width ratio and orientation. Height-Width
ratio is primary regardless of orientation because in
the upper latitudes where London is located, a ratio
of 1.2:1 will result in self-shading for a portion of
each day during the year. The North-South
orientation of Hays Galleria is the next key factor, as
it will determine the portion of each day during the
year when the structure will self-shade. The
surroundings are not an environmental factor
affecting the solar access, as Hays is the tallest of
nearby structures. The surroundings are an
architectural and psychological factor as the open
face of Hays Galleria is oriented towards the Thames
River.
As a result of its height-width ratio and enclosed
south oriented facade, the Galleria is in 100% shade
for 95% of the year (Fig. 6). Direct sunlight only
enters when the solar altitude is greater than 35 and
the solar azimuth is between 195 and 225. This
occurs only occurs during the tourist filled summer
months between the lunch hours from 12:00-15:00.
Consequences of the almost constant
overshadowing are daytime use of internal lighting,
complaints of cold despite high clo values and
shorter winter vendor hours.
Due to the condition of total shade in the winter
there is only a 0-1 K elevation in operational
temperature in winter; this is a minute temperature
gain, which will likely not be an effective difference
for an occupants comfort. On the 21st day of June at
13:00, the peak time for solar radiation, there is a
potential for a 3-5 K increase, which could lead to
potential thermal discomfort in some locations of the
galleria.

Figure 6: Shadow Analysis of Hays Galleria after

Ecotect v 5.6 [5]

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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 569


4.2. Hays Galleria Wind Analysis
The year-round use of Hays Galleria is a key
factor in determining the effects of wind, as occupant
needs and criteria vary depending on summer or
winter use. The Height-Width ratio also plays a role,
by having the potential to change the wind speed
and direction
Entering the pavilion, there is a 2 K difference in
temperature as a result of the wind chill. According to
the equation, wind chill does not become a factor
until wind speeds are greater than 2.0 m/s [8]. Wind
speeds just above 2.0 result in a negligible
difference.
Inside the Hays Galleria the measured wind
speed never exceeded 2.0 m/s, but the occupants
considered it to be drafty. Essentially, the data
analysis shows that even on a windy day, the wind
chill is not lowering the temperatures inside Hays
Galleria, however there is still discomfort for long
term occupants. The discomfort may be associated
with the human perception of wind.
A direct relationship was not found between
increased percentage opening of the structure and
increased wind speed inside the pavilion, the
locations of the openings in relation to occupant use
and pavilion form may be more important. In cold
climates, contrary to the equation, the effect of wind
speed seems to be dependent on how long the
occupant is in the space. While the wind chill
temperature equation is a function of the outdoor
temperature, it appears to apply to short-term
visitors. When visitors enter a pavilion, the equation
did correlate a less windy environment to a decrease
in dT caused by wind, which was noticed by short-
term occupants as an improvement in the
environmental condition. Long-term employees were
uncomfortable in the same conditions, which does
not match the premise of the equation where speeds
less than 2.0 m/s caused no change in temperature.
The results show that users need to be
differentiated in terms of time spent within the
pavilion in order to assess subsequent effects of
different wind velocities throughout the year.
Essentially, in colder climates, long-term occupants
were noted to have stricter criteria more attuned to
indoor standards of discomfort for cold wind, while
short-term occupants have a looser criterion
matched more with the outdoor equation for Wind
Chill temperature. Summer conditions results
suggested that higher wind speeds would be
tolerated by both groups of occupants.
4.3. Strict Program, Urban Setting Conclusions
Pavilions within an urban setting are directly
dependent on their surroundings. If overshadowed
for the majority of the year, important solar gains are
severely reduced. Galleria types have an increased
potential for total overshadowing through self-
shading, a function of its height-width ratio.
For general design briefs, pavilions used in the
winter for occupants staying longer than 30 minutes
need to have more protection from wind than
summer pavilions or short term use winter pavilions.
5. REDEFINING PAVILIONS
A pavilion can exist and function based solely
on programmatic features with little reference to
environmental factors. However, to reach its full
potential in terms of maximizing numbers of
occupants and time spent within the structure,
pavilions must perform environmentally.
In this study, pavilions have been defined by
their building characteristics and program use. In
conclusion, the study seeks to redefine pavilions
according to environmental performance
characteristics.
Defining pavilions by their environmental
performance leads to the question of what should be
provided in terms of internal conditions of a pavilion,
when can this be expected, and who would be the
optimal occupants of the space. To be an
environmentally performing pavilion, a structure must
influence and/or improve upon the outdoor
conditions.
Contrary to interior single state standards and
ideals, for pavilions establishing concurrent
conditions of environmental variation across time and
space it is critical to allow for occupant adaptation
which relates directly to a widening of the comfort
zone and an increase in time spent. Occupants with
some degree of freedom of movement and clothing
choice would be better suited to take advantage of
varying conditions.
Extremely strict programs for long periods of
time would not be suited to this type of environmental
condition. The ability to provide a variation of
conditions is determined by the limiting factor of
comfort and varies for different climates.
If the desired performance of a pavilion is to
improve upon the outdoor conditions, pavilions will
probably be able exist and function in all climates but
not all microclimates. Strictly speaking only in terms
of environmental performance, access to the limiting
factor of comfort defines to what extent a pavilion
can be expected to perform and succeed in
improving upon outdoor conditions.
In upper latitudes, when temperatures are
below comfort, solar radiation is the limiting factor. As
a result, environmental performance pavilions must
be located in open space. If located in overshadowed
urban spaces, the lower solar altitude will inhibit or
block all access to the sun. Without solar radiation in
colder climates, pavilions cannot provide an
environmental function and can even make the
conditions worse for occupants.
Although not specifically studied in this paper,
the limiting factor of lower latitude and warmer
climate is hypothesized to be access to wind velocity.
Thus an environmentally performing pavilion could
potentially exist in urban environments but it must
have appropriate wind speeds to cool the space.
By defining the limiting factor and
environmental performance, a galleria in an upper
latitude and cold climate does not meet the
requirements of an environmentally performing
pavilion. They have proven to be self-shaded year-
round, diminishing the limiting factor for
environmental modulation. However, the study
showed that Hays Galleria is occupied, albeit in less
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570 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)


numbers and for shorter periods of time, in the winter
months. Occupants were drawn into the pavilion, in
spite of its environmental performance due to its
function and spectacle.
Elements of spectacle were woven into all
pavilions studied. Spectacle can appear in various
forms but should be an aspect of a successful
pavilion. If success is defined by increased numbers
of occupants drawn by conditions outside of basic
shelter, spectacle gives a reason for potential
occupants to make an unplanned stop at a structure
such as a pavilion. By developing pavilions to also
function environmentally, architects can extend the
period of time spent in the pavilion, thus expanding
its functionality.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to acknowledge SED course
director Simos Yannas and tutors Ruchi Choudhary
and Raul Moura for their advice and support. Milena
Stojkovi would like to thank the Government of the
Republic of Serbias Fund for Young Talents for their
financial support.

7. REFERENCES
[1] Humphreys, M. and F. Nicol, CIBSE Guide A.
Chartered Institution of Building Services
Engineers, London 2006, 1-1, 1-15.
[2] CIBSE, Comfort, CIBSE knowledge Series KS 6.
Chartered Institution of Building services
Engineers, London, 2006, 41.
[3] METEONORM v.6, Meteotest. Global Database
for Solar Energy and Applied Climatology, 2008.
[4] Satel-Light, accessed on 12/19/2008 at 12:19
pm, http://www.satel-
light.com/pub/Cameron12192008121909/soutdo
or.htm
[5] ECOTECT v.5.6, Square One / Autodesk, 2008.
[6] RADIANCE, Environmental Energy
Technologies Division, Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory, 2000.
[7] Auliciems, A., S. Szokolay, Thermal Comfort.
PLEA Note 3. PLEA International / University of
Queensland, 1997.
[8] Arens, E., L. Zeren, R. Gonzalez, L. Berglund,
P.E. McNall, A new Bioclimatic Chart for
Environmental Design. Proc. ICBEM
Conference, Pavoa de Varzim, Pergamon,
London, 1980, 645-657.
[9] Met Office, 2008 Weather Summaries,
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/2008/ind
ex.html
[10] Penwarden AD., Acceptable wind speeds in
towns, 1973, www.meteorologia.gr

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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 571
Thermal Strategies for Economical Dwellings in
Warm Dry Climates in Mexico
IRENE MARINCIC, JOS MANUEL OCHOA AND MARA GUADALUPE ALPUCHE
Dpt. Architecture and Design, University of Sonora, Hermosillo, Mexico
ABSTRACT: The need for quick and economic construction of housing for low-income populations in Mexico
has meant that in any climate, housing developments are designed and constructed without regional adaptation.
The city of Hermosillo, in northwest Mexico, has a hot dry climate, but despite this situation, a large number of
dwellings are not constructed according to local climate conditions.
Field studies have been carried out in order to determine physical characteristics of the houses, social and
physical characteristic of the people, electricity consumption, indoor climate variables and asked thermal
sensation from the users. Some results of this research, presented in previous publications, show high thermal
discomfort levels during most of the year, as well as high electricity consumptions.
Federal regulations for thermal design in residential dwelling envelopes are being developed (NOM-020-ENER),
but they are still in the draft stage. Although there is information available for designers and developers, thermal
strategies are not usually applied in low-cost housing developments.
Passive thermal strategies are presented in this article, based on regional needs and economic limitations. They
focus more on cooling requirements. Some water conservation suggestions and integrated renewal energy
techniques have also been taken into account.
Keywords: passive thermal strategies, low-cost dwelling, hot dry climate
1. INTRODUCTION
Tract housing has become common in many
regions of Mexico. More often than not, the need for
quick and economic construction means that
dwelling designs are not adapted to local
environment and climate conditions, and it is
common to observe the same affordable housing
models in different climate zones within the Mexican
territory. Increasing housing demand drives
developers to reduce spaces and utilize fewer
materials and labor. The quality of housing in
general, and energy-efficient design in particular, are
not a priority, and this results in excessive energy
use and high acclimatization costs.
Within the framework of a research project titled
Thermal comfort and energy efficiency in low-cost
dwellings in Mexico: regions of warm dry and warm
humid climates, supported by federal funding,
several surveys were carried out which measured
thermal comfort and energy use in low-cost housing
in seven Mexican cities with hot dry and hot humid
climates.
Field studies yielded a database which shows the
impact of housing design solutions on thermal
comfort and electricity consumption due to
acclimatization in very hot environments. This article
proposes passive thermal design strategies, specific
to local needs and climate, while taking into account
economic considerations.
This type of research contributes to the
knowledge base which supports actions aimed at
reducing electricity consumptions, which greatly
impacts the housing sector, particularly for low-
income populations, considering the large number of
dwellings being constructed in cities like Hermosillo,
and in Mexico in general.
2. LOCAL CLIMATE AND LOW-COST
AVAILABLE HOUSING
2.1. Climate
The climate in Hermosillo is characterized by very
high levels of solar radiation, clear skies throughout
the year and large temperature oscillations daily and
seasonally. The hot season is very prolonged (5-6
months), with daily temperatures between 25-30 C
and 40-45C. The coldest season has a mild climate,
with daily minimum temperatures of 0 to 7C and
maximum temperatures of 25 to 30C. Relative
humidity is very low during practically the entire year.
Considering the climate is so harsh, architectural
design criteria and application must be adapted
stringently to environmental conditions in order to
minimize the negative climate effects on occupants
and their energy consumption.
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572 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
2.2. Low-cost dwellings
The dwellings studied are part of a government
program for families with a monthly income of
between 100 and 400 . The price of each dwelling
is approximately 11723 . They are one-story homes
with a constructed area of between 33.5 m
2
and 39
m
2
according to the model, on a lot with an area
which varies between 117 and 122 m
2
. They have
one bedroom, a combined living room-dining room-
kitchen area and one bathroom, as well as an
outdoor garage (Fig. 1, 2 and 3).
Construction of these dwellings is very cost-
effective: walls are made of cement blocks in almost
all cases, with joist slabs and polystyrene vaults, no
insulation, and no solar protection devices on the
windows.

Figure 1: Tract housing development on the outskirts of
Hermosillo, Mexico (Google Earth)

Figure 2: Typical facade of a low-cost housing model.

Figure 3: Floor plan for a low-cost housing model.
3. THERMAL COMFORT WITHIN
DWELLINGS
3.1. Field surveys
Nine low-cost housing developments in
Hermosillo constructed between 2002 and 2005
(Figs. 1, 2 and 3) were studied, which constitutes
practically the total number of developments handed
over to the municipality with full services and at least
one year of inhabitance. Surveys were applied in
order to study different aspects of the dwellings and
their occupants. One survey focused on recording
the physical characteristics of the homes, as well as
establishing a profile of the inhabitants and their
perception of the dwelling. The second survey,
applied at two different periods of the year, was
aimed at recording the thermal sensation of the
inhabitants, while at the same time monitoring the
thermal conditions within the home (Fig. 4).
Subsequently, information was collected on
electricity consumption of the surveyed dwellings
during the corresponding period.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 573
Figure 4: Thermal comfort surveys and indoor thermal
variables monitoring.
3.2. Indoor thermal conditions and electricity
consumptions
During the thermal sensation surveys, several
variables have been measured indoors: air
temperature, globe temperature, relative humidity
and wind speed. From these variables, may be the
most representatives to illustrate the thermal
conditions are the air temperature and relative
humidity. We have plotted them in two graphs (Figs.
5 and 6) corresponding to winter and summer period
surveys.
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
HR (%)
T
i
n
t

(

C
)
Figure 5: Relative humidity and air temperature indoors
during the winter survey period [1]
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
HR (%)
T
i
n
t

(

C
)
Figure 6: Relative humidity and air temperature indoors
during the summer survey period [1]
As seen in the graphs, indoor temperature during
winter varies, but can be considered temperate to
warm. In summer, indoor temperature is hot. Indoor
relative humidity can be considered as low.
The use of acclimatization systems by inhabitants
is mostly during nights, because they generally work
during daytime. Most of the families use evaporative
coolers only in the bedroom, and in the rest of the
house, fans or nothing. In some cases they use a
window air conditioner in the bedroom. In almost all
cases the devices are old and inefficient.
Electricity consumptions were collected from the
surveyed houses during more than one year. In
general, according to the characteristics of the local
climate, the year can be divided into two climatic
periods: approximately a half of the year with hot dry
climate (summer period) and the other half year
(winter period) is temperate. Intermediate seasons
are very short. There is also a differentiation between
electricity costs, which received more or less
government subsidies, according to these two
periods. The cheapest prices are in summer.
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
Winter Summer
Period
A
v
e
r
a
g
e

e
l
e
c
t
r
i
c
i
t
y

c
o
n
s
u
m
p
t
i
o
n
s

p
e
r

h
o
u
s
e

p
e
r

m
o
n
t
h

(
k
W
h
)
Figure 7: Average electricity consumptions per house per
month in winter and summer periods
At Fig. 7 average electricity consumptions per
house per month in winter and summer periods are
presented. However, maximal monthly electricity
consumptions can easily reach about 700 kWh in the
summer period. Considering the average constructed
area of each house, the monthly average
consumptions are about 4.6 KWh/m
2
in winter and
9.6 KWh/m
2
in summer.
This represents not only high energy
consumptions but expensive electricity bills that poor
families must pay for them. In the case of the lowest
incomes families, the annual electricity account can
reach about 23% of the annual incomes.
Electricity consumption in housing sector has
particularly greatly impact, considering the large
number of dwellings being constructed in cities like
Hermosillo, and in Mexico in general.
3.3. Occupants comfort
Results of the occupants thermal comfort survey
will be discussed briefly, though a more extensive
description can be found in [1][2][3]. Occupants
indoor comfort perception during winter and summer
was registered in terms of comfort votes between -3
and +3 on the ASHRAE scale. It should be noted that
the inhabitants of these homes, according to survey
2.2. Low-cost dwellings
The dwellings studied are part of a government
program for families with a monthly income of
between 100 and 400 . The price of each dwelling
is approximately 11723 . They are one-story homes
with a constructed area of between 33.5 m
2
and 39
m
2
according to the model, on a lot with an area
which varies between 117 and 122 m
2
. They have
one bedroom, a combined living room-dining room-
kitchen area and one bathroom, as well as an
outdoor garage (Fig. 1, 2 and 3).
Construction of these dwellings is very cost-
effective: walls are made of cement blocks in almost
all cases, with joist slabs and polystyrene vaults, no
insulation, and no solar protection devices on the
windows.

Figure 1: Tract housing development on the outskirts of
Hermosillo, Mexico (Google Earth)

Figure 2: Typical facade of a low-cost housing model.

Figure 3: Floor plan for a low-cost housing model.
3. THERMAL COMFORT WITHIN
DWELLINGS
3.1. Field surveys
Nine low-cost housing developments in
Hermosillo constructed between 2002 and 2005
(Figs. 1, 2 and 3) were studied, which constitutes
practically the total number of developments handed
over to the municipality with full services and at least
one year of inhabitance. Surveys were applied in
order to study different aspects of the dwellings and
their occupants. One survey focused on recording
the physical characteristics of the homes, as well as
establishing a profile of the inhabitants and their
perception of the dwelling. The second survey,
applied at two different periods of the year, was
aimed at recording the thermal sensation of the
inhabitants, while at the same time monitoring the
thermal conditions within the home (Fig. 4).
Subsequently, information was collected on
electricity consumption of the surveyed dwellings
during the corresponding period.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
574 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
results, have lived in this city for many years and are
fully acclimated to the local climate.
Figure 8: Thermal sensation of inhabitants (% of votes)
during winter and summer. Percentages are based on the
total votes for each period, although they are graphed
together for better compression. [1]
As shown in Fig. 8, the winter climate is very
benign and the majority of respondents (more than
60%) feels thermally comfortable (vote 0). In
contrast, during the summer, thermal conditions are
extremely unfavorable, which is expressed by
respondents as a high levels of thermal sensation
(from 0 to +3) inside the dwelling.
In previous studies [1][2], based on adaptive
comfort methods, summer and winter neutral
temperatures (Tn) were obtained for this population
group. As expected for a desert climate, wide comfort
ranges and high neutral temperatures are obtained,
compared with reported values of cooler climates
(see Table 1).
Neutral temperature and limits of comfort range
were obtained by the method of statistical regression
by layers, proposed by Nicol [4] for asymmetrical
climates.
Table 1: Comfort temperatures obtained for the city of
Hermosillo among occupants of low-cost housing.
Period
Upper
comfort limit
(C)
Tn
(C)
Lower
comfort limit
(C)
Winter
(mild)
23.5 26.9 31.3
Summer
(hot)
29.6 32.2 34.7
Considering the high levels of discomfort, despite
the thermal adaptation of the population to the local
climate and the high neutral temperatures, thermal
design strategies are proposed (based on classic
literature [5]) which take into account climate
conditions, the adaptation of inhabitants to the local
climate, regional customs and economic limitations.
4. THERMAL DESIGN STRATEGIES FOR
LOW-COST HOUSING
An Official Standard for the thermal design of
residential building envelopes (NOM-020-ENER) [6]
was developed for Mexico, but for years it has
languished as a draft and has yet to be implemented.
Nonetheless, there is sufficient public information
available to housing developers and designers
(CONAVI guidelines [7]), though the suggested
strategies in most cases are not applied in affordable
housing developments. Therefore, it is necessary to
propose specific and local design strategies and
disseminate them among multiple stakeholders.
The following are thermal design strategies for
low-cost dwellings in one-story tract housing
developments, which are prevalent locally due to the
availability of land (though they may not be ideal in
terms of cost). Though these strategies focus on
thermal aspects, lighting and water-management
considerations are included, since these issues are
relevant to local conditions. Integration of solar
energy systems is also included, considering the
availability of solar radiation in the region.
We have included illustrations with basic
explanations for a comprehensive document for all
users. More extended and complete design
guidelines will be included in a book which is
currently in press. In addition, several local events
have been organized in order to disseminate these
ideas among developers, members of professional
organizations, and local officials, among others.
4.1. Urban design strategies
Urban design strategies (Table 2) are generally
intended to make public and private outdoor spaces
more pleasant in order to improve habitability and
decrease the thermal load towards the dwelling.
Table 2: Urban design strategies
Urban
design
strategy
Construction and
design solution
Icon
Promote the
habitability
of outdoor
spaces and
decrease
heat
exchange
towards
dwellings
Compact grouping
Separation which
favors shading between
dwellings
Spaces which promote
microclimates
Urban layout for N-S
orientation of facades
Outdoor solar
protection devices and
deciduous vegetation
(low-water trees)
Perennial vegetation
barriers against cold
winds
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 575
Decrease
dust
dispersal,
albedo and
glare
Groundcover using low-
water vegetation
Surface materials with
moderate reflectance
and low emittance
Favor
aquifer
replenishme
nt
Permeable floors
4.2. Architectural design strategies
The architectural design strategies (Table 3) seek
to favor the habitability of indoor spaces, decreasing
thermal gains, favoring heat loss, and reducing wide
temperature oscillations. In order to do this, thermal
insulation and high thermal mass are good options.
Ventilation is not favorable except at nights during
intermediate seasons due to the high temperatures,
even at night, and the proliferation of dust.
Table 3: Architectural design strategies
Architectur
al design
strategy
Construction and
design solution
Icon
Minimize
heat gains in
general
Compact shape
N-S preferent
orientation of facades
E and W location of
service areas
Provide
solar
protection
devices for
windows
and walls
Solar protection
devices in N and S
openings
Minimize openings on
E and W facades
Recessed windows
Deciduous leaf
vegetation on critical
walls
Minimize
conduction
gains
Thermal insulation on
critical roofs and walls
(S, E and W)
Low absorption and
high emittance finishes
on building envelope
Flexible (mobile)
insulation for windows,
according to season
and day-night periods
Provide
thermal
inertia to
reduce
temperature
amplitude
Both sufficient heat
capacity and thermal
insulation in building
envelope and indoor
spaces
Favor
nocturnal
heat loss
Openings for cross-
ventilation only during
spring and fall nights
High roof emissivity
Natural convection
through zenithal
openings
Evaporative cooling
systems
Decrease
heat
exchanges
by infiltration
and dust
entry via
enclosures
Good quality
enclosures
Sealing devices on
doors and windows
Optimize
daylighting
in perimetral
zones and
allow
penetration
of light
indoors
Properly sized, shaped
and located windows
Light-colored finishes
on ceilings and walls
More
efficient
artificial
lighting
Low-consumption
luminaires (low energy
consumption, low heat
emission)
Optimize
water
consumption
Greywater recycling
system
Rainwater collection
Drip irrigation in
outdoor spaces
Low-water vegetation
Urban
electricity-
solar energy
hybrid
system
Photovoltaic cells for
low-power applications
Usage of
solar-gas
hybrid hot
water
system
Flat solar collectors for
sanitary hot water
Although some of these strategies require
relatively low investment and more creativity of the
designer, others such as the integration of renewable
energy techniques would require government
subsidies or fiscal incentives.
results, have lived in this city for many years and are
fully acclimated to the local climate.
Figure 8: Thermal sensation of inhabitants (% of votes)
during winter and summer. Percentages are based on the
total votes for each period, although they are graphed
together for better compression. [1]
As shown in Fig. 8, the winter climate is very
benign and the majority of respondents (more than
60%) feels thermally comfortable (vote 0). In
contrast, during the summer, thermal conditions are
extremely unfavorable, which is expressed by
respondents as a high levels of thermal sensation
(from 0 to +3) inside the dwelling.
In previous studies [1][2], based on adaptive
comfort methods, summer and winter neutral
temperatures (Tn) were obtained for this population
group. As expected for a desert climate, wide comfort
ranges and high neutral temperatures are obtained,
compared with reported values of cooler climates
(see Table 1).
Neutral temperature and limits of comfort range
were obtained by the method of statistical regression
by layers, proposed by Nicol [4] for asymmetrical
climates.
Table 1: Comfort temperatures obtained for the city of
Hermosillo among occupants of low-cost housing.
Period
Upper
comfort limit
(C)
Tn
(C)
Lower
comfort limit
(C)
Winter
(mild)
23.5 26.9 31.3
Summer
(hot)
29.6 32.2 34.7
Considering the high levels of discomfort, despite
the thermal adaptation of the population to the local
climate and the high neutral temperatures, thermal
design strategies are proposed (based on classic
literature [5]) which take into account climate
conditions, the adaptation of inhabitants to the local
climate, regional customs and economic limitations.
4. THERMAL DESIGN STRATEGIES FOR
LOW-COST HOUSING
An Official Standard for the thermal design of
residential building envelopes (NOM-020-ENER) [6]
was developed for Mexico, but for years it has
languished as a draft and has yet to be implemented.
Nonetheless, there is sufficient public information
available to housing developers and designers
(CONAVI guidelines [7]), though the suggested
strategies in most cases are not applied in affordable
housing developments. Therefore, it is necessary to
propose specific and local design strategies and
disseminate them among multiple stakeholders.
The following are thermal design strategies for
low-cost dwellings in one-story tract housing
developments, which are prevalent locally due to the
availability of land (though they may not be ideal in
terms of cost). Though these strategies focus on
thermal aspects, lighting and water-management
considerations are included, since these issues are
relevant to local conditions. Integration of solar
energy systems is also included, considering the
availability of solar radiation in the region.
We have included illustrations with basic
explanations for a comprehensive document for all
users. More extended and complete design
guidelines will be included in a book which is
currently in press. In addition, several local events
have been organized in order to disseminate these
ideas among developers, members of professional
organizations, and local officials, among others.
4.1. Urban design strategies
Urban design strategies (Table 2) are generally
intended to make public and private outdoor spaces
more pleasant in order to improve habitability and
decrease the thermal load towards the dwelling.
Table 2: Urban design strategies
Urban
design
strategy
Construction and
design solution
Icon
Promote the
habitability
of outdoor
spaces and
decrease
heat
exchange
towards
dwellings
Compact grouping
Separation which
favors shading between
dwellings
Spaces which promote
microclimates
Urban layout for N-S
orientation of facades
Outdoor solar
protection devices and
deciduous vegetation
(low-water trees)
Perennial vegetation
barriers against cold
winds
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
576 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
5. CONCLUSION
The state of low-cost housing and its respective
energy and habitability issues is a complex topic,
influenced greatly by economic factors, particularly
the price limits needed to ensure low-income
populations have access to affordable mortgages.
This consequently impacts the quality of low-cost
dwellings, which is diminished to the point of being
unreasonable. Key issues to address for possible
solutions must include greater regulation of energy-
related aspects in buildings, as well as a revision of
the loan programs available for low-income buyers
and the possibility of fiscal incentives for energy
generation and energy savings in dwellings.
It is also necessary to promote the application of
specific and locally relevant strategies among
housing developers and all levels of government, as
well as homeowners. In low-cost housing, where the
majority of inhabitants do not have access to artificial
air conditioning, the application of passive thermal
design strategies is particularly important and can
help bring indoor spaces closer to thermal comfort
conditions, as well as promote the conscious use of
energy resources used for cooling.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The project "Thermal comfort and energy
efficiency in low-cost dwellings in Mexico: regions of
warm dry and warm humid climates" and the field
surveys were supported by federal funding from
Mexicos National Housing Commission (CONAVI)
and the National Council of Science and Technology
(CONACyT).
The research has been also supported by
CONACyT and the German Federal Ministry of
Education and Research (BMBF) in the project
Proclima II.
The results are also part of the project CB-
2006/59386, supported by the Mexican Research
Found for Education and CONACyT.
7. REFERENCES
[1] Marincic, I.; Ochoa, J. M.; Alpuche, M.G. and
Gmez-Azpeitia, G. Adaptive Thermal Comfort
in Warm Dry Climate: Economical Dwellings in
Mexico. Proc. 26th Conference on Passive and
Low Energy Architecture PLEA 2009. Quebec,
Canada (2009), pp. 510-515.
[2] Gmez-Azpeitia, G. et al. Comfort temperatures
inside low-cost housing. Proc. 26th Conference
on Passive and Low Energy Architecture PLEA
2009. Quebec, Canada (2009), pp. 498-503.
[3] Romero, R. et al. Thermal comfort and occupant
perception in dwellings for the low-income sector
in hot climates of Mexico. Proc. 26th Conference
on Passive and Low Energy Architecture PLEA
2009. Quebec City, Canada (2009) (2.3.22).
[4] Nicol, F. Thermal comfort. A handbook for field
studies toward an adaptive model. London,
University of East London, 1993.
[5] Givoni, Baruch. Climate considerations in
building and urban design. USA, John Wiley &
Sons, 1998.
[6] NOM-020-ENER,
http://www.her.itesm.mx/cae/Ligas/Normas/Ante
proyecto-NOM-020-ENER.pdf
[7] CONAFOVI (now CONAVI), Guidelines for
energy efficiency in dwellings (Gua para el uso
eficiente de la energa en la vivienda), Mexico,
2006.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 577
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July
2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
Subjective Thermal Comfort in Urban Spaces in the
Warm-humid City of Guayaquil, Ecuador
Erik JOHANSSON
1
, Moohammed Wasim YAHIA
1

1
Housing Development & Management, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
ABSTRACT: The quality of urban spaces is important for ecological, economical and social purposes. The
thermal environment in the outdoors affects both energy use and human health. Mental and physical
performance is reduced at high temperatures and that is especially a problem in tropical climates. This paper
deals with human comfort in the warm-humid city of Guayaquil, Ecuador. The outdoor thermal comfort was
assessed through 537 interviews which were conducted in four different places of the city during both the dry
and wet seasons. The subjective comfort votes were compared with the physiologically equivalent temperature
(PET) which was calculated based on microclimate measurements. The results show that local people accept
thermal conditions which are above acceptable comfort limits in temperate climates. The results also show that
the subjective thermal perception varies within a wide range. It is clear, however, that the majority of the people
in Guayaquil experience the outdoor thermal environment during daytime as too warm and therefore it is
important to promote an urban design which creates shade and ventilation.
Keywords: Ecuador, microclimate, outdoor thermal comfort, warm humid climate.
1. INTRODUCTION
Cities are getting increasingly hotter which has
adverse effects on health and well-being of urban
dwellers. The problem is especially serious in tropical
climates. Studies in the warm-humid climate of
Colombo, Sri Lanka have shown that the outdoor
environment is very uncomfortable during daytime,
especially between 11:00 and 16:00 [1,2,3].
However, these studies were based on calculated
thermal comfort and did not include the subjective
thermal comfort of the local population.
Subjective outdoor thermal comfort has received
increased attention the latest decade [4,5,6,7,8]. The
outdoor thermal environment is complex and there
are large temporal and spatial variations. It has been
found that outdoors the thermal comfort range is
wider than indoors, spanning from thermal comfort to
a stressful environment [4]. Thermal adaptation
which can include physiological, psychological and
behavioural factors has proven to play an important
role in subjective thermal comfort assessment [4,6].
There have been few studies on outdoor thermal
comfort in urban areas in warm-humid climates.
However, in Taiwan, which has warm-humid
summers, Lin [6] found evidence of thermal
adaptation since the comfort (neutral) temperature
proved to be higher than for temperate climates.
This paper deals with subjective human comfort
in the warm-humid city of Guayaquil, Ecuador. The
main aim is to examine the influence of outdoor
urban microclimate on peoples subjective perception
of thermal comfort and to compare it with the
physiologically equivalent temperature (PET). The
aim is also to compare the thermal perception
between the dry and the wet seasons.
2. GUAYAQUIL AND ITS CLIMATE
Guayaquil is the largest city of Ecuador with
about 2.4 million inhabitants. The city is situated at
sea level near the equator at latitude 2.11S and
longitude 79.53W. Guayaquils historical centre was
established during the Spanish colonial time to the
west of the Guayas river and it is laid out in a regular
grid iron street pattern. Due to marshlands in the
west and the river in the east the city has grown
mainly to the north and to the south.

Figure 1: Climate of Guayaquil.
As the rest of the coastal zone of Ecuador,
Guayaquil has a warm humid climate. Precipitation,
however, is limited to the period December to April.
Nevertheless, the humidity remains high all year
round due to the proximity to the Pacific ocean. The
climate is very stable over the year with daily mean
maximum temperatures of 2830C and minimum
mean temperatures of 2124C (the higher values
occur during the rainy season). The daily mean
relative humidity is around 70% during the dry
season and 75% during the wet season. See Fig. 1.
The wind speeds are low, especially during the rainy
season; monthly averages range from 1.5 to 3.2 m/s.
Thermal comfort is poor due to a combination of high
0
20
40
60
80
100
20.0
22.5
25.0
27.5
30.0
32.5
J F M A M J J A S O N D
% C
Temp.meanmax Temp.meanmin
RHmax RHmin
5. CONCLUSION
The state of low-cost housing and its respective
energy and habitability issues is a complex topic,
influenced greatly by economic factors, particularly
the price limits needed to ensure low-income
populations have access to affordable mortgages.
This consequently impacts the quality of low-cost
dwellings, which is diminished to the point of being
unreasonable. Key issues to address for possible
solutions must include greater regulation of energy-
related aspects in buildings, as well as a revision of
the loan programs available for low-income buyers
and the possibility of fiscal incentives for energy
generation and energy savings in dwellings.
It is also necessary to promote the application of
specific and locally relevant strategies among
housing developers and all levels of government, as
well as homeowners. In low-cost housing, where the
majority of inhabitants do not have access to artificial
air conditioning, the application of passive thermal
design strategies is particularly important and can
help bring indoor spaces closer to thermal comfort
conditions, as well as promote the conscious use of
energy resources used for cooling.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The project "Thermal comfort and energy
efficiency in low-cost dwellings in Mexico: regions of
warm dry and warm humid climates" and the field
surveys were supported by federal funding from
Mexicos National Housing Commission (CONAVI)
and the National Council of Science and Technology
(CONACyT).
The research has been also supported by
CONACyT and the German Federal Ministry of
Education and Research (BMBF) in the project
Proclima II.
The results are also part of the project CB-
2006/59386, supported by the Mexican Research
Found for Education and CONACyT.
7. REFERENCES
[1] Marincic, I.; Ochoa, J. M.; Alpuche, M.G. and
Gmez-Azpeitia, G. Adaptive Thermal Comfort
in Warm Dry Climate: Economical Dwellings in
Mexico. Proc. 26th Conference on Passive and
Low Energy Architecture PLEA 2009. Quebec,
Canada (2009), pp. 510-515.
[2] Gmez-Azpeitia, G. et al. Comfort temperatures
inside low-cost housing. Proc. 26th Conference
on Passive and Low Energy Architecture PLEA
2009. Quebec, Canada (2009), pp. 498-503.
[3] Romero, R. et al. Thermal comfort and occupant
perception in dwellings for the low-income sector
in hot climates of Mexico. Proc. 26th Conference
on Passive and Low Energy Architecture PLEA
2009. Quebec City, Canada (2009) (2.3.22).
[4] Nicol, F. Thermal comfort. A handbook for field
studies toward an adaptive model. London,
University of East London, 1993.
[5] Givoni, Baruch. Climate considerations in
building and urban design. USA, John Wiley &
Sons, 1998.
[6] NOM-020-ENER,
http://www.her.itesm.mx/cae/Ligas/Normas/Ante
proyecto-NOM-020-ENER.pdf
[7] CONAFOVI (now CONAVI), Guidelines for
energy efficiency in dwellings (Gua para el uso
eficiente de la energa en la vivienda), Mexico,
2006.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
578 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July
2011
2 xx.x SECTION NAME
temperatures, high humidity and low wind speeds.
The situation is worsened by the solar radiation; in
spite of a high amount of cloud cover there are
periods of clear skies, even during the rainy period.
The rainy season has the worst thermal conditions
since both temperatures and humidity are higher.

(a) (b)




(b) (c)





(c) (d)
Figure 2: The locations of the field campaigns:
(a) Parque Centenrio, (b) Malecn 2000 waterfront,
(c) neighbourhood square in Mucho Lote and
(d) arcade along Bulevar Nueve de Octubre.
3. FIELD CAMPAIGNS
Both micrometeorological measurements and a
questionnaire survey were conducted during the dry
season (June 2009) and the wet season (March
April 2010).
3.1. Studied locations
The field campaign took place in four areas in
Guayaquil and included three open, public places
and one avenue. Three of the areas a public park,
a waterfront area and a street canyon were in the
city centre whereas the fourth site consisted of a
small neighbourhood square in the newly built
suburb Mucho Lote in the north of the city. The
studied locations are shown in Fig. 2 and are
described briefly in Table 1.
3.2. Microclimatic measurements
Most of the field campaigns took place between
11:00 and 16:00, i.e. during the hottest period of the
day. This is also the period when the studied sites
had the most visitors. In order to include cooler
weather conditions, measurements and interviews
were also carried out in the evening on one occasion
during the dry season. The dates and the times of
each field campaign are described in Table 1. The
field campaigns took place during clear, partly cloudy
and overcast weather conditions. Rainy days were
excluded from the study.

Table 1: The studied locations as well as the dates and

times for the field campaigns.
Place Description Date Time
Parque
Centenrio

Centrally
located
public park
15.06.09 11:1012:10
18.06.09 11:5013:05
05.04.10 14:5015:50
Malecn
2000

Waterfront
recreational
area
16.06.09 11:3012:30
24.06.09 13:5015:10
25.06.09 18:3019:40
06.04.10 14:4015:40
Small
square,
Mucho Lote
Newly built
residential
area
19.06.09 14:2015:30
25.06.09 13:3014:30
31.03.10 14:1015;20
Bulevar
Nueve de
Octubre
Main
avenue, N-S
oriented
26.06.09 13:3014:30
07.04.10 12:5013:40

Four micrometeorological variables that affect
thermal comfort were measured: air temperature
(T
a
), relative humidity (RH), globe temperature (T
g
)
and wind speed (v
a
). The type of sensors and their
accuracy are shown in Table 2. The sensors were
connected to a data logger (Campbell CR800) on
which 1-minute averages were sampled.
Table 2: Measurement equipment and its accuracy. (T
a
= air
temperature; T
g
= globe temperature; RH = relative
humidity; v
a
= wind speed.)
Variable Sensor Accuracy
T
a
Rotronic Hydroclip S3 0.3C
RH Rotronic Hydroclip S3 1.5% RH
T
g
AMR Pt100 PK 24 0.3C
v
a
Gill windsonic anem. 2% @ 12 m/s

Figure 3: The measurement sensors mounted on a camera

tripod and connected to the data logger.
The sensors were mounted on a camera tripod,
see Fig. 3. The measurements were taken at the
height of 1.1 m, except for the wind speed which was
measured at 1.5 m height. The temperature and
relative humidity sensor was covered by a white,
naturally ventilated radiation shield. The
corresponding wind speed at 1.1 m was calculated
as [4]:

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Where v
1.1
= wind speed at 1.1 m, v
1.5
= wind
speed at 1.5 m and is the mean speed coefficient
which depends on the roughness of the ground (e.g.,
= 0.24 for parks and suburbs and = 0.28 in the
centre of large cities).
The mean radiant temperature (MRT) considers
both short-wave and long-wave radiation and
represents the weighted average temperature of an
imaginary enclosure that gives the same radiation as
the complex urban environment. In this study, MRT
was derived from the globe temperature and the
wind speed, and it was calculated using the formula
developed by [9]:

where T
g
= the globe temperature (C), v
a
= the
air speed (m/s), T
a
= the air temperature (C), D =
the globe diameter (mm) and = the globe
emissivity.
The globe thermometer consisted of a flat grey
painted table tennis ball. Its diameter, D, was 38 mm
and its emissivity, , was assumed to be 0.97. It
should be noted that the MRT calculated in this way
is very sensitive to variations in wind speed. E.g. an
increase in wind speed will mean that the globe cools
down and T
g
decreases, but as this will take some
time to happen, MRT will be overestimated. Similarly
a sudden decrease in wind speed will lead to an
underestimated MRT. To reduce the sensitivity to
wind speed variations, 10 minute averages of wind
speed were used in the calculations of MRT.
The measurement equipment was placed near
places where people pass by. At the three open
public sites the globe thermometer was exposed to
solar radiation during the entire measurement
campaign. At Bulevar Nueve de Octubre, however,
the globe thermometer was in shade under an
arcade. The measurement equipment used is shown
in Table 2.
3.3. Thermal comfort investigation
The questionnaire survey to estimate the
subjective thermal comfort was performed
simultaneously with the measurements at each
location. The questionnaire was in Spanish and apart
from thermal sensation it included questions
regarding gender, age, type of clothing, reasons for
being in the places, time spent outdoors as well as
whether the subjects had air conditioning at home
and in their office/school.
This paper, however, discusses only the results
related to subjective thermal comfort. The subjects
were asked to report their thermal sensation on a 9-
point scale: very cold (-4), cold (-3), cool (-2), slightly
cool (-1), comfortable (0), slightly warm (+1), warm
(+2), hot (+3), and very hot (+4). The reason for
using a 9-point scale instead of the commonly used
7-point scale was to link the results to the thermal
sensation scale of the PET thermal comfort index [5],
see Table 3. It was emphasized by the interviewers
that it was the subjects sensation at the moment of
the interview that was requested and not their
general opinion. In addition the subjects were asked
about their thermal preference on a 3-point scale.
They were asked whether they would like it to be:
cooler, no change or warmer? as well as if they
would like: More sun, no change or more shade?,
More humidity, no change or less humidity? and
more wind, no change or less wind?.
Table 3: Thermal original sensation scale of the PET index
[5].
PET (C) Thermal Sensation Stage of Stress
<4 Very cold Extreme stress
4-8 Cold Strong stress
8-13 Cool Moderate stress
13-18 Slightly cool Slight stress
18-23 Comfortable No stress
23-29 Slightly warm Slight stress
29-35 Warm Moderate stress
35-41 Hot Strong stress
>41 Very hot Extreme stress

The subjects were interviewed as close to the
measurement equipment as possible. This means
that the subjects were exposed to solar radiation (if
the sky was not overcast) at all sites except Bulevar
Nueve de Octubre where the interviews took place in
shade of the arcade, see Fig. 2. However, also at the
exposed sites a limited number of subjects were
interviewed under shade (trees) a little bit farther
away from the equipment. The reason was that
people preferred staying in the shade on clear sky
conditions.
The questionnaire survey was conducted by the
author and students of the Catholic University of
Guayaquil. Each interview took about three minutes
to complete. About 30 to 50 questionnaires were
answered at each field campaign. In the dry season
there were two campaigns at each site and in the wet
season one per site.
A total of 358 questionnaires were answered
during the dry season and 179 during the wet
season. The two samples were similar in terms of
gender and age distribution. About 35% of the
respondents were women and 65% were men. The
Interviewed subjects were young in general; the
largest age group was 2135 years (35%) followed
by 3650 years (27%).
3.4. Calculated thermal comfort
In this study, thermal comfort was assessed
using the physiologically equivalent temperature
(PET). The PET, which is based on a steady-state
heat balance equation of the human body, is defined
as the air temperature at which the energy balance
for typical indoor conditions is balanced with the
same mean skin temperature and sweat rate as
calculated for the complex outdoor conditions [5,6].
Table 3 shows the thermal sensation scale of the
PET index.
The PET index has been used widely in recent
research in outdoor thermal comfort [2,5,6,8]. Thus
the PET index was used in this study and was
calculated using the PC application RayMan [10].
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4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1. Subjective thermal comfort
The subjective comfort votes for the dry and wet
seasons are shown in Fig. 4. In order to make a
comparison between the seasons possible, Fig. 4
does not include field campaigns where the
maximum PET was below 36C, i.e. Bulevar Nueve
de Octubre (under shade), the 18 June 2009
(overcast sky and therefore low PETs) and the
evening measurements of the 25 June 2009. For the
campaigns included in Fig. 4, PET values ranged
from 30 to 52C. The numbers of included subjects
were 172 and 125 in the dry and wet seasons
respectively.

Figure 4: Subjective comfort votes on clear and partly

cloudy days for the dry season (n=172) and wet season
(n=125).
It can be seen in Fig. 4 that the people of
Guayaquil perceive the daytime outdoor climate as
uncomfortable (64% and 88% in the dry and wet
seasons respectively), at least when the sky is clear
or partly cloudy as was the case for the campaigns
included in Fig. 4. The votes however vary
considerably from one person to another and range
from slightly cool (-1) to very hot (+4). A similar
wide spread of votes have been found in other
studies [7,8]. According to the results the wet season
is more uncomfortable than the dry season, which
was to be expected. It should be noted, however,
that the difference found between the wet and dry
seasons might have been strengthened by the fact
that in spite of selecting similar days in both
seasons the field campaigns of the wet season had
higher PETs.
Fig. 5 shows the preference votes as regards
temperature, sun/shade, humidity and wind for the
same sample as in Fig. 4. It is clear that most people
want it to be cooler and they want more shade, less
humidity and more wind. This tendency is more
pronounced in the wet season. The tendency found
here was stronger than for the summer of Sydney [4]
and for the summer of Taiwan [6], which indicates
that the climate of Guayaquil is really harsh.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 5: Preference votes regarding (a) temperature,

(b) sun/shade, (c) humidity and (d) wind on clear and partly
cloudy days for the dry season (n=172) and the wet season
(n=125).
4.2. Relationship between PET and comfort
votes
The relationship between the PET index and the
subjective comfort votes are shown in Fig. 6 for both
the dry and wet seasons. All field campaigns are
included and the total number of votes was 537.
It can be seen in Fig. 6 that there is a tendency of
decreased thermal comfort with increasing PET.
Similar relationships have been found by [7,8]. The
slopes of the linear regression lines are not very
steep. In general both seasons follow the same
pattern, however, during the dry season the
regression line has a steeper slope. It should be
notified that the wet season consisted of only 179
subjects. Another reason for the discrepancy
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
%
Dryseason
Wetseason
0
20
40
60
80
100
Warmer Nochange Colder
%
Dryseason
Wetseason
0
20
40
60
80
100
Moresun Nochange Moreshade
%
Dryseason
Wetseason
0
20
40
60
80
100
Morehum. Nochange Lesshum.
%
Dryseason
Wetseason
0
20
40
60
80
100
Morewind Nochange Lesswind
%
Dryseason
Wetseason
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between the seasons could be that the dry season
included colder periods (evening) and thereby a
larger range of PETs. The relationship between
subjective comfort votes and PET is probably not
linear; other studies have shown that there is a
difference between colder and warmer seasons [6,8].
It seems that for high PETs there is no distinct
pattern, i.e. the regression line tends to be more
horizontal. It might also be that people feel less
comfortable during the wet season and that this
affects their votes (i e their votes are general rather
than what they felt at the moment of the interview).

Figure 6: The relationship between the PET index and the

subjective comfort votes including all field campaigns of the
dry season (n=358) and the wet season (n=179).
(4 = very hot, 3 = hot, 2 = warm, 1 = slightly warm,
0 = comfortable, -1 = slightly cool, -2 = cool,
-3 = cold and -4 = very cold)
Fig. 7 shows a comparison between subjective
comfort votes and calculated PET index (grouping
the PET results according to Table 3). It is clear from
Fig. 7 that the actual comfort votes and the
calculated thermal comfort do not coincide at all. This
is not in agreement with a study during the spring in
Tokyo, which has a more moderate climate, where a
fairly good fit between subjective and calculated
thermal sensation was found [5]. In the case of
Guayaquil, however, people tend to accept much
higher PETs.
4.3. Clothing
The clothing insulation varied between 0.2 and
0.9 clo with an average of 0.50 clo for the whole
sample. The most typical clothing ensemble was
short-sleeved shirt, long trousers and shoes which
corresponds to 0.48 clo. No difference in clothing
between the dry and the wet seasons was found.
The clothing insulation was rather high because
people tend to use a rather conservative dress code
with long trousers and sometimes even long-sleeved
shirts. Nevertheless, the amount of clothing was
lower than found during the warm humid summer in
Taiwan (around 0.6 clo) [6].

Figure 7: Frequency distribution of subjective comfort votes
and calculated PET (according to Table 3) for the whole
sample (n=537).
4.4. Thermal adaptation
The fact that about 37% of the subjects perceived
the climate as comfortable (Fig. 7) although the
PET varied between 23C and 51C shows that the
people of Guayaquil is thermally adapted to the local
climate.
Some behavioural adaptation was also observed.
E.g., during strong sunshine people in public places
was seeking shade, either under trees or man-made
shading devices. Moreover, some people, especially
women, sometimes used a parasol to protect
themselves against the solar radiation. Similar
adaptive behaviour was found by Lin [6] in Taiwan.
5. CONCLUSIONS
This study examined the influence of urban
microclimate on peoples subjective thermal
perception in the warm-humid city of Guayaquil.
It can be concluded that people perceive the
climate as uncomfortably warm (62%) and in both the
dry and wet seasons people wants more shade (77%
and 93%, respectively) and more wind (60% and
68%, respectively). It can also be concluded that the
original thermal sensation scale of PET (see Table 3)
for a temperate climate is not applicable as an
indicator to the warm humid climate of Guayaquil; the
local population accept much higher PETs. In order
to use the PET as an indicator of thermal comfort,
the scale of the index needs to be adjusted to the
local climate.
The results of this study have urban design
implications. Daytime human comfort can be
enhanced in public spaces by urban form
manipulation [3]. Such an approach could be coupled
with the use of solar energy for buildings, where
solar collectors and solar cells are applied on e.g.
shading devices.
Shading at street level is a function of street
orientation as well as building height and distances
4
3
2
1
0
1
2
3
4
22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52
Comfort
vote
PET(C)
Comfortvote dryseason
Comfortvote wetseason
Linear(Comfortvote dryseason)
Linear(Comfortvote wetseason)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
% Comfortvotes PET
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between buildings: higher buildings and/or shorter
distances between them will increase shade.
Additional shading devices, e.g. arcades, overhead
shading devices or shading trees are necessary to
provide shade around solar noon when angles of the
sun are high. Some existing examples in Guayaquil
are shown in Fig. 8. Care should however be taken
to promote ventilation at building and neighbourhood
scales, which is necessary for urban comfort, air
quality and indoor thermal comfort. This includes
taking the prevailing wind directions into account, the
use of straight, wide streets and variation of the
building heights.

b c
Figure 8: Existing examples of overhead shade in
Guayaquil, (a) arcade, (b) overhead shading device and
(c) shading trees.
6. FUTURE STUDIES
Further analyses will be made to adjust the
thermal sensation scale of the PET index to the local
climatic conditions of Guayaquil.
In order to develop solutions for enhancing the
microclimate in Guayaquil, future studies will also
deal with simulations of urban microclimate in which
different shading and ventilation options will be
studied.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was supported by the Swedish
International Development Cooperation Agency
Sida. The author is most grateful to those students of
the Architecture faculty at Universidad Catlica de
Santiago de Guayaquil who assisted in the
questionnaire survey.
8. REFERENCES
[1] R. Emmanuel and E. Johansson (2006),
Influence of urban morphology and sea breeze
on hot humid microclimate: the case of
Colombo, Sri Lanka, Climate Research, 30:
189200.
[2] E. Johansson and R. Emmanuel (2006), The
influence of urban design on outdoor thermal
comfort in the hot, humid city of Colombo, Sri
Lanka, Int. J. Biometeorol., 51:119-33.
[3] R. Emmanuel, H. Rosenlund and E. Johansson
(2007), Urban shading a design option for the
tropics? A study in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Int. J.
Climatol., 27: 1995-2004.
[4] J. Spagnolo and R. de Dear (2003), A field study
of thermal comfort in outdoor and semi-outdoor
environments in subtropical Sydney Australia,
Building and Environment, 38: 721-38.
[5] S. Thorsson, T. Honjo, F. Lindberg, I. Eliasson
and E.-M. Lim (2007), Thermal comfort and
outdoor activity in Japanese urban public places,
Environment and Behavior, 39: 660-84.
[6] T.-P. Lin (2009), Thermal perception, adaptation
and attendance in a public square in hot and
humid regions, Building and Environment, 44:
2017-26.
[7] E. L. Krger and F. A. Rossi (2010), Effect of
personal and microclimatic variables on
observed thermal sensation from a field study in
southern Brazil, accepted for publication in
Building and Environment.
[8] M. W. Yahia (2010), Thermal comfort and
outdoor urban spaces in a hot dry climate The
city of Damascus, Syria, submitted to Building
and Environment.
[9] S. Thorsson, F. Lindberg, I. Eliasson and B.
Holmer (2007), Different methods for estimating
the mean radiant temperature in an outdoor
urban setting, Int. J. Climatol., 27: 1983-93.
[10] www.urbanclimate.net/rayman/
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ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
Comparison of the EN 15251 and Ashrae Standard
55 adaptive thermal comfort models in the context
of a Mediterranean climate
Astrid ROETZEL
1
, Aris TSANGRASSOULIS
2
, AIKATERINI DRAKOU
2
, GUSTAVO DE SIQUEIRA
3
1
School of Architecture and Building, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
2
Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece
3
Department of Architecture, HafenCity University Hamburg, Germany
ABSTRACT: Strong heat waves in the past decade and resulting legal cases which gave full responsibility for
indoor thermal comfort to building professionals lead to an increased uncertainty how to maintain thermal
comfort in offices without the use of a cooling system. Adaptive thermal comfort standards such as EN 15251
and Ashrae Standard 55 provide methodologies to evaluate comfort in naturally ventilated spaces. Based on a
parametric study for a typical cellular office in the context of Athens, Greece, and using the building simulation
software EnergyPlus, this study investigates the potentials for the applicability of natural ventilation in a
Mediterranean climate. The Ashrae Standard 55 and EN 15251 adaptive thermal comfort models are compared
in this context, and conclusions are drawn how the use of natural ventilation based on adaptive models can be
further encourgaged.
Keywords: adaptive thermal comfort models, comfort limits, exceeding criteria, occupant behaviour, weather
data
1. INTRODUCTION
After the occurrence of strong heat waves in the
past decade in Europe and predictions for further
temperature increase, the question how to maintain
comfortable temperatures without increasing related
greenhouse gas emissions has become a major
challenge for building professionals. This refers
especially to office buildings in warm climates, where
internal heat gains tend to be high and occur at the
same time with solar heat gains.
For naturally ventilated buildings, adaptive
thermal comfort standards like EN 15251 [1] and
Ashrae Standard 55 [2] provide a method to evaluate
the acceptability of room temperatures. They are
based on field studies in real buildings [3, 4] and
relate comfort limits to feedback from the outside
climate. When the adaptive comfort criteria cannot
be met, the evaluation according to a static model is
recommended, which implies the use of an additional
cooling system. Due to legal cases where building
professionals have been given full responsibility for
overheating, a tendency towards an installation of
cooling systems can be observed in the past decade.
Nevertheless it remains unclear in how far this is
predominantly a measure towards legal safety rather
than a question of comfort.
Additionally, in the context of comfort prediction,
especially when using building simulation, results are
not only depending on building design, but also
strongly influenced by the chosen weather data set,
and the assumed occupants or tenants and their
preferences and behaviour. This indicates that not
only building professionals but also occupants have
a potential and responsibility for improvement.
This study therefore aims to evaluate the
influence of building design, occupants and local
climate variability on adaptive thermal comfort in
naturally ventilated offices. It is based on a
parametric study for a typical cellular office room in
the context of Athens, Greece, using the building
simulation software EnergyPlus. For thermal comfort
evaluation this study compares the two adaptive
thermal comfort models which can be applied in
Greece. EN 15251 to which the national building
code refers for thermal comfort evaluation in public
buildings and Ashrae Standard 55 which is
applicable world-wide.
Conclusions are drawn how the use of natural
ventilation can be encouraged in Mediterranean
climates, through the application of adaptive thermal
comfort models.
2. SIMULATION MODEL
2.1. Weather data for Athens, Greece
Due to the increase of greenhouse gas
emissions within the last decades, projections of
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [5]
for the 21st century predict a global warming of about
0,2C per decade for the next two decades.
In Greece a sudden increase of the frequency of
occurrence of particularly hot days as well as the
duration of heat waves was observed [6] within the
last decade. This supports indications from literature
[7], that common weather data sets, like test
reference years, which are based on data from the
past, are likely to underestimate of overheating. For
this reason weather data sets including climate
change scenarios or the heat island effect are
desirable, but were not available for the location of
Athens. Therefore, based on measured temperature
data for the average year 2005 and the hot year
2007 related weather data sets have been generated
using the software Meteonorm [8]. Both years are
representative for the past decade, 2005 reflecting a
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typical year and 2007 a hot year with three major
heat waves.
2.2. Building design
The investigated office room is a typical cellular
office in Athens, Greece, with a room depth of 5,4m,
a facade width of 3,5m and a room height of 2,7m.
The facade is facing south, with a centrally located
top hung window which can be manually operated by
occupants. For this basic configuration three different
building design variations have been developed in
order to reflect different priorities on the real estate
market (table 1):
The prestige variation follows current
architectural fashion, with the fully glazed facade and
internal shading as a symbol for a transparent
company policy. Low-e glazing improves solar
protection, light internal walls provide reversibility of
the floor plan, and a false floor construction flexibility
regarding furnishing. A suspended acoustic ceiling
provides acoustic comfort and an advanced lighting
system supports the representativeness of the
interior and contributes to the luxury level of the
office.
The low cost variation is designed to provide
maximum profit for rent or sale on the real estate
market. Initial costs are kept to a minimum, by using
a solid instead of a curtain wall facade, standard
instead of low-e glazing, a standard instead of an
advanced lighting system, and screed instead of a
false floor construction. Light internal walls provide
both, low initial costs and reversibility of the floor
plan, and a suspended acoustic ceiling provides
acoustic comfort.
The green variation is designed to improve
thermal as well as visual comfort and reduce the
related energy consumption and running costs to a
minimum. An overhang, external shading system and
low-e glazing provide protection from solar heat
gains, and a large window area allows for high
daylight levels.
An advanced lighting system is used to minimise
energy consumption. A solid facade, solid internal
walls, a screed floor and an uncovered ceiling
provide maximum mass to increase the thermal
robustness of the building. However additional
measures to provide acoustic comfort might be
necessary and the floor plan is not reversible.
2.3. Technical systems
For this study the use as an architectural office is
assumed, which requires computer work as well as
reading tasks for plans and drawings. Two different
room related lighting design variations have been
developed for the specific office room using the
lighting design software Relux [9]. The standard
variation has a installed lighting power of 21,3W/m
and the advanced variation of 13,1W/m. Both fulfil
the requirements of DIN EN 12464-1 [10].
The heating system assumed in this study is a
typical configuration for the Athens context based on
natural gas, with a coefficient of performance (COP)
= 0,85.
2.4. Ideal and worst case scenario for occupant
behaviour
In order to emphasize the range of influence of
occupants in real buildings a worst case and ideal
scenario has been developed for this study. These
scenarios differ between parameters on a company
and an individual level, based on the use in an
architectural office. The ideal scenario represents
from comfort and energy point of view the optimum
use, the worst-case scenario the least optimized use.
The scenarios are described in table 2.
Table 1: Characteristics of the building configurations
Building configurations
configuration 1, prestige 2, low initial costs 3, green
Thermal mass Light Medium heavy
Window area 100% 20% 70%
Glazing Low-e Standard Low-e
shading internal venetian blind Interior venetian blind Exterior venetian blind
overhang no no 1m
Lighting system optimised standard optimised
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Table 2: Ideal and worst case scenario for occupants influence
3. RESULTS
3.1. EN 15251 and Ashrae 55 in comparison
Figures 1 to 3 show a comparison of the
percentage of working time when the requirements of
the different comfort categories according to EN
15251 and Ashrae Standard 55 are met. The
comparison shows, that none of the investigated
configurations of building design and occupant
behaviour meets the comfort criteria in EN 15251 or
Ashrae Standard 55. The only exception is the green
building in combination with ideal occupant
behaviour and the average weather data, which
meets the requirements for EN 15251 category III
when applying the 5% exceeding criterion.

Figure 1: Comparison of different adaptive thermal comfort

standards and categories, green variation
The highest percentages of working time meeting the
comfort criteria of the standards can be observed for
EN 15251 category III for all configurations. Second
highest values apply for EN 15251 category II,
except for the green building with ideal occupant
behaviour when Ashrae Standard 55 with 80%
acceptability has a higher percentage of comfortable
working time. The third highest percentages of
working time meeting the comfort criteria can be
observed for Ashrae Standard 55 with 80%
acceptability, except for the green building in
combination with ideal occupant behaviour. The forth
largest percentage of working time when comfort
criteria are met can be observed for EN 15251
category I, with the exception of the green building
combined with ideal occupant behaviour. And fifth
largest or lowest percentages of working time
meeting the comfort criteria apply for Ashrae
Standard 55 with 90% acceptability, again with the
exception of the green building in combination with
ideal occupant behaviour.
As can be expected, for most building
configurations and both comfort standards, the ideal
scenario with average weather data lead to highest
percentage of working time meeting the comfort
criteria, followed by ideal scenario + hot weather
data, worst case scenario and average weather data.
Lowest percentages occur for the worst case
scenario in combination with the hot weather data
set. However a deviation can be observed for the
green building in combination with ideal occupant
scenario. For both weather data sets comfort
percentages according to EN 15251 category I are
lower than for the worst case scenario (figure 4). This
is caused by operative temperatures exceeding the
lower comfort limits for low outside temperatures.
The largest difference between the ideal and
worst case scenario occurs for the low cost building
design. This is related to the fact that this variation
has a small window in a solid wall, which results in a
lower overall thermal transmittance (u-value) for the
facade compared to the other variations. When no
night ventilation is applied, as for the worst case
scenario, this lowers the possibility for cooling of the
room by heat exchange via the closed facade.
Worst case and ideal scenario for use of office equipment, ventilation, blinds, and lights
Influenced on parameter worst case scenario ideal scenario
company level Office
equipment
- With desktop computers (352W)
- no possibility to disconnect office
equipment from power supply
outside office hours (40W)
- With notebooks (82W)
- possibility to disconnect office
equipment from power supply
outside office hours (0W)
ventilation - no night ventilation possible - night ventilation possible
Level of
individual
occupants
Use of blinds - blinds closed all day
(passive user)
- slat angle 10 (no view)
- blinds opened + closed according
to glare or heat protection
(active user)
- slat angle 45 (limited view)
Use of lights - light on during working hours
(passive user)
- light on/off according to daylight
(active user)
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
586 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
4 xx.x SECTION NAME

Figure 2: Comparison of different adaptive thermal

comfort standards and categories, low-cost variation
Apart from the low cost configuration, the green
building is more affected by different occupant
behaviour than the prestige variation. This is caused
by the high level of solar protection which minimizes
solar heat gains so internal heat loads (especially
office equipment) become the predominant influence.

Figure 3: Comparison of different adaptive thermal

comfort standards and categories, prestige variation
Figures 1-3 indicate, that all variations are quite
sensitive towards changes of the weather data set.
When using the hot instead of the average weather
data set, thermal comfort percentages decrease up
to 13%. The influence of the weather data set is
strongest when internal heat loads are low (ideal
scenario). Additionally, when night ventilation is not
applicable (worst case scenario), the influence of the
weather data set is more strongly depending on the
level of protection from solar heat gains and the
facade insulation. Overall the green building variation
has highest percentages of working time meeting the
comfort criteria, but is also most sensitive towards
weather data changes.
3.2 Exceeding hours and comfort limits
Figure 4 shows a comparison of the Ashrae
Standard 55 and EN 15251 comfort limits over the
course of the year, together with the operative room
temperatures for the green building with ideal or
worst case occupant scenario. For a better
readability of the picture, for EN 15251 only the
comfort limits of category I and III are shown.
The comparison of the comfort limits between
Ashrae Standard 55 and EN 15251 reflects the
different outside temperature reference in both
standards. EN 15251 refers to the exponentially
weighted running mean of the daily mean external
temperature, and thus reacts to outside temperature
changes on a shorter time scale than the Ashrae
model, which is reflected in the distribution of the
upper and lower limits. The Ashrae 55 adaptive
model in contrast is based on the mean outdoor
monthly air temperature, which leads to a smoother
distribution of temperature limits compared to the EN
15251 model.
Another obvious difference between both models
is, that upper as well as lower comfort limits
according to EN 15251 are significantly higher than
those of Ashrae Standard 55. For the investigated
climate, the upper limits of EN 15251 category I are
in the same ballpark compared to the upper limits of
Ashrae Standard 55 with 80% acceptability. And the
lower limits of EN 15251 category III are as a first
approximation comparable to the lower limits of
Ashrae Standard 55 with 90% acceptability.
The investigated green building configuration
exceeds the comfort limits of both standards mainly
in winter and in summer. Compared to Ashrae
Standard 55, EN 15251 allows for higher
temperatures during summer, whereas Ashrae
Standard 55 allows for colder temperatures during
winter. It can be concluded, that the fact that comfort
criteria are not met, is not only due to overheating in
summer, but to a large extent also due to exceeding
of the lower comfort limits in winter.
The distribution of the comfort limits for both
standards is interesting in the context of the
operative room temperatures. Figure 4 shows two
sets of operative room temperatures for the green
building design, one with an ideal occupant scenario
and the other with the worst case scenario.
Temperatures for the worst case scenario are
approximately 2-3 K higher throughout the year than
for the ideal scenario mainly due to different use of
office equipment and lighting.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 587
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-
15 July 2011
5

Figure 4: Distribution of comfort limits for EN 15251 and Ashrae Standard 55 and operative room temperatures for the green
building configuration
4. DISCUSSION
Section 3 compares the EN 15251 with the
Ashrae Standard 55 adaptive thermal comfort model
for the climate of Athens, Greece.
The comparison shows that is it almost
impossible to meet the criteria of the two models for
the investigated configurations of building design and
occupant behaviour, because comfort limits are
frequently exceeded. However this does not only
refer to the upper limits and related overheating but
to a large extent also to exceeding of the lower limits.
Common interpretation of the exceeding criteria
however, mainly refers to the upper limits. Thus
exceeding hours are likely to be considered
overheating hours. Most of the investigated
configurations would still not meet the comfort criteria
in both models when only the exceeding hours of the
upper limits would be taken into account.
Nevertheless a separate evaluation of exceeding
hours of the upper and lower comfort limits might be
helpful for thermal comfort evaluation based on the
two adaptive models. Upper limits indicate a risk for
overheating, and a possible need for an additional
cooling system, whereas the lower limits refer to
winter conditions and the use of the heating system.
Both adaptive models have been designed to
support the application of natural ventilation with
focus on summer conditions. However just the
number of exceeding hours without a differentiation
concerning upper and lower limits might give an
incorrect picture of the thermal conditions in summer
and could lead to an overestimation of the need for
air-conditioning.
Ashrae Standard 55 is supposed to be applicable
world-wide and EN 15251 within Europe. Thus both
standards can be applied in Greece, however the
definition of the range of comfort temperatures in
relation to outside conditions differ significantly
between both models. As mentioned in the standard,
the EN 15251 adaptive model is based on a limited
database for temperatures above 25 degrees, so
further investigation in a Mediterranean context could
be helpful to validate the comfort limits. Especially
the lower limits of EN 15251 category I are frequently
exceeded for the investigated variations. However a
field study [11] indicates that temperatures which the
standard considers cool where perceived
comfortable in real buildings, so a rethinking of
comfort limits for the standard was suggested.
Figure 4 illustrates the variability of operative
room temperatures depending on the ideal or worst
case occupant scenario. The magnitude of variability
is significant and could lead to a different comfort
classification according to EN 15251 or Ashrae
Standard 55 just based on different occupant
behaviour. This corresponds with other findings [12],
where a significant adaptive resilience of occupants
also led to the conclusion that strict temperature
standards might be inappropriate and a more flexible
evaluation strategy focused on the specific building
more suitable. For the green configuration it can be
observed, that during winter the worst case scenario
with higher internal heat loads is actually beneficial
for thermal comfort evaluation due to increased room
temperatures caused by heat loads from office
equipment and lighting. A large magnitude of
variability can also be observed in figures 1-3 for the
use of different weather data sets (average vs. hot)
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
588 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
6 xx.x SECTION NAME
for the location of Athens. These effects should be
considered when evaluating the influence of
occupants on thermal comfort evaluation.
5. CONCLUSION
Adaptive thermal comfort standards like EN
15251 and Ashrae Standard 55 are a useful tool to
evaluate comfort in naturally ventilated buildings and
to provide target values for operative temperatures
based on field studies in real buildings. This paper
addresses some key difficulties concerning the
application of the adaptive models:
For the Mediterranean climate in Athens,
Greece, it is very difficult to fulfil the criteria of
the adaptive thermal comfort models according
to EN 15251 and Ashrae Standard 55. In
practice it can therefore be legally safer to rely
on air-conditioning rather than on natural
ventilation. A comment in the standards, how to
deal with exceeding hours of different
magnitude and to differentiate between
exceeding the upper and lower limits could be
helpful to support the applicability of natural
ventilation in buildings.
The investigated configurations of building
design and occupant behaviour led to different
comfort classification according to EN 15251
and Ashrae Standard 55. Further validation
concerning the comfort limits in a
Mediterranean context could be useful.
This study shows, that the percentage of
working time meeting the comfort criteria
according to EN 15251 or Ashrae Standard 55
varied up to 10% depending on the climate data
and up to 30% depending on occupant
scenarios. This contradicts with the strict
comfort limits as defined in EN 15251 and
Ashrae Standard 55, which suggest a very high
level of precision in terms of thermal comfort
predictability. The introduction of a certain level
of comfort negotiability in adaptive thermal
comfort standards might be helpful, to take
advantage of the individual range of adaptive
possibilities in a specific building. This could
support the application of natural ventilation in
buildings as well as the satisfaction of
occupants.
When predicting adaptive thermal comfort by
using building simulation, the results should
refer to the weather data set and occupant
behaviour the study has been based on, and
provide information concerning their likelihood
for variability due to different influences.
6. REFERENCES
[1] DIN EN 15251:2007-08, Indoor environmental
input parameters for design and assessment of
energy performance of buildings addressing
indoor air quality, thermal environment, lighting
and acoustics, Beuth Verlag, Berlin, 2007.
[2] ASHRAE 2004 ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55R -
Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human
Occupancy. Published by American Society of
Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning
Engineers, Inc.
[3] de Dear, R & Schiller Brager, G 2001, 'The
adaptive model of thermal comfort and energy
conservation in the built environment',
International Journal of Biometeorology, vol. 45,
no. 2, pp. 100-8.
[4] Nicol, F & Humphreys, M 2010, 'Derivation of
the adaptive equations for thermal comfort in
free-running buildings in European standard
EN15251', Building and Environment, vol. 45,
no. 1, pp. 11-7.
[5] Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change
IPCC (2007): climate change 2007,
synthesis report, summary for policymakers,
[6] Founda, D., Papadopoulos, K.H., Petrakis, M.,
Giannakopoulos, C., Good, P. (2004): Analysis of
mean, maximum and minimum temperature in At
hens from 1897 to 2001 with emphasis on the las
t decade: trends, warm events and cold events, G
lobal and planetary change, 44, pp. 2738
[7] Pltz, G, Hoffmann, S. (2007): Zur Aussagekraft
von Simulationsergebnissen auf Basis der
Testreferenzjahre (TRY) ber die Hufigkeit
sommerlicher berhitzung, Bauphysik 29, Heft 2,
pp 99-109.
[8] Meteonorm 6.0, Global Meteorological Database
for Engineers, Planners and Education
www.meteonorm.com (Accessed 17 Jan. 2010)
[9] Relux professional 2007-5 calculation and light
design program, http://www.relux.biz/ (Accessed
17 Jan. 2010)
[10]DIN EN 12464-1:3-2003: Light and Lighting of
work places Part 1: Indoor work places, Beuth
Verlag, Berlin
[11] Nicol, F., Cunill, E. 2010, Rethinking the comfort
limits for free-running buildings in EN 15251
proceedings of Palenc Conference, 29.9.-
1.10.2010, Rhodes Island, Greece
[12] Baker, N & Standeven, M 1996, 'Thermal
comfort for free-running buildings', Energy and
Buildings, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 175-82.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 589
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
The Influence of Environment on Peoples Thermal
Comfort in Outdoor Urban Spaces in Hot Dry
Climates
The example of Damascus, Syria
Moohammed WASIM YAHIA
1
, Erik JOHANSSON
1
1
Housing Development & Management, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
ABSTRACT: It is well known that the quality of outdoor urban spaces becomes one of the important items in the
urban design process not only for ecological and economical purposes, but also it is important from the social
point of view. This study is part of a project in the city of Damascus, Syria which aims to point out the impact of
current urban design on microclimate and outdoor thermal comfort in a hot dry climate during summer and
winter. The aim of this study is to examine the influence of urban spaces on peoples thermal perception. The
aim is also to examine how people experience the aesthetical quality of the urban design in the studied areas
(beautifulness, pleasantness). The study also examines the influence of the use of air conditioning devices on
peoples thermal perception. This study is based on over 720 structured interviews during summer and winter.
Results show clear differences between peoples thermal perception in both summer and winter seasons.
Moreover, people's perception of pleasantness and beautifulness is influenced by the weather and climate. On
the other hand, no significant impact could be found for the influence of air conditioning devices on peoples
outdoor thermal perception.
Keywords: hot dry climate, outdoor thermal comfort, outdoor urban spaces, thermal perception.
1. INTRODUCTION
In urban settlements, the concentration of people
and their activities create intensified demands on the
environment. However, this concentration offers
opportunities, through microclimatic adaptation,
design and actions at an urban scale to minimize the
impact on the ecosystem of the region without
causing damage. It can then be said that a level of
sustainable existence has been reached at which the
community can live in symbiotic harmony between
design, microclimate, and its environment. On the
other hand, it is well known that the quality of outdoor
urban spaces becomes one of the important items in
the urban design process not only for ecological and
economical purposes, but also it is important from
the social point of view.
Efforts by public agencies and private interest
groups to revitalize the central business districts in
urban environments have often included large
expenditures for outdoor pedestrian spaces. Many
such amenity spaces have failed to receive more
than light use. This failure has been attributed partly
to a general disregard for the physical-comfort needs
of the users [1].
The need for thermal comfort is ubiquitous, but it
seems often to be forgotten in the designs of outdoor
spaces. On the other hand human comfort and
energy use of buildings are affected by the local
climate conditions within the urban canopy [2] and
the microclimate in the urban environment may have
a great influence on thermal comfort and the human
body.
In warm climates, it is well known that mental and
physical performance deteriorates at high
temperatures and that heat stress may lead toheat-
related illness [3]. Moreover, when the bodys
adaptive mechanisms to heat stress fail to keep core
body temperature close to 37C, a number of
physiological disorders can occur. Among the more
common are: Heat exhaustion, heat stroke, heart
attack [4].
Thermal comfort is defined as the condition of
mind which expresses satisfaction with the thermal
environment [5]. Variables of thermal comfort are the
air temperature, radiant temperature, relative
humidity, air velocity, activity and clothing [6]. The
microclimatic factors are affected by the urban
surface and at a given point; these factors affect the
human activities from ground level up to 2 m height.
Recently, the importance of the concept of
thermal comfort can be noticed in the latest related
scientific researches. Some studies have focused on
the influence of urban design and urban geometry on
outdoor thermal comfort [7, 8]. Some others have
focused on thermal comfort and outdoor activity in
urban public places [9]. Others tried to study the
thermal perception, adaption and attendance in
urban public spaces [10].
This study is part of a project in the city of
Damascus, Syria (see Figure 1).which aims to point
out the impact of current urban design on
microclimate and outdoor thermal comfort in a hot
dry climate during summer and winter. This is an
area of research which has received little attention in
the Middle East from the architectural perspective
and it would be the first study of its kind in
Damascus.
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
6 xx.x SECTION NAME
for the location of Athens. These effects should be
considered when evaluating the influence of
occupants on thermal comfort evaluation.
5. CONCLUSION
Adaptive thermal comfort standards like EN
15251 and Ashrae Standard 55 are a useful tool to
evaluate comfort in naturally ventilated buildings and
to provide target values for operative temperatures
based on field studies in real buildings. This paper
addresses some key difficulties concerning the
application of the adaptive models:
For the Mediterranean climate in Athens,
Greece, it is very difficult to fulfil the criteria of
the adaptive thermal comfort models according
to EN 15251 and Ashrae Standard 55. In
practice it can therefore be legally safer to rely
on air-conditioning rather than on natural
ventilation. A comment in the standards, how to
deal with exceeding hours of different
magnitude and to differentiate between
exceeding the upper and lower limits could be
helpful to support the applicability of natural
ventilation in buildings.
The investigated configurations of building
design and occupant behaviour led to different
comfort classification according to EN 15251
and Ashrae Standard 55. Further validation
concerning the comfort limits in a
Mediterranean context could be useful.
This study shows, that the percentage of
working time meeting the comfort criteria
according to EN 15251 or Ashrae Standard 55
varied up to 10% depending on the climate data
and up to 30% depending on occupant
scenarios. This contradicts with the strict
comfort limits as defined in EN 15251 and
Ashrae Standard 55, which suggest a very high
level of precision in terms of thermal comfort
predictability. The introduction of a certain level
of comfort negotiability in adaptive thermal
comfort standards might be helpful, to take
advantage of the individual range of adaptive
possibilities in a specific building. This could
support the application of natural ventilation in
buildings as well as the satisfaction of
occupants.
When predicting adaptive thermal comfort by
using building simulation, the results should
refer to the weather data set and occupant
behaviour the study has been based on, and
provide information concerning their likelihood
for variability due to different influences.
6. REFERENCES
[1] DIN EN 15251:2007-08, Indoor environmental
input parameters for design and assessment of
energy performance of buildings addressing
indoor air quality, thermal environment, lighting
and acoustics, Beuth Verlag, Berlin, 2007.
[2] ASHRAE 2004 ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55R -
Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human
Occupancy. Published by American Society of
Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning
Engineers, Inc.
[3] de Dear, R & Schiller Brager, G 2001, 'The
adaptive model of thermal comfort and energy
conservation in the built environment',
International Journal of Biometeorology, vol. 45,
no. 2, pp. 100-8.
[4] Nicol, F & Humphreys, M 2010, 'Derivation of
the adaptive equations for thermal comfort in
free-running buildings in European standard
EN15251', Building and Environment, vol. 45,
no. 1, pp. 11-7.
[5] Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change
IPCC (2007): climate change 2007,
synthesis report, summary for policymakers,
[6] Founda, D., Papadopoulos, K.H., Petrakis, M.,
Giannakopoulos, C., Good, P. (2004): Analysis of
mean, maximum and minimum temperature in At
hens from 1897 to 2001 with emphasis on the las
t decade: trends, warm events and cold events, G
lobal and planetary change, 44, pp. 2738
[7] Pltz, G, Hoffmann, S. (2007): Zur Aussagekraft
von Simulationsergebnissen auf Basis der
Testreferenzjahre (TRY) ber die Hufigkeit
sommerlicher berhitzung, Bauphysik 29, Heft 2,
pp 99-109.
[8] Meteonorm 6.0, Global Meteorological Database
for Engineers, Planners and Education
www.meteonorm.com (Accessed 17 Jan. 2010)
[9] Relux professional 2007-5 calculation and light
design program, http://www.relux.biz/ (Accessed
17 Jan. 2010)
[10]DIN EN 12464-1:3-2003: Light and Lighting of
work places Part 1: Indoor work places, Beuth
Verlag, Berlin
[11] Nicol, F., Cunill, E. 2010, Rethinking the comfort
limits for free-running buildings in EN 15251
proceedings of Palenc Conference, 29.9.-
1.10.2010, Rhodes Island, Greece
[12] Baker, N & Standeven, M 1996, 'Thermal
comfort for free-running buildings', Energy and
Buildings, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 175-82.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
590 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
PLEA2011
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 591
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A similar
x.x SECTION NA AME 3
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distribution between the summer and winter seasons
has been found in the subtropical climate of Sydney,
Australia [12].

Figure 4: Percentage frequencies for people's thermal

perception in both summer and winter seasons.

5.2. Aesthetical quality of the place

Figure 5 shows the percentage frequencies for
the aesthetical quality of the places (beautifulness,
ugliness). Result shows that the majority of the
people, 72% and 82% in summer and winter
respectively, experience the same places during the
summer and winter seasons as beautiful whereas,
only 18% and 13% in summer and winter
respectively experience the places as neutral, and
10% and 5% in summer and winter respectively
experience the places as ugly (Chi-square = 10.52,
P=.005, df = 2). In addition, the results show that the
people experience the same places in the winter
season more beautiful than in the summer season.
The results imply that, people's perception of beauty
is influenced by the weather and climate. The result
agrees with other studies in different climates [13].

Figure 5: Percentage frequencies for people's

perception of beauty in both summer and winter seasons.
Figure 6 illustrates the percentage frequencies for
the aesthetical quality of the places (pleasantness,
unpleasantness). Result shows that the majority of
the people, 68% and 78% in summer and winter
respectively, experience the same places during
summer and winter seasons as pleasant whereas,
only 19% and 16% in summer and winter
respectively experience the place as neutral, and
13% and 6% in summer and winter respectively
experience the place as unpleasant (Chi-square =
11.14, P=.004, df = 2). In addition, result shows that
the people experience the same places in the winter
season more pleasant than in the summer season.
The results imply that people's perception of
pleasantness is influenced by the weather and
climate. The result agrees with other studies in
different climates [14].

Figure 6: Percentage frequencies for people's

perception of beauty (pleasantness) in both summer and
winter seasons.

5.3. The influence of air conditioning devices on

thermal comfort
Since Damascus has a hot dry climate, people
usually have air conditioning devices either at home
or at work. Figure 7 shows the percentage frequency
in summer and winter seasons for people who use
the air conditioning devices and for those who do
not. The result shows that around 73% of the
interviewees use air conditioning devices whereas,
27% of the interviewees do not use them. Thus, air
conditioning devices in Damascus city are widely
used during summer and winter time either for
heating or for cooling purposes. This can be
explained by the lack of the comfortable conditions
and the need for better thermal adaption between
indoor and outdoor environment.
Figure 7: Percentage frequencies for people who use
the air conditioning devices.
4 xx.x SECTION NAME
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Figure 8 shows the influence of the use of air
conditioning devices on people's outdoor thermal
perception in summer time. The result shows that
there is no significant difference between the people
who use air conditioning and those who do not
concerning outdoor thermal perception (Chi-square =
6.3, P=.390, df = 6).

Figure 8: The influence of the air conditioning devices

on people's outdoor thermal perception in summer season.

Figure 9 reveals the effect of the use of air

conditioning devices on peoples thermal perception
in winter time. Figure 9 illustrates that there is no
significant difference between the people who use air
conditioning and the people who do not concerning
outdoor thermal perception (Chi-square = 10.5,
P=.162, df = 7).

Figure 9: The influence of the air conditioning devices

on people's outdoor thermal perception in winter season.

Consequently, there is no clear relationship

between outdoor thermal perception and the use of
air conditioning devices. The reason could be that
people adapt quickly to their outdoor conditions in
spite of the differences between indoor and outdoor
environments.
Other studies for indoor environments reported
that there is significant difference between the
people who use air conditioning at home or in the
office and the people who do not concerning thermal
comfort perception [15].
6. CONCLUSIONS
As regards the thermal comfort in Damascus city,
the influence of microclimate on people's thermal
perception in the summer season is completely
different from the influence in the winter season at
the same places. In summer time, the study found
that the majority of interviewees felt hot. This can be
improved by enhancing the urban design [16] in
Damascus city as well as by adding trees or shading
devices [17] in order to provide shade for people who
pass or linger on these places.
In spite of the differences in people's thermal
perception at the same places between summer and
winter seasons, people experience the places as
beautiful and pleasant regardless of the differences
in seasons. So the current urban design of the study
areas has been recognized by interviewees as
beautiful and pleasant. On the other hand, the
beautifulness and the pleasantness of the place is
affected by the quality of the urban design, In
addition, thermal comfort is very well needed for
enhancing the quality of the urban spaces especially
in a hot dry climate. Therefore, the considerations of
outdoor thermal comfort should be taken into
account in the urban design process.
Regarding the influence of the use of air
conditioning devices on people's outdoor thermal
perception, no significant result was reported in spite
of the big number of the people who use air
conditioning devices. However, when people use air
conditioning, the microclimate in the summer time will
be negatively affected because the exhaust heat
from the air conditioning devices will lead to
increased air temperatures in outdoor urban spaces.
Therefore, encouraging people's desire to spend
much more time in outdoor urban spaces will help to
reduce the use of air conditioning. On the other
hand, the good quality of urban design is needed to
attract people to spend time in outdoor
environments.
7. FUTURE STUDIES
More studies, including both summer and winter
seasons will be performed within the framework of
the project including statistical analysis of the
emotional states, preferable weather conditions, and
evaluating the outdoor activities for the people who
live in Damascus. In addition, simulation studies will
be conducted in order to give examples to enhance
the thermal environment in outdoor urban spaces in
Damascus city.

xx.x SECTION NAME 5

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6 xx.x SECTION NAME
8. REFERENCES
[1] W. H. Whyte (1972), Please, just a nice place to
sit .N. Y. Times Sunday Mag. 3 Dec. 1972.
[2] B. Givoni (1998), Climate considerations in
buildings and urban design. New York: Van
Nostrand Reinhold.
[3] D.A. McIntyre (1980), Indoor climate, Applied
Science Publishers Ltd, London.
[4] P. A. Bell (red) (2001), Environmental
psychology, Fort Worth.Tex: Harcourt College.
[5] H. J. Plumley (1977), Design of outdoor urban
spaces for thermal comfort. In: Heisler, Gordon
M.; Herrington, Lee P (Red). Proceedings of the
conference on metropolitan physical
environment; Gen. Tech. Rep. NE-25., 152-162.
PA: U.S. Upper Darby.
[6] ASHRAE (2004), Thermal environmental
condition for human occupancy. Atlanta:
American Society of Heating.
[7] E. Johansson (2006a), Influence of urban
geometry on outdoor thermal comfort in a hot
dry climate: A study in Fez, Morocco. Building
and Environment 41: 13261338.
[8] E. Johansson (2006b), Uurban design and
outdoor thermal comfort in warm climates
studies in Fez and Colombo. PhD Thesis,
Housing Development & Management, Lund
University, Lund, Sweden.
[9] I. Knez and S. Thorsson (2007), Thermal,
emotional and perceptual evaluation of a park:
Cross-cultural and environmental attitude
comparison. Building and Environment, 43
(2008) 1483-1490.
[10] T. Ping Lin (2009), Thermal perception, adaption
and attendance in a public square in hot and
humid regions. Journal of Building and
Environment, 44, 2017-2026.
[11] K. Al-Kodmany (1999), Residential Visual
Privacy: Traditional and Modern Architecture
and Urban Design. Journal of Urban Design, 04,
283-312.
[12] J. Spagnolo and R. de Dear (2003), A field study
of the thermal comfort in outdoor and
semioutdoor environments in subtropical Sydney
Australia. Building and Environment, 38,721-
738.
[13] I. Knez (2003), Climate: A nested structure in
places. The 5th International Conference on
Urban Climate (ICUC-5) (pp. 65-67). Poland:
University of Lodz.
[14] I. Knez and S. Thorsson (2006). Influences of
culture and environmental attitude on thermal,
emotional and perceptual evaluations of a
square. International Journal of Biometeorology,
50, 258-268.
[15] J.F. Busch (1992), A tale of two populations:
thermal comfort in air- conditioned and naturally
ventilated offices in Thailand. Energy and
Buildings 18:235-249.
[16] F. Ali-Toudert and H. Mayer (2007), Effects of
asymmetry, galleries, overhanging facades and
vegetation on thermal comfort in urban street
canyons. Solar Energy, 81, 742-754.
[17] J.M. Ochoa and R. Serra (2009), Vegetation
influences on the human thermal comfort in
outdoor spaces. Retrieved June 10, 2010, from
School of Architecture of Barcelona, Dept.
Constructions Arquitectniques I & Dept. Fsica
Aplicada, Web site: http://www-
fa.upc.es/personals/jroset/lyonvege.html

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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 595


Statistical Model Evaluation and Calibrations for
Outdoor Comfort Assessment in South Florida.
Jean-Martin CALDIERON, Mate THITISAWAT, Kasama POLAKIT,
Giancarlo MANGONE
College for Design and Social Inquiry, Florida Atlantic University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.
ABSTRACT: In tropical and subtropical areas, people can spend more time outdoors than in other latitudes.
Understanding the sensitivity of outdoor comfort is a fundamental element for architects and urban designers
working in these specific climates. This study is part of a research project attempting to relate climatic influences
and human thermal sensation. The primary objective of this funded research is to study the influence of climatic
parameters in outdoor comfort. This paper analyzes the climatic parameters such as temperature, radiation,
humidity, and wind speed in four selected public spaces in the downtown area of the city of Fort Lauderdale,
Southeast Florida. The climatic data was correlated with thermal sensation surveys of occupants using selected
public spaces. This paper presents data from the surveys, evaluates two existing statistical models, and
proposes two calibrated statistical models to predict thermal comfort based on the values of mean radiant
temperature, wind velocity, relative humidity, and air temperature. The analysis of this data will establish
parameters for architects and urban planners to have a more appropriate design for specific outdoor public
spaces in the area of Fort Lauderdale. This research project is funded by Architectural Research Centers
Consortium (ARCC) and Florida Atlantic University (FAU)
Keywords: South Florida tropical climate, outdoor comfort, statistical model calibrations, climate surveys.
1. INTRODUCTION
This study is based on survey data compiled in
the City of Fort Lauderdale, which is located in a
semitropical region. The four sites utilized are open
public spaces within an urban fabric. These sites
host a combination of variables: natural features vs.
man made features, and linear vs. park/plaza space.
The study presents data from the survey, evaluates
statistical models, and calibrates them using the
survey data.
Most people living in South Florida do not walk
or use outdoor public spaces as much as the
inhabitants of other tropical and sub-tropical areas
throughout the world. According to the survey,
participants spend about 2.6 hours per day outdoors.
Private cars transportation is more dominant than
public transportation. Some reasons for less outdoor
living are the availability of parking areas, the relative
low density and the inadequate public transportation.
Outdoor comfort plays an important role in the use of
outdoor spaces. The millions of visitors that arrive
each year to South Florida beaches and other
attractions appreciate the climate of the region.
However, temperatures can be very high during the
summer months. Relatively high temperature
together with high humidity is one of the reasons why
many Floridians spend relatively little time outdoors.
In the case of Fort Lauderdale, as with many other
cities in the South and Central area of the state, one
of the main problems is high solar radiation due to
lack of shading to protect outdoor spaces. More than
70% of the participants in the sites with less natural
features would like more shading trees or structures.
In South Florida there is a predominant use of
several species of palm trees in the cities landscape.
Palm trees are considered exotic for the tourists
visiting the state from cold regions; however they do
not produce enough shadow to encourage the use of
the surrounding areas. Adequate and well-designed
outdoor spaces in conjunction with the study of
outdoor thermal comfort will help to improve the
quality of outdoor public spaces.
2. OUTDOOR THERMAL COMFORT
2.1. Importance of outdoor thermal comfort:
The development of design parameters and a
more knowledgeable understanding of outdoor
thermal comfort can enhance the quality of outdoor
spaces. Well-designed outdoor spaces can improve
the economy, natural ecology, social well-being, and
lifestyles of the local communities. The development
of outdoors spaces with optimal thermal comfort
have been shown to increase local real estate
values, urban pedestrian and cycling levels, and
public transportation usage. Successful spaces that
attract a large number of people have been found to
attract businesses, workers, and residents (1).
Therefore, the local communities can become more
economically profitable through outdoor space
designs that combine different strategies to respond
to summer and winter conditions. The consumption
of building energy can be reduced by providing
shading from solar radiation in the summer and
potentially providing a radiant heat source in the
winter through the provision of an exterior thermal
mass.
2.2. Metric model for Outdoor thermal comfort:
A standardized metric model for determining
optimal thermal comfort for occupants of outdoor
spaces has undergone a development. The model
development requires localizations responsive to
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596 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)


local climates. Psychological adaptation plays an
important role in the model development for the
outdoor thermal comfort assessment (3). In previous
research (4), the psychological adaptation includes
effects from: naturalness, expectations, experience
(short/long term), time of exposure, perceived control
and environmental stimulation, These parameters
have a variant percentage of impact, and should be
considered in relation to whether these parameters
can impact design decisions, and vice versa. The
psychological adaptation effects can produce
disagreement between model predictions and actual
sensation votes. Hence, there are needs for model
adjustment to fit the local climatic conditions.

People living outdoors falsely assume that the

outdoor thermal microclimate cannot be controlled
through architectural design or mechanical control,
and thus, they perceive a broader range of
conditions as acceptable in regards to climate (2).
Research has shown that quantifiable, microclimatic
physical parameters can account for approximately
50% of the variation between subjective and
objective comfort evaluation.

2.3. PMV model

This research focused on modifying the
internationally accepted thermal comfort prediction
model for building occupants, PMV. Fanger
developed this method in the late 1960s via testing
the comfort level of college students in steady air-
conditioned interior environments within moderate
thermal climate zones (2).
PMV predicts the mean thermal sensation vote
on a standard scale for a large group of people in
any given combination of thermal environmental
variables, such as activity, and clothing levels. PMV
has been shown to be inaccurate in predicting
occupant thermal comfort in naturally ventilated
buildings, as well as in outdoor spaces (3).
Regardless of inadequate predictions of outdoor
thermal comfort conditions using the PMV, the
results of this research project developed substantive
correlations between actual thermal comfort votes
and predicted thermal comfort votes, through the
development of a thermal prediction model based on
PMV. Discrepancies still occurred, which can most
likely be attributed to the lack of inclusion of
psychological adaptation into the model, although
further research into this phenomenon is required.
Furthermore, this model cannot be applied at a
global scale within varying climate zones, and has
not been tested for varying seasons.
Utilizing a standard metric system for multiple
outdoor sites within a specific thermal climate region
provides a basis to compare, quantify, and qualify
the thermal qualities, comfort levels, and design
characteristics of inherent heterogeneous outdoor
environments. As previous research has identified
(5), a citys outdoor spaces cannot be analyzed and
evaluated as a whole, but rather evaluated on an
individual basis. Therefore each space is unique
providing them with different thermal qualities due to
the surrounding local environment. This methodology
has the potential to identify the design parameters,
qualities of outdoor space, and individual
physiological and psychological parameters that lead
to optimal outdoor thermal environments.
In this paper, a statistical regression model is
proposed. Researchers have been working with
climatic data such as radiant temperature, wind
velocity, and humidity as parameters for a statistical
model. (1) and (6). This research is a pilot study to
understand the validity of proposed models.
3. DESCRIPTION OF THE EXPERIMENT
METHODOLOGY:
3.1. Selected Public sites:
The research is based on interviews with the users of
the selected public sites and climatic data collected
during the process. The data was recorded in four
different public areas located in downtown Fort
Lauderdale during 2010 Summer and Fall.
The first site is the Broward County Main Library
Plaza/Park
(Figure 1), this is one of the few spaces downtown
where local people congregate. The plaza has a
generous grass area surrounded by matured trees,
the pavement leading to the library entry occupies
less than twenty percent of the total area.

Figure 1: Aerial view of the Broward County Main Library
Plaza/Park

The second site is Riverwalk (Figure 2), a waterfront
touristic pedestrian corridor adjacent to the New
River. The proximity to the water is an opportunity to
create a favourable microclimate. Nowadays, the
discontinuity of shading and the abundance of
hardscape pavement make this area uncomfortable
to be used as a resting place.

Figure 2: Aerial view of the Riverwalk

The third site is Las Olas Boulevard (Figure 3), a
longitudinal corridor with small commercial, retail,
restaurants, and some shading trees. The
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 597


commercial activities and shadows allow the
continuous use of this outdoor space throughout the
length of the corridor.

Figure 3 : Aerial view of Las Olas Boulevard

The last selected site is the University Plaza ( Fig 4).

This sector is walled on two sides by University
buildings. Due to the proximity of the educational
buildings, it is expected to anticipate a significant
participation of users within the gathering space.
Unfortunately the plaza lacks sufficient shade and
appropriate vegetation and it is also exposed to
adjacent traffic on both east and west front.
A better design will allow this space to be used by
the public more frequently. As detailed in this
section, the selected sites for the study have unique
characteristics that allow for obtaining a diverse data
pool.

Figure 4: Aerial view of the University Plaza

3.2 Survey interviews methodology:
The surveys comprise an interview of almost 100
users at the four selected public spaces. User
activities within the selected spaces range from
walking, resting, exercising or just passing through.
Most of the interviews were realized during the noon
and afternoon hours due to higher levels of activities
and user volume in the selected public areas.
The survey questions revealed information such
as:
-The users characteristics including city of origin
gender, age, height, weight and skin colour.
-Activity that the user has been involved in the
last 15 minutes.
-Descriptions of clothing and clothing adaptation
(preference to remove or add a clothing item).
-Duration of being outdoors.
-Daily average of time spent in an air-conditioned
space and outdoors.
-Sensation votes related to: comfort, humidity,
wind, sunlight.
-Opinions on the selected urban spaces and the
use of public urban spaces.
-Point measurements of the skin and the clothing
temperatures of each interviewer.
A modified version of the questionnaire is
presented bellow.

Figure 5: Modified Survey interview questionnaire.
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598 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)


From all the data collected in the interviews, this
paper only uses the results of the actual sensation
vote according to a proposed 9-point thermal
sensation scale. The scale is similar to the ASHRAE
scale, differing by an additional category to
incorporate a very hot thermal sensation. The
proposed 9-point thermal sensation scale is
compared to the ASHRAE scale in Table 1.
Table 1: 9-point thermal sensation scale compared with
ASHRAE scale.

9-points ASHRAE Value
Very hot 4
Hot Hot 3
Warm Warm 2
Slightly
warm
Slightly
warm 1
Neutral Neutral 0
Slightly
cool Slightly cool -1
Cool Cool -2

3.3 Climatic data methodology:
Detailed climatic data was measured during each
interview using portable mini-weather stations. The
data comprises the following measurements:
- Amplified Pyrometers to measure the global and
diffuse radiation
- A QuestTemp 36 portable monitor able to measure:
- Mean radiant temperature,
- Relative humidity
- Wind speed
- Dry and wet bulb temperature
- Data loggers type CR200X record the data in
intervals of 1 second during each interview, and
generate averages every 1 minute to match the
same recording resolution of QuestTemp 36.

4. RESULTS
The collected data in the survey is complex and
only some parameters are analyzed in this paper.
Further surveys in all the seasons and additional
user surveys will provide more complete results than
in this pilot study.

4.1 Climate data results:

The average values of the most important
climatic data collected during the interviews are
presented as a reference in Table 2. The data only
includes interviews and measurements taken during
the day. Early morning and night data is not part of
this experiment. In future research, the climatic data
will include additional hours and all the seasons of
the year.
Table 2: Climate data during the surveys interviews
in Fort Lauderdale.
Mean
St
Dev Min Max
Avg
WBT 23.5 2.2 21 27.2
Avg
DBT 28.6 1.6 26.7 31.4
Avg
Globe 32.4 7.0 26.8 46.4
AvgWBGTout 26.1 3.1 22.8 31.2
AvgRH (%) 0.6 0.1 0.4 0.8
Airflow (m/s) 1.7 0.9 0.3 3.2
AvgHea
tIndex 56.9 25.4 30.5 84.7

4.2 Survey interviews results:

From all the data recollected in the surveys, this
paper uses only the actual sensation vote (ASV).
Table 3 shows the percentage of each value of the
thermal sensation scale in relation to the air
temperature at the moment of the interview. The
original 9-point thermal sensation scale described in
Table 1 was reduced to six points because none of
those interviewed voted for any of the last three cold
thermal sensation options. The average air
temperature or dry bulb temperature was 28.56 C
during the interviews and the standard deviation was
2.2 C. This small deviation is explained by the fact
that the data was gathered during the summer and
fall seasons when changes of temperature usually
are not pronounced in South Florida.

Table 3: ASV of those interviewed in relation with the air
temperature
(ASV) Air Temperature
26<28 28<30 30<32
Cool (%) 5.3 0 0
Comfortable (%) 30.6 14.7 2.7
Warm (%) 4 9.3 1.3
Slightly hot (%) 1.3 4 5.3
Hot (%) 0 4 14.7
Very Hot (%) 0 1.3 1.3
5. MODELLING THERMAL COMFORT:
In order to find a correlation between the ASV
and the data collected during the interview, two
correlation models were developed.

5.1 Statistical Model SV1

The first one uses the following variables:
MRT= Mean Radiant Temperature
V= Wind Velocity
RH Relative humidity
AirTemp: Dry bulb temperature
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 599


The original formula was developed by a pilot study
in Greece by Nikolopoulou, (7), and its formula is as
follow:
SV1 = 0.061*(AirTemp) + 0.091*(MRT-AirTemp) -
0.324*(v) + 0.003*(RH*100) - 1.455

SV1 is the sensation vote of the original formula.
Figure 6 present a scattered diagram between the
ASV and the original model SV1. Root Mean Square
Error (RMSE) is used to evaluate the predictive
power of the model. A lower value of the RMSE
indicates a small degree of disagreement between
model predictions and the ASV. The data has a
RMSE of SV1 model is 1.1603.



Figure 6: Scattered table of actual sensation vote (ASV) in
relation with the sensation vote in the calibrated model
(SV1)

5.2 Statistical Model SV2
A second proposal is SV2, a calibrated model of SV1
expressed as follow:
SV2 = 0.2336*(AirTemp) + 0.1886*(MRT-
AirTemp) + 0.0252*(v) + 0.0478*(RH*100) - 9.2268
It was found that the formula above yielded a root
mean square error (RMSE) of 0.6967, has a very
satisfactory performance. (Fig 7)

Figure 7: Scattered table of actual sensation vote (ASV) in
relation with the sensation vote in the calibrated model
(SV2)
Looking at the statistical influence of each
parameter, the air temperature is the most important
factor in the model. There is a stronger correlation
between the standard vote of the model and the
Actual sensation vote (ASV) of the public in model
SV2 in comparison with model SV1.


5.3 Statistical Model SV3
A third model is proposed for this study. The
original values for this model was developed by
Marques and Peinado (6) The formula components
are the same as the models SV1 and SV2, the
equation is as follow:

SV3 = -3.557 + 0.0632 (AirTemp) + 0.0677(MRT)
+ 0.0105(RH)- 0.304*(v)

SV = sensation vote or thermal sensation perception
MRT = mean radiant temperature
RH = relative humidity
v = wind velocity
The RMSE of this original equation is 1.3999.
Figure 3 shows a scattered diagram of the ASV and
the model proposed SV3. Even when this model is
working in a lineal pattern as expected and there is a
strong correlation between the public opinion or ASV,
the model SV3 has a RMSE much higher than in the
statistical model SV2. The scattered table of the
model is presented in Figure 8.
.


Figure 8: Scattered table of actual sensation vote (ASV) in
relation with the sensation vote in the original model (SV3)

5.4 Statistical Model SV4
The final model proposed in this paper is SV4.
This model uses the same formula as SV3 and the
calibration realized yields:

SV4=9.2268+0.0450*AirTemp+0.1886*MRT+4.7846*
RH+0.0252*v

The prediction using SV4 produces a RMSE of
0.6967
This model works much better than the model
SV3, Figure 9 represents the same type of scattered
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600 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)


diagram presented for the other models. As in the
SV2 calibrated model the ASV has a good
correlation. As a conclusion the calibrated models
can be used in future research after incorporating
some changes. Interestingly, their root mean square
errors between the prediction and the ASV are
identical in the calibrated models SV3 and SV4. This
is due to the fact that they are both linear regression
models with similar climatic parameters in the
equations.


Figure 9: Scattered table of actual sensation vote (ASV) in
relation with the sensation vote in the original model (SV4)
6. CONCLUSIONS

This paper is a pilot study of a research project
investigating the complex parameters influencing
thermal comfort in outdoor spaces. The complexity of
the relationship between the different climatic and
psychological parameters requires future research
and a more complete data pool to include all the
seasons of the year. The main problem is not only
the thermoregulatory system of the human body
responding to climatic conditions, but also the
psychological adaptation parameters.
Two previously proposed statistical models are
evaluated. Their structures are comparable to each
other due to the use of linear regression technique.
Prediction results of the models exhibits trends that
follow the ASV. One of the models SV3 was
proposed for a subtropical area. However, the level
of agreement between predictions using the models,
and the ASV is not adequate.
Subsequently, the two models were calibrated to
develop two new models that yield considerable
improvement. In future research the calibration can
be improved and other parameters could be included
in new model formulas.

7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC)
and Florida Atlantic University (FAU) have financially
supported this research project.
8. REFERENCES
[1] Marialena Nikolopoulou, Nick Bakera and Koen
Steemers, (November 2010) Thermal Comfort
in Outdoor Urban Spaces : Understanding the
Human Parameter , Solar Energy Volume 84,
Issue 11, Pages 1879-1974 (November 2010)
[2] J. Van Hoff, (2008) Forty years of Fangers
model of thermal comfort: comfort for all? Indoor
AirVolume 18, Issue 3.
[3] Marialena Nikolopoulou, Koen Steemers (2003)
Thermal comfort and psychological adaptation
as guide for designing urban spaces Energy and
Buildings 35 95101
[4] Spagnolo, Jennifer; de Dear, Richard (2003) A
field study of thermal comfort in outdoor and
semi outdoor environments in subtropical
Sydney, Australia. Building and environment,
Vol. 38, Issue 5, p.721-738.
[5] H. Mayer and P. Hppe (1987) Thermal comfort
of man in different urban environment
Theoretical and applied climatology, Volume 38,
Number 1, 43-49,
[6] Leonardo Marques Monteiro, Marcia Peinado
Alucci (2009) Thermal Comfort Index for the
Assessment of Outdoors Urban Spaces in
Subtropical Climates. The seventh International
Conference on Urban Climate 29 June - 3 July
2009, Yokohama, Japan
[7] Marialena Nikolopoulou, Spyros Lykoudis and
Maria Kikira (2003) Thermal comfort in outdoors
spaces, field of studies in Greece, 5th
International Conference on Urban Climate,
IAUC-WMO, September Lodz, Poland.

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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 601
Adaptive Principles for Thermal Comfort in Dwellings
From Comfort Temperatures to Avoiding Discomfort
Noortje ALDERS
1
, Stanley KURVERS
1
, Eric VAN DEN HAM
1
Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands
ABSTRACT: Many theories on thermal comfort exist and there are many ways to deliver this in an energy efficient
way. Both aspects are often studied in a static way and most of these studies only regard one of the aspects,
seldom investigating what influence the way of delivering thermal comfort has on the actual perceived thermal
comfort. This paper analyses the knowledge of the different disciplines and integrates it to get a holistic image of
comfort and its delivery systems as well as opportunities in energy saving and enhanced thermal comfort.
Furthermore, it aims to understand the dynamics of weather, thermal comfort and occupancy in dwellings, finding
the opportunities for quality improvement and energy saving. The paper explains the framework considered for
further development of new concepts for comfort delivery and an analytical method for optimizing dynamic building
characteristics. This research is part of a PhD project at the Delft University of Technology.
Keywords: thermal comfort, dynamic analysis, energy, adaptive dwelling
1. INTRODUCTION
As civilization is advancing, the demand for
thermal comfort is increasing, as is the case for all
kinds of comfort. With regard to the design of thermal
comfort amenities for homes, new concepts for
dwellings should be developed to meet the
development in increase of comfort demand.
Specifically the need for flexibility and adaptivity of the
dwelling and its comfort system are eminent in the
following shifts of focus in the Netherlands [1]:
- More varying use of the home and individual
spaces.
- Individual differences in (thermal) comfort
experience get more pronounced and important to
account for.
- Increasing differences in health sensitivity.
- Individualisation increases the need for prevention
of internal nuisance.
- Increasing need for adaptability to future climate
chance.
Technically, it is possible to provide any thermal
environment requested and so is the provision of
diversity in thermal environment. However, various
studies point out that it is not only the physical
thermal environment that determines thermal comfort
[2-4] and that over-conditioning leads to more health
problems and general complaints [5]. Furthermore,
the greater the difference between outdoor climate
and requested indoor climate, the more energy is
required to supply and maintain this indoor climate.
Therefore, it is essential to define the range of
environmental conditions under which people feel
comfortable, optimizing circumstances for health and
productivity while limiting energy consumption.
Besides the physiological parameters, other
conditions should be considered as well, like the
possibilities for influencing the environment and the
context of thermal perception as this greatly
enhances the acceptance of the thermal environment
and thus the range of accepted temperatures.
In the office environment where the setpoint
temperature often is to be controlled centrally it is still
useful to determine average comfort temperatures for
the target group. In this way it is likely that,
statistically, as many people as possible are satisfied,
optimizing their productivity. However, in dwellings
people are considered in charge of their own
environment and they should be able to control their
setpoint temperature individually. The dwelling and
the comfort system should facilitate the occupant to
create their own environment. Furthermore, various
studies point out that thermal comfort is not related to
only one fixed temperature or temperature range [6-
8]. It is also not possible to calculate thermal comfort
with a formula of only physical variables, like the
ASHRAE definition already implicates: "thermal
comfort is a state of satisfaction on the thermal
environment". The main conclusions are that thermal
comfort, like the demand for other types of comfort, is
very personal and relative to time, place and situation.
These aspects shift the question from an actual
comfort temperature to a range of temperatures that
should be avoided to ensure absence of discomfort
likely to occur due to the thermal environment and the
variability of this range as well as the constraints for
other aspects that influence the perception of thermal
comfort. The main question becomes;
What is the range and diversity of thermal comfort
demand that can be expected and what are the most
appropriate ways of delivering this thermal comfort in
an energy efficient way without compromising the
feeling of homeliness?
Because there are so many factors that determine
whether there is a demand for influencing the thermal
environment for comfort and at which level, answering
this question requires a multi-disciplinary approach.
Not only the physiological and quantitative approach
should be considered, but also sociological and
cultural as well as the technical approach are
necessary to be able to meet these various demands
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602 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
in an energy efficient way. Furthermore this paper
aims to clarify the non-quantifiable qualities that
homes should have in order to propagate the
wellbeing of its occupants. After all, a home is a place
to feel at home. Above all it should offer protection
and comfort in a wider sense.
2. COMFORT AS A SUBJECTIVE AND
DYNAMIC CONCEPT
When talking about comfort, the people that
design and produce the systems to deliver it, quantify
the concept of comfort by introducing standard
calculation models, calculating the thermal neutral
temperature using physical parameters as input. It
takes the temperature of thermal neutrality as exact
thermal comfort temperature, standardizing all people
in one model. This approach is often applied as it is a
clear method for assessing quality and predicting
cost. These calculations by comfort models, like the
heat balance model of Fanger [9], appear more
scientific, because exact and finite. However, the
requirements calculated from them are only reliably
obtained by mechanical means, on which they are
based. In this way, air conditioning created its own
market and necessity because natural means cannot
deliver these exact values [3]. However, quantifying
this based on merely physical values leaves out
important factors in perceived comfort. Without doubt,
there is a thermal niche [10], defined by the range
between a critical lower temperature and a critical
upper temperature, outside which people would not
survive for long. Inside this thermal niche there is also
a general neutral zone, defined by a lower comfort
limit and an upper comfort limit, within which there will
be minimum effort to keep the heat balance between
the body and the environment. However, the thermal
neutral temperature isnt necessarily the same as the
thermal comfort temperature. When the
thermoregulatory system is balanced there are many
other factors that determine ones comfort. If you are
bothered by one aspect you are more likely to be
uncomfortable by other things; so within the thermal
niche, negative factors decrease tolerance for the
thermal environment and cause to narrow the
bandwidth in which people feel comfortable.
Therefore, great care should be taken to how the
comfort is delivered and the quality of the system,
avoiding discomfort that can frustrate the feeling of
comfort. Not only should the physical properties of
thermal comfort be assessed, but also the non-
quantifiable assets. Furthermore it deserves attention
that people enjoy the action of alleviating discomfort
rather than being comfortable all the time [11, 12].
The level of comfort is neither a static nor a global
phenomenon. Neither is the occupancy or the activity
in the house. The dynamics of stimuli experienced by
the occupant, both thermal and non-thermal, bring
about a perception of the thermal environment by the
occupant. Depending on the thermal state moments
before, but also the more distant past experience are
important, as well as the state and personality of the
occupant and the context of the thermal environment.
The adaptive opportunities are of great influence as
well, regardless of the actual physical change they
cause. The perception of one and the same set of
thermal conditions can be different almost any time.
Therefore it should not be globally defined by
standards and rigid numbers. In the end this can lead
to expectations of homogenous thermal environments
all over the world, which does not only have a
negative effect on health and comfort, but can lead to
excessive energy consumption, trying to fit all the
indoor environments to that one rigid standard [2, 13].
Furthermore, people prefer diversity in their
environment over a homogenous one, both in time as
in locality [11, 14, 15]. In this way they are able to
experience the thermal environment and enjoy it,
which stimulates the feeling of homeliness.
To determine a range of the comfort demand that
could occur, this research uses existing comfort
models. However, the way it deals with these models
is different, because it regards the models as
probabilistic information rather than deterministic as
well as taking into account the dynamics of comfort
perception and taking into account more aspects than
just the physical aspects.
In general, from the thermal comfort models
developed from the 1930s, the adaptive comfort
models (for example, ASHRAE 55 [16] or EN15251
[17]) best describe the situation in homes [18].
Because all of these standards were developed for
offices, the following aspects need to be taken into
account. The approach is evident in the following; this
approach can be used as an opportunity to better
provide the comfort demand and to achieve energy
savings:
Thermal sensitivity of people varies with the
context and expectation. This means that per
individual, thermal sensation and comfort experience
may vary, at constant thermal environmental factors.
These can be both physiological (body weight, vaso-
motion) and mental (expectation, habituation). In
addition, peoples thermal sensitivity may vary from
person to person. Older people for instance are more
sensitive to discomfort and hypothermia or
overheating due to reduced thermal perception and
reduced physiological adaptation [19, 20].
This means there is no fixed optimal temperature
at which least people experience discomfort in a
given situation. In this study, the comfort
temperatures are not regarded as a precision.
Because in the home, there is a small population
which can control their own environment, these
bandwidths are regarded as a probability distribution
of increasing improbability of occurrence. This
statistical dispersion of comfort temperatures will be
greater in homes than in offices, because the sample
is larger, with more individual differences, and the
setpoint temperature can consequently differ
significantly per household.
In homes the adaptive capabilities are typically
greater than in offices by the possibility of customized
clothing, activity, location and opening of windows
and doors. This leads to greater acceptance of the
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 603
climatic conditions and thus a broadening of the
bandwidth of accepted temperatures.
Within the broad temperature limits that need to
be secured, the controllability of the temperature and
the thermal environment are almost as important as
the temperature range itself. This means that the
setpoint temperature is not a single value (like stated
above) but a temperature range which can be easily
adapted by the user within the given bandwidth and
possibly even outside this bandwidth.
Adaptive Comfort Models focus more on a steady
state situation, with one comfort temperature per day.
However, the activities change throughout the day
and so is the assessment of the comfort. This is partly
due to the expectation that the temperature on the
day varies by the natural course of the outdoor
temperature and the response of the dwelling and its
comfort system.
Different comfort bandwidths will be regarded for
different functions because of the difference in activity
levels, clothing insulation, expectations and adaptive
opportunities. These algorithms are used as an
example. Actual data for the Dutch situation is no
available and the questions and data are mainly
based on studies in offices, where the activities and
overall circumstances are different than in dwellings.
However, these algorithms are used as an example,
to clarify the method. More data can later be
implemented. The bandwidths for the living area are
adopted from the SCATS project [7]. The bandwidths
used for bedrooms and bathrooms are adopted from
a Belgian research by Leen Peeters [21].
Figure 1 depicts boundaries for heating and
(passively) cooling indoor spaces. The bandwidths
are defined by the following boundaries; for heating,
there is a minimum, given by the temperature above
which most people feel comfortable and a predefined
system boundary, above which more people will feel
uncomfortable and therefore above which it would be
inefficient to heat. Likewise, for cooling there is a
minimum and a maximum of cooling for energy
efficiency and thermal comfort. Even the width of the
bandwidth can vary from person to person and even
situation, according to the thermal sensitivity of
people.
The following constraints must be bared in mind too:
For children the indoor climate is controlled by the
parents. It is assumed that in general they have larger
physiological adaptation, but because they have
fewer behavioural adaptive capabilities it will comfort
area within the same limits.
Adaptive comfort models can not directly be
translated to use for actively cooled residences. This
project will attempt to provide comfort without active
cooling (use of (additive) energy for the generation of
cold).
Combining the detailed weather data with detailed
occupancy profiles can create detailed comfort
demand profiles that inform about patterns in the
required indoor environment. In this research,
different occupancy patterns are compiled, for the
most common household compositions and for
comparison, some less expected patterns.
Figure 1: Example of adaptive bandwidths for
space temperatures for living areas and bedrooms as
a function of the prevailing outdoor temperature
(Running mean outdoor temperature).
3. DYNAMICS OF WEATHER
To make the system able to seize upon every
conceivable situation, an analysis of variance should
be made, in order to know what kind of combinations
of factors are most likely to occur and which situations
are so rare that they could be omitted. A combination
of frequency distribution, weekly occupancy profiles,
simulation and load duration curves will be used in
this study. The following weather variables are most
influential on the indoor climate and will be compiled
into frequency tables for the past 30 years in weather
station de Bilt (the Netherlands):
- Ambient temperatures
- Solar irradiation (total on surface) (during day)
- Daily and hourly temperature fluctuations
- (Wind speed and direction)
The coincidence of some weather variables can
pose extra constraints on the indoor climate and
comfort. These will be compiled in cross frequency
distributions, to see where highest demand will occur,
for example:
- High ambient temperature + high solar radiation
- Low ambient temperature + high wind speed
especially coming from North
4. DESIGN OF ADAPTIVE DWELLINGS AND
COMFORT SYSTEMS
Most buildings are designed for average weather
circumstances and the dynamic behaviour of the
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604 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
building is seldom regarded. However, if you look at
the dynamic behaviour of weather and the occupant,
the dynamic thermal behaviour of a building is crucial.
Because of the diversity in perception and demand,
the system should be flexible to be sufficient in all
conceivable scenarios and adaptive to the changing
user needs and be energy efficient in just delivering
these fluctuations of need. A dwelling and its comfort
system can be designed to benefit from the prevailing
dynamics of weather and occupancy, adjusting
various settings, like insolation, insulation and
ventilation, according to these dynamic demands and
outdoor climate.

Figure 2: Frequency table depicting differences

between outdoor temperature and demanded
temperature bandwidth for a living room in July in de
Bilt (the Netherlands), with occupancy hours and
bandwidth of comfort temperatures.
With the frequency tables per hour of the day
(possibly compared to average daily course per
month) together with occupancy profiles per room, an
estimate can be made of variance of occurring
demand and possible solutions. In figure 2 an
example is given with the comfort bandwidth (2K
above and below the average comfort temperature)
and an example of occupancy hours.
The dynamic thermal behaviour of a building can
be outlined by a number of specific properties. The
properties of delay and damping the indoor
temperature fluctuation relative to the behaviour of
the outdoor temperature are most important. These
influences can be calculated in an analytical way by
an estimation model. In this model the settings of the
building (e.g. high or low insulation / shading on or
off) can be calculated, per hour or per day, depending
on the techniques used. The following parameters are
considered dynamic:
Instantaneous (independent variables)
T

required indoor temperature [C]

T

outdoor temperature [C]

q

solar incidence [W/m2]

W

internal heat gain [W]

Instantaneous (control variable)

characteristic heat loss coefficient by

ventilation [W/K]
Per day or season (control variables)

= characteristic heat loss coefficient by

transmission [W/K] (e.g. thermal shutters)
ratio of admitted solar incidence through a
transparent surface [W/K]
accessible thermal mass [J/K]

Instantaneous (Dependent variable)

W

heating or cooling power applied [W]

The independent variables are q

, T

, and W

.
The dependent variables are T
i
and W
inst
; T
i
should
remain in the T
c
range (thermal comfort bandwidth)
and W
inst
should be minimized. All other variables can
be considered control variables, that are adjustable
within certain ranges and with a certain rate,
depending on the variable and techniques used. With
these equations, the optimal settings for these
variables can be calculated per hour or per day and
possibly per season. These settings could then be
depicted in similar frequency distributions as for the
weather and thus determine the required physical
behaviour of adaptive comfort systems for dwellings
and their components.
Numerous Climate Responsive Building Elements
and installation techniques are already available or
being developed which can fulfil these required
physical behaviours and this research can give an
impulse for others to be developed.
5. ADAPTIVE HEATING AND PASSIVE
COOLING
The now remaining energy demand for comfort
(W
heat
) should be delivered in an energy efficient and
flexible way with a high degree of user control.
In the summer season the aim is to avoid all
active cooling by preventively flushing excess heat to
ensure that the upper limit of the comfort temperature
is not achieved (not even during absence). However,
these passive measures are slow and cannot prevent
that the temperature still rises at the time of activation
of the measures. Because these measures are far
less energy demanding than active cooling, they can
be used as a preventive measure, when the
temperature has not yet reached the upper limit and
also during absence. The Dutch climate is suitable to
provide for the required indoor climate in this way for
the major part of the year. If the dynamic behaviour of
the home has been determined, the threshold
temperature for preventive passive cooling can be
specified as well.
In winter, if passive measures are not sufficient,
heating is required. However, the patterns of
presence can be unpredictable and the general and
average schedules programmed in the usual clock
thermostat for heating can cause the heating system
to be operational even if people are absent, or the
need to adjust the thermostat when present
unexpectedly. This almost always leads to
unnecessary and unwanted energy use because the
T outdoor
within comfort
bandwidth
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COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE) 605
thermostat is not turned off automatically at times of
unscheduled absence and people will take a margin
leaving the heating on, in case they would be home
unexpectedly. Furthermore, normally the thermostat
only controls the sensor in the living room, thus
heating the entire dwelling at the same time. To
account for this lack of predictability of the comfort
demand, it is useful to operate the heating on
momentary presence per room or zone. With an eye
on comfort and energy saving, the heating preferably
only switches on at presence. This means that the
heat up time must be limited. There are various
measures to ensure fast heating up: for instance
enough capacity, low thermal mass or a certain lower
limit for the temperature at absence. The behaviour of
the total system, the passive and active components
of the house, defines these parameters. During this
heat-up-time the basic temperature should be
reached and subsequently the temperature can be
adjusted according to the preferences of the user.
Basically, the heating can be turned off
immediately when leaving the room. The temperature
will not quickly drop in a well-insulated house.
The building elements should be flexible and
responsive to the dynamic circumstances of weather
and user demand (operable shutters, blinds, windows
etc). The ranges of flexibility of the different elements,
like range of U-value for the windows or range of
ventilation capacity, can be determined by the use of
the estimation model mentioned in paragraph 4.
Provided the temperature behaviour is
predictable and there is a possibility to correct the
temperature within the given comfort area, the
temperature may fluctuate at a speed of 2 K/h
maximally. This fluctuation is hardly noticed and has
no negative impact on comfort [19]. With simulations,
the outcomes will be validated.
6. FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS; USER
ACCEPTANCE
Like all (new) technologies, in order for people to
accept them and to propagate the desired behaviour
to make the system efficient, a number of factors
need to be considered first before designing and
being able to pronounce in the end on energy saving
or quality of the building. The two most important
factors are Perceived Usefulness and Ease of Use,
like described in the Technology Acceptance Model
(TAM) used in sociology and information
management [22]:

- Perceived Usefulness:
The degree to which a person believes that using
a particular system would enhance his or her daily
life.
- Ease of Use:
The degree to which a person believes that using
a particular system would be free of effort.

To ensure a high degree of Perceived usefulness

and ease of use, the following aspects need to be
considered
Motivation: The occupant needs to know why an
amenity is there. For heating or cooling this is evident,
but for ventilation this is not always the case, let alone
if the ventilation system is combined with the heating
or cooling system. In the case of energy saving it is
even more difficult. Saving costs in energy is usually
not so obvious. The energy bill is only presented in
the end of the year and mostly people dont know
exactly how and where energy is saved.

Transparency in operation: The occupant needs to

experience in one way or another, why the system is
doing what its doing. If there are too many things
going on of which the occupant doesnt know what
the purpose is, this can lead to stress, discomfort and
counteractions to alleviate this discomfort. However,
the counteractions can be irrational if the occupant
doesnt understand the systems action, which can
lead to more energy consumption, system failure and
even more discomfort. This is especially important for
systems that operate things that concern our health,
like ventilation and to a lesser degree heating and
cooling.
Flexibility: The settings should be flexible to be
sufficient in all conceivable scenarios.
Control: It is important that occupants have as
much control as is practically possible. Various
studies point out that when occupants can control
their (thermal) environment, the tolerance for
inconveniences increases. These controls should be,
like the system itself, perceivably useful [12, 23, 24].

In their report on controls for end users, Leaman

and Bordass discuss the requirements for good
controls [23]. The main aspects are listed here:

Intuitive: To increase the ease of use for most

occupants, the controls need to be intuitive as there is
no possibility for training, other than a written guide.
Feedback of control: If the control is used, there
should be an immediate feedback that shows the
system status. This could be a tangible feedback like
a click, or an indicator light indicating the system had
read the control input.
Feedback of effect: The intended effect of the
control should be noticeable. This could be the
heating of the radiators that shows the furnace is on.
7. DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
Contrary to what the thermal comfort legislation
and standards claim, there is no need for precise
comfort temperature prediction or measuring in
dwellings. Regarding the diverse and dynamic
character, together with the adaptive possibilities in a
dwelling, make it feasible to assess the thermal
comfort quality of a dwelling by its amenities, flexibility
and control possibilities. Furthermore, to be able to
design a flexible dwelling and comfort system, a
method is proposed to analyse the dynamics of both
the outdoor climate and the occupancy and comfort
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
606 COMFORT AND OCCUPANCY (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE)
preferences, on which future comfort systems for
dwellings can be based.
The method can also provide more insight,
besides simulations used for legislation purposes, to
analyse the response of the building to the outside
world (climate) and the possibilities of occupants
interaction with the system and adjustment of the
system to their needs. In that way a risk analyses can
be made as to which extreme situations can be
tolerated as rarely occurring and which situations
need to be avoided and at which cost to prevent
unnecessary excessive energy consumption.
The remaining work for the PhD will be the
development of concepts for comfort systems that
can provide the required flexibility and comfort quality
in an energy efficient way. The concrete results of the
PhD will be guidelines for designing a flexible and
adaptive dwelling with an integrated comfort system.
8. REFERENCES
1. BouwhulpGroep, Duurzaam Bouwen,
Werken en Wonen Na 2015 - WP 0, in
Duurzaam Bouwen, Werken en Wonen Na
2015. 2007, Bouwhulp Groep: Eindhoven. p.
52.
2. Chappells, H. and E. Shove, The
environment and the home. Draft paper for
the Environment and Human Behaviour
Seminar, 2003.
3. Healy, S., Air-conditioning and the
"homogenization" of people and built
environments. Building Research &
Information, 2008. 36(4): p. 312 - 322.
4. Haldi, F. and D. Robinson, On the behaviour
and adaptation of office occupants. Building
and Environment, 2010. 45(11): p. 2440-
2457.
5. Mendell, M.J., Q. Lei-Gomez, A.G. Mirer, O.
Seppnen, and G. Brunner, Risk factors in
heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning
systems for occupant symptoms in US office
buildings: The US EPA BASE study. Indoor
Air, 2008. 18(4): p. 301-316.
6. Cole, R.J., J. Robinson, Z. Brown, and M.
O'Shea, Re-contextualizing the notion of
comfort. Building Research & Information,
2008. 36(4): p. 323 - 336.
7. McCartney, K.J. and J. Fergus Nicol,
Developing an adaptive control algorithm for
Europe. Energy and Buildings, 2002. 34(6):
p. 623-635.
8. Raja, I.A., J.F. Nicol, K.J. McCartney, and
M.A. Humphreys, Thermal comfort: use of
controls in naturally ventilated buildings.
Energy and Buildings, 2001. 33(3): p. 235-
244.
9. Fanger, P.O., Thermal comfort; analysis and
applications in environmental engineering.
1970, Copenhagen: Danish Technical Press.
244 blz.
10. Tracy, C.R. and K.A. Christian, Ecological
relations among space, time and thermal
niche axes. Ecology, 1986. 67(3): p. 609-
615.
11. de Dear, R., The theory of thermal comfort in
naturally ventilated indoor environments -
"The pleasure principle". International
Journal of Ventilation, 2009. 8(3): p. 243-
250.
12. Brager, G.S., G. Paliaga, and R. de Dear,
Operable Windows, Personal Control and
Occupant Comfort. 2004, eScholarship
Repository.
13. Hitchings, R., Studying thermal comfort in
context. Building Research & Information,
2009. 37(1): p. 89 - 94.
14. Steemers, K. and M.A. Steane,
Environmental Diversity in Architecture.
2004.
15. Heschong, L., Thermal Delight in
Architecture. 1979.
16. American Society of Heating, R.a.A.-C.E.,
Inc. (ASHRAE), Thermal environmental
conditions for human occupancy, in 55,
ASHRAE, Editor. 2004, ASHRAE.
17. Cen, Indoor environmental input parameters
for design and assessment of energy
performance of buildings addressing indoor
air quality, thermal environment, lighting and
acoustics. 2007.
18. Ubbelohde, M.S., G.M. Loisos, and R.
McBride, Comfort Reports. 2003, California
Energy Commission.
19. Schellen, L., W.D. van Marken Lichtenbelt,
M.G.L.C. Loomans, J. Toftum, and M.H. de
Wit, Differences between young adults and
elderly in thermal comfort, productivity, and
thermal physiology in response to a
moderate temperature drift and a steady-
state condition. Indoor Air, 2010. 20(4): p.
273-283.
20. Kingma, B., A. Frijns, W. Saris, A. van
Steenhoven, and W. van Marken
Lichtenbelt, Thermoregulation during mild
temperature changes: The effect of age. In
preparation.
21. Peeters, L., R.d. Dear, J. Hensen, and W.
D'Haeseleer, Thermal comfort in residential
buildings: Comfort values and scales for
building energy simulation. Applied Energy,
2009. 86(5): p. 772-780.
22. Davis, F.D., Perceived usefulness, perceived
ease of use, and user acceptance of
information technology. MIS Quarterly:
Management Information Systems, 1989.
13(3): p. 319-339.
23. Bordass, B. and A. Leaman, Controls For
End Users. 2007, BCIA.
24. Haldi, F. and D. Robinson, On the unification
of thermal perception and adaptive actions.
Building and Environment.
HVAC,
EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION
(COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN)
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN) 609


Investigation of space-heating strategies in very
low-energy houses using dynamic simulations
Case of decentralized wood stoves approaches
Laurent GEORGES
1,2
, Catherine MASSART
1

1
Architecture et Climat, Universit catholique de Louvain (UCL), Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
2
Department of Energy and Process Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU),
Trondheim, Norway
ABSTRACT: By definition, passive or very-low energy houses are characterized by low energy needs. From an
economical point of view, it is important to minimize the investment for the space-heating system because low
consumptions make difficult to amortize this investment. Space-heating using a wood stove is a good trade-off
between a low investment and good environmental performances. Nevertheless, wood stoves ask for long
production cycles and need to operate close to their nominal power in order to reach their best performances.
Unfortunately, these requirements are not easily fulfilled in the context of passive houses as stoves are in
general oversized for these applications. Furthermore, compared to a conventional heating, a single stove is
expected to ensure the thermal comfort within the entire envelope. In this context, the present paper investigates
the performances of this kind of space-heating sources in terms of energy consumption as well as thermal
comfort. This is done using dynamic simulations on one single-family detached house geometry. Nevertheless,
different architectonic properties are considered highlighting the major effect of the internal thermal inertia.
Finally, differences between constant and intermittent heating are also analyzed.
Keywords: low-energy houses, passive houses, space-heating, stove, dynamic simulations
1. INTRODUCTION
Passive houses are characterized by very low
space-heating (SH) needs and relatively small heating
powers. This power is indeed limited to 10 W/m which
corresponds to the maximum power that an air-heating
system can provide using standard hygienic ventilation
rates. Air-heating using the ventilation network should
significantly reduce the distribution system, typically by
avoiding the installation of a conventional hot-water
loop equipped with radiators [1]. This simplification
reduces the investment allocated to the SH system, a
saving that is preferably injected to improve the super-
insulation of the envelope. In theory, the SH
simplification is sufficiently important so that the
passive house standard should be an economical
optimum [2]. For the time being, overinvestment to
ensure the envelope performances is most often higher
than savings on the SH system and savings on
operating energy so that the theoretical optimum is not
always reached at the passive house level. In practice,
this overinvestment is mainly affected by the triple-
glazing as well as by the controlled mechanical
ventilation.
Nevertheless, in the context of very low energy
houses, the environmental and economical equilibrium
for SH systems is not straightforward. The consumption
is, by definition, low so that it is more critical to pay off
large investments. Unfortunately, larger investments
typically correspond to the most efficient systems or to
systems based on renewable energies. On the
contrary, SH systems characterized by low
investments, favourable from an economical point of
view, often have poor environmental performances.
The best example is the direct electric heating which
lowers the investment drastically but has a high primary
energy consumption (as long as electricity is generated
by classical power plants using fossil fuels).
An interesting alternative is to resort to a stove
using wood logs or pellets [3]. The investment is
indeed relatively low and the environmental
performances are ensured as wood is a renewable
energy (as long as forests are exploited in a
sustainable way and transport limited). The exact
environmental footprint of wood heating is behind the
scope of the paper but it is commonly admitted that it
has a better impact on the CO2 emission than classical
fossil fuels (i.e. natural gas or oil).
The objective of the present contribution aims to
analyse the performance of wood stoves in the context
of the SH of very low energy houses.
2. CONSTRAINTS FOR THE SPACE-
HEATING USING WOOD STOVE IN
PASSIVE HOUSES
2.1. Characteristics of the passive house space-
heating
The required power to heat a passive house is
relatively low. In design weather condition, this power
is approximately ~2kW for a detached single-family
dwelling in the Belgian temperate climate. In parallel,
an accumulation domestic hot water (DHW) production
asks for a power typically ranging from 2 to 4kW.
Furthermore, an additional power is required if the
building is heated intermittently in order to perform the
boost phase after a set-back period. Nevertheless, the
instantaneous heat demand of the house is in general
lower than 2kW. The nominal powers of the main
existing systems are well higher than these 2kW. This
is true for condensing gas or wood boilers with 6-8kW,
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
610 HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN)


In order to discriminate the thermal behaviour
specific to the passive standard, three different levels
of insulation for the envelope are investigated. The first
is representative of the passive standard. The second
corresponds to the application of the current minimal
requirements of the EPBD regional policy [4]. In
between, an intermediate level is considered that is
here termed low-energy. The passive and low-energy
test cases are equipped with a controlled mechanical
ventilation coupled to a heat recovery unit (its efficiency
is here set to 0.85). Ventilation rates are established
using the regional policy. Air tightness is also adapted
according to the insulation level. The U-values of walls
are summarized in Table 2.
Table 2: U-values as a function of the insulation level under
investigation (in unit [W/m.K]).
Element Passive Low-Energy EPBD
Glazing
0.6
(triple)
1.1
(double low-e)
1.1
(double low-e)
Window 0.8 1.6 1.6
Door 0.8 1.8 1.8
External walls 0.11 0.2 0.4
Ground 0.15 0.2 1.0
Ceilings 0.11 0.175 0.32

Combining the five levels of inertia to the three
levels of insulation gives fifteen variants. Some global
thermal properties of these test cases are evaluated
using the EN ISO 13790 [5] and reported in Table 3
(i.e. the inner thermal inertia as well as the
characteristic time scale).
Table 3: Global thermal properties of the 15 variants using
the EN ISO 13790 norm [5] (Total losses in [W/K], internal
inertia in [MJ/K] and characteristic time scale in [h]).
Characteristic
time scale
Insulation level
Passive
(90 W/K)
Low-
Energy
(145 W/K)
EPBD
(354 W/K)
I
n
e
r
t
i
a

l
e
v
e
l

I1 (69.8 MJ/K) 214.2 h 133.2 h 54.8 h
I2 (20.9 MJ/K) 64.4 h 40.0 h 16.47 h
I3 (32.7 MJ/K) 100.5 h 62.5 h 25.7 h
I4 (10.9 MJ/K) 33.5 h 20.8 h 8.56 h
I5 (43.5 MJ/K) 133.4 h 82.9 h 34.13 h

By means of the weather conditions, these values
enable to evaluate the theoretical valorisation rate of
the solar and inner gains. Typical weather conditions
using the METEONORM database are taken for the
city of Uccle located in the centre of Belgium.
In order to compare the solar and internal gains to
the SH contribution, some of their properties are
reported here below, see Table 4. The mean power of
the internal gains is 2.2 W/m which is very close to the
value recommended in the PHPP (i.e. 2.1 W/m).
Table 4: Maximum transmitted power (Pmax) in [kW] as well as
maximal transmitted energy in one day (Emax) in [kWh] for the
solar and internal gains during the heating season.
Comparison with the maximal losses (Pdmax) in [kW] at design
weather conditions (i.e. Text = -10C). Critical zones are
highlighted in grey.
Zone 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Pdmax Passive 0.6 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.1
Pdmax Low-E 1.0 0.4 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.1
Pdmax EPBD 2.9 0.7 0.7 0.9 0.7 0.6 0.4 0.7 1.0 1.5
Pmax solar 2.8 0.3 0.2 0.6 0.5 0.9 0.2 0.6 0.6 0.1
Pmax internal 0.7 0 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.1
Emax solar 16 1.4 1.8 2.8 2.8 4.7 1.1 3.2 3.3 0.5
Emax internal 3.9 0.0 0.2 0.2 0.8 0.9 0.1 0.9 1.4 0.1
3.2. Numerical set-up
Different types of space-heating (SH) are considered,
here termed H1, H2 and H3:
The first one is the so-called ideal heating (H1)
where the set-point temperature is maintained in
each zone using a pure convective heat source that
can modulate perfectly.
The second (H2) introduces the imperfections of the
minimum cycle length and the lack of power
modulation. A heat source is indeed place in each
zone that is activated when the room temperature
goes below the set-point temperature. Its power is
maintained at the nominal value during a minimal
cycle length. Furthermore, the ratio between
convected and radiated power has also been
changed between test cases. This configuration can
be seen has a stove without modulation placed in
each room.
The third configuration (H3) considers a single stove
placed in the living-room (facing the South). Again,
when the living-room temperature goes below the
set-point value, the stove power is kept constant at
its nominal value during a minimal cycle length. This
approach can only ensure the thermal comfort for the
passive house insulation level (at least theoretically).
Internal doors are assumed to be closed during all
the simulations. This assumption increases the
temperature non-homogeneity between thermal
zones, highlighting the worst situation possible.

In order to capture properly the different thermal
behaviors, the simulation time step is set to 7.5min.
The simulation length is one year. The 5 distinct
minimal cycle lengths investigated here are 7.5, 15, 30,
45 and 60 minutes.
Installed nominal powers depend on the heating
mode. In constant heating, the nominal power for each
stove (H2) is equal to maximal total losses in each
zone in design weather conditions, see Table 4. In the
case of a single stove (i.e. H3), its nominal power is the
sum of all the zone losses. In intermittent mode, the
set-point temperature is changed depending the hour
of the day and the day of the week following a realistic
time schedule. In this case, the nominal power of the
emitters is proportionally increased to have globally an
extra 6kW during the boost phase (whatever the level
of inertia considered).
standard heat pumps with 6-8kW as well as wood
stoves. Even with the power modulation of these
systems (e.g. up to 10-30% of the nominal power for
gas boilers), the heat output is larger than the heat
demand of the building. Exceptions exist, for example,
the electric heating and the so-called compact air-
water heat pumps. When existing, this oversizing leads
to on-off cycling of the production device unless a
buffer tank is introduced between the production and
emission.
In passive houses, the internal and solar gains
have a large contribution to counterbalance the losses
of the envelope. In fact, their power can be equal or
even higher than the envelope losses so that the heat
demand of the building to the production system is well
intermittent. Again, this shortens the production cycles.
2.2. Requirements of the space-heating using
wood stoves
Wood stoves have two mains characteristics that
have to be related to the aforementioned constraints.
First, wood stoves have to operate on long production
cycles in order to minimize their emission of pollutants
and reach their best performances. The order of
magnitude is a minimum of 30min for a pellets stove
and 1h for a log stove. Second, best efficiencies are
reached close to the nominal power. From a production
point of view, the best scenario for a wood stove is long
production cycles at nominal power while the passive
house characteristics ask for small intermittent heating
powers.
2.3. Detailed objective of the contribution
The well-focused objective of the present
investigation is to evaluate the performances of a stove
operating on a long production cycle close to nominal
power in a passive or very low-energy single-family
house. The major risk is to obtain an overheating
leading to a significant increase of the consumption (1)
or a major discomfort (2). The first phenomenon will be
translated by a loss of regulation efficiency while the
second by the maximal temperature reached during the
annual heating period.
3. METHODOLOGY
The thermal behaviour of a detached single-family
house is analyzed using dynamic simulations, here
using TRNSYS. The present section aims to develop
the numerical set-up and methodology.
3.1. Detached single-family house
The geometry of the detached single-family is kept
constant throughout the test cases. This is a two-
storeys building with a net heating surface of 150m.
The envelope has a protected volume of 420m, a
360m transmission surface and 35m of windows. The
plans of the house are reported on Figs. 1 and 2.




Figure 1: Elevation of the two-storeys house following the
North, South, East and West faades, respectively.

The ground floor has a large living-room facing the
South that is coupled with the kitchen. The second floor
consists of four bedrooms with an adjacent bathroom.
The building model considers 10 distinct thermal
zones. All these zones are maintained at a set-point
temperature of 20C except a laundry room located on
the first floor. During the set-back period, the set-point
temperature is lowered to 16C.


Figure 2: Sketch of the ground and second floor, respectively
(the South direction points upwards).

Distinct architectonic properties are considered. A
first distinction is made between the inner thermal
inertia using five different wall compositions, reported
on Table 1. Let us mention that thermal inertia is here
considered in the context of the SH and not for
overheating issues during hot summer periods
(although it is well known that inner thermal inertia is
beneficial in this respect).
Table 1: Wall composition of the five levels of thermal inertia.
Inertia
External
walls
Lagging Slab Floor
Massive
heavy (I1)
Calcium-
silicate blocks
Wood fiber
Concrete
(high-inertia)
Concrete
Massive
light (I2)
Cellular
concrete blocks
Mineral
wool
Concrete
(low-inertia)
Wooden
Wooden
heavy (I3)
Wooden
framework
Wood fiber
Concrete
(high-inertia)
Concrete
Wooden
light (I4)
Wooden
framework
Mineral
wool
Concrete
(low-inertia)
Wooden
Mixed (I5)
Wooden
framework +
concrete
partition walls
Mineral
wool
Concrete
(high-inertia)
Concrete
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN) 611


In order to discriminate the thermal behaviour
specific to the passive standard, three different levels
of insulation for the envelope are investigated. The first
is representative of the passive standard. The second
corresponds to the application of the current minimal
requirements of the EPBD regional policy [4]. In
between, an intermediate level is considered that is
here termed low-energy. The passive and low-energy
test cases are equipped with a controlled mechanical
ventilation coupled to a heat recovery unit (its efficiency
is here set to 0.85). Ventilation rates are established
using the regional policy. Air tightness is also adapted
according to the insulation level. The U-values of walls
are summarized in Table 2.
Table 2: U-values as a function of the insulation level under
investigation (in unit [W/m.K]).
Element Passive Low-Energy EPBD
Glazing
0.6
(triple)
1.1
(double low-e)
1.1
(double low-e)
Window 0.8 1.6 1.6
Door 0.8 1.8 1.8
External walls 0.11 0.2 0.4
Ground 0.15 0.2 1.0
Ceilings 0.11 0.175 0.32

Combining the five levels of inertia to the three
levels of insulation gives fifteen variants. Some global
thermal properties of these test cases are evaluated
using the EN ISO 13790 [5] and reported in Table 3
(i.e. the inner thermal inertia as well as the
characteristic time scale).
Table 3: Global thermal properties of the 15 variants using
the EN ISO 13790 norm [5] (Total losses in [W/K], internal
inertia in [MJ/K] and characteristic time scale in [h]).
Characteristic
time scale
Insulation level
Passive
(90 W/K)
Low-
Energy
(145 W/K)
EPBD
(354 W/K)
I
n
e
r
t
i
a

l
e
v
e
l

I1 (69.8 MJ/K) 214.2 h 133.2 h 54.8 h
I2 (20.9 MJ/K) 64.4 h 40.0 h 16.47 h
I3 (32.7 MJ/K) 100.5 h 62.5 h 25.7 h
I4 (10.9 MJ/K) 33.5 h 20.8 h 8.56 h
I5 (43.5 MJ/K) 133.4 h 82.9 h 34.13 h

By means of the weather conditions, these values
enable to evaluate the theoretical valorisation rate of
the solar and inner gains. Typical weather conditions
using the METEONORM database are taken for the
city of Uccle located in the centre of Belgium.
In order to compare the solar and internal gains to
the SH contribution, some of their properties are
reported here below, see Table 4. The mean power of
the internal gains is 2.2 W/m which is very close to the
value recommended in the PHPP (i.e. 2.1 W/m).
Table 4: Maximum transmitted power (Pmax) in [kW] as well as
maximal transmitted energy in one day (Emax) in [kWh] for the
solar and internal gains during the heating season.
Comparison with the maximal losses (Pdmax) in [kW] at design
weather conditions (i.e. Text = -10C). Critical zones are
highlighted in grey.
Zone 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Pdmax Passive 0.6 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.1
Pdmax Low-E 1.0 0.4 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.1
Pdmax EPBD 2.9 0.7 0.7 0.9 0.7 0.6 0.4 0.7 1.0 1.5
Pmax solar 2.8 0.3 0.2 0.6 0.5 0.9 0.2 0.6 0.6 0.1
Pmax internal 0.7 0 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.1
Emax solar 16 1.4 1.8 2.8 2.8 4.7 1.1 3.2 3.3 0.5
Emax internal 3.9 0.0 0.2 0.2 0.8 0.9 0.1 0.9 1.4 0.1
3.2. Numerical set-up
Different types of space-heating (SH) are considered,
here termed H1, H2 and H3:
The first one is the so-called ideal heating (H1)
where the set-point temperature is maintained in
each zone using a pure convective heat source that
can modulate perfectly.
The second (H2) introduces the imperfections of the
minimum cycle length and the lack of power
modulation. A heat source is indeed place in each
zone that is activated when the room temperature
goes below the set-point temperature. Its power is
maintained at the nominal value during a minimal
cycle length. Furthermore, the ratio between
convected and radiated power has also been
changed between test cases. This configuration can
be seen has a stove without modulation placed in
each room.
The third configuration (H3) considers a single stove
placed in the living-room (facing the South). Again,
when the living-room temperature goes below the
set-point value, the stove power is kept constant at
its nominal value during a minimal cycle length. This
approach can only ensure the thermal comfort for the
passive house insulation level (at least theoretically).
Internal doors are assumed to be closed during all
the simulations. This assumption increases the
temperature non-homogeneity between thermal
zones, highlighting the worst situation possible.

In order to capture properly the different thermal
behaviors, the simulation time step is set to 7.5min.
The simulation length is one year. The 5 distinct
minimal cycle lengths investigated here are 7.5, 15, 30,
45 and 60 minutes.
Installed nominal powers depend on the heating
mode. In constant heating, the nominal power for each
stove (H2) is equal to maximal total losses in each
zone in design weather conditions, see Table 4. In the
case of a single stove (i.e. H3), its nominal power is the
sum of all the zone losses. In intermittent mode, the
set-point temperature is changed depending the hour
of the day and the day of the week following a realistic
time schedule. In this case, the nominal power of the
emitters is proportionally increased to have globally an
extra 6kW during the boost phase (whatever the level
of inertia considered).
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For test cases H2 and H3, the ratio between the
convected and radiated power is fixed to 100% (pure
convective source), 50% (mixed source) and 0% (pure
radiative source). In the present work, stratification
effects on comfort are not considered.
4. RESULTS
All the test cases represent a total of 720
simulations. For the sake of clarity, only major
configurations are commented here below. In order to
decompose the physical phenomena, complexity is
introduced in an incremental way.
4.1. Decentralized stoves in each thermal zone
(H2) with a constant set-point temperature

Figure 3: Annual heating demand with a constant set-point
temperature of the passive house H2 case as a function of
the minimal cycle length for a pure convective (solid line) and
pure radiative heating (dashed line). Ideal heating H1 is
pictured at the origin of the X-axis as, in theory, no cycle
length is imposed.

The case of a constant set-point temperature is first
analysed with a stove in each zone (H2). As depicted
in Fig. 3, the higher the inertia, the lower the SH need.
The difference is rather clear for the passive house but
becomes negligible considering the EPBD test case,
see Fig. 4.

Figure 4: Annual heating demand with a constant set-point
temperature of the EPBD H2 case as a function of the minimal
cycle length for a pure convective (solid line) and radiative
heating (dashed line). Ideal heating H1 is pictured at the origin
of the X-axis.

The curve shapes in function of the cycle length are
similar between the different insulation levels. The
influence of the convection/radiation ratio of the heat
source has a noticeable influence on short cycle
lengths (radiative sources have higher consumptions).
The comfort is analysed using the maximal
temperature encountered during the heating period.
The overheating is then defined as the difference
between the maximal and set-point temperatures. For
the passive house level, Fig. 5, one clearly sees that
this temperature strongly varies with the level of inertia.
On the contrary, the type and length of heat emission
has a minor influence. This can be explained as
follows. As reported on Table 4, the leading heating
process is the solar gains. Their maximal power is 3 to
4 times higher than the nominal power of stoves so that
solar gains are the major variable to be controlled to
ensure the thermal comfort.

Figure 5: Maximal overheating with a constant set-point
temperature in the passive house H2 test case as a function
of the minimal cycle length for a pure convective heating (solid
line) and radiative heating (dashed line). Ideal heating H1 is
pictured at the origin of the X-axis.

Figure 6: Maximal overheating with a constant set-point
temperature in the EPBD H2 test case as a function of the
minimal cycle length for a pure convective heating (solid line)
and radiative heating (dashed line). Ideal heating H1 is
pictured at the origin of the X-axis.

The situation is very different for the EPDB
insulation level, as depicted on Fig. 6. Solar gains still
have a strong influence. Indeed, overheating using
perfect heating still ranges from 0.5 to 5.0C depending
on the level on inertia. A high level of inertia remains
thus important. Nevertheless, the complementary heat
emitted by the system has here a power comparable to
the solar gains (see Table 4) so that the emitter can
significantly worsen the discomfort. For example,
overheating can be as high as 11C using a pure
convective heating during 1h. The nature of the source
is here very important. Using a pure radiative source,
the overheating remains almost unchanged with the
production cycle length.
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4.2. Decentralized stoves in each thermal zone
(H2) with an intermittent heating
The present configuration considers an intermittent
heating. The overall nominal heating power of the
passive house is here increased by a factor 3.6 in
order to perform the boost-phase (i.e. from 2.3 to
8.3kW). For a given cycle length, the energy delivered
to the house is thus 3.6 times higher. As a
consequence, consumptions reported on Fig. 7 are
higher than in Fig. 3 for a same imposed cycle length.

Figure 7: Annual heating demand in intermittent heating of
the passive house H2 case as a function of the minimal cycle
length for a pure convective (solid line) and pure radiative
heating (dashed line). Ideal heating H1 is pictured at the origin
of the X-axis.

Comparing the perfect heating in Figs. 3 and 7, the
net heat demand is reduced for each level of inertia.
Nevertheless, the higher the inertia, the lower the
reduction induced by the intermittent heating, so that
the difference in net heat demand between levels of
inertia is significantly reduced. On the contrary, for long
heating cycles, the consumption difference between
inertia levels is rather important (i.e. diverging curves).

Figure 8: Maximal overheating in the intermittent heating in
the passive house H2 case as a function of the minimal cycle
length for a pure convective (solid line) and radiative heating
(dashed line). Ideal heating H1 is pictured at the origin of the
X-axis.

In terms of comfort, comparing perfect heating in
Figs. 5 and 8 shows, as expected, that the maximal
temperature is almost unchanged using the intermittent
mode. In intermittent mode, overheating is still
dominated by solar gains. Nonetheless, for longer
cycles, the delivered power is so high that the
performances are worsened by the SH system. In this
case, working with radiative sources is beneficial.
4.3. Decentralized stove in one thermal zone (H3)
with a constant set-point temperature
The situation is here very different. A single stove is
placed in the living-room and is switched on when the
temperature goes below the set-point value. The
temperature is thus enforced in a single place. In other
rooms, it is expected that the ventilation, equipped with
an efficient heat exchanger, will homogenize the
temperature. In our case, the set-point temperature is
never reached in these free-floating rooms. As a
consequence, the heat consumption is lower than the
reference net heat demand, by definition computed
using a perfect heating (in each zone). This is well
illustrated in the Fig. 9.

Figure 9: Annual heating demand with a constant set-point
temperature of the passive house H3 as a function of the
minimal cycle length for a pure convective (solid line) and pure
radiative heating (dashed line). Ideal heating H1 is pictured at
the origin of the X-axis.

(a) Maximal overheating

(b) Maximal temperature default
Figure 10: Maximal overheating (a) and temperature default
(b) with a constant set-point temperature in the passive
house H3 as a function of the minimal cycle length for a pure
convective (solid line) and radiative heating (dashed line).
For test cases H2 and H3, the ratio between the
convected and radiated power is fixed to 100% (pure
convective source), 50% (mixed source) and 0% (pure
radiative source). In the present work, stratification
effects on comfort are not considered.
4. RESULTS
All the test cases represent a total of 720
simulations. For the sake of clarity, only major
configurations are commented here below. In order to
decompose the physical phenomena, complexity is
introduced in an incremental way.
4.1. Decentralized stoves in each thermal zone
(H2) with a constant set-point temperature

Figure 3: Annual heating demand with a constant set-point
temperature of the passive house H2 case as a function of
the minimal cycle length for a pure convective (solid line) and
pure radiative heating (dashed line). Ideal heating H1 is
pictured at the origin of the X-axis as, in theory, no cycle
length is imposed.

The case of a constant set-point temperature is first
analysed with a stove in each zone (H2). As depicted
in Fig. 3, the higher the inertia, the lower the SH need.
The difference is rather clear for the passive house but
becomes negligible considering the EPBD test case,
see Fig. 4.

Figure 4: Annual heating demand with a constant set-point
temperature of the EPBD H2 case as a function of the minimal
cycle length for a pure convective (solid line) and radiative
heating (dashed line). Ideal heating H1 is pictured at the origin
of the X-axis.

The curve shapes in function of the cycle length are
similar between the different insulation levels. The
influence of the convection/radiation ratio of the heat
source has a noticeable influence on short cycle
lengths (radiative sources have higher consumptions).
The comfort is analysed using the maximal
temperature encountered during the heating period.
The overheating is then defined as the difference
between the maximal and set-point temperatures. For
the passive house level, Fig. 5, one clearly sees that
this temperature strongly varies with the level of inertia.
On the contrary, the type and length of heat emission
has a minor influence. This can be explained as
follows. As reported on Table 4, the leading heating
process is the solar gains. Their maximal power is 3 to
4 times higher than the nominal power of stoves so that
solar gains are the major variable to be controlled to
ensure the thermal comfort.

Figure 5: Maximal overheating with a constant set-point
temperature in the passive house H2 test case as a function
of the minimal cycle length for a pure convective heating (solid
line) and radiative heating (dashed line). Ideal heating H1 is
pictured at the origin of the X-axis.

Figure 6: Maximal overheating with a constant set-point
temperature in the EPBD H2 test case as a function of the
minimal cycle length for a pure convective heating (solid line)
and radiative heating (dashed line). Ideal heating H1 is
pictured at the origin of the X-axis.

The situation is very different for the EPDB
insulation level, as depicted on Fig. 6. Solar gains still
have a strong influence. Indeed, overheating using
perfect heating still ranges from 0.5 to 5.0C depending
on the level on inertia. A high level of inertia remains
thus important. Nevertheless, the complementary heat
emitted by the system has here a power comparable to
the solar gains (see Table 4) so that the emitter can
significantly worsen the discomfort. For example,
overheating can be as high as 11C using a pure
convective heating during 1h. The nature of the source
is here very important. Using a pure radiative source,
the overheating remains almost unchanged with the
production cycle length.
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614 HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN)
Comfort is analysed using the maximal temperature
during the heating period and the minimal temperature
encountered below the set-point temperature (here
termed maximal temperature default, Figs 10). The first
one takes always place in the living-room while the
second corresponds to a bedroom facing the North
with a relatively important external surface. The higher
the inertia, the lower the overheating and lower the
temperature default in the neighbouring rooms. As all
the heating power in concentrated in a single place and
is comparable to the solar gains amplitude, the nature
of the emitters has a strong influence on the
overheating. A pure radiative emitter limits this
influence (i.e. a maximal temperature constant with the
cycle length). On the contrary, a pure convective
source gives an overheating as large as 7-9C, which
is not acceptable. Less obvious is the strong influence
of inertia on the minimal temperature, in other words,
on the homogeneity within the house. The smoothing
effect of inertia lowers the extremum of temperature.
4.4. Decentralized stove in one thermal zone with
an intermittent heating
This test case represents the most realistic
configuration where a single oversized stove of 8.3kW
is placed in the living-room. This is indeed a
representative power for the smallest stoves available.
This oversized power is concentrated in a single room
(with closed doors) so that the thermal comfort is highly
critical, see Fig.11(a). Only a radiative source in a zone
with high internal inertia can maintain an acceptable
temperature with long production cycles.

(a) Maximal overheating

(b) Maximal temperature default
Figure 11: Maximal overheating (a) and temperature default
(b) with an intermittent heating in the passive house H3 test
case as a function of the minimal cycle length for a pure
convective heating (solid line) and radiative heating (dashed
line).

Quite surprisingly, the stove power increase
between Fig. 10(b) and 11(b) do not manage to reduce
the temperature default in the cold bedrooms. The
maximal temperature default is indeed almost
unchanged between these two test cases.
5. CONCLUSIONS
The present contribution aimed to investigate the
thermal behaviour of wood stove-like heat sources
operating close to their optimal conditions in passive
and low-energy houses. In terms of efficiency, Fig. 3
translates the performances of the stoves for a set-
point temperature enforced in each zone. In terms of
comfort when working with a single stove, simulations
showed the importance of thermal inertia to avoid
overheating but also to increase the thermal
homogeneity within the passive house envelope.
Furthermore, the source must be as radiative as
possible to prevent overheating.
At the present stage of the study, the objective is to
have a proper insight into the physics and detect the
dominant phenomena and parameters. It gives
qualitative guidelines for the proper integration of wood
stoves within very low-energy houses, dedicated to
architects but also to the manufacturers. In this way, it
takes part to the general effort to develop more efficient
and extremely low emission wood stoves. The final
objective of the research will be to develop simple
quantitative models for the correct integration of wood
stoves during the design phase of a very low-energy
house. Results could then be generalised to other
space-heating systems asking for long production
cycles and/or presenting large power oversizing.
6. REFERENCES
[1] Feist, W. et al., Re-inventing air heating :
convenient and comfortable within the frame of the
Passive House concept. Energy and Buildings 37
(2005), 1186-1203.
[2] Schnieders, J, Hermelink, A., CEPHEUS results :
measurements and occupants satisfactory provide
evidence of Passive House being an option for
sustainable building. Energy Policy 34 (2006),
151-171.
[3] Georges, L. et al., Technical and economic
analysis of systems for passive and low-energy
single-family dwellings: application to the market of
the Walloon region (in French). 9
th
Passive House
symposium, Brussels, Belgium, 2010.
[4] Walloon Government, Arrt du 17 avril 2007 du
gouvernement wallon dterminant la mthode de
calcul et les exigences, les agrments et les
sanctions applicables en matire de performance
nergtique et de climat intrieur des btiments.
[5] EN ISO 13790, Thermal performance of buildings:
calculation of energy use for space heating.
Brussels, Belgium, 2004.
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HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN) 615
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
1
Hybrid ventilation as an energy efficient solution for
low energy residential buildings

Peter FOLDBJERG
1
, Thorbjrn Fring ASMUSSEN
1
and Karsten DUER
1

1
VELUX A/S, Daylight Energy and Indoor Climate, dalsvej 99, 2970 Hrsholm, Denmark

ABSTRACT: The energy performance of two hybrid residential ventilation systems have been investigated and
compared to an all mechanical system. The hybrid systems were a manual control based on fixed dates, and an
automatic control which chooses the energy optimal mode on an hourly basis. Three different climates were
investigated (Brussels, Berlin and Paris). Results from the thermal simulations show that the energy demand of
the hybrid systems is less than the all mechanical system. The reduction with the manual control is in the range
of 0 2.4 kWh/m, while the intelligent control has a larger potential in the range of 4.0 4.9 kWh/m. Natural
ventilation is more energy efficient than mechanical ventilation for 45% - 48% of the year. Achieving the potential
of the intelligent control requires a control system and automatically openable windows. Presently, no such
control systems for residential buildings is widely available at a low cost. As the legislation on energy demands
is being tightened, automatic hybrid ventilation control becomes increasingly attractive. A 4 kWh/m reduction for
a Danish 2015 building would correspond to a saving of 11% of the maximum primary energy demand.
Keywords: Hybrid ventilation, natural ventilation, residential buildings, energy efficient ventilation.
1. INTRODUCTION
As the energy demand of residential buildings is
reduced due to continued tightening of building
codes, the electricity demand for operating the house
will represent an increasing part of the total demand.
Pumps, fans and other equipment will represent an
increasing part of the energy use for residential
buildings. The European Union has 20% energy
savings by 2020 as a target [1], and member states
are obliged to draw up national plans increasing the
number of nearly zero-energy buildings [2].

Mechanical ventilation systems with heat
recovery provide good energy performance in the
heating season. But the mechanical ventilation
systems for residential buildings are often designed
to be in operation all year, which include the summer
period. Even though systems can often bypass the
heat exchanger during summer, an electricity
demand for fan operation remains. If natural
ventilation is used instead during the summer period,
the electricity demand for fan operation is eliminated.

The potential energy savings from hybrid
ventilation systems are increasingly important when
the energy demand of buildings is reduced. A
previous study showed that the performance of the
control system is the main factor, and that automatic
control performs better than manual control systems
in intermediate and warm climates [3]. The present
study investigates the performance of manual and
automatic control of hybrid ventilation with regards to
energy performance in northern European climates.
2. METHOD
The energy performance of residential buildings
with hybrid ventilation systems is compared to fully
mechanical ventilated buildings. The demand for
heating and fan operation is determined for three
scenarios shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Short description of the three scenarios simulated.
All
mechanical
Mechanical ventilation with heat
recovery all year.
Hybrid with
manual
control
Change from mechanical to
natural ventilation at a specific
date, where the optimal date is
determined for each location,
based on minimizing the energy
demand
Hybrid with
automatic
control
Sensor-based control switches
between mechanical and natural
ventilation based on outdoor
conditions, which hour-by-hour
chooses the most energy efficient
mode of operation

The analyses have been performed for three
locations in: Brussels (Belgium), Berlin (Germany),
and Paris (France). The used software was the
dynamic simulation tool IES VE version 6.02 [5].
2.1. House topology
A 1-storey house with an 8x12 m footprint is
used at all locations. The house is defined in [4]. See
Figure 1 for a visual representation.

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Figure 1. Visual representation of the house used in the
study.

The total floor area is 163 m, and the window
area corresponds to 20% of the floor area, i.e. 23 m
faade window and 4 m roof window. The windows
have a declared U-value of 1.4 W/mK in vertical
position, a g-value of 0.60 and a visual transmittance
of 0.77. The floor has a U-value of 0.2 W/mK, walls
have a U-value of 0.3 W/mK, and the roof has a U-
value of 0.2 W/mK.
2.2. System setup
A heating system was assigned, with set point at
21C. The internal loads consist of two persons
occupying the building all year and equipment of 3.5
W/m. There is no cooling system installed but the
windows are used to vent the building when the
outdoor temperature is above 22C with a maximum
opening area of 25%. Half of the windows are used
for venting.

A constant air change rate of 0.5 ACH is
assumed for both the mechanical and the natural
ventilation system, to allow comparison between the
two ventilation modes. The actual ventilation rate in
the case of natural ventilation will depend on the
driving forces (wind speed, direction and temperature
difference between inside and outside) The
mechanical ventilation system is an efficient system
with low energy consumption and good heat
exchanger performance. The fan power consumption
is 1.37 W/(l/s), equal to 82 W at an air change rate of
0.5 ACH. The efficiency of the heat exchanger is
88%.
2.3. The Control Strategies of the hybrid system
The purpose of the hybrid ventilation control is to
benefit from the advantages of the two ventilation
solutions: The heat recovery of the mechanical and
the free ventilation of natural ventilation.

During cold periods the mechanical ventilation
system will have the best energy performance due to
the heat exchanger. During warm periods the natural
ventilation will perform better as it uses no extra
energy for fans (and there is no need for heat
recovery).

The manual control algorithm is purely based on
fixed dates for turning on or off the operation of the
systems. The used dates are found empirically
based on preliminary simulations of each location.
The following dates were used:
Start natural ventilation: April 1st
End natural ventilation: November 15th

The automatic control algorithm is based on the
energy demand for the two ventilation methods. The
principle is show in Figure 2.



Figure 2: Principle of the automatic control algorithm.

Where Tout is the outdoor air temperature [C],
and Tin is the indoor operative temperature [C].
Tsetpoint is the setpoint temperature for changing
between natural and mechanical ventilation mode
[C]. The setpoint is determined based on the most
energy efficient mode of operation, where the
demand for heating and fan operation is included.

When the outdoor temperature is below the
setpoint temperature, natural ventilation will cause a
higher heat loss than mechanical ventilation with
heat recovery. The outdoor temperature is
considered a practical indicator of season, and
more accurate than a calendar-date based indicator,
as the weather on a specific date varies from year to
year. The setpoint temperature depends on the
energy performance of the house, as it will be lower
for a high performance house. The optimal setpoint
temperature was determined as the first step of the
present study.
2.4. Operation costs
The costs for running the systems include costs
for heating and electricity for fan operation. A
mechanical ventilation system needs maintenance in
order to function correctly. The ducts and diffusers
need cleaning and filters have to be changed on
regular basis. The number of filter changes is
assumed to be proportional to the number of hours
the system is in operation. This is included in the
total running costs; cleaning and service of the
Tout > Tsetpoint
or
Tin > 25C
Hybrid Ventilation Control Algorithm
Use Natural
ventilation
Use Mechanical
ventilation
Yes No
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systems is not included. It is assumed that filters are
changed four times per year for a constantly running
ventilation system, i.e. 4 filters per 8760 hours of
operation.

The energy cost is different for each location
depending on taxes and energy sources. Statistical
data about the energy prices has been found via
energy.eu [6]. Electricity is converted to primary
energy with a conversion factor of 2.5. The cost of a
unit of primary energy is assumed to be the same for
electricity and heating. See Table 2 for the price of
natural gas and filters in each country.

Table 2. Energy and filter costs.

Energy costs
(natural gas) Filter costs
[/kWh] [/pcs]
Berlin 0.08 42
Brussels 0.07 33
Paris 0.06 30

The price for a filter change is based on the price
in Denmark. It is assumed that the correlation
between energy costs and filter costs is constant.
3. RESULTS
3.1. Setpoint temperature
The optimal setpoint temperature for the
automatic control was determined for the design
reference year by determining the primary energy
demand for a series of setpoint temperature
candidates. Figure 3 shows the primary energy
demand, which is determined for Copenhagen only,
as the result depends on the thermal properties of
the house and is independent of the location. The
optimal setpoint temperature is identified as 11C.



Figure 3. Primary energy demand for heating and fan
operation depending on outdoor temperature.


3.2. System feasibility
Figure 4 shows the part of year when natural
ventilation is used in the two hybrid controls
strategies. In the manual control strategy, natural
ventilation is used more than in the automatic control
strategy. This includes hours during nighttime when
mechanical ventilation would have been more energy
efficient. The automatic control only uses natural
ventilation when it is more energy efficient than
mechanical ventilation.

Figure 4. Part of year when natural ventilation is used.

With the automatic control, natural ventilation is

the most efficient mode of ventilation for 45%
(Berlin), 46% (Brussels) and 48% (Paris).
3.3. Energy demands
For each location and case the energy demand
as primary energy is calculated. The electricity is
converted into primary energy with a factor of 2.5.
The annual primary energy demand per square
meter is shown in Figure 5. The figure also shows
the savings potential in kWh/m when using hybrid
systems compared to the fully mechanical solution.

The saving potentials are in the range of 0 2.4

kWh/m for the manual control, and in the range of
4.0 4.9 kWh/m for the automatic control.

45
46
47
48
49
50
8 10 11 12 14 16 18 20
P
r
i
m
a
r
y

e
n
e
r
g
y

d
e
m
a
n
d

[
k
W
h
/
m

]
Outdoor temperature [ C]
50% 50% 50%
45%
46%
48%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Manual Auto Manual Auto Manual Auto
Berlin Brussels Paris
P
a
r
t

o
f

y
e
a
r

w
i
t
h

n
a
t
u
r
a
l

v
e
n
t
i
l
a
t
i
o
n
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Figure 5. Annual primary energy demand in kWh/m.


The maximum primary energy demand for the
2010 Danish Building regulations for a 150 m house
is 64 kWh/m which is expected to be reduced to 37
kWh/m by 2015. A reduction of 4 kWh/m would
correspond to 6% in the current regulations, and
11% by 2015.
3.4. Operation costs
The costs are calculated based on the energy
demands and the filter costs, see Figure 6. The filter
costs are calculated based on the number of
operation hours. In all cases the heating costs are
the biggest expense. The filter costs are higher than
the electricity costs.


Figure 6. Annual system operation costs.

The saving potentials are in the range of 0.5 0.7
/m for the manual control, and in the range of 0.7
1.0 /m for the automatic control.
4. DISCUSSION
With the automatic control, natural ventilation is
more energy efficient than mechanical ventilation
with heat recovery for 45% - 48% of the year, highest
for the warmest location (Paris).

Hybrid ventilation decreases the total primary
energy demand at all locations. The decrease is
largest with the automatic control (4.0 4.9 kWh/m)
but is also present for the manual control (0 2.4
kWh/m). The slightly warmer climate in Paris
presents greater potential for savings than Brussels
and Berlin. The reduction of operation costs with the
manual control (0.5 0.7 /m) are close to the
automatic control (0.7 1.0); the operation costs of
the two hybrid controls are lower than for a system
with mechanical ventilation all year.

The manual control is dependent on choosing the
optimal dates for changing from mechanical to
natural operation. Weather conditions can vary from
year to year, so these dates would not be the same
from year to year in a physical implementation. The
automatic control will adjust to actual climate
conditions, and therefore the performance of the
automatic system will be relatively better in a
physical implementation than in this study.

A dedicated control device that chooses the
optimal mode of operation for a residential building is
presently not available on the mass market. As
electrically operated windows are becoming
increasingly widespread, the additional price of a
control device that switched between natural and
mechanical ventilation will be low. As the legislation
on energy demands is being tightened, the
investment to reduce the demand by 1 kWh/m will
increase. This will make automatic hybrid ventilation
control increasingly attractive. A reduction of 4
kWh/m for a Danish 2015 building would correspond
to a saving of 11% of the maximum primary energy
demand.

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HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN) 619
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
5
5. REFERENCES
[1] European Commission. 20 20 by 2020: Europe's
Climate Change Opportunity, (COM (2008) 30
final). Commission of the European
Communities, Brussels (2008).
[2] European Commission. DIRECTIVE 2010/31/EU
OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF
THE COUNCIL of 19 May 2010 on the energy
performance of buildings (recast). Commission
of the European Communities, Brussels (2010).
[3] Foldbjerg, P., Asmussen, T.F. and Duer, K.
Hybrid ventilation as a cost-effective ventilation
solution for low energy residential buildings.
Proceedings of Clima2010 (2010). ISBN: 978-
975-6907-14-6.
[4] Kragh J., Laustsen J. B. and Svendsen, S.
Proposal for Energy Rating System of windows
in EU. DTU-R201. Technical University of
Denmark (2008).
[5] IES VE 6.1.0. http://www.iesve.com. Integrated
Environmental Solutions Limited, Glasgow, UK
(2010).
[6] Europes Energy Portal (last accessed
November 2010). http://energy.eu.

PLEA 2011 - 27
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HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN) 621
Design Strategies for Community-Scale Renewable
Energy Solutions
Lisa D. IULO
1
, Rohan R. HAKSAR
2
and Seth BLUMSACK
3
1
Department of Architecture, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
2
Department of Architecture, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
3
Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
ABSTRACT: The strategies, policies, and financial models for community-scale renewable energy production
and distribution exist and in some cases are immediately achievable. A gap in information seems to be that the
spatial and regulatory implications for implementation of community-scale renewable energy are widely unknown
to the architects and developers responsible for planning these projects. This problem is two-fold: 1) even if a
community is interested in pursuing a renewable energy project, very little information exists on how to achieve
the goals; more detrimental is the fact that 2) most people are unaware of the possibilities for locally owned /
used, community-based renewable energy production and distribution, or fearful of exploring this option due to
misconceptions. This focused study explores precedents for renewable energy production and distribution in
architecture and community design, specifically projects that demonstrate efficient renewable energy strategies
at the community scale, in the interest of demonstrating proven methods for implementation.
Keywords: community-scale renewable energy
1. INTRODUCTION
The energy demands associated with buildings
are a major contribution to greenhouse gases and
other harmful emissions. The technologies and
strategies for achieving goals associated with
transitioning to a low-environmental-impact
renewable energy future exist, and although they will
continue to improve with time, the precedents are
sufficiently advanced at the present to allow for major
penetrations of renewable energy into mainstream
design and societal infrastructures [1]. Community-
scale generation and distribution of renewable
energy - specifically solar, wind, and non-fossil fuel
based combined heat and power plants (CHP) - are
clean, efficient, and reliable approaches to
generating energy. In addition to reduced
environmental impact, potential benefits of
community-based small-scale distributed generation
include increased security/reliability as well as
economic opportunities (in many states and
throughout the EU this includes the opportunity to
sell surplus power to the utility-owned power grid)
and the potential for improved services and
economic savings for customers [2]. Most important
to our work, community-scale energy projects allow
communities to make energy decisions consistent
with mutually shared preferences and goals.
Existing literature, including Karl Mallon
(ed.), Renewable Energy Policy and Politics: A
handbook for decision-making (London: Earthscan,
2006), Greg Pahl, The Citizen-Powered Energy
Handbook: Community Solutions to a Global Crisis
(Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company,
2007) and Barry G. Rabe, Statehouse and
Greenhouse: The Emerging Politics of American
Climate Change Policy (Washington, D.C.: Brookings
Institution Press, 2004), and several articles
(including reports by the Pew Center on Global
Climate Change), provides background for
community-scale renewable energy projects. Urban
Infrastructure In Transition: Networks, Buildings,
Plans edited by Simon Guy et al (London: Earthscan,
2001) considers sustainable infrastructure, including
green building design, and particularly the reactions
of various stakeholders to case study projects. One
book, Photovoltaics in the Urban Environment:
Lessons Learnt from Large-Scale Projects (London:
Earthscan,2009), presents successfully implemented
strategies for community-scale renewable energy
projects related to solar. Although collectively this
literature presents some examples and speaks to
specific technologies and policies for realizing
community-scale renewable energy solutions, it
largely does not comprehensively present spatial
information of value to the professional responsible
for the design of a community-scale project that will
include production and distribution of renewable
energy.
This study, currently in its beginning stages,
explores strategies relevant to the integrative design
of groups of buildings and renewable energy
systems. Specifically this research considers
planning and implementation strategies for
renewable energy production and distribution in
existing and new mixed-use and residential
communities. The focus of the study is on models
that directly benefit a community. Projects where
energy assets are located within the community and
serve that community, rather than a development
model where renewable energy assets are built on
community property by a private energy company
and connect directly to regional utility transmission
networks. The development model is already well
studied and documented; we feel that there is
opportunity for wider applicability of the community-
scale model.
PLEA 2011 - 27
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622 HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN)
2. BACKGROUND
Twenty (20) case-study projects of existing and
planned sustainable communities that implement
renewable energy strategies in Europe and the
United States were analyzed. These case studies
were used to identify commonalities and trends with
the intention of eventually informing spatial
guidelines for community scale renewable energy
solutions. The case studies were analyzed across a
broad range of parameters including renewable
energy solutions applied, cost, incentives and
ownership models. The projects studied are located
in Europe and the United States, most between the
latitudes of 19N and 48N, with the exception of the
proposed Low2No project in Helsinki, Finland (60N).
The average area of the communities studied was
710 hectares (approximately 2.75 square miles) and
include multiple buildings, typically mixed-use, with
50 or more residential units. Some smaller
communities were studied, typically representing
rural or suburban communities. Some of the larger
communities, for example the Kronsberg district of
Hannover, Germany, tended to account for future
urban expansion. The motivation for the
implementation of renewable energy in the
communities studied were generally in response to
rising fuel costs and/or the need for a local financial
stimuli, sustainable initiatives taken by local citizens
or government (especially in the EU). A few projects
in the US were the initiative of an individual project
developer. See Table 1.
Table 1: The graph below shows initiators of community-
scale renewable energy projects most often identified in the
case study projects. Local Sustainable Initiative, including
policy, was the most significant motivating factor (fifth
column from left); Citizen movement (often in opposition to
other energy projects, most notably nuclear), High Fuel
Costs and Financial Stimuli (first three columns from left)
were other frequently cited initiators. A couple of projects (2
each) employed renewable energy in response to
Outdated Energy Systems and the necessity for improved
Energy Security.
Table 2: The bar graph at the top right of this page indicates
types of renewable energy and other sustainable design
strategies most commonly employed in the projects
including (from left) wind, solar, biomass, geothermal,
Green Design measures including reducing energy
demand, and strategies for the use / reuse of resources.
Table 2: Types of Renewables employed

The most favoured form of renewable energy

used in the projects studied was solar followed by
biomass gasification. Many of the projects also
implement additional strategies including ground-
source geothermal and other sustainable planning
strategies. Table 2 indicates types of renewable
energy and other sustainable design strategies most
commonly included in the projects studied. It goes
without saying that reducing energy demand through
passive low-energy design and energy-efficiency
measures must come before considering renewable
energy production. Overall project costs varied
greatly depending on the scale of the project, the
renewable technologies used, and how they were
implemented; also a few revitalization projects were
considered. Our best attempt was made to
determine overall cost (construction + renewable
energy) standardized by size. The average cost of
the communities studied was approximately
US$132,49 million / square mile. Incentives
available are a major factor in the formation and
success of a project. As indicated in Table 3 below,
incentives range from government-based grants,
Renewable Energy Credits and tax credits to
donations from companies. As expected, a distinct
trend is that government funding is more prevalent in
the European case studies than in the United States.
Table 3: Incentives for the implementation of community-
scale renewable energy projects include government-based
grants, Renewable Energy Credits, other tax credits and
donations.

Utility-owned renewable energy projects and

Co-ops are the favoured ownership / management
models used by most sustainable communities. This
is mainly because a firm owns or manages the
renewable energy systems reducing up-front costs
for the customers while providing reliability and
PLEA 2011 - 27
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HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN) 623
quality. The customer-generated model allows the
community to control the energy resources and the
potential for profit. Management in this case is
obviously more complex and requires additional
study. In some of the case-study projects individual
customers could invest in a share of the community
energy system or retain control of photovoltaic arrays
on their rooftop.

3. TYPOLOGIES
Four typologies for retaining control of renewable
energy resources are identified below and illustrated
using simplified line diagrams to indicate energy use
and distribution. In all cases the icon of the sun
represents any renewable energy source. They are
divided into two categories: Direct and Distributed
Energy Resources.
3.1. Direct: Individually owned and used
For the most part, renewable energy systems in
the built environment have been limited to single
building applications, small-scale applications where
energy is used directly. This configuration is
generally referred to as distributed generation or
behind the meter generation and encompasses not
only renewable installations such as rooftop
PhotoVoltaics (PVs), but also emergency power
supplies such as backup generators fuelled by diesel
oil or propane.

1. Non grid-tied / self-sufficient: A non grid-tied

settlement generates and uses renewable energy to
meet its own energy demand. Such a settlement, or
individual residences within, generally use passive
sustainable design features and are appropriately
insulated to reduce energy demand. Renewable
energy features may include PVs and/or wind
turbines. Some incentives, including tax credits or
low interest rate energy loans may be applicable.
The 2002, 2005, and 2007 NREL Solar Decathlon
Competitions simulated a non grid-tied community
since the individual homes were collectively
configured into a Solar Village, but each home was
electrified by its own Building Integrated PhotoVoltaic
(BIPV) system and excess energy was stored on-site
for use when power was not being generated (fig. 1).
For the most part non grid-tied systems should not
be considered where reliable utility access exists.
2. Grid-tied / non-interconnected: A variation of
the self-sufficient model is where renewable energy
generates all or some of the electricity necessary to
power an individual home or building. The balance
of energy is provided through a connection with the
utility grid. This configuration results in reduced
energy bills, since not all electricity is purchased from
the utility, serving as an incentive for building owners
(fig. 2).

Figure 1: Diagram of a stand-alone renewable energy

system.

Figure 2: Diagram of a grid-tied, non-interconnected

renewable energy system.

3. Grid-tied / Interconnected: In an
interconnected scenario communication between the
utility grid and the building works in two directions;
balance of energy is provided through
interconnection and excess energy generated is fed
back into the utility grid (fig. 3). Prior to considering a
grid-tied project in the United States, interconnection
regulations and protocols must be investigated since
many states are non-permissive or otherwise restrict
tying into the utility grid. Feed-in tariffs (EU) or Net-
metering is an accounting system for grid-tied
renewable energy projects. These projects are
provided with credits for surplus electricity that is
supplied to the utility grid. Selling excess electricity
to the utility offers cost savings compared to
purchasing grid electricity from a utility and is a
promising way to reduce the costs of installing
community energy projects. Net metering regulations
also vary widely in the US; although the 2005 US
Energy Policy Act encouraged individual states to
adopt net metering regulations, not all have done so.
Those states that do allow net metering vary widely
in the sell-back price as well as the procedures
required to register with the utility as a net-metered
customer. For the 2009 Solar Decathlon competition
homes were grid-tied and extra points in the Energy
Balance competition were awarded to teams that
provided excess energy to the grid.
PLEA 2011 - 27
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624 HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN)

Figure 3: Diagram of an interconnected renewable energy

relationship where energy is generated from renewable
sources on site and supplemented by the utility grid.
Through interconnection, excess energy generated is fed
back into the utility grid.
3.2. Distributed Energy Resources (DER)
Configuration:
For renewable energy to have a more significant
impact in realizing carbon-neutral goals installation at
the community (neighbourhood) scale must be
considered in a distributed energy resources (DER)
configuration. DER provide benefits of a centralized
system, generating and distributing power, but have
distinct characteristics that are locally beneficial: 1)
DER are smaller in size than typical power plants; 2)
they are located near customers and serve individual
or small groups of customers; and 3) they are
generally modular and scaleable, utilizing off-the-
shelf technology that can be scaled up as demand
increases [3].

4. Micro-grid connected community: This type

of community consists of energy-efficient buildings
where all or some energy is produced by renewable
energy (fig. 4). The community is connected by a
localized grid and interconnects with the utility grid at
a single point. Potential for increased ownership and
control of the project are advantages of a micro-grid
for a community-based energy project. Incentives for
such a model are in the form of government grants
that help offset the costs of establishing the micro
grid. Tax credits may apply to individual buildings
and serve as an incentive for people to buy into the
community. A benefit of the micro-grid configuration
is that renewable energy may be used in a
community even where all buildings are not ideally
oriented. A major barrier to the deployment of micro-
grids in the US is the fact that no state has a legal
definition of a micro-grid. As a result, even where
micro-grids have the right to exist their legal status
could vary based on the interpretation of the utility
regulators or the politicians who appoint them.

Figure 4: Diagram of a micro-grid configuration where all or

some energy needed for the community is produced by
renewable sources and the community is connected by a
localized grid that interconnects with the utility grid at a
single point.
A successful variant of the micro-grid model is
being implemented in the state of Maine, USA. The
Fox Islands community-owned wind project provides
electricity to the island residents and sells surplus
power directly to the New England transmission
operator through the wholesale market, rather than
to an electric distribution utility. The Fox Islands
project was able to side-step interconnection
negotiations with the electric utility because of its
relatively large size (4.5 MW) for a community-scale
energy project. The island community has begun
experimenting with the use of distributed thermal
storage to store surplus wind power for heating and
hot water, thus reducing the need of the island
residents to import fuel oil or propane from the
mainland [4] [5].
Deployment of micro-grids require significant
expertise and capital investment beyond the source
of the power supply, since inherent in the micro-grid
is the existence of a local electricity distribution
network. In the case of Smethport, Pennsylvania, a
biomass CHP system that will provide electricity and
district heating to the existing town is being
considered in the context of an expensive
infrastructure replacement project. Inspired by a
similar initiative in the town of Gussing, Austria,
Smethport is planning to construct a biomass reactor
fuelled by low-grade timber (low-value wood that
would otherwise be discarded as waste). The
economics of the project are appealing, and local
technical expertise exists since the municipality owns
some of the electric distribution assets within the
community. The project will also help the town meet
its environmental and economic development goals,
since providing fuel for the biomass plant will help
support the towns timber workers [6].
4. LESSONS LEARNED
Through analyzing the various case studies
across Europe and the United States certain
common lessons were learned that, while not
absolute, might be useful in establishing guidelines
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HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN) 625
for the design of renewable energy-based
sustainable communities [7]:
4.1. Integrative Design
One of the main factors required for a successful
community is the need for an integrated design
approach. This requires project stakeholders and
agents to be involved in the design process,
especially in setting and agreeing upon clear project
goals and objectives at the outset. Coordination to
attain these goals must take place throughout design
and construction. Additionally, experience plays a
significant role in the realization of complex
community-scale energy projects. For example, in
the case of the Nieuw Sloten PV houses (The
Netherlands, Amsterdam) where leaking occurred in
some of the PV roofs due to the complexity of the
field conditions and lack of experience by the
installer in both PV installation and in roofing [8].
Another example is the City of the Sun (Stad van de
Zon) also in the Netherlands. Although from a
purely technical point of view, there were no
problems in the design and realization of the project,
barriers in the process included lack of knowledge of
PV by the urban designers and some of the
architects considering PV as a design limitation
rather than a challenge. As a result, PVs were not
always a priority and in some cases designs were
produced that were unsuitable for PV due to
inappropriate orientation, structure and shading [9].
New communities are already learning from
these cases and trying to involve all the concerned
parties from the very start. This is evident in the
approach taken by ARUP for the design and
development of the Low2No project in Helsinki. They
followed a methodology of:
Setting objectives at the very outset;
Integrating processes like economics and
environment to identify synergies and
benefits early on;
Involving the client at the core of the
development process through workshops
and meetings; and;
Carrying out testing and inspection of
systems to have a level of accountability.
[10]
4.2. Community Participation
Community Participation is an extension of the
integrative design approach and involves getting the
community involved in setting goals and aspirations
for the project. Such participation was evident in the
Sustainable Model City District Vauban (Frieburg,
Germany) where a NGO called Forum Vauban was
formed to foster participation between the planners
and community. This was particularly helpful in
bringing citizens to the table and brainstorming
creative ideas that helped overcome the obstacles
the planners were facing with regard to traffic [11].
4.3. Changes in Policy
Lack of government support, both for project
funding and as incentive for investments in training
and education, has lead directly to lack of
competency in the implementation of renewable
energy, significantly in North America, but also in
Europe where existing incentives are constantly
threatened by changing politics. These trends affect
project cost, relating directly to funding sources, and
potentially the success of a community-scale
renewable energy project.
4.4. Multiple Funding Sources
It is evident from the case studies that the cost for
renewable based sustainable communities is quite
high and that despite incentives it is hard to raise
project funds from a single source. Multiple sources
to raise the necessary finances can be a mix of
equity and debt. The projects at Rieselfeld, Germany
and Fox Islands, Maine, USA, are examples of
multiple and varied sources of funding being used.
The Rieselfeld financial model was based on
government incentives and tax credits along with the
main funding from the City through a trust account
covered by the KE LEG GmbH. Rieselfeld saw state
support for residential construction discontinued and
tax advantages for investors cut. However, in this
case the financial model was tweaked to allow small
investors as well as private and industrial groups to
buy into the community. This helped to eventually
develop the community and has keep demand strong
even today [12]. In the case of Fox Islands, it was a
combination of PTC/ITC funding and RUS debt
financing at a fixed rate of 4% for 20 years that made
the project viable [13].

4.5. Post-Occupancy Maintenance

Loss in energy efficiency due to a lack of post
occupancy maintenance was another problem
recognized in some the case studies examined,
adversely affecting overall energy performance. Post
occupancy maintenance problems were foreseen in
the proposed Port of Barrow redevelopment project
(Barrow, UK) where community-members feared
that energy saving and PV features would be
eliminated by the developer to cut costs or not
maintained by the homeowners over time. Although
these are difficult problems to address, innovative
measures were considered to counter these
problems including implementing planning
restrictions to prevent energy-saving fixtures from
being removed and establishing procedures for
educating homeowners about long-term benefits of
maintaining energy-related features including PV
[14].
5. CONCLUSIONS / NEXT STEPS:
For successful implementation of
community-scale renewable energy projects, zoning
regulations that are consistent with energy
development goals need to be devised. Zoning
regulations and property rights must be designed
especially carefully if the desired system is
distributed in nature (such as a community with
multiple rooftop solar installations). Since a building
with a rooftop photovoltaic installation may be
affected by nearby tall buildings or trees, solar
PLEA 2011 - 27
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626 HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN)
Technologies and Sustainable Policies for
Decreasing Energy Consumption
in Buildings in Greece
N. PAPAMANOLIS, M. MANDALAKI
Department of Architecture, Technical University of Crete
El. Venizelou 127 (Former French School), 73133, Chania, Greece
ABSTRACT: This paper investigates and introduces the present situation regarding energy consumption in
buildings in Greece. Based on the available statistical data, it evaluates the energy behaviour of corresponding
buildings. It also describes the measures and the practices which are applied in the country to reduce the
consumption of energy in the building sector. It includes references to the existing legal framework, the prevailing
design and construction practices, the construction materials etc. It also examines and suggests measures that
could help to improve the framework of energy consumption in buildings in Greece.
Keywords: Sustainable technology, Sustainable policy, Building, Greece
1. INTRODUCTION
Greece, with an overall land area of approx.
132,000 km
2
, consists, by the four-fifths of its
mainland, of mountainous terrain. Greece is also a
maritime country with numerous islands and a
coastline of over 15,000 km in length. The bulk (i.e.
about 59%) of the countrys population which,
according to the estimation of the National Statistical
Service, stands at about 11.3 million, lives in urban
areas [1]. Most urban centres and the largest of them,
including the conurbation of the capital, Athens, with
its population of about 4 million, and the second
largest city, Thessaloniki, with its population of about
1 million inhabitants, lie on the coast.
Greece has a Mediterranean climate [2].
According to the relevant climatic data, the annual
cycle can be divided into a cold and rainy season
(October to March) and a warm and dry season (April
to September). Temperatures on the Greek mainland
present intense contrasts mainly due to geographic
factors. Greece is between the average annual
isothermal of 14.5 and 19.5 C. The extreme
temperatures are close to -25 C (during winter in the
mountainous and northern regions) and +45 C
(during heatwaves on the mainland). The mean
relative humidity ranges from 65% to 75%, according
to location. It displays a simple annual fluctuation,
with the maximum occurring during the winter
months, and depends on the proximity of natural
concentrations of water. In Greece, the general
circulation of the atmosphere and the prevailing
synoptic systems in the wider area contribute to the
prevalence of western and northern wind components
and fairly moderate speeds. However, in interaction
with them, the complex relief of Greece plays an
important role in determining the prevailing wind
direction and speed in many regions. Greece is a very
sunny country. The average annual rates of incoming
solar radiation, moving from north to south, range
from 5000 to 6100 MJ/m
2
/yr [3]. The climatic data
above relate mainly to the countryside. In urban
environments, in which the majority of buildings are
situated, these data change as a result of the
influence of the factors which make up the urban
climate [4].
Buildings in Greece, according to statistics for
2008, consume about 39,8 % of the total annual
energy consumption [5], while, of this amount, the
energy consumed in households (for space heating
and cooling, water heating, lighting etc.) is estimated
to be about 61% [6]. The energy consumption of the
building sector in Greece, on the basis of the statistics
of recent years, has a upward trend (from 6.21 Mtoe
for 1997 to 8.45 Mtoe for 2008), understandably, as a
result of the increase in the number of buildings and
the energy-consuming applications and in particular
air conditioning systems in them [7]. Buildings in
Greece are wasteful in energy terms. It is interesting
that, while the country is in the southern area of
Europe, the percentage representing the energy
consumptions of building sector over the total is close
to the mean value of all 27 EU countries (40.8 % for
2008). Also, based on the climate corrected
household energy consumption for space heating,
Greece, with about 21.5 Kgoe/m
2
for 2005, is ranked
first between all the European countries [8].
The factors influencing energy performance of
buildings in Greece, under the particular climatic
conditions, are more or less specific, similar
throughout the country and outlined [9]. These factors
remain unaltered during the last decades. More
specifically, neither the way that buildings are
designed and constructed, nor the behavior of their
users - in what concerns the buildings energy
performance - has changed dramatically during this
time. In this respect, it is indicative that the regulatory
framework remains essentially the same since 1979.
Unsuccessful efforts for its improvement have been
done in the past. It is only since October of 2010, that
the application of a set of measures for the
improvement of the energy performance of buildings
shadow regulations that provide some property
rights related to rooftop solar have been adopted by
a couple of states [15]. Homeowner covenants can
also be designed with energy goals in mind. For
example several of the projects studied separated
rooftop ownership from control to ensure that
community managers had access to install and
maintain renewable energy systems.
The preliminary research results included in
this paper will be used by this team to develop
spatial guidelines that will reveal principal modes of
interaction between buildings and energy systems by
summarizing findings related to physical form in a
series of schematic diagrams. Building orientation
and relationships relative to different renewable
energy implementation strategies will naturally be
important to our spatial representation approach, but
other decision-making dimensions, including
regulatory considerations (ie. innovative zoning
strategies, ownership/management models and
property rights and homeowner-association
covenants), will also be researched and
incorporated. The resulting guideline will present
high-dimensional visualization information that
integrates built physical form with economic,
regulatory, and policy-relevant implementation
factors.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research and finding summarized in this
paper was supported by a grant from the
Pennsylvania State University College of Arts and
Architecture Competition for Faculty Research
Grants program in 2009-2010.
7. REFERENCES
[1] D. W. Aitken, Transitioning to a Renewable
Energy Future, International Solar Energy
Society (ISES) White Paper, Frieburg,
Germany, (2006).
[2] The benefits of distributed energy related to
CHP are summarized in a U.S Department of
Energy report (2007) available at :
<http://www1.eere.energy.gov/industry/distribut
edenergy/chp_benefits.html>. Other reports
including Carlson and Hedman 2004, Bailey et
al. 2002, King and Morgan 2006, Pepermans,
2005, Poore et al 2002, summarize advantages
to customers.
[3] D. King, Discussion of distributed generation
and distributed energy resources as
distinguished from centralized generation from
Electric Power Micro-grids: Opportunities and
Challenges for an Emerging Distributed Energy
Architecture. PhD Diss., Carnegie Mellon
University (2006), Pp. 130-131.
[4] The VCharge Transactive Energy Management
website has details of VCharge Wind
Integration Fox Islands Smart Grid Project, Fox
Islands ME, (Fall 2010 through Spring 2011).
<http://veecharge.com/projects/wind_integratio
n>.
[5] L.D. Iulo, J. R.S. Brownson, S. Blumsack, R.A.
Kimell, Potential and Implementation
Strategies for Renewable Energy in the
Planned World, Interdisciplinary Themes
Journal, vol. 2, no.1 (2010).
[6] S. Williams, Reinventing Smethport, (2009)
<http://www.smethportpa.org/pdf/Smethport.pdf
>.
[7] B. Gaiddon, H. Kaan, and D. Munro, (ed.),
Photovoltaics in the Urban Environment:
Lessons Learnt from Large-Scale Projects,
Earthscan, London, Sterling VA (2009).
[8] J. Cace, and E. t. Horst, The Netherlands,
Amsterdam, Nieuw Sloten PV houses, in
Photovoltaics in the Urban Environment, eds B
Gaiddon, H Kaan, and D Munro, Earthscan,
London, Sterling VA (2009), pg.58.
[9] M Elswijk et al, The Netherlands, HAL location
City of the Sun, in Photovoltaics in the Urban
Environment, eds B Gaiddon, H Kaan, and D
Munro, Earthscan, London, Sterling VA (2009),
pp70-71.
[10] Website has details about the project, ARUP,
C_Life City as Living Factory of Ecology
(2010, <http:www.low2no.org/now/wp-
content/uploads/2010/01/Low2No%20Manual%
20Arup.pdf>.
[11] C. Sperling, Sustainable Urban District
Freiburg-Vauban (2002),
<http://www.carstensperling.de/pdf/dubai-
submission.pdf>.
[12] Energie Cities, Rieselfeld: quality and local life
combined,<httpwww.energy-
cities.eu/IMG/pdf/Sustainable_Districts_ADEM
E1_Rieselfeld.pdf>.
[13] G. Baker, Fox Islands Wind: A Case Study of
Community Ownership (2010),
<http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/pdfs/wo
rkshops/2010_summit/baker_fox_islands.pdf >.
[14] D Munro, UK, Barrow, Port of Barrow
redevelopment, in Photovoltaics in the Urban
Environment, eds B Gaiddon, H Kaan, and D
Munro, Earthscan, London, Sterling VA (2009),
pp135-136.
[15] Information, including a list of relevant States,
is available from the U.S. Department of
Energy U.S. Department of Energy Energy
Efficiency & Renewable Energy, Solar
Powering your Community: A Guide for Local
Governments (2009),
<http://www.solaramericacities.energy.gov/reso
urces/guide_for_local_governments/3/1/6>.
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN) 627
Technologies and Sustainable Policies for
Decreasing Energy Consumption
in Buildings in Greece
N. PAPAMANOLIS, M. MANDALAKI
Department of Architecture, Technical University of Crete
El. Venizelou 127 (Former French School), 73133, Chania, Greece
ABSTRACT: This paper investigates and introduces the present situation regarding energy consumption in
buildings in Greece. Based on the available statistical data, it evaluates the energy behaviour of corresponding
buildings. It also describes the measures and the practices which are applied in the country to reduce the
consumption of energy in the building sector. It includes references to the existing legal framework, the prevailing
design and construction practices, the construction materials etc. It also examines and suggests measures that
could help to improve the framework of energy consumption in buildings in Greece.
Keywords: Sustainable technology, Sustainable policy, Building, Greece
1. INTRODUCTION
Greece, with an overall land area of approx.
132,000 km
2
, consists, by the four-fifths of its
mainland, of mountainous terrain. Greece is also a
maritime country with numerous islands and a
coastline of over 15,000 km in length. The bulk (i.e.
about 59%) of the countrys population which,
according to the estimation of the National Statistical
Service, stands at about 11.3 million, lives in urban
areas [1]. Most urban centres and the largest of them,
including the conurbation of the capital, Athens, with
its population of about 4 million, and the second
largest city, Thessaloniki, with its population of about
1 million inhabitants, lie on the coast.
Greece has a Mediterranean climate [2].
According to the relevant climatic data, the annual
cycle can be divided into a cold and rainy season
(October to March) and a warm and dry season (April
to September). Temperatures on the Greek mainland
present intense contrasts mainly due to geographic
factors. Greece is between the average annual
isothermal of 14.5 and 19.5 C. The extreme
temperatures are close to -25 C (during winter in the
mountainous and northern regions) and +45 C
(during heatwaves on the mainland). The mean
relative humidity ranges from 65% to 75%, according
to location. It displays a simple annual fluctuation,
with the maximum occurring during the winter
months, and depends on the proximity of natural
concentrations of water. In Greece, the general
circulation of the atmosphere and the prevailing
synoptic systems in the wider area contribute to the
prevalence of western and northern wind components
and fairly moderate speeds. However, in interaction
with them, the complex relief of Greece plays an
important role in determining the prevailing wind
direction and speed in many regions. Greece is a very
sunny country. The average annual rates of incoming
solar radiation, moving from north to south, range
from 5000 to 6100 MJ/m
2
/yr [3]. The climatic data
above relate mainly to the countryside. In urban
environments, in which the majority of buildings are
situated, these data change as a result of the
influence of the factors which make up the urban
climate [4].
Buildings in Greece, according to statistics for
2008, consume about 39,8 % of the total annual
energy consumption [5], while, of this amount, the
energy consumed in households (for space heating
and cooling, water heating, lighting etc.) is estimated
to be about 61% [6]. The energy consumption of the
building sector in Greece, on the basis of the statistics
of recent years, has a upward trend (from 6.21 Mtoe
for 1997 to 8.45 Mtoe for 2008), understandably, as a
result of the increase in the number of buildings and
the energy-consuming applications and in particular
air conditioning systems in them [7]. Buildings in
Greece are wasteful in energy terms. It is interesting
that, while the country is in the southern area of
Europe, the percentage representing the energy
consumptions of building sector over the total is close
to the mean value of all 27 EU countries (40.8 % for
2008). Also, based on the climate corrected
household energy consumption for space heating,
Greece, with about 21.5 Kgoe/m
2
for 2005, is ranked
first between all the European countries [8].
The factors influencing energy performance of
buildings in Greece, under the particular climatic
conditions, are more or less specific, similar
throughout the country and outlined [9]. These factors
remain unaltered during the last decades. More
specifically, neither the way that buildings are
designed and constructed, nor the behavior of their
users - in what concerns the buildings energy
performance - has changed dramatically during this
time. In this respect, it is indicative that the regulatory
framework remains essentially the same since 1979.
Unsuccessful efforts for its improvement have been
done in the past. It is only since October of 2010, that
the application of a set of measures for the
improvement of the energy performance of buildings
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
628 HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN)
in Greece started, in order to apply the EU Directive
2002/91/EC.
This study briefly describes the present situation
in terms of energy performance of buildings in
Greece. The most important factors that influence this
situation are emphasized. The biggest part of the
study focuses on the principal practices and
measures currently proposed and applied in order to
reduce energy consumption in buildings in the
country.
2. THE MAIN DATA FORMING THE ENERGY
BEHAVIOR OF BUILDINGS IN GREECE
In Greece, the vast majority of buildings - above
90 % - are residential buildings [10]. Second in terms
of frequency comes the category of buildings housing
productive activities, which are commonly known as
commercial buildings (housing commercial
operations, services etc.). In constructional and
architectural terms, this category displays many
similarities to the previous one. The smallest group
includes buildings housing social services or functions
(schools, hospitals, meeting halls etc.) and buildings
serving special uses. In this category, the greatest
variety of architectural forms is to be found, despite
the fact that the basic constructional characteristics of
corresponding buildings are the same as those in the
other two categories.
The concrete, perforated bricks and other building
materials, as well as the building practices that prevail
in the construction of buildings in Greece, have a
direct impact on their energy behaviour. Thus, the
great heat capacity of the building materials, the low
air permeability of the envelopes, the presence of
thermal bridges, the high levels of fire resistance and
mechanical resistance, as some of the typical
properties of the particular construction model used,
of course play a role in shaping important parameters
in the behaviour of the buildings concerned. So, too,
do those properties relating to thermal conductivity,
moisture permeability, sound-insulating power and
other parameters of the construction elements. The
quality of construction of buildings in Greece, at least
during the last few decades, has, by and large, been
average. The building materials that are used and the
practices that are applied, with regard mainly the
invisible surfaces of buildings (such as layers of
insulation) are often governed by a rationale of low
cost and ease of application. The underlying causes
of this reality can be sought in different areas. Its
consequences, however, are reflected in building
pathology issues and of course in the low
performances of the buildings in terms of their energy
behaviour [9].
Another important group of factors affecting the
energy performance of buildings in Greece concerns
the way that users behave in the buildings in which
they live or work. One aspect of this behaviour
includes the attempt of constructors to exploit the
weaknesses of the existing system of building
construction in order to make financial gains at the
expense of the quality of construction. Another
important aspect of the users behaviour concerns his
active intervention in processes that influence the
behaviour of the buildings they live in. In this area,
although no available data exists, it can be assumed
that the Greeks are by and large insufficiently
sensitized. The way in which they face their role in the
energy behaviour of buildings is rather superficial and
their conduct in this respect could be described as
being based on reflex actions. For example, the
actions they take to control the parameters of the
internal environments of their buildings, rarely go
beyond using the available electro-mechanical
installations [9].
The principal piece of legislation that concerns the
energy behaviour of buildings in Greece was until the
October 2010 the Thermal Insulation Code. The
Code, which has been in force since 1979, provides
for three stages of assessment and control in respect
of thermal losses in buildings. The first stage
concerns the thermal properties of the different
building elements in the envelope. The second stage
concerns the mean heat transmission rate of the
buildings envelope on each floor. The final stage
monitors the mean heat transmission rate of the
overall surface of the buildings envelope. In this
respect, the country is divided into three climatic
zones and for each zone the Code provides for a
maximum mean heat transmission rate, which ranges
from 0.616 to 1.553 W/m
2
K, in relation to the ratio
between the volume and envelope surface area of
each building [11]. A large proportion of buildings in
Greece were built before the Thermal Insulation Code
came into effect and do not possess thermal
insulation of any kind. It has been estimated that the
average heating energy demand of Greek apartment
buildings built before 1980 is about 96 kWh/m
2
, while
for those built after 1980 the demand is estimated to
be between 75-94 kWh/m
2
[12]. A second important
piece of legislation with provisions relating to the
health and comfort of occupants, the protection of the
environment and energy saving in the building sector
in Greece is the Construction Code for Buildings [13].
This Code deals specifically with the natural lighting,
ventilation, damp protection, sound insulation and fire
protection of buildings, amongst other things. In the
recommendations that it contains, the Code uses
mainly qualitative criteria; wherever quantitative
criteria are used, these relate indirectly to the physical
magnitudes of the phenomena being examined (e.g.
the dimensions of openings for natural lighting or
ventilation). A drawback for the Code, which renders
many parts of it ineffective, is the lack of legislation
concerning their implementation.
An attempt has been made to improve the
legislation relating to the environmental and energy
behaviour of buildings within the framework of the
national programme called Energy 2001 [14]. This
programme was the main measure taken to comply
with the EU Directive 1993/76/EC (SAVE Directive). A
key action of Energy 2001 was the elaboration of a
new national building energy code which would
replace the existing Thermal Insulation Code.
Additionally, it was introducing the legislation of
building construction standards, promotion of
renewable energy in building construction and
refurbishment, energy certification and energy audits
of buildings, as well as specific, obligatory energy-
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN) 629
saving measures for public buildings. Legislation
supporting the programme was never completed.
3. CURRENT POLICIES REGARDING
ENERGY MANAGEMENT IN THE BUILD
ENVIRONMENT IN GREECE
Greece incorporated the EU Directive 2002/91/EC
on the Energy Performance of Buildings [15] with the
Law 3661/2008 Directions for reducing energy
consumption in buildings and other regulations. For
its implementation, the law entitled: Energy Efficiency
Building Regulations has been published on the 9th
of April 2010 and it is active since the 1st of October
2010 [16]. It is important to note that, while the EU
Directives application was planned for 2003 and for
Greece this date was postponed for the end of 2006
[17], the actual activation of the Directive came in
force 4 years later.
With the announcement of the Energy Efficiency
Building Regulations (EEBR), sustainable design and
construction has been typically introduced in Greece.
This has been done in order to improve all buildings
energy efficiency, their energy savings and to protect
and preserve the natural environment. These goals
are achieved through four basic actions:
1. The legislation of the energy efficiency study.
2. The introduction of minimum standards for a
buildings energy efficiency.
3. Buildings energy classification that leads to a
Buildings Energy Certificate.
4. The Buildings Energy Inspection, and the
Inspection of its Technical Systems (the boiler
system, heating system and air conditioning).
The Energy Efficiency Study is replacing and
abolishing the Thermal Insulation Code. This study is
necessary for the building permit of every new
building over 50m
2
and for all existing buildings that
will be renovated. This study is based on a specific
methodology with two main steps:
a. The implementation of required standards for
the examined building in terms of design,
performative quality of its envelope and quality of its
technical systems (heating, cooling, ventilation, hot
water, lighting and combinations of them).
b. The comparison of the examined building with a
reference building. The reference building is a model
building with the same geometrical characteristics,
the same site position, orientation, the same use and
operating characteristics with the examined building.
It also follows the minimum energy requirements and
has specific technical characteristics. The total
primary energy consumption of the examined building
should be the same or less than the primary energy of
the reference building. The examined building (new or
existing that requires renovation), has exactly the
same technical characteristics and consequent
energy performance as the reference building.
Building Energy Performance Certificate indicates
the energy performance of a building and classifies it
into one out of nine categories. The Certificate is
mandatory for all new buildings over 50m
2
or
buildings that are being renovated. It is also
necessary for buildings over 50m
2
that are about to
be rented or sold and for all public buildings. This
Certificate is valid for ten years. In the case of rented
or sold buildings, the Certificate is required from the
9th of January 2011.
The results of the report of the energy inspector
are among the information inscribed on the building
Energy Performance Certificate. On the same
Certificate, there are recommendations for the
improvement of the energy efficiency of the building in
such a way, that users can compare and assess their
energy consumption and recognize any opportunities
for energy efficiency improvement of their building.
The Building Energy Inspection is the basic tool
for the evaluation of the Energy Performance of
existing buildings and for the recognition of the
potential of their energy consumption improvement.
All certified buildings Energy Performance Inspectors
belong to the general records of the Greek Ministry of
Environment, Energy and Climate Change and are
the only ones certified for the Energy Inspection and
the approval of the Energy Performance Certificate.
They inspect the existing buildings and produce the
building Energy Efficiency Study, in order to assess
the examined building. This assessment is based on
the ratio of the energy consumption of the building to
the energy consumption of the reference building. In
order to become a certified Energy Inspector, an
engineer should: a. have at least four years of
professional or research experience in building design
and/or in energy savings systems and b. attend the
certified seminar organized by the Technical
Chamber of Greece and pass the exams. The
seminar should be at least 60 hours in order to
become buildings inspector and 30 hours for the
case of technical equipment and air conditioning
systems inspection. The general management of the
application of this framework is being held from the
Special Service Energy Inspectors and is under the
supervision of the Ministry of Environment, Energy
and Climate Change.
There are multiple benefits from the
implementation of the EEBR law. These are financial,
social and of course, environmental. The financial
benefits occur because of the reduction of the
operating and maintenance costs of the buildings and
because of the expected revival of the building
industry sector. The social benefits are connected
with the creation of new working places and the
improvement of the quality of life. The environmental
benefits concern the reduction of dioxide emissions
and especially of CO2 emissions, the stabilization of
climate change and the reduction of energy
consumption form non renewable sources.
In order to create motives for energy savings in
the building sector, the Ministry of Environment and
Climate Change in collaboration with other institutes,
has prepared two basics action programs : a. Energy
savings in the housing sector and the b. Building the
Future: a. The first action concerns subsidies for
energy upgrading housing buildings. It refers to three
categories of owners, according to their income. The
lower the income of the owner, the higher the subsidy
and the percentage of the interest-free loan, offered
[18]. b. The second action is going to enter into force
on 2011 and finished on 2020. It concerns the
reduction, of energy consumption in build
in Greece started, in order to apply the EU Directive
2002/91/EC.
This study briefly describes the present situation
in terms of energy performance of buildings in
Greece. The most important factors that influence this
situation are emphasized. The biggest part of the
study focuses on the principal practices and
measures currently proposed and applied in order to
reduce energy consumption in buildings in the
country.
2. THE MAIN DATA FORMING THE ENERGY
BEHAVIOR OF BUILDINGS IN GREECE
In Greece, the vast majority of buildings - above
90 % - are residential buildings [10]. Second in terms
of frequency comes the category of buildings housing
productive activities, which are commonly known as
commercial buildings (housing commercial
operations, services etc.). In constructional and
architectural terms, this category displays many
similarities to the previous one. The smallest group
includes buildings housing social services or functions
(schools, hospitals, meeting halls etc.) and buildings
serving special uses. In this category, the greatest
variety of architectural forms is to be found, despite
the fact that the basic constructional characteristics of
corresponding buildings are the same as those in the
other two categories.
The concrete, perforated bricks and other building
materials, as well as the building practices that prevail
in the construction of buildings in Greece, have a
direct impact on their energy behaviour. Thus, the
great heat capacity of the building materials, the low
air permeability of the envelopes, the presence of
thermal bridges, the high levels of fire resistance and
mechanical resistance, as some of the typical
properties of the particular construction model used,
of course play a role in shaping important parameters
in the behaviour of the buildings concerned. So, too,
do those properties relating to thermal conductivity,
moisture permeability, sound-insulating power and
other parameters of the construction elements. The
quality of construction of buildings in Greece, at least
during the last few decades, has, by and large, been
average. The building materials that are used and the
practices that are applied, with regard mainly the
invisible surfaces of buildings (such as layers of
insulation) are often governed by a rationale of low
cost and ease of application. The underlying causes
of this reality can be sought in different areas. Its
consequences, however, are reflected in building
pathology issues and of course in the low
performances of the buildings in terms of their energy
behaviour [9].
Another important group of factors affecting the
energy performance of buildings in Greece concerns
the way that users behave in the buildings in which
they live or work. One aspect of this behaviour
includes the attempt of constructors to exploit the
weaknesses of the existing system of building
construction in order to make financial gains at the
expense of the quality of construction. Another
important aspect of the users behaviour concerns his
active intervention in processes that influence the
behaviour of the buildings they live in. In this area,
although no available data exists, it can be assumed
that the Greeks are by and large insufficiently
sensitized. The way in which they face their role in the
energy behaviour of buildings is rather superficial and
their conduct in this respect could be described as
being based on reflex actions. For example, the
actions they take to control the parameters of the
internal environments of their buildings, rarely go
beyond using the available electro-mechanical
installations [9].
The principal piece of legislation that concerns the
energy behaviour of buildings in Greece was until the
October 2010 the Thermal Insulation Code. The
Code, which has been in force since 1979, provides
for three stages of assessment and control in respect
of thermal losses in buildings. The first stage
concerns the thermal properties of the different
building elements in the envelope. The second stage
concerns the mean heat transmission rate of the
buildings envelope on each floor. The final stage
monitors the mean heat transmission rate of the
overall surface of the buildings envelope. In this
respect, the country is divided into three climatic
zones and for each zone the Code provides for a
maximum mean heat transmission rate, which ranges
from 0.616 to 1.553 W/m
2
K, in relation to the ratio
between the volume and envelope surface area of
each building [11]. A large proportion of buildings in
Greece were built before the Thermal Insulation Code
came into effect and do not possess thermal
insulation of any kind. It has been estimated that the
average heating energy demand of Greek apartment
buildings built before 1980 is about 96 kWh/m
2
, while
for those built after 1980 the demand is estimated to
be between 75-94 kWh/m
2
[12]. A second important
piece of legislation with provisions relating to the
health and comfort of occupants, the protection of the
environment and energy saving in the building sector
in Greece is the Construction Code for Buildings [13].
This Code deals specifically with the natural lighting,
ventilation, damp protection, sound insulation and fire
protection of buildings, amongst other things. In the
recommendations that it contains, the Code uses
mainly qualitative criteria; wherever quantitative
criteria are used, these relate indirectly to the physical
magnitudes of the phenomena being examined (e.g.
the dimensions of openings for natural lighting or
ventilation). A drawback for the Code, which renders
many parts of it ineffective, is the lack of legislation
concerning their implementation.
An attempt has been made to improve the
legislation relating to the environmental and energy
behaviour of buildings within the framework of the
national programme called Energy 2001 [14]. This
programme was the main measure taken to comply
with the EU Directive 1993/76/EC (SAVE Directive). A
key action of Energy 2001 was the elaboration of a
new national building energy code which would
replace the existing Thermal Insulation Code.
Additionally, it was introducing the legislation of
building construction standards, promotion of
renewable energy in building construction and
refurbishment, energy certification and energy audits
of buildings, as well as specific, obligatory energy-
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
630 HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN)
environment, of the financial costs for building owners
for the energy upgrade of their building and of the
operating cost of the building. It is focus on integration
of advanced technology for energy saving in
buildings, on demonstration and construction of zero
energy buildings and on research actions for design
of high- tech environmental efficiency products [19].
The new legislative framework for the Energy
Performance of Buildings in Greece has a lot of
features that make it seem promising. But during the
first period of its entry into force, defects and
abeyances that create difficulties in its application
have been noticed. For example the deadline for
applying for a position of temporary Energy Inspector
was after the date of entry into force of the EEBR (1st
October) and till now (middle of February), the
educational process of the formal Energy Inspectors
has not been clarified. The only educational process
that has been organised till now is unofficial seminars
conducted by the Technical Chamber of Greece, in
order to inform the temporary Energy Inspectors and
the Energy Consultants. It is important to note as well,
that the information of the Engineers and all others
involved in these processes (for example buildings
owners), about these new measures, has not been as
profuse as their importance imposed.
4. CONCLUSIONS
According to the statistical data, energy
performance of Greek buildings is low. Based on the
fact that the climatic conditions of the country are
mild, the reasons for this unpleasant reality should be
searched at the quality of the buildings design and
construction and at the users energy behavior.
Indeed, the average design and construction quality
as well as the low sensitivity of buildings users in
terms of energy savings, have been defined, among
other reasons, as the most important facts influencing
building energy performance in Greece.
Nevertheless, the intervention for optimizing the
buildings energy performance was delayed for
several decades, despite the fact that the reasons
that till now were contributing to the energy wastage,
in them were already known.
The second semester of 2010, an ambitious
legislation package and other related initiatives
began, in order to upgrade the energy performance of
buildings in Greece. Energy measures and actions
that have been taken, in accordance with relative
EUs directives and support, have not been tested
yet. Some problems in the beginning of the
application of these measures have already been
noticed and can justify the negative critique about
some aspects of them that have not been sufficiently
studied. However, the main subject that has to be
clarified is the compatibility of these legislation
measures to the local conditions.
Is important, that, these new measures, that
intend to upgrade the energy building performance of
the existing building stock, could be supplemented
with others that will directly help the way that
buildings are designed and constructed in the
country. These new measures, in order to be
effective, should cover all the production chain of
buildings (including education of all specialists
involved in the building industry and detailed control
of building construction) and, primarily, should be
based on the specific climatic and environmental
conditions in Greece.
5. REFERENCES
[1] http://www.statistics.gr/portal/page/portal/ESYE
[2] http://www.hnms.gr/hnms/english/climatology/cli
matology_html
[3] A.A. Flocas (1980), Estimation and Prediction of
Global Solar Radiation over Greece, Solar
Energy Journal, Vol. 24 (1), 63-70.
[4] H. E. Landsberg (1981), The Urban Climate.
Academic Press, London.
[5] http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab
=table&plugin=1&language=en&pcode=ten00101
[6] http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab
=table&init=1&language=en&pcode=tsdpc320&pl
ugin=1
[7] http://www.cres.gr/energy_saving/Ktiria/ktiria_intr
o.htm (in Greek).
[8] http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-
maps/figures/household-energy-consumption-
space-heating-perm2-climate-corrected
[9] N. Papamanolis (2006), Characteristics of the
Environmental and Energy Behaviour of
Contemporary Urban Buildings in Greece, Archi-
tectural Science Review, Vol. 49 (2), 120-126.
[10] http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?
dataset=cens_rdhh&lang=en
[11] Hellenic Ministry of Environment, Planning and
Public Works: Thermal Insulation Code for
Buildings, Decree-Law 1/6/1979, The Hellenic
Official Gazette, 362D, 1979.
[12] C.A. Balaras, K. Droutsa, E. Daskalaki and S.
Kontoyannidis (2005), Heating Energy
Consumption and Resulting Environmental
Impact of European Apartment Buildings. Energy
and Buildings, Vol. 37 (5), 429-442.
[13] http://portal.tee.gr/portal/page/portal/teelar/NOM
OTHESIA/KTIRIOOIKODOMIKOS%20KSNONIS
MOS (in Greek).
[14] Hellenic Ministry of Environment, Planning and
Public Works: Energy 2001: Action Plan for
Sustainable Construction, Athens, 2001.
[15] http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:
L:2003:001:0065:0065:EN:PDF
[16] http://www.ypeka.gr/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=aiS
4GyKxx04%3d&tabid=525&language=el-GR (in
Greek).
[17] International Energy Agency, Energy Policies of
IEA Countries, Greece 2006 Review, p. 164.
[18] http://www.ypeka.gr/Default.aspx?tabid=526&loc
ale=el-GR&language=en-US (in Greek).
[19] http://www.ypeka.gr/Default.aspx?tabid=362&sni[
524]=637&locale=en-US&language=el-GR (in
Greek).
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN) 631
Building Regional Intelligence
Christopher DOMIN, Larry MEDLIN, Brent D. VANDER WERF
University of Arizona, College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
Tucson, Arizona USA

ABSTRACT: The SEEDpod dwelling prototype
enters into a pact with nature as it interacts with
local climatic conditions. The envelope creates a
selective filter, which protects the interior from
varying environmental conditions. Active and
passive elements include a 9 Kw photovoltaic roof
array, operable wall assemblies with insulated
panels and glazing systems with ventilation options.
The primary objective is to provide a compact,
highly efficient building strategy that can
advantageously interact with natural forces. A
remedial engagement with the local environment
provides further direction for our performance-based
design process. The intention is to literally grow
liveable interior and exterior spaces.

An important catalyst for the development of
regional building intelligence at the University of
Arizona: College of Architecture and Landscape
Architecture is the design studio with associated
materials laboratory. Research prototypes
developed in this empirically engaged setting of
thinking, drawing and building are artefacts of a
uniquely integrated way of working. Iterative
development over time in service of both the
particular condition of experimentation and also
comprehensive final integration into a full-scale
assembly is imperative to the method. Prototype
system development is the focus of this
presentation, along with fabrication and assembly of
a dwelling unit. Research and development
programs at both the graduate and undergraduate
level became essential components of the fully
operable prototype: a pivoting structural rib
assembly, which facilitates adaptability to optimum
solar incidence, a compliant shading system that
registers the movement of light throughout the day,
and the thermally tuned water wall. Prototyping,
performance analysis and implementation of the
compliant shading system within the holistic
framework of the building envelope is the focus of
this investigation.

Keywords: sustainable building, desert

architecture, regional technology, materials
research, bimetals, shade
1. INTRODUCTION
Drawing from experience with multiple passive
solar design residences, members of The University
of Arizona SEEDpod design team recognized that
residents, over a period of time, became more
attuned to the natural climatic cycles and unique
ecological niches and micro-environments of their
dwellings. Drawing from this acquired awareness,
the inhabitants became progressively more efficient
in the use of energy and other resources during the
subtle operation of daily life. This inspired a goal of
the SEEDpod team to create a dwelling that would
facilitate the development of human intelligence and
wisdom attuned to a unique climate and ecological
environment [1].
In Southern Arizona and Northern Mexico the
Sonoran Deserts clear skies with limited cloud
cover offer large diurnal temperature swings of over
30F throughout the year. This results in
comfortable outdoor ambient temperature conditions
during select seasonal conditions. In this context,
natural energy forces of solar radiation and air
movement can be utilized in passive environmental
design strategies to create advantageous micro-
environments for indoor/outdoor living. Comfortable
ambient environmental conditions frequently occur
during winter days, early summer mornings and
evenings and often throughout the day during the
spring and fall. Historically we have built to
overpower nature with minimal concern for
environmental impact. Recognition of, and a desire
to, advantageously utilize the unique characteristics
of the Sonoran Desert climate and the ecology of
each site were key considerations during the
conceptual design phase. The outcome is intended
to provide residents with a tool for engagement and
interaction with the specific microclimate and natural
elements of its location these include the sun
used to create electricity, heat water and air and to
provide daylight; water harvested for domestic
needs and irrigation of edible plants and
landscaping; and air used for ventilation and
maintain a healthy environment [2].

Figure 01, SEEDpod perspective.

Much recent thinking of value engineered

energy efficient buildings has led to airtight,
environment, of the financial costs for building owners
for the energy upgrade of their building and of the
operating cost of the building. It is focus on integration
of advanced technology for energy saving in
buildings, on demonstration and construction of zero
energy buildings and on research actions for design
of high- tech environmental efficiency products [19].
The new legislative framework for the Energy
Performance of Buildings in Greece has a lot of
features that make it seem promising. But during the
first period of its entry into force, defects and
abeyances that create difficulties in its application
have been noticed. For example the deadline for
applying for a position of temporary Energy Inspector
was after the date of entry into force of the EEBR (1st
October) and till now (middle of February), the
educational process of the formal Energy Inspectors
has not been clarified. The only educational process
that has been organised till now is unofficial seminars
conducted by the Technical Chamber of Greece, in
order to inform the temporary Energy Inspectors and
the Energy Consultants. It is important to note as well,
that the information of the Engineers and all others
involved in these processes (for example buildings
owners), about these new measures, has not been as
profuse as their importance imposed.
4. CONCLUSIONS
According to the statistical data, energy
performance of Greek buildings is low. Based on the
fact that the climatic conditions of the country are
mild, the reasons for this unpleasant reality should be
searched at the quality of the buildings design and
construction and at the users energy behavior.
Indeed, the average design and construction quality
as well as the low sensitivity of buildings users in
terms of energy savings, have been defined, among
other reasons, as the most important facts influencing
building energy performance in Greece.
Nevertheless, the intervention for optimizing the
buildings energy performance was delayed for
several decades, despite the fact that the reasons
that till now were contributing to the energy wastage,
in them were already known.
The second semester of 2010, an ambitious
legislation package and other related initiatives
began, in order to upgrade the energy performance of
buildings in Greece. Energy measures and actions
that have been taken, in accordance with relative
EUs directives and support, have not been tested
yet. Some problems in the beginning of the
application of these measures have already been
noticed and can justify the negative critique about
some aspects of them that have not been sufficiently
studied. However, the main subject that has to be
clarified is the compatibility of these legislation
measures to the local conditions.
Is important, that, these new measures, that
intend to upgrade the energy building performance of
the existing building stock, could be supplemented
with others that will directly help the way that
buildings are designed and constructed in the
country. These new measures, in order to be
effective, should cover all the production chain of
buildings (including education of all specialists
involved in the building industry and detailed control
of building construction) and, primarily, should be
based on the specific climatic and environmental
conditions in Greece.
5. REFERENCES
[1] http://www.statistics.gr/portal/page/portal/ESYE
[2] http://www.hnms.gr/hnms/english/climatology/cli
matology_html
[3] A.A. Flocas (1980), Estimation and Prediction of
Global Solar Radiation over Greece, Solar
Energy Journal, Vol. 24 (1), 63-70.
[4] H. E. Landsberg (1981), The Urban Climate.
Academic Press, London.
[5] http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab
=table&plugin=1&language=en&pcode=ten00101
[6] http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab
=table&init=1&language=en&pcode=tsdpc320&pl
ugin=1
[7] http://www.cres.gr/energy_saving/Ktiria/ktiria_intr
o.htm (in Greek).
[8] http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-
maps/figures/household-energy-consumption-
space-heating-perm2-climate-corrected
[9] N. Papamanolis (2006), Characteristics of the
Environmental and Energy Behaviour of
Contemporary Urban Buildings in Greece, Archi-
tectural Science Review, Vol. 49 (2), 120-126.
[10] http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?
dataset=cens_rdhh&lang=en
[11] Hellenic Ministry of Environment, Planning and
Public Works: Thermal Insulation Code for
Buildings, Decree-Law 1/6/1979, The Hellenic
Official Gazette, 362D, 1979.
[12] C.A. Balaras, K. Droutsa, E. Daskalaki and S.
Kontoyannidis (2005), Heating Energy
Consumption and Resulting Environmental
Impact of European Apartment Buildings. Energy
and Buildings, Vol. 37 (5), 429-442.
[13] http://portal.tee.gr/portal/page/portal/teelar/NOM
OTHESIA/KTIRIOOIKODOMIKOS%20KSNONIS
MOS (in Greek).
[14] Hellenic Ministry of Environment, Planning and
Public Works: Energy 2001: Action Plan for
Sustainable Construction, Athens, 2001.
[15] http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:
L:2003:001:0065:0065:EN:PDF
[16] http://www.ypeka.gr/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=aiS
4GyKxx04%3d&tabid=525&language=el-GR (in
Greek).
[17] International Energy Agency, Energy Policies of
IEA Countries, Greece 2006 Review, p. 164.
[18] http://www.ypeka.gr/Default.aspx?tabid=526&loc
ale=el-GR&language=en-US (in Greek).
[19] http://www.ypeka.gr/Default.aspx?tabid=362&sni[
524]=637&locale=en-US&language=el-GR (in
Greek).
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unplanned for cross ventilation, poorly day lit, highly
insulated environments. Some are fully automated
systems with limited or no possibility for occupant
interaction in operating the systems. A few have
even suffered from sick building syndrome [3].
A primary objective of the SEEDpod is to
provide a compact, highly efficient dwelling, which
includes mechanical, kitchen, bath and workspace
modules in a continuous core that frees the
remaining open floor plan for adaptable use of
space. This enables SEEDpod residents, as
desired, to easily interact with surrounding spaces
and natural forces. The intention is to facilitate the
growth of liveable outdoor spaces. A detached
green house module on the northeast will serve as a
biofilter and provide edible food products. The large
pivoting doors will permit moving the bed outside
during summer nights to the western deck for
sleeping under the stars and the clear (radiant) night
sky. Similarly, an expandable table component of
the kitchen counter can be moved to the eastern
deck for outdoor dining and other activities.

Figure 02, SEEDpod with Compliant Shading System

installation: exterior view.
.
The SEEDpod is designed as a selective filter
that operates to advantageously interact with its
natural climatic context. It consists of a series of
skin systems, that can be operated to collect solar
energy, harvest water and control ventilation. The
optimally sloped southern facing roof is sheathed
with photovoltaic solar panels that produce
electricity for the dwelling and above the mechanical
core an array of evacuated cylinders provides hot
water for the dwelling. The solar panels power a
heat pump that provides heating or cooling during
periods of high heat and/or humidity and cold nights.
However, Tucsons low humidity and large diurnal
temperature swings will permit the system to be
operated in a vent only mode or turned off with
fenestration opened to allow cross ventilation. The
south wall consists of insulated glazing and a
vacuum formed and vacuum filled water wall made
from recyclable and UV resistant PET plastic. The
water, which has three times the thermal mass
capacity of brick or concrete, will absorb the suns
energy during the day and reradiate it to the interior
space at night. In Tucson, when cooling is desired,
water can be cooled by taking advantage of the
large diurnal temperature swing at night. This water
can be introduced into the tanks at night and then
into the water wall the next day to absorb heat from
the ambient air in the space. The north, east and
west walls have zinc clad insulated panels with
operable doors and windows that can be opened to
facilitate and control cross ventilation.
2. STUDIO ~ LABORATORY
A majority of the building components
incorporated into the SEEDpod were developed
through extensive student/faculty research and
iterative prototype development. The design and
construction phase took place over a two-year
period and utilized the architecture studio as a place
of hypothesis development and the materials
laboratory as the site of continual testing and proof.

Figure 03, SEEDpod full-scale prototyping in CALA

Materials Laboratory.

Multiple ground-up research projects dealing
with the thermal envelope and modular construction
were integrated into the final full-scale working
prototype. Utilization of digital fabrication, vacuum
forming and traditional wood, metal, fabric and glass
fabrication techniques allowed the team to develop,
refine and test prototypes in a single location.
Some of the most challenging issues confronted
during project development were thermal
performance, cost of final production, ability to
produce at a logical scale within a marketable
demographic, refinement of details to meet
production goals, and transportation limitations. The
quality control procedures implemented in the
materials laboratory along with exacting engineering
standards allowed for the integration of individual
research initiatives within the larger structural
framework. The final dwelling unit is comprised of a
durable material palette and advanced thermal
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envelope, which will allow for long-term testing in
the Sonoran Desert.
3. COMPLIANT SHADING SYSTEM
3.1. Overview
The compliant shading system investigates
elastic structures and materials in terms of
mechanical and physical properties for the design of
a bi-stable (capacitor) mechanism, which is
programmed to deform an aperture. The design of
the apperture promotes compliance to variable
radiant-energy sources while providing passive
shade and thermal comfort regulation [4].
Elastic properties, precedents and materials
were studied and modeled to identify the maximum
stress and strain force by which materials and
structures were capable of deforming and returning
to an original size and shape without permanent
deformation a material characteristic known as the
elastic proportional limit. Bi-stable structural
mechanisms, organized with elastic spring steel
strips and pin connections, form an aperture or eye-
like opening, and are investigated as a capacitor.
The capacitor functions through the pre-stressing of
the spring steel strips, which, when paired with a
thermostat coil, deform the apertures through
diurnal thermal loads from the sun. The increasing
storage of elastic strain energy is programmed to
rotate and close the aperture at a maximum
stressed position, at which point, it is capable of
releasing the stored kinetic energy with a decrease
in heat input, triggering the mechanism to open the
aperture instantly.
The arrangement of the self adjusting shade
system is organized and manipulated spatially
through a variety of prototype developments as a
passive glass enclosure for the east and west
facades of buildings. The University of Arizonas
SEEDpod prototype dwelling was used as a testing
platform for the final iteration, which allowed for the
evaluation of its performance, function and value as
a potential building component.
To comply, can mean to adapt, respond or
agree based on a requirement or direct request. In
terms of the external environmental and its influence
on buildings and structures, architects and
engineers are often required to comply with certain
regulatory codes, both regionally and internationally,
to control the interior environment of buildings for
the health and well being of the user. A few
examples of control that relate to this study include:
providing and controlling light between interiors and
exteriors; protecting the structure and inhabitants
from rain, sun, snow and extreme temperatures;
and controlling the interior HVAC environment for
human comfort with mechanical systems [5].
The ability for the design of a building to comply
to modern regulations set forth without means of
electrically controlled, monitored or managed
systems is rarely found as an option in building
components and devices. However, as a method,
this strategy should not be ignored. Advancements
in knowledge associated with material science and
its relationship to physics and other environmental
responsive stimuli has influenced many
contemporary artists, engineers and architects to
push the boundary of designs which have a direct
effect on its surrounding or user by means of
passive, non electrical means. The research
associated with the Compliant Shading System is
one of these passive responses and the study
investigates a particular way in which light and
shade can be controlled between an exterior and
interior condition based solely on the energy from
the sun.
3.2. Research Methods and Prototypes
The research began by considering the following
question how can an enclosure be designed and
organized structurally to comply to the sun, both
diurnally and annually, in order to produce shade
when required?
The suns light rays are electromagnetic
wavelengths with variable frequencies from which a
constant level of thermal radiation is transmitted.
The amount of radiation which reaches a given body
of material is dependent on the angle of incidence
against the bodys orientation. Throughout the day,
the amount of thermal radiation will vary greatly
from sunrise to sunset and through a deductive
process the ability to track the sun is a possible by
quantifying the amount of radiation reaching a
particular surface or material for a set time.
Furthermore, given that the suns incident energy
acts on all objects each and every day, thermal
expansion and contraction properties inherently
occur as well and are directly associated to all
materials based on density, color, surface
properties, and molecular structure. A magnitude of
force is thus present in all movements. Thermal
expansion provides a consistent and definable
passive action to appropriately quantify the amount
of thermal radiation present on a body.
Given this foundation and known dependent
variables for solving a problem, an initial hypothesis
was defined: If smart materials possess
characteristics of passively sensing or adjusting to
external environmental stimulus, e.g. change in
temperature, light intensity, etc., then the energy
from the sun can actively adjust a smart material to
regulate the transmission of light and heat based on
the placement of the material in relationship to its
region and environment.
From the hypothesis, an iterative research
methodology followed and included: membrane
prototypes capable of opening and/or closing
'space' to regulate light; modeling and empirical
investigations of structural systems to form an
aperture; researching and testing actuation
materials which exert a force solely based on the
energy from the sun; and the physical forces
associated with the pairing and tessellation of
actuators with moving frames.
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3.3. Membrane Prototypes
The research on membranes was aimed at
discovering a fabric which could serve as the
primary enclosure material. The intent was that the
fabric could stretch, and strain by means of an
adjustable frame, which, in turn would open and
close pores that were cut into the membrane. The
pores would then act as a functional performance
property, allowing for air and or light to penetrate
through the enclosure. In the end, nylon, silicone
polyester and spandex fabrics were tested and the
performance of the membranes ability to strain,
open apertures, and recoil back to its original shape
was determined to be successful. However, an
appropriate dynamic frame which could deformed
linearly and provide the force required to strain the
membrane and produce the opening of the pores
was unsuccessful, as it was assumed that the
mechanism to deform the membrane was non-
mechanical, and thus there was a design struggle to
balance the required high strain force with the
minimal non mechanical passive force (Figure 04).



Figure 04, Polyester / Nylon Apertures - Laser Cut and
Stretched.

3.4. Bi-stable Modeling

Bi-stability can be defined as a mode of
deformation for a mechanism between stable and
unstable states. Energy transfers from maximum
stress, an unstable form, to minimum stress, a
stabile form [6]. Figure 05 identifies the initial
empirical modelling of a single planar bi-stable
model, and Figure 03 illustrates digital modelling of
the bi-stable planar frame in the form of an
enclosure skin.



Figure 05, Bi-stable Model - CFRP Strips / Elastomer
Pin Connection.

Numerous physical models failed during the
process of organizing the bi-stable frame into an
enclosure. It was realized through modelling that if
single bi-stable unit could be offset and mirrored, it
could produce an aperture, or large-scale pore with
two bi-stable strips, that then could open and close
as the strips were rotated. The aperture was thought
of much like a camera lens or iris, which could
adjust to the exposure of the sun, based on its
orientation. Thus, as the sun was to be exposed to
the mechanism, the strips would deform and overlap
each other, providing a surface of continuous
shade. Once the sun was no longer on the surface,
the mechanism would then release its stored energy
and return or recoil to an open aperture.



Figure 06, Enclosure Model Digital Prototypes.

After numerous iterations of models, sketches
and testing of the bistable mechanism, the empirical
research concluded with a few missing variables
related to system adjustment to passive solar
exposure. These variables included: what is the
actuator that rotates the strip?; and how does the
membrane fit appropriately within the bi-stable
mechanism? The focus shifted to finding the
appropriate actuator, one which responds to the
force required to deform the aperture and one that
rotates the required angular degrees over an
appropriate change in temperature.

3.5. Actuator

A variety of solar passive actuators were
researched, including, linear expansive fluids, bi-
metals, and temperature responsive polymers, but
in the end, a simple thermostat coil was determined
to be the most efficient and productive thermally
responsive actuator to deform and set the shade
enclosure with a rotational motion. Figure 07
identifies the form and mathematical principles of a
typical thermostat coil. Thermostat metals are
composite materials, which consist of two or more
metallic layers having different coefficients of
thermal expansion. When the layers are
permanently bonded together, the different
coefficients of expansion between the metals cause
the resultant shape to curve or deform when subject
to a change in temperature. The bending of the
material in response to temperature change is know
as the flexivity of the material and is an inherent
principle to all thermostat metals [7]. As the
thickness and length of the coil is manipulated, a
range of programmable regions or a series of
change in temperature characteristics allows the
design of the thermostat coil to comply to any
climatic region.

Figure 07, Bimetal Equations for Coils, Engineered

Material Solutions [8].


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3.6. Prototype Synthesis

With the research objectives established, the
beginning of a working prototype was no longer a
theory but a tangible objective focused on the
specific organization of research elements: bi-stable
mechanism, bi-stable strip, membrane, actuator,
and enclosure.
Based on the previous research and tests, it was
determined that the appropriate coil for a dry and
arid region required a minimum 1.5 degree rotation
per 1.0 degree Fahrenheit change. This would
allow for a 90 degree angular rotation with a change
in temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Both the
angular and temperature degrees were over
estimated for the system, allowing for adequate
design tolerances throughout.
An initial test began in the middle of the
morning, 9:30am, with an internal temperature of 80
degrees Fahrenheit and an outside ambient
temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Within,
fifteen minutes the actuator had rotated the strip
almost 30 angular degrees. The expansion of the
coil continued to rotate the strips until the maximum
internal temperature of 120 degrees Fahrenheit was
reached in the sealed enclosure, while the outside
temperature was recorded at 80 degrees
Fahrenheit. At this point, the heat stabilized and the
coil actuator did as well, reducing the aperture to a
sliver, but not yet 100% closed. It was not until the
sun had passed Solar Noon that the box was now in
shade and the internal temperature began to
decrease (90 F) and in turn opened the aperture.

The test was repeated several times over the
next few mornings and afternoons and yielded
similar results. Figure 08 identifies the photographic
documentation of the test. This concluded the
prototype applications and research. The following
section identifies the performance criteria and
potential applications for the self-adjusting shade
system in various forms, manipulating the scale,
placement and performance functions to theorize on
the optimal product.

Figure 08, Sequence of Movement, 9:30am-12:30 pm
.

3.7. Performance Criteria

The performance goal for the compliant shading
prototypes was to design an enclosure system,
which simply adapts to exposure from the sun. With
direct exposure to sunlight, the enclosure was
anticipated to produce a miosis function, or the
constriction of light, based on thermal expansion
properties of smart materials and programmatic
structural arrangement. With no exposure to
sunlight, the enclosure can reverse or contract and
a mydriasis or dilation function, will occur allowing
for indirect light to penetrate into interior spaces
based on the orientation and the materials ability to
recoil with lack of heat input (Figure 08).

Figure 09, Eye Adaptation, National Eye Institute.

(Miosis -Left, Mydriasis - Right).


Functionally, the shading systems passive
characteristics were aimed to minimize heat gain,
glare, and undesired reflection of sunlight in and on
an enclosure while optimizing visual contact to the
exterior. Physiologically, the interior space is
intended to be a place to reside, whether one is
working, studying, reading or praying-- a place
where time is expressed by the movement of the
sun with a direct expression of life based on the
diurnal and seasonal display of light and shadow.
To evaluate the design, the Solar Heat Gain
Coefficient (SHGC) scale, which provides a value of
measure based on the systems material and design
characteristics, was used to qualify the design. The
optimization of a low SHGC is constantly contrasted
by the amount of visual connection from interior to
exterior and vice versa, a high SHGC allows
maximum visual contact but minimal thermal
properties. The research and prototype
development aimed at adapting these performance
values to maximize functional properties and the
resultant system is proposed to have the following
values: R-Value between 4.00 to 5.00; U-Value
between 0.20 to 0.25, and SHGC of 0.25 to 0.30.
These estimated values are comparable to a variety
of exterior shading systems, including, exterior
vertical fins, canvas awnings, roof overhangs, and
trees, to name just a few.
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With every prototype an installation is necessary
to evaluate the design and for the compliant shading
enclosure, the east and west building facades in a
hot and arid climate was the intended platform. The
alternating exposure from intense direct light to
indirect diffused light and finally to no light from east
to west is a known phenomenon, which allows for
design creativity in consort with the suns energy as
a power source. The north building facade was not
used for this research given our location in the
northern hemisphere and the minimal direct light
penetration throughout the year. In the same
manner, the south building facade was not used due
to the existing shading techniques developed for
passive solar shading.

Figure 10, Open to Closed Conditions.

The precise measurement of the R-Value, U-

Value, SHGC values have yet to be conducted with
regulatory testing procedures and proper data
allocation at this time but it is the intent to conduct
these guideline tests for future prototypes.
Furthermore, these figures can be altered with other
known relationships, such as: triple pane windows,
Low-E glazing applications, and ventilation systems
for windows.
4. CONCLUSION
The final prototype window system was
incorporated into the SEEDpod dwelling was a 6' by
6' double glazed window panel that was located on
the East facade of the structure, challenging the
question of how the suns rays can be responsive to
the enclosure from the early morning to midday. The
glass panel incorporated 66 actuators of thermal
expansion bi-metal coils, a movable frame
established by a spring-like bi-stable mechanism
with 54 apertures, and a secondary system of
polyester fabric to shade the window. By placing the
bi-metal coils within a sealed glass enclosure, an
elevated change of temperature could be obtained
due to the greenhouse effect, increasing the range
of rotational motion and force exerted by the coiled
actuator, which in turn could snap the bi-stable
mechanism and attached fabric closed, and back
open in a cyclical manner.



Figure 11, SEEDpod Compliant Shading installation:
interior view from kitchen/eating module.

The compliant shading system promotes
diversity in adaptable surfaces with the capabilities
of regulating solar exposure throughout a single day
and throughout an entire year with no user input and
no maintenance. More testing and fine-tuning of the
bi-metal actuators metallurgical properties will allow
future prototypes to adapt to variable climatic
regions and would allow for the incorporation into
buildings in extreme arid lands to moderate and
even mild regions. This future research agenda is
an important component of sustainable practice,
which assists in maintaining and regulating levels of
human comfort in the built environment.
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Research, prototyping, and construction of the
SEEDpod dwelling unit was based on work initially
proposed for the UASD grant proposal submitted to
the United States Department of Energy: completed
by Larry Medlin, Joseph Simmons, Dale Clifford,
and Jason Vollen, 2007.

Grants from the University of Arizona College of
Architecture and AzRISE provided significant project
support through the duration of the project and
beyond. Principle Investigators include:
Christopher Domin, Larry Medlin, lvaro Malo,
Joseph Simmons and Matt Gindlesparger The core
student team included both graduate and
undergraduate members: Eddie Hall, Anton Toth,
Peter Secan, Sherwood Wang and Brent Vander
Werf. Tom Reiner at Buro Happold: Los Angeles
provided structural engineering consultation and
analysis.
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN) 637
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 2011

7

6. REFERENCES
[1] Domin, C. Medlin, L. 2010. Homeostasis and
Perpetual Change. Eco Architecture III. Wessex: WIT
Press.
[2] Clifford, D. Vollen, J. 2009. Smart and Sustainable
Built Environments. SASBE 3
rd
CIB International
Conference.
[3] Healthy Buildings, Healthy People: A Vision for the
21
st
Century: EPA 402-K-01-003, October 2001.
[4] Principal Investigators Larry Medlin and Christopher
Domin worked with Brent Vander Werf (graduate
student at CALA) and his thesis committee: Alvaro
Malo, Larry Medlin, Nancy Odegaard on the
development, prototyping, and integration of the self-
regulating skin system into the SEEDpod prototype
dwelling.
[5] Medlin, R.L. 1985. Portable/Adaptable Membrane
Structures. 3
rd
International Symposium on Widespan
Structures, Vol. 2, University of Stuttgart, Sec. 3.4:
41-48
[6] Howell, Larry L., Compliant Mechanisms / Larry L.
Howell - New York ; Chichester [England] : Wiley,
c2001.
[7] Thermostat Metals Designers Guide. Texas
Instruments, 1991.
[8] EngineeredMaterialSolutions.
<http://www.emsclad.com>.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN) 639
Development of the Solar Cooling in the
Mediterranean Area
Francesco PATANIA
1
, Antonio GAGLIANO
1
, Francesco NOCERA
1
, Aldo GALESI
1
,
1
Energy and Environmental Division of DIIM, University of Catania, Catania, Italy

ABSTRACT: Cooling demand is rapidly increasing in many parts of the world, especially in moderate
climates, such as in most EU member states. This results in a dramatic increase in electricity demand on
summer season, which causes an unwanted use up of fossil and furthermore the instability of electricity grids.
Demand Reduction is, therefore, the key to ensure the sustainability of energy supply, making existing buildings
more efficient and constructing new buildings with optimum energy demands
As many cooling applications, such as air conditioning, have a high coincidence with the availability of solar
irradiation, the combination of solar thermal and cooling obviously has a high potential to reduce the electricity
consumption of conventional air conditioning.
Using solar thermal energy is an interesting option for heat-driven air conditioning: e.g. desiccant cooling,
absorption chillers.
In this paper, the autonomous operations both of a solar desiccant cooling plant and absorption chillers
powered by direct-flow vacuum-tube collectors are investigated.
The overall cooling efficiency of the two systems is evaluated using simulation for humid and moderately
humid climates, the overall cooling efficiency is studied and finally the overall efficiency of the collectors is
calculated for the studied cases.
It is found out that the proposed system can lead to significant electricity consumption reductions.
Keywords: [cooling energy, desiccant cooling: solar collectors]
1. INTRODUCTION
The growth of cooling loads in modern buildings
with low thermal inertia causes the increases of the
peak electricity demand during the day. Solar energy
for cooling purposes could make a significant
contribution to lowering the energy consumption. The
main argument for the applicability of solar energy is
that cooling loads and solar availability are
approximately in phase
Recent advancements in desiccant
dehumidification and evaporative cooling
technologies signal the incipience of new HVAC
products that further enhance the technological
portfolio of distributed energy resources.
Through different system configuration and
integration, such systems can facilitate effective
temperature and humidity control for buildings with
the most stringent ventilation requirements in a vast
domain of climatic conditions
The so-called Desiccant Cooling Systems (DCS)
combine sorptive dehumidification, heat recovery,
evaporation and heating to create a cooling process
which can offer energy savings compared to
conventional air conditioning systems.
DCS takes air outside or inside the building,
dehumidifies it with a solid or liquid desiccant, cools it
by heat exchange and then cools it to the desired
state
The dehumidification achieved depends on the
inlet conditions of the entering air, on the velocities in
the process, the regeneration section and the
regeneration temperature and humidity.
Furthermore, the rotation speed influences the
performance significantly: faster rotation leads to
incomplete regeneration and dehumidification, lower
rotation speeds lead to a lower dehumidification, as
the maximum possible water content in the
adsorbent is reached some time before entering the
regeneration section.
The desiccant must be regenerated by heat. This
can be achieved with extra heat produced by existing
processes, i.e. heat coming from CHP process
(Combined Heating and Power) - thus resulting in a
CCHP system (Combined Cooling, Heating and
Power) - or solar energy coming from solar air
collectors or liquid collectors.
The use of the solar source in summer justifies
the economic investment for the installation of the
solar collectors which, in winter time, reduce the
energy demand of the conventional heating system
with a further reduction of dioxide release.
Implementation of such cooling technologies can
also lead to significant downsizing of on-site power
generators.

2. DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED SYSTEM
Several studies show that desiccant cooling
system have a limited dehumidification potential for
given features of the desiccant rotor, the
regeneration temperature, the supply air flow rates
and so on. Therefore an auxiliary cooling power for
dehumidification is required to fulfil the desired
supply air conditions. [1]
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
640 HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN)
In fact, if the humidity ratio and/or temperature
set point of supply air is not reached, further
decrease of dehumidification and temperature can
be achieved by means auxiliary cooling coil.
The objective of this paper is to study the
thermodynamic efficiency of an hybrid desiccant
cooling system applied in the context of a hot and
humid region located in the South of Italy.
As depicted in Figure 1, the system consists of an
Air Handling Unit (AHU) equipped with an hybrid
desiccant cooling that integrates desiccant,
evaporative and conventional cooling technologies
The thermodynamic transformation of the air are
shown below:
The ambient air, point 1, flows through a rotary
desiccant wheel (DES) and becomes hot and
dry, point 2.
This air then flows through a sensible heat
exchanger (HX),to be cooled down, point 3.
The dry, cooler air then flows through a cooling
coil (CC) to be cooled toward the request
temperature and is delivered to the house,
point 4 (I).
The exhaust air from the house, point 5, flows
through the humidifier (HU) to be cooled to
point 6, and then flows through the sensible
heat exchanger (HX) to exchange heat with
processed air.
The exhaust air from the heat exchanger, point
7, flows through the heating coil (HC) to elevate
its temperature to point 8. This hot exhaust air
is used to regenerate the desiccant
dehumidifier.

The desiccant dehumidifier is regenerated with
solar energy from vacuum tube collectors. An heat
storage tank balances the heat produced by the solar
system and the heat supplied to the heating coil (HC)
in order to reach the regeneration temperatures of
70C at the least in the inlet of the desiccant rotor.

Figure 1: DCS System configuration



Figure 2: Daily Temperatures and Solar Irradiation.
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN) 641



Figure 3: Thermodynamic transformations on the psychometric chart

Figure 4: Thermal Storage temperatures
3. OPERATIVE CONDITION
The Authors show the results achieved for the
summer climatic conditions of a town located in
Southern Italy (Catania) and for three value of supply
air demand of 1500,0, 2.000,0 and 3.000,0 m
3
/h,
considering a time of occupancy between 9 a.m. and
6 p.m.
The indoor space load is characterized by the
following design supply - and return-air conditions:
- Supply air (S.A.) at a temperature of 20C and
humidity ratio of 9.8 g/kg of dry air
- Return air (R.A.) at a temperature of 26C and
humidity ratio of 12 g/kg of dry air.
The sensible heat factor, SHF, of the indoor
space load is considered equal 0.7.
This approach is important for the assessment
and performance comparison of the desiccant
cooling with other conventional systems.
The values of outside temperature Te and Solar
Irradiation used in the simulations are referred to the
15
th
July.
The selected desiccant wheel is equally split
(50/50) between the process and regeneration air
streams and rotates at an optimum or near-optimum
speed (18 to 24 RPH).
The process-air velocity is maintained between
2.8 m/s and 3.0 m/s at standard conditions (15C
and 101.039 kPa).
The desiccant is assumed to be regenerated at
70C, representing the regeneration air temperature
downstream of the Heating Coil (Figure 1).
Dry Bulb Temperature
H
u
m
i
d
i
t
y

R
a
t
i
o

PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
642 HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN)
To evaluate the performance of this commercially
available unit, the manufacturer's performance
software has been used [2]
The heat recovery efficiency (0.85) and the
humidifier efficiency (0,90) are assumed constant.
Figure 3 shows the thermodynamic
transformations of the air in the AHU on the
psychometric chart considering for the air at the state
1 ( outside air): T=30,5 C and x =14 g/kg;
It can be noted that no additional dehumidification
is generally required to reach the desired supply
humidity ratio, due to the moderate humidity ratio of
the outside air ( about 14 g/kg).
The expected supply temperature of 20C is
reached by means of the auxiliary Cooling Coil (CC).
In this case, for the post-cooling the temperature
of 12C is enough and consequentially the vapour
compression chiller COP increases.
As shown, it is not necessary the post-heat and
the dehumidifying cycle will be much more efficient
from the energy point of view
4. SYSTEM ANALYSIS
For the three values of supply air demand
analysed was calculated the minimum area of solar
collectors needed to supply the energy to the
regenerative heat exchanger (HC). In this way, the
heat produced by the collector field is stored and
available to the HC when its temperature is
adequate.
For the storage tank was considered a capacity
of 25 litres per square meter of solar collector
4.1. Energy Balance
The temperature of heat storage has been
calculated by means its Energy Balance

) (
1 2
R
Q Q Q

T T C m
d col
i i O H



(1)
where:
m = mass storage [kg ];
C = specific heat [ kJ/kgC] ;
Ti = storage temperature at time i [K];
Ti+1 = storage temperature at time i+1 [K]
Q
col
= solar collector heat flux [kW] ;
Q
d
= storage thermal loss [kW] ;
Q
R
= regeneration energy [kW] ;
Ti Tu Cpa
Ra
m
R
Q (2)
m
Ra
= mass rate of air regeneration [kg/s ];
C
pa
= specific heat of air [ kJ/kgC]
Tu =outlet temperature from heating coil (HC);
Ti = inlet temperature into heating coil (HC)

Q
col
= Q
sun
*
col

Q
sun
= heat rate from sun to the solar collector, [kW]
The performances of the evacuated heat-pipe
solar collectors have been calculated utilising the
following equation [2]:

coll
= 0.82 - 2.19 (T
m
-T
a
)/ G (3)
where T
m
is the mean collector temperature, equal to
(T
outlet
+T
inlet
)/2 ,
T
a
is the ambient air temperature and G is the solar
irradiance (W/m
2
).
The main technical parameters of the system and
the contributions of the cooling power produced by
the desiccant cycle (Q
DEC
) and the auxiliary cooling
power (Q
CC
) are summarized in the following table
for the considered operative conditions.

Table 1: Technical parameters of the DCS

m
Sa
(m
3
/h) 1500 2000 3000
m
Ra
(m
3
/h) 750 1000 1500
Whell
Diameter
500 770 965
Q
R
(kW) 7,10 10,2 15,4
Q
DEC
7,40 9,60 14,40
Q
CC
(kW) 3,02 4,02 6.03
Area of Solar
collector (m
2
)
15

22

32

Heat storage
capacity(liter)
400

550

800


The results obtained show that it may be possible
to reduce the regeneration air flow without a
significant reduction in the dehumidification
efficiency, enabling desiccant cooling systems to run
with high COPs
The figure 4 shows the temperature variations in
the accumulation for the three scenarios examined

It can be observed that the temperature of the

thermal storage is always higher than the expected
regeneration temperature during the operating time.
Moreover, there is a nearly constant relationship
between the regeneration heat provided through
solar collectors and the air flow of 1 kW every 200
m
3
/h of supply air, resulting in a ratio of 1m
2
of solar
collectors every 200 m
3
/h of supply air
4.2. Performances indicator of DCS
On the basis of the previous results the following
energy performance indicators have been
calculated[3].
DEC
CC
DEC
Q
Q
SF 1 (4)
I
Q
HC
sh
(5)
HC
DEC
Q
Q
COPth (6)
fossil
heating Qre
el
Qel
PE


(7)
PE
Q
PER
AHU
(8)
The SF
DEC
is the fraction covered by the
desiccant cycle to the total cooling energy delivered
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN) 643

by the AHU (Q
AHU
) and has been calculated by
equation (4).
The solar heat efficiency (
sh
) describes the
quantity of incident irradiation what is usefully utilized
in the system and has been calculated by eq. (5)
The thermal COP
th
of the desiccant AHU
indicates the ratio between the cooling energy
produced by the desiccant cycle and the
regeneration heat delivered by the solar heating coil
HC and has been calculated by eq. (6)
The Primary Energy (PE) consumption has been
calculated by eq. (7)
The Primary Energy Ratio PER which is a
benchmark for energy efficiency has been calculated
by the formula (8)
In evaluating the energy for the fan have been
considered the pressure drop across the wheel
ranges from 140 Pa to 215 Pa for the process side
and from 220 to 363 Pa for the regeneration side.
Table 2 shows the values calculated for the
above parameter
Table 2: Calculated Energy performance Indicator .
Supply air
demand
1500
(m
3
/h)
2000
(m
3
/h)
3000
(m
3
/h)
SF
DEC
0.59 0.58 0.58

sh
0.64 0.63 0.63
COP
th
1.04 0.94 0.93
PER 1.94 2.03 2.03

It is possible to notice that:
the system is able to supply about 60% of
the total cooling required for the
transformation of moist air
the efficiency of solar collectors, under the
operational conditions, take more than
satisfactory values remaining above 60%.
the primary energy ratio indicates a
production of 2.0 kWh
cold
/ kWh
PE
primary
energy supplied.
desiccant systems achieve a primary energy
coefficient of performance (COP) between
0.94 and 1.0, that is a real good result.
The results confirm that the solar energy is an
excellent, practical heat source for desiccant
regeneration
5. COMPARISON WITH CONVENTIONAL
SYSTEM
The energy performance of the proposed system,
have been compared with a traditional AHU where
the cooling energy is supplied by means a traditional
Vapour Compression Refrigeration (VCR) system or
by means an Absorption Refrigerator (AR).
The energy needed for the cooling coil for a
traditional AHU, in the case of volumetric air flow of
3000 m
3
/h, is about 27.20 kW that is significantly
higher than the one required for the DCS system.
For the absorption refrigerator the heat needed
for the generator could be supplied entirely by solar
panels. This condition would required about 80 m
2
of
solar panels to fully supply the energy needed for the
generator during the operating time.
To allow proper comparison between different
cooling systems for the case of absorption chiller,
thermal energy needed for the generator is supplied
by solar collectors for a rate corresponding to an
area of 32 m
2
, that is the same area utilised for the
DCS system. The remaining rate of thermal energy is
supplied by an auxiliary source
In addition the following assumptions have been
utilised to compare the three cooling systems. :
- the absorption chiller is single stage with
efficiency equal to 0.7.
- the energy required for the post-heating is
provided in all cases by the solar panels.
- since the desiccant wheel and the additional
coils cause higher pressure losses than in a
conventional AHU, different electricity consumption
for ventilation have considered for the two systems.
The calculated electricity consumption for
ventilation of the reference AHU has considered to
47% of the one of the desiccant cooling AHU [1]
In the calculation of the primary energy
consumption related to the cooling energy it also was
assumed the same chiller performances of that one
used in the DEC system.
In order to estimate the energy saving obtained in
comparison to a reference AHU, the primary Energy
consumption of all systems have been calculated
with the general formula (8) taking in account for the
absorption chiller unit also the necessary heating
energy delivered from a gas boiler to achieve the
necessary energy for the generator. Table 3 shows
the values calculated for the energy performance
indicators.
The overall COPs
AR
of the solar absorption
refrigerator has been calculated such as the product
of the efficiency of the solar collector (s) and the
COP
AR
of the absorption refrigerator given by
equation (9).

COPs
AR
=
s
COP
AR
(9)

Table 3: Energy performance comparison

Cooling
System
DCS VCR AR

sh
0.63 0.54
COP
th
0.93 0.35
PER 2.03 0.86 0.81
The primary energy ratio for the desiccant unit,
PER is 2.03 kWh
cold
/kWh
PE
, whereas the one for the
vapour compression system amounts to 0.81
kWh
cold
/kWh
PE
and the one for the absorption chiller
is 0.86 kWh
cold
/kWh
PE

In other terms, the primary energy saving of the
desiccant system is more than 50% for the
considered operational conditions.
The following table shows the obtainable amount
of economic and emission savings for a period of
functioning of 800 hours per years.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
644 HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN)
Methodological development of
seasonal cooling energy needs
by introducing ground-cooling systems
Marta OLIVEIRA PANO, Helder GONALVES
LNEG, National Laboratory of Energy and Geology, Lisboa, Portugal
ABSTRACT: In past years, building professionals increased their interest on passive systems as sustainable
solutions to reduce energy needs. This has been driven by the building certification program and new
Portuguese building thermal code enacted in 2006. For residential and small office buildings, the methodology
adopted is a seasonal quasi-stationary approach for calculating cooling energy following EN ISO 13790:2007.
However, this method lacks specific recommendations for accounting passive cooling systems, namely ground-
cooling systems. In this paper, the ground-heat exchanger contribution is included in the energy needs method.
This development is sustained by measurements obtained in the ground-heat exchanger running on Solar XXI
office building at LNEG campus, complemented by simplified and Fourier theoretical formulations. The
horizontal ground-heat exchanger at Solar XXI is constituted by 32 concrete ducts, with a 30 cm diameter and
buried 4.6 m deep. The air entrance is made from a feeding well about 15 m away from the building and its
functioning during summer warm days supplies cool air for room offices.
Keywords: energy needs, ground-cooling, ground-heat exchanger, ventilation, passive building
1. INTRODUCTION
In European Union, building sector is the largest
energy user and carbon dioxide (CO2) emitter, where
40% of the energy and CO2 emissions derive from
energy use in residential and commercial
buildings [1]. To overcome this situation, in 2000, the
European Commission identified the need to
introduce specific measures in the building sector,
namely with the Energy Performance of Building
Directive (EPBD) published on December, 16
th

2002 [2] and followed by its recast on June 18
th

2010 [1]. This Directive proposes, among other
issues, the adoption of common methodologies for
calculating energy consumption and opens the way
to net zero energy buildings in 2020 [1].
According to the EPBD, Portugal prepares the
evaluation of national requirements for energy
performance of new buildings until 2011, which is an
excellent opportunity to devise a national strategy
making way to very low energy buildings.
Summer Mediterranean climate causes a great
thermal stress in buildings, nevertheless, traditional
and passive architecture shows reduced cooling
energy demanding examples, so that HVAC systems
are not required [3].
In the latest years, architects and building
professionals increased their interest on passive
systems as sustainable solutions to reduce energy
needs. However, the method for calculating cooling
energy needs incorporated into Portuguese thermal
building code [4], RCCTE, which is based on the
method developed by Dijk and Spiekman [5] and
gave rise to EN ISO 13790 [6], lacks specific
recommendations for accounting passive cooling
strategies, namely ground-cooling.
This fact penalizes passive buildings, especially
residential and small services, because when
compared with standard buildings similar cooling
energy needs are estimated.
This paper studies a simplified method to account
for the additional heat transfer by ventilation with
supply of air from a ground-heat exchanger (GHE),
therefore cooler than external air for the most part of
the day during summer. Calculation of cooling
energy needs follows EN ISO 13790 and the ground-
to-air heat exchanger approach in EN 15241 [7],
which proposes a methodology to account for
preheating air supply for commercial buildings,
instead of cooling air supply.
2. EN ISO 13790: SUMMER
2.1. Cooling energy needs
The method developed by Dijk et al. [8] is also
described in detail in EN ISO 13790 and consists of
a numerical estimative of the physical quantities of
heat transfer (QC,ht) and heat sources (QC,gn),
different from a merely comparison between gains
and losses. The heat transferred by ventilation
(including infiltration) and transmission (conduction,
convection and longwave radiation) directly depends
on the inside-to-outside air temperature difference
and is part of the first term. The exchange of energy
which does not fit in the first term constitutes the heat
sources, e.g. shortwave radiative gains, additional
sky longwave radiative exchange and internal gains.
There are two formulations of the same numerical
method to calculate cooling energy needs (QC,nd),
one uses the loss utilization factor (C,ls) and the
other uses the gain utilization factor (C,gn). In the
gain utilization factor formulation, the one adopted in
RCCTE, cooling energy needs are given by

Table 4: Economic and Emission savings
Supply air
demand
1500
(m
3
/h)
2000
(m
3
/h)
3000
(m
3
/h)
Economic
Saving
[euro]

343,30

475,00

712,50
Emission
Saving
[kgCO
2
]

986,70

1324,10

1986,20

So it is possible to affirm that desiccant cooling
systems provide a significant energy-saving
advantage over conventional systems.
6. CONCLUSION
The results obtained for the calculated energy
perfermorce confirm that the solar energy is an
excellent, practical heat source for desiccant
regeneration. Particularly in Mediterranean Area
characterised by mean summer temperature of 30C
and absolute humidity of 14 g/kg, no additional
dehumidification device are necessary.
For the analysed operational conditions it is
possible to notice significant energy saving, more
than 50%, respect both to conventional system and
absorption refrigerator.
The significant energy-saving advantage over
conventional systems indicates the possibilities of a
large use of desiccant HVAC systems. The
replacement of compressor cooling systems by solar
driven desiccant cooling systems or a combination of
both could offers an important contribution to
environmental protection.
In addition the DEC reduces energy operating
costs significantly where peak electric utility demand
charges are high, moreover these system could
contribute to reduce grid congestion, energy price
volatility, and emissions.
Nevertheless the initial investment for a DCS is
higher than conventional system and it is a real limit
for a large diffusion of the solar cooling technologies
In our point of view, the following conditions are
needed: efficient integration techniques plus an utility
incentive grant could eliminate any first-cost penalty
for desiccant equipment.

7. REFERENCES
[1] www.cibse.org
[2] http://www.osti.gov/bridge
[3] M. Beccali, P. Finocchiaro, M. Luna, B. Nocke
(2008) Proc. Eurosun 2008 - Lisbona
[4] A. Jalalzadeh-Azar, S. Slayzak, R. Judkoff, T.
Schaffhauser &I R. De Blasio (2005)
International Journal of Distributed Energv
Resources. 1614
[5] V. C. Mei and F. C. Chen Z. Lavan R. K. Collier,
Jr. G. MecklerAn Assessment of Desiccant
Cooling and Dehumidification Technology -
Prepared by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory
[6] E. Wurtz, C. Maalouf, L. Mora, F. (2005)Allard
Ninth International Ibpsa Conference Montral,
Canada , 15-18,
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN) 645
Methodological development of
seasonal cooling energy needs
by introducing ground-cooling systems
Marta OLIVEIRA PANO, Helder GONALVES
LNEG, National Laboratory of Energy and Geology, Lisboa, Portugal
ABSTRACT: In past years, building professionals increased their interest on passive systems as sustainable
solutions to reduce energy needs. This has been driven by the building certification program and new
Portuguese building thermal code enacted in 2006. For residential and small office buildings, the methodology
adopted is a seasonal quasi-stationary approach for calculating cooling energy following EN ISO 13790:2007.
However, this method lacks specific recommendations for accounting passive cooling systems, namely ground-
cooling systems. In this paper, the ground-heat exchanger contribution is included in the energy needs method.
This development is sustained by measurements obtained in the ground-heat exchanger running on Solar XXI
office building at LNEG campus, complemented by simplified and Fourier theoretical formulations. The
horizontal ground-heat exchanger at Solar XXI is constituted by 32 concrete ducts, with a 30 cm diameter and
buried 4.6 m deep. The air entrance is made from a feeding well about 15 m away from the building and its
functioning during summer warm days supplies cool air for room offices.
Keywords: energy needs, ground-cooling, ground-heat exchanger, ventilation, passive building
1. INTRODUCTION
In European Union, building sector is the largest
energy user and carbon dioxide (CO2) emitter, where
40% of the energy and CO2 emissions derive from
energy use in residential and commercial
buildings [1]. To overcome this situation, in 2000, the
European Commission identified the need to
introduce specific measures in the building sector,
namely with the Energy Performance of Building
Directive (EPBD) published on December, 16
th

2002 [2] and followed by its recast on June 18
th

2010 [1]. This Directive proposes, among other
issues, the adoption of common methodologies for
calculating energy consumption and opens the way
to net zero energy buildings in 2020 [1].
According to the EPBD, Portugal prepares the
evaluation of national requirements for energy
performance of new buildings until 2011, which is an
excellent opportunity to devise a national strategy
making way to very low energy buildings.
Summer Mediterranean climate causes a great
thermal stress in buildings, nevertheless, traditional
and passive architecture shows reduced cooling
energy demanding examples, so that HVAC systems
are not required [3].
In the latest years, architects and building
professionals increased their interest on passive
systems as sustainable solutions to reduce energy
needs. However, the method for calculating cooling
energy needs incorporated into Portuguese thermal
building code [4], RCCTE, which is based on the
method developed by Dijk and Spiekman [5] and
gave rise to EN ISO 13790 [6], lacks specific
recommendations for accounting passive cooling
strategies, namely ground-cooling.
This fact penalizes passive buildings, especially
residential and small services, because when
compared with standard buildings similar cooling
energy needs are estimated.
This paper studies a simplified method to account
for the additional heat transfer by ventilation with
supply of air from a ground-heat exchanger (GHE),
therefore cooler than external air for the most part of
the day during summer. Calculation of cooling
energy needs follows EN ISO 13790 and the ground-
to-air heat exchanger approach in EN 15241 [7],
which proposes a methodology to account for
preheating air supply for commercial buildings,
instead of cooling air supply.
2. EN ISO 13790: SUMMER
2.1. Cooling energy needs
The method developed by Dijk et al. [8] is also
described in detail in EN ISO 13790 and consists of
a numerical estimative of the physical quantities of
heat transfer (QC,ht) and heat sources (QC,gn),
different from a merely comparison between gains
and losses. The heat transferred by ventilation
(including infiltration) and transmission (conduction,
convection and longwave radiation) directly depends
on the inside-to-outside air temperature difference
and is part of the first term. The exchange of energy
which does not fit in the first term constitutes the heat
sources, e.g. shortwave radiative gains, additional
sky longwave radiative exchange and internal gains.
There are two formulations of the same numerical
method to calculate cooling energy needs (QC,nd),
one uses the loss utilization factor (C,ls) and the
other uses the gain utilization factor (C,gn). In the
gain utilization factor formulation, the one adopted in
RCCTE, cooling energy needs are given by

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646 HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN)
female secondary school students in Tehran and to
investigate the thermal comfort and indoor air quality
in the classrooms.
2. CLIMATE OF IRAN AND THE CITY OF
TEHRAN
Iran is a country located in the Middle East and
covers over 1,648,195 km, with a land area of
1,531,595 km and a water area of 116,600km. It
extends between latitudes 25N and 40N and
longitude 44E and 63 E.
The city of Tehran is located on the southern
border of the Alborz Mountain. Tehran has hot-dry
summers and cold winters. The climate of Tehran is
generally characterised by its geographic location and
it is usually cooler on the north side compared to the
southern part. The annual precipitation is low and the
average rainfall on the plain is about 218 mm and the
maximum rainfall is about 50 mm in November [5].
Figure 2 shows the average annual temperature
range in Tehran.
Figure 2: Temperature range in Tehran [6]
Moreover, relative humidity reaches 66% in
December and decreases to 27% in July and also the
average dry bulb temperature is 5C in January and
32C in July [6].
3. METHODS AND DATA COLLECTION
In order to achieve the studys aims, a series of
field studies, that used survey questionnaires and
field measurements, were conducted in a four storey
female secondary school for three weeks during
spring. The measurements assessed thermal
conditions during lesson hours in the warm months of
April and May. Overall, 45 questionnaires were
completed in two classrooms on the 4th May 2010 by
the students. Thermal comfort variables were
measured for a three week period, which included the
survey date, by HOBO data loggers. HOBO loggers
tracked temperature and relative humidity inside two
classrooms. Details of the classrooms occupants are
given in Table 1.
A comparative analysis has been performed on
the result of the field studies from the classrooms,
which were located on the north (N) and south (S)
facing sides of the school on the top floor. Later, the
results from the field measurement were compared
with the results of the questionnaire survey.
Table 1: Summary of samples

3.1. Objective Physical Measurement
The school is located in south-west of Tehran and
has four storeys. The measurements assessed
thermal condition of the classrooms during lesson
hours in the warm months of April and May for three
weeks, 26th April 2010 to 15th May 2010, on the top
floor. Thermal comfort variables such as indoor air
temperature and relative humidity were measured by
HOBO loggers. HOBOs were located at a height of
2.0 metres above the floor, on top of the blackboard.
They were collecting indoor temperature and relative
humidity with a logging interval of 15 minutes. Daily
local weather data were also extracted from local
weather station reports. Table 2 presents the means
of indoor temperature and relative humidity as well as
their standard deviations for the two classrooms.
Measurement results were divided in to weekdays
(W), representing 17 days, and weekends (WE),
representing 3 days.
Table 2: Mean indoor temperature, mean relative humidity
and standard deviations in two classrooms for weekdays (W)
and weekends (WE).

From Table 2 it can be seen that the mean indoor
temperature, mean relative humidity and their
standard deviations during the weekdays are higher
than at weekends. Generally, the standard deviation
of indoor air temperature is smaller than the standard
deviation of indoor relative humidity. During the
weekends the school does not have any occupants,
which results in lower humidity levels. However, the
mean temperature of the classroom rises during the
weekdays, possibly due to increasing activity levels in
the classrooms. Moreover, although the school has
an air conditioning system, it is hardly used during the
warm seasons in order to keep energy bills low.
During the three week assessment, the air
conditioning system was kept off and classrooms
were naturally ventilated, which resulted in a higher
temperature range during the weekdays.
3.2. Questionnaire
Assessment of thermal comfort in the classrooms
was based on a questionnaire survey. A total number
of 45 students from classroom N and classroom S
participated in the survey at noon on the 4
th
May
2010. They answered questions on their perception of
Classroom Number taking part
in survey
N (north facing) 23
S (south facing) 22
Total 45


Indoor
temperature
(C)
Indoor
relative
humidity%
Classroom W WE W WE
N
Mean 24.9 24.1 34.0 31.7
S.D 1.3 0.5 6.3 5.8
S
Mean 25.0 24.2 29.3 27.8
S.D 1.5 0.5 7 6.2
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HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN) 647

4. CASE-STUDY
4.1. Solar XXI building
Solar XXI office building [9], at LNEG campus
(Fig. 1), has a GHE constituted by 32 concrete ducts
(Fig. 2), 30 cm in diameter and buried 4.6 m deep.
The air entrance is made from a feeding well about
15 m away from the building (Fig. 3) and the system
is projected to function during summer warm days
supplying cool air to the room offices facing south.
Each office room in the south part of the building has
two ducts supplying an air flow rate that corresponds
to 8.7 ACH.


Figure 1: South faade of Solar XXI building.
Architects: Pedro Cabrito and Isabel Diniz.

Figure 2: Semi-buried floor plan:
ground-heat exchanger ducts.

Figure 3: Building cross-section: ground-heat exchanger.

4.2. Ground temperature
The amplitude correction factor at 4.6 m deep (d)
is obtained from the empirical correlation [7]:

with c1=3.35x10
-4
, c2=1.382x10
-2
and c3=1.993x10
-1
.
The other parameters were set according to the
annual measurements for ground temperature at the
corresponding depth (Table 1).
Annual average and amplitude swing are taken
from a typical reference year of Lisbon climate and
are, respectively, 16.3 and 8.5C.
Table 1: Ground characteristics.
Ground-cooling system
Amplitude correction factor, am 0.34
Ground material factor, gm 1
Curve shift, m (h) 0

4.3. Ducts characteristic constant
For one duct of the GHE of Solar XXI building
(see characteristics in Table 2), the estimated air-
duct heat transferred is 64.9 W/K and the convective
inflow is 65.7 W/K, which results on =0.987 and a
GHE efficiency of A

=0.63.
Table 2: Duct physical characteristics and air flow rate.
Ground-cooling system
Inside surface coefficient 4.7 W/(m
2
K)
Concrete conductivity 2.0 W/(m
2
K)
U-value 4.6 W/(m
2
K)
Total surface area 14.1 m
2

Air-flow rate 200 m
3
/h

The complete analytical solution for the heat
diffusion of a cylindrical air/soil heat-exchanger
proposed by Hollmuller [10], was used to compute,
on an hourly basis, the room supply air from the GHE
- ghe - for the summer period of Lisbons climate.
The theoretical dashed line (Fig. 4) of that model can
be approximated by

Figure 4: Ground-cooling efficiency from a theoretical
approach (dotted line), Fourier analysis (dashed line) and
fitted to measurements (solid line).
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It is noteworthy, that the duct constant physically
estimated for this system - the ground-heat
exchanger efficiency, A

=0.63 - is above the

calculated by a detailed hourly method based on
Fourier analysis of the external air temperature
(A

=0.53), which takes also into account the soil-

duct-air heat transferred.
Furthermore, the ground-cooling system was
monitored during a summer week keeping the fan
continuously on. During that period the office room
was unoccupied and the external shading devices
were kept semi-opened.
The empirical correlation found for the
experimental data (Fig. 4) establishes a duct
characteristic constant of 0.83.
It is noteworthy, that an efficiency of 0.83 requires
that ratio between Htr and Hcv be =1.7, therefore the
air-duct heat transmission should be higher than the
estimated or the convective inflow be lower. For
example, ducts tightness could cause differences
between fan and duct flow rate.
Future measurements will take into account the
above discussed issues to infer about the GHE
efficiency.
5. COOLING ENERGY NEEDS
The test case for cooling energy needs
calculations is a double office room, located in the
first floor of Solar XXI building, with the
characteristics of Table 3.
Table 3 Thermal descriptive parameters for office room.
Office room
Floor area (m
2
) 30.6
Volume (m
3
) 91.8
Overall transmission
heat transfer coefficient (W/K)
53.8
South effective
collecting area (m
2
)
1.66
Horizontal effective
collecting area (m
2
)
0.13
Thermal inertia, aC 2.6
Fans total air-flow rate (ACH) 8.7

Calculations are performed for Lisbon climate,
38.8N, 9.1W, for a four-month period (June to
September), with an average external air
temperature of 21.6C and an integrated global
horizontal solar radiation of 792 kWh/m
2
. The set-
point temperature is set to 25C.
The cooling energy needs are estimated for the
following ventilation strategies:
No mechanical ventilation, infiltrations of
1 ACH (qve,inf = 91.8 m
3
/h);
Continuous mechanical ventilation
(qve,mech = 800 m
3
/h) supplying air from
exterior (EXT);
Continuous mechanical ventilation
(qve,mech = 800 m
3
/h) supplying air from GHE;
Mechanical ventilation supplying air from
exterior for limited hours of use, infiltrations
of 1 ACH for the remaining period;
Mechanical ventilation supplying air from
GHE for limited hours of use, infiltrations of
1 ACH for the remaining period.
In this analysis, cooling energy needs are only
influenced by the overall ventilation heat transfer
coefficient, Hve, calculated from the air flow rate and
the adjustment factor, bve, for each type of ventilation
type according to the hours of use.
Table 4 shows the average values for external-to-
ground and internal-to-external temperature
differences, which are the parameters used to obtain
bve. Those adjustment factors (Table 5) are
calculated assuming that int-set (different from int-set)
is 3.44, the average temperature difference for 24h,
and a GHE efficiency equal to 0.63.
Table 4: Average external-to-ground and internal-to-
external temperature differences, calculated for Lisbon
climate, from June to September, for different periods.
hours of use
ext-grd (C) int-ext (C)
0-24 h
4.06 3.44
9-18 h
8.50 -1.00
22-7 h
-0.14 7.63
9-13 h
5.75 1.75
14-18 h
10.81 -3.32
9-11 h
3.69 3.80
11-13 h
7.80 -0.31
13-15h
10.71 -3.22
15-17 h
11.13 -3.64
17-19 h
8.97 -1.48

Table 5: Ventilation thermal parameters for different hours
of use of mechanical ventilation with supply air from exterior
(EXT) and ground-heat exchanger (GHE).
Hours of
use
bve Hve [W/K]
EXT GHE EXT GHE
Infiltrations
1 - 30.6 -
0-24h
1 1.74 266.7 464.9
9-18 h
-0.29 2.56 -9.9 274.8
22-7 h
2.22 0.97 240.9 116.6
9-13 h
0.51 2.05 48.1 116.7
14-18 h
-0.97 2.98 -17.4 157.9
9-11 h
1.10 1.68 52.6 65.3
11-13 h
-0.09 2.43 26.0 82.0
13-15 h
-0.94 2.96 7.2 93.9
15-17 h
-1.06 3.04 4.5 95.6
17-19 h
-0.43 2.64 18.5 86.8

From the above overall ventilation heat transfer
coefficients for each solution, it can be concluded
that air supplied by GHE is always the best solution,
with the exception of night-time ventilation (22-7 h)
where bve and, therefore Hve, are higher compared
with GHE use. This study underlines, therefore, that
daytime ventilation is not recommended for warm
summer periods because it increases thermal loads.
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HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN) 649


On the other hand, GHE use is a good solution to
ventilate during daytime hours.
It is also relevant that the two-hours period where
for most efficient GHE use is 15-17 h characterized
by an exterior-to-ground temperature difference of
11.13C, which results in the maximum value for be
of 3.04.
In respect to the selection of preferential period to
use GHE, morning or afternoon, the results show
that bve and Hve are higher for 14-18h in respect to 9-
13h.
The results obtained for cooling energy needs of
the tested office room (Fig. 4) show that mechanical
ventilation with external air supply reduces office
cooling energy needs if it occurs during nocturnal
and morning periods. When the air is supplied by
GHE, however, mechanical ventilation can also be
promoted during afternoon hours, characterized by
air temperatures above the set-point temperature, so
that the average external-to-internal air temperature
difference is above 3C (Table 4, 13-15h, 15-17h).


Figure 5: Cooling energy needs for mechanical ventilation
with external air (EXT) and GHE (ground-heat exchanger)
for different periods.
Table 5 shows also that the bve factor is generally
above one whenever GHE is used, and it is largest
when GHE use is restricted to the warmest day
hours. For example, for a two-hours period, 15-17h,
the exterior-to-ground average difference is 11.1C
(Table 4). It is noteworthy that, compared with no
mechanical ventilation use (21.9 kWh/m
2
), cooling
energy needs decrease by 43%, when air supplied
by GHE is fanned for the aforementioned two hours
(Table 4).
For the most part of the ventilation strategies with
air supplied by GHE, cooling energy needs are
reduced to values below 15 kWh/m
2
.
The possibility of GHE use during 9-daytime
hours leads to cooling energy needs below
5 kWh/m
2
. This fact leads to conclude that the
ground-cooling system is an effective passive
strategy toward very low energy buildings during
summer season. In fact, Solar XXI does not have
any active air conditioning system and 73% among
users manifested that thermal environment is
acceptable during summer [11].
6. CONCLUSION
This paper proposes a simplified formulation to
include ground-cooling systems, i.e. mechanical
ventilation where air is supplied comes by a ground-
heat exchanger (GHE).
For the ground-cooling system of Solar XXI
building, the measured GHE efficiency was
compared with two theoretical formulations
physically simplified [7] and Fourier method [10]
having been obtained lower estimatives compared
with measurements.
The adjustment factor, bve, already established in
EN 15241 for air preheating with GHE is here
adapted for cooling ventilation. This factor depends
on ducts characteristic constant, A

, or GHE
efficiency and average external-to-ground
temperature difference for mechanical ventilation
hours of use.
The method proposed can be easily implemented
in both seasonal and monthly methods, as well as in
the Portuguese thermal code (RCCTE).
Future studies should address the ground-heat
exchanger efficiency, as well as climate
characterization in terms of periods average air
temperature, in order to enable extrapolating the
method for multiple cases.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Solar XXI building project and construction was
funded by European Union, FEDER, and Portuguese
Ministry of Economy, Program Prime.

8. REFERENCES
[1] CEC. Energy Performance of Building Directive,
Directive 2010/31/EU. Official Journal of the
European.
[2] CEC. Energy Performance of Building Directive,
Directive 2002/91/EC. Official Journal of the
European
[3] H. Goncalves, M. Oliveira and A. Patricio. How
did the solar houses perform in Portugal? In
Proceedings of the 22nd National Passive Solar
Conference, Vol.22:17-21, Washington DC, 25-
30 Apr 1997.
[4] Decreto-Lei nr. 80/2006. Regulamento das
Caractersticas do Comportamento Trmico dos
Edifcios, RCCTE. Portugal; 2006 (in
Portuguese).
[5] D. van Dijk and M. Spiekman. Energy
Performance of Buildings; Outline for
Harmonised EP Procedures. Final report of EU
SAVE ENPER project, Task B6. TNO Building
and Construction Research, Delft (NL), June 29,
2004.
[6] EN ISO 13790 Energy performance of buildings,
calculation of energy use for space heating and
cooling; 2007.
[7] EN 15241 Ventilation for buildings, Calculations
methods for energy losses due to ventilation and
infiltration in commercial buildings; 2007.
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650 HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN)

[8] D. van Dijk, M. Spiekman and P. de Wilde. A
monthly method for calculating energy
performance in the context of European building
regulations. In Proceedings of the Ninth
International IBPSA Conference, Building
Simulation 2005. Montreal, Canada; 2005.
[9] H. Goncalves. Solar XXI Towards Zero Energy,
LNEG, Lisbon, Portugal; 2010.
[10] P. Hollmuller. Analytical characterization of
amplitude-dampening and phase-shifting in
air/soil heat-exchangers. International Journal of
Heat and Mass Transfer 2003;46:4303-4317.
[11] Solar XXI Building, Case Study nr.12, Advanced
Ventilation Strategies, Building Advent IEE
Project.
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HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN) 651
1
Building integrated micro- generation systems for
cooling, heating, and dehumidification in hot and
humid climate zones
Thomas Spiegelhalter
1
1
Florida International University, Architecture, Co-Director Environmental Technology Lab (ETL), Miami, FL, USA
ABSTRACT: Out-of-control peak loads, power outages, and billions of dollars losses are often faced in hot and
humid seasons through extensive fossil-fuel based electrical operated building air-cooling systems, barely capable
of meeting the rising energy demand. The resulting fossil energy use and CO2 emissions are expected to increase
continuously. However, the fact that peak cooling demand are associated with high solar radiation offers an
excellent opportunity to exploit the use of combinations of passive climate design mitigation strategies with building
integrated micro-energy generation systems that can match heat-driven space cooling strategies. Those are of
particular interest in urban areas where adverse outdoor conditions of high outdoor pollution and the urban heat
island effect, encourage the use of air-conditioning with a direct negative impact on peak loads. Suitable energy
efficient building integrated hybrid technology such as combined solar assisted cooling and heating, decoupled
dehumidification and air supply systems can help alleviate the problem as it is already increasingly practiced in the
US, Europe and Asia. This paper will assess from the architects point of view research results of US, European,
and Asian innovative projects with solar micro-regeneration systems for combined production of electricity, heating
and cooling for 5 to 2000 kW applications.
Keywords: Hybrid technology, Micro Energy Generation, Solar Assisted Air-Water Space Conditioning Systems,
Thermo-Active Mass, Dehumidification,
1. INTRODUCTION: BUILDING LOADS AND
CLIMATE DESIGN
Climate engineering as a planning discipline develops
solutions for energy efficient buildings that can adapt
to different situations in which form and function are
synergized in a holistic way. Every building location
has its own individual micro-climate with respect to
orientation, solar radiation, temperature, humidity,
wind, noise, and air pollution. For climate responsive
design, it is important to ensure the highest possible
comfort for building occupants with the lowest
possible impact on the environment. Therefore
buildings have to be seen as an active system of
constantly shifting loads, external inputs such as
changing temperature, solar gain, acoustics, and
moisture moving into and out of the spaces. Looking
at the building as a complex system requires analysis
and modelling tools since there are indirect and direct
processes going on all the time. (Fig.1)
2. CRITERIA
2.1. Reduce Loads and Resource Demand First
with Passive Design Strategies over Active
Systems
To use passive natural systems over active mecha-
nical systems wherever possible is the starting point
for any energy efficient building design to carefully
analyze the contextual annual building load based on
meteorological data, occupancy activities with
psychometric indoor conditions, and to conduct
economic comparisons of selected solutions over the

Fig.1 Criteria Chart for Thermal Driven Cooling-

Dehumidification Processes, Source: T.Spiegelhalter
whole life cycle. Another priority is to only use onsite
renewable to meet all energy needs, or combined
with local and regional renewable to make up the

[8] D. van Dijk, M. Spiekman and P. de Wilde. A
monthly method for calculating energy
performance in the context of European building
regulations. In Proceedings of the Ninth
International IBPSA Conference, Building
Simulation 2005. Montreal, Canada; 2005.
[9] H. Goncalves. Solar XXI Towards Zero Energy,
LNEG, Lisbon, Portugal; 2010.
[10] P. Hollmuller. Analytical characterization of
amplitude-dampening and phase-shifting in
air/soil heat-exchangers. International Journal of
Heat and Mass Transfer 2003;46:4303-4317.
[11] Solar XXI Building, Case Study nr.12, Advanced
Ventilation Strategies, Building Advent IEE
Project.
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652 HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN)
2
difference (doing the above steps before will result in
the need for much smaller space conditioning
systems, making sustainable, carbon neutrality in
design achievable).
2.2. Careful Building Load Design is Mandatory
to Avoid Mismatches
Human comfort is based not just on temperature and
relative humidity in Thermal Comfort Design, but also
on radiant temperature (the apparent temperature of
surfaces), air flow, metabolic rate, clothing and even
controllability of systems. By removing the emphasis
on radiant effects, dressing appropriately and having
remote and individual control of systems, planners
can effectively provide comfort in buildings and save
significant primary energy. Mismatches in load design
and thermal design must be early identified in the
design process, because buildings operate in
dynamic environments that have an important
influence on mandatory thermal comfort standards
(ISO 7733, ASHRAE 55-2004). Building performance
and air quality problems may arise with concerns on
increased humidity levels and condensation during
the space conditioning process of thermal-load
shifting systems. These mismatches can lead to poor
architectural and mechanical design choices and limit
the ability to properly assess some of the most
promising technologies of solar cooling and heating
with decoupled humidification and air supply systems
for hot and humid climates. Cooling loads are often
caused by undesiredable internal (People, equipment,
lighting, etc.) and external heat sources (Solar
radiation, conductivity, transmission losses, thermal
bridges, infiltration, etc.). One successful solution for
those mismatches among different heat-driven
technologies (absorption, desiccant, adsorption, jet
cycles) combined with different types of building micro
generation integrated PV-Wind, Solar Thermal and
Heat Recovery Systems (Fig. 2.), for shifting loads in
changing climatic conditions, is decoupled cooling (or
radiant cooling), with systems combining chilled
ceilings or shear walls with AHU for air-
dehumidification and ventilation (CC+AHU). Radiant
cooling with independent air dehumidification and
ventilation can act as a complementary cooling and
ventilation technology that has the potential to provide
better thermal comfort, air quality (with lower air
velocities), and significant energy consumption
reductions than conventional all-air systems. For
example in terms of energy savings planners should
prefer to use water as a heat transfer medium,
instead of air, since water will transfer 1000 times as
much energy as air for the same temperature
difference. So far, in hot and humid regions of the
U.S., fears for the risk of condensation on ceiling the
market penetration in the implementation of water-
and air based systems. To address this challenge,
indoor humidity behaviours associated with
decoupled cooling in hot and humid climate have
been successfully tested in Europe and parts of Asia.
To date, most of the cooling in the U.S. is performed
by electrical non-renewable energy with compressor
type refrigeration plants and reversible heat pumps.
The electrical energy required has an unfavourable
effect on the primary energy balance of the building
and the CO2 neutrality in the energy supply. It is
necessary when using electrical cooling to ensure to
use renewable energy.
2.3. Solar hybrid system driven Air-Conditioning
The one of the most promising applications for micro
generation solar hybrid cooling is solar assisted air
conditioning (Fig. 3). The most common technologies
used in combination with solar heat driven systems
are generally classified into: Closed systems: these
are closed cycles of thermally driven

Fig.2 Building Integrated Micro Generation Systems

chillers which provide chilled water, that is either used
in air handling units to supply conditioned air (cooled,
dehumidified), or that is distributed via a chilled water
network to the designated rooms to operate
decentralized room installations, e.g. fan coils. Market
available machines for this purpose are absorption
chillers (most common) and adsorption chillers (a few
hundred machines worldwide, but of rising interest in
solar assisted air conditioning); Open systems: these
are open sorption cycles allowing complete air
conditioning by supplying cooled and dehumidified air
according to comfort conditions. The refrigerant is
always water, since it is in direct contact. with the
atmosphere. Most common systems are desiccant
cooling systems using a rotating dehumidification
wheel with solid sorbent.

2.4. Liquid Desiccant Cooling Systems

New developments are desiccant cooling systems
using a liquid Water/Lithium-Chloride solution as
sorption material. This type of system shows several
advantages such as higher air dehumidification at the
same driving temperature range as solid desiccant
cooling systems, and the possibility of high energy
storage by storing the concentrated solution. This
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technology is a promising future option for further
increasing the exploitation of solar thermal systems.
The produced cooling capacity can be similar stored
like heat energy in water tanks, in thermo-active
system or in heat sinks. Efficient storage such as cold
water tanks (which are limited to 0 Celsius), and ice
storage, where the latent heat of the ice formation is
stored in addition to the sensible heat, succeeds the
storage densities approximate 10-times higher as the
cold water tank. Ice storage can help to optimize the
systems efficiency in situations with high cooling
requirements and severe fluctuating supplies and
peak utility rates.

3. THERMO-ACTIVE MASS RADIANT COOLING

SYSTEMS
Compared with air systems, hydronic radiant-cooling
systems only use approximately half the horsepower
and materials to move heating and cooling energy
within a building. Radiant-cooling systems have been
used in Europe for decades and they are starting now
to be examined and installed in the US. Low-flow
injection-pumping systems can help make radiant-
cooling systems even more efficient. Injection-
pumping systems deliver heating and cooling energy
to a variety of terminal units, including chilled ceiling
panels, chilled beams, fan coils, and heat pumps, in
the same piping distribution system, even if each unit
requires a different temperature. Like many hydronic-
based-system developments, residential, and
commercial radiant-cooling HVAC systems originated
in Western Europe during the 1980s. For example, by
lowering chilled panels below a ceiling, an individual
panel's convection cooling component can be
increased to approximately 370 to 475 Watt/h/m2 of
the passive child element. This configuration
resembles a chilled system when mounted below a
ceiling and is passive because natural convection is
the convective-cooling component. The installation
space in the area under the double floors can be used
for electrical and data cables, ventilation ducts,
cooling and heating pipe work. Displacement diffusers
can be installed close to the ducts and the under
floor convectors integrated into the double floors.
Cooling can be done by thermo active ceiling or flush-
fitted chilled ceiling. Luminaries, fire sprinklers,
communication and acoustical systems can be
attached in a synergistic fashion directly to the
massive structural slab. This also means there is no
need for expensive and material consuming
suspended ceilings in buildings (in fact, they work
against this system). One challenge with using active
slabs that provide both radiant space conditioning and
thermal energy is that it will not respond as fast to
changes in sunlight, outside temperatures and
internal loads as a standard overhead ducted air
conditioning system. To solve this problem real-time
control systems have to manage the load changes.
As a result, its easier to operate the system with
natural energies, particularly ground-coupled heat
exchangers, or with solar systems. During the cooling
season, the heavy reliance on the thermal mass of
concrete slabs provides a thermal lag that offsets
peak cooling loads, so that the size of the equipment
can be significantly reduced and operating efficiency
improved (because the system is operating less of the
time at partial loads).

Fig. 5: Decision Flow Diagram, Th. Spiegelhalter

4. SOLAR ASSISTED HYBRID SYSTEMS

STATISTICS

Since 2006 more than 100 micro-generation solar

cooling and air-conditioning (A/C) systems have been
installed in Europe. Their specific collector area is ~3
m2/kW for water chillers, or 10m2 per 1000 m3/h of
air volume flow in desiccant systems. Their primary
energy savings potential is between 30 60%, but
these potentials are often not yet realized with Fig. 5:
Decision Flow Diagram, Source: Th. Spiegelhalter the
current systems (due to sub-optimal design,
installation, and operation). Cost wise the systems
have a pay-back period of 6 years (best systems) to
over 20 years, at todays energy prices.(1) Most of
the monitored solar cooling systems in the European
Union have been installed in Germany (~40%), in
Spain including the Northwest African Canary Islands
(~28%), Italy (~9%), in France including tropical
Guadeloupe (~6%). In comparison there is a greater
diversity of climate zones in the U.S. than in most EU-
zones, except the EU-oversea locations in the
Caribbean member states. It is challenging to be able
to use European approaches in the US for significant
adaptations in the hotter and more humid regions in
the U.S. Southern States (Fig.4). Following are
selected examples of existing and monitored systems
in hot and humid climates with high internal loads. In
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many cases, the systems used familiar components
and climate-control mechanisms in different ways
than in the U.S., but there is little that experienced
architects. engineers with mechanical contractors
should find overly challenging in the U.S. As with all
climate control systems, each building integrated
micro generation system must be commissioned,
serviced, maintained and monitored to ensure
operation in compliance with design intent.
4.1. Hybrid Micro-Energy Generation with
Desiccant Dehumidification and Ventilation
Systems and Radiant Cooling in Thailand, (2006-),
1345N 10029E
The strategy of Thailand's Department of Alternative
Energy Development and Efficiency (DEDE) has
been positive since they started a governmental
subsidy programme for commercial customers in
2007: 37 commercially installed solar thermal
systems between 50 and 500 m2 received subsidies
in Thailand over the last two years. DEDE approved
17 applications in 2008, among them 9 hotels, 5
factories, 2 hospitals and 1 school all in all,
4,000m2 of collector area. 2009 brought forth Phase
II of the incentive programme, with 20 systems
profiting from subsidies: 14 hotels, 3 factories, 1
hospital and 2 schools - a total of 3,000m2 of collector
area.
The biggest installation was a food factory with
499m2.(2) In 2006 Vangtook and Chirarattananon
studied already before the governmental subsidies
desiccant dehumidified ventilation for radiant cooling
systems in high latent load space such as operating
theatres and hospitals under hot and humid climate
conditions in Thailand.
The temperature of the radiant cooled water was
limited to 24C to avoid condensation. They found
that the low heat reception capacity of the radiant
panel would limit its use only to situations when loads
were low, and they identified that desiccant
dehumidified ventilation provides very dry air to
decrease the supply air flow rate, because the
humidity ratio islower than that obtained with a
conventional vapor compression chiller used for all-air
systems. They summarized that hybrid air-water
conditioning system (water-air based with desiccant
demudification) are desirable for buildings in hot and
humid regions, like southeastern countries of Asia,
where the risk of condensation is very high due to the
low surface temperature in the radiant cooling panels.
Another advantage they identified is that sensible and
latent cooling load are decoupled and con-trolled
separately, which means that control of humidity can
be achieved better than with conventional vapor
compressive systems. Their results showed also that
up to 44% primary energy demand could be reduced
with the hybrid water-air-system, in comparison with a
conventional all-air system.(3)

4.2. Hybrid Solar Thermal Driven District Cooling

and Heating Plant at Los Angeles Valley College
Campus, California, USA. (2009-)
34 10 33 N, 118 25 90 W

(Fig. 4), PV-Wind-Solar Thermal Hybrid Micro generation

System in Los Angeles Valley College, Image courtesy
Allenergyusa, Serge Adamian, 2010
(Fig. 5), above image: Campus Chilled Water Production
and ICE Farm Auxiliary to Absorption Chiller, below image:
Storage Discharge to Heating and Cooling Demand, Image
courtesy Serge Adamian, 2010
The 1,231 kW solar thermal air conditioning micro
generation project was completed last year in May
2009 at Los Angeles Valley College, one of the nine
campuses of the LA Community College District (Fig.
4). As a demonstration project it is considered to
install similar solar thermal driven air conditioning and
space heating installations at all of its L.A. campuses
to save electricity and to avoid future power outages
during peak times within the LADWP utility infra-
structure. The overall micro generation technology
integration consists of central plant, solar thermal
driven absorption chiller, hot water tanks, space
heating, ice-on-coil thermal storage as backup to
absorption chiller and off-peak cooling, PV, energy
efficient lighting, and enterprise management system.
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As solar thermal energy in combination with the
absorption chiller is stored in insulated tanks, and
used to offset peak electric rates and demand
charges. It was estimated that the campus peak
cooling load after completion of an additional new
campus building was going to be 5,275 kW (1,500
tons). To meet the added cooling and heating loads
the central plant capacity was expanded by replacing
one of the two electric chillers with a new one capable
of ice making, adding one new 1,231 kW (350 tons)
Broad solar thermal driven absorption chiller, 497
SUNDA SEIDO 1-16 vacuum tube collector modules
(7,952 tubes), and adding 2 new ice storage units to a
total of 6 (Fig. 5). Hot water is collected in 3 insulated
vertical tanks 469,391 L each (total 272,549 L) staged
next to the central plant. The maximum allowed
temperature at the solar hot water tanks is 110C.
During the summer season the solar hot water is
directed to the absorption chiller for space cooling.
The solar hot water system has the flexibility to
bypass the absorption chiller in the winter for space
heating. The ice storage and electric chillers act as
backup/ auxiliary to the absorption chiller. Boilers
serve as backup to the solar hot water tanks for
space heating. The major innovation with the
EnterprizeDX Building Management System is re-
presented through the peak load, because the peak
electric rate and demand charge period at LADWP
territory is 1:00 PM-5:00 PM, Monday through Friday
in the summer season (Fig. 6). The absorption chiller
is turned on at 12:45 PM Monday through Friday and
turned off at 5:15 PM to save peak electric rates and
demand charges. Before 12:45 PM the cooling
demand of the campus is met by melting ice. Once
the absorption chiller starts operating, when the
cooling demand exceeds the capacity provided by the
absorption chiller, ice is melted to maintain the chilled
water supply temperature. Because peak electric
rates and demand charges apply during the
weekdays in the summer, the absorption chiller
normally operates on weekdays only. Thus, during
the summer the hot water tanks are charged by the
solar thermal collectors for 7 days per week and dis-
charged only for 5 days (Fig. 7, 8). (4)

(Fig. 6) Trending using the BMS (building management

system) EnterpriseDX software, diagram courtesy Serge
Admanian, 2010
(Fig. 7.), Monitoring Excerpt: Sunny Day in Winter, Solar Hot
Water loop with Solar Chiller on a Winter Day, Tue. Jan. 4th,

The first trending results using EnterpriseDX metering

software was conducted by LACCD and ARUP from
December 2010 to January 2011. The trending
results show that the micro-generation solar cooling
and heating system achieved a 53% overall
efficiency, whereby the Chiller COP was measured
with 0.71. However, the Chiller COP overall losses
are recorded with 27% and the System Inefficiencies
is with 20% (Fig. 8). (5)

(Fig. 8), Data Visualizer Tool for analysis, Jan. 4th, 2011.
Diagram courtesy Serge Admanian on behalf of LACCD and
ARUP, January 2011

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The average daily kWh output during the two months
monitoring of the Solar Chiller & HX2 was recorded
with 6,872 kWh/day (23,447 kBtu/day), and the Chiller
COP is calculated with 0.71.
The lessons learned after the first winter monitoring
are:
- to incorporate better quality sensors to
improve the management and control
systems performance in avoiding energy
losses
- to insulate all exposed pipes
- add 3-way valve before heat dump heat
exchanger
- use pool to dump the heat instead of cooling
towers, and use condensing loop to heat the
pool
-
The next trending results for the hottest climate period
in Los Angeles will be conducted between July and
September 2011, when cooling loads are assumedly
the highest.

5. WORLD-WIDE NEGATIVE ENVIRONMEN-

TAL IMPACT OF FOSSIL-FUEL DRIVEN AC-
SYSTEMS
A critical growth in the competitive market for
conventional fossil-fuel driven AC-systems can be
observed worldwide due to increasing comfort
expectations for cooling and dehumidification. The
number of sold units increased from about 26 million
units worldwide in 1998 to more than 74,2 million
units in 2007 is alarming. (6) Which technology is
employed, small RAC split units, multi-split systems,
centralized chilled water technology, centralized air
handling units, depends strongly on regional markets
and cultural attitude, politics, know-how of the trades,
and practicing MEPs. Conventional cooling technolo-
gies exhibit several clear disadvantages:

Their energy consumption and environmental impact

is unacceptably high and GHG reduction goals are
hard to match;
They cause high electricity peak loads and power
outages in many states of the US and in similar world
climate zones
In general, they employ refrigerants with a
considerable global warming potential.
In order to limit the negative impact on the energy
consumption at peak load and causing increased
pollution (global warming potential GWP), new
environmentally sound concepts for small capacity
range are of urgent importance. The utilization of
micro-generated solar thermal energy to drive
affordable heat-driven cooling machines is a way to
address these problems. A well designed micro
generation solar assisted air-conditioning system
produces cooling with considerably less electricity
demand than conventional air-conditioning systems.
Furthermore, the working fluids used in sorption
chillers and desiccant rotors will not contribute to
global warming, contrary to most working fluids in
conventional compression chillers

6. CONCLUSION FOR POSITIVE TRENDS OF

BUILDING INTEGRATED SOLAR MICRO-
GENERATION COOLING SYSTEMS

Thermally driven cooling design concepts with

building integrated water-air-based distribution
systems play a major role for energy efficiency in the
building and utility sector as well in industrial
refrigeration. Waste heat with poly generation, heat
from co-generation with tri-generation, district heat
and cooling to solar energy use have the potential to
curb the ever increasing demand for conventional
energies used for cooling purposes. Because of this,
it contributes to lessening the dependence on
imported fuels and increasing military expenditures
for resource wars and supply protection and to avoid
CO2 emissions in the long run (7). As all the
previous case study projects demonstrate, it also
lowers electricity demand at times of peak loads; it
increases the stability and costs of the electricity
grids. As solar cooling is still an emerging technology,
it faces many growth barriers which are different from
other heating and cooling technologies. Because of
these strong benefits, the market penetration in the
U.S. of solar cooling should be better supported by
governments. Major R&D efforts and training of all
professional and decision making players involved
are necessary to exploit the full potential of this
promising technology in the U.S.
Optimistic scientists and politicians in the European
Union are expecting a major progress on system level
for all sizes (small, medium, and large scale) towards
single-effect systems with usual solar collector
technology for heating and cooling with significant
cost reductions for small capacity absorption and
adsorption chillers with typical system operation
temperatures of 70 to 110 C. First Small
chilliSolar Kits are already on the European market
for architects and planners with first operation
experiences of small capacity systems (solar heat,
biomass, CHP waste heat, process heat). These
systems are available with specific cost ranges and
an increasing level of standardization:

-5000 to 8000 EUR/kW in 2007

-4500 EUR/kW in 2008
-500 to 3000 EUR/kW
are expected in the near future.
The solar cooling hybrid kit consists of solar thermal
collectors, hot water storage, pump-set, chiller, re-
cooler, partly cold water storage and digital systems
controller. The specific costs are without cold
distribution and installation costs.(8)
But also building integrated hybrid systems for small,
medium and large capacity using single-axis solar
tracking with optical concentration will become
increasingly efficient and cost-competitive for
planners in the near future, when typical operation
temperatures between 150250C allow efficient
large capacity ranges with dominant use of cooling for
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industrial processes and large-scale buildings and
communities.
It is imperative, that all involved key players,
researchers, planners, engineers, politicians, policy
makers, and educators have to work together to
success with innovative fundamental and applied
research and development approaches to increase
energy efficiency (COP by greater than 50 percent),
and reduce GHG emissions due to cooling and
heating of buildings.

7. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
W. Hoenmann, F. Nuessle, Kuehldecken verbessern
Raumklima. Kuehldecke und Raumlueftung,
Fachinstitut Gebaeude-Klima e.V., Bietigheim-
Bissingen, Germany, 1991.
Robert A. Meierhans, Slab cooling and earth
coupling, ASHRAE Trans.,pg. 99, 1993.
IEA International Energy Agency, The Solar Heating
and Cooling Programme, established in 1977,
France. http://www.iea-shc.org/
Dr. Hans-Martin Henning. Solar-Assisted Air-Condi-
tioning of Buildings - A Handbook for Planners, Berlin
New York, Springer Verlag Edition, ISBN-10:
3211730958, ISBN-13: 9783211730959, 2007.
Thomas Spiegelhalter: Innovative Building Integra-
ted, Solar-Assisted Air-Water Space Conditioning
Systems with Dehumidification, and Thermo-Active
Cooling Systems for Hot and Humid Climates, ASES
SOLAR 2010 Conference Proceedings, USA, 2010

8. REFERENCES
(1) Intelligent Energy Europe. Project Key Issues for
Renewable Heat in Europe (K4RES-H). ESTIF
EUROPEAN SOLAR THERMAL INDUSTRY
FEDERATION, Solar Assisted Cooling, WP3, Task
3.5 EIE/04/204/S07.38607, pg. 12, Aug. 2006.
(2) Solar Thermal Utilization in Thailand, Somsak
Chutanan, World Alternative Energy Sciences Expo
2009 Impact Exhibition, Muang Thong Thani, March
6, 2009.
(3) Prapapong Vangtook and Surapong Chirarattana-
non, An experimental investigation of application of
radiant cooling in hot humid climate Energy and
Buildings, Volume 38, Issue 4, pp. 273-285, April
2006.
(4) Product review and interviews with Project
Engineer Serge Adamian, MS, MBA, PE, CEM,
SunChiller ALLenergie USA, Inc., Glendale, CA, USA,
http://www.allenergyusa.com/
http://www.sunchiller.com/ , Febr. 2010, Nov. 15
(5) Serge Adamian, Carlos Urrutia. The Application
and Management of Renewable Energy Resources
Project Location Los Angeles Valley College,
ICEPAG International Colloquium on Environmentally
Preferred Advanced Power Generation Angeles
Community College District (LACCD) Feb. 9, 2011
(6) B. Griffith, N. Long, P. Torcellini, R. Judkoff, D.
Crawley and J. Ryan. Assessment of the Technical
Potential for Achieving Net Zero-Energy Buildings in
the Commercial Sector National Renewable Energy
Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, 2010
(7) Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
(Top Global Think Tank), Research on questions of
conflict and cooperation of importance for
international peace and security
http://www.sipri.org/yearbook/2009/05
(8) H. Beckmann, Dr. U. Jakob. Solar Cooling Kits im
kleinen Leistungsbereich. Fachforum Klimatisierung
mit Solarenergie, SolarNext AG, Bauzentrum Muen-
chen, pg. 5, Sept. 23, 2008.

9. INTERVIEWS

Serge Adamian, HVAC Engineer Los Angeles,

Interview: Monitoring Data and Results for Los
Angeles Valley College, January 2011
Prof. Elmar Bollin, Director of the Research Group
NET , University of Applied Sciences Offenburg, and
Prof. Ursula Eicker, University of Applied Sciences
Stuttgart, zahf-net Baden-Wuerttemberg Intl.,
Interviews at the German Symposium Sustainable
Energy Technology in Germany and the U.S., Los
Angeles, Nov. 2009.
Christoph Ingenhoven, Ingenhoven Architekten,
Dsseldorf, Germany, Interviews A Green Future, at
USC, Los Angeles, USC Energy Institute, and
GLUMAC, Oct. 2008.
Robert Meierhans, Indoor-Climate-Engineer Zuerich,
Switzerland and professor at the Department of
Urban Design at Wuhan University, China. Dialog and
joined Solar Design Teaching at USC in Los Angeles,
Fall 2004.
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ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
Approach to classification and evaluation of
naturally cooled buildings
Gianluca CADONI
Laboratoire ABC, ENSA-Marseille, Marseille, France
Thesis Director: Stphane HANROT; Co-director of thesis Jean-Louis IZARD
ABSTRACT: Passive cooling systems are the combined technical solutions and design strategies used to
promote low carbon cooling. The aim of our research is to evaluate the performance and efficiency of these
systems, why and when they do not function correctly, and to assess what impact they have on architectural
design. The objective of this methodological approach is to allow us to compare passive cooling systems in
contemporary architecture in different parts of the world. Our analysis was carried out by dividing each building
into its separate architectural elements in order to analyze how each of them function and how they function
together.
Keywords: Passive cooling system, low carbon cooling, building-system, an architects position, methodological
approach
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Article plan
The present article will explain the methodology
used to analyze, compare and evaluate passive
cooled buildings. The aim of the present research is
to estimate the efficiency of these systems, the
reason for their success or failure and what impact
they have on architecture. Thus, an analysis and
evaluation methodology was set up to verify the
viability of passive cooling systems in contemporary
architecture. Two tools were set up to evaluate the
buildings: firstly, a data matrix, which we shall call a
critical database that allows for comparisons to be
made between qualitative and quantitative data, and
secondly, files on each building that contain both
quantitative data and a critical analysis of their
architecture.
Firstly, the files serve as instruments of
communication. Moreover, the architectural appraisal
they contain aims at understanding the architects
position regarding the integration of passive cooling
systems. To explain the methodological approach, I
will use the iGuzzini headquarters in Recanati, Italy,
designed by the architect Cucinella, as an example.
1.2. Presentation of the issues raised by this
research
We consider that the number of contemporary
buildings that adopt passive cooling as a design
strategy to promote low carbon cooling is very
limited. The PHDC (Passive and Hybrid
Downdraught Cooling) research group, for example,
estimates that no more than 50 buildings, cooled by
evaporative cooling systems, have been built
worldwide over the past 15 years. Our
methodological approach aims at comparing and
evaluating summer bioclimatic performances of
buildings, as well as understanding the integration of
passive cooling systems in architecture. The adopted
method has led us to compare buildings with
different functions in different parts of the world. We
have put into place a number of indicators that will
enable us to make critical analyses and comparisons
of different buildings. These indicators will also help
us to analyze both summer and winter bioclimatic
performances.
2. METHODOLOGY ADOPTED FOR
BUILDING ANALYSIS
2.1. Methodology-based research
The buildings were studied as systems, the
objective of which was to guarantee the thermal
comfort of users. The analysis was carried out by
dividing the building into progressively smaller
architectural devices [1], starting with territorial
implantation and concluding with design details. The
functions within the building system were also
analyzed, based on LE MOIGNEs [2] systemic
approach, by adapting the methods four precepts to
our problem. The aim of this division into individual
elements was to analyse each element following its
function within the whole system. The building was
analyzed on different definition levels ranging from a
territorial scale down to architectural detail: territory,
groups of buildings, single buildings, entities,
divisions and constituent parts. In order to evaluate
and divide the building up we followed the method
used by S. HANROT [3], adding an extra level of
definition to the existing research: systems to
improve user comfort. This definition level was
inserted between entities and divisions, thus abiding
by the rule that definition levels are in `cascading`
order, whereby the first level includes the second
which includes the third, etc... The vertical break-
down of buildings gave rise to a matrix of both
quantitative and qualitative data, which we
designated as the critical database. The evaluation
of the architectural devices followed S. HANROTs
method [4], with critical appreciation for them ranging
from 1 to 6: 1=very poor, 2= poor, 3= sufficient,
4=good, 5=very good, 6=excellent. Hence, by using
these grades, the bioclimatic performances of
buildings could be evaluated. A satisfactory mark (3)
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2 xx.x SECTION NAME
corresponded to a well-designed device that was
congruent with the building system. Lower grades
signified that the device was not congruent with this
system and may therefore affect its functioning. It
may even have reached a critical point the point at
which a single factor causes the non-functioning of
the building system - where the building was unable
to guarantee user thermal comfort. On the other
hand, higher grades signified that the device
contributed to the functioning of the building system
and it improved user thermal comfort.
2.2. Choice of buildings
The first difficulty was choosing the buildings to
be analyzed. Precise parameters were defined in
order to determine choices. The buildings had to
conform to the following criteria: (1) the architects or
structural engineers objective is to design a building
that ensures user thermal comfort by creating a low
carbon building. (2) Absence of mechanical air-
conditioning systems (AC), but a building-system that
works actively to reduce overheating. (3) Access to
scientific data.
The iGuzzini Group building corresponded to the
above criteria. (1) The project of the architect, M.
Cucinella, aimed at reducing energy costs and
environmental consequences. (2) The cooling
strategies were: efficient protection against
overheating and a passive downdraught cooling
system, which works thanks to a central atrium that
acts like a chimney to extract air. In the higher part of
the atrium and in the offices, automatic windows
work in synchronisation with a weather station. The
weather station controls the internal and external
temperatures and can open or close windows
according to different programs.
To improve downdraught cooling, the thermal
mass of the building was exposed to the air flux. (3)
Many different types of research were carried out on
this building.
3. CREATION OF THE DATABASE
The critical database is a data matrix analyzed at
different definition levels. It contains technical and
quality data as well as critical analysis data as well
as the grades that enable one to evaluate the
bioclimatic performances of buildings.
The critical database is broken down into the
following definition levels: territory => latitude,
longitude, the climate, heating degree days, etc.
Group of buildings => implantation, orientation,
morphology of the group, etc. Entities=> morphology,
volume and shape of buildings, etc. Systems to
improve user comfort => cooling, natural lighting,
thermal inertia, control strategy (automatic or human)
etc. Divisions => outward vertical divisions, outward
horizontal divisions, partitioning, patios, etc.
constituent parts => inert materials, types of glass,
thermal insulation etc. Each device is accompanied
by a short description and is assigned a grade using
the method that we have described.
Figure 1: composition of critical database.
One of the aims of the critical database is to
compare different passively cooled buildings. Given
that over 60 architectural devices have been
analysed, the amount of data is too large for easy
comparisons to be made between any two buildings.
To resolve this problem we chose the most
significant indicators - those which are badly
designed or built can jeopardise the bioclimatic
functioning of a building - and created a radar graph
that had 11 indicators with an average mark
attributed to each element.
Figure 2: most significant indicators for the iGuzzini
building.
The most important indicators are:
Morphology of the group: defines the shape and the
layout of the buildings in the total operation.
Usage: defines how the building functioned at the
time of researching.
Functional plan: defines the organizational structure
of the building.
Shape coefficient: defines the ratio between the
outside surface and the volume of a building m/m
3
.
Rate of active glazing: defines the ratio between the
glazed surfaces and the peripheral floor shape
m/m.
Natural lighting: defines what percentage of daylight
penetrates the building.
Thermal inertia: defines the susceptibility of keeping
a stable temperature.
Functioning of the passive cooling system: defines
how passive cooling systems function and how they
are adapted to the building.
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Control strategy of building services, both automatic
and human: defines the control mode of passive
cooling systems and how they relate to the whole
building.
Partitioning: defines the internal barriers preventing
air flowing through buildings.
Solar protection of vertical surfaces: defines the
presence and quality of sunscreens.
If one or more of these indicators is badly conceived
or implemented, then the entire building system
cannot guarantee the thermal comfort of its users.
The image that this radar graph provides concerning
the iGuzzini headquarters is easily interpreted. The
building is well conceived and built, although two
badly-ranked indicators underline certain weak
points. The critical indicators are: (1) usage and (2)
the rate of active glazing.
(1) Usage: the function of the headquarters
contains cultural constraints which are contradictory
to the bioclimatic strategies adopted by the architect.
The designers set the comfort temperature at 26C
within the conception of the building, but due to the
wearing of clothes such as jackets and long-sleeved
shirts, typical of managerial offices, the 26C
temperature did not guarantee a state of comfort.
Moreover, the best performances in downdraught
strategies occur when air flux is not hindered,
thereby promoting open space architecture. The top
floor of the iGuzzini headquarters is composed of
small offices cooled by AC, and thus, we can say
that the buildings usage contradicts the architects
strategies to guarantee user comfort. (2) The rate of
active glazing is an indicator introduced to link the
glazed areas to the nearest floor space. The glazed
area is calculated on the surface area of the floor
space, with the influenced area being defined by a 5-
meter wide strip along the perimeter of the building.
This indicator allows us to evaluate the surface area
of the glass walls, given that they are a problem for
the bioclimatic performances of the building. The
image below shows the iGuzzini buildings floor
space influenced by glazing.
Figure 3: representation of rate of active glazing in the
iGuzzini building.
The other indicators of this building highlight how
well it was designed and built. The morphology of the
group is compact and the functional plan is efficient
with the central patios containing all the necessary
vertical and horizontal distributions. The patios act
like chimneys to extract warm air, and the shape
coefficient demonstrates that the building has a very
compact volume.
The natural lighting is very well designed as the
central patio enables light to reach the centre of the
building. Thermal inertia is not optimal because, due
to the large glass bays, the architect had to limit the
thermal inertia of the building and concentrate it
within the floor slabs. The functioning of the passive
cooling system is well adapted to the use of the
building. The control strategy is an automatic one,
with a weather station automatically managing the
opening and closing of the windows. The weather
station functions well, although occasionally it
conflicts with the employees` space usage. Over the
first two years of building usage, the control strategy
program was changed many times in order to find
the best equilibrium. The partitioning of the building
was well studied in relation to the passive cooling
system, where the open-space offices allowed air to
circulate freely. The solar protection was very well
studied and several experiments were carried out in
designed phases by the Ove Arup company. The
average grade of all sixty devices was the final
indicator.

Figure 4: iGuzzini building. KIRIOCOMUNICAZIONE [23]
The IGuzzini building has an average grade of
3,60. This building was analyzed by EULEB [5] who
wrote: After the initial period of the buildings life,
user dissatisfaction recommended opening the high
level louvers and changing the temperature value at
which the windows open. The failure of this second
temperature control attempt has led to manual
control of the louvers in order to allow users to
change the temperature in each working
environment. The resulting measurements covered
the entire period during which the different types of
operating modes were tested, but, as shown, the
hybrid ventilation system has not been sufficient to
establish both winter and summer thermal comfort
conditions. For this reason, except in spring and
autumn, the building has operated under the
mechanical mode for the remainder of the year. In
spring and autumn, the PMV values have not always
been acceptable, even if the CO2 values have
reached the right levels. This confirms our analysis:
the building is well designed and built, although
some critical aspects risk jeopardising the bioclimatic
performances of the building.
This methodological approach has enabled us to
compare different buildings in different parts of the
world. In this article, we are comparing the iGuzzini
building with the French Lyceum in Damascus.
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Figure 5: French lyceum in Damascus. 02KM817, [24]
We used the second tool created to improve the
knowledge of the architects position in relation to the
integration of passive cooling systems. While the
data matrix facilitates understanding in how passive
cooling systems function, files on buildings enable us
to highlight their architectural aspects and
communicate the results of the research.
Figure 6: radar-graph of comparison between the iGuzzini
building and the French Lyceum in Damascus.
Comparing different buildings can provide us with
some interesting information about the causes of
success or failure of building systems. The graph
shows us that the two buildings have a similar
average grade, but the Damascus building does not
have any critical indicators that may compromise the
functioning of the building. This methodology
enabled us to compare them although the buildings
are in different locations.
4. CREATION OF FILES
4.1. Aims of the database and files
To improve the knowledge of the architects
position in relation to the integration of passive
cooling systems, we used the second tool that we
created. While the data matrix enables us to
understand the way passive cooling systems
function, files on buildings allow us to focus on their
architectural aspects and communicate the results of
the research. Today, there is a keen debate on this
subject. According to Architect Mario CUCINELLA
we are in a transitional architectural phase. The
issue of sustainability forces us to re-examine our
design approachsome architects continue to make
projects in the old way and all they do is add some
devices to reduce energy consumption. We should
instead interpret architecture as a whole and carry
out projects with the active contribution of different
actors, such as structural engineers, thermal
engineers etc.: the Bologna SAIE conference,
October 2009.
4.2. Content of files
The layout of building files derives directly from
the critical database, and is divided into three parts:
A synthetic, analytical description of the building
appears on the first page, along with the file index,
the buildings geographical and climatic positions and
a synthetic logo of the building that facilitates
understanding of how the building functions. The
iGuzzini building logo is a sectional diagram showing
the type of passive cooling, how it functions within
the central patio, the type of roof, the position of
thermal inertia and the type of faade. The second
part details the devices analyzed in the critical
database, with some images helping us to
understand better the synthetic analyses. The
iGuzzini example file demonstrates how the critical
database and files are linked. Moreover, the files
contain the images and graphs, which illustrate and
explain the analyses more clearly and coherently.
Figure 7: first page of files with detail of synthetic logo.
The third part is devoted to architectural reviews
that aim to analyze the architects position in relation
to the integration of passive cooling systems.
Previous analyses have allowed us to understand
the bioclimatic functioning of the building. The
methodological approach that we used has enabled
us to assess the different architectural devices and to
contrast different buildings. The architectural reviews
aim at replying to another question: what is the
impact of passive cooling systems on architecture?
Figure 8: a page of files.
The images presented in the files have helped us
to understand this aspect. Moreover, when data is
accessible, the results of pre-construction
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xx.x SECTION NAME 5
simulations and the real performances of the
buildings, as well as post-occupancy assessments,
are presented and analyzed.
These supplementary analyses have added to
our knowledge of the building and of the decisions
made by architects to obtain the final results. As we
can see, the architect Cucinella opted towards
complete integration of passive cooling systems into
the architecture. The aspect of the building is
contemporary and the presence of passive cooling
systems is difficult to envisage. The glass walls,
typical of this kind of commercial building, protected
by sun screens do not indicate that any particular
attention has been paid to environmental problems.
The first objective of the architect is to create una
bellissima architettura (Elisabeth FRANCIS vice-
president of the cabinet MCA, interviewed in Bologna
SAIE October 2009), thereby naturally integrating,
from the first design phases, bioclimatic concepts to
create a low carbon building. The building does not
have an environmentally explicit or educational
aspect, but rather that of a commercial building that
aims to represent the firm that it houses.
The two buildings, the iGuzzini building, designed
by Cucinella, and the French Lyceum in Damascus,
designed by architect Ives Lion, were chosen to be
analysed due to the different design approaches.
Those working with Lion decided to take inspiration
from traditional Mediterranean architecture. The solar
chimneys, guaranteeing the continuous circulation of
air are reminiscent of the Iranian Bagdirs. In this
project the ventilation system had a pedagogical
aim, and relied on the active participation of the
pupils and teachers to adjust the vents that let air in
and out to guarantee thermal comfort. This
pedagogical objective is made explicit in the
architectural design itself, with the architect wanting
users to know immediately how the building works.
This architectural approach is linked both to the
building functioning and to the architectural style.
Figure 5: French lyceum in Damascus. 02KM817, [24]
Conclusions
It was possible to compare two architectural
approaches and two different buildings thanks to the
critical database. The architectural appraisal has
enabled us to understand the decisions made by the
architects. The data matrix has allowed us to
understand better the functioning of passive cooling
systems in the same way as the files have allowed
us to give prominence to the architectural aspects
and the architects position regarding the integration
of cooling systems in his project.
Although only two buildings have been compared
in this article, our methodological approach will
enable us to compare many buildings and to know
when, how and whether passive cooling systems
work well or not. We aim to create a database of
rules that will allow the architect to reduce the errors
to a minimum.
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank all the people who
contributed to the article, namely: The Sardinian
Region, which financed the Master and Back
Research Program, Jean-Louis IZARD, Stphane
HANROT, and Elisabeth FRANCIS, the vice-
president of the Mario CUCINELLA architectural
company.
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6. REFERENCES
[1] Definition of dictionary CNRTL - device : set
of elements arranged for a precise propose,
from: http://www.cnrtl.fr [Accessed
20/05/2010]
[2] LE MOIGNE Jean-Louis, la thorie du
systme gnral thorie de la modlisation,
Collection Les classiques du rseau
intelligence de la complexit, internet, 2006,
360 pages.
[3] HANROT Stphane, Modlisation de la
connaissance architecturale pour un outil de
CAO intelligent, Plan Construction et
Architecture, 1989, 246 pages, ISBN 2100
85419-7
[4] HANROT Stphane, avril 2005, Evaluation
relative de la qualit architecturale : une
approche par le point de vue des acteurs,
Cahiers Ramau - La Qualit Architecturale
- Acteurs Et Enjeux , Editions De La Villette,
2009, N5, ISBN 978-2-915456-47-9
[5] Intelligent Energy Europe, EULEB
European high quality Low Energy
Buildings, 2005-2006, from:
http://www.euleb.info/ [Accessed 15/05/2010]
[6] COOK Jeffrey, Passive Cooling, Edition
M.I.T. Pres Cambridge 1989. 593 pages.
[7] GIVONI Baruch, Passive end low energy
cooling of buildings, Edition John WILEY &
Sons 1994. 263 pages.
[8] GIVONI Baruch, Climate considerations in
building and urban design, Edition John
WILEY & Sons 1994. 464 pages.
[9] SANTAMOURIS M., ASIMAKOPOULOS D.,
Passive Cooling of Buildings, Edition
James & James, 1996. 472 pages.
[10] Auteurs divers, Confort dt,
rafrachissement ou climatisation des
btiments, (journes techniques, 14 et 15
sept 1995). Edition ADEME 1995. 287
pages.
[11] SANTAMOURIS M., ADNOT J., ALVAREZ
N., KLITSIKAS N., ORPHELIN N., LOPES
C., SANCHEZ F, Cooling the cities,
rafrachir les villes, Edition Ecole des Mines
Paris 2004. 263 pages.
[12] IZARD Jean-Louis, Architectures dt,
Edition EDISUD 1993. 141 pages.
[13] BUONO M., L' architettura del vento.
Soluzioni tecnologiche per il raffrescamento
passivo, Edition CLEAN 1998. 144 pages
[14] STEELE J., An Architecture for people: The
complete works of Hassan Fathy, Edition
Academy Editions 1997. 208 pages.
[15] FATHY Hassan, Construire avec le peuple :
Histoire d'un village d'Egypte Gourna,
Edition Martineau 1970. 310 pages.
[16] KWOK G., AIA, GRONDZIK T., PE, Green
studio HandBook, Architectural Press,
Amsterdam 2007. 378 pages.
[17] GROSSO Mario, Il rafrescamento passivo
degli edifici in zone a clima temperato,
Maggioli Editore, San Marino 2008. 648
pages.
[18] R. SCHIANO-PHAN and B. FORD, Post
Occupancy Evaluation of non-domestic
buildings using downdraught cooling: Case
studies in the US, 25st PLEA Passive and
Low Energy Architecture, Dublin - Ireland
(2008).
[19] GAUZIN-MLLER Dominique, strategie
climatique en milieu aride, EcologiK ,
Architectures Vivre, 2009, 08, 72-81, 1961-
7267
[20] SIMONELLI Giuliano, ediliziainrete, 1998,
from:
http://www.ediliziainrete.it/scheda_real.asp?r
ec=530 [Accessed 05/09/2009]
[21] Intelligent Energy Europe, EULEB -
EUropean high quality Low Energy
Buildings, 2005-2006, from:
http://www.learn.londonmet.ac.uk/packages/
euleb/fr/home/index.html [Accessed
15/02/2009]
[22] Architectural Association School of
Architecture Graduate School, idea, 9
January 2003, from:
http://www.unige.ch/cuepe/idea/frm_one.htm
[Accessed 04/04/2009]
[23] KIRIOCOMUNICAZIONE, MC Architects,
from:
http://www.mcarchitects.it/index.php?id=19&
projid=100 [Accessed 15/01/2011]
[24] 02 KM 817, Morin Gal, Lioselet Axel,
Ateliers Lion, from:
http://www.atelierslion.com/ateliers_lion.swf
[Accessed 20/03/2010]
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Passive & Hybrid Cooling for Production Single-
Family Housing
Thomas A. Gentry
1

1
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
ABSTRACT: In many warm-humid regions of the world the opportunity exists to offset a significant portion of the
conventional air conditioning load of buildings with various forms of ventilation. This paper investigates the
feasibility of the opportunity for detached single-family production housing in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Integrating passive stack-effect ventilation with mechanical whole-house ventilation and PCM (phase changed
material) gypsum board, it outlines a strategy that is user-friendly to production housing designers, developers,
materialmen and tradesmen. There are two reasons why it is important to address this issue. First, in the
United States detached single-family production housing accounts for more new construction, measured in
square feet or dollars, than any other type of building; consequently, modest improvements in energy efficiency
for this building type result in significant aggregate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Second, several
decades of low cost energy has resulted in conventional air conditioning being the sole method for cooling
production housing. The industry needs cost effective alternative cooling methods to help preserve markets.
Keywords: natural ventilation, fan-forced ventilation, high thermal mass with night flushing, production housing,
single-family housing
1. INTRODUCTION
In many warm-humid regions of the world the
opportunity exists to offset a significant portion of the
conventional air conditioning load of buildings with
various forms of ventilation. This paper investigates
the feasibility of the opportunity for detached single-
family production housing in Charlotte, North
Carolina. Integrating passive stack-effect ventilation
with mechanical whole-house ventilation and PCM
(phase changed material) gypsum board, it outlines a
strategy that is user-friendly to production housing
designers, developers, materialmen and tradesmen.
There are two reasons why it is important to
address this issue. First, in the United States
detached single-family production housing accounts
for more new construction, measured in square feet
or dollars, than any other type of building;
consequently, modest improvements in energy
efficiency for this building type result in significant
aggregate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Second, several decades of low cost energy have
resulted in conventional air conditioning being the
sole method for cooling production housing. The
industry needs cost effective alternative cooling
methods to help preserve markets.
Using a design developed by the Laboratory of
Innovative Housing (LIH) at the University of North
Carolina Charlotte this paper outlines the work being
conducted by the LIH to promote the incorporation of
passive and hybrid cooling into detached single-
family production housing.
2. PRODUCTION HOUSING
The vast majority of new single-family detached
housing built in the United States is produced as a
market commodity by production developers and
trades. As with most commodity manufacturers
whether they are producing cars, appliances or
shoes the goal is to optimize production in terms of
profits. While this description may sound harsh and
somewhat cynical it does describe a system that is
easy to understand. Any changes that are going to
happen without government regulation are only going
to happen if it improves the bottom line.


Figure 1 - LIH Production House with Modifications
3. CLIMATE & DESIGN STRATEGIES
Charlotte, North Carolina is located in a mild
temperate climate. In an average year, heating is
required for 6,077 hours, and cooling is required for
1,786 hours. More than half of the cooling load can
be addressed through natural ventilation and/or fan-
forced ventilation. This is based on data produced
with Climate Consultant 5.0. [1]
Providing high thermal mass with night flushing
reduces the need to use conventional air
conditioning by an additional 265 hours per year.
The challenge is to affect these strategies in
production housing. [2]
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Figure 3 - Climate Consultant 5.0, Natural and Fan-Forced Ventilation Cooling with High Thermal Mass and Night Flushing
3.2. High Thermal Mass
Introducing high thermal mass into single-family
detached housing in the United States is challenging
because the leading structural system is Western
Platform (lightweight wood construction). The
materials that are traditionally used to provide high
thermal mass with passive heating and cooling
strategies masonry and containerized water are
too heavy to be supported by a system developed to
carry live loads of 40 pounds per square foot.
Furthermore, the building systems that use the
traditional thermal mass materials are more costly to
construct than Western Platform. What is needed is
a lightweight system that is compatible with Western
Platform and no more expensive to install.
One system that is showing promise is gypsum
board containing micro-encapsulated PCM (phase
change material). ThermalCORE is the PCM
gypsum board manufactured by National Gypsum,
[4] and it is currently being evaluated by the LIH.
The advantage of this type of thermal mass system is
that no construction modifications are required to use
the system. It only requires substituting one gypsum
board product for another. The disadvantage of this
system is the additional cost of the material, which
goes straight to bottom line of production developers.
4. FINANCIAL APPLICABILITY
These approaches to cooling are financial
applicable to developers and homeowners.
4.1. Developers vs. Homeowners
To have natural ventilation and high thermal
mass with night flushing become viable design
strategies for production housing there needs to be a
benefit to the developers bottom line; however, there
is no benefit in increasing the cost of windows and
gypsum board, when the cost of energy is not
included in the bottom line. This is where the
disconnect occurs. The cost of materials is the
developers responsibility. The cost of energy is the
homeowners responsibility. The developers see no
connection between their bottom line and the cost of
energy for the homeowners. What the developers
are beginning to see is the connection between
marketing and the cost of energy for the
homeowners. An ever increasing number of
developers are voluntarily participating in the Energy
Star Program that is administrated by the United
States Environmental Protection Agency. They are
doing so because prospective homebuyers associate
added value with Energy Star, much in the same way
they associate added value with granite countertops.
Both are perceived as features physical pieces
that make the house more marketable. This is
particular interesting because Energy Star is about
energy performance but in the world of production
housing Energy Star performance has been usurped
by marketing campaigns.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how
important it is to have the goal align with the
environmental and social benefits, the performance
3.1. Natural Ventilation
The model building codes used for single-family
detached housing in the United States require the
use of operable windows to provide natural
ventilation; however, there are two problems with the
requirements that routinely result in inadequate
window arrangements for passive cooling by natural
ventilation.
The first problem is the minimum area of
operable windows that is required is based on
providing enough ventilation to maintain indoor air
quality. With the exception of periods when the
indoor temperature is only a few degrees above the
desired temperature, cooling with natural ventilation
requires significantly more ventilation than what is
needed to maintain indoor air quality.
The second problem is there are no requirements
for locating the operable windows to promote natural
ventilation. Quite often there is only one window for
each space that is expected to function
simultaneously as an inlet and an outlet for air.
When there are multiple windows in a space it is not
unusual to have all of them located in a single wall
with the operable portions at the same height.
Again, the expectation is that the undifferentiated
configuration will function as an inlet and an outlet for
air.
Expecting developers to install more windows
solely on the merits of accommodating passive
cooling with natural ventilation is unrealistic, given
the unit cost of windows is higher than the unit cost
of most residential exterior walls. With that in mind,
designers must be more critical when selecting
window locations and they must demonstrate a
benefit to the bottom line in providing additional
windows.
Computation fluid dynamics (CFD) software is the
tool for analyzing window locations and sizes to
accommodate passive cooling with natural
ventilation. It generates three dimensional models of
air movement, heat transfer and temperature within
spaces, and presents the data numerically and
graphically. The problem is, with few exceptions,
residential designers do not use the software
because there are no incentives for them to invest
the time and money. Window manufacturers are the
stakeholder that most directly benefits from using
more and larger windows, so it makes sense that
they should provide the CFD analysis, and/or the
incentives for designers to provide the analysis. One
possible approach for the window manufacturers is
to provide an easy to use web based analysis/design
tool similar to the luminaire layout tool, Flashindoor,
that Cooper Lighting provides. [3] The incentive for
the designer is a tool that generates the required
luminaire layouts in less time than it takes using a
worksheet and calculator. The problem with this type
of approach is that it provides no direct incentive for
production developers to use more and/or larger
windows. There needs to be a bottom line benefit.


Figure 2 - Climate Consultant 5.0, Natural and Fan-Forced Ventilation Cooling
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HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN) 667


Figure 3 - Climate Consultant 5.0, Natural and Fan-Forced Ventilation Cooling with High Thermal Mass and Night Flushing
3.2. High Thermal Mass
Introducing high thermal mass into single-family
detached housing in the United States is challenging
because the leading structural system is Western
Platform (lightweight wood construction). The
materials that are traditionally used to provide high
thermal mass with passive heating and cooling
strategies masonry and containerized water are
too heavy to be supported by a system developed to
carry live loads of 40 pounds per square foot.
Furthermore, the building systems that use the
traditional thermal mass materials are more costly to
construct than Western Platform. What is needed is
a lightweight system that is compatible with Western
Platform and no more expensive to install.
One system that is showing promise is gypsum
board containing micro-encapsulated PCM (phase
change material). ThermalCORE is the PCM
gypsum board manufactured by National Gypsum,
[4] and it is currently being evaluated by the LIH.
The advantage of this type of thermal mass system is
that no construction modifications are required to use
the system. It only requires substituting one gypsum
board product for another. The disadvantage of this
system is the additional cost of the material, which
goes straight to bottom line of production developers.
4. FINANCIAL APPLICABILITY
These approaches to cooling are financial
applicable to developers and homeowners.
4.1. Developers vs. Homeowners
To have natural ventilation and high thermal
mass with night flushing become viable design
strategies for production housing there needs to be a
benefit to the developers bottom line; however, there
is no benefit in increasing the cost of windows and
gypsum board, when the cost of energy is not
included in the bottom line. This is where the
disconnect occurs. The cost of materials is the
developers responsibility. The cost of energy is the
homeowners responsibility. The developers see no
connection between their bottom line and the cost of
energy for the homeowners. What the developers
are beginning to see is the connection between
marketing and the cost of energy for the
homeowners. An ever increasing number of
developers are voluntarily participating in the Energy
Star Program that is administrated by the United
States Environmental Protection Agency. They are
doing so because prospective homebuyers associate
added value with Energy Star, much in the same way
they associate added value with granite countertops.
Both are perceived as features physical pieces
that make the house more marketable. This is
particular interesting because Energy Star is about
energy performance but in the world of production
housing Energy Star performance has been usurped
by marketing campaigns.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how
important it is to have the goal align with the
environmental and social benefits, the performance
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
668 HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN)


task for the developer to cost out the items, and
calculate how much it will increase the monthly
mortgage payment for the homeowner. When
interest rates are low and utility rates are high as
they are now it is possible to offset every dollar
increase in the monthly mortgage payment with a
dollar decease in the monthly utility bills. This
approach improves the ROI for the prospective
homebuyer in three ways.
1. It dampens the financial impact of increasing
utility rates.
2. It allows for greater accumulation of equity by
transferring a portion of the utility payments to
the principle on the mortgage.
3. It reduces their federal income tax burden by
transferring a portion of the utility payments to
interest on the mortgage, which is tax
deductible.
All the developer needs to do is package these into a
feature.
This approach also provides benefits to the
developer.
1. It provides access to a market of homebuyers
seeking housing that is environmentally and
financially more sound.
2. With profits typically being a fixed percentage of
the cost, it increase profits by increasing the cost
per house. An astute developer will identify
financing opportunities for homebuyers that take
into account the financial benefits for the
homebuyers in transferring monthly utility
expenditures to the mortgage.
5. DEMONSTRATION PROJECT
One developer, who is working with the LIH, has
been using a more environmentally sustainable
approach with the horizontal development
infrastructure and site improvements of
communities he has developed in the past few years.
He is now taking the same approach to the vertical
development housing and other buildings on his
next community. The project has roughly 900
housing units, as well as some commercial and light
manufacturing. Features for the housing include;
heating and cooling systems that use district energy,
compact floor plates, greater use of local materials,
and more. Passive and hybrid cooling for this kind of
project is an ideal fit. What is particularly telling
about this project is that in a time when most projects
are struggling to find investors and gain municipal
support, the developer of this project has had
relatively few problems securing these stakeholders.
6. CONCLUSION
Passive and hybrid cooling via natural ventilation
has been and continues to be well suited for
production single-family housing in the United States.
While this paper focuses on a case study in
Charlotte, North Carolina, similar opportunities do
exist in temperate regions throughout the United
States.
Unfortunately, the benefits of using this
technology were not widely recognized when quick
profits could be realized with less energy efficient
housing. Now that the housing industry has to
rethink how it does business, the benefits of passive
and hybrid cooling via natural ventilation are easier
to see.

7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The rendering titled, LIH Production House with
Modifications was produced by Professor John
Nelson. The rendering titled, DesignBuilder CFD
Model for LIH Production House with Modifications
was produced by Michelle MacDonnell, Research
Assistant and Masters of Architecture candidate.

8. REFERENCES
[1] Climate Consultant 5.0, Department of
Architecture and Urban Design University of
California, Los Angeles.
[2] Ibid
[3] Cooper Lighting, Flashindoor 1.33 Build by
Lighting Analysis, Inc. provides luminaire layouts
using IESNA methods and recommendations.
Follow this hyperlink to an example for the
Neoray Direct/Indirect Suspended Luminaire
Shell II,
http://www.cooperlighting.com/iesCalculator/Flas
hIndoor.cfm?fp=/specfiles/ies/Neo-
Ray/Suspended/Shell/201IP/&fn=201IP-S-P-2-
T8.ies
[4] National Gypsum. ThermalCORE,
http://www.thermalcore.info/product-info.htm,
March 7, 2011.
of passive cooling via natural ventilation and high
thermal mass with night flushing has not been
usurped by marketing. It is unfortunate if the goal is
to get developers and homebuyers to adopt the
strategies as features with intrinsic value, because it
is unlikely these strategies will be adopted by
marketers. It is fortunate if the goal is to get
developers and homebuyers to begin to thinking
more critically about the return on investment (ROI)
for housing.

Figure 4 - DesignBuilder CFD Model for LIH Production House with Modifications
4.2. ROI for Natural Ventilation
Housing in the United States became an
investment instrument shortly after the Federal
Housing Administration (FHA) and the Department of
Veterans Affairs (VA) established their loan programs
in the mid 1900s. Subsidized by the federal income
tax deduction for mortgage interest, housing
remained a sound investment for most homeowners
until the market collapsed in 2008. Today, housing
developers are struggling to modify their antiquated
business models as they try to find the market. It is
similar to what the American auto industry faced in
the 1980s when their outdated business models
allowed foreign competition to capture the market.
Returning to the notion that there needs to be
more critical thinking about ROI, the current lack of a
market for most developers has motivated some to
look at financial opportunities that were once
considered too roundabout to be marketable to
potential homebuyers. This is not to say developers
no longer fixate on the bottom line. What is being
said is the scope of what impacts the bottom line has
gotten wider. Two of the developers in the Charlotte
area that are deep into this process are working with
the LIH to develop designs that employ passive
cooling via natural ventilation and high thermal mass
with night flushing. Both of them were working with
the LIH before the collapse of the housing market to
explore the marketing of green housing in the area,
so making the decision to think more critically about
the ROI for natural ventilation was not difficult for
them. Going into the details of how to determine the
ROI for natural ventilation is beyond the scope of this
paper, but an overview is not.
4.3. The Process
As stated earlier, more than half of the cooling
load for housing in the Charlotte area can be
addressed through natural ventilation and/or fan
forced ventilation. Additional cooling can be realized
by including high thermal mass with night flushing.
Knowing this, and the annual cooling degree-days,
building envelope u-factor, HVAC efficiencies, and
utility rates it is possible to determine total energy
savings in dollars. Using a CFD application it is
possible to determine the quantity, sizes and
locations of windows needed to optimize passive
cooling. It is also possible to determine the benefit of
using a whole house fan to provide hybrid cooling.
Quite often the additional energy savings of
transforming a purely passive system into a
combined passive and hybrid system justifies the
cost of the equipment. Knowing the extent of the
additional windows and equipment makes it a simple
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
HVAC - EQUIPMENT AND REGULATION (COMPLEMENTARY TO DESIGN) 669


task for the developer to cost out the items, and
calculate how much it will increase the monthly
mortgage payment for the homeowner. When
interest rates are low and utility rates are high as
they are now it is possible to offset every dollar
increase in the monthly mortgage payment with a
dollar decease in the monthly utility bills. This
approach improves the ROI for the prospective
homebuyer in three ways.
1. It dampens the financial impact of increasing
utility rates.
2. It allows for greater accumulation of equity by
transferring a portion of the utility payments to
the principle on the mortgage.
3. It reduces their federal income tax burden by
transferring a portion of the utility payments to
interest on the mortgage, which is tax
deductible.
All the developer needs to do is package these into a
feature.
This approach also provides benefits to the
developer.
1. It provides access to a market of homebuyers
seeking housing that is environmentally and
financially more sound.
2. With profits typically being a fixed percentage of
the cost, it increase profits by increasing the cost
per house. An astute developer will identify
financing opportunities for homebuyers that take
into account the financial benefits for the
homebuyers in transferring monthly utility
expenditures to the mortgage.
5. DEMONSTRATION PROJECT
One developer, who is working with the LIH, has
been using a more environmentally sustainable
approach with the horizontal development
infrastructure and site improvements of
communities he has developed in the past few years.
He is now taking the same approach to the vertical
development housing and other buildings on his
next community. The project has roughly 900
housing units, as well as some commercial and light
manufacturing. Features for the housing include;
heating and cooling systems that use district energy,
compact floor plates, greater use of local materials,
and more. Passive and hybrid cooling for this kind of
project is an ideal fit. What is particularly telling
about this project is that in a time when most projects
are struggling to find investors and gain municipal
support, the developer of this project has had
relatively few problems securing these stakeholders.
6. CONCLUSION
Passive and hybrid cooling via natural ventilation
has been and continues to be well suited for
production single-family housing in the United States.
While this paper focuses on a case study in
Charlotte, North Carolina, similar opportunities do
exist in temperate regions throughout the United
States.
Unfortunately, the benefits of using this
technology were not widely recognized when quick
profits could be realized with less energy efficient
housing. Now that the housing industry has to
rethink how it does business, the benefits of passive
and hybrid cooling via natural ventilation are easier
to see.

7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The rendering titled, LIH Production House with
Modifications was produced by Professor John
Nelson. The rendering titled, DesignBuilder CFD
Model for LIH Production House with Modifications
was produced by Michelle MacDonnell, Research
Assistant and Masters of Architecture candidate.

8. REFERENCES
[1] Climate Consultant 5.0, Department of
Architecture and Urban Design University of
California, Los Angeles.
[2] Ibid
[3] Cooper Lighting, Flashindoor 1.33 Build by
Lighting Analysis, Inc. provides luminaire layouts
using IESNA methods and recommendations.
Follow this hyperlink to an example for the
Neoray Direct/Indirect Suspended Luminaire
Shell II,
http://www.cooperlighting.com/iesCalculator/Flas
hIndoor.cfm?fp=/specfiles/ies/Neo-
Ray/Suspended/Shell/201IP/&fn=201IP-S-P-2-
T8.ies
[4] National Gypsum. ThermalCORE,
http://www.thermalcore.info/product-info.htm,
March 7, 2011.
of passive cooling via natural ventilation and high
thermal mass with night flushing has not been
usurped by marketing. It is unfortunate if the goal is
to get developers and homebuyers to adopt the
strategies as features with intrinsic value, because it
is unlikely these strategies will be adopted by
marketers. It is fortunate if the goal is to get
developers and homebuyers to begin to thinking
more critically about the return on investment (ROI)
for housing.

Figure 4 - DesignBuilder CFD Model for LIH Production House with Modifications
4.2. ROI for Natural Ventilation
Housing in the United States became an
investment instrument shortly after the Federal
Housing Administration (FHA) and the Department of
Veterans Affairs (VA) established their loan programs
in the mid 1900s. Subsidized by the federal income
tax deduction for mortgage interest, housing
remained a sound investment for most homeowners
until the market collapsed in 2008. Today, housing
developers are struggling to modify their antiquated
business models as they try to find the market. It is
similar to what the American auto industry faced in
the 1980s when their outdated business models
allowed foreign competition to capture the market.
Returning to the notion that there needs to be
more critical thinking about ROI, the current lack of a
market for most developers has motivated some to
look at financial opportunities that were once
considered too roundabout to be marketable to
potential homebuyers. This is not to say developers
no longer fixate on the bottom line. What is being
said is the scope of what impacts the bottom line has
gotten wider. Two of the developers in the Charlotte
area that are deep into this process are working with
the LIH to develop designs that employ passive
cooling via natural ventilation and high thermal mass
with night flushing. Both of them were working with
the LIH before the collapse of the housing market to
explore the marketing of green housing in the area,
so making the decision to think more critically about
the ROI for natural ventilation was not difficult for
them. Going into the details of how to determine the
ROI for natural ventilation is beyond the scope of this
paper, but an overview is not.
4.3. The Process
As stated earlier, more than half of the cooling
load for housing in the Charlotte area can be
addressed through natural ventilation and/or fan
forced ventilation. Additional cooling can be realized
by including high thermal mass with night flushing.
Knowing this, and the annual cooling degree-days,
building envelope u-factor, HVAC efficiencies, and
utility rates it is possible to determine total energy
savings in dollars. Using a CFD application it is
possible to determine the quantity, sizes and
locations of windows needed to optimize passive
cooling. It is also possible to determine the benefit of
using a whole house fan to provide hybrid cooling.
Quite often the additional energy savings of
transforming a purely passive system into a
combined passive and hybrid system justifies the
cost of the equipment. Knowing the extent of the
additional windows and equipment makes it a simple
BUILDING PHYSICS
(HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 673
The influence of thermal properties of the envelope
components on the thermal performance of
naturally-ventilated houses
Enedir GHISI, Ana Gabriela S.A. CARDOSO
Federal University of Santa Catarina, Department of Civil Engineering, Laboratory of Energy Efficiency in
Buildings, Florianpolis-SC, 88040-900, Brazil
ABSTRACT: The objective of this article is to assess the influence of thermal properties of the envelope
components on the thermal performance of naturally-ventilated houses in Brazil. Twenty-nine rooms in five
houses located in Itaber, southeastern Brazil, were selected for measurements. Internal air temperatures were
measured over 41 days, from 26 December 2005 to 4 February 2006, in the 29 rooms. External air temperature
was measured outside one of the houses. HOBO data loggers were used to measure the air temperature.
Thermal properties such as thermal transmittance, thermal capacity, thermal time lag, and solar factor were
estimated for each envelope component. The absorptance of the external surfaces was measured by using a
reflectance spectrometer. The assessment was performed by correlating average of minimum, mean and
maximum air temperatures with the thermal properties. The main conclusion is that increasing thermal time lag
and therefore thermal capacity, and decreasing absorptance, thermal transmittance and solar factor of the
envelope components helps to improve the thermal performance of naturally-ventilated houses under the
climatic conditions of Itaber.
Keywords: thermal performance, thermal properties, naturally-ventilated houses, Brazil
1. INTRODUCTION
Thermal performance of buildings has been a
matter of concern in many countries. It is well-known
that the better the thermal performance of a building
the better the thermal comfort of users and the lower
the energy consumption to keep comfort temperature
levels. Thus, thermal performance of buildings have
been studied in India [1], [2], in Brazil [3], [4], [5], [6],
in Israel [7], in Zambia [8], in Japan [9], in Canada
[10] and many other countries. Thermal performance
of vernacular [11], [12], [13] and historical buildings
[14] has also been studied. There have also been
some more specific studies, such as the effect of
passive cooling on indoor air temperature [15], [16],
the importance of roof [17], [18], of colour of the
external surfaces [18], [19], of inertia of external
walls [20] on the thermal performance of buildings,
as well as mathematical modelling for predicting the
performance of roofs in the warm humid tropics [21].
The effect of natural ventilation on the thermal
performance of buildings has also been studied in
different countries [22], [23], [24], [25], [26], [27].
Thus, this study contributes to improving the
knowledge about thermal performance of buildings
by assessing the influence of thermal properties of
envelope components on the thermal performance of
naturally-ventilated and occupied houses in Brazil.
2. OBJECTIVE
The main objective of this paper is to assess the
influence of thermal properties of envelope
components on the thermal performance of naturally-
ventilated houses located in the city of Itaber,
southeastern Brazil.
3. LOCATION AND AIR TEMPERATURE
Brazil is located between the latitudes 5
o
north
and 34
o
south. Fig. 1 shows the map of Brazil with
location of Itaber. Fig. 2 presents the average air
temperature variation along the year for ten cities in
Brazil. It can be observed that there is a great
variation in temperature according to the location of
the city. Recife, for example, has average
temperatures ranging from 24.1 to 27.3
o
C over the
year and Curitiba, from 12.6 to 20.2
o
C. The cities of
Natal, Recife, Macei and Salvador present annual
amplitudes ranging from 3.1 to 3.4
o
C indicating little
difference between summer and winter. For the other
five cities, the annual amplitude ranges from 4.3 to
7.6
o
C. The annual amplitude for the city of Itaber is
7.2
o
C.
4. METHODOLOGY
4.1. The houses
The research was performed in five houses
located in the city of Itaber, state of So Paulo.
Houses 1-4 are very close to each other and house 5
is 2.7km away from house 1.
Amongst all houses, 29 rooms were selected for
analysis. Construction details for the rooms selected
for monitoring were obtained by performing some
measurements and by asking the owners. This was
done in January 2006. The dimensions of all rooms,
as well as wall thickness and ventilation area were
measured on site. Types of walls and roofs were
informed by the owners so that their thermal
properties could be estimated.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
674 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
Figure 1: Map of Brazil with location of Itaber.
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
26
28
J
a
n
F
e
b
M
a
r
A
p
r
M
a
y
J
u
n
J
u
l
A
u
g
S
e
p
O
c
t
N
o
v
D
e
c
Month
A
i
r

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(
o
C
)
Natal Recif e Macei
Salv ador Braslia Vitria
Rio de Janeiro So Paulo Curitiba
Itaber

Figure 2: Average air temperature for ten cities in Brazil.

The solar orientation of the houses was obtained
on the 27 December 2005 by using a compass.
Magnetic north was converted to true north by using
the Magnetic Declination computer programme. Input
data for this programme were latitude (235143
south) and longitude (490814 west) for Itaber,
and the date the solar orientation was obtained. Thus
the angle to convert from magnetic to true north was
182851.
4.2. The monitoring period
Air temperature was measured over 41 days,
from 26 December 2005 to 4 February 2006. All
houses were occupied by their dwellers over this
period.
4.3. Equipment
Air temperature was registered simultaneously in
the 29 rooms and outside house 2. Such data were
registered by HOBO portable data loggers. The data
loggers were programmed by using the computer
programme Boxcar Pro 4-Onset. The same
programme was used to download the data to a
computer. The data were registered every fifteen
minutes over the 41-day period.
Each data logger was installed in the centre of
each room at 1.70m from floor level. The data
loggers were attached to a nylon thread that was
stuck on the ceiling. The data logger placed outside
house 2 was protected from solar radiation and rain.
In order to avoid errors due to different response
from each data logger, they were calibrated. All data
loggers were programmed to register air temperature
every fifteen minutes over a 24-hour period and were
placed in a polystyrene box for 24 hours. The data
were downloaded into a computer and average
figures were calculated. Results from one data
logger were taken as reference figures and eventual
discrepancies for the other data loggers were then
considered when processing the data obtained
during the monitoring.
4.4. Absorptance and reflectance of external
surfaces
The reflectance of external surfaces were
measured by using an ALTA II Reflectance
Spectrometer. In order to obtain reflectances by
using this equipment, measurements have to be
obtained both directly from the surface and by
covering the surface with white paper. The
reflectance considered for the white paper was 90%
and the reflectance of the surface can be obtained by
using Eq. (1).
= (E
c
. 90)/E
p
Eq. (1)
where is the reflectance of the surface (%), E
c
is
the illuminance reflected by the surface (lux), E
p
is
the illuminance reflected by the white paper (lux),
and 90 is the reflectance assumed for the white
paper (%).
This method was applied on site and eleven sets
of measurements were performed for each surface.
The reflectance of each surface was obtained by
calculating an average for the eleven values. The
absorptances were then calculated by using Eq. (2).
= 100 - Eq. (2)
where is the absorptance of the surface (%), and
is the reflectance of the surface (%).
4.5. Thermal properties of envelope components
Thermal transmittance (U-value), thermal
capacity, thermal time lag and solar factor of all
envelope components were estimated following the
procedure presented by the Brazilian standard NBR
15220-2 [28]. As all rooms have different roof, wall
and window areas, weighted averages were
performed in order to obtain an average
absorptance, thermal transmittance, thermal
capacity, thermal time lag and solar factor for each
room.
4.6. Data analysis
Data were analysed by verifying the correlation
between temperature and thermal properties of the
envelope components. Six possibilities for
temperatures were considered, that is:
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 675
Average of minimum daily internal temperature
for each room;
Average of mean daily internal temperature for
each room;
Average of maximum daily internal temperature
for each room;
Average of daily difference between minimum
external and minimum internal temperatures for each
room;
Average of daily difference between mean
external and mean internal temperatures for each
room;
Average of daily difference between maximum
external and maximum internal temperatures for
each room.
Each of these six temperature cases were
correlated to five variables as shown below:
(1) Absorptance of external surfaces;
(2) Thermal transmittance;
(3) Thermal capacity;
(4) Thermal time lag;
(5) Solar factor.
Solar factor for walls, roofs, doors and windows
with venetian blinds was estimated by using Eq. (3).
For windows composed of single glass panes, their
solar factor was obtained from the literature.
FS
o
= 100.U..R
se
Eq. (3)
where FS
o
is the solar factor of opaque components
(%), U is the thermal transmittance of the component
(W/m.K), is the absorptance of the external
surface of the component (non-dimensional), R
se
is
the thermal resistance of the external surface of the
component (m.K/W).
5. RESULTS
This section presents the results obtained and
also the correlations performed to assess the
influence of thermal properties of envelope
components on the thermal performance of houses
located in the city of Itaber. Table 1 shows the
weighted average for the thermal properties of the
components for the monitored rooms.

5.1. Measured air temperatures

Fig. 3 shows, as an example, daily maximum,
average and minimum air temperatures for the six
rooms in house 3 as well as the outside temperature.
It can be observed that external air temperatures
ranged from about 17-32
o
C over the period. As for
the internal air temperatures, they ranged from 21-
33
o
C. In general, maximum internal air temperatures
were lower than outside temperatures in most rooms.
As for the average and minimum internal
temperatures, they were higher than the external
temperatures all over the period.
It can also be noticed that over hot days,
although the external air temperature drops to about
21-23
o
C, internal air temperature ranges from 25-
28
o
C. This indicates the influence of the thermal
capacity and thermal time lag of the envelope
components on the internal air temperatures.
Average of daily internal temperatures and
average of daily differences between external and
internal temperatures for each room are shown in
Table 2. Such temperatures were correlated with
thermal properties of the envelope of the houses. It
can be seen that mean temperatures ranged from
25.31
o
C (in house 3) to 27.40
o
C (in house 3). By
analysing the average of daily differences between
external and internal temperatures, it can be noticed
that all rooms in house 3 and some rooms in houses
2 and 4 have maximum internal temperatures lower
than the external ones (positive figures).

Table 1: Weighted average for the thermal properties of the

components for the monitored rooms.
House Room
Abs.
(%)
TT
(W/m.K)
TC
(kJ/m.K)
TTL
(hours)
SF
(%)
Living 44 2.79 161 2.76 4.63
Dining 50 2.62 130 2.45 5.08
Bedroom 1 43 2.82 165 2.80 4.68
1
Bedroom 3 50 2.61 129 2.43 5.38
Living 48 1.84 157 4.35 3.34
Bedroom 1 45 1.54 130 4.77 2.65
Bedroom 3 42 1.73 137 4.52 2.74
Bedroom 2 41 1.74 138 4.51 2.74
TV room 1 45 1.69 146 4.42 2.66
Office 41 1.76 139 4.47 2.63
2
TV room 2 49 2.13 77 2.09 3.84
Living 51 2.01 136 3.83 3.75
TV room 39 1.49 128 3.76 3.01
Bedroom 1 34 1.69 136 3.83 2.79
Bedroom 2 35 1.68 135 3.83 2.81
Bedroom 3 40 1.46 127 3.75 3.19
3
Living 2 24 2.10 152 4.00 1.91
TV 1 28 2.10 152 4.00 2.27
Living 40 2.14 168 3.99 3.35
Bedroom 1 38 2.05 144 3.86 3.06
Bedroom 2 37 2.01 132 3.80 3.57
TV room 2 38 2.00 131 3.79 3.45
4
Bedroom 3 35 2.03 136 3.84 3.09
Bedroom 3 59 2.17 112 2.72 5.10
Bedroom 2 64 2.14 98 2.46 5.56
Bedroom 1 56 2.16 150 3.67 4.93
Living 63 2.14 100 2.49 4.75
Bedroom 4 84 2.00 32 1.30 6.70
5
Dining 59 2.14 146 3.66 4.74
Note: Abs stands for absorptance, TT stands for thermal
transmittance, TC for thermal capacity, TTL for thermal time
lag, and SF for solar factor.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
676 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
17
21
25
29
33
2
6
/
1
2
/
0
5
2
8
/
1
2
/
0
5
3
0
/
1
2
/
0
5
1
/
1
/
0
6
3
/
1
/
0
6
5
/
1
/
0
6
7
/
1
/
0
6
9
/
1
/
0
6
1
1
/
1
/
0
6
1
3
/
1
/
0
6
1
5
/
1
/
0
6
1
7
/
1
/
0
6
1
9
/
1
/
0
6
2
1
/
1
/
0
6
2
3
/
1
/
0
6
2
5
/
1
/
0
6
2
7
/
1
/
0
6
2
9
/
1
/
0
6
3
1
/
1
/
0
6
2
/
2
/
0
6
4
/
2
/
0
6
Date (day/month/year)
A
ir

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(
o
C
)
Living
TV room
Bedroom1
Bedroom2
Bedroom3
Living 2
Outside
(a) Daily maximum
17
21
25
29
33
2
6
/
1
2
/
0
5
2
8
/
1
2
/
0
5
3
0
/
1
2
/
0
5
1
/
1
/
0
6
3
/
1
/
0
6
5
/
1
/
0
6
7
/
1
/
0
6
9
/
1
/
0
6
1
1
/
1
/
0
6
1
3
/
1
/
0
6
1
5
/
1
/
0
6
1
7
/
1
/
0
6
1
9
/
1
/
0
6
2
1
/
1
/
0
6
2
3
/
1
/
0
6
2
5
/
1
/
0
6
2
7
/
1
/
0
6
2
9
/
1
/
0
6
3
1
/
1
/
0
6
2
/
2
/
0
6
4
/
2
/
0
6
Date (day/month/year)
A
ir

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(
o
C
)
Living
TV room
Bedroom1
Bedroom2
Bedroom3
Living 2
Outside
(b) Daily average
17
21
25
29
33
2
6
/
1
2
/
0
5
2
8
/
1
2
/
0
5
3
0
/
1
2
/
0
5
1
/
1
/
0
6
3
/
1
/
0
6
5
/
1
/
0
6
7
/
1
/
0
6
9
/
1
/
0
6
1
1
/
1
/
0
6
1
3
/
1
/
0
6
1
5
/
1
/
0
6
1
7
/
1
/
0
6
1
9
/
1
/
0
6
2
1
/
1
/
0
6
2
3
/
1
/
0
6
2
5
/
1
/
0
6
2
7
/
1
/
0
6
2
9
/
1
/
0
6
3
1
/
1
/
0
6
2
/
2
/
0
6
4
/
2
/
0
6
Date (day/month/year)
A
ir

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(
o
C
)
Living
TV room
Bedroom1
Bedroom2
Bedroom3
Living 2
Outside
(c) Daily minimum
Figure 3: Daily air temperatures in house 3.
5.2. Correlations between thermal properties
and average internal air temperature
Figures 4-8 show the correlation between
maximum average internal air temperature and some
properties for the five houses. Correlations are weak
as the coefficient of determination (R
2
) ranges from
0.0530 to 0.5046. From Figures 4-8, it can be
observed that correlations with solar factor are
stronger, which indicates that maximum internal air
temperatures are dependent on solar factor. The
second best correlation is due to thermal time lag,
and the third, to thermal transmittance.
As solar factor and thermal transmittance
increase, internal air temperatures also increase,
which may cause thermal discomfort over summer.
Thus the thermal performance of such houses, and
as a consequence the thermal comfort of their
occupants, would improve by decreasing solar factor
and thermal transmittance and increasing thermal
time lag.

5.3. Summary of results
Table 3 shows the coefficient of determination for
all correlations. By analysing these coefficients it is
possible to identify the strategies that can be more
appropriate to improve the thermal performance of
the houses.

Table 2: Average air temperatures obtained for each room.

Average daily
internal
temperature (C)
Average daily
difference between
external and internal
temperatures (C)
HouseRoom
Min Mean Max Min Mean Max
Living 24.20 26.35 28.58 -3.08 -1.85 -0.09
Dining 24.09 26.48 29.32 -2.98 -1.99 -0.83
Bedroom 1 23.87 26.43 29.28 -2.76 -1.94 -0.79
1
Bedroom 3 24.49 26.74 29.91 -3.37 -2.24 -1.43
Living 24.49 25.78 27.17 -3.38 -1.28 1.32
Bedroom 1 25.45 26.57 27.94 -4.33 -2.07 0.54
Bedroom 25.14 26.44 27.80 -4.02 -1.94 0.69
Bedroom 2 24.60 26.01 27.48 -3.48 -1.51 1.01
TV room 1 25.20 26.59 27.87 -4.09 -2.10 0.62
Office 25.44 27.02 28.70 -4.32 -2.52 -0.22
2
TV room 2 24.00 26.22 29.12 -2.88 -1.72 -0.63
Living 24.33 26.06 27.79 -3.22 -1.56 0.69
TV room 24.97 26.47 27.81 -3.86 -1.97 0.68
Bedroom 1 24.12 26.11 28.17 -3.00 -1.61 0.32
Bedroom 2 24.26 26.01 27.76 -3.14 -1.52 0.73
Bedroom 3 24.61 26.11 27.65 -3.49 -1.61 0.84
3
Living 2 24.03 25.31 26.97 -2.92 -0.81 1.52
TV 1 23.67 25.75 28.27 -2.55 -1.25 0.21
Living 24.35 26.11 28.09 -3.23 -1.61 0.39
Bedroom 1 24.09 26.19 28.62 -2.98 -1.69 -0.13
Bedroom 2 24.92 26.26 27.63 -3.81 -1.76 0.86
TV room 2 24.34 26.28 29.14 -3.22 -1.78 -0.65
4
Bedroom 24.13 26.39 28.80 -2.92 -1.78 -0.18
Bedroom 3 23.64 26.62 29.63 -2.52 -2.12 -1.14
Bedroom 2 24.06 26.73 29.38 -2.95 -2.24 -0.90
Bedroom 1 23.82 26.80 29.98 -2.71 -2.31 -1.49
Living 25.22 27.11 29.29 -4.07 -2.61 -0.80
Bedroom 4 25.68 27.15 28.70 -4.63 -2.66 -0.21
5
Dining 24.81 27.40 30.17 -3.69 -2.90 -1.68
Note: Negative figures indicate that internal air temperature
in the room is higher than the external air temperature.
y = 0.0387x + 26.751
R
2
= 0.2856
26
27
28
29
30
31
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Absorptance (%)
A
i
r

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(

C
)
Figure 4: Correlation between maximum average internal
temperature and absorptance.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 677
y = 1.4391x + 25.602
R
2
= 0.3330
26
27
28
29
30
31
1 2
Thermal transmittance (W/m.K)
A
i
r

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(

C
)
3
Figure 5: Correlation between maximum average internal
temperature and thermal transmittance.
y = -0.0073x + 29.479
R
2
= 0.0530
26
27
28
29
30
31
20 70 120 170
Thermal capacity (KJ/m.K)
A
i
r

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(

C
)
Figure 6: Correlation between maximum average internal
temperature and thermal capacity.
y = -0.5964x + 30.619
R
2
= 0.3406
26
27
28
29
30
31
1 2 3 4 5
Thermal time lag (hours)
A
i
r

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(

C
)
Figure 7: Correlation between maximum average internal
temperature and thermal time lag.
y = 0.5312x + 26.533
R
2
= 0.5046
26
27
28
29
30
31
1 3 5 7
Solar factor (%)
A
i
r

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(

C
)
Figure 8: Correlation between maximum average internal
temperature and solar factor.
In order to increase minimum air temperature in
the rooms, the thermal transmittance of the envelope
components should be reduced. On the other hand,
absorptance and solar factor should be reduced in
order to decrease mean air temperature.
Over the summer, the thermal performance of the
houses can be improved by reducing absorptance of
external surfaces, solar factor and thermal
transmittance of external components, and
increasing thermal time lag.
Therefore, the strategies more adequate to
improve the thermal performance of the houses
along the year are to decrease solar factor by
decreasing absorptance and/or thermal
transmittance of the envelope components, and
increase thermal time lag.

Table 3: Coefficients of determination (R
2
) obtained from
the correlations.
R
2
for
correlations with
average daily
internal
temperature
R
2
for correlations
with average daily
difference between
external and
internal
temperatures
Properties
Min Mean Max Min Mean Max
Thermal transmittance 0.22 0.02 0.33 0.21 0.02 0.33
Thermal capacity 0.11 0.17 0.05 0.11 0.17 0.05
Thermal time lag 0.02 0.16 0.34 0.02 0.16 0.34
Absorptance 0.09 0.54 0.29 0.10 0.55 0.29
Solar factor 0.00 0.41 0.50 0.00 0.41 0.51
Equations for the best-fit straight lines were
obtained from correlations with average minimum,
mean and maximum daily internal temperatures.
From such equations, the internal temperature
differences for the range of thermal properties
observed on site could be estimated as shown in
Table 4. For example, by reducing the solar factor
from 6.70% to 1.91% (maximum and minimum solar
factors observed on site), the maximum air
temperature in the rooms would be reduced in
2.54
o
C. Therefore, an easy solution to improve the
thermal performance of such houses would be the
reduction of the solar factor by painting the external
surfaces with low absorptance colours.

Table 4: Internal temperature range obtained by using the

interval value of thermal properties observed on site.
Internal temperature
range (
o
C) Properties
Interval observed
on site
MinimumMean Maximum
Thermal
transmittance
1.46-2.82 W/m
2
K 1.01 0.24 1.96
Thermal
capacity
32-168 kJ/m
2
K 0.90 0.92 0.99
Thermal time
lag
1.30-4.77 hours 0.34 0.72 2.07
Absorptance 24-84% 0.84 1.65 2.32
Solar factor 1.91-6.70% 0.06 1.18 2.54
6. CONCLUSIONS
The following are the major findings from the
analysis shown herein:
(1) The methodology presented can be applied to
evaluate the influence of the thermal properties of
the envelope components on the thermal
performance of houses.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
678 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
(2) The influence of the thermal properties of the
envelope components on the internal air
temperatures is not very strong (the highest
coefficient of determination obtained from the
analysis was 0.55).
(3) Although the correlations were weak, it was
observed that maximum and mean air temperatures
could be reduced by decreasing solar factor and
increasing thermal time lag of the envelope
components. The solar factor can be reduced by
reducing absorptance of the external surface and/or
the thermal transmittance of the component. And
minimum air temperatures could be increased by
reducing thermal transmittance.
(4) Absorptance and thermal transmittance
together, i.e., solar factor, affect the maximum air
temperature in the rooms more than each one
separately.
(5) An easy way of improving the thermal
performance of the five houses, or any other house
in Itaber or under similar climatic conditions, would
be the painting of the external surfaces of the
envelope components with low absorptance colours.
Finally, it is important to mention that correlations
between temperature and parameters other than
thermal properties were investigated. Some of these
parameters were solar orientation, ventilation area,
faade area, and roof area. All correlations were
weak and not presented herein due to limitation of
space.
7. REFERENCES
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embodied energy analysis of a passive house Case
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[2] R.K. Jha, G.N. Tiwari, H.P. Garg and Z.H. Zaidi Thermal
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[3] G. Grigoletti, M.A. Sattler and A. Morello, Analysis of the
thermal behaviour of a low cost, single-family, more
sustainable house in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Energy and
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[4] E. Ghisi and R.F. Massignani, Thermal performance of
bedrooms in a multi-storey residential building in southern
Brazil, Building and Environment 42(2) (2007), pp. 730-
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[5] E.L. Krger and P.H.T. Zannin, Acoustic and thermal field
investigation of low-cost dwellings, a case study in Brazil,
Applied Acoustics 68(10) (2007), pp. 1213-1223.
[6] E. Krger and B. Givoni, Predicting thermal performance
in occupied dwellings, Energy and Buildings 36(3) (2004),
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[7] E. Krger and B. Givoni, Thermal monitoring and indoor
temperature predictions in a passive solar building in an
arid environment, Building and Environment 43(11)
(2008), pp. 1792-1804.
[8] S. Sharples and A. Malama, Thermal performance of
traditional housing in the cool season in Zambia,
Renewable Energy 8(1-4) (1996), pp. 190-193.
[9] H. Yoshino, S. Matsumoto, M. Nagatomo and T.
Sakanishi, Five-year measurements of thermal
performance for a semi-underground test house,
Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 7(4)
(1992), pp. 339-346.
[10] R.W. Besant, R.S. Dumont and G. Schoenau, The
Saskatchewan conservation house: Some preliminary
performance results, Energy and Buildings 2(2) (1979),
pp. 163-174.
[11] M.K. Singh, S. Mahapatra and S.K. Atreya, Thermal
performance study and evaluation of comfort temperatures
in vernacular buildings of North-East India, Building and
Environment 45(2) (2010), pp. 320-329.
[12] L. Borong, T. Gang, W. Peng, S. Ling, Z. Yingxin and Z.
Guangkui, Study on the thermal performance of the
Chinese traditional vernacular dwellings in Summer,
Energy and Buildings 36(1) (2004), pp. 73-79.
[13] M.M. Eftekhari, Comparative thermal performance of new
and old houses, Energy and Buildings 25(1) (1997), pp.
69-73.
[14] R. Cantin, J. Burgholzer, G. Guarracino, B. Moujalled, S.
Tamelikecht and B.G. Royet, Field assessment of thermal
behaviour of historical dwellings in France, Building and
Environment 45(2) (2010), pp. 473-484.
[15] B. Givoni, Indoor temperature reduction by passive cooling
systems, Solar Energy, In Press, Corrected Proof,
Available online 4 November 2009.
[16] R. Tenorio, Dual mode cooling house in the warm humid
tropics, Solar Energy 73(1) (2002), pp. 43-57.
[17] S.A. Al-Sanea, Thermal performance of building roof
elements, Building and Environment 37(7) (2002), pp.
665-675.
[18] M.T.R. Jayasinghe, R.A. Attalage and A.I. Jayawardena,
Roof orientation, roofing materials and roof surface colour:
their influence on indoor thermal comfort in warm humid
climates, Energy for Sustainable Development 7(1)
(2003), pp. 16-27.
[19] N.K. Bansal, S.N. Garg and S. Kothari, Effect of exterior
surface colour on the thermal performance of buildings,
Building and Environment 27(1) (1992), pp. 31-37.
[20] N. Aste, A. Angelotti and M. Buzzetti, The influence of the
external walls thermal inertia on the energy performance
of well insulated buildings, Energy and Buildings 41(11)
(2009), pp. 1181-1187.
[21] C. Kabre, A new thermal performance index for dwelling
roofs in the warm humid tropics, Building and Environment
45(3) (2010), pp. 727-738.
[22] N.A. Al-Hemiddi and K.A.M. Al-Saud, The effect of a
ventilated interior courtyard on the thermal performance of
a house in a hotarid region, Renewable Energy 24(3-4)
(2001), pp. 581-595.
[23] C. Simonson, Energy consumption and ventilation
performance of a naturally ventilated ecological house in a
cold climate, Energy and Buildings 37(1) (2005), pp. 23-
35.
[24] G. Makaka, E.L. Meyer and M. McPherson, Thermal
behaviour and ventilation efficiency of a low-cost passive
solar energy efficient house, Renewable Energy 33(9)
(2008), pp. 1959-1973.
[25] M.-H. Kim and J.-H. Hwang, Performance prediction of a
hybrid ventilation system in an apartment house, Energy
and Buildings 41(6) (2009), pp. 579-586.
[26] T.J. Kim and J.S. Park, Natural ventilation with traditional
Korean opening in contemporary house, Building and
Environment 45(1) (2010), pp. 51-57.
[27] R. Tang, I.A. Meir and T. Wu, Thermal performance of non
air-conditioned buildings with vaulted roofs in comparison
with flat roofs, Building and Environment 41(3) (2006), pp.
268-276.
[28] ABNT (Associao Brasileira de Normas Tcnicas). NBR
15220-2, Desempenho Trmico de Edificaes - Parte 2:
Mtodos de Clculo da Transmitncia Trmica, da
Capacidade Trmica, do Atraso Trmico e do Fator Solar
de Elementos e Componentes de Edificaes [Thermal
performance of buildings Part 2: Method to calculate
thermal transmittance, thermal capacity, thermal time lag
and solar factor of elements and components of buildings],
Rio de Janeiro-RJ, 2005 (in Portuguese).
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 679
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
Effect of two exterior louver systems on solar
transmittance and indoor thermal conditions:
Experiment and simulations
Abel TABLADA DE LA TORRE
1,2
, Dirk SAELENS
1
, Staf ROELS
1

1
Division of Building Physics, Department of Civil Engineering, K.U.Leuven, Belgium
2
Department of Research, Direction of Architecture and Urbanism, Office of Havanas Historian, Cuba
ABSTRACT: The main objective of this study is to compare measured and predicted transmitted solar radiation
through a double-glass window with exterior louver systems and the resulting indoor thermal conditions. A
vertical and horizontal louver system (both with movable horizontal slats with an elliptical section) were installed
at the exterior facade of two well insulated boxes. The exterior global and the transmitted solar radiation and the
indoor air temperatures at different locations have been measured in the test set-up and are compared with
dynamic simulations by solving the energy balances with a Building Energy Simulation program (EnergyPlus)
which includes an algorithm for exterior louvers. The comparison of the experiments and simulations show that
solar transmittance is better predicted for horizontal than for vertical louver system. In the case of the vertical
system, solar transmittance through slats with an inclination of 45 was better predicted than through open slats.
The vertical louver system provides more efficient solar protection than the horizontal louver system. The
average deviation between the predicted and measured indoor temperatures was less than 1 K.
Keywords: shading devices, solar transmittance, solar radiation, measurements, building energy simulation.
1. INTRODUCTION
Exterior shading devices can reduce solar gains
inside buildings. Due to the variation of solar position
along the year and during the day, the use of
movable exterior louvers instead of fixed shading
devices can imply an advantage in terms of energy
savings and user thermal and daylight comfort.
The exact prediction of Total Solar Energy
Transmittance (TSET: sum of the short-ware
transmittance and the secondary heat flux due to the
heating of the shading and glazing systems) through
louver systems is very complicated and most of the
time, simplified. Common simplifications in the
calculation of TSET are the assumption of slats as
flat or without thickness. Also, specular and diffuse
reflections are limited and the effect of the secondary
heat flux from the louver system towards the glazing
facade is often neglected.
Experiments on glazing facades with exterior
blinds have been performed both at laboratory test
facilities [1] and on actual facades in outdoor test [2]
in order to obtain TSET values and to validate
analytical and numerical models. However, apart
from the different slat-shape used on these
experiments (blinds vs. elliptical louver in this study),
no comparison was made between different shading
systems, e.g. vertical vs. horizontal systems. In order
to measure and predict short-wave radiation and the
secondary heat gain on facades with exterior
louvers, laboratory experiments and Computational
Fluid Dynamics simulations [3] have been performed
as part of a larger research. In addition, simulations
have been performed using two Building Energy
Simulation (BES) programs in order to propose
passive design strategies on an apartment block
using exterior louvers [4].
Incorporating the response to actual and
fluctuating weather conditions is a prerequisite for a
complete evaluation of thermal conditions inside
actual buildings. Therefore, a test set-up with two
separated insulated boxes inside the Vliet-test
building was constructed having a glass facade
oriented towards the south-west. Measurements
were performed first without shading devices and
then with exterior louver systems during two periods
with a duration of three weeks each.
In this paper, the measured transmitted global
solar radiation (short-wave transmittance) and the
resulting indoor thermal conditions reported in [5] are
compared against dynamic simulations by solving
the energy balances with a BES program
(EnergyPlus).
2. METHODS
2.1. Experimental set-up
Two shading systems are installed at the exterior
of two well insulated boxes which have a double-
glass window of 1.2 x 1.2 m
2
(see fig. 1 and 2). A
vertical and horizontal louver system (both with
movable horizontal slats) were installed on box 1 and
box 2 respectively after measuring several
parameters without the shading devices. The boxes
were constructed inside a test building at the
Campus Arenberg of the Katholieke Universiteit
Leuven in Belgium (50.9 N, 4.7 E).
Table 1 gives an overview of the construction of
the boxes. The walls are made up of strongly
insulating sandwich panels with 16 cm XPS and
plywood on both sides. The windows are highly
insulated due to an argon filling and a low-emissivity
foil inside the cavity. The plywood surfaces inside the
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
680 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 3
in table 2 for the exterior clear and interior low
emissivity glass. These original values were adapted
as input at BES in order to take into account glass
dirtiness and dust accumulation. Separated
measurements at different positions and glass
dirtiness were performed on both boxes to get
approximated values of , first without shading
systems, and then, after the installation of the vertical
and horizontal louver system. In box 1, the reduction
of solar transmittance is higher than in box 2 due to
the vertical louver system which enhances more dust
accumulation over the glass surface than in box 2
with the horizontal louver system. The interior glass
pane dirtiness is also considered.
Table 2: Solar transmittance fraction () measured at a
laboratory and input values at BES for each box considering
dirtiness/dust on the glazing surfaces.

ext. clear
glass (-)
int. low-e
glass (-)
Measured at Lab 0.8 0.598
BES No shading 0.79 0.585
BES - Box1 (vert) 0.72 0.585
BES - Box2 (horiz) 0.75 0.585

2.2. Building Energy Simulation program
The Building Energy Simulation (BES) program
used to solve the energy balances is EnergyPlus [7].
The program uses an algorithm to calculate vertical
systems of louvers and blinds. The geometry of the
louvers (flat only) and separation from the facade are
inputs. It also takes into account heat and mass
transfer from the slats to the glass facade. The
program uses a simplified raytracing method to
calculate direct and diffuse beam reflections between
the slats and towards the glazing but only a single
value of reflection coefficient can be given for diffuse
and specular reflection. In addition, the sky is
considered isotropic when shadings are present. On
the other hand, for the horizontal system the program
does not have such an algorithm, thus each slat is
considered as an independent shading object with no
heat emission. For external shading the program
calculates direct and diffuse radiation passing
through the slats. The coordinates of each slat at
open and inclined position are therefore inserted.
2.3. Weather data
Hourly data from the station outside the test
building are used as a weather file. These include,
air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and
direction, and global radiation on a horizontal
surface. The values of direct beam and diffuse
radiation are also needed in the BES program but
they where not measured on the site. Therefore, this
data was partially provided by the Belgian Building
Research Institute (BBRI) which is in the outskirts of
Brussels. At BBRI only the global (Rgl) and diffuse
(Rdiff) radiation on a horizontal surface is measured,
but with this data the value of the direct radiation
(Rdir) can be calculated as shown below. Subscripts
b represents values from BBRI and v from the VLIET
test building.

Rdir_b = Rgl_b - Rdiff_b

With a ratio (r) of Rdir_b with respect to Rgl_b at
the BBRI site the Rdir_v at VLIET building is
calculated from Rgl_v. Then, the diffuse radiation is
obtained from the subtraction of Rdir_v from Rgl_v.
The procedure is shown below:

r = Rdir_b / Rgl_b
Rdir_v = r * Rgl_v
Rdiff_v = Rgl_v - Rdir_v

EnergyPlus uses the value of beam radiation
(Rbeam) instead of Rdir on a horizontal surface.
Therefore, according to the sun altitude we obtain
Rbeam as follows:

Rbeam_v = Rdir_v / cos () = sun altitude

The measured value of Rgl_v, together with the
calculated Rbeam_v and Rdiff_v are used in the
EnergyPlus weather file. This method proved to be
more accurate for validation purposes than other
conversion methods using the global radiation, air
temperature and relative humidity as input.
3. RESULTS
3.1. Measured solar transmittance
First we describe the measured transmitted
global radiation inside each box and the measured
incident global radiation on the facade oriented
southwest for two sunny days representing each
measurement period. These are plotted in figure 3
and 4. For the first period with the stats open, on box
1 (vertical louver system) the solar transmittance is
mainly the result of diffuse radiation. Only in the
afternoon direct sunrays penetrate twice in between
the slats. On box 2 (horizontal louver system), there
are intermittent direct sunrays at noon when the sun
is at high position and the slats are on vertical (open)
position which produce a thin shade. Then, in the
afternoon, with the sun at lower positions, the
horizontal louver system acts as an opaque
overhang.


Figure 3: Incident and transmitted radiation on a sunny day
in August corresponding to period 1 of measurements with
the slats in open position.
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
7
:
0
0
8
:
0
0
9
:
0
0
1
0
:
0
0
1
1
:
0
0
1
2
:
0
0
1
3
:
0
0
1
4
:
0
0
1
5
:
0
0
1
6
:
0
0
1
7
:
0
0
1
8
:
0
0
31 Aug. Slats open
W
/
m
2
Box 1 Box 2 Reference
direct
through
slats
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
2 xx.x SECTION NAME
boxes were painted in black to achieve the maximum
absorption of incident solar radiation.



Figure 1: Top: location of louver systems (open position) at
each box facing southwest at the test building, bottom:
interior of box 1 with slats at an inclination of 45 degrees.
Table 1: Wall properties.
Material name and position
Area
m
U
W/(mK)
Floor 1.24 0.276
Ceiling 1.24 0.211
Outer-side wall 1.72 0.33
Inner-side wall 1.72 0.317
Back wall 2.21 0.207
Outside panel above window 0.58 0.284

Figure 2 shows a section of box 2 with the
location of the measurement equipment inside and
outside the test set-up. The width, depth and height
equal to 1.23 x 1.0 x 1.67 m
3
respectively. Each box
and its corresponding louver system are equipped
with 48 thermocouples, 1 pyranometer and 1
anemometer. To eliminate radiative effects, the
thermocouples are shielded with aluminium tape.
Box 1 has identical geometry and instrument
position, but is equipped with a vertical shading
device. More details on the set-up description is
explained in [5].
The pyranometer inside each of the boxes is
placed on the central axis at 30cm from the bottom of
the window and separated 3 cm from the glass pane.
A third, reference, pyranometer is placed outside the
boxes on a vertical position at the same facade
facing south-west as can be seen in figure 1-top. The
pyranometers are able to measure the solar radiation
in the spectral band of 310 to 2800 nm with 2% of
daily uncertainty.
The transmitted solar radiation (vertical plane)
and interior air temperature during two periods were
analyzed by comparing measured and predicted
values by a BES program (EnergyPlus). Each period
had a duration of 20 days. During the first period
from August 21
st
till September 9
th
the slats were
completely opened, thus the slats on the vertical and
horizontal system are parallel and perpendicular
respectively with respect to the ground as can be
seen in figure 1-top. These positions will be further
referred as 'open' for both louver systems. During the
second period from September 23
rd
till October 12
th

both louver systems had the slats at 45 with respect
to the ground. In this position the upper side of the
slats is facing the sky and the exterior environment
as shown in figure 1-bottom.


Figure 2: Section of the set-up on Box 2 at the test building
(VLIET) with main dimensions and location of measurement
instruments. Width = 1.23m, depth = 1.0m.
The optical properties of the aluminium slats and
of each layer of the glass were obtained from
laboratory measurements [6]. The aluminium slats
have a high solar reflectance (67 %) from which 6 %
is specular. This feature, together with the curved
surface, has an important effect on the solar
radiation transmittance towards the interior. The
values of solar transmittance fraction () can be seen
Box 2
Box 1
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
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BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 681
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xx.x SECTION NAME 3
in table 2 for the exterior clear and interior low
emissivity glass. These original values were adapted
as input at BES in order to take into account glass
dirtiness and dust accumulation. Separated
measurements at different positions and glass
dirtiness were performed on both boxes to get
approximated values of , first without shading
systems, and then, after the installation of the vertical
and horizontal louver system. In box 1, the reduction
of solar transmittance is higher than in box 2 due to
the vertical louver system which enhances more dust
accumulation over the glass surface than in box 2
with the horizontal louver system. The interior glass
pane dirtiness is also considered.
Table 2: Solar transmittance fraction () measured at a
laboratory and input values at BES for each box considering
dirtiness/dust on the glazing surfaces.

ext. clear
glass (-)
int. low-e
glass (-)
Measured at Lab 0.8 0.598
BES No shading 0.79 0.585
BES - Box1 (vert) 0.72 0.585
BES - Box2 (horiz) 0.75 0.585

2.2. Building Energy Simulation program
The Building Energy Simulation (BES) program
used to solve the energy balances is EnergyPlus [7].
The program uses an algorithm to calculate vertical
systems of louvers and blinds. The geometry of the
louvers (flat only) and separation from the facade are
inputs. It also takes into account heat and mass
transfer from the slats to the glass facade. The
program uses a simplified raytracing method to
calculate direct and diffuse beam reflections between
the slats and towards the glazing but only a single
value of reflection coefficient can be given for diffuse
and specular reflection. In addition, the sky is
considered isotropic when shadings are present. On
the other hand, for the horizontal system the program
does not have such an algorithm, thus each slat is
considered as an independent shading object with no
heat emission. For external shading the program
calculates direct and diffuse radiation passing
through the slats. The coordinates of each slat at
open and inclined position are therefore inserted.
2.3. Weather data
Hourly data from the station outside the test
building are used as a weather file. These include,
air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and
direction, and global radiation on a horizontal
surface. The values of direct beam and diffuse
radiation are also needed in the BES program but
they where not measured on the site. Therefore, this
data was partially provided by the Belgian Building
Research Institute (BBRI) which is in the outskirts of
Brussels. At BBRI only the global (Rgl) and diffuse
(Rdiff) radiation on a horizontal surface is measured,
but with this data the value of the direct radiation
(Rdir) can be calculated as shown below. Subscripts
b represents values from BBRI and v from the VLIET
test building.

Rdir_b = Rgl_b - Rdiff_b

With a ratio (r) of Rdir_b with respect to Rgl_b at
the BBRI site the Rdir_v at VLIET building is
calculated from Rgl_v. Then, the diffuse radiation is
obtained from the subtraction of Rdir_v from Rgl_v.
The procedure is shown below:

r = Rdir_b / Rgl_b
Rdir_v = r * Rgl_v
Rdiff_v = Rgl_v - Rdir_v

EnergyPlus uses the value of beam radiation
(Rbeam) instead of Rdir on a horizontal surface.
Therefore, according to the sun altitude we obtain
Rbeam as follows:

Rbeam_v = Rdir_v / cos () = sun altitude

The measured value of Rgl_v, together with the
calculated Rbeam_v and Rdiff_v are used in the
EnergyPlus weather file. This method proved to be
more accurate for validation purposes than other
conversion methods using the global radiation, air
temperature and relative humidity as input.
3. RESULTS
3.1. Measured solar transmittance
First we describe the measured transmitted
global radiation inside each box and the measured
incident global radiation on the facade oriented
southwest for two sunny days representing each
measurement period. These are plotted in figure 3
and 4. For the first period with the stats open, on box
1 (vertical louver system) the solar transmittance is
mainly the result of diffuse radiation. Only in the
afternoon direct sunrays penetrate twice in between
the slats. On box 2 (horizontal louver system), there
are intermittent direct sunrays at noon when the sun
is at high position and the slats are on vertical (open)
position which produce a thin shade. Then, in the
afternoon, with the sun at lower positions, the
horizontal louver system acts as an opaque
overhang.


Figure 3: Incident and transmitted radiation on a sunny day
in August corresponding to period 1 of measurements with
the slats in open position.
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
7
:
0
0
8
:
0
0
9
:
0
0
1
0
:
0
0
1
1
:
0
0
1
2
:
0
0
1
3
:
0
0
1
4
:
0
0
1
5
:
0
0
1
6
:
0
0
1
7
:
0
0
1
8
:
0
0
31 Aug. Slats open
W
/
m
2
Box 1 Box 2 Reference
direct
through
slats
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For the second period with slats at 45 degrees,
there is no direct radiation inside box 1; therefore the
solar transmittance is only the result of diffuse and
reflected radiation. On box 2 the solar transmittance
is similar to the one on period 1, but due to the lower
position of the sun in the afternoon (27/Sept. instead
of 31/Aug), the direct transmittance is produced
earlier in comparison with the first period. At noon,
the slats at 45 do not allow any solar transmittance
as in the case with slats open. However, before noon
with sunrays almost parallel to the southwest facade,
there is still incident solar radiation at the lower and
left part of the window due to the limited lateral
extension of the horizontal system (0.44 m on each
side of the window).

0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
7
:
0
0
8
:
0
0
9
:
0
0
1
0
:
0
0
1
1
:
0
0
1
2
:
0
0
1
3
:
0
0
1
4
:
0
0
1
5
:
0
0
1
6
:
0
0
1
7
:
0
0
1
8
:
0
0
27 sept. Slats at 45
W
/
m
2
Box 1 Box 2 Reference

Figure 4: Incident and transmitted radiation on a sunny day
in September corresponding to period 2 of measurements
with the slats at an inclination of 45.
3.2. Measured vs. predicted solar transmittance
In order to compare both measured and predicted
solar transmittance the radiation values have to be
adjusted to represent the average transmitted
radiation per square meter. Since the pyranometer
measures global radiation at a single point, several
measurements were performed at different positions
behind the glass in order to obtain a correlation of
transmission values in function of height. From that
correlation a constant coefficient for each box was
obtained to be multiplied by the integral value
measured at 30 cm height from the bottom of the
glass. In Box 1 with exterior vertical louver system,
the coefficient was 1.03 due to the larger solar
transmittance on the top of the window. On box 2
with the horizontal louver system, the coefficient was
0.72 due to the gradually smaller solar transmittance
from the bottom to the top of the window. On the
other hand, in EnergyPlus, the outputs of total solar
transmittance (W) through the window were divided
by the area of the glass (1.25 m
2
) to obtain an
equivalent W/m
2
.
Before and after the installation of the shading
devices, the solar transmittance was determined.
Solar transmittance and thermal conditions were
practically the same on the two boxes. In that way,
differences on thermal conditions once the shading
was installed could be attributed to the type of louver
system. The same conditions were simulated and
then compared with the measured values. Figure 5
shows the average incident radiation on the facade
(reference) and transmitted radiation into each box
per day for the measuring campaign without shading
devices. As can be seen, the first source of error is
the calculated value of incident radiation on the
facade (2.8% lower than the measured one). In
addition, the predicted values of transmitted radiation
were also smaller than the measured ones with an
error of 7.3 % and 6.4 % for box 1 and 2
respectively.

Figure 5: Average incident on facade (reference) and
transmitted radiation on each box per day without shading
devices.

The results from the periods with shading are
summarised in figure 6. The bars indicate the
average per day of total transmitted radiation in KWh
per squared metre. The predictions of transmitted
radiation on box 2 with a horizontal louver system
were closer to the measured values than for box 1
with a vertical louver system. The deviations for box
1 were -12 % and +30 % for open and slats at 45
degrees respectively. However, the total difference is
higher on open slats (-70 Wh/m
2
.day) having larger
thermal impact than the case with slats at 45
degrees (+26 Wh/m
2
.day) where there is only diffuse
and reflected transmittance. For box 2 the deviations
were around +4 % and almost zero for open and
slats at 45 respectively. On box 2, there is a better
agreement on period 2 when the slats are at 45,
which means the horizontal louver system performs
similarly to a typical opaque overhang. For the open
slats the program predicts 26 Wh/m
2
.day less
transmitted radiation than the measured value.
Figure 7 compares the measured and calculated
transmitted percentage of solar radiation in relation
to the incident radiation on the facade. In that way
only the error due to the shading and glass
transmittance are considered and not the error (-2.8
%) due to the predicted radiation on the facade or
due to the calculated beam and diffuse radiation for
the weather file. In terms of the slat position, for box
1, EnergyPlus predicts a relatively closer value when
slats are open than with an inclination of 45 degrees.
For the case of slats at 45 degrees, the large
deviation shown in figure 6 is reduced. On the other
hand, on box 2, the differences with respect to the
measured values are smaller than the case with
vertical louver system. The relative transmittance
with respect to the incident radiation on the facade is
almost the same as the measured values.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
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BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 683
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xx.x SECTION NAME 5

Figure 6: Average transmitted solar radiation on each box
per day for open slats and with slats at 45

Figure 7: Percentage of transmitted solar radiation on each
box in relation to reference incident radiation on facade.
The reference values are from measurements and BES
respectively.
3.3. Measured temperatures
Temperatures are evaluated based on average
air temperatures inside each box. These averaged
temperatures are obtained from thermocouples at
the positions shown in figure 2. There is no direct
correlation between the measured temperatures and
the thermocouple positions. The standard deviation
between the measured temperatures at different
heights is 0.15 K and 0.1 K for box 1 and 2
respectively. EnergyPlus, on the other hand, gives a
single value for each thermal zone.
In figure 8 and 9, the hourly measured and
predicted air temperatures during four days are
plotted for the two periods for box 1 and 2
respectively. In table 3 the average air temperatures
over the whole period are shown for all cases.
For box 1 with a vertical louver system (fig. 8)
there is, in general, a good agreement when the slats
are open and the differences are not directly related
to a specific time of the day. When the slats have an
inclination of 45 degrees the predicted values are
somehow higher than the measured ones during the
daytime while during the night they are lower, above
all, after cloudy days. The average deviation is,
however, only +0.2 K.
For box 2 with a horizontal louver system (fig. 9)
the predicted temperatures are higher than the
measured ones, above all for the case with open
slats during the night. This produces an average
deviation of 0.8 K. With slats at an inclination of 45
degrees, there is a slightly better agreement between
measured and predicted air temperatures with an
average deviation of 0.7K.

Figure 8: Measured (Measur) and predicted (BES) average
air temperature on box 1 for the two periods (4 days). Only
the sequence of hours coincides between the two periods
but not the actual days.

Figure 9: Measured (Measur) and predicted (BES) average
air temperature on box 2 for the two periods (4 days). Only
the sequence of hours coincides between the two periods
but not the actual days.
Table 3: Measured (Measur) and predicted (BES) average
air temperature on box 1 (vertical louvers) and box 2
(horizontal louvers) for the two periods: open slats and slats
at 45 .

Measur
(C)
BES
(C)
T (K)
Error
(%)
Open B-1 27,3 27,1 -0.2 0.5
Open B-2 27,5 28,3 +0,8 2.9
45 B-1 14,5 14,7 +0,2 1.5
45 B-2 16,2 16,9 +0,7 4.1
4. DISCUSSION
Several reasons may have produced the
differences between the measured and predicted
values by the BES program. A source of error is the
different beam radiation implemented in the weather
file due to the lack of on-site measurements of direct
or diffuse radiation. However, applying this method -
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
4 xx.x SECTION NAME
For the second period with slats at 45 degrees,
there is no direct radiation inside box 1; therefore the
solar transmittance is only the result of diffuse and
reflected radiation. On box 2 the solar transmittance
is similar to the one on period 1, but due to the lower
position of the sun in the afternoon (27/Sept. instead
of 31/Aug), the direct transmittance is produced
earlier in comparison with the first period. At noon,
the slats at 45 do not allow any solar transmittance
as in the case with slats open. However, before noon
with sunrays almost parallel to the southwest facade,
there is still incident solar radiation at the lower and
left part of the window due to the limited lateral
extension of the horizontal system (0.44 m on each
side of the window).

0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
7
:
0
0
8
:
0
0
9
:
0
0
1
0
:
0
0
1
1
:
0
0
1
2
:
0
0
1
3
:
0
0
1
4
:
0
0
1
5
:
0
0
1
6
:
0
0
1
7
:
0
0
1
8
:
0
0
27 sept. Slats at 45
W
/
m
2
Box 1 Box 2 Reference

Figure 4: Incident and transmitted radiation on a sunny day
in September corresponding to period 2 of measurements
with the slats at an inclination of 45.
3.2. Measured vs. predicted solar transmittance
In order to compare both measured and predicted
solar transmittance the radiation values have to be
adjusted to represent the average transmitted
radiation per square meter. Since the pyranometer
measures global radiation at a single point, several
measurements were performed at different positions
behind the glass in order to obtain a correlation of
transmission values in function of height. From that
correlation a constant coefficient for each box was
obtained to be multiplied by the integral value
measured at 30 cm height from the bottom of the
glass. In Box 1 with exterior vertical louver system,
the coefficient was 1.03 due to the larger solar
transmittance on the top of the window. On box 2
with the horizontal louver system, the coefficient was
0.72 due to the gradually smaller solar transmittance
from the bottom to the top of the window. On the
other hand, in EnergyPlus, the outputs of total solar
transmittance (W) through the window were divided
by the area of the glass (1.25 m
2
) to obtain an
equivalent W/m
2
.
Before and after the installation of the shading
devices, the solar transmittance was determined.
Solar transmittance and thermal conditions were
practically the same on the two boxes. In that way,
differences on thermal conditions once the shading
was installed could be attributed to the type of louver
system. The same conditions were simulated and
then compared with the measured values. Figure 5
shows the average incident radiation on the facade
(reference) and transmitted radiation into each box
per day for the measuring campaign without shading
devices. As can be seen, the first source of error is
the calculated value of incident radiation on the
facade (2.8% lower than the measured one). In
addition, the predicted values of transmitted radiation
were also smaller than the measured ones with an
error of 7.3 % and 6.4 % for box 1 and 2
respectively.

Figure 5: Average incident on facade (reference) and
transmitted radiation on each box per day without shading
devices.

The results from the periods with shading are
summarised in figure 6. The bars indicate the
average per day of total transmitted radiation in KWh
per squared metre. The predictions of transmitted
radiation on box 2 with a horizontal louver system
were closer to the measured values than for box 1
with a vertical louver system. The deviations for box
1 were -12 % and +30 % for open and slats at 45
degrees respectively. However, the total difference is
higher on open slats (-70 Wh/m
2
.day) having larger
thermal impact than the case with slats at 45
degrees (+26 Wh/m
2
.day) where there is only diffuse
and reflected transmittance. For box 2 the deviations
were around +4 % and almost zero for open and
slats at 45 respectively. On box 2, there is a better
agreement on period 2 when the slats are at 45,
which means the horizontal louver system performs
similarly to a typical opaque overhang. For the open
slats the program predicts 26 Wh/m
2
.day less
transmitted radiation than the measured value.
Figure 7 compares the measured and calculated
transmitted percentage of solar radiation in relation
to the incident radiation on the facade. In that way
only the error due to the shading and glass
transmittance are considered and not the error (-2.8
%) due to the predicted radiation on the facade or
due to the calculated beam and diffuse radiation for
the weather file. In terms of the slat position, for box
1, EnergyPlus predicts a relatively closer value when
slats are open than with an inclination of 45 degrees.
For the case of slats at 45 degrees, the large
deviation shown in figure 6 is reduced. On the other
hand, on box 2, the differences with respect to the
measured values are smaller than the case with
vertical louver system. The relative transmittance
with respect to the incident radiation on the facade is
almost the same as the measured values.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
684 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
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6 xx.x SECTION NAME
explained in section 2.3- for validation purpose
provided more accurate results than using existing
models to predict direct and diffuse radiation from
global radiation values.
In order to separate the errors produced by the
different beam radiation and by the incident radiation
on the facade, the fraction of transmitted radiation
was plotted in figure 7. The transmitted radiation
deviations can be attributed to both the errors on
glass and shading devices transmittance calculation.
Therefore, in order to isolate the error due to the
shading device the shading transmittance factor on
both the measured and predicted cases were
obtained by dividing the final solar (short-wave)
transmittance when there is shading by the
transmittance of the glass only. Table 4 gives the
shading transmittance factor for the four cases as a
result of measurements and simulations.
Table 4: Measured (Measur) and predicted (BES) average
solar transmittance due to shading only.
Open slats Slats at 45

Measur BES Measur BES
Box 1 0.46 0.41 0.13 0.17
Box 2 0.54 0.57 0.56 0.59

However, still these factors are based on the
assumed transmittance of the glass that could be
slightly different due to the effect of the dust and
dirtiness on the glass that change over time and from
one position to the other on the glass. The values
inserted on the simulation were obtained from
several measurements, but only at specific time and
at a reduced number of positions behind the glass.
One aspect that should be revised is the higher
solar transmittance (and shading transmittance
factor) on the vertical system when slats are at 45
degrees. Due to the actual multiple reflection
between the slats, it was expected that measured
values of transmitted solar radiation were higher than
the ones predicted by the BES program which only
accounts on a limited number of reflections. A
possible cause of that 'over-prediction' could be the
coefficient used to modify the measured values. The
used coefficient (1.03) accounts the influence of
height on transmitted radiation but it may be different
along the year. In the case of the slats at 45 degrees
it was not measured and could be higher due to the
much higher difference between the transmittance on
top of the louver system than on the bottom in
comparison with the case of open slats. The single
coefficient to describe in EnergyPlus both the diffuse
and the specular reflection on the slats could also
contribute to an over-estimation of the reflections
between the slats. In addition, the fact that slats can
only be modelled as flat planes in EnergyPlus may
also produce a higher transmittance due to
reflections than the actual case with elliptical slats.
Concerning the thermal conditions, the average
deviation between the predicted and measured
indoor temperatures was less than 1 K. The small
errors could be the result of uncertainty on air
infiltration, and measured/assumed material
properties.
5. CONCLUSION
In this paper measured transmitted global solar
radiation and indoor air temperatures are compared
against dynamic simulations by solving the energy
balances of two test boxes with exterior shading
devices with a BES program (EnergyPlus).
The solar transmittance was better predicted for
the horizontal than for the vertical louver system. In
the case of the vertical system, solar transmittance
through the slats with an inclination of 45 was better
predicted than through open slats. The average
deviation between the predicted and measured
indoor temperatures was less than 1 K (STDV=1.1)
for the two types of shadings and slat position. The
vertical louver system provides higher protection
from solar radiation than the horizontal one.
Measurement errors and modelling limitations
may have provoked the differences between
measured and predicted transmittance through the
louver and glazing system. However, these
differences can be considered of minor importance
for long term energy analysis. Furthermore, more
accurate TSET calculation method will be proposed
to be integrated at BES programs and compared with
measurements.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are grateful to Reynaers Aluminium
NV for their financial support. We appreciate the
contribution of Erik Rasker, Danny Geysels and
technicians from Reynaers Aluminium. Thanks also
to Patricia Elsen, Wim Bertels and Paul Verbeek for
the technical assistance.
7. REFERENCES
[1] T. E. Kuhn, C. Bhler and W. Platzer, Evaluation
of overheating protection with sun-shading
systems. Solar Energy. (2000) 69, 59-74.
[2] H. Simmler and B. Binder, Experimental and
numerical determination of the TSET of glazing
with venetian blind shading. Building and
Environment. (2008), 43 (2), 197-204.
[3] A. Tablada, D. Saelens, J. Carmeliet, M.
Baelmans, Investigation on airflow and heat
transfer of a glazing facade with external
louvers. 4th International Building Physics
Conference, Istanbul. (2009).
[4] A. Tablada, J. Carmeliet, M. Baelmans, D.
Saelens, Exterior louvers as a passive cooling
strategy in a residential building. 26th
International Conference on Passive Low
Energy Architecture, Quebec City. (2009).
[5] A. Tablada, D. Saelens and S. Roels, Cooling
potential of exterior louver systems, REHVA
world congress, Antalya, Turkey (2010).
[6] G. Flamant, Report: 632xb760, Belgian Building
Research Institute, Limelette, Belgium (2009).
[7] http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energypl
us/


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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 685


Hygrothermal Performance of Vegetation on
Cladding and Translucent Faade Systems
Javier ALONSO
1
, Francesca OLIVIERI
1
, Javier NEILA
1
, Csar BEDOYA
1

1
Department of Construction and Technology in Architecture, Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
ABSTRACT: This report aims on evaluating architectural greening as a passive cooling technique. Two green
wall systems have been installed and monitored continuously during summer period in an experimental building.
One of these prototypes consists of a freestanding, cladding enclosure, made with modular pre-vegetated
panels, while the other faade is a three layered translucent system, forming an extra-flat greenhouse where a
creeper plant grows. The translucent faade can be in order to ventilate the building. Both enclosure prototypes
were analyzed simultaneously with and without vegetation, in order to describe the plants effects separately
from the hygrothermal performance of each system. After the selection of the most representative monitored
days, hygrothermal analysis revealed that vegetation cooling effect was higher on the opaque prototype and
also suggested that translucent faade mitigated indoor overheating better when its inner layer was not open.
Keywords: Thermal analysis, Energy efficiency, Green wall, Monitoring.
1. INTRODUCTION
As energy management has become a valuable
point lastly, most published studies on architectural
greening refer to vegetated roof systems and their
thermal performance. Researching [1] and
developing of roof gardens [2] and vegetal faades
has increased, but designing constructive systems
with vegetated elements implies an awareness of
plants as constructive elements. Urban greening also
assures lower level of CO2 emissions, as well as it
offers a thermal response [3] that varies depending
on climatic conditions. Hygienic ventilation [6], sound
insulation [4], microclimate [5], thermal ventilation
and solar protection are improved in dwellings, as
mentioned reports point.
At Tokyo Institute of Technology [6] Hoyano
contrasted thermal performance of an ivy-covered
balcony and an unprotected one. Solar irradiation
passing across plant-protected window was up to
45% lower. Concerning superficial temperatures,
indoor floor remained 14C cooler behind ivy layer.
Also, air temperature remained higher during the
night time due to heat loss retention of the vegetated
layer. Similar study [7] on blank walls covered by
creeper plants thrown even more notable
overheating mitigation on vegetated faades.
Vegetation on cladding faades has been studied
widely [3, 8], and their results found strong
associations between the moisture in growth media,
vegetation coverage and cooling effect,
demonstrating the importance of maintaining a
healthy plant cover and a hospitable substrate.
It is also remarkable the research reported at TU
Delft [9], whose objective was to define the thermal
performance of a double skin faade containing
creeper plants. A simulation model was developed to
analyze heat flows through this enclosure,
concluding benefits for indoor climate as overheat
mitigation under summer conditions. Also this paper
was mentioned assuming a starting point for
translucent faades.
2. OBJETIVE
This investigation aims on evaluating
hygrothermal performance of two green wall systems
at a hot-summer climate: cladding vegetated panels
and a three layered translucent green wall. The
objective includes measuring effects of plants as
overheating regulators, and focuses on vegetation
influence separately from each green wall system,
considering previous studies.
3. MATERIAL AND METHODS
An experimental approach was used to assess
the hygrothermal effect of vegetation. As in
mentioned reports [7-9], the test consisted in
contrasting monitoring data from two buildings whose
only difference was the plants presence on their
enclosure. This research started at the end of 2007
with the installation of four faades in an
experimental building in Colmenar Viejo (Madrid,
Spain). The constructive systems used included two
cladding enclosures and two translucent faades.
3.1. Experimental prototype
Each green wall prototype was installed on the
South-faced faade of two identical modules
(hereinafter M1, M2, M3 and M4), whose other
enclosures were thermally insulated so as to be
considered adiabatic (Figure 1). Thus, heat gains
came through studied faades.

Figure 1: Experimental building partial plan and adiabatic
modules M1, M2, M3 and M4.
M1 and M4 modules tested the cladding green
wall system. This constructive solution consists of
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
6 xx.x SECTION NAME
explained in section 2.3- for validation purpose
provided more accurate results than using existing
models to predict direct and diffuse radiation from
global radiation values.
In order to separate the errors produced by the
different beam radiation and by the incident radiation
on the facade, the fraction of transmitted radiation
was plotted in figure 7. The transmitted radiation
deviations can be attributed to both the errors on
glass and shading devices transmittance calculation.
Therefore, in order to isolate the error due to the
shading device the shading transmittance factor on
both the measured and predicted cases were
obtained by dividing the final solar (short-wave)
transmittance when there is shading by the
transmittance of the glass only. Table 4 gives the
shading transmittance factor for the four cases as a
result of measurements and simulations.
Table 4: Measured (Measur) and predicted (BES) average
solar transmittance due to shading only.
Open slats Slats at 45

Measur BES Measur BES
Box 1 0.46 0.41 0.13 0.17
Box 2 0.54 0.57 0.56 0.59

However, still these factors are based on the
assumed transmittance of the glass that could be
slightly different due to the effect of the dust and
dirtiness on the glass that change over time and from
one position to the other on the glass. The values
inserted on the simulation were obtained from
several measurements, but only at specific time and
at a reduced number of positions behind the glass.
One aspect that should be revised is the higher
solar transmittance (and shading transmittance
factor) on the vertical system when slats are at 45
degrees. Due to the actual multiple reflection
between the slats, it was expected that measured
values of transmitted solar radiation were higher than
the ones predicted by the BES program which only
accounts on a limited number of reflections. A
possible cause of that 'over-prediction' could be the
coefficient used to modify the measured values. The
used coefficient (1.03) accounts the influence of
height on transmitted radiation but it may be different
along the year. In the case of the slats at 45 degrees
it was not measured and could be higher due to the
much higher difference between the transmittance on
top of the louver system than on the bottom in
comparison with the case of open slats. The single
coefficient to describe in EnergyPlus both the diffuse
and the specular reflection on the slats could also
contribute to an over-estimation of the reflections
between the slats. In addition, the fact that slats can
only be modelled as flat planes in EnergyPlus may
also produce a higher transmittance due to
reflections than the actual case with elliptical slats.
Concerning the thermal conditions, the average
deviation between the predicted and measured
indoor temperatures was less than 1 K. The small
errors could be the result of uncertainty on air
infiltration, and measured/assumed material
properties.
5. CONCLUSION
In this paper measured transmitted global solar
radiation and indoor air temperatures are compared
against dynamic simulations by solving the energy
balances of two test boxes with exterior shading
devices with a BES program (EnergyPlus).
The solar transmittance was better predicted for
the horizontal than for the vertical louver system. In
the case of the vertical system, solar transmittance
through the slats with an inclination of 45 was better
predicted than through open slats. The average
deviation between the predicted and measured
indoor temperatures was less than 1 K (STDV=1.1)
for the two types of shadings and slat position. The
vertical louver system provides higher protection
from solar radiation than the horizontal one.
Measurement errors and modelling limitations
may have provoked the differences between
measured and predicted transmittance through the
louver and glazing system. However, these
differences can be considered of minor importance
for long term energy analysis. Furthermore, more
accurate TSET calculation method will be proposed
to be integrated at BES programs and compared with
measurements.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are grateful to Reynaers Aluminium
NV for their financial support. We appreciate the
contribution of Erik Rasker, Danny Geysels and
technicians from Reynaers Aluminium. Thanks also
to Patricia Elsen, Wim Bertels and Paul Verbeek for
the technical assistance.
7. REFERENCES
[1] T. E. Kuhn, C. Bhler and W. Platzer, Evaluation
of overheating protection with sun-shading
systems. Solar Energy. (2000) 69, 59-74.
[2] H. Simmler and B. Binder, Experimental and
numerical determination of the TSET of glazing
with venetian blind shading. Building and
Environment. (2008), 43 (2), 197-204.
[3] A. Tablada, D. Saelens, J. Carmeliet, M.
Baelmans, Investigation on airflow and heat
transfer of a glazing facade with external
louvers. 4th International Building Physics
Conference, Istanbul. (2009).
[4] A. Tablada, J. Carmeliet, M. Baelmans, D.
Saelens, Exterior louvers as a passive cooling
strategy in a residential building. 26th
International Conference on Passive Low
Energy Architecture, Quebec City. (2009).
[5] A. Tablada, D. Saelens and S. Roels, Cooling
potential of exterior louver systems, REHVA
world congress, Antalya, Turkey (2010).
[6] G. Flamant, Report: 632xb760, Belgian Building
Research Institute, Limelette, Belgium (2009).
[7] http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energypl
us/


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686 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
modular, pre-vegetated panels filled with substrate, a
drip irrigation system, and vertical bearing structure
(Figure 2A). Green panels can be taken apart easily
through a simple metallic coupling system, although
they do not allow air flow between inside and outside
as they are sealed together with silicone. Panels of
M1 South faade had no vegetation, nor irrigation.
As a consequence, substrate in M1 was dry.
Cladding panels of M4 were covered with vegetation,
and drip irrigation system was active. Since there is
no wall or glazing behind the panels, behavioral
differences result from the effect of vegetation.

Figure 2: Cladding (A) and Translucent (B) systems
The translucent system was installed in M2 and
M3 modules. It consisted of an interior layer with a
sliding sash window in two leaves, an intermediate
chamber which contained vegetation and a self-
irrigation system, and an external layer based on a
truss of adjustable polycarbonate slats (Figure 2B).
What made the modules enclosure different was a
vegetal layer incorporated inside the chamber of M3.
In order to respond properly to variable climate and
seasonal needs, the faade design permitted six
different positions by opening the inner window and
adjusting the outer slats (Fig.3). Thus, this feature
tries to analyze two expected results: convection
effect inside the chamber by opening only upper and
lower slats, and ventilation of the indoor environment
by opening the sash window. Faade positions 1 and
2 attempted to evaluate the hygrothermal
performance of the system without communicating
indoor with outdoor environment. Sash window
remained opened during all day for faade positions
3 and 4, though. For faade positions 5 and 6, the
study included night ventilation by opening the sash
window, from 21:00 to 9:00.
On the one hand, this experiment was designed
to study the thermal influence of vegetation
separately from expected isolation effects of the
substrate. As in M1 and M4 only the pre-vegetated
cladding was considered, monitoring data are not
applicable as a real faade, but as a contribution to
global performance of a building added to a blank
enclosure. Thus, it is possible to estimate insulation
and cooling effects from plants and moisture of the
substrate by contrasting M1 and M4 monitoring data.

Figure 3: Translucent faade positions
On the other hand, the monitoring of each faade
position permitted describing the six translucent wall
performances, where ventilation through chamber
and the thermal buffer effect varied. It was expected
that the system improved hygrothermal indoor
conditions during summer, as a consequence of the
air flow through the humid vegetal layer.
3.2. Monitoring description
The experimental procedure consisted on
registering temperature and relative humidity data in
the different layers of each described enclosure. A
weather station incorporated to the roof of the
experimental building registered data related to
horizontal solar radiation, pluviometry, wind speed
and outdoor relative humidity.
As reported by Eumorfopoulou and & Kontoleon
[7], glass mercury thermometers were not used
because of their lower sensitivity and precision.
Moreover, their study revealed different phase values
of manually and automatically observed
temperatures. Surface temperature data from each
faade component was measured by three-threaded
state probes. Four-threaded state probes were used
to measure the ambient temperature in each
constructive layer. The outdoors probes that could be
affected by direct solar radiation were protected by a
specially designed box, as it was done in previously
mentioned test.
In order to assure the accuracy of the
measurements in all the cases, the installation of
probes was duplicated. This duplicity was also useful
for probe failures, and it would not be necessary any
reinstallation.
Each probe registered data in periods of five
minutes. An average was obtained from every three
values (15 minutes). Besides, programmable
automation equipment transforms the analog signals
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 687


from probes and flow meters into temperature and
flow values.
During the 2010 summer, each position of the
translucent faade was monitored continuously for
two weeks (Table 1).
Table 1: Monitoring periods for translucent faade during
2010 summer
Month Dates Position
June
1
st
to 15
th
FP5
16
th
to 30
th
FP6

July
1
st
to 15
th
FP1
16
th
to 31
st
FP2

August
1
st
to 15
th
FP3
16
th
to 31
st
FP4

3.3. Vegetation
Plants selection aimed on incorporating local
species to adjust properly to Continental
Mediterranean climate that characterized the location
where the monitored building was placed. Hot
summers and mild winters are the main features
regarding this type of climate.
As it has been previously demonstrated [8], an
adequate plant caring was necessary for this study.
Sedum species were chosen for M4 since their
characteristics imply a minimal maintenance.
Generally, these species constitute herbaceous
flowering plants with water-storing leaves that
tolerate adverse weather conditions without
significant water requirements. The perennial Sedum
species selected were Sedum acre (Goldmoss
Sedum), Sedum sexangulare (tasteless stonecrop),
Sedum sediforme (pale stonecrop), Sedum reflexum
(Sedum rupestre). These evergreen species are
characterized by a proper plant growth as a ground
covering, despite of varying light conditions and
limited substrate.
Also, these hardy plants have a dense growth.
For this reason, it was important to guarantee an
accurate percentage of compost in the growing
media composition to avoid an invasive
development. The substrate, which was placed
inside the panels, was wrapped up with a geotextile
layer that contributes to its better drainage.
Plant placed inside the greenhouse space of M3
was jasminum officinale (jasmine), which grew there
during since 2009. As it was noticed by other reports
[7, 9] the most gainful choice is to employ deciduous
plants, in order to shade the faade in summer, but
allowing light and irradiation incoming during the
winter.
3.4. Analysis trough days-type
Experimental and monitoring setup described in
3.2 generated a great amount of information, which
made a previous selection from data necessary to
make them legible. In order to analyze vegetation
influence on each prototype, and on each translucent
faade position separately, this study includes a
comparison between daily data from certain days
selected among each monitoring period. This
method, focused on complete registered days,
enables to consider similar exterior conditions and
avoided inaccuracy from daily average values. Also,
as described further, particularities from the statistical
sample were minimized. Therefore, day-type
selection aimed on choosing those days that
presented no irregularities or peculiarities to what a
statistically representative day would be for each
month.
The comparison method consisted in contrast
data from M1 and M4 separately from M2 and M3,
whose only difference was vegetation presence.
Also, this day-type analysis leaded to calculate
indoor hygrothermal comfort hours behind
translucent faade, according to Olgyay research for
mild climates.
3.5. Day-type selection method
The six positions of the translucent faade
obviously determined the number of minimum days-
type necessary for a complete analysis. Thus, these
six days-type were the same used to evaluate
vegetation performance over the cladding faade, in
order to contrast the performance of the two systems
under equal weather conditions.
Selection method for days-type was developed
from generation of ISO Test Reference Years (TRYs)
procedure [10]. These TRYs are created through
monthly averages of temperature, humidity, solar
radiation and wind speed values from, at least, last
decade. In a similar procedure, a Reference Day was
created for each monitoring month, based on hourly
averages of last ten years (from 2000 to 2009, both
included) [11].
This Reference Day for each month was used to
choose each day-type for each position, and from
each corresponding monitoring period. Selected
days would be those with most similar values
registered, contrasted with the Reference Day hour
to hour.
As for ISO TRYs, temperature, humidity and solar
radiation were more relevant features than wind
speed. For each monitored day, the procedure
consisted on calculating the summation of the
absolute value of difference between hourly data
from Reference Day of that month. Therefore, each
day considered showed a value for each variable,
composed by the summation of the difference of
each of the 24 hourly values. Then, each day was
assigned a rank for each parameter, starting at 1 for
the closest value to the corresponding Reference
Day (lowest value for absolute difference hour to
hour). Rank value came from summing the three
individual ranks of temperature, solar radiation and
relative humidity. The 3 days with lower Rank were
chosen, because they were the most similar to
Reference Day. Finally, from these 3 pre-selected
days, the one with lower rank of wind speed was
selected as day-type.
4. RESULTS
4.1. Climate trends on summer days-type
Monitoring data showed a lower daily average
temperature in June than July and August (Figure 5),
and July registered highest temperature peak values.
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688 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
Solar radiation in June was also irregular due to rainy
days.
Figure 5: Daily values for each day-type
Selected day-type for each position is shown on
Table 2. First day-type (FP5) in June presented the
lowest solar radiation, and the rest of data suggested
a rise from June to August. Indoor and chamber
values pointed that temperature increases in July
have a higher influence, and both values were mild in
June.
Table 2: Day-type for each position, during 2010 summer
FP1 FP2 FP3 FP4 FP5 FP6
July
5
th

July
28
th

August
4
th

August
24
th

June
2
nd

June
22
nd


4.2. Temperature gradient
Monitoring data showed how temperature values
decreased especially across the substrate in M1 and
M4, and through the chamber for M2 and M3. Figure
6 and Table 3 present values for the second day-
type of July at 17:00, when outdoor ambient
temperature was the daily maximum. It is remarkable
how vegetation of M4 reduced more than 30C
overheating on exterior face, and indoor environment
remained almost 8C cooler than M1. However, both
M2 and M3 presented similar temperature values on
the slats surface. Across the chamber, vegetation
and convection made temperature fall about 6C in
M3 respect M2, and indoor environment was also
cooler.

Figure 6: Layer temperature variation for July 28
th
.
Table 3: Layer temperature values (C) for each module.
July 28
th
17:30 - Te = 34.87C (daily maximum)
Tf / Tsf Tse Tsi Ti
M1 - 60.3 36.6 31.9
M4 38.9 / 39.8 29.9 23.7 24.1

Tss Tc Tsw Ti
M2 48.1 44.0 43.8 36.5
M3 45.8 37.9 36.9 29.8

4.3. M1-M4 differences
Indoor temperature values in M4 remained under
values from M1 during the six days-type. These
differences were quite uniform during all the day,
with a maximum range of 4C in August 24
th
. Table 4
summarizes these data, where maximum differences
were noticed for hottest days (June 28
th
, August 4
th

and 24
th
).
Table 4: Indoor temperature M1-M4 difference (TM1M4)
DATE
TM1M4 in each day-type (C)
Average Median Max. Min.
Jun. 2
nd
3,66 3,48 5,40 2,45
Jun. 22
nd
3,39 3,10 5,40 1,90
July 5
th
2,62 2,45 3,90 1,85
July 28
th
6,21 6,10 7,90 4,85
Aug. 4
th
5,37 5,20 7,30 4,15
Aug. 24
th
5,35 4,65 7,60 3,70

Except for night values, temperature registered
inside M4 remained cooler than outdoors
temperature. Sunrise made temperatures increase,
and until noon it did not exceed indoor surface
temperature values of M1. The sun irradiation
overheated M1, and at afternoon hours indoor
surface was hotter than the outdoors (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Indoor surface temperature values (Tis) during the
six days-type at M1 and M4
4.4. M2-M3 differences
Temperature values were always lowest in M3
than in M2 during the day, but not as uniformly as it
was in M1 and M4. Meanwhile, night peaks in M3
remained over M2 values, composing a smallest
daily temperature rank. Both indoor temperature
average and median values fared quite similar for
FP5 and FP6, FP1 and FP2, and finally FP3 and
FP4, as seen on Table 5. Also, night ventilation
made no difference for temperature values of M2 and
M3. Moreover, temperature difference between the
two chambers reached highs in FP6, FP2 and FP4.
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BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 689


Table 5: Indoor temperature M2-M3 difference (TM2M3)
M2M3
Position
TM2M3 in each day-type (C)
Average Median Max. Min.
FP5 2,33 1,65 5,90 0,00
FP6 2,41 1,83 5,35 0,25
FP1 3,40 3,08 6,15 1,40
FP2 3,81 3,18 7,00 1,75
FP3 1,30 0,92 3,70 0,00
FP4 1,51 1,13 4,70 0,00

FP3 and FP4 produced less vegetation influence,
as suggested in Figure 8. There was not a relevant
difference between FP5 and FP6 as thermal buffer
both in peak and average values. The same fact
happened for FP1 and FP2, but buffer values were
slightly higher for FP2. Despite peak differences,
FP3 and FP4 average data were almost the same.

Figure 8: Indoor temperature values (Ti) for the six days-
type at M2 and M3
4.5. Energy savings and comfort conditions
In order to estimate energy savings, cladding
panels system and translucent faade were
considered separately. For the first case, maximum
acceptable inner surface temperature value was
26C (To). Since it is not a complete enclosure of a
building, this limit was chosen as suggested by
Spanish Technical Building Code [12]. For the
translucent faade, comfort conditions described by
Olgyay for mild climates were adopted. In this
summer case, acceptable temperature values are in
a rank of 21,97C and 27,53C(Tol), and relative
humidity should be under 50%.
As Figure 7 shows, Tsi at M4 was under To during
more than 94% of the time, and only overcomed this
value at July 5
th
. Meanwhile, at M1 Tsi remained
under To for 43% of the time, almost always at night.
Indoor comfort conditions were reached for 8
hours more in M3 than in M2 in FP1 and FP2, but
their days-type presented lower outdoor temperature
values (Figure 8). For FP5 and FP6, indoor
temperature and humidity values were equal when
sash window opened, at 21:00. Therefore, any
energy saving considered stops at this hour.
Table 6: Energy savings on cooling (hours) considered from
comfort conditions in each day-type
FP1 FP2 FP3 FP4 FP5 FP6
8h 8h 2,5h 3h 6 h 3h
5. DISCUSSION
5.1. Differences between the two systems
Only FP1 mitigated indoor overheating in daily
average more than the cladding system, during the
day-type where both temperature and humidity
values had lowest ranks of variation between day
and night. Despite this, indoor peak temperatures
were higher in M3 than in M4. For the rest of the
positions, thermal buffer was more sensible through
opaque wall, and indoor values in M4 were more
stable during the entire day. Indoor temperature data
were an average of between 1C and 4C cooler,
although mitigation peaks were similar for FP5 and
FP6 to those reached in M4 during the day. The
differences were highest between the cladding
opaque system and FP3, where thermal buffer
appears to be of only 1C daily.
5.2. Overheating and vegetation effects
Cooling effects of vegetation were remarkable in
the cladding system concerning indoor temperature
values. Also, these values were up to 6 hours out of
phase for the South irradiance peaks (Figure 9).This
lag lasted a maximum of 2 hours in M3. Moreover,
overheat mitigation was stable in M4 during the day,
with mild peaks, opposed to what revealed the
translucent faade.

Figure 9: Solar irradiation and indoor temperature values
(Ti) for the six days-type at M1 and M4.
Unlike in the vegetated modules, thermal
performance of M1 was significantly worse than M2,
particularly on outer layer overheating during the
noon. This fact suggested a more sensible influence
of vegetation on cladding system than in translucent
faade, which is a complete enclosure system.
Hence, maintenance works and appropriate irrigation
should be taken in care if this cladding system is
placed over a blank wall as a passive cooling
technique.
Analyzed data also suggested a continuous
mitigation of indoor overheating in M3, and FP6
being the most favourable position to maintain the
comfort conditions during the afternoon for this
climate. Although cladding panels revealed
hygrothermally as the most effective solution, the
possibility of ventilation through translucent faade
must be emphasized.
5.3. Improved indoor environment
More than 90% of the time, indoor temperatures
were cooler in M4 than outdoors, from 1C to 5C in
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690 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
average. Also, these indoor values were close to a
comfort situation, so it has been revealed as a useful
input for blank faades in order to avoid summer
overheating.
The biggest difference between indoor M3 and
outside temperature was given in FP6, with peaks of
up to 9 C difference. The lower values of cooling
were shown in FP4. Except FP6, the other positions
fail to keep cooler module than the outdoor
throughout the day, although this condition was
maintained for one hour at positions with convection
inside the chamber (FP2 and FP4) for which open all
slats (FP1 and FP3). The similarities between FP1
and FP2, FP3 and FP4, and FP5 and FP6 suggest a
higher influence on sash window opening and night
ventilation than on slats openings than sash window
opening or night ventilation, in overall performance.
Again FP6 seemed to be the most favourable
position, because inside the module were given
lower temperatures during longest period.
5.4. Future research
This study is in process, by monitoring M2 and
M3 positions in different months, due to different
climate conditions registered in June, July and
August. This aims to confirm thermal performance
suggested regardless monthly values and likely
punctual day-type singularities. Currently, two new
experimental buildings are being built, where the
cladding green panels system will be tested and
monitored. These faades will be combined with
glazed areas, which will introduce the possibility of
ventilation too. This will provide a real building
performance data, and will lead to test and verify
heat transfer models.
Also there is a vegetation monitoring model in
process, based on previous reports [8], since plant
foliage development has shown as the most relevant
factor in overheating mitigation values from 2009 to
2010. Aiming to spread the use of this faades, it is
interesting to consider similar studies in other climatic
regions and for other seasonal periods. Moreover, it
is pertinent a study concerning the efficiency of
different species that can thrive in this two
enclosures, with the possibility of being native to
each region.

6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study was supported by Intemper Espaola,
S.A. over CECOS project (Technologic Development
of Enclosures for Construction, Energy Savings and
Energy Production in Buildings), and by Spanish
Ministry of Science and Innovation inside project
INVISO (Industrialized and Sustainable Housing).
7. REFERENCES
[1] Kumar, R. and Kaushik, SC. 2005, Performance
evaluation of green roof and shading for thermal
protection of buildings. Building and
Environment, vol. 40, pp.1505-1511.
[2] Neila, F.J., Bedoya, C., Acha, C., Olivieri, F. &
Barbero, M. 2008, Las cubiertas ecolgicas de
tercera generacin: un nuevo material
constructivo. Informes de la construccin, vol.6,
pp. 15-24.
[3] Wong, N.H., Tan, A.Y.K., Chen, Y., Sekar, K.,
Tan, P.Y., Chan, D., Chiang, K. & Wong, N.C.
2010, "Thermal evaluation of vertical greenery
systems for building walls", Building and
Environment, vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 663-672.
[4] Wong, N.H., Tan, A.Y.K., Tan, P.Y., Chiang, K.
& Wong, N.C. 2010, Acoustics evaluation of
vertical greeney systems for building walls.
Building and Environment, vol. 45, no. 2, pp.
411-420.
[5] Onmura, S., Matsumoto, M. & Hokoi, S. 2001,
Study on evaporative cooling effect of roof lawn
gardens. Energy and Buildings, vol.33, pp. 653-
666.
[6] Hoyano, A. 1988. Climatological uses of plants
for solar control and the effects on the thermal
environment of a building, Tokyo Institute of
Technology, Japan.
[7] Eumorfopoulou, E.A. & Kontoleon, K.J. 2009,
"Experimental approach to the contribution of
plant-covered walls to the thermal behaviour of
building envelopes", Building and Environment,
vol. 44, no. 5, pp. 1024-1038.
[8] Cheng, C.Y., Cheung, K.K.S. & Chu, L.M. 2010,
"Thermal performance of a vegetated cladding
system on facade walls", Building and
Environment, vol. 45, no. 8, pp. 1779-1787.
[9] Stec, W.J., van Paassen, A.H.C. & Maziarz, A.
2005, "Modelling the double skin facade with
plants", Energy and Buildings, vol. 37, no. 5, pp.
419-427.
[10] International Standards Office, 2005. ISO
15927-4 Hourly data for assessing the annual
energy use for heating and cooling. Geneva:
ISO.
[11] Lee, K., Yoo, H. & Levermore, G.J. 2010,
"Generation of typical weather data using the
ISO Test Reference Year (TRY) method for
major cities of South Korea", Building and
Environment, vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 956-963.
[12] Architecture and Housing Policy Directorate
General of the Ministry for Housing of Spain,
2008, Technical Building Code (TBC). Madrid:
Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC).


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BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 691
Housing beyond the technical, a social realisation
A comparative examination of energy efficient housing
PHILLIPA MARSH
1
1
School of Architecture & Built Environment, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
Housing is often identified as a core contributor to the UK energy concerns (Edwards & Hyett:2002;
DECC:2009), to which housing design has increasingly focused on technical efficiency to limit this issue. This
technical focus appears prevalently linked to delivering efficiency, but limitedly highlights the social dimension
that these technologies may have an impact on. In losing sight of the social, many technical oriented built
environments have been shown to be significantly less efficient during their occupancy than predicted
(Rochracher & Ornetzer:2002; Chappells & Shove:2001). The pessimistic presentation of a doom-and-gloom
scenario to technological inclusion has become evident, however this paper looks takes a more rounded view, in
examining technology beyond functional efficiency; not entering into the beneficial/detrimental debate of techno-
centric design. Through literary reviews and comparative study of two occupied exemplars, this research will
consider the inclusion of technologies from a functional and social perspective that is the basis of Feenbergs
(1999) instrumentalisation model. In doing so, this paper highlights the concept of sustainable housing beyond a
means of technical efficiency and considers wider social values of the domestic environment. For designers,
moving beyond the technological view may offer opportunities to be perceived less as technical administrators
(Williams:2008) and more aligned to the creative social practices inherent to pre-existing Design practice.
Keywords: Feenberg, sustainable design, social, technologies, housing
1. ENERGY EFFICIENT HOUSING & THE
ESSENCE OF TECHNOLOGY
The house is not a device but an extremely rich
and meaningful life environment
(Feenburg:1999, xi).
Within the UK, housing has become a principle
factor in addressing the nations energy concerns,
with almost a third of UK carbon emissions produced
from burning of fossil fuels in domestic environments
(Edwards & Hyett: 2002; DECC:2009). In light of this,
continual attention has been placed on technological
efficiency; promoting technological inclusions as
means to achieve efficiency (Smith:2003). This
dominating technocratic emphasis is argued to
misinterpret sustainable philosophies, losing sight of
the socio-cultural elements (Guy & Moore:2005).
Equally, some technically-oriented built environments
have been shown to be significantly less efficient
than predicted due to the limited account of the
social complexity of technical change (Rochracher &
Ornetzer:2002; Guy & Shove:2000).
Mainstream domestic environments present a
substantial challenge to sustainable architecture in
its relationship between society and nature.
Dwellings can be seen to represent social practices
that produce and transform different natures and
different values (Macnaghton & Urry:1998). Equally
housing can provide a vehicle to aid in developing
elements of community; creating sustainable
communities in a resource efficient manner (Guy &
Moore:2005) and reflecting relationships between the
individual, family and community (Mallett:2004).
Housing can therefore be seen more broadly than
simply technical efficiency, bringing the physical,
social and cultural factors into one agenda (Edwards
& Hyett: 2002). If the house environment is framed
simply by valued social meanings, it may be that
domestication or making it ours have little do with
functional efficiency (Feenberg:1999).
This paper will examine sustainable architecture
that is focused on common energy efficient
technologies and the consideration of the occupants
of sustainable housing projects specifically. Energy
efficiency provides a specific insight of the wider
sustainable field, and housing offers foci to the
broader built environment context. Predominantly the
preoccupation of this work looks to develop a deeper
understanding of technology within a socialised
context and in the specific housing environment;
questioning technology and its wider value.
To determine this essence of technology, this
work relates to Feenbergs (1999) instrumentalisation
theory as an analytical approach. Here technologys
essence is based on crosscutting the boundaries
between the social and the technical, not the
distinction of these ingredients, refer to figure 1.
Differentiation
Primary
Instrumentalisation
Secondary
Instrumentalisation
Decontextualisation Systematisation
Autonomy Mediation
Reduction Vocation
Positioning Initiative
Concretisation
Figure 1: Instrumentalisation Theory (from Feenberg:1999).
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692 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
This model works on two levels. The first level
seeks to find affordances that can be mobilised in
devices and systems, and the second level
introduces designs that can be integrated with other
already existing devices and systems that have
various social constraints; such as ethical and
aesthetic principles (Feenberg:2005). The value of
this approach is that it has absorbed wider grounded
theories, and evolves these within a pragmatic
realised context. The primary level of the model is
similarly reflective of Heidegger (1977) and
Habermas (1970) differentiation theories, that were
themselves framed on Webers similar propositions
relative to premodern and modern societies. In these
notions, differentiation was between the technical
and social, seen as an unavoidable consequence.
However the concept of technical action, whether
relative to the object (Heidegger) or the subject
(Habermas), appears to limit the essence of
technology to these segregated categories.
Technical and social differentiation can be overcome
in the secondary level as contextualisation
(Veak:2006; Feenberg & Feng:2008). Thus by taking
a two-level perspective, the wider relationships to
broader contexts can be presented with simplified
technological perspective; understandings how
simplified objects integrate into social environments.
At the core to Feenbergs theory is that the social
dimensions of technological systems belong to the
essence of technology (Feenberg: 1999). As this
work will show, the emphasis of functionalised
technology clearly dominates much of sustainable
housing thinking however this view provides a
restricted and basic perspective on technology; as
neutralised tools. Sustainable housing literature
appears to skim the surface of already establish
philosophical perspectives where technology is often
discussed as part of value-laden networks
(Latour:1993) or where socialised values directly
shape technological systems (Bijker et al:1989;
Mackenzie & Wajcmann:1985). The
instrumentalisation theory offers an opportunity to
progress from these pre-existing views of technology,
and a mediation between the celebration of
technocratic triumphant versus the gloomy
Heideggerian prediction of techno-cultural disaster
(Feenberg: 1999). Using pilot research findings, later
discussions will demonstrate the presence of
socialised values in the energy efficient home
environment and their potential to influence the
acceptance of efficient technology. Discussions will
loosely apply Feenbergs model, using views of
autonomy and mediation, to energy efficient housing.
It will consider the emphasised functionalisation and
the missing social realisation during occupation.
There are some clear distinctions of what is and
is not attempted in this work. Firstly, this paper aims
to advance the perspective on social architecture
rather than attempting to directly impact on
sustainable theory overall. Using interdisciplinary
perspectives, discussions will show the wider
sustainable considerations and the missing values of
social contexts within current sustainable
architecture. Secondly, this research will look to
develop a more detailed social perspective; it does
not intend to enter into the debate of defining
efficiency or sustainability directly. Finally, by
highlighting the overly dominant technological focus,
this research is not looking to restrict the value of the
technical dimension, more that the social
considerations should complement and not compete
with technology (Moore: 2001). Overall these
discussions propose a move away from the narrow
focus on technological and economic perspectives
as currently shown in sustainable architectural
disciplines and more the need to combine this
alongside the sociological standpoint to fully
determine the sustainable achievement.
2. EMPHASISING FUNCTIONALISATION IN
ENERGY EFFICIENT HOUSING
Technology is the single most important
generator of design conscious. It is not what
buildings are but what they do and how they do it
(Edwards & Hyett:2002, p.158)
A wide spectrum of literatures has been
reviewed, contextualising sustainable housing as the
key dynamic of this investigation. Literatures were
considered from grounded notions related to
sustainability, technological and social change,
housing, dwelling and the built environment.
Sustainable architectural literature within the built
environment was seen to present energy efficiency
housing through the inclusion of efficient
technologies (Edwards & Hyett:2002) and a how it
works or can do perspective (Roy & Herring:2007).
The technical functionalised agenda appears
dominantly but does not look beyond the pragmatic
achievements. However there appears to be a
growing dissatisfaction with this approach which
presents a potential to reconsider this dominance to
include the more detailed social considerations within
energy efficient housing practices.
Within much of energy efficient housing literature,
the notion of improving buildings functions and the
technical elements were at the core of sustainable
efficiency. Whilst this is important, it often curbs
recognition of the housing environment and the
presence of its social values. Sustainable literature
showed an underlining persistence to this standpoint;
the neutralised view of technology is the key driver to
achieving energy efficiency. Innovations can often be
seen as hard facts that offer a measurable success
to solved necessary problems (Williamson et
al:2003). The descriptor for an existing energy
efficient housing project highlights this well:
The design uses a high performance factory built
panellised building fabric together with micro
generation, mechanical ventilation and low-impact
heating technologies, that help achieve significant
reduction (Zero-carbon Hub:2009)
This reflects notions of the primary
functionalisation outlined by Feenbergs (1999)
theory, representing sustainable housing as
neutralised technological tools. The inclusion of
energy efficient tools within sustainable housing
enables a means of determining the situation and
discovering a range of technically efficient answers
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BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 693
(Williamson et al: 2003). Technically efficient
structural components, construction details or the
inclusion of appropriate appliances/devices are
commonly presented in the literature as measures to
achieve efficiency. These are then proven successful
through measureable factors; such as statistics,
ratings, external reports, or abiding with
predetermined conditions in regulatory codes, thus
limiting the potential socialised values.
Technology as a tool to enable efficiency can be
shown as socially value-neutral; social
considerations were limitedly valued. In some
approaches, such as the Balehaus project in Bath,
this notion was reflected in their evaluative approach;
using a simulated approach to human occupation
using timed light bulbs. This was seen as more
preferable to determining efficiency (Beadle et
al:2009), but emphasises the view of occupants as
barriers to the energy efficiency (Guy & Shove:
2000). Many projects considered social factors but
continued this as a validation of the success
technology; occupants ability to use the measures.
The Oxford Eco-house highlighted an example of
this. The house is described as liveable and
occupied but focuses on this in terms of a working
home which can test and prove the solar technology
(Roaf:2007). Some projects did present an
alternative view in examining occupants responses
to energy efficiency. The EoN house, part of the
Creative Homes project at the University of
Nottingham, endeavours to consider energy
efficiency alongside occupational habits (EoN:2008).
However these approaches can accentuate the
functional view of technology primarily;
understanding social behaviours to inform efficient
use of the technology not understanding behaviours
in sustainable house environments. Occupational
considerations and evaluations simply offer another
means of measuring technical efficiency, not a
socially realised notion in the home environment;
contextulising technology into a value-laden socio-
cultural context (Feenberg & Feng:2008).
There appears to be a growing scepticism of this
techno-centric functionalised approach within
architectural literature. Some identify the dominance
of technology as a means to hide behind the
measurability of science (Tyszczuk:2009). Others
show a rushed reliance is reflective in the potential
for technological failure (Williams et al:2008).
Sustainable architecture can appear to be providing
technological fixes with limited social considerations
(Till:2009). Whilst fixes may provide some benefits,
they may not provide all the answers (Guy &
Shove:2000) and presents a one-sided primarily
functionalised approach to efficiency. Broadly
viewed, such perspectives can enhance an illusory
visions of technological salvation and the dangers of
isolating sustainable architecture as solving technical
problems (Wines:2000).
3. REALISING THE SOCIAL THROUGH
ENERGY EFFICIENT CASE STUDIES
The house is not a device but an extremely rich
and meaningful life environment. Yet it has gradually
become an elaborate concatenation of devices
(Feenburg:1999, xi).
Having outlined the functional dominance of
technology, case study research was conducted to
determine a wider view of the technological context
of energy efficient housing. Two projects were
chosen as pilot case studies in Nottinghamshire.
Initially, the project intentions for these may appear
on the surface different; one sought to present the
possibilities for a sustainable community approach to
self-supported living whereas the other aimed to
demonstrate how new materials and technologies
can be used to create an energy efficient and
affordable home. Whilst these differences are
distinct, the overarching aim of both projects offered
similarity; in minimising the environmental impact and
maximising energy efficiency through the use of
materials. Thus these projects offered a useful case
basis for further analysis.
To determine these more socialised realisations,
unstructured interviews were conducted with
occupants of both housing projects. Interviews were
conducted to identify qualitative results related to
their experiences of energy efficient technologies in
the home environments and their perceptions of
efficiency. It is important to note that as pilot studies,
these results are not fully conclusive but do provide a
social insight into users actual experiences of living
in existing energy efficient housing; in terms of the
acceptance and adoption of energy efficient
practices and the potential for further investigation.
Overall results showed that measures offered key
benefits in influencing their living patterns, in terms of
how they interrelated to the measures within the
design. In some instances notions of hidden
measures were shown preferably; in terms of
insulation offering an unseen way of achieving
energy efficiency. However, in other cases
occupants highlighted the need to draw attention to
the measures; such as incorporating recycled
materials that offered embodied energy but also
made a statement about the essences of the project
or the homeowner. Pragmatically, findings also
suggested the apparent need to consider
maintenance and flexibility of the design. Many
discussions centred on the inconvenience of
maintaining new measures and the flexibility for
adaptation for living, specifically over normal or
conventional house types. As will be shown, this can
have a direct impact of use and potential adoption of
these energy efficient measures, or indeed the
characterisation of the house environment.
3.1. Mediating technology in use embedding in
context
Results from both interviews highlighted aspects
where occupants coped with technological
difficulties, relative to unfamiliar technologies and
unfamiliar user actions. Whilst evidence of similar
results has been found in other research projects,
the impact of how users felt; their experiences and
the subsequent perceptions of the technologies, are
less covered. The process of persevering and
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694 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
These views highlight the restrictions of the
designs for users to adapt to their preference and the
impact that other features might have on efficiency.
Whilst these are physical adaptations, the premise
appeared as a desire to personalise. Occupants
suggested a need to make a home theirs to which
reflected the need to physical change the design.
This corresponded with perceived missing features,
focal points and valued features that provide a
feeling homely comfort. In both cases the fireplace
was outlined as a key homely feature, a concept Holl
(2006) echoes where the fireplace offers a means of
experiencing the home through values of comfort
and intimacy. The experience within the home
relates to developing values and associated
meanings that merge the space to the individual
involved. These ideas ultimately return to Feenbergs
(1999) paradigm of the house environment framed
by valued social meanings and technological
inclusion. Housing is therefore not simply about the
physical function as a shelter but as psychological
security, drawing connotations of societal status, a
communal or family base and a haven for privacy to
maintain well-being (Daly & Daly:1996). Mallett
(2004) questions the notion of home, relating this to
the house, family, haven, self, gender and
journeymaking. Danby (1993) addresses similar
thinking in context to architectural design, suggesting
that housing can reflect the relationship between
individual, family and community. Thus a home has
much broader connotations than the physical and
functionalised house referenced within sustainable
works, aligned to the meanings of house, household,
dwelling, refuge and affection.
From these results, this work suggests that it is
not simply enough for post-occupancy evaluation to
consider technologies and users efficient use or
misuse. More so this research has shown that there
is a different level of understanding to technology
when implemented into the social and natural
environment; understanding the mediation or
embedding into the social context. This mediation,
outlined by Feenbergs (1999) realisation stage, has
been shown to be lacking in the current perspectives
of energy efficient technologies within housing.
However as these initial results show, in taking this
more developed view of technology, a fuller
concretised understanding of technology within the
embedded social environment can be determined.
4. A SOCIAL CONCLUSION LOOKING
BEYOND THE TECHNICAL
Environments do shape technologies but are in
turn shaped by them...technologies do shape places
but in turn are shaped by them (Moore:2001, p. 54.)
From this critical review, an apparent limitation to
the socio-technical perspectives has been presented.
Not only is there a need to consider the social
elements in context to efficiency within sustainable
housing but also to consider the interrelating factors
between technology and social contexts within the
housing environment. In understanding the
technological emphasis within sustainable housing
literature, there is a clear socio-technical disparity of
extremes. To one extent, sustainable architectural
literature appears to separate the technology from
the social, considering technical functions to be a
means of measurable efficiency. To the other, the
social dimension was included but from a limited
functionalised physical view; evaluating occupants
use of the technology.
The core focus of this paper centres on domestic
housing, highlighting the importance of this area
beyond being technically efficient. It has identified a
more widespread consideration to social elements;
comfort, acceptance and adoption of technology as
well as showing a consideration to home in
understanding the social relationship of domestic
project. Whilst this focus may appear specific, there
is strong correlation to the wider understanding of
technologies and the built environment alongside
society, thus expanding the sustainability debate.
The question therefore remains, why is this
research relevant? These critical discussions provide
opportunities for sustainable architecture to
reconsider the domestic environment, and to
reinterpretation current architectural views on energy
efficient housing, as a means of reconnecting to the
domestic environment. This work is not simply
showing that the social dimension is important and
needs wider consideration. Discussions support the
need to reinterpret energy efficient housing
environments beyond the view of technical efficiency
and expand considerations to social notions of home,
dwelling, technology, comfort and efficiency. Through
a wider understanding, sustainable practice has the
opportunity to reconnect with the domestic
environment alongside the application of technical
efficiency and developing a broader view of
sustainable housing; in the perception of efficiency
alongside the values of the domestic environment.
Having determined the current standpoint of
sustainable housing literature to be highly limited, it
would be quite simple to present this piece as a
pessimistic dismissal of technological notions and
alternates this by calling for the inclusion of social
dimension. However this work draws similar parallels
to Moores (2001) thinking to the context of place,
technology and sustainable practice. The inherent
interrelationship between social, technological, and
place needs to be considered to fully determine a
clear understanding. By emphasising one over
others appears to have clouded a picture; providing a
view of a technical environment, whilst not
understanding the other social constructs that are
influential within this network.
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper acknowledges the help and guidance
from Graham Farmer of the University of
Newcastle, and Michael Stacey of the University of
Nottingham. It also notes the Architecture and
Urbanism research division of the University of
Nottingham for it welcomed support to enable this
research to proceed.
whether users were happy with the results of their
actions offers a link to the potential for accepting the
technology into their social environment:
difficulties can mean you dont want to use them
or you work them out
some things take time to get right, but then you
work them out & see that it does work
Perseverance was discussed by some occupants
more, in terms of their involvement and the resulting
rewards they receive; whether their actions delivered
positive or negative results and if these were
considered worthwhile. The ventilation technology
was one example of this, where the occupant
described their initial perception of the technology as,
a simple premise that was hard to understand at
first, what to open/close or when to use it. Once
understood, the occupant described the technology
as: it works well because you see and feel
physically what it does...its satisfying to work it out.
This occupant shows that in seeing the results of
their actions, they reflected positively on the
technology. There is an additional value, in working
out the mode of operation successfully. However not
all evolutionary perceptions of the technology
resulted in a positive reflection. Some technologies
were viewed negatively after users persevered with
unfamiliar technology and their actions. The Biomass
technology was one example that the occupant
described as a:
problematic technology...it took 7 months to fully
understand the system...sometimes, it was
impossible to light it. To make sure wed get warm
showers when there was not enough solar radiation,
wed used the immersion control and a few times we
use electrical heaters, neither are energy efficient.
The user appears as a central actor in these
evolutionary technological processes where users
understanding of the technologies functions were
shown to impact on their awareness of wider
conditions. Users appeared more aware of their
affect on efficiency. As they became familiar with the
technology, they show awareness not simply on how
the technology works but in some cases why it works
to achieve efficiency.
These results are relative to Normans (2004)
theory on technological attachment, where users
behavioural involvement in operating the technology
is a key level to developing an attachment and
acceptance of that technology being embedded in
context. These values form users attachment to a
technology and can be short/long term values
dependant on the attained stage (Norman:2004).
Forming attachment is often shown in line to the
concept of self (Ball and Tasaki:1992; Kleine et
al:1995) thus repeating the social dimension. Ball
and Tasaki (1992) show that attachment, and
subsequent detachment, for an object develops over
five stages: pre-acquisition, early ownership, mature
ownership, pre-disposal, and post-disposal. Once
something is accepted, it often belongs to one of the
three intermediate stages of attachment: early and
mature ownership and predisposal. This, in part, is
resonant to notions of lifecycle, and often referenced
in response to retaining attachment in alternative
views of sustainability. Till (2009) also relates the
transient and durable objects to the renovations of
Georgian terrace housing which creates value and
(ideally) infinite life spans. In both Ball and Tasaki
(1992) and Till (2009) recommendations to
prolonging lifespan through durable or attached
values in essence relates to the sustainable premise,
but one which again appears restrictive in much of
sustainable housing discussions.
The notions of technological acceptance parallel
to wider literature that considers technological
efficiency with housing. Rybczynski (1987) illustrated
that efficiency is more in tune with user comforts,
demonstrating that inefficient used or misused of
technologies often occurred because the technology
addressed the home physical, behavioural and
psychological comforts of the occupants. Harris
(2009) echoes this idea, showing the impact of
comfort on the adoption of cast iron stove technology
in a historically US housing context. His work
stresses that to be accepted into daily life, the
technology needed to offer values of comfort in terms
of convenient efficiency. These findings demonstrate
that a technology can be positively and negative
received into a social context. It is not simply the
answer to say that a technology functions in one way
and then to evaluate how the user interpret this.
More so, these findings shows that understanding
the contextualised embedding of technologies within
an environment can relate to both users actions,
involvement and the processes they experience as
well as the technicalised functions of the technology.
The varying results from all of these can therefore
lend to the mediation of technology.
3.2. Mediating with domestic values &
meanings- embedded into a homely context
Interestingly within much of the established
sustainable housing literature, notions of domestic
values and meanings are limited reference, if not
ignored. This research has found that in these
sustainable case studies, housing values are still
present in occupants considerations. In both cases,
the house appeared to offer a distinct value to the
occupants primarily as a means of energy efficiency
use rather than as domesticated home:
The character of the house is different. Because
of the technology & what you have to do, it feels
like more of a technical energy device than
home.
Whilst these results reflect technised values, in
part due to the projects premise as conceptual
exemplars, the findings also suggest notions of a
different value to these house environments. The
traditional notion of home appears in these
environments by the occupants; in adapting and
developing the environment to suit their requirements
and tastes. At times occupants discussed how the
original design offered the potential for homeliness:
Some of the spaces feel quite homely, in that
you can have your own space and hide)
However others discussed the difficulties that
these designs had to fully form a value of home:
if I wanted to make it more mine, as my home,
Id have to change this, that affects the way it works
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BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 695
These views highlight the restrictions of the
designs for users to adapt to their preference and the
impact that other features might have on efficiency.
Whilst these are physical adaptations, the premise
appeared as a desire to personalise. Occupants
suggested a need to make a home theirs to which
reflected the need to physical change the design.
This corresponded with perceived missing features,
focal points and valued features that provide a
feeling homely comfort. In both cases the fireplace
was outlined as a key homely feature, a concept Holl
(2006) echoes where the fireplace offers a means of
experiencing the home through values of comfort
and intimacy. The experience within the home
relates to developing values and associated
meanings that merge the space to the individual
involved. These ideas ultimately return to Feenbergs
(1999) paradigm of the house environment framed
by valued social meanings and technological
inclusion. Housing is therefore not simply about the
physical function as a shelter but as psychological
security, drawing connotations of societal status, a
communal or family base and a haven for privacy to
maintain well-being (Daly & Daly:1996). Mallett
(2004) questions the notion of home, relating this to
the house, family, haven, self, gender and
journeymaking. Danby (1993) addresses similar
thinking in context to architectural design, suggesting
that housing can reflect the relationship between
individual, family and community. Thus a home has
much broader connotations than the physical and
functionalised house referenced within sustainable
works, aligned to the meanings of house, household,
dwelling, refuge and affection.
From these results, this work suggests that it is
not simply enough for post-occupancy evaluation to
consider technologies and users efficient use or
misuse. More so this research has shown that there
is a different level of understanding to technology
when implemented into the social and natural
environment; understanding the mediation or
embedding into the social context. This mediation,
outlined by Feenbergs (1999) realisation stage, has
been shown to be lacking in the current perspectives
of energy efficient technologies within housing.
However as these initial results show, in taking this
more developed view of technology, a fuller
concretised understanding of technology within the
embedded social environment can be determined.
4. A SOCIAL CONCLUSION LOOKING
BEYOND THE TECHNICAL
Environments do shape technologies but are in
turn shaped by them...technologies do shape places
but in turn are shaped by them (Moore:2001, p. 54.)
From this critical review, an apparent limitation to
the socio-technical perspectives has been presented.
Not only is there a need to consider the social
elements in context to efficiency within sustainable
housing but also to consider the interrelating factors
between technology and social contexts within the
housing environment. In understanding the
technological emphasis within sustainable housing
literature, there is a clear socio-technical disparity of
extremes. To one extent, sustainable architectural
literature appears to separate the technology from
the social, considering technical functions to be a
means of measurable efficiency. To the other, the
social dimension was included but from a limited
functionalised physical view; evaluating occupants
use of the technology.
The core focus of this paper centres on domestic
housing, highlighting the importance of this area
beyond being technically efficient. It has identified a
more widespread consideration to social elements;
comfort, acceptance and adoption of technology as
well as showing a consideration to home in
understanding the social relationship of domestic
project. Whilst this focus may appear specific, there
is strong correlation to the wider understanding of
technologies and the built environment alongside
society, thus expanding the sustainability debate.
The question therefore remains, why is this
research relevant? These critical discussions provide
opportunities for sustainable architecture to
reconsider the domestic environment, and to
reinterpretation current architectural views on energy
efficient housing, as a means of reconnecting to the
domestic environment. This work is not simply
showing that the social dimension is important and
needs wider consideration. Discussions support the
need to reinterpret energy efficient housing
environments beyond the view of technical efficiency
and expand considerations to social notions of home,
dwelling, technology, comfort and efficiency. Through
a wider understanding, sustainable practice has the
opportunity to reconnect with the domestic
environment alongside the application of technical
efficiency and developing a broader view of
sustainable housing; in the perception of efficiency
alongside the values of the domestic environment.
Having determined the current standpoint of
sustainable housing literature to be highly limited, it
would be quite simple to present this piece as a
pessimistic dismissal of technological notions and
alternates this by calling for the inclusion of social
dimension. However this work draws similar parallels
to Moores (2001) thinking to the context of place,
technology and sustainable practice. The inherent
interrelationship between social, technological, and
place needs to be considered to fully determine a
clear understanding. By emphasising one over
others appears to have clouded a picture; providing a
view of a technical environment, whilst not
understanding the other social constructs that are
influential within this network.
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper acknowledges the help and guidance
from Graham Farmer of the University of
Newcastle, and Michael Stacey of the University of
Nottingham. It also notes the Architecture and
Urbanism research division of the University of
Nottingham for it welcomed support to enable this
research to proceed.
whether users were happy with the results of their
actions offers a link to the potential for accepting the
technology into their social environment:
difficulties can mean you dont want to use them
or you work them out
some things take time to get right, but then you
work them out & see that it does work
Perseverance was discussed by some occupants
more, in terms of their involvement and the resulting
rewards they receive; whether their actions delivered
positive or negative results and if these were
considered worthwhile. The ventilation technology
was one example of this, where the occupant
described their initial perception of the technology as,
a simple premise that was hard to understand at
first, what to open/close or when to use it. Once
understood, the occupant described the technology
as: it works well because you see and feel
physically what it does...its satisfying to work it out.
This occupant shows that in seeing the results of
their actions, they reflected positively on the
technology. There is an additional value, in working
out the mode of operation successfully. However not
all evolutionary perceptions of the technology
resulted in a positive reflection. Some technologies
were viewed negatively after users persevered with
unfamiliar technology and their actions. The Biomass
technology was one example that the occupant
described as a:
problematic technology...it took 7 months to fully
understand the system...sometimes, it was
impossible to light it. To make sure wed get warm
showers when there was not enough solar radiation,
wed used the immersion control and a few times we
use electrical heaters, neither are energy efficient.
The user appears as a central actor in these
evolutionary technological processes where users
understanding of the technologies functions were
shown to impact on their awareness of wider
conditions. Users appeared more aware of their
affect on efficiency. As they became familiar with the
technology, they show awareness not simply on how
the technology works but in some cases why it works
to achieve efficiency.
These results are relative to Normans (2004)
theory on technological attachment, where users
behavioural involvement in operating the technology
is a key level to developing an attachment and
acceptance of that technology being embedded in
context. These values form users attachment to a
technology and can be short/long term values
dependant on the attained stage (Norman:2004).
Forming attachment is often shown in line to the
concept of self (Ball and Tasaki:1992; Kleine et
al:1995) thus repeating the social dimension. Ball
and Tasaki (1992) show that attachment, and
subsequent detachment, for an object develops over
five stages: pre-acquisition, early ownership, mature
ownership, pre-disposal, and post-disposal. Once
something is accepted, it often belongs to one of the
three intermediate stages of attachment: early and
mature ownership and predisposal. This, in part, is
resonant to notions of lifecycle, and often referenced
in response to retaining attachment in alternative
views of sustainability. Till (2009) also relates the
transient and durable objects to the renovations of
Georgian terrace housing which creates value and
(ideally) infinite life spans. In both Ball and Tasaki
(1992) and Till (2009) recommendations to
prolonging lifespan through durable or attached
values in essence relates to the sustainable premise,
but one which again appears restrictive in much of
sustainable housing discussions.
The notions of technological acceptance parallel
to wider literature that considers technological
efficiency with housing. Rybczynski (1987) illustrated
that efficiency is more in tune with user comforts,
demonstrating that inefficient used or misused of
technologies often occurred because the technology
addressed the home physical, behavioural and
psychological comforts of the occupants. Harris
(2009) echoes this idea, showing the impact of
comfort on the adoption of cast iron stove technology
in a historically US housing context. His work
stresses that to be accepted into daily life, the
technology needed to offer values of comfort in terms
of convenient efficiency. These findings demonstrate
that a technology can be positively and negative
received into a social context. It is not simply the
answer to say that a technology functions in one way
and then to evaluate how the user interpret this.
More so, these findings shows that understanding
the contextualised embedding of technologies within
an environment can relate to both users actions,
involvement and the processes they experience as
well as the technicalised functions of the technology.
The varying results from all of these can therefore
lend to the mediation of technology.
3.2. Mediating with domestic values &
meanings- embedded into a homely context
Interestingly within much of the established
sustainable housing literature, notions of domestic
values and meanings are limited reference, if not
ignored. This research has found that in these
sustainable case studies, housing values are still
present in occupants considerations. In both cases,
the house appeared to offer a distinct value to the
occupants primarily as a means of energy efficiency
use rather than as domesticated home:
The character of the house is different. Because
of the technology & what you have to do, it feels
like more of a technical energy device than
home.
Whilst these results reflect technised values, in
part due to the projects premise as conceptual
exemplars, the findings also suggest notions of a
different value to these house environments. The
traditional notion of home appears in these
environments by the occupants; in adapting and
developing the environment to suit their requirements
and tastes. At times occupants discussed how the
original design offered the potential for homeliness:
Some of the spaces feel quite homely, in that
you can have your own space and hide)
However others discussed the difficulties that
these designs had to fully form a value of home:
if I wanted to make it more mine, as my home,
Id have to change this, that affects the way it works
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
696 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
6. REFERENCES
[1] Ball, A. D., & Tasaki, L. H., (1992). The role and
measurement of attachment in consumer
behaviour, Journal of Consumer Psychology,
1(2), 155-172.
[2] Beadle, K., Gross, C., & Walker, P., (2009).
Balehaus: The design, testing, construction and
monitoring strategy for a prefabricated straw
bale house, Non-Conventional Materials &
Technologies Conference, Bath.
[3] Bijker, W., Hugher, T., & Pinch, T., (1989) The
Social Construction of Technological Systems:
New Directions in the Sociology and History of
Technology, MIT Press.
[4] Chappells, S., & Shove, E., (2001). Debating the
future of comfort: environmental sustainability,
energy consumption and the indoor
environment, Building Research & Information,
vol. 33, issue 1, pp. 32-40.
[5] Daly, G. & Daly G., (1996). Homeless: policies,
strategies, and lives on the street, Routledge.
[6] Danby, M., (1993). Privacy as a culturally related
factor in built form, in Framer & Louv (1993)
Companion of contemporary architectural
thought, Routledge.
[7] Department of Energy and Climate Change,
(2009). Digest of United Kingdom energy
statistics, DECC.
[8] Edwards, B. & Hyett, P., (2002). Rough guide to
sustainability, London: RIBA.
[9] EoN (2008) Project objectives, EoN.
[10] Feenberg, A., (1999). Questioning technology,
London: Routledge.
[11] Feenberg, A., (2005). Critical Theory of
Technology, Tailoring Biotechnologies Vol. 1,
Issue 1, pp: 47-64
[12] Feenberg, A., & Feng,P., (2008). Thinking About
Design: Critical Theory of Technology and the
Design Process, in P. E. Vermaas et al. (eds.),
Philosophy and Design. Springer.
[13] Guy, S. & Shove, E., (2000). A Sociology of
Energy, buildings & the environment, Routledge
[14] Guy, S. & Farmer, G., (2001). Reinterpreting
Sustainable Architecture: The Place of
Technology, Journal of Architectural Education,
pp. 140148.
[15] Guy, S., & Moore, S., (2005). Sustainable
architectures: cultures and natures in Europe
and North America, Taylor & Francis.
[16] Harris, H., (2010). Conquering winter: US
consumers and the cast-iron stove, from Shove,
Chappells, & Lutzenhiser, L. (eds), Comfort in a
Low Carbon Society, Routledge.
[17] Habermas, J., (1970). Technology and Science
as Ideology, in Towards a Rational Society,
trans. J. Shapiro, Beacon Press
[18] Heidegger, M., (1977). The Question concerning
Technology, trans. W. Lovitt, Harper Row
[19] Kleine, S. S., Kleine, R. E., & Allen, C. T.,
(1995). How is a possession me or not me?
Characterizing types and an antecedent of
material possession attachment, Journal of
Consumer Research, 22(3), 327-343.
[20] Latour, B., (1993). We have never been Modern,
New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf
[21] MacKenzie, D., & Wajcman, J., (1999). The
Social Shaping of Technology, Open University
Press.
[22] Macnagton, P., & Urry, J., (1998). Contested
Natures, Sage Publishers
[23] Mallett, S., (2004). Understanding home: a
critical review of the literature, The Sociological
Review 52, (1): 6289, February 2004.
[24] Moore, S., (2001). Technology & place:
sustainable architecture & Blueprint Farm,
University of Texas Press.
[25] Norman, D., (2004). Emotional Design, New
York: Basic Books.
[26] Roaf, S., (2007). Ecohouse, Architectural Press.
[27] Rochracher, H., & Ornetzer, O., (2002). Green
Buildings in context: improving social learning
processes between users and producers, Built
Environment Journal, 28, (1): 73-84.
[28] Roy, R. & Herring, H. (2007). Technological
innovation, energy efficient design and the
rebound affect, Technovation Journal, 27, (4):
194-203, April.
[29] Rybczynski, W., (1987). Home: A Short History
of an Idea, Penguin Books Ltd.
[30] Smith, A. (2003). Transforming technological
regimes for sustainable development: a role for
alternative technology niches? Science and
Public Policy, volume 30, number 2, April 2003,
pages 127135.
[31] Till, J., (2009). Architecture Depends, MIT Press.
[32] Tyszczuk, R., (2009). Architecture and
Interdependence, Ethics & the built environment
Conference, University of Nottingham
[33] Veak, T., (2006). Democratizing technology:
Andrew Feenbergs critical theory of technology,
Suny Press
[34] Wines, J., (2000). Green Architecture: The Art of
Architecture in the Age of Ecology, Taschen.
[35] Williams, A., (2008) Enemies of Progress:
Danger of Sustainability, Imprint Academic
[36] Williamson, T., Radford, A., & Bennetts, H.,
(2003). Understanding Sustainable Architecture,
Taylor & Francis.
[37] Zero Carbon Hub (2009). LZ carbon profile:
ecoTSenntECH Organics Smart House, BRE
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 697
Turn the gas off
Zero-energy achievement based on free floating internal
conditions between health-related limits
Geoffrey van Moeseke
1
1
Architecture et Climat, Universit catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
ABSTRACT: The current trend in low energy building design is to reduce heating needs at ambitious levels
e.g. the Passive House concept - and to compensate residual consumptions with renewable. This leads to so
called net-zero-energy buildings. This paper explores another possible definition of zero energy: a building that,
without mechanical heat supply, maintains winter internal conditions between health related limits. Thanks to
dynamic simulations, it is shown that an apartment designed according to passive architecture best practices is
matching this definition. The paper concludes on a proposition of shared responsibility between the designers
and the inhabitant: the passive achievement of healthy indoor conditions is the designers responsibility, while
the achievement of more comfortable indoor conditions falls to the inhabitants share.
Keywords: Zero energy, Passive House, free float, health, comfort
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Energy design tendencies
The net-zero-energy buildings (NZEB) concept is
now strongly promoted : the European Parliament
recently approved a recast of the Energy
Performance of Buildings Directive proposing that all
new buildings in the EU be at least net-zero energy
by 2019 [1].
Hernandez and Kenny give an interesting
overview of the NZEB concept [2]. According to
them, the most common approach to ZEB is to use
the electricity grid both as a source and a sink of
electricity (). The term net is used in grid
connected buildings to define the energy balance
between energy used and energy sold, the term net-
zero energy being applied when the balance is
zero. They show that the actual definition of NZEB is
not satisfactory, especially because it is not base on
a life cycle approach.
Another criticism of NZEB concepts is that they
are not very useful at the design stage. Only two
attitudes are possible at this stage. The first one is to
determine the energy supply capacity of the site and
to design the building in order to be lower or equal to
this value. If the supply capacity is high, there is no
guarantee that the building will be energy efficient.
Such an attitude does not follow the Trias Energica
[3]. The second attitude is to design the building as
energy efficient as possible, and then to care about
renewable energy supply sources in order to
overwhelm the residual energy consumption. This
attitude corresponds more to concepts such as
Passive House [4] supplemented with renewable
than to the NZEB concept.
1.2. Objective
From this introduction we formulate the following
question: are they other ways to design net-zero
energy buildings than through the idea of grid
connected buildings? Obviously, there is one
solution, which is designing a building that actually
does not use energy to maintain healthy indoor
climate conditions. Next to a carbon footprint limited
to embodied energy, such a building would ideally
tackle fuel poverty. It would answer to environmental,
social and economical aspects of sustainable
development.
The aim of this paper is to check whether a
dwelling designed according to Passive House
principles may fulfill this definition.
Since internal gains are a major factor in a
passive house energy balance, the evaluation has to
be conducted for occupied dwellings. But it cannot
be asked to inhabitants to live a winter season
without heating. So the evaluation is done through
dynamic simulations.
2. METHODOLOGY
In order to complete this exercise, we describe
the studied dwelling (section 2.1) and define
simulation parameters (section 2.2). We also discuss
indoor climate conditions. At first, we consider
commonly accepted comfort zones (section 2.3).
Then, following the idea that before being
comfortable, a dwelling should be healthy, healthy
conditions are proposed based on existing literacy
(section 2.4).
2.1. Example dwelling
The 119m apartment investigated is shown in
figure 1. An 11 zones model is created in trnsys17.
Technical datas are summarized in table 1. Two
performance levels are investigated. The first one
allows the apartment to fulfill Belgian criterions of the
Passive house standard (heating demand
<15kWh/man and n50 infiltration rate <0.6). The
second one proposes further improvements.
Internal gains are integrated in order to represent
a 4 person family with typical working schedules.
Metabolic gains represent 1.8MWh/y, equivalent to a
6. REFERENCES
[1] Ball, A. D., & Tasaki, L. H., (1992). The role and
measurement of attachment in consumer
behaviour, Journal of Consumer Psychology,
1(2), 155-172.
[2] Beadle, K., Gross, C., & Walker, P., (2009).
Balehaus: The design, testing, construction and
monitoring strategy for a prefabricated straw
bale house, Non-Conventional Materials &
Technologies Conference, Bath.
[3] Bijker, W., Hugher, T., & Pinch, T., (1989) The
Social Construction of Technological Systems:
New Directions in the Sociology and History of
Technology, MIT Press.
[4] Chappells, S., & Shove, E., (2001). Debating the
future of comfort: environmental sustainability,
energy consumption and the indoor
environment, Building Research & Information,
vol. 33, issue 1, pp. 32-40.
[5] Daly, G. & Daly G., (1996). Homeless: policies,
strategies, and lives on the street, Routledge.
[6] Danby, M., (1993). Privacy as a culturally related
factor in built form, in Framer & Louv (1993)
Companion of contemporary architectural
thought, Routledge.
[7] Department of Energy and Climate Change,
(2009). Digest of United Kingdom energy
statistics, DECC.
[8] Edwards, B. & Hyett, P., (2002). Rough guide to
sustainability, London: RIBA.
[9] EoN (2008) Project objectives, EoN.
[10] Feenberg, A., (1999). Questioning technology,
London: Routledge.
[11] Feenberg, A., (2005). Critical Theory of
Technology, Tailoring Biotechnologies Vol. 1,
Issue 1, pp: 47-64
[12] Feenberg, A., & Feng,P., (2008). Thinking About
Design: Critical Theory of Technology and the
Design Process, in P. E. Vermaas et al. (eds.),
Philosophy and Design. Springer.
[13] Guy, S. & Shove, E., (2000). A Sociology of
Energy, buildings & the environment, Routledge
[14] Guy, S. & Farmer, G., (2001). Reinterpreting
Sustainable Architecture: The Place of
Technology, Journal of Architectural Education,
pp. 140148.
[15] Guy, S., & Moore, S., (2005). Sustainable
architectures: cultures and natures in Europe
and North America, Taylor & Francis.
[16] Harris, H., (2010). Conquering winter: US
consumers and the cast-iron stove, from Shove,
Chappells, & Lutzenhiser, L. (eds), Comfort in a
Low Carbon Society, Routledge.
[17] Habermas, J., (1970). Technology and Science
as Ideology, in Towards a Rational Society,
trans. J. Shapiro, Beacon Press
[18] Heidegger, M., (1977). The Question concerning
Technology, trans. W. Lovitt, Harper Row
[19] Kleine, S. S., Kleine, R. E., & Allen, C. T.,
(1995). How is a possession me or not me?
Characterizing types and an antecedent of
material possession attachment, Journal of
Consumer Research, 22(3), 327-343.
[20] Latour, B., (1993). We have never been Modern,
New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf
[21] MacKenzie, D., & Wajcman, J., (1999). The
Social Shaping of Technology, Open University
Press.
[22] Macnagton, P., & Urry, J., (1998). Contested
Natures, Sage Publishers
[23] Mallett, S., (2004). Understanding home: a
critical review of the literature, The Sociological
Review 52, (1): 6289, February 2004.
[24] Moore, S., (2001). Technology & place:
sustainable architecture & Blueprint Farm,
University of Texas Press.
[25] Norman, D., (2004). Emotional Design, New
York: Basic Books.
[26] Roaf, S., (2007). Ecohouse, Architectural Press.
[27] Rochracher, H., & Ornetzer, O., (2002). Green
Buildings in context: improving social learning
processes between users and producers, Built
Environment Journal, 28, (1): 73-84.
[28] Roy, R. & Herring, H. (2007). Technological
innovation, energy efficient design and the
rebound affect, Technovation Journal, 27, (4):
194-203, April.
[29] Rybczynski, W., (1987). Home: A Short History
of an Idea, Penguin Books Ltd.
[30] Smith, A. (2003). Transforming technological
regimes for sustainable development: a role for
alternative technology niches? Science and
Public Policy, volume 30, number 2, April 2003,
pages 127135.
[31] Till, J., (2009). Architecture Depends, MIT Press.
[32] Tyszczuk, R., (2009). Architecture and
Interdependence, Ethics & the built environment
Conference, University of Nottingham
[33] Veak, T., (2006). Democratizing technology:
Andrew Feenbergs critical theory of technology,
Suny Press
[34] Wines, J., (2000). Green Architecture: The Art of
Architecture in the Age of Ecology, Taschen.
[35] Williams, A., (2008) Enemies of Progress:
Danger of Sustainability, Imprint Academic
[36] Williamson, T., Radford, A., & Bennetts, H.,
(2003). Understanding Sustainable Architecture,
Taylor & Francis.
[37] Zero Carbon Hub (2009). LZ carbon profile:
ecoTSenntECH Organics Smart House, BRE
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
698 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
Figure 1: Studied apartment plan: 2 north rooms, 1 south
room, south living room and internal technical spaces
Table 1: Technical characteristics of the Passive
apartment
Case 1 Case 2
Construction
type
Massive concrete building with
outside insulation
External wall 0.183 W/mK 0.10W/mK
Glazing
0.7 W/mK+
spacer
g=0.5
0.52 W/mK
g=0.59
Frame 0.87W/mK 0.87W/mK
Hygienic
ventilation
Mechanical inlet
and exhaust
Mechanical inlet
and exhaust
Flow rate
144kg/h
0.43 ach
144kg/h
0.43 ach
Heat exchanger
Flat plate
Constant 76%
efficiency
Hygroscopic
Constant 80%
efficiency
External wall air
tightness Q50
4.3 m/hm 2m/hm
constant gain of 1.7W/m (gross floor area). Daily
occupation profiles are shown in figure 2. Electrical
consumptions relative to lighting and other uses
represent 1.8MWh/y. This value is lower than the
2.5MWh/y value representative of a Walls family of 4
people without electrical cooking facilities [5]. The
cumulated value of internal gains is 3.55MWh/y,
equivalent to a constant gain of 3.4W/m (relative to
gross floor area). This is higher than the typical 2.1
W/m (net floor area) proposed in the Passive House
certification assessment tool [6] but nevertheless
seems representative of actual conditions in an
apartment.
Figure 2: Daily occupation profiles
Figure 3: Temperature profile for the reference year and the
cold wave
Table 2: Meteorological monthly values
Coldest
month of the
typical year
Cold wave
Mean temperature C
2.5 -2.4
Min. Temperature C
11.3 11.1
Max. Temperature C
-7.9 -14.9
Global horizontal
radiation kJ/m/month 72306 76223
Humidity production is considered. A
65gr/h/person production is assumed. Cumulated
with vapor production in the bathrooms and the
kitchen, an average humidity production of 6.3l/day
(0.053 l/day/m) is obtained. Trnsys17 capacitance
humidity model is used with a humidity capacitance
ratio of 4 in every zone.
2.2. Simulation parameters
Simulations are conducted for both an extreme
winter month (cold wave) and a typical Belgian
winter (Meteonorm file for Uccle). Figure 3 shows
external temperature profiles. Table 1 summarizes
meteorological values for the cold wave and the
coldest month of the typical year. The simulation is
conducted with a 0.5h time step and a 6 month
initialization period.
2.3. Definition of comfort zones
Criticisms are expressed against too simple
definitions of thermal comfort. Especially, the
variability of comfort feeling with the subject behavior
and their adaptation to the climatic conditions has
been discussed [7]. So called adaptative approaches
based on field surveys have been developed to
define thermal comfort guidelines including both
physical parameters and behavioral and
psychological parameters [8, 9, 10, 11].
Nevertheless, traditional comfort zone definitions
explicitly consider ambient humidity, while adaptative
methods use functions of the external and indoor
operative temperature only. Since the humidity ratio
is a key parameter regarding health, as exposed in
section 2.4, we choose in this study to consider
traditional comfort indexes.
Two comfort zones are drawn in the
psychometric chart (Figure 4). The first one is the
ASHRAE Standard 55-2004 acceptable range of
temperature based on a PMV evaluation [12]. The
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 699
Figure 4: Health and comfort limits.
second one comes from ASHRAE handbook 2005
[13]. This last one includes a minimal humidity limit.
Both comfort zones are originally defined
regarding operative temperature. In order to express
all our results in ambient air temperature we make
the hypothesis that operative and ambient
temperatures are equals. This implies that Tmrt=Tamb.
Thanks to high insulation levels, highly compact
design and mostly convective internal gains, we
consider this hypothesis as reasonable in Passive
Houses. We invite the reader to keep in mind that if
Tmrt<Tamb, the comfort zone would slide to higher
internal temperatures. So the used comfort zone may
be seen as slightly colder than the actual feeling.
2.4. Definition of a health limits
The relation between indoor climatic conditions
and health hazards is close and shortly presented in
this section.
In winter, direct pathologies from low
temperatures, such as hypothermia symptoms
occurs, but on a much smaller occurrence that
respiratory and circulatory affectations [14].
Nevertheless some authors argue that cold indoor
temperatures are responsible for the greater part of
the excess winter death [15].
Dr Collins gives evidence that there is greater
increase in winter mortality from respiratory illness
than from circulatory (coronary) and that respiratory
health is more related to indoor temperature and
cardiovascular to outdoor cold, although this
conclusion needs to be examined further [16].
Meanwhile, if cold indoor temperature impacts the
upper and lower respiratory system, there is no
experimental evidence of a direct correlation
between cold and a lowering of the body resistance
[16]. Other factors have to be considered such as
easier virus propagation due to higher promiscuity in
winter and the combination of cold and dampness in
houses.
In this section we identify a healthy zone on a
psychometric chart (figure 4). We focus on winter
periods and consider minimal and maximal humidity
levels and minimal temperature. The question of
maximal temperatures in summer is not discussed in
this paper. Even without considering summer
periods, it remains a difficult exercise due to limited
medical knowledge, especially when considering
other parameter such as atmospheric pollution [17],
particular sensibility, activities, living and hygienic
habits [16]. Also, such a representation cannot take
into account transient situations, although resistance
and sensibility to climatic variations should be
considered. So the limits of the proposed healthy
zone are to be seen as indicative only.
The proposed temperature and humidity limits
are expressed as mean ambient conditions. It must
be kept in mind that mean internal conditions are not
representative of local conditions, such as those
occurring on cold bridges. Nevertheless, we will
assume such equivalence. This assumption is
supported by the high insulation levels and the
exhaustive resolution of cold bridges asked for by the
Passive House concept. Both elements help bring
about small differences between surface and
ambient conditions.
The proposed limits are the following:
1/Maximal humidity: excessive dampness
appears to be the most determinant parameter for
fungal growth and house dust mites. Laboratory
measurements have demonstrated that mould grows
when wall surface RH is above 80% for a period of
several weeks, although some moulds will grow at
relative humidity as low as 70% [18]. It is usually
accepted that a relative humidity of 70% is sufficient
to sustain mould growth [16, 19].
About dust mites, maintaining a relative humidity
lower than 50% thorough the year is recommended
in homes [20]. This limit should be respected for
mean daily RH, with maximal periods for 2 to 8 hours
daily above 50% [21]. Also, it has been shown that
almost no house dust mites are able to survive below
45% relative humidity at 2022 C but at higher
humidity the number of mites increases rapidly [22].
The World Health Organization set a figure for
absolute humidity of 7g/kg as the limiting factor for
the growth of colonies of dust mites [23]. Below this
level numbers of mites begin to fall, due to direct
desiccation of the mites themselves plus the
dehydratation of the skin scales on which they feed.
This last expression of maximal humidity is in good
agreement with the 50%RH limit for temperatures
between 18 and 21C, but stricter for higher
temperatures.
Considering that dust mites are hazardous only
for allergic people while mould is hazardous to
everyone, both maximal humidity limitations do not
have to be regarded as equivalent. Only the mould
related humidity limit will be considered further.
2/Minimal humidity: Too dry conditions cause the
development of irritation symptoms in eyes and
upper airways. Studies indicate that RH about 40% is
better for the eyes and upper airways than levels
below 30% [24]. It is also shown that the occurrence
of upper respiratory tract infections increases when
indoor relative humidity is below 30% [16].
3/Minimal temperature: Below 18C the risk of
adverse effects respiratory infections, bronchitis,
heart attacks, stroke rises. The risk increases the
more temperature falls. Below 10C the risk of
hypothermia becomes appreciable, especially for the
elderly [15]. Other studies have shown that 15C
appears to be the threshold temperature for pressor
effects in elderly people and therefore this would be
a minimum level at which elderly people should live
in their homes [25].
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700 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
3. RESULTS
Results for cases 1 and 2 for the coldest month of
the typical year are shown in figures 5 and 6. Figures
7 and 8 show results for the cold wave. In all those
figures, each dot represents a daily mean value in
one thermal zone. Figures only show thermal zones
with long term standing, e.g. the living room and
sleeping rooms.
Figure 5 indicates that the gap between internal
conditions and health related limits is large during the
coldest parts of a typical year in Brussels. It is of
course worse for a more extreme period (Figure 7).
Thanks to technical improvements (case 2) healthy
conditions are achieved for typical periods (Figure 6),
but not for extreme periods (figure 8).
In order to illustrate daily variations, figure 9
shows hourly values for the coldest week of the year
for the living room in case 1 and 2. Daily variations
appear to be horizontal ones, indicating temperature
shifts of 2 to 3.5C and absolute humidity stabilit y.
This stability indicates an adequate hygienic
ventilation rate.
4. DISCUSSION
This section discuss interpretation and use of the
results exposed in section 3.
4.1. Interpretation
Both case 1 and case 2 use existing technologies
and correspond to best practices matching Passive
House recommendations.
The hypothesis of a continuous occupation is
Figure 5: Internal conditions in the living and sleeping
rooms of the case 1 apartment for the coldest month of a
typical year.
Figure 6: Internal conditions in the living and sleeping
rooms of the case 2 apartment for the coldest month of a
typical year.
crucial. We assumed neither winter holidays nor
even an evening totally unoccupied. Such reductions
in internal gains would result in lower temperatures.
It is well know that Passive House standards
achievement is rather sensitive to internal gain
variations. Those gains typically account for 1/3 of
the heat demand [26]. In the case of apartments,
thanks to very low conductive losses, this proportion
is higher. For the coldest month of the typical year, it
reaches 47% in case 1, while solar gains only
account for 15%. Figure 10 shows, for the coldest
week of the typical year, values of internal and solar
gains and total heat demand and supply in order to
maintain a 21C ambient temperature, for case 1.
4.2. Use
Our results demonstrate that it is possible to
achieve healthy conditions thanks to passive heating
measures only, for an occupied apartment and
Figure 7: Internal conditions in the living and sleeping
rooms of the case 1 apartment for a coldwave.
Figure 8: Internal conditions in the living and sleeping
rooms of the case 2 apartment for a coldwave.
Figure 9: Hourly internal conditions in the living room in
cases 1 and 2 for the coldest week of a typical year. Daily
mean values are also indicated.
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BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 701
Figure 10: Case 1 gains compared with total heat demand
and heat supply for the coldest week of a typical year.
for typical meteorological condition. Although, it do
not allows to design housing unequipped with
heating power. Because the proposed healthy limits
are less strict than comfort limits. And because
heating power is needed to reach comfortable or
healthy indoor conditions, after inoccupation periods
or during extremely cold periods.
We consider that our results are above all of
conceptual use. In northern Europe, heating supply
as until now be seen as inevitable. Recently, heating
consumptions in buildings where seen as normal but
to be reduced in order to face climate change. But
full disappearance of this consumption was not
hoped for, and an attitude based on their
compensation was developed (i.e. NZEB concepts).
In this context, both heating consumption reduction
and renewable energy supply are seen as part of the
design team responsibility.
Thanks to our results, another vision may rise,
based on the sustainability principle of shared
responsibility [27]. This principle urges both
designers and inhabitants to act at their own level.
This paper suggests that the responsibilities of
architects and designers may be: 1/ to design the
building in order to achieve healthy conditions
without heating and 2/ to design an heating system
allowing the inhabitant to use it an adequate an
efficient way. When living in such a dwelling, the
inhabitant responsibilities would be: 1/ to choose
living conditions that, although matching his own
particular comfort feeling, are as close as possible as
the without heating supplied healthy conditions and
2/ to use the heating system in order to create these
comfort conditions with the least energy.
This idea that the inhabitant has to share
responsibility in the buildings environmental
performance is consistent with the 2009 Plea
manifesto [28].
5. CONCLUSION
This paper presents two developments.
Healthy temperature and humidity limits are
exposed based on a literature survey. Those limits
are compared with ASHRAE comfort zones.
Dynamical simulation results are presented for a
free float running Passive house apartment. It
indicates that healthy conditions can be maintained
without mechanical heating supply for a typical winter
in Belgian, as long as the apartment is inhabited.
Based on these results, we propose a conceptual
development about the necessity to achieve energy
efficient dwelling. It is to share the responsibility
between the designer and the inhabitant. Each ones
responsibility is exposed. The designers
responsibility is about healthy conditions and the
quality of heating systems, while inhabitants
responsibility is about comfort conditions and the
proper use of heating systems.
6. FUTURE WORKS
The survey of medical references should be
pursued in order to determine maximal temperature
limits. Since comfort limits in summer have been
shown to be transient, it may be suspected that
health limits will be too. An alternative graphical or
numerical expression of health limits that is best
suited for transient criterions should then be
developed.
The ability of Passive House apartments to fulfill
these criterions without mechanical cooling should
be demonstrated. But since such dwellings have
been shown to be comfortable if properly designed
[27, 28], this demonstration should be implicit. Other
buildings types such as row houses or commercial
buildings have to be studied.
Finally, this article indicates that the proposed
definition of the designers responsibility correspond
to slightly improved best practices in passive building
design. Further development could determine
practical and methodological recommendations in
order to adapt Passive House recommendations to
this new objective.
7. REFERENCES
[1] European Parliament, Report on the proposal for
a directive of the European Parliament and of
the Council on the energy performance of
buildings (recast) (COM(2008)0780-C6-
0413/2008-2008/0223(COD)), 2009.
[2] P.Hernandez and P.Kenny, From net energy to
zero energy buildings: Defining life cycle zero
energy buildings (LC-ZEB), Energy and
Buildings 42 6 (2010), pp. 815-821
[3] Erik H. Lysen. The Trias Energica: Solar Energy
Strategies for Developing Countries. Eurosun
Conference, Freiburg, 16-19 Sept 1996.
[4] CEPHEUS: Cost efficient Passive Houses as
European Standards, A project within the
THERMIE Programme of the European
Commission, Directorate-General Transport and
Energy, Project Number: BU/0127/97, Duration:
1/98 to 12/01, Available from:
http://www.cepheus.de
[5] Institut Wallon, La consommation lectrique d'un
mnage URE, 2004
W.Feist, E.Baffia, J.Schnieders, R.Pfluger, O.
Kah. Passivhaus Projektierungs Paket 2002,
Anforderungen an qualittsgeprfte
Passivhuser, 4. Auflage, Fachinformation PHI-
2002/1, Darmstadt, Passivhaus Institut, January
2002.
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702 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
[6] F. Nicol and M.A. Humphreys , Thermal comfort
as part of a self-regulating system. Building
Research and Practice (Journal of CIB) 6 3
(1973), pp. 191-197
[7] R. deDear and G. Brager , Developing and
adaptive model of thermal comfort and
preference. ASHRAE Transactions 104 1
(1998), pp. 145-167
[8] M.A. Humphreys, Field studies of thermal
comfort compared and applied. Journal of the
Institute of Heating and Ventilating Engineers 44
(1976), pp. 5-27
[9] M.A. Humphreys , Outdoor temperatures and
comfort indoors. Building Research and Practice
(Journal of CIB) 6 2 (1978), pp. 92-105
[10] A. Auliciems and R. deDear, Air conditioning in
Australia. I. Human thermal factors. Architectural
Science Review 29 (1986), pp. 67-75
[11] American Society of Heating Ventilating and Air-
conditioning Engineers, ASHRAE Standard 55
2004 -Thermal Environmental Conditions for
Human Occupancy (ANSI Approved), Atlanta,
USA, 2004
[12] American Society of Heating Ventilating and Air-
conditioning Engineers, 2005 ASHRAE
Handbook Fundamentals, Atlanta, USA, 2005
[13] B.Boardman, Introduction, in Cutting the cost of
cold : affordable warmth for healthier homes,
E&F Spon, 2000
[14] P.Wilkinson, M.Landon and S.Stevenson,
Housing and winter death: epidemiological
evidence, in Cutting the cost of cold : affordable
warmth for healthier homes, E&F Spon, 2000
[15] K.Collins, Cold, cold housing and respiratory
illnesses, in Cutting the cost of cold: affordable
warmth for healthier homes, E&F Spon, 2000
[16] G.Payling-Wright and H.G.Payling-Wright,
Etiological factors in bronchopneumonia among
infants in London. Journal of hygiene 44 (1945),
pp.15-30
[17] T.Oreszczyn, I.Ridley, S.H.Hong and
P.Wilkinson, Mould and winter indoor relative
humidity in low income households in England,
Indoor and Built Environment 15 2 (2006), pp.
125-135
[18] O.Adan, G.Schober, F.M.Kniest and
J.Vorenkamp, Changing the indoor humidity
conditions, an allergological sanitation method
for the indoor environment, Revue Franaise
d'Allergologie et d'Immunologie Clinique 28 2
(1988), pp.147-151
[19] L.G.Arlian, J.S.Neal, M.S.Morgan, D.L.
Vyszenski-Moher, C.M.Rapp and A.K.
Alexander. Reducing relative humidity is a
practical way to control dust mites and their
allergens in homes in temperate climates.
Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 107
1 (2001), pp.99-104
[20] L.G.Arlian, J.S. Neal, M.S. Morgan and D.L.
Vyszenski-Mohe. Reducing relative humidity to
control the house dust mite Dermatophagoides
farina. Journal of Allergy and Clinical
Immunology 104 4 (1999), pp.852-856
[21] Ib.Andersen and J.Korsgaard, Asthma and the
indoor environment: Assessment of the health
implications of high indoor air humidity.
Environment International 12 1-4 (1986),
pp.121-127
[22] S.Howieson and A.Lawson, Dust mite allergens,
indoor humidity and asthma, in Cutting the cost
of cold : affordable warmth for healthier homes,
E&F Spon, 2000
[23] P.Wolkoff and S.K.Kjargaard, The dichotomy of
relative humidity on indoor air quality,
Environment International 33 6 (2007), pp.850-
857
[24] J.Goodwinn, Cold stress, circulatory illness and
elderly, in Cutting the cost of cold: affordable
warmth for healthier homes, E&F Spon, 2000
[25] W.Feist, S.Peper and M.Grg, CEPHEUS-
Projectinformation No. 36, Final Technical
Report, July 2001
[26] United Nations Environment Programme, Rio
Declaration on Environment and Development,
United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development, Rio de Janeiro, 1992
[27] R.J.Cole, Z.Brown, and S.McKay, Building
human agency: a timely manifesto, Building
Research & Information 38 3 (2010), pp.339-350
[28] J.Schnieders and A.Hermelink, CEPHEUS
results: measurements and occupants
satisfaction provide evidence for Passive
Houses being an option for sustainable building,
Energy Policy 34 2 (2006), pp.151-171
[29] S.Peper, W.Feist and O.Kah, Metechnische
Untersuchung und Auswertung; Klimaneutrale
Passivhaussiedlung in Hannover-Kronsberg,
Fachinformation PHI-2001/6, CEPHEUS-
Projektinformation Nr. 19, Passivhaus Institut,
Darmstadt, 2001
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BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 703
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
Thermal performance evaluation of four low cost
houses in Santa Maria - Brazil
Giane GRIGOLETTI
1
, Renata ROTTA
2
, Smila MULLER
1
1
Departamento de Arquitetura e Urbanismo, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, Brazil
2
Curso Tcnico em Edificaes, Instituto Federal Farroupilha, Santa Maria, Brazil
ABSTRACT: Since 2008 in situ measurements for typical Brazilian low cost housing have been taken in order to
verify their thermal performance and to propose suitable patterns for them. This paper presents the results
corresponding to research stage where four houses located in a medium city in the South of Brazil were
evaluated. The houses differ in the constructive system (ceramic and concrete blocks) and in their solar
orientation. The aim is verify the thermal performance in accordance to solar orientation and constructive
system. Three methods are considered: simulation based on Brazilian standards for transmittance and time
delay of walls and roofs, survey and in situ measurements of external and internal temperatures. The survey
was applied to thirty seven families. The used tool is a questionnaire about habits and domestic equipments
such as stove, fan, and heating. In situ measurements were carried with thermal sensors during the months
January and April. The hours of discomfort and degree-hours were analyzed. The three methods indicated the
same undesirable thermal behaviour for the four houses. The results reinforce the importance of solar passive
heating for winner conditions. In relation to system constructive, the performance of houses did not present
significant differences.
Keywords: thermal performance evaluation, low cost housing, thermal comfort
1. INTRODUCTION
In Brazil low income housing has presented
several thermal comfort problems and this kind of
housing has been subject of researches and
evaluations. Studies based on in situ measurements
are very important since they allow the evaluation of
thermal performance of housing in real conditions. In
the South of Brazil some analysis based on in situ
measurements were carried by Becker [1], Grigoletti
et al. [2] and Morello et al. [3] among others. The
variables monitored by authors include external and
internal temperatures and relative humidity. The
main conclusions pointed to not satisfaction of
thermal comfort conditions defined by Givoni [4].
This paper presents the results obtained for four
houses submitted to in situ measurements of internal
temperatures during the months February and March
2010. Two houses (A and B) have one bedroom and
they are built with ceramic blocks. The two others (C
and D) have two bedrooms and are built with
concrete blocks. The four houses differ in solar
orientation (see Table 2) and they are located in an
urban zone (characterized by low density) of a
medium sized city in South of Brazil. In 2009
measurements were carried for three similar houses
[5] and located in the same city. They were
submitted to in situ measurements for 14 days and
preliminary results demonstrate that internal air
temperatures were very near to external
temperatures mainly for the maximum. The
measured internal temperatures were above the
highest limit comfort zone for developing countries
(equal to 29C) according to Givoni [4] and there was
not significant difference between internal air
temperatures of different rooms in which the
measurements were carried.
2. OBJECTIVE AND METHOD
The research intends to define thermal
performance for local housing for the poor, initially
considering two possible categories of solutions:
appropriate to the local standard and no appropriate.
In this step, the behaviour of four houses was
evaluated in aim to verify the influence of solar
orientation and constructive system elements (walls
and roof).
The four houses were selected starting from the
indication of local government responsible by the
project and construction of low cost housing. The
government indicated a settlement as a solution no
advisable because the houses, along the time,
presented problems of thermal comfort according to
the occupants' perception. The houses were selected
starting from two typologies: one and two bedrooms,
ceramic and concrete blocks for walls and asbestos
cement and ceramic tiles like illustrated in table 2.
The houses were analysed through in situ
measurements, Brazilian standards and occupants
opinion.

2.1. In situ measurements
The houses were submitted to in situ
measurements during the months February and
March, 2010. External and internal air temperatures
were registered on an hourly basis. Two sensors
were installed in each house (kitchen/living room and
bedroom) at approximately 1.9 m above the floor and
they were located on southwest (house A), northeast
(house B), north (house C) and south (house D).
Additionally an external sensor was fixed under the
eaves with the aim of measuring the external air
temperatures. Measurements extended from January
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30
th
to April 08
th
2010 (1,657 hours). The used
equipment was a HOBO Temperature, Rh Onset
1996. The comfort zone for developing countries
according to Givoni [4] is used to analyse de thermal
behaviour of housing through the concepts of total
hours of discomfort and degree-hours.

2.2. Standard recommendations
The Brazilian standards concern to limits for the
wall and roof thermal transmittance (U), time delay
() and the external colour of those represented by
the solar factor (FS=100%UR
se
, where R
se
is
the external resistence of surface and is the
absortance of surface). The city in question belongs
to Bioclimatic Zone 2 that prescribes light walls and
roofs (see table 1).
Table 1: Brazilian standards for the city of analysed houses
BioZone 2
Walls thermal transmittance (W/m.K) 3,0
Wall thermal delay (hour) 4,3
Roof thermal transmittance (W/m.K) 2,0
Roof thermal delay (hour) 3,3

2.3. Occupants opinion
Additionally 37 occupants of the houses
answered to a questionnaire that intended to verify
their satisfaction in relation to the thermal comfort,
sources of heat inside the housing and habits in the
use of the houses among others topics. Topics
included in the survey were occupants age and how
long they have been living in the residence; how long
they daily stay at home; if occupants consider the
house hot in the summer; if they use fans or other
cooling equipment and the period of time they use it;
what is the hottest room; what room is more
comfortable in the summer; if occupants consider the
house cold in the winter; if they use artificial heating
and the period of time they use it; what is the coldest
room; what room is more comfortable in the winter; if
the house is humid.
3. FINDINGS
3.1. Housing description
The four analysed houses are located in a urban
low density zone. The neighbourhood is
characterized by one-store houses isolated in
individual plots (without shared walls between them).
Table 1 presents the plan floor with the sensors
location and the characterization of walls and roofs.

3.2. In situ measurements
Figure 1 illustrates respectively internal and
external air temperatures for A, B, C and D houses
from 1
st
to 15
th
March. The occupants stayed at
home during the days of measurements, except for D
house.
For A house, bedroom with south-west
orientation presents higher internal temperatures
than the maximum external temperatures and lowest
internal temperatures than the minimum registered
outdoor. It is indicative of housing low thermal inertia
that causes their fast response to external changes
of climatic conditions. Other possibility concerns to
occupants habits such as maintaining the windows
open.

Table 2: Characterization of the analyzed houses
House A - Wall white
colour, ceramic
blocks with mortar
plaster in both
sides
- Roof grey
colour, asbestos tile
(6mm thickness)
and internal layer of
concrete (8cm
thickness)


House B
- Wall white
colour, ceramic
blocks with mortar
plaster in both
sides
- Roof red colour,
ceramic tile and
internal layer of
concrete (8cm
thickness)

House C
- Wall white
colour, concrete
blocks (10cm
thickness) with
mortar plaster in
both sides
- Roof grey
colour, abestos tile
(6mm thickness)
and internal layer of
light wood

House D
- Wall salmon
colour, concrete
blocks (10cm
thickness) with
mortar plaster in
both sides
- Roof grey
colour, abestos tile
(6mm thickness)
and internal layer of
light wood

For B house, with north-east orientation, internal
temperatures are higher than the minimum external
temperatures. This fact could be explained
considering the solar orientation of B house that
promotes natural heating and its roof that presents
high thermal resistance (ceramic tiles). However
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maximum internal temperatures are higher than 29C
(limit of comfort zone according to Givoni [4]). In
some days registered internal temperatures are
higher than 35C.









Figure 1: Internal and external temperatures for houses
A, B, C and D respectively from 1
st
to 15
th
March

For C and D houses internal temperatures are
closer to maximum external temperatures than to the
minimum temperatures. Also maximum internal
temperatures present values above 29C. The room
with west orientation presents temperatures higher
than the south orientation. For C house significant
differences between north and east orientation was
not verified.
In addition the medium temperature (MT) and
standard deviation (SD) for internal and external
temperatures were generated for the period of 1st to
15th March. The table 3 presents the results.
The solar orientation also is indicated in the table 5.

Table 3: Medium and standard deviation for internal and
external temperatures
House Living room Bedroom External
MT SD MT SD MT SD
A (SO) 27.5 2.25 27.1 3.41 26.7 2.74
B (NE) 27.2 3.24 27.2 2.28 25.3 4.34
C (L-O) 27.9 2.58 27.8 2.91 24.8 3.93
D (O-L) 28.0 3.37 28.1 3.20 26.7 4.58

Although the medium internal temperatures were
lower than 29C, they were higher than the average
external temperatures measured close to houses.
The standard deviation reached values higher than
3C for rooms orientated to Southwest, Northwest
(wall) and West. The results indicate that, in addition
to poisoning of windows, the heating of walls due
their solar orientation (thermal load) must be
considered in the distribution of rooms, even for
small buildings as the presented in this research.
Table 4 presents the discomfort hours for cold
and heat verified for A, B, C and D houses. B house
presented lower percentage for heat discomfort what
could be explained by solar orientation and the
higher thermal resistance of its roof. C and D houses
presented higher percentage that corroborates the
local government agents opinion. However C house,
with north orientation, presents better performance
than the D house.

Table 4: Discomfort hours percentage for analysed houses
Houses
Room A B C D
Discomfort percentage (%)
Heat
living 34.3% 30.2% 37.1% 38.5%
bedroom 32.6% 28.6% 37.1% 40.0%
Cold
living 0.6% 0.8% 0.3% 0.5%
bedroom 2.2% 0.6% 0.7% 0.8%

Table 5 presents the degree-hours DH (number
of degrees Celsius by which the hourly internal
temperature is respectively above and below the
standard temperatures of 29 and 18C) for analysed
houses in the measurements period (two months).
The table 5 also presents the mean degree-hours
MDH in the same period (degree-hours divided by
the numbers of hours where the temperatures were
above or below 29C and 18C).



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4 xx.x SECTION NAME

Table 5: Degree-hours and mean degree-hours for
analysed houses

houses
A B C D
C
o
o
l
i
n
g


Living
DH 1,222 1,318 1,477 1,992
MDH 2.15 2.64 2.54 3.12
Bed
DH 1,503 900 1,600 2,000
MDH 2.77 1.96 2.75 3.02
H
e
a
t
i
n
g


Living
DH 4 7 0 4
MDH 0.44 0.67 0.10 0.48
Bed
DH 38 7 20 26
MDH 1.02 0.42 2.82 2.00

The analysis of degree-hours and mean degree-
hours indicates A and B houses have better
performance for summer conditions (cooling) than
the C and D houses. Although cooling degree-hours
for A and B are lower, they are more concentrated
(mean degree-hours). This behaviour could be
related to thermal inertia of them. However C house
also presents performance similar to A and B houses
for cooling. This behaviour could be related to solar
orientation of living room and bedroom (with walls
oriented to west and east). Additionally the D house
has not been occupied during measurements that
influenced its behaviour for summer and winter
conditions.
For heating the B house (with north-east
orientation) did not present difference for degree-
hours of bedroom and living room. However A, C and
D houses presented a significant difference between
degree-hours measured for living room and
bedroom. Degree-hours for bedrooms are higher
than living room. This behaviour could be explained
through solar orientation of bedrooms that do not
receive solar radiation during afternoons.

3.3. Standard recommendations
Thermal properties of wall and Brazilian
standards for thermal transmittance, time delay and
solar factor are presented on table 6. Thermal
transmittance standard references for walls are
satisfied for A and B houses, but not for C and D.
Time delay and solar factor standard references are
satisfied for the four houses, except D house that
factor solar is higher than the proposed level.

Table 6: Brazilian standards and thermal properties of wall
Wall prop. Standard A B C D
U (W/mK) 3,0 2,81 2,81 4,24 4,24
(h) 4,3 3,4 3,4 2,4 2,4
FS (%) 5,0 2,20 2,20 3,40 5,10

Thermal properties of roofs and Brazilian
standards for thermal transmittance, time delay and
solar factor are presented on table 7.

Table 7: Brazilian standards and thermal properties of roof
Roof prop. Standard A B C D
U (W/mK) 2,0 2,17 2,00 2,20 2,20
(h) 3,3 3,5 3,5 3,4 3,4
FS (%) 6,5 5,64 5,64 5,72 5,72

For the roofs only B house satisfied Brazilian
standard for thermal transmittance. Time delay was
not satisfied by any houses. The solar factor was
satisfied by all houses.
However considering the regional climatic
conditions suggest that recommendation for time
delay could be specified for a minimum value. In
other words houses with higher thermal inertia could
be desirable since temperatures have significant
daily variance.

3.4. Occupants opinion
The survey was based on a questionnaire with
closed questions that include if the occupants
consider their houses hot or cold for summer and
winter; if they use artificial ventilation or heating;
what rooms are more comfortable in summer and
winter; if they open the windows during the summer,
among others.
Table 8 presents the results obtained through the
survey. The occupants are very unsatisfied with
winter and summer conditions for the four houses. A
and B houses presented higher unsatisfied
percentage for the winter conditions whereas C and
D houses presented higher dissatisfaction for
summer conditions and humidity.

Table 8: Survey results and occupants opinion
Questions A e B
(yes)
C e D
(yes)
Hot conditions in summer 71% 97%
Cold conditions in winter 86% 67%
Humidity 43% 73%
Artificial ventilation in summer 100% 100%
Heating in winter 29% 17%
Stay at home during the day Yes/yes Yes/no

Houses built in concrete blocks presented more
problems of humidity than the ones built in ceramic
blocks. The high percentages of heating reinforce the
unpleasant with winter conditions of A and B houses.
Considering the results obtained with the in situ
measurements and the occupants opinion, the
Brazilian standards recommendations do not
guarantee an adequate thermal performance and
occupants comfort.

4. CONCLUSION
The findings corroborate the importance of solar
orientation of housing and thermal resistance of roof
with the proposal to reduce the discomfort caused by
hot climate. Additionally local government agents
opinion, A and B house (ceramic blocks) presented
better thermal performance than the C and D
(concrete blocks), was confirmed by the results.
Concerned to rooms and their degree-hours and
mean degree-hours, there was relevant difference
between them according to their solar orientation that
indicates the importance of solar orientation of rooms
as their use by the occupants (daily permanency for
a long time). Considering the hours of discomfort,
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 707
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 5
there was no significant difference between them.
This result could suggest that degree-hours and
mean degree-hours are more indicates for thermal
analysis than the hours of discomfort. Brazilian
standards could be revised with the proposal of
improve the thermal inertia of housing for BioZone 2.
The occupants opinion indicates a elevate
dissatisfaction with analysed typologies. Finally the
general results suggest that the standards adopted in
Brazil should be more stringent.

5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors acknowledge the support of FIPE
(Fundo de Incentivo Pesquisa) of Universidade
Federal de Santa Maria for the financial support and
the PPGEC/UFSM for material support.
6. REFERENCES
[1] Maria de F. M. Becker, Anlise do desempenho
trmico de uma habitao unifamiliar trrea
Dissertao de Mestrado, Porto Alegre (1992).
[2] G. Grigoletti, M. A. Sattler, A. Morello, Analysis
of thermal behaviour of a low cost, single-family,
more sustainable house in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Energy and Buildings 40 (2008) 1961-1971,
[3] A. Morello, G. Grigoletti, M. A. Sattler, Analysis
of thermal behaviour of a low cost, single-family,
housing prototype considering specific climatic
conditions, Proc. 23th PLEA, Genve (2006).
[4] B. Givoni, Comfort, climate analysis and building
design guidelines. Energy and Buildings 18
(1992) 11-23.
[5] G. Grigoletti et al., Thermal performance
evaluation of low cost in Santa Maria Brazil,
Proc. 26th PLEA, Quebc (2009).


PLEA2011 - 27th International Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
4 xx.x SECTION NAME

Table 5: Degree-hours and mean degree-hours for
analysed houses

houses
A B C D
C
o
o
l
i
n
g


Living
DH 1,222 1,318 1,477 1,992
MDH 2.15 2.64 2.54 3.12
Bed
DH 1,503 900 1,600 2,000
MDH 2.77 1.96 2.75 3.02
H
e
a
t
i
n
g


Living
DH 4 7 0 4
MDH 0.44 0.67 0.10 0.48
Bed
DH 38 7 20 26
MDH 1.02 0.42 2.82 2.00

The analysis of degree-hours and mean degree-
hours indicates A and B houses have better
performance for summer conditions (cooling) than
the C and D houses. Although cooling degree-hours
for A and B are lower, they are more concentrated
(mean degree-hours). This behaviour could be
related to thermal inertia of them. However C house
also presents performance similar to A and B houses
for cooling. This behaviour could be related to solar
orientation of living room and bedroom (with walls
oriented to west and east). Additionally the D house
has not been occupied during measurements that
influenced its behaviour for summer and winter
conditions.
For heating the B house (with north-east
orientation) did not present difference for degree-
hours of bedroom and living room. However A, C and
D houses presented a significant difference between
degree-hours measured for living room and
bedroom. Degree-hours for bedrooms are higher
than living room. This behaviour could be explained
through solar orientation of bedrooms that do not
receive solar radiation during afternoons.

3.3. Standard recommendations
Thermal properties of wall and Brazilian
standards for thermal transmittance, time delay and
solar factor are presented on table 6. Thermal
transmittance standard references for walls are
satisfied for A and B houses, but not for C and D.
Time delay and solar factor standard references are
satisfied for the four houses, except D house that
factor solar is higher than the proposed level.

Table 6: Brazilian standards and thermal properties of wall
Wall prop. Standard A B C D
U (W/mK) 3,0 2,81 2,81 4,24 4,24
(h) 4,3 3,4 3,4 2,4 2,4
FS (%) 5,0 2,20 2,20 3,40 5,10

Thermal properties of roofs and Brazilian
standards for thermal transmittance, time delay and
solar factor are presented on table 7.

Table 7: Brazilian standards and thermal properties of roof
Roof prop. Standard A B C D
U (W/mK) 2,0 2,17 2,00 2,20 2,20
(h) 3,3 3,5 3,5 3,4 3,4
FS (%) 6,5 5,64 5,64 5,72 5,72

For the roofs only B house satisfied Brazilian
standard for thermal transmittance. Time delay was
not satisfied by any houses. The solar factor was
satisfied by all houses.
However considering the regional climatic
conditions suggest that recommendation for time
delay could be specified for a minimum value. In
other words houses with higher thermal inertia could
be desirable since temperatures have significant
daily variance.

3.4. Occupants opinion
The survey was based on a questionnaire with
closed questions that include if the occupants
consider their houses hot or cold for summer and
winter; if they use artificial ventilation or heating;
what rooms are more comfortable in summer and
winter; if they open the windows during the summer,
among others.
Table 8 presents the results obtained through the
survey. The occupants are very unsatisfied with
winter and summer conditions for the four houses. A
and B houses presented higher unsatisfied
percentage for the winter conditions whereas C and
D houses presented higher dissatisfaction for
summer conditions and humidity.

Table 8: Survey results and occupants opinion
Questions A e B
(yes)
C e D
(yes)
Hot conditions in summer 71% 97%
Cold conditions in winter 86% 67%
Humidity 43% 73%
Artificial ventilation in summer 100% 100%
Heating in winter 29% 17%
Stay at home during the day Yes/yes Yes/no

Houses built in concrete blocks presented more
problems of humidity than the ones built in ceramic
blocks. The high percentages of heating reinforce the
unpleasant with winter conditions of A and B houses.
Considering the results obtained with the in situ
measurements and the occupants opinion, the
Brazilian standards recommendations do not
guarantee an adequate thermal performance and
occupants comfort.

4. CONCLUSION
The findings corroborate the importance of solar
orientation of housing and thermal resistance of roof
with the proposal to reduce the discomfort caused by
hot climate. Additionally local government agents
opinion, A and B house (ceramic blocks) presented
better thermal performance than the C and D
(concrete blocks), was confirmed by the results.
Concerned to rooms and their degree-hours and
mean degree-hours, there was relevant difference
between them according to their solar orientation that
indicates the importance of solar orientation of rooms
as their use by the occupants (daily permanency for
a long time). Considering the hours of discomfort,
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 709
1
Performance of Shading Device in Classrooms of
Zero Energy Building in Singapore
Nyuk Hien WONG
1
, Erna TAN
2
1
Department of Building, National University of Singapore, Singapore
2
Department of Building, National University of Singapore, Singapore
ABSTRACT: Zero Energy Building (ZEB) of Building and Construction Authority (BCA) Academy in Singapore is
a retrofitted building with different green building design features and technologies, used as a test-bed for
innovative building designs and energy efficient building solutions, especially for existing buildings. The building
has air-conditioned office space and naturally ventilated classrooms, with existing building orientation of east
and west and main functioning rooms face the west. Several passive design strategies were installed to
minimize the impact of the solar radiation from the west and to be more energy efficient. The paper focused on
the performance of different configurations of shading device in reducing heat again under afternoon sun for the
west facing naturally ventilated classrooms. Field physical measurements were conducted to compare the space
with and without the shading device. The study found out that the performance of 4-panel configuration was
more efficient than complete setting configuration in reducing heat gain into the building.
Keywords: shading device, passive design, heat gain, Zero Energy Building, Singapore
1. INTRODUCTION
In tropical climate area with abundant solar
radiation throughout the year, shading device is a
feature that can shade the building from direct solar
radiation and hence, reduce the heat gain and make
the space under the shade cooler.
The paper discussed the performance of different
configurations of shading device in reducing heat
gain under afternoon sun for the west facing naturally
ventilated classrooms. The heat gain study
compared the mean radiant temperature of the room
with and without the shading device for 2-panel, 3-
panel, 4-panel and complete setting configurations.
The next section of the paper gave general
overview of shading device, and the shading device
installed in the classrooms of Zero Energy Building.
It was followed by discussion on the method of the
physical measurement and the results. Finally, it was
closed with conclusions, limitations and future study.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Passive design - shading device
According to Ochoa and Capeluto, there has
been a growing interest to include intelligence in
buildings to be energy-efficient [1]. It can be done by
the smart architectural design decisions (passive
design strategies) or intelligent technological devices.
They defined passive design strategies as strategies
in developing a building to respond adequately to the
climatic requirements, while active features are
elements of buildings which can self-adjust to the
changes initiated by the internal or external
environments.
There are different passive design strategies
available for different climate. For tropical climate,
the common strategies are to harness the prevailing
wind for natural ventilation and the available sunlight
for daylighting, and to prevent heat gain into the
building from the excessive solar radiation.
One of the passive design strategies is shading
device. It is the basic strategy to reduce the
temperature build-up due to ambient air or solar
incidence [2].
There are different types of shading device.
Horizontal overhang is more efficient to shade from
high sun angles, while vertical fin and parallel-to-the-
wall screen are more efficient for lower sun angles [3].
2.2. Singapore climate
Singapore is located at North 1.3 and East
103.8. The climate is hot and humid with uniform
high temperatures, humidity and rainfall throughout
the year. The diurnal temperature variations are
small, minimum of 23C to 26C and maximum 31 C
to 34C [4].
(Fig. 1) shows the sun path diagram of
Singapore. The sun rises at around 07:00 in the east,
travels quite symmetrically along the North/South
and East/West axes, reaching the peak altitude at
around 13:00 and sets in the west at around 19:00.
There are two monsoons in Singapore. The
Northeast Monsoon occurs between November and
March with the prevailing wind blows from North to
Northeast, The Southwest Monsoon occurs between
June and September with the prevailing wind from
South to Southwest.
The sun rises at around 7am reaching the peak
altitude at around 1pm and sets at around 7pm.
Throughout the year as the earth rotates and orbits
around the sun, the sun is above the equator on 21
March and 23 September, travels southern during 23
September to 21 December and northern during 21
March to 21 June [5].
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
710 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
2
Figure 1: Sun path diagram of Singapore
2.3. Shading device in Zero Energy Building
Zero Energy Building (ZEB) is a retrofitted
existing building in the Building and Construction
Authority (BCA) Academy, Singapore. It is also the
first of such building in Southeast Asia and fully
retrofitted with green building design features and
technologies. It is used as a test-bed for innovative
building designs and energy efficient building
solutions [6].
The block of ZEB is facing East and West. One
third of the ZEB block was retrofitted into naturally
ventilated classrooms. It covers two structural grids
of the three storey high building. There are two
classrooms each and common area on 1
st
storey and
2
nd
storey, and a school hall on 3
rd
storey.
All classrooms and school hall have windows on
the west facade which receive direct solar radiation,
while the east side open to shaded common area or
corridor.
On the 1
st
storey facade, there were modular
shading devices installed, which configuration can be
changed. On the 2
nd
storey, there were lightshelves
installed. On the 3
rd
storey, there were permanent
shading devices installed.
3. METHODOLOGY
3.1. Weather condition
There was weather station installed for the ZEB
block, providing the data of ambient solar irradiance,
wind velocity and air temperature. This sensor was
installed on the open air of the roof without any
shade. The solar irradiance data was used as a
guide to choose clearer day for analysis.
There were also pyranometers installed on the
west facade of the classrooms to measure the actual
solar irradiance exposure that reached the rooms
used for the comparison study.
3.2. Shading device
A horizontal and vertical system of shading
device was used for study. Modular panels of
300mm width each were made. Each system can
hold up to 4 horizontal panels, 4 vertical panels on
each side, and a vertical panel parallel to the facade
wall. Hence, the maximum depth of shading is
1200mm. (Figs. 2, 3, 4 and 5) show the 2-panel
configuration, 3-panel configuration, 4-panel
configuration and complete setting configuration of
the shading device respectively.

Figure 2: The 2-panel configuration of shading device

Figure 3: The 3-panel configuration of shading device

Figure 4: The 4-panel configuration of shading device

Figure 5: The complete setting configuration of shading

device
The paper studied different configurations of 2
horizontal panels (600mm depth), 3 horizontal panels
(900mm depth), 4 horizontal panels (1200mm
depth), and complete setting. (Fig. 6) shows the
complete setting configuration of the shading device
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 711
3

Figure 6: The shading device on the west facade of 1

st
storey classrooms.
3.3. Indoor measurement
The objective of the indoor measurements was to
determine the heat gain through the difference of
mean radiant temperature under different
configurations. Globe thermometer was used for
continuous measurement to measure the mean
radiant temperature.
The room was divided into two zones of equal
size. Each zone has similar opening on the west
facade. One zone has no shading and the other zone
has shading depending on the configuration.
For each zone, a globe thermometer was located
at 200mm away from the middle of the west facade
windows and another at 1000mm away. At one time,
the measurement was conducted for one zone
without any shading and one zone with one
configuration of shading device. Hence, the
measurement was done on different days for
different configurations.
3.4. Data analysis method
The analysis was started by finding the clearer
day for each configuration measurement through the
weather stations ambient solar irradiance data. In
general, the day with high ambient solar irradiance in
the afternoon was used. The west facade solar
irradiance was also evaluated to make sure the
amount and time of solar exposure for different
configurations were similar.
Mean radiant temperature of shaded and non-
shaded zones of 200mm away and 1000mm away
from the west facade windows for each configuration
were plotted into graph. The readings were
compared among the different configurations, and
between the shaded and non-shaded zones.
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
A brief analysis on the ambient and the west
facade solar irradiance data was conducted. It was
found that the west facade solar irradiance profile
started to follow the ambient solar irradiance profile
at 1pm. Therefore, the analysis was based on
afternoon data from 1pm-7pm.
Through this analysis, it was also found that the
irradiance on the west facade was much affected by
the shading from the trees in front of the west facade
and the roof of the building. The peak of the
irradiance was at around 2pm when the sun was at
high altitude and the solar radiation went through
between the trees and the building facade. It
dropped at between 3pm to 4pm when the solar
radiation was blocked by the tree canopy and
increased at 5pm as the solar radiation went below
the canopy.
The graphs of mean radiant temperature of 2-
panel, 3-panel, 4-panel, and complete setting
configurations between shaded and non-shaded
zones from 7am to 7pm were shown in (Fig. 7) until
(Fig. 10) respectively.

Figure 7: Mean radiant temperature of 2-panel configuration

of shading device.
Figure 8: Mean radiant temperature of 3-panel configuration
of shading device.
Figure 9: Mean radiant temperature of 4-panel configuration
of shading device.
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
712 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
4
Figure 10: Mean radiant temperature of complete setting
configuration of shading device.
In general, the mean radiant temperature profile
for 2-panel configuration was similar to 3-panel
configuration, and the profile for 4-panel
configuration was similar to complete setting
configuration.
At 200mm away from the west facade windows,
at the peak time around 3pm, the reduction of mean
radiant temperature between the shaded and non-
shaded zones of the 2-panel and the 3-panel
configurations in average was less than 1C, while
for the 4-panel configuration was around 1C, and for
complete setting configuration was around 2C-3C.
At the peak time around 3pm, there was high
difference between the shaded and the non-shaded
zones, i.e. 2-panel configuration and 3-panel were
around 9C, and 4-panel configuration was around
8C. The high difference was caused by the non-
shaded zones 200mm away from the west facade
windows globe thermometers direct exposure to the
solar radiation at the peak time.
At 1000mm away from the west facade windows,
the 2-panel, 3-panel and 4-panel configurations
showed similar difference of shaded and non-shaded
zones, i.e. around 1C-2C. The complete setting
configuration showed 2C-4C difference. At peak
time, the difference was not as high as the reading
from 200mm away from the west facade windows as
the globe thermometers were not directly exposed to
the solar radiation.
For non-shaded zone at 200mm away from the
west facade windows, the 2-panel and 3-panel
configurations showed around 2C higher than the 4-
panel and complete setting configurations. For
shaded zone at 200mm away from the west facade
windows, the difference is around 1C-2C.
For non-shaded zone at 1000mm away from the
west facade windows, the difference was around
1C-3C. For shaded zone at 1000mm away from the
west facade windows, the difference was around 1C.
From all the readings available, it could be
concluded that 2-panel and 3-panel did not have
significant difference and either did 4-panel and
complete setting configurations. The difference at
200mm away from the west facade windows was
more than that at 1000mm away from the west
facade windows.
From all the readings, the 4-panel and the
complete setting configurations showed the best
performance in reducing the heat gain into the
building. Comparing from the construction cost and
effort, it could be inferred that the 4-panel
configuration was more efficient to reduce the heat
gain than the complete setting configuration.
5. CONCLUSION
The study showed that shading device can
reduce the heat gain into the room. The reduction
among different configurations was not significant
due to the shade from the trees on the west facade.
In general, the 2-panel and 3-panel
configurations were quite similar, while the 4-panel
configuration was similar to the complete setting
configuration. From all the readings available, it can
be concluded that the 4-panel configuration was
more efficient in reducing the heat gain than the
complete setting configuration.
The reduction between the shaded and non-
shaded zone expected in the study was not very high
as the shaded zone received more solar radiation
than the non-shaded zone due to the shade of the
trees on the west facade.
Study of the mean radiant temperature at the
center of the room is proposed to have better
understanding on the impact of the shading device
deeper in the room. Study of the difference in
illuminance level due to the use of different
configurations of shading device is also proposed to
achieve an integrated evaluation.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research is supported by Singapore Ministry
of National Development (MND) research fund,
Singapore Building and Construction Authority (BCA),
and Department of Building, National University of
Singapore.
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 713
5
7. REFERENCES
[1] Ochoa, Carlos Ernesto and Capeluto, Isaac
Guedi, 2008. Strategic decision-making for
intelligent buildings: Comparative impact of
passive design strategies and active features in
a hot climate. Building and Environment, 43,
1829-1839.
[2] Wright, David, 1984. Natural Solar Architecture:
The Passive Solar Primer. 3
rd
ed. New York:
Van Nostrand Reinhold Company.
[3] Rumbarger, Janet, 2003. Architectural Graphic
Standards for Residential Construction. New
York: John Wiley and Sons.
[4] Jusuf, Steve Kardinal., (in press) Development
of estate level urban climatic mapping
framework for air temperature prediction in
Singapore. Singapore: National University of
Singapore.
[5] Gaisma, 2010. Sunrise, sunset, dawn and dusk
times around the world! [online] Available at:<
http://www.gaisma.com/en/location
/singapore.html> [Accessed 8 April 2010].
[6] Ministry of National Development, 2009. Zero
Energy Building Unveiled! Available
at:http://www.mnd.gov.sg/MNDLink/2009/2009_
Nov/BCA_article.htm [Accessed 8 April 2010]
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 715

SoIar Chimney System of Zero Energy BuiIding in
Singapore
Ventilation Performances in Classroom
Nyuk Hien WONG
1
and Alex Yong Kwang TAN
1

1
Department of Building, School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore, Singapore
ABSTRACT: The Zero Energy Building is a three-stories building located in Singapore which was recently
retrofitted in 2009 with a range of green features. A solar chimney system was constructed to enhance the air
ventilation within the interior spaces using a series of solar assisted ducts that linked the lower floor classrooms
and upper floor hall. The mechanism of the solar chimney system is explained in details and experiments
conducted within the classroom showed that the solar chimney system is operating well in the hot and humid
tropics, including cool days. Furthermore, the presence of the solar chimney system effectively caused the interior
air speed to reach a maximum of 0.49 m/s and produced a 1 to 2 hours positive temperature lag in the classroom.
Keywords: Solar Chimney, Natural Ventilation, Zero Energy Building, Singapore
1. INTRODUCTION
The employment of natural ventilation is almost as
old as vernacular architecture. n the industrialized
19
th
and 20
th
centuries, stack ventilation was
developed further with the development of the
Trombe-Michel wall. However, the popularizing of
modern air-conditioning systems in the 1950s leaded
to a period of relative limited interests.
With the dawn of the 21
st
century which brought
along the issues of global warming and depleting oil
crisis into worldwide attention, there is a renewed
interest in passive building design which reduces
energy consumption and the corresponding carbon
footprint. The solar chimney, with the combining
features of the Trombe wall, solar roof collector and
wind tower, is gaining interest as an effective mean of
heat removal.
Recent examples include the Building Research
Establishment (BRE) Office Building, completed in
1996 and located in Garston, UK as well as the Lycee
Charles de Gaulle French School, finished in 2008
and situated in Damascus, Syria.
This paper aims to discuss the solar chimney
system employed in the Zero Energy Building (ZEB)
in Singapore and examines its effects on the air
speed and temperature within a classroom.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Solar assisted stack ventilation originated from the
developments of mathematical models. Bouchair [1]
conducted experiments within laboratory conditions
and obtain a maximum air speed of 0.3 m/s with a
drop in interior temperature of 3
o
C to 4
o
C. Rodono
and Volpes [2] calculated the heat transfer of a solar
chimney under unsteady state and results showed
that the convective current within the solar chimney
can remove 24% to 29% of the heat energy with
varying inner wall thickness.
Bunnag et al. [3] investigated the influences of the
tilt angles, air gaps and heat flux densities, concluding
that increasing heat fluxes or decreasing the tilt
angles increase the air temperature. Harris and
Helwig [4] simulated the optimum design of the solar
chimney based on Edinburgh, Scotland and found
that the maximum airflow was obtained with a solar
chimney's depth of 0.25 m and a tilt angle of 67.5
o
.
Under Tokyo, Japan weather conditions, Miyazaki
et al. [5] experiments showed that after a width of 0.2
m, the effect of the width of the solar chimney was
insignificant. Gan [6] examined the solar chimney
performance and determined an optimum solar
chimney's depth which increased with the solar
chimney's height but was independent of the heat flux.
Arce et al. [7] set up a solar chimney in the
outdoor desert of Tabernas, Spain facing south and
found that the surface temperatures on the concrete
wall and glass cover of the solar chimney as well as
the inlet and outlet temperatures followed the
variation of the solar radiation with a two hour lag.
Khedari et al. [8, 9] examined the effects of solar
chimney and showed that the room temperature is
2
o
C to 3
o
C higher than the ambient temperature as
compared to the 5
o
C to 6
o
C observed in the reference
case.
Afonso and Oliveira [10] compared conventional
and solar chimneys under Lisbon, Portugal weather
conditions showing an air change rate of 26.2 ACH
for solar chimney while the convectional chimney
gave an air change rate of 20.1 ACH.
Drori and Ziskind [11] carried out experiments on
a real-size one-story building. n the absence of stack
ventilation, the indoor air temperature was above the
ambient temperature by 7
o
C to 9
o
C at 1800 hours.
With ventilation ducts, the indoor air temperature
remained similar to the ambient temperature with
airflow rate reaching 0.2 m/s to 0.3 m/s.
Bassiouny and Korah [12] provided detailed
airflow pattern of the effect of solar chimney on
interior air ventilation, showing that flow separation
occurred with increasing solar chimney's depth.
Furthermore, at various solar intensities, the ACH
increased with increasing inlet's height and outlet's
depth before asymptotically tapping off. Bassiouny
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
716 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
and Korah [13] studied the effects of the inclination
angle of solar chimney on the airflow pattern and
showed that inclination angles between 45
o
to 75
o

gave better flow pattern and air penetration.
3. METHODOLOGY
3.1. Zero Energy BuiIding
The Zero Energy Building (ZEB) is a three-stories
building measuring 64.2 m in length by 21.0 m in
width by 14.2 m in height, located in Singapore and
was retrofitted in 2009 with a range of green features.


Figure 1: The zero-energy building in Singapore showing the
ducts solar chimney system on the west faade.
The northern side of ZEB (Fig. 1) is natural
ventilated with the two classrooms at the first and
second floors, each measuring 8.8 m in length by 9.3
m in width by 3.4 m in height, while the third floor is
used as a multiple-purpose hall, measuring 18.0 m in
length by 18.0 m in width by 6.6 m in height.
3.2. SoIar Chimney System
The solar chimney system consists of four vertical
ducts on the west faade serving the classrooms in
the first and second floors as well as two vertical
ducts on the east faade and four vertical interior
ducts serving the hall. These ten inlets extended
horizontally on the roof before interconnecting to the
four vertical chimney outlets in the middle of the roof.
The inlets and outlets of the solar chimney system
are arranged in four vertical planes (numbered 1 to 4
from North to South) and are connected via a
horizontal duct along the middle of the roof. Each of
the four interior inlets and chimney outlets are located
separately in each plane.
The inlets are located 2.5 m above the ground,
measuring 3.0 m by 5.0 m in height and width. The
solar chimney ducts are made of 3 mm thick
aluminium plates, with a width and depth measuring
1.0 m by 0.3 m respectively. The chimney outlet on
the rooftop measures 0.785 m in height, is circular at
the bottom with a diameter of 1.0 m and elliptic at the
top with its major and minor axes measuring 2.2 m
and 1.0 m respectively. Air escapes through the outlet
along the side with 60% clear opening.
Along the west faade, inlets in plane 1 and plane
2 serve the level 1 classroom while the inlets in plane
3 and plane 4 serve the level 2 classroom; along the
east faade, inlets serve the hall in plane 1 and 4.
From Fig. 2, under solar radiation (dotted arrows),
air within the ducts expands and rises out of the
outlets, drawing the ambient air into the interior
through the fenestrations (solid arrows). The ambient
wind acts as an addition push factor, complementing
the pull factor from the stack effect. n the absence of
strong solar radiation, the interconnectivity of the
solar chimney system hopes to achieve sufficient air
movement in the classrooms from the stack pressure
within the hall due to its height.

Figure 2: Principles of solar chimney (plane 1)
3.3. ExperimentaI Set-up of SoIar Chimney
Within the ducts of the solar chimney system, a
total of 32 air speed and temperature sensors (OJ
Elektronik air transducer ESF-35) were installed with
their location summarized in Table 1.
Table 1: Locations of air speed and temperature sensors
within the solar chimney system
Plane Locations No
1
East faade inlet
West faade inlet
Bottom of chimney outlet
Top of chimney outlet
1
1
1
1
2
West faade inlet
Bottom of chimney outlet
Top of chimney outlet
West faade spaced 2 m
Western rooftop spaced 2 m
1
1
1
3
4
3
West faade inlet
Bottom of chimney outlet
Top of chimney outlet
West faade spaced 1 m
Western rooftop spaced 2 m
1
1
1
3
4
4
East faade inlet
West faade inlet
Bottom of chimney outlet
Top of chimney outlet
Eastern rooftop spaced 2 m
1
1
1
1
4
Total number of sensors 32
n addition, a total of 26 surface temperature
sensors (T thermocouple) were installed on the
exterior surface of the ducts and their positions are
summarized in Table 2.
The instantaneous readings of the air speed, air
temperature and surface temperature sensors were
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 717


recorded at a logging interval of five minutes and
further averaged over every five readings.
Table 2: Locations of surface temperature sensors within
the solar chimney system
Plane Locations No
2
West faade spaced 2 m
Western rooftop spaced 2 m
3
4
3
West faade spaced 1 m
Western rooftop spaced 2 m
3
4
4
Eastern rooftop spaced 2 m
Bottom of chimney outlet
(north, south, east and west)
Top of chimney outlet
(north, south, east and west)
4
4

4

Total number of sensors 26

3.4. ExperimentaI Set-up of LeveI 1 CIassroom
The level 1 classroom is partitioned into 2 regions,
serving as the experimental and reference (inlet in
plane 1 is closed) regions. Within the experimental
region (Fig. 3), a total of 10 air temperature sensors
(HOBO datalogger) were positioned 1.0 m and 2.0 m
above the ground in sets of fives with another 10
corresponding sensors located in the reference region.
The instantaneous readings were recorded at a
logging interval of five minutes and further averaged
over every five readings.

Figure 3: Arrangement of air speed and temperature sensors
in experimental region of level 1 classroom (in mm)
n addition, 5 air speed sensors (Dantec 54T33
draught probe) were positioned 1.0 m above the
ground in the experimental region (Table 3) beside
the air temperature sensors. The sampling interval
was a period of ten seconds, averaged over 40 data
points while readings were continuously obtained at a
logging interval of five minutes and further averaged
over every five readings.
Table 3: Locations of air speed and temperature sensors in
level 1 classroom
Air Temp Air Speed
Expt Ref Expt
Coordinates
AT-1 BT-1 AS-1 (110, 300, 100)
AT-2 BT-2 AS-2 (220. 300, 100)
AT-3 BT-3 AS-3 (170, 465, 100)
AT-4 BT-4 AS-4 (110, 630, 100)
AT-5 BT-5 AS-5 (220, 630, 100)
AT-6 BT-6 (110, 300, 200)
AT-7 BT-7 (220. 300, 200)
AT-8 BT-8 (170, 465, 200)
AT-9 BT-9 (110, 630, 200)
AT-10 BT-10 (220, 630, 200)

Finally, the ambient air speed and temperature
are located 1.4 m away from the classroom at a
height of 1.0 m above the ground, in line with sensor
position AS-2 and AS-5 while the fenestration on the
east faade measures 2.4 m high by 3.1 m wide.
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Low wind, high solar irradiance and occasionally
cloud cover (Fig. 4) especially in the afternoon
characterized the climatic weather of Singapore.
From Fig. 4, typical hot and cool days were compared
to understand the performance of the solar chimney
system and its impact in the classroom.
4.1. SoIar Chimney System
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
0
500
1000

r
r
a
d
i
a
n
c
e

(
W
/
m
2
)


rradiance
rradiance
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
30
40
50
60
Hours
S
u
r
f
a
c
e

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(
o
C
)


6m above inlet (E)
Roof 6m from outlet (E)
6m above inlet (E)
Roof 6m from outlet (E)

Figure 4: Ambient irradiance and surface temperatures of
solar chimney (black: hot day, grey: cool day)
The exterior surface temperature of the solar
chimney was found to follow the ambient irradiance
closely during both the hot and cool days, reaching
maximum values of 60
o
C and 48
o
C respectively. The
readings 6.0 m above the inlet (west faade) were
much lower than that on the roof due to shading from
a row of trees in front of the west faade.
nlet
T
a
b
l
e
s

a
n
d

c
h
a
i
r
s

Fenestrations
9
3
0

440
130
85
170
90
140
x
y
AS-2 AS-1
AS-4 AS-5
AS-3
and Korah [13] studied the effects of the inclination
angle of solar chimney on the airflow pattern and
showed that inclination angles between 45
o
to 75
o

gave better flow pattern and air penetration.
3. METHODOLOGY
3.1. Zero Energy BuiIding
The Zero Energy Building (ZEB) is a three-stories
building measuring 64.2 m in length by 21.0 m in
width by 14.2 m in height, located in Singapore and
was retrofitted in 2009 with a range of green features.


Figure 1: The zero-energy building in Singapore showing the
ducts solar chimney system on the west faade.
The northern side of ZEB (Fig. 1) is natural
ventilated with the two classrooms at the first and
second floors, each measuring 8.8 m in length by 9.3
m in width by 3.4 m in height, while the third floor is
used as a multiple-purpose hall, measuring 18.0 m in
length by 18.0 m in width by 6.6 m in height.
3.2. SoIar Chimney System
The solar chimney system consists of four vertical
ducts on the west faade serving the classrooms in
the first and second floors as well as two vertical
ducts on the east faade and four vertical interior
ducts serving the hall. These ten inlets extended
horizontally on the roof before interconnecting to the
four vertical chimney outlets in the middle of the roof.
The inlets and outlets of the solar chimney system
are arranged in four vertical planes (numbered 1 to 4
from North to South) and are connected via a
horizontal duct along the middle of the roof. Each of
the four interior inlets and chimney outlets are located
separately in each plane.
The inlets are located 2.5 m above the ground,
measuring 3.0 m by 5.0 m in height and width. The
solar chimney ducts are made of 3 mm thick
aluminium plates, with a width and depth measuring
1.0 m by 0.3 m respectively. The chimney outlet on
the rooftop measures 0.785 m in height, is circular at
the bottom with a diameter of 1.0 m and elliptic at the
top with its major and minor axes measuring 2.2 m
and 1.0 m respectively. Air escapes through the outlet
along the side with 60% clear opening.
Along the west faade, inlets in plane 1 and plane
2 serve the level 1 classroom while the inlets in plane
3 and plane 4 serve the level 2 classroom; along the
east faade, inlets serve the hall in plane 1 and 4.
From Fig. 2, under solar radiation (dotted arrows),
air within the ducts expands and rises out of the
outlets, drawing the ambient air into the interior
through the fenestrations (solid arrows). The ambient
wind acts as an addition push factor, complementing
the pull factor from the stack effect. n the absence of
strong solar radiation, the interconnectivity of the
solar chimney system hopes to achieve sufficient air
movement in the classrooms from the stack pressure
within the hall due to its height.

Figure 2: Principles of solar chimney (plane 1)
3.3. ExperimentaI Set-up of SoIar Chimney
Within the ducts of the solar chimney system, a
total of 32 air speed and temperature sensors (OJ
Elektronik air transducer ESF-35) were installed with
their location summarized in Table 1.
Table 1: Locations of air speed and temperature sensors
within the solar chimney system
Plane Locations No
1
East faade inlet
West faade inlet
Bottom of chimney outlet
Top of chimney outlet
1
1
1
1
2
West faade inlet
Bottom of chimney outlet
Top of chimney outlet
West faade spaced 2 m
Western rooftop spaced 2 m
1
1
1
3
4
3
West faade inlet
Bottom of chimney outlet
Top of chimney outlet
West faade spaced 1 m
Western rooftop spaced 2 m
1
1
1
3
4
4
East faade inlet
West faade inlet
Bottom of chimney outlet
Top of chimney outlet
Eastern rooftop spaced 2 m
1
1
1
1
4
Total number of sensors 32
n addition, a total of 26 surface temperature
sensors (T thermocouple) were installed on the
exterior surface of the ducts and their positions are
summarized in Table 2.
The instantaneous readings of the air speed, air
temperature and surface temperature sensors were
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
718 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
26
28
30
32
34
36
38
40
Hours
A
i
r

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(
o
C
)


Reference inlet (R)
Experimental inlet (E)
6m above inlet (E)
Reference inlet (R)
Experimental inlet (E)
6m above inlet (E)

Figure 5: Air temperatures within solar chimney system
along west faade (black: hot day, grey: cool day)
The heat energy absorbed by the duct surfaces is
conducted to the air within before escaping through
the outlet due to convection. Hence, air temperature
within the solar chimney increases as it travels from
the inlet to the outlet, reaching a maximum along the
roof before dropping at the outlet (Fig. 5 and Fig. 6).
Furthermore, the temperature increases is generally
greater in hotter days, with a temperature difference
of 2
o
C to 3
o
C.
From Fig. 5, the temperature of the reference inlet
is much higher during both the hot and cool days
compared to the experimental inlet as the lack of
natural convection is unable to remove the heat
absorbed from solar irradiance.
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
30
35
40
45
50
55
Hours
A
i
r

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(
o
C
)


roof 6m from outlet (E)
Top of oulet (R)
Top of outlet (E)
roof 6m from outlet (E)
Top of oulet (R)
Top of outlet (E)

Figure 6: Air temperatures within solar chimney system
along rooftop (black: hot day, grey: cool day)
As air heats up, its density drops and produces
the thermal stack effect, increasing its speed. As
shown in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8, during the hot day, air
speed increases along the west faade before
dropping as it takes a turn and increases to its
maximum value of 1.9 m/s before decreasing again at
the outlet.
During cooler weather, the low irradiance is
unable to produce sufficient thermal stack to drive the
solar chimney on the west faade and rooftop.
However, the stack effect from the hall's interior ducts
due to its higher height (Fig. 2) is able to produce
sufficient pressure to induce air movement in the
ducts serving the level 1 classroom.
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
Hours
A
i
r

s
p
e
e
d

(
m
/
s
)


Reference inlet (R)
Experimental inlet (E)
6m above inlet (E)
Reference inlet (R)
Experimental inlet (E)
6m above inlet (E)

Figure 7: Air speeds within solar chimney system along west
faade (black: hot day, grey: cool day)
From Fig. 7 and Fig. 8, there is almost no air
speed at the reference inlet. However, an average air
speed of 0.4 m/s is detected at the reference outlet,
indicating air movement within the hall. This
combined effect of the hall's stack and the weak solar
irradiance produce an average air speed of 1.1 m/s
along the rooftop on the cooler day.
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
Hours
A
i
r

s
p
e
e
d

(
m
/
s
)


roof 6m from outlet (E)
Top of oulet (R)
Top of outlet (E)
roof 6m from outlet (E)
Top of oulet (R)
Top of outlet (E)

Figure 8: Air speeds within solar chimney system along
rooftop (black: hot day, grey: cool day)
4.2. LeveI 1 CIassroom
The air induced by the solar chimney system,
together with the ambient wind, causes air to flow
across the classroom, removing heat along the
process. Comparing the temperature within the
experimental and reference regions of the classroom
(Fig. 9), it is observed that the experimental region
heats up slower and cools faster with a time lag
ranging from 1 to 2 hours and is most effective during
the hot afternoon between 1300 hrs to 1500 hrs.
With respect to the classroom air speed, from Fig.
10, the lower air speed within the solar chimney
system during the cooler day translated into lower air
speed within the experimental region of the classroom
at all the measured locations.
At the same time, the highest air speed achieved
is located at AS-3, reaching a maximum of 0.49 m/s
and 0.44 m/s during the hot and cooler day
respectively. Locations AS-1, AS-2 and AS-4 have
similar values, giving average values of 0.26 m/s and
0.24 m/s in the hot and cool days respectively.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 719


10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
29
29.5
30
30.5
31
31.5
32
32.5
Hours
A
i
r

T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(
o
C
)


AT-3
BT-3
Ambient
AT-3
BT-3
Ambient

Figure 9: Air temperatures in classroom (black: hot day, grey:
cool day)
n another instance, the fenestrations on the east
faade are replaced by perforated wall to mimic null
wind conditions. Results showed that (Fig. 10) a
relative constant air speed is obtained throughout the
cooler day, inferring that the fluctuations of the
classroom's air speed obtained with fenestrations
could be due to turbulence from the ambient air.
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
0.5
1
1.5
Hours


10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
A
i
r

s
p
e
e
d

(
m
/
s
)


AS-1 AS-3 AS-1 AS-3 AS-1 AS-3
Ambient Ambient

Figure 10: Air speeds in classroom and ambient wind (black:
hot day, grey: cool days - refers to perforated wall)
5. CONCLUSION
This paper introduces the solar chimney system
implemented in the ZEB in Singapore. Under the hot
and humid climatic conditions, the coupling of the
solar chimney ducts linking the classrooms and hall
shows that the solar chimney performs well even
during cool days with low solar irradiance.
During a typical hot day, the surface temperature
of the solar chimney can reach a temperature of 60
o
C
while the air within can achieve a temperature 47
o
C
and speed of 1.9 m/s. This leads into a 1 to 2 hours
positive temperature time lag (heats up slower and
cools faster) in the classroom as well as a higher air
speed reaching a maximum of 0.49 m/s.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was supported by the National
University of Singapore and the Building and
Construction Authority of Singapore under the
collaborative research project titled "Future Green
School of ZEB@BCA.
7. REFERENCES
[1] A. Bouchair (1994) Solar chimney for promoting
cooling ventilation in southern Algeria. Building
Services Engineering Research and Technology,
15, pp. 81-93.
[2] G. Rodono and R. Volpes (1998) Heat transfer
calculation in a free convection air solar collector.
Energy and Buildings, 27, pp. 21-27.
[3] T. Bunnag, J. Khedari, J. Hirunlabh, and B.
Zeghmati (2004) Experimental investigation of
free convection in an open-ended inclined
rectangular channel heated from the top.
International Journal of Ambient Energy, 25, pp.
151-162.
[4] D.J. Harris and N. Helwig (2007) Solar chimney
and natural ventilation. Applied Energy, 84, pp.
135-146.
[5] T.Miyazaki, A. Akisawa and T. Kashiwagi (2006)
The effects of solar chimneys on thermal load
mitigation of office buildings under the Japanese
climate. Renewable Energy, 31, pp. 987-1010.
[6] G. Gan (2006) Simulation of buoyancy-induced
flow in open cavities for natural ventilation.
Energy and Buildings, 38, pp. 410-420.
[7] J. Arce, M.J. Jimenez, J.D. Guzman, M.R. Heras,
G. Alvarez and J. Xaman (2009) Experimental
study for natural ventilation on a solar chimney.
Renewable Energy, 34, pp. 2928-2934.
[8] J. Khedari, C. Lertsatitthanakorn, N. Pratinthong
and J. Hirunlabh (1998) The modified Trombe
wall, pp. A simple ventilation means and an
efficient insulating material. International Journal
of Ambient Energy, 19(2), pp. 104-110.
[9] J. Khedari, B. Boonsri and J. Hirunlabh (2000)
Ventilation impact of a solar chimney on indoor
temperature fluctuation and air change in a
school building. Energy and Buildings, 32, pp.
89-93.
[10] C. Afonso and A. Oliveira (2000) Solar Chimneys:
simulation and experiment. Energy and Buildings,
32, pp. 71-79.
[11] U. Drori and G. Ziskind (2004) nduced ventilation
of a one-story real-size building. Energy and
Buildings, 36, pp. 881-890.
[12] R. Bassiouny and N.S.A. Koura (2008) An
analytical and numerical study of solar chimney
use for room natural ventilation. Energy and
Buildings, 40, pp. 865-873.
[13] R. Bassiouny and N.S.A. Korah (2009) Effect of
solar chimney inclination angle on space fow
pattern and ventilation rate. Energy and Buildings,
41, pp. 190-196.
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
26
28
30
32
34
36
38
40
Hours
A
i
r

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(
o
C
)


Reference inlet (R)
Experimental inlet (E)
6m above inlet (E)
Reference inlet (R)
Experimental inlet (E)
6m above inlet (E)

Figure 5: Air temperatures within solar chimney system
along west faade (black: hot day, grey: cool day)
The heat energy absorbed by the duct surfaces is
conducted to the air within before escaping through
the outlet due to convection. Hence, air temperature
within the solar chimney increases as it travels from
the inlet to the outlet, reaching a maximum along the
roof before dropping at the outlet (Fig. 5 and Fig. 6).
Furthermore, the temperature increases is generally
greater in hotter days, with a temperature difference
of 2
o
C to 3
o
C.
From Fig. 5, the temperature of the reference inlet
is much higher during both the hot and cool days
compared to the experimental inlet as the lack of
natural convection is unable to remove the heat
absorbed from solar irradiance.
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
30
35
40
45
50
55
Hours
A
i
r

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(
o
C
)


roof 6m from outlet (E)
Top of oulet (R)
Top of outlet (E)
roof 6m from outlet (E)
Top of oulet (R)
Top of outlet (E)

Figure 6: Air temperatures within solar chimney system
along rooftop (black: hot day, grey: cool day)
As air heats up, its density drops and produces
the thermal stack effect, increasing its speed. As
shown in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8, during the hot day, air
speed increases along the west faade before
dropping as it takes a turn and increases to its
maximum value of 1.9 m/s before decreasing again at
the outlet.
During cooler weather, the low irradiance is
unable to produce sufficient thermal stack to drive the
solar chimney on the west faade and rooftop.
However, the stack effect from the hall's interior ducts
due to its higher height (Fig. 2) is able to produce
sufficient pressure to induce air movement in the
ducts serving the level 1 classroom.
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
Hours
A
i
r

s
p
e
e
d

(
m
/
s
)


Reference inlet (R)
Experimental inlet (E)
6m above inlet (E)
Reference inlet (R)
Experimental inlet (E)
6m above inlet (E)

Figure 7: Air speeds within solar chimney system along west
faade (black: hot day, grey: cool day)
From Fig. 7 and Fig. 8, there is almost no air
speed at the reference inlet. However, an average air
speed of 0.4 m/s is detected at the reference outlet,
indicating air movement within the hall. This
combined effect of the hall's stack and the weak solar
irradiance produce an average air speed of 1.1 m/s
along the rooftop on the cooler day.
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
Hours
A
i
r

s
p
e
e
d

(
m
/
s
)


roof 6m from outlet (E)
Top of oulet (R)
Top of outlet (E)
roof 6m from outlet (E)
Top of oulet (R)
Top of outlet (E)

Figure 8: Air speeds within solar chimney system along
rooftop (black: hot day, grey: cool day)
4.2. LeveI 1 CIassroom
The air induced by the solar chimney system,
together with the ambient wind, causes air to flow
across the classroom, removing heat along the
process. Comparing the temperature within the
experimental and reference regions of the classroom
(Fig. 9), it is observed that the experimental region
heats up slower and cools faster with a time lag
ranging from 1 to 2 hours and is most effective during
the hot afternoon between 1300 hrs to 1500 hrs.
With respect to the classroom air speed, from Fig.
10, the lower air speed within the solar chimney
system during the cooler day translated into lower air
speed within the experimental region of the classroom
at all the measured locations.
At the same time, the highest air speed achieved
is located at AS-3, reaching a maximum of 0.49 m/s
and 0.44 m/s during the hot and cooler day
respectively. Locations AS-1, AS-2 and AS-4 have
similar values, giving average values of 0.26 m/s and
0.24 m/s in the hot and cool days respectively.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 721

Delayed gratification: Interseasonal heat storage, as
a carbon-neutral refurbishment strategy for 19
th

Century dwellings.
Greg KEEFFE
1
,
1
Leeds School of Architecture, Landscape and Design
ABSTRACT: In the UK there are nearly five million terraced houses, that were built in the nineteenth century. The
houses allthough robust and popular perform poorly from an energy point of view. This Paper describes an
ambitious project to develop a carbon neutral refurbishment strategy for these houses without massive aesthetic
change..
Taking a case study of one archetypal terrace, the project aims to show that, by using PV-thermal panels coupled
with an interseasonal store housed in the redundant basement space, a carbon neutral in use solution can be
found. The approach adopted minimises the disturbance to existing tenants by focusing on collecting, storing and
saving energy all outside the habitable shell and improving the efficiency of that shell from the outside. This
approach potentially offers huge savings in the otherwise unnecessary costs of decanting tenants and storing
furniture, replacing kitchens, bathrooms and redecoration. Planning issues are minimised by proposing very little
change to the front elevation in the context of a uniform street appearance
The project incorporates several innovative features, firstly, the project uses a large area of PV-T panels. These
produce not only electrical output but also thermal output.The panels chosen are ones with a glazed cover that
improve their thermal performance (with a small loss of electrical efficiency). Over the year, the panels produce
enough thermal energy to heat the property and enough electricity to power it. Secondly the project utilises an
interseasonal store in the cellar of the property. The key idea is to store energy from the summer and autumn and
use this to supplement the winter output of the panels to provide thermal output that matches the heating needs of
the property. Finally, there are fabric improvements to lower the heat loss of the house.
The project shows that, with minimal intervention to the fabric and aesthetic of the dwelling, it is possible to produce
a robust, carbon-neutral in use solution, that is applicable to a large number of Victorian dwellings.

Keywords: carbon neutral, inter-seasonal store, pv-t, terrace
1. INTRODUCTION
In the UK there are nearly five million terraced
houses, that were built in the nineteenth century [1].
The houses allthough robust and popular, perform
poorly from an energy point of view. This paper
describes an ambitious project to develop a carbon
neutral refurbishment strategy for these houses
without massive aesthetic change.

Taking a case study of one archetypal terrace,
the project aims to show that, by using PV-thermal
panels coupled with an interseasonal store housed in
the redundant basement space, a carbon neutral in
use solution can be found. The approach adopted
minimises the disturbance to existing tenants by
focusing on collecting, storing and saving energy all
outside the habitable shell and improving the
efficiency of that shell from the outside. This approach
potentially offers huge savings in the otherwise
unnecessary costs of decanting tenants and storing
furniture, replacing kitchens, bathrooms and
redecoration. Planning issues are minimised by
proposing very little change to the front elevation in
the context of a uniform street appearance

The project incorporates several innovative
features, firstly, the project uses a large area of PV-T
panels. These produce not only electrical output but
also thermal output.The panels chosen are ones with
a glazed cover that improve their thermal
performance (with a small loss of electrical efficiency).
Over the year, the panels produce enough thermal
energy to heat the property and enough electricity to
power it. Secondly the project utilises an inter-
seasonal store in the cellar of the property. The key
idea is to store energy from the summer and autumn
and use this to supplement the winter output of the
panels to provide thermal output that matches the
heating needs of the property. Finally, there are
fabric improvements to lower the heat loss of the
house.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
722 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)


The project shows that, with minimal intervention
to the fabric and aesthetic of the dwelling, it is
possible to produce a robust, carbon-neutral in use
solution, that is applicable to a large number of
Victorian dwellings.

1.1. Project brief
The system devised uses two innovative
technologies, and a series of simple heatloss
measures to provide a true energy-neutral solution to
renovation, which is highly replicable, can be
completed in a very short length of time, and without
decanting the occupier of the house. This is
achieved, by the development of a system that stores
summer heat, in an underground store, to be used in
the winter months. The approach adopted will
minimise the disturbance to existing tenants by
focusing on collecting, storing and saving energy all
outside the habitable shell and improving the
efficiency of that shell from the outside. This approach
potentially offers huge savings in the otherwise
unnecessary costs of decanting tenants and storing
furniture, replacing kitchens, bathrooms and other
fittings and redecoration. The proposal can be applied
to one-off properties or even more efficiently to
grouped properties. Planning issues are minimised by
proposing very little change to the front elevation in
the context of a uniform street appearance. Whole
terrace retrofits could propose more radical aesthetic
transformation with greater energy efficiency.

The project had to satisfy the demands of the real
world in order to be sustainable in use and priorities
have been set to utilise methods which will:
have the least possible disruption to the
lifestyle of existing occupiers and have the
simplest control systems
have the least possible disruption to
residents during refurbishment works
(although they will decant for this prototype)
be carbon neutral in use
be effective when applied to an individual
house or a whole street
have long life expectation and low
maintenance requirements
build on and reinforce the qualities of the
existing building fabric
make little visual impact to the property and
the character of the street
not impinge on the internal dimensions and
features of the rooms
minimise internal work to main living areas.

1.2. The House.

Figure 1: Typical Victorian terrace circa 1880.

The Property is situated in Salford, Manchester
UK. It is a 3-bedroom, Victorian mid-terrace with
single-storey, front bay-window, two-storey rear
outrigger and cellars. It is typical of the type with solid
brickwork construction and slated roof on timber
rafters and purlins. Ground and first floors are
suspended timber construction, except for the rear
kitchen which appears to be ground bearing concrete.
There are brickwork chimneys to all main rooms and
cellars. There is a small rear garden accessible from
a rear alleyway, and a small front garden. Car parking
is all on-street.

Figure 2: Plan of house

The house type is typical of thousands owned by
Great Places Housing Association and whilst it is a
typical 'northern terrace', the main features are
applicable to millions of houses around the UK. The
existing house is very thermally inefficient, as seen
below in Table 1.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 723


Table 1: Elemental U-values before and after refurbishment

Element Existing
U-value (W/m2/K)
Renovated
U-value (W/m2/K)
Wall 2.0 2.0 front
0.24 rear
Floor 2.1 0.15
Roof 0.5 0.11
Window 5.9 0.9
Airchange
rate
1.5 ach 0.45 ach
Heatloss
parameter
3.55 W/m2/K 1.17 W/m2/K

2. STRATEGIES FOR CARBON-
NEUTRALITY

2.1. Solar Thermal and electric.
The system comprises a roof-mounted array of
Zen Solar Twin PV-T panels. These panels are an
innovative design comprising a standard PV panel
inside a glass fronted insulated box, combined with a
copper pipe water collect affixed to the back of the
panel. This design utilises more than 75% of solar
energy that falls on the panel. Over the year, the
panels produce enough thermal energy to heat the
property and enough electricity to power it. The
overall energy yield is approximately 40% greater
than separate PV and Solar Thermal panels could
provide over the same area. Over the year, the
panels will produce enough thermal energy to heat
the property and enough electricity to power it (with
small changes to the fabric and use of a feed-in-tariff).
Calculation shows that the panels insitu should
produce some 1276kWh/a electricity and 4278kWh/a
usable heat.


2.2. Interseasonal store.
The project utilises a previously untried
interseasonal store in the cellar of the property. The
main problem with solar water space heating is that
when heat is needed for space heating, there is very
little output from the panel. Our design solves this
problem by storing the excess thermal output of the
panel in summer in a large water store situated in the
cellar rooms of the property and then uses this to
supplement the winter output of the panels to provide
thermal output that matches the heating needs of the
property. The design utilises the largest store
physically capable of being installed in the cellar. A
pair of sectional GRP tanks are assembled in the
cellar, and fully insulated with 500mm of rigid and
beaded insulation, these are then filled with water.
The total capacity of the tank(s) is around 23 m3 of
water, and they are capable of storing some 3.03GJ
of energy.


Figure 3 Sectional GRP tank

Figure 4: PV-T panels capable of producing not only
electrical energy but also thermal output

The tank itself is self-supporting and puts no load
on the party walls, its only load is on the floor of the
cellar. This is considered sustainable as the extra
load on the floor will help to maintain the structural
stability of the party walls that support the floors and
walls. The tanks can be filled directly from the mains
over the course of a day, additives can be added to
limit biological growth, but it is unlikely these will be
needed. If the neoprene bag was used there would
be no need for venting, but with the sectional tank,
venting is solved using a feed and expansion tank in
the attic.

The rest of the heating system is unchanged:
using the existing radiator system, with an improved
envelope allows the use of a lower water temp to
maintain comfort which works well with the inter-
seasonal store. The GRP Hot Water Tanks are
manufactured locally in Stockport by Drayton Tank &
Accessories Ltd. An off-the-shelf sectional tank
technology has been used for the prototype but this
suffers the risk of seals & joints failing. With the
prospect of a larger roll-out, there is the incentive for
innovation in finding a suitable seamless tank which
can be delivered and installed where there is confined
access and to suit more bespoke dimensions
possibly a thermosetting polyurethane liner on an
insulated back that would incorporate restraining
hoops.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
724 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)


Table 2: Interseasonal store tank sizing



Over the winter the tank will be depleted and its
temperature will fall from 70 to 35 deg C. It is
presumed however, that stratification in the tank will
allow the flow temperature from the tank, not to
reduce below 65 degC, even at the end of the
season, and as the ouput from the panels is
prioritised to DHW, the lower temperature in the store
should not reduce performance unduly. The use of
the existing radiator system mean that itis oversized
for the new heatloss of the buildings, and should be
able to be run at lower flow temperatures, as the
larger emitters, should help to keep radiant levels in
the house comfortable.



4. EVALUATION

The thermal performance of the house was assessed
using the UKs Building Research Establishments
Standard Assessment procedure [2], which use a
modified degree-day method, tied with statisical
information to provide an annual energy use and
Carbon rating. The equivalent numbers calculated
with SAP 2005 are:

Space Heating Demand 21.7 kWh/m2/yr
Whole House Primary Energy Demand 15.7 kWh/m2/yr
House space heating demand 1814 kWh/yr
Overall CO2 Target Range -1.7 kg/m2/yr

This shows that the house should be carbon
negative in use- generating more energy than it
needs. The total carbon saving over the existing
house is 5667kg of CO2 per annum.

The strategy employed is a whole house strategy,
with the PV-T panels, interseasonal thermal store and
heatloss reduction measures, working together. It is
difficult to separate out various features, as the
removal of one would make the project impracticable,
from a carbon neutrality point of view.

The house strategy is developed around three
factors, that are the limits for the project.
The first is the orientation of the house: in the
demonstration case the front of the house is almost
perfectly South (within 5 degrees). The second is the
size of the PV-T panels on the South -facing roof of
the property. 2 x 2800 Solar Twin Panels and 2 x
4200 Solar twin panels are the maximum possible for
the roof of the house , taking into account flashing
detail and overshadowing by the chimneys. the active
area of the panels is some 14.2m2.

The final factor is the size of the interseasonal
heat store accomodated in the cellar. This is
fabricated using a grp sectional system, which was
chosen because can be carried easily down the cellar
steps, which are situated in the dwelling. This
method of tank construction needs 500mm of space
for assembly around the sides and top of the tank.
This space is subsequently used for insulating the
tanks. There are two chambers to the cellar in this
type of house, and this limits the store to a max
capacity of 22.5 m3 of water. The cost of this tank as
a one-off is excessive, but this could easily be
reduced by mass-production in the future.

Overall, the figures show carbon-neutral
performance, that equates to a saving 3.46 tonnes of
CO2 per annum, and a tenant saving of 640 in fuel.
Calculation of the saving per element in the strategy
is difficult as they are all linked but a reasonable
assessment is as follows:

Table 3: Design assessment re. CO2

Element Energy
saved
kWh/a
Conversion
kg/CO2/kWh
Amount of
CO2 saved
Kg/annum
Usable Thermal
energy
from PV-T

1426

0.194

276.6
Electrical
energy from
PV-T

1276

0.420

535.9
Total for PV-T

812.5
Interseasonal
store energy
saved

842

0.19

163.3
Fabric
measures

12810

0.194

2485.2


The fabric measures do well in this assessment,
due to the terrible thermal performance of the house
at present, which is 3.55W/m2/K. The fabric
modifications reduce this to 1.17W/m2/K, which is
comparable with houses built today to the current UK
Regulations. The energy then needed to heat and
power the house is provided by the panels,
inconjunction with the store.



2.3. Careful control of fabric losses.
The two thermal components above, at maximum
size create a heatloss target for the house. This
target has then been met through careful choice of
insulation and airtightnesss methods, commensurate
with the need to allow the tenant to stay in situ, and
the need to maintain the aesthetic qualities of this
historic house type, both inside and out. These
include triple glazing; insulation to roofs and floors,
external insulation of rear faade, and general
airtightness strategies such as floor and ceiling
sealing, chimney blocking, and heat recovery extract
fans.

Figure 5: Diagram showing integration strategy for Victorian

terrace.

2.4. Heat Loss Reduction
Windows - Replacement high performance, triple-
glazed windows (U-value 0.9) are used throughout
from the Eco-Contract Window Range - supplied and
assembled by Green Building Store in Huddersfield.
Theses are FSC certified and made with engineered
timber components manufactured in Latvia, and glass
from the UK.
Rear Walls - The rear walls are externally
insulated and rendered (U-value 0.24)
Roof/Ceiling - High level of insulation is installed
to gain a U-value of 0.11 W/m2/K with improvements
also to bay roofs
Airtightness - This is improved by the installation
of the windows, sealing of chimneys and also an
attention to detail such as suspended floor junctions,
new loft hatch, careful filling of any extant cracking
internally, etc; as much as possible with the tenants
insitu.
Platinum EcoBead loose fill insulation round hot
water tanks - loose fill insulation is from Expanded
Polystyrene (EPS) with a graphite based constituant
which improves its k-value to 0.033W/mK (compared
to 0.04W/mK for standard EPS beads). It is a
breathable insulant, Green Guide A-rated, will
maintain performance at the expected temperatures
and can be fully removed in emergency (laid
unbonded). This project demonstrates a new use for
the ecobead which is usually injected to provide
cavity wall insulation.

3. INTER-SEASONAL STORE DESIGN

The store size was calculated using a custom
spreadsheet authored by the team. The spreadsheet
uses actual degree day data for Manchester Airport to
create a demand profile for the house, and this then
compared with the monthly thermal output of the
proposed PV-T array, to give a nett positive or
negative gain to the store. The store can then be
sized according to the cumulative aggregate of
energy needed from the store throughout the winter
period.

Figure 6: Graph of monthly thermal energy requirement

versus energy collected

There are four months (Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb), when
the store has to contribute to the panels' output to
heat the house. This energy must be stored in the
tank before the winter period starts, and thus the
volume of the tank is calculated from this need. In
addition, over time there will be heatloss from the
large store, although this will be small as there is
500mm of mix of u/f and polystrene insulation, around
the tank. The tank losses are then aggregated over
the period, using a degree-day calculation. (This is a
relatively unknown quantity, because much of the
heat willl probably find its way into the house - but the
asssumptions seem reasonable). The size of the
tank is then aggregated from these two figures.

The calculations show that for the design the
shortfall of energy in the winter months is
approximately 3GJ. In order to store this, the inter-
seasonal store needs to be around 22.5 m3 of water,
and this can easily be accommodated in the two
rooms of the cellar, even with the extensive perimeter
insulation.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 725


Table 2: Interseasonal store tank sizing



Over the winter the tank will be depleted and its
temperature will fall from 70 to 35 deg C. It is
presumed however, that stratification in the tank will
allow the flow temperature from the tank, not to
reduce below 65 degC, even at the end of the
season, and as the ouput from the panels is
prioritised to DHW, the lower temperature in the store
should not reduce performance unduly. The use of
the existing radiator system mean that itis oversized
for the new heatloss of the buildings, and should be
able to be run at lower flow temperatures, as the
larger emitters, should help to keep radiant levels in
the house comfortable.



4. EVALUATION

The thermal performance of the house was assessed
using the UKs Building Research Establishments
Standard Assessment procedure [2], which use a
modified degree-day method, tied with statisical
information to provide an annual energy use and
Carbon rating. The equivalent numbers calculated
with SAP 2005 are:

Space Heating Demand 21.7 kWh/m2/yr
Whole House Primary Energy Demand 15.7 kWh/m2/yr
House space heating demand 1814 kWh/yr
Overall CO2 Target Range -1.7 kg/m2/yr

This shows that the house should be carbon
negative in use- generating more energy than it
needs. The total carbon saving over the existing
house is 5667kg of CO2 per annum.

The strategy employed is a whole house strategy,
with the PV-T panels, interseasonal thermal store and
heatloss reduction measures, working together. It is
difficult to separate out various features, as the
removal of one would make the project impracticable,
from a carbon neutrality point of view.

The house strategy is developed around three
factors, that are the limits for the project.
The first is the orientation of the house: in the
demonstration case the front of the house is almost
perfectly South (within 5 degrees). The second is the
size of the PV-T panels on the South -facing roof of
the property. 2 x 2800 Solar Twin Panels and 2 x
4200 Solar twin panels are the maximum possible for
the roof of the house , taking into account flashing
detail and overshadowing by the chimneys. the active
area of the panels is some 14.2m2.

The final factor is the size of the interseasonal
heat store accomodated in the cellar. This is
fabricated using a grp sectional system, which was
chosen because can be carried easily down the cellar
steps, which are situated in the dwelling. This
method of tank construction needs 500mm of space
for assembly around the sides and top of the tank.
This space is subsequently used for insulating the
tanks. There are two chambers to the cellar in this
type of house, and this limits the store to a max
capacity of 22.5 m3 of water. The cost of this tank as
a one-off is excessive, but this could easily be
reduced by mass-production in the future.

Overall, the figures show carbon-neutral
performance, that equates to a saving 3.46 tonnes of
CO2 per annum, and a tenant saving of 640 in fuel.
Calculation of the saving per element in the strategy
is difficult as they are all linked but a reasonable
assessment is as follows:

Table 3: Design assessment re. CO2

Element Energy
saved
kWh/a
Conversion
kg/CO2/kWh
Amount of
CO2 saved
Kg/annum
Usable Thermal
energy
from PV-T

1426

0.194

276.6
Electrical
energy from
PV-T

1276

0.420

535.9
Total for PV-T

812.5
Interseasonal
store energy
saved

842

0.19

163.3
Fabric
measures

12810

0.194

2485.2


The fabric measures do well in this assessment,
due to the terrible thermal performance of the house
at present, which is 3.55W/m2/K. The fabric
modifications reduce this to 1.17W/m2/K, which is
comparable with houses built today to the current UK
Regulations. The energy then needed to heat and
power the house is provided by the panels,
inconjunction with the store.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
726 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)


5. CONCLUSION

There are range of issues regarding large-scale
replication of the project.

5.1. Size and orientation of collector space
- differing collection potential and efficiency will
impact on the size of storage required to supplement
meagre winter collection rates. South facing is ideal
but panels can work to 85% efficiency facing East or
West. Map-based analysis of a typical victorian
neighbourhood showed that 75% of the properties
had suitable orientation of a reasonable area of roof.
Of the other 25%, all could be made to work with
more than one array on less appropriately oriented
roofs.

5.2. Interseasonal heat storage tank size, and
integration
In the project the cellar was used to accommodate
the store. Surveys by Residential Social Landlords
estimate that around 70% of Victorian terraces in
Manchester and Salford have cellars. Properties
without cellars could utilise the garden to locate a
storage tank, indeed grouped properties could utilise
communal systems.

5.3. Thermal fabric improvements
The thermal improvements were limited to those
that could be performed without removing the
resident, and without resort to mechnical ventilation.
The aim of the project has been met. Further thermal
reductions are possible, but not with the tenant in-situ.

5.4. Cost reduction.
The two most expensive elements of the cost plan
are the PV-Twin panels and the GRP hot water
storage tanks. Since these are both generic solutions,
it is anticipated that when the system can be shown to
be effective, a more industrial scale of production and
competitiveness would stimulate reduced prices and
alternative manufacturers. The cost of the project,
including design fees and enabling works will be in
the region of 120,000. Undertaking works to a group
of properties would also reduce construction and
design costs significantly.

Recently feed-in tarriffs for renewably-produced
electricity have been introduced in the UK[3], these
offer a garranteed return of 0.41 (0.5 Euro) per kWh
generated, index-linked for 25years, which for this
scheme, producing 1276kWh/a gives a return of
530 per annum. This will also help to make the
design more cost effective

5.5. Replication
The scheme is a prototype for a proposed roll out
over up to 4 million UK homes. There are still a
range of issues unresolved regarding its performance
and its replicability. Only detailed monitoring will give
accurate results re buildability and reliability. The
project is due to go on site in Spring 2011, with
completion due in June 2011, in time for the summer
charge up of the store. Monitoring of the project will
run for 2 full years from completion of building works
and will include all tests and monitoring required by
the Technology Strategy Board for the Retrofit for the
Future fund.

6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author wishes to thank Ian McHugh of
Triangle Architects, and Jim McMillan of Great Places
Housing Association, for their help in the project.

7. REFERENCES

[1] The Commission for Architecture and the Built
Environment. Housing Market Renewal: Action
Plan. HMSO, London. June 2008.
[2] SAP 2005, The Governments Standard
Assessment Procedure for Energy Rating of
Dwellings 2005 edition, Revision 3.
[3] Ofgem. Introducing the feed-in tariff scheme.
HMSO, London. April 2010.


PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 727

ResidentialBuildingswithGreenWalls
Advantages,DisadvantagesandSymbolsEvokedbytheUse
ofFicuspumilaandParthenocissustricuspidataSpecies
MarieneVALESAN,BeatrizFEDRIZZI,MiguelAloysioSATTLER
ProgramadePs-GraduaoemEngenhariaCivil/NORIE,UniversidadeFederaldoRioGrandedoSul,Porto
Alegre,Brazil
ABSTRACT:TheaimofthispaperistoanalyzethemostcommonspeciesofgreenwallsinPortoAlegre(acity
inthesouthofBrazil):FicuspumilaandParthenocissustricuspidata(bothself-clingingclimbers),basedonthe
perception of 52 dwellers of residences with this vegetation. The in-depth interviews confirmed as being the
mainadvantagesofbothspecies:theaestheticimprovementonthelandscape,theintegrationbetweenurban
environmentandnature,thepositiveeffectsforwell-beingandthepositiveinfluenceonenvironmentalcomfort.
The majority of dwellers associated the analysed green walls with positive symbols beauty, contact with
nature, well-being supporting researches on biophilia, which claims that human beings have a genetic
predispositiontoanswerpositivelytovegetation.Contrarytopopularbelief,theassociationbetweenbiophobia
andgreenwallisinfrequentamongthoseinterviewed.Just10%oftheintervieweestendtorejectgreenwalls
duetopossiblepresenceofbugsandspiders.Ficuspumilaisthemostrecurrentspecies,however,itsvigorous
growth and intense demand for maintenance makes its use more difficult. Conversely, Parthenocissus
tricuspidataseemstobebestacceptedamonginterviewees.
Keywords:GreenWall;EnvironmentalPerception;Vegetation;Buildings.
1. INTRODUCTION
Vegetation is one of the most effective
possibilities to incorporate sustainable practices in
thecities,duetoitscapabilityofimprovingthequality
of the air, reducing the levels of carbon emissions
and influencing positively the thermal conditions of
buildings[1,2].
Biophilia, according to Ulrich [3] is a group of
positivereactionsthathumanbeingshavewhenthey
are in contact with natural elements which were
important in the past, due to their relation to our
primaryneeds,suchasfood,waterandsecurity.On
the other hand, biophobia is defined as a genetic
predisposition to immediately associate strong fears
andaversivereactions,basedonnegativeexposure
orinformation,tosomenaturalstimuliwhichpossibly
werethreateningduringtheevolutionofhumans[3].
The most common human fears are related to
snakes, spiders, heights, closed spaces and blood.
Despite the fact that recent large-scale
transformation in humans habitat (after natural
settings and now industrialized places) eliminated
the real dangers related to fearsand phobias,these
feelingspersist[3].
One of the possible uses of vegetation in urban
environment is the green wall (vegetation covering
faades of a building, a wall or another vertical
element). This paper aims toanalyze green walls of
residential buildings in Porto Alegre (a city in the
south of Brazil), based on the environmental
perceptionoftheirdwellers,comparingthetwomost
common species: Ficus pumila and Parthenocissus
tricuspidata.We also examined the symbols evoked
by green walls on humans and the possible relation
among this covering and biophilia and biophobia
concepts.
2. GREENWALLS
2.1.Definition
According to Dunnett and Kingsbury [4], the
green wall is the covering of walls or other vertical
elements with vegetation, through a self-clinging
mechanismorwiththeaidofsupports,whichcanbe
rootedinsoilorsomesortofgrowingmediumatthe
base of the wall. Green walls could be classified in
twodifferenttypes:self-clingingandthosethatneed
support.Self-clinginggreenwallsarethoseclimbers
that have the ability of attaching to surfaces using
aerialrootsorsticky-tippedtendrils.
The most common self-clinging species in the
south of Brazil are: Ficus pumila L. (Moraceae),
Hedera helix L. (Araliaceae) and Parthenocissus
tricuspidata (Siebold & Zucc.) Planch. (Vitaceae).
FicuspumilaisaspecieswithoriginineasternAsia.
Itispopularlyknownasclimbingfigandcreepingfig
(figure 1). This species have a vigorous growth and
usesaerialrootstoattachtosurfaces[5,6].
There is a botanical phenomenon, called
heterophylly, related to this species. Due to this
phenomenon, it is possible to identify two different
features in Ficus pumila: the young form (in which
the plant have herbaceous branches and small
leaves) and the mature form (in which branches are
woody and with little adherence, leaves are larger
andfruits,similartoediblefigs,areproduced)[7].
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728 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)

Figure1:ExampleofaFicuspumilagreenwall.

Parthenocissus tricuspidata is another self-

clinging species, popular named as Boston ivy or
Japanese ivy, originated from Japan and China
(figure 2). This deciduous species has sticky-tipped
tendrils, which are responsible for its adhesiveness
[5, 6]. Its leaves are trifoliate, shining green colored
andinvariablesize.Inregionsoftemperateclimate,
its leaves acquire a crimson color in autumn before
falling[5,8].

Figure2:ExampleofaParthenocissustricuspidata
greenwall.

Khler [9] explains that there is a long-term

traditioninusingornamentalplantsonbuildingsand
theuseofgreenwallsisawellestablishedpractice,
mainlyinEurope.Bigcities,suchasLondon,Seattle
and Toronto have established policies to motivate
the adoption of green walls, green roofs and
vegetation in general. As a result this increases
vegetated surfaces and reduce the environmental
impactintheurbanareas[1,10,11].
2.2.Advantages
Green walls are an excellent solution to
improving urban spaces with vegetation, mainly
thosewhereplantingtreesareimpossibleduetothe
lackofspace.Theattractivevariationthroughoutthe
year on the aspect of some species of green walls
creates a more interesting landscape to users and
population[1,12].
Similartotrees,greenwallscancaptureairborne
pollutants,retainingthemonthesurfaceoftheplant
andpreventingthemfromfloatingintheatmosphere
[1, 9]. Inaddition to this, heavy metals concentrated
in rainwater and carbon dioxide can be assimilated
by green walls [4, 11]. The climbers generally used
as green walls can be beneficial to wildlife [11]
because many of these species provide shelter for
birds and its nests and also hibernation sites for
insects[4,9].
Contrary to popular belief, green walls act as a
barrieragainstexcessivehumidityinwinter,because
their leaves avoid rain water from reaching the
masonry [4, 13]. Analyzing possible deterioration
causedbyvegetationinwalls,JohnstonandNewton
[13] affirm that, in fact, the layer of vegetation
protects the masonry. Due to the protection created
bygreenwalls,thedeteriorationofmasonryisslower
thanifexposedtoheavyrainfall,hail,ultravioletlight
andabruptchangesinthetemperature[4,11].
The green wall also acts as an insulator for
indoor spaces because a layer of air is created
between the masonry and the foliage. This layer
involvesthebuildingsandiscapableofreducingthe
energy demand to either warming or cooling indoor
locations[1,11].
McPherson,SimpsonandLivingston[14]indicate
a 20% savings of energy in buildings covered by
vegetation. Canturia [15] calculates a reduction of
up to 50% in the air conditioning cost of a building,
whencomparingaindoortemperaturesofabuilding
with green walls and a similar one without green
walls. It is also known that the temperatures of a
masonrycoveredbyvegetationareperceptiblylower
than the temperatures of an exposed masonry, due
to the effect of the vegetation in reducing the heat
gainsofthebuilding[1,16].
2.3.Disadvantages
The main disadvantages of green walls can be
explained by problems in their design or in their
planting process [4, 11]. In addition, a poor-quality
mortar render can cause damages to the surfaces,
even if vegetation and supports are appropriated.
Insufficientmaintenance canalso result in abnormal
growthorinundesiredvegetationcoveringelements,
suchaswindowsandgutters.
2.4.Maintenance
Regularmaintenanceisessentialtoasuccessful
greenwall.DunnettandKingsbury[4]emphasizethe
importance of the pruning of shoots spreading in
undesirable directions as the main care for self-
clingingplants.
3. METHOD
This paper is part of a MSc dissertation [17],
developed during 2008 and 2009. It analyzed the
environmental perception of dwellers of buildings
with green walls, with the aim of identifying its main
characteristics and acceptance. The sample for
research was defined by the allowance, or not, by
dwellers, to acess the building and by their
acceptance to participate in the research. The
methodusedwasaseriesofin-depthtape-recorded
interviews, in which a structured questionnaire was
applied.
This structured questionnaire contained 10 open
questions and 10 closed questions, divided into
themed groups (satisfaction of dweller and
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BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 729

characterization of green walls). The closed

questions investigated the perceived influence of
green walls in environmental comfort (summer and
winter indoor temperature, thermal and acoustical
insulation, humidity, animal presence, maintenance
andaesthetics).Aftertheinterviews,theirrecordings
weretranscribedand,afterwards,theanalysisofthe
answers was conducted according to Bardin
recommendations[18].
4. RESULTS
Atotalof49residentialbuildingswithgreenwalls
inatleastoneofitsfaadeswereidentifiedinPorto
Alegre: 7 were collective residences (buildings) and
42 were private homes, summing up a total of 80
households.
A total of 52 interviews were accomplished, 31
with private homes dwellers and 21 with collective
residences dwellers. Dwellers of 38 different
buildings (collective buildings and private homes)
were interviewed. The two most frequent species
found in the residential buildings analyzed were:
Ficus pumila in 26 buildings (71%), Parthenocissus
tricuspidata in 11 buildings (27%) and one building
with both species (2%). The age of the green walls
varied as informed by the residents between 2
and32years,withanaverageof14years.
4.1. TheSymbolsEvokedbyGreenWalls
The interviewees were questioned about mental
associations when thinking about green walls. The
motivation of this question was to investigate which
symbols were associated to this type of vegetation.
Themajorityofresidents92%,or48interviewees
associatesgreenwallstopositiveaspects.Only15%
(8 dwellers) associates this vegetation to negative
aspects(figure3).
48%
27%
12%
12%
10%
10%
8%
15%
50%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
Beauty
Nature
PsychologicalPositiveResponses
BenefitstoThermicComfort
AncientBuildings
PracticalAspects
UndesirableAnimals
Humidity
Others

Figure3:ResponsestothequestionWhenyouthink
aboutgreenwalls,whatdoyourelatetoit?

Beautywasthemostcommonresponse,as50%
of the interviewees (26 respondents) related green
walls to aesthetic improvements on the landscape
and the building. Some researchers confirmed that
there is a strong aesthetic preference for natural
landscape sites compared to urban ones, especially
when vegetation and water are present. The
preference forurban environments that have natural
elements also exists, when compared to similar
urbanenvironmentswithoutsuchelements[3,19].
In the opinion of 48% of the interviewees (25
respondents),greenwallisrelatedtonature.Thisis
an obvious association, since the green wall
effectively is a natural element on a building.
Relations between this covering and less urban
environments were also registered. Last but not
least,4intervieweesmentionedthebenefitsofgreen
walls to the environment, pointing its capability to
improve the air quality, the balance of wildlife, or
simply saying that planting green walls is an
ecofriendlypractice.
Another current association was between green
wall and psychological positive responses, such as:
peace,freedom,comfort,calmandwell-being.These
terms were cited by 14 dwellers (27%). It is
noticeable that biophilia, i. e., the psychological
positiveeffectsduetothecontactwithgreenwalls,is
somehowperceivedbydwellers.Thisisanevidence
ofthepotentialbenefitstowell-beingofhumansthat
can be provided by green walls. In addition to this
fact, Ulrich [3] also mentions several researches in
which results report that states of relaxation,
peacefulness and other psychological well-being
feelings are associated to exposure to landscapes
with nature elements. It is also stated that reduced
stress,mentalfatigueandnegativefeelings(suchas
angry and fear) are verified in individuals in contact
withnaturallandscapes[3,20].
Increased thermal comfort inside the building
were cited by 6 interviewees (12%). The fact that
green walls have been applied for several centuries
or that have traditionally been used in European
countries was pointed by 6 respondents (12%). Its
use in castles and ancient buildings were also
mentioned. Five interviewees (10%) cited practical
aspects of green wall, such as the protection of the
masonry against graffiti, the possibility to mask
imperfections of the mortar render or aesthetically
unpleasant buildings and the lack of necessity of
paintingmaintenance.
Differently of the findings in other researches, a
relation between humidity in the masonry and green
walls was pointed only by 4 respondents (8%). On
the other hand, other interviewees affirm that a
reduction in the levels of humidity in the masonry
coveredbygreenwallsisperceivable.Therefore,the
influence of green walls on humidity of masonries is
polemic,andrequiresfurtherstudiestoclarifyit.
Another common matter during the interviews
was the possible association between the green
wallsandthepresenceofundesirableanimalsinside
the residence or on the wall. Only 10% of the
respondents(5interviewees)relatedgreenwallswith
undesirable animals, such as spiders and bugs. On
the other hand, when they were questioned if they
haveevervisuallyverifiedanyundesirableanimalon
the vegetation covering faades, those respondents
affirmed that they have never seen any. They just
explainedthattheybelievethatthereissuchrelation.
Additionally, a dweller informed that she use to
keepthewindowswhichareclosertothegreenwall
closedinordertoavoidthepresenceofundesirable
animals inside her home. Ulrich [3] suggests that
such extreme reaction could be evoked by seeing
natural settings as a potential environment for the
presence of snakes or spiders, even by non-phobic
people. Despite the lack of evidence that could
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730 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)

support their opinions, some interviewees believe

that green walls are responsible for a higher
incidence of undesirable animals in the residence
andclaimthatthisistheirfirstthoughtaboutthistype
ofvegetation.Thiscanbeseenasanevidencethat,
for some individuals, green walls incite biophobia.
However, these feelings are not directly linked with
the vegetation itself, but with the possible presence
of threatening animals on it. Another worth
mentioning evidence is that, for 44% of the
interviewees (23 dwellers), a green wall easing the
proliferationofundesirableanimalsisamyth.
Ulrich [3, 19] addresses this issue, highlighting
that humans could be biologically prepared to react
to settings that might have hidden dangers or any
other characteristic possibly related with threats by
having moderate rejection or caution. Simply
observing a fearful or strong aversive reaction of
anotherpersontoapossiblethreatorbeingexposed
tohistoriesandmythsofcertainculturesaboutsuch
dangers are sufficient to preempt aversive or
defensive responses on human beings [3]. These
statements clarify the reasons why, despite the lack
ofevidences,themythofgreenwallsbeingattractive
tobugsandspiderscanexertsuchfeelings.Maybe,
the persistent verbal repetition of the relation
between green walls and undesirable animals had
created a myth over the years that is now
establishedinsomekindofsharedconsciousness.
It is also noteworthy that, in some cases,
characteristicsofthesitepersecanbethecausefor
the appearance of some bugs and small animals. It
mightbethecase,forinstance,oftheproximitytoa
body of water or a forest and also previously known
rodent infestation in local plumbing system and
abandoned houses. While some people may ignore
these evidences and think the green wall is
responsibleforthepresenceofundesirableanimals,
others understand that the whole environment may
influencesuchpresence.
Therefore, the relation between green walls and
undesirable animals was not confirmed by most
dwellers. What is perceivable is that there is a
rejection, by a small part of dwellers (only 10%), of
green walls, due to the possible presence of
undesirable animals, such as spiders and bugs.
Indeed, there is no evidence that strong negative
responses could be evoked by water or vegetation
per se. A fearful or aversive reaction commonly
occurs when the environment or the arrangement of
natural settings are interpreted as a threat [3].
Accurateguidanceaboutthisnon-occurrencecanbe
effective in creating a stronger appreciation for the
vegetation, because, according to some
interviewees,therearepeoplethatrejectgreenwalls
basedonthismythonly.
4.2. Advantagenspointedbydwellers
Some positive characteristics about the use of
greenwalls(bothspecies)werepointed(figure4)by
the interviewees. Only 8%, or 4 dwellers, did not
identify any advantage of its use. Aesthetic
improvement to the buildings and, as a
consequence,fortheurbanlandscapewasthemost
recurrent advantage, mentioned by 41 dwellers
(79%).
21 respondents (40%) declared, as a positive
aspect, the contributions of green walls to the
integration between urban environment and nature.
Psychologicalbenefitswerecitedby16interviewees
(31%). They describe these benefits as feelings of
satisfaction, well-being and tranquility, as well as
theybelievethatthepresenceofgreenwallscreates
amorecomfortableanddelightfulenvironment.
79%
40%
31%
31%
27%
12%
15%
8%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Aestethic Improvement
Integration between Cities and Nature
Psychological Positive Responses
Maintenance
Benefits to Thermic Comfort
Redution of Humidity
Others
None

Figure4:Advantagesofusinggreenwalls,according
totheinterviewees.

For 31% (16 dwellers) maintenance of their

residences is easier due to this covering. The
remarkable characteristic, in this case, is the
absenceofthenecessityofpaintingordoingrepairs
intheexistentpainting,becausethevegetationhides
imperfectionsonthemasonryandprotectsitagainst
actsofvandalism,suchasgraffiti.Benefitstothermal
comfort, again, were related to green walls by 14
interviewees (27%). Among them, 7 affirmed that
they perceive the thermal insulation provided by
green walls and other 7 believe that temperature in
summeriscoolerinroomswhoseoutsideiscovered
bythisvegetation.Sixdwellers(12%ofrespondents)
declared that there is a reduction in the levels of
humidityinsidethehouseorinmasonriesduetothe
presenceofagreenwallonfaades.
4.3. Disadvantagespointedbydwellers
Henceforward, disadvantages of green walls are
presented(forbothspecies)accordingtotheopinion
ofdwellers(figure5).Itisimportanttohighlightthat9
interviewees (17%), were so satisfied that they did
notidentifiedanydisadvantageofhavinggreenwalls
ontheirresidences.
Maintenance was the most remarkable
disadvantage in the opinion of 37 respondents
(71%). In some interviews, problems related to the
development of the vegetation were cited, such as:
disorderorintensedevelopmentandneedtorestrict
the area covered by vegetation. The necessary
pruning of undesirable branches was the most
recurrent complaint. In 12 interviews (23%) possible
damagestothebuildingcausedbygreenwallswere
mentioned. Such damages could happen, according
tothem,onthepainting,onthemortarrender,onthe
masonryoronthestructure.However,someauthors
disagree with such statements and many of those
individuals were not able to properly identify the
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BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 731

problems on their own residence. For 21% (11

interviewees),undesirableanimalsarethoughttobe
attracted by green walls and this fact is understood
asadisadvantageofthecovering.Presenceofants
andmosquitoeswasnoticedongreenwalls.Butthis
presence was considered of little disturbance and
wouldnotjustifyremovingthevegetation.Incase of
Parthenocissus tricuspidata, there are evidences
that, in summer, its flowers attract a certain species
of bees. Besides, two events were reported about
the presence of mice inside the residence. Despite
thefactthattheproliferationofmiceisnotrelatedto
green wall, its presence seems to have favored the
access of such animals. This is why, in regions
wheretherearerodents,theoptionfornon-adoption
of green walls take this into consideration. The
increaseinthelevelsofhumidityduetogreenwalls
was mentioned by 7 respondents (13%) as a
disadvantage of this vegetation. However, this
statement contradicts reports of some authors and
also statements made by others dwellers (for them,
green wall acts as a protection against humidity,
reducingtheinternalhumidity).
71%
23%
21%
13%
8%
17%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Maintenance
Damages to the Building
Undesirable Animals
Humidity
Others
None

Figure5:Disadvantagesofusinggreenwalls,
accordingtotheinterviewees.
4.4. Maintenance
Regardless of the simplicity of the maintenance
ofgreenwalls,itisimportanttoreinforcethatitmust
be regularly done and cannot be neglected. It was
possibletoidentifythatmaintenancerelatedtogreen
walls could be divided into maintenance of the
vegetation and maintenance of the masonry. The
maintenance of the vegetation basically consists of
pruningandremovingthedeciduousleavesinwinter
(inthecaseofthe Parthenocissustricuspidata).The
interval between prunings for the species Ficus
pumila, varied between 15 days and 6 months. On
the other hand, for the species Parthenocissus
tricuspidata, the interval between prunings varied
between one pruning per month, in spring and
summer(andnopruninginautumnandwinter),and
onepruningeverytwoyears.
Thebothersomeduetotheinvasionofvegetation
on the roof seemed to be the most common
complaint. When developing on the roof, the
branches of green walls canmove shingles or block
gutters, causing infiltration of water to the inside of
theresidenceinperiodsofconstantrain.Obstruction
of gutters can also happen due to the concentration
of deciduous leaves of the species Parthenocissus
tricuspidata. Pruning green walls near doors and
windows is a necessity. Without such maintenance,
damages might happen to the painting, as well as
problemsfortheopeningofdoorsandwindows.
We can conclude that Ficus pumila demands
moremaintenance, due toits constant and vigorous
growing along the year. On the other hand, the
species Parthenocissus tricuspidata demands less
frequent pruning and, in winter, such care is
unnecessary. Therefore, the use of Parthenocissus
tricuspidataasgreenwallsisthemostadvantageous
intermsofmaintenance.
5. CONCLUSION
The results of this study confirmed that green
walls can provide remarkable advantages and also
have a great potential for the improvement of the
urbanenvironment.
With regard to the symbolic meaning of green
walls to dwellers, it is perceivable that, for the
majority, this type of vegetation is associated to
positive aspects. So, this supports the hypothesis
that biophilia and green walls can be related.
Contrary to popular myths, the relation between
undesirable animals and green walls is infrequent
among dwellers. Even so, such reports indicate that
the biophobia related to animals, such as bugs and
spiders, implies in rejection of green walls for some
individuals, due to the supposition that this
vegetation could work as shelter for such animals.
For the interviewees, aesthetic improvement of
faades; the integration between urban environment
and nature and feelings of well-being are related to
green walls. These testimonials, once more,
reinforce the potential of green walls to improve the
qualityoflifeinthecities.
We can also conclude that, in the view of
dwellers,thedisadvantagesofthistypeofvegetation
are mainly related to maintenance or controversial
issues, for instance: damage on the masonries,
presenceofundesirableanimalsandincreaseinthe
levels of humidity. Regarding those possible
problems, it is necessary to undertake further
researches until these issues can be conclusive.
After processing the analyses of the opinions in
theseinterviews,itispossibletoaffirmthatthemost
advantageous analyzed species of green walls is
Parthenocissustricuspidata.Thisisexplainedmainly
bythedemandingmaintenanceofthespeciesFicus
pumila.
Forfuturestudieswesuggesttheanalysisofthe
environmentalperceptionofdwellersofresidencesin
which green walls had been removed, in order to
compare to the results of this study. Moreover,
researches focused in physical aspects of green
walls (such as indoor temperature in summer and
winter,humidityanddamagesonthemasonries)will
beofgreatsignificance.
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732 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)

6. REFERENCES
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ForgingaNewIndustryinCanad.In:Research
Highlight Technical Series 01-101. Ottawa:
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation,
2007. Retrieved oct, 10 from: http://www.cmhc-
schl.gc.ca/odpub/pdf/62665.pdf
[2] SATTLER, M. A. Edificaes Sustentveis:
InterfacecomaNaturezadoLugar.In:Menegat,
Rualdo e Almeida, Gerson (org.).
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Ambiental nas Cidades: Estratgias a partir de
Porto Alegre. Porto Alegre: Editora da UFRGS,
2004.
[3] ULRICH, R. S. Biophilia, biophobia and natural
landscapes. In S. R. Kellert & E. Wilson (ed).
The biophilia hypothesis. Washington: Island
Press/ShearwaterBooks,1993.
[4] DUNNETT,N.;KINGSBURY,N.PlantingGreen
RoofsandLivingWalls.Portland:TimberPress,
2004.
[5] LORENZI, H. e SOUZA, H. M. Plantas
ornamentais no Brasil: arbustivas, herbceas e
trepadeiras. 3 ed. Nova Odessa, SP: Instituto
Plantarum,2001.
[6] GRAF, ALFRED BYRD. Tropica: color
cyclopedia of exotic plants and trees: for warm-
region-horticulture-in cool climate the summer
garden or shelterd indoors. 4 edio. East
Rutherford:Roerhs,1992.
[7] CORREA, M. P. Dicionrio de Plantas teis do
Brasil e das Exticas Cultivadas. 6 vol. Rio de
Janeiro:MinistriodaAgricultura,1926-1975.
[8] GRAF, ALFRED BYRD. Exotica 3: pictorial
cyclopedia of exotic plants: guide to care of
plants indoors 9 edio. New York: Roehrs,
1976.
[9] KHLER, M. Green faades a view back and
somevisions.In:UrbanEcosystems,vol.11,n
4, pg. 423-436. Springer Science + Business
Media:2008
[10]DESIGNFORLONDON.LivingRoofsandWalls
Technical report: Supporting London plan
policy. London: Greater London Autority, 2008.
Retrieved oct, 10 from:
http://www.designforlondon.gov.uk/uploads/medi
a/5_Living_Roofs_technical_report.pdf
[11]SHARP, R. et al. Introduction to Green Walls
Technology,Benefits&Design.In:GreenRoofs
forHealthyCities,2008.Retrievedoct,10from:
http://www.greenroofs.net/components/com_lms
/flash/Green%20Walls%20Intro%20908b.pdf
[12]GRUB,H.AjardinamientosUrbanos.Trad.:Jos
Luis Moro Carreo. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili,
1986.
[13]JOHNSTON,J.;NEWTON,J.BuildingGreen:a
guide to using plants on roofs, walls and
pavements. London: The London Ecology Unit,
1992.
[14]MCPHERSON, G.; SIMPSON J.; LIVINGSTON,
M. Effects of Threee Landscape Treatments on
Residential Energy and Water Use in Tucson,
Arizona. In: Energy and Buildings, n 13. pg.
129-138.Netherlands:ElsevierSequoia,1989.
[15]CANTURIA, G. Microclimatic impact of
vegetationonbuildingsurfaces.MADissertation
EnvironmentandEnergyStudiesProgramme.
London:A.A.SchoolofArchitecture,1995.
[16]EUMORFOPOULOU, E. A. e KONTOLEON, K.
J. Experimental approach to the contribution of
plant-covered walls to the thermal behaviour of
building envelopes. In: Building and
Environment, n 44, pgs. 1024-1038.
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[17]VALESAN, M. Percepo ambiental de
moradores de edificaes residenciais com
Pele-Verde em Porto Alegre. MSc Dissertation.
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Sul.PortoAlegre,2009.
[18]BARDIN,L.Anlisedecontedo.3ed.Trans.:
Lus Antero Reto e Augusto Pinheiro. Lisboa:
Edies70,2004.
[19]ULRICH, R. S. Aesthetic and Affective
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[20]BERTO, R. Exposure to restorative
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BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 733
Energy Efficiency of a Pre-vegetated Modular
Facade Prototype
Maria Isabel TOUCEDA
1
, Francesca OLIVIERI
1
, Javier NEILA
1

1
Department of Construction and Technology in Architecture, Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
ABSTRACT: The present paper focuses on the evaluation of the thermal performance of a pre-vegetated
modular facade on draining cells implemented on an experimental mock-up installed in Seville, Spain. The
frontage design was conceived as the external layer for a ventilated facade. The experimental procedure was
based on the analysis of data obtained from the installation of this system on the mock-up in comparison with
the other implemented solutions. With those data, a model could be made in order to simulate different solutions
of facade for their comparison. Results indicated that the performance of this pre-vegetated facade was better
than a solar protection system which minimized overheating. During summer, vegetation kept in shade the inner
layers of the wall and leaves absorbed the incoming radiation, but also the evapotranspiration of the modules
and plants was significant: It cooled the air chamber, decreasing the temperature in contact with the wall. Hence,
energy consumption for cooling under summer conditions is considerably lower than with other facade solutions.
Keywords: Thermal performance, Pre-vegetated facade, Ventilated facade, Experimental mock-up, Monitoring
procedure
1. INTRODUCTION
Green roof technology has been widely used in
northern countries for a long time. Nowadays, in
Germany, it is used in 14% of all flat roofs [1], but in
Spain green roofs have only now become more
common after their introduction and study in the 90s
[2]. However, green walls are much less studied and
used. Over the past few years, the number of
architectural interventions with vegetation introduced
on the facades of buildings has been increasing [3],
but mostly for reasons other than the envelope
energy efficiency. Green roof thermal performance
has been studied extensively. The current state of
knowledge of the potential benefits of green roofs in
relation to building energy consumption has been
reviewed by Castleton et al. [4]. But in the case of
green facades, more research is needed on their
thermal performance. With more specific knowledge
about thermal behaviour, green wall solutions could
be taken into account within building legislation.
Introducing vegetation on architecture has not
only an effect on the thermal performance of
buildings, but also on the environment.
1.1. Building thermal performance
The vegetated solutions improve internal comfort
and reduce energy consumption.
-Reduction of heat flux and solar reflectivity: The
vegetation provides protection against overheating
and also provides some cooling through the
evaporative process in the plants [5]. The solar
radiation is balanced by sensible (convection) and
latent (evaporative) heat flux from soil and plant
surfaces. In summer the exposed area of a black
roof can reach 80 C whereas the equivalent area
beneath a green roof is only 27C [6]; A green roof
can have an equivalent albedo of 0,7-0,85 [7],
compared with the typical 0,1-0,2 of a
bitumen/tar/gravel roof [8].
-Green roofs not only act to reduce heat loss in
winter and heat gains in the building during the
summer. They add thermal mass to help stabilize
internal temperatures throughout the year [4].
1.2. Impact on the environment
Vegetation improves air quality, providing O2 and
absorbing CO2. Calculations from Akbari have
shown that the average sequestration rate for a
50m2 tree was estimated at about 11kg of CO2/year
[9]. Also, soil and leaves absorb pollutants such as
lead, cadmium or other heavy metals that would
otherwise remain suspended in the air.
The incorporation of vegetation in buildings
contributes not only to better air quality, but also to
reduce urban heat island effects in densely built
areas [10] and enhance psychological well-being.
Natural elements in urban spaces enrich the urban
landscape and create micro-climates in streets and
squares.
2. OBJECTIVES
The objective of this research is to analyse a
prototype of a pre-vegetated modular facade. The
prototype has been installed on an experimental
building at Seville, Spain. It has been realized in
three steps: Design, construction and use phase.
The objective at design phase was to describe
the prototype: the general components of the system
and the specific components for the experimental
construction. The protocols and a plan to proceed
were fixed for construction and measurement
phases.
The construction phase involved the manufacture
of pre-vegetated panels, their development, transport
and installation to the experimental building. The
objectives of this phase were to verify the lightness
and the ease of installation of the planted modules,
to benchmark the results with existing commercial
solutions, and to identify possible weak points in the
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734 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
process. For these objectives, each step of the
process was described and timed.
During the use phase, (the current one), the
objective was to analyse the thermal performance of
the facade constructed with vegetated panels, as
well as to study the behaviour of chosen plant
species and drip irrigation cycles.
The thermal behaviour of different facade
solutions can be analysed through data gathered by
monitoring the experimental building.
3. DESCRIPTION
3.1. Description of the system
The modules consist of polypropylene draining
cell panels. The dimensions of the draining cell
pieces are 480 x 260 x 52 mm, and they can be
assembled in order to adapt the module to the
support, being the only limitation the easy to
manipulate the module. The cavities of the draining
cells are filled with soil specifically mixed up for this
case and climate: the proportion of turf, perlite and
worm humus can vary. The ensemble is wrapped up
with polyester felt. Several cuts are made into the felt
in order to insert the plants.
Plant species must be selected depending on the
place: native species need low irrigation and
maintenance. As opposed to what happens with
hydroponics, with this system, vegetation grows up
naturally on soil: bacteria and organisms adhered to
the roots, they capture humidity and feed the plants
with processed nutrients. When the roots fill the
panels, their growth stops and no pruning is needed.
Irrigation is a dripping system circuit. Spare water
leaks into a water tank under the facade. This water
will then be fed back into the circuit.
The panels are used as the outermost layer of a
ventilated facade. They can be placed directly on a
vertical support or on a substructure fixed to the
supporting element, and sustained by horizontal
profiles, with a vertical removable bolt in order to
allow an easy and quick installation of any of the
modules and to prevent he panels from turn over
(Fig. 1).

Figure 1: Front and section of pre-vegetated facade.

01.Drainage cells; 02.Metallic frame; 03.Fix profiles; 04.Drip
irrigation tube; 05 Removable bolts; 06.Enclosure wall
Between the wall and the vegetated layer, there
is a ventilated air chamber. The air flow dissipates
the humidity coming from the vegetated modules and
takes heat from the back of the panels.
The modules are completely finished (assembled,
wrapped and with vegetation) prior to the installation.
Hence, the installation can be done faster.
3.2. Selected species
The selection for the experimental building in
Seville has taken into account the climate and the
native vegetation. Seville has a Mediterranean
climate. Summers are hot and dry and winters are
mild. Koppen climate classification is Csa [11]. The
annual average temperature is 18.6C (65F).
January is the coolest month, with average maximum
temperatures of 15,9C (61F) and minimum
averages of 5,2C (41F). July is the warmest month
with daily average highs of 35.3C (96F) Average
minimum temperatures in July are 19,4C (67F) and
every year the temperature exceeds 40C (104F) on
several occasions. Rainfall varies from 600 to
800mm per year, concentrated in the period from
October to April.
The plant species have been selected taking into
account the orientation of the facade where they are
placed.
On the South facade, where isolation is difficult in
the summer, we have used native aromatics and
sedum, such as Lantana sellowiana, Lampranthus,
Drosanthemun hispidum, Rosmarinus officinalis
postratus, Lotus maculatus, Plectranthus
madagascariensis Plectranthus coleoides, Hebe
buxifolia, Thymus vulgaris, Viburnum tinus
On the North facade, where there is no direct
radiation we have used Vinca pervinca, Hedera hlix
(small leaf), Russelia equisetiformis, Plectranthus
neochilus, Plectranthus ecklonii erma, Plectranthus
madagascariensis, Grevillea lanigera Mt
Thamboritha, mirtus communis
3.3. Description of the experimental building
This facade has been installed in an experimental
building in Las Cabezas de San Juan, Seville (Fig.
2). The mock up is an industrialised construction:
10m long x 3m wide x 3m high.

Figure 2: South facade and Plan of the Experimental

building. Seville, Spain.
The building consists of five rooms: a kitchen on
the West side, three test rooms (room 1, room 2 and
room 3), and a bathroom on the East side. Every
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BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 735
room has a different facade solution. Facade panels
P-08, P-09 & P-10 (facing north) are the same as the
corresponding panels P-04, P-03 & P-02 (facing
south) in order to have slices for qualitative
measurements and comparisons among the indoor
conditions in the three different rooms. Each of the
facade panels has different U-values.
The vegetated facade is installed on the North
and South facades corresponding to room 3 (Fig. 2).
The dimensions of the vegetated facade are the
same both for North and South: 2186 mm long x
3720 mm high. The South facade has a 1197x1191
mm window in the middle.

Figure 3: South pre-vegetated facade of the Experimental

Mock-up at Seville: Section, plans and image.
Composition of the Pre-vegetated facade from
inside to outside (Fig. 3):
(1) G.R.C. panel (Glass fibre reinforced concrete)
with an innovative typology consisting of a GRC
Sandwich with its smoother side facing indoors,
overlapping the slab externally.
(2) The metal frame is anchored to the main
structure through cast-in channels in the sandwich,
giving support to the external element of the facade.
The frame is made of stainless steel, hollow
rectangular profiles (cross-section 80x40 mm,
thickness 2 mm); fixed profiles anchored to the
metallic frame to hold the modules.
(3) Vegetated modules;
(4) The window (south facade) is an Electro-
Chromic Glazing Unit (SGR) with a low emissivity
pane; (5) The prefabricated module is covered by a
slab made of concrete poured over corrugated
metallic sheets.
(6) On the floor, the thermal insulation is
achieved by the concrete slab (14cm) + expanded
polystyrene foam (4cm) + projected mortar (3cm) +
stoneware tiling. Over this slab it is installed an
under-floor radiant heating system. For the design of
the heating system, the chosen U min. has been that
corresponding to the climatic zone of Madrid/Seville
(the most restrictive one) described in the Spanish
standard DB-HE 1[12] (Table 1).
(7) Tank to save the spare water after the
irrigation cycle before being fed back into the circuit.
(8) The internal partitions are formed by 2x15mm
gypsum plaster-boards + 46mm of glass fiber +
2x15mm boards (Table 1).
Table 1: U (transmittance coefficient) for the different
layers of the envelope at Seville experimental building
Month
U
(W/m2K)
Thickness
(mm)
Solar
factor (%)
Clear/dark
GRC panel 0.40 80 0.00
Floor 0.54 220 0.00
Partitions 0.53 106 0.00
Roof 0.00 195 0.00
Window 1.08 6/40

4. MONITORING
4.1. Objective of monitoring
After construction and assembling of the different
elements, the monitoring systems were installed.
Different sensors are placed at different layers of
the green panels with this objective [13]. The
obtained data are: outside dry-bulb temperature
variation measured at the weather station; surface
temperature variation at each layer of the enclosure;
Interior temperature variation (air and superficial);
relative humidity inside the air chamber; energy
saving in the conditioning system. The floor radiant
heating system in winter conditions and the air
cooling in summer conditions (both independent for
each room), keep the temperature inside each test
room constant at 20C. With no flux exchange
between the spaces (checked with a fluximeter), a
comparison can be drawn between the thermal
performance of different facade solutions by
checking the energy consumption of the conditioning
systems in the different rooms.
4.2. Equipment
The measurement equipment comprises:
A weather station located close to the building. It
measures the following meteorological parameters
every 15 minutes: outside air temperature, solar
radiation, relative humidity, rainfall and wind speed.
(Table 4)
14 surface temperature sensors (STS). The
probe is in a flexible and adhesive silicone capsule.
They are Pt-1000 (compatible with LON control and
registration system) 1/3 DIN. This yields T=0,13C
at 20C.
8 air temperature sensors (ATS). Pt-1000 is also
used.
4 relative humidity transmitters with remote probe
of 14x130mm with a range of 5-98%.
Software for data registration.
A clock-Calendar
An energy counter for heat pump consumption.
A fluximeter.
The position of the probes is specified in Table 2
and Figure 4.
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736 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
Table 2:Probes and sensors at South (S) and North (N)
facades; ST: Surface temperature Sensor, AT: Air
Temperature Sensor; RH: Relative Humidity transmitter:
FM: fluximeter; WS: Weather Station.
Num. Facade
Sensor
Type
Position
01, 02 S ST
External surface of
vegetated modules
17,18 N ST
03, 04 S AT
In the shade,
vegetated area
19, 20 N AT
05, 06 S ST
External surface of
the GRC panel
24, 25 N ST
07 S ST
Internal surface of the
GRC sandwich panel
23 N ST
08, 09 S ST
Internal surface of
vegetated modules
15, 16 N ST
10, 11 S RH
Inside the air
chamber
21, 22 N RH
12,13 S AT
Inside the air
chamber
14, 26 N AT
27 AT
Hanged inside the
local
28 FM Internal partitions
29 WS
Outside the
experimental building

On the South facade (Table 2), the external
probes that can be affected by solar radiation are
insulated.
The probes are duplicated in order to assure that
there is no period without data if any of the probes
failed.
The air temperature probe inside the test room
checks if the temperature remains constant; The
Fluximeter on the partitions between the different
rooms checks that there is no energy flux between
the rooms through the partitions; The weather station
allows us to compare the data obtained in the test
building with external data.

Figure 4: Situation of air temperature sensors (AT), surface

sensors (ST) and relative humidity transmitters (RH) at pre-
vegetated facades.
4.3. Measuring period
The measuring period started on September
2010 and will finish on July 2011.
4.4. Measuring procedure
Measurements are taken every five minutes and
an average is calculated after three subsequent
values.
Energy consumption is registered once a day.
5. OBTAINED RESULTS OF MONITORING
The data gathered after monitoring the
experimental building show the differences in
temperature on each layer of the facades. As an
example, the graph shows a punctual measurement
of the South facade under warm conditions (Fig. 5).

Figure 5: Measurement of the temperatures at the different

South facade layers. November 12
th
2010, 13:47h.
We can see that the surface of the vegetated
modules (polyester felt) reached, under no shade,
34C whereas the outside dry-bulb is 22,5C. The
temperature inside the air chamber was about 4C
lower, because of evaporative cooling and the
convective air flow. Analysing other moments during
the day, the decrease of temperatures inside the air
chamber becomes more significant as the outside
dry-bulb is higher.
The graph (Fig. 6) shows the variation in
temperatures during two warm days with the
conditioning system off.

Figure 6: Measurements of South facade of the
experimental building with conditioning system off. Seville,
October 2
nd
and October 3
rd
2010
The first day there was an important temperature
difference when the cloudy day became sunny and
hot. For that first day, the graph shows an average of
decrease about 7 degrees inside the air chamber
during the hottest hours of the day, in relation to the
outside dry-bulb temperature.
During the second day, when the temperature is
more constant, but lower than the day before, the
graph shows a decrease between 3,7 and 7,9
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BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 737
degrees inside the air chamber during the hottest
hours of the day.
The variation of temperature inside the air
chamber shows that the peak of temperature is
completely absorbed.
It also shows that the decrease of temperature
inside the air chamber is more important as the
outside dry-bulb is higher.
6. SIMULATION
Thanks to the monitoring data, a model of the
experimental building could be developed in order to
make a threefold comparison between the thermal
performance of different case studies (Fig. 7): The
facade composed just by the bare wall (case 1); The
wall with a shading layer (case 2); And the wall with
the vegetated modules (case 3).

Figure 7: Three cases for simulation: CASE 1.Bare wall;
CASE 2.Wall with shading element; CASE 3.Wall with
vegetal facade.
The model has been simulated with
DesignBuilder software, which uses the EnergyPlus
simulation engine [14].
Case 1: the climate data introduced for the
simulation are taken from the meteorological station;
In case 2, despite the limitations of simulating
ventilated facades with this software, it can be
deduced that the temperature inside the test room is
mainly affected by the adjacent temperature (the
temperature reached within the air gap) rather than
by the outside dry bulb temperature; Case 3: In order
to simulate the third case, the outside dry bulb
temperature is replaced by the temperatures
obtained inside the air gap after monitoring the
experimental module.
The first simulation was carried out with the
conditioning systems off, and with no natural
ventilation. The graph shows the air temperature
evolution during a warm day (Fig. 8).
It shows how the ranges of temperature variation
are minimised and the peak values are absorbed.
The average temperature of the day is 22C. The test
room with the bare wall as facade reaches the higher
temperatures. The wall with a shading element
makes the room have a similar behaviour than with
the bare wall, but the temperature is about 4 degrees
lower. The wall with the vegetal facade makes the
room temperature be about 3-4 degrees lower than
with the shading facade without plants. The module
with the vegetated facade keeps the air temperature
under comfort ranges during the day with no air
conditioning system needed. In another room without
the ventilated faade, the average temperature of the
day is 24 C.

Figure 8: Simulation .Temperature variation with the 3 case

study facades and no conditioning system on a typical
summer day.
The second simulation was carried out with the
cooling system on. It works from 7am to 11pm in
order to keep the temperature inside the module
constant on 20C (Fig. 9).
On the graph (Fig. 9), we can conclude that the
energy consumption for the building with the
vegetated facade would suppose energy savings of
69% in relation to the solution with the bare wall for
the day of the simulation, and 33% is the percentage
of energy savings of the vegetated facade in relation
to the ventilated facade without plants for the same
day.

Figure 9: Simulation 2: Cooling energy consumption for the

three case study facades on a typical summer day.
7. CONCLUSION
Since the facade is conceived as a ventilated
facade, the thermal properties of plants, such as
insulation or absorption of leaves dont have a direct
effect on the building but on the environment.
The ventilated facade is effective since it stops
incoming solar radiation, keeping the wall in the
shade. After the comparison between this vegetated
facade system and any other ventilated facade, we
will see that evaporative cooling behind the modules
is the main factor explaining the drop in temperature
inside the air chamber. The decrease in Seville
reached 7 degrees in the hottest hours of the day.
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738 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
Using the monitoring data for the simulation, it
yields energy savings around 33% in the cooling
system in relation other ventilated facade solutions.
With no conditioning system, the vegetated
facade has an effect on stabilizing the temperature
oscillation during the day. The air temperature is
mostly under comfort conditions.
We can conclude that the pre-vegetated modular
facade system is an effective solution for hot and dry
climates under summer conditions, where protection
against insulation is advantageous and evaporative
cooling has a higher potential.
The vegetated facade is also an effective solution
for the North facade in hot and dry climates. Even if
there is almost no incoming radiation, the effect of
evaporative cooling and the convective air flow
causes a decrease of some degrees in the
temperature in contact with the wall.
7.1. Future research
The monitoring is still ongoing. Winter 2011,
spring 2011 and summer 2011 periods are planned
to be monitored.
The conditioning systems will be working in order
to keep the temperature inside the test room
constant on 20C. The energy counter will gather the
energy consumption for each test room with different
constructive solutions. So we will know the annual
energy savings in relation to the other facades.
After the analysis and conclusions for this
experimental mock-up, it would be hopeful to draw a
comparison with the thermal performance under
different climate conditions.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research has been funded by the research
project INVISO (for the optimization of energy
efficiency in housing, part-funded by the Spanish
Science & Innovation Ministry, and ERDF)
The experimental building has been constructed
by DRAGADOS and SEIS, in the framework of
I3CON project (a 4-year industry-led collaborative
research project, part-funded by the EU).
The authors also acknowledge technical
contributions of scar Domnguez.
8. REFERENCES
[1] Herman, R 2003, Green roofs in Germany:
yesterday, today and tomorrow, in: Greening
Rooftops for sustainable Communities,
Chicago, pp. 41-45.
[2] Neila, F J, Bedoya C, Acha, C, Olivieri, F, &
Barbero, M 2008, Las cubiertas ecolgicas de
tercera generacin: un nuevo material
constructivo, Informes de la construccin, vol.
6, pp. 15-22.
[3] Lambertini, A 2007, Vertical: bringing the city
to life, Thames and Hudson, London, UK.
[4] Castleton, H F 2010, Green roofs; building
energy savings and the potential for retrofit,
Energy and Buildings, vol. 42, no. 10, pp.
1582-1591.
[5] Del Barrio, E 1998, Analysis of the green roofs
cooling potential in buildings, Energy and
Buildings, vol. 27, no 2,.pp. 179-193.
[6] FiBRE (Findings in Built and Rural
Environments) 2007, Can Greenery Make
Commercial Buildings More Green?
Cambridge University.
[7] Gaffin 2005, Energy balance modelling
applied to a comparison of white and green
roof cooling efficiency, in: Greening Rooftops
for Sustainable Communities, Washington,
DC. 2005.
[8] Reflective Roof Coatings 1993, Energy
Efficiency Factsheet, Washington State
University.
[9] Akbari, H 2002, Shade trees reduce building
energy use and CO 2 emissions from power
plants, Environmental Pollution, vol. 116, pp.
S119-S126.
[10] Wong, N H 2009, Energy simulation of vertical
greenery systems, Energy and Buildings, vol.
41, no. 12, pp. 1401-1408.
[11] Gua resumida del clima en Espaa: 1971-
2000; 1961-1990, 2004, Direccin General del
Instituto Nacional de Meteorologa, Madrid.
[12] Cdigo Tcnico de la Edificacin: CTE 2009,
Espaa Ministerio de la Vivienda.
[13] Wong, N H, Tan, A Y K, Chen, Y, Sekar, K,
Tan, P Y, Chan D, Chiang, K, Wong, N C
2009, Thermal evaluation of vertical greenery
systems for building walls, Building and
Environment, vol. 45, no. 13, pp. 663-672.
[14] http://www.designbuilder.co.uk/

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BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 739

1
Passive strategies for roofing design in Costa Rica
Shading, Form and Materiality
Michael SMITH-MASIS
Programa de Investigacin en Diseo y Construccin Sostenible. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniera de la
Facultad de Ingeniera. Universidad de Costa Rica. San Jos, Costa Rica


ABSTRACT: The roof in Costa Ricas tropical climate has a critical role to provide shading and
protection of heavy rains and solar radiation. It has a hierarchical role within the buildings envelope to prevent
any indoor temperature raise above external air temperatures. This paper aims to define passive design
strategies for the roof based on empirical and analytical studies. Form and materiality was analyzed with local
low cost materials through a series of parametric simulations and analogical models.

Keywords: Passive Design, Comfort, Shading, Roof form & Materiality
1. INTRODUCTION
In Costa Rica the roof is commonly provided
as a lightweight structure with a mono or double
pitch. It is covered in the exterior with corrugated
galvanized steel sheeting and gypsum or plywood
board as ceiling. Even though of its decisive role on
the overall building thermal performance, it is
typically found in local practice (mainly due cost) a
lack of ceiling boards, poor insulation or any
reflective foils to minimize heat gains, and if a ceiling
due exists, trapped air inside unventilated cavities
find no escape for any heat surplus. Therefore heat
is conducted through the underside of the roofing
sheets and re-radiated to the interior spaces
producing thermal stress and occupants discomfort,
the latter has a double effect when occupants are
wearing light clothing (Szokolay, 2004), especially in
low cost buildings.
Locally speaking it is of common believe
that this issue can be easily solved by applying
international standards usually associated with
recognized commercial materials. However on the
local practice there are clearly misconceptions with
poor design decisions based on air-conditioned
buildings, and expensive materials that can be
avoided with simple design techniques, informed
upon appropriate criteria.
The aim of this paper is to generate a series
of practical exercises to evaluate form and materiality
of roofing systems for Costa Rica. The research
focuses on testing local materials and low cost
alternatives through a series of parametric
simulations and laboratory tested models to validate
the exercises with further explorations upon shading,
form and materiality.
2. THE ROOF HIERARCHICAL ROLE
In the tropics, it is the shade that refreshes and
unifies, [] and it is everywhere. In the tropical
latitude the local experience of family cohesion
becomes relative and dilutes through the open
spaces some members of the family lie on a
hammock under the shade of a tree, others in the
corridor seated on a bench under the shade of the
eaves. (Bruno Stagno,1999). The quote above
describes from a socio-cultural perspective how
outdoors experience is part of the way of living in
Costa Rica, and open spaces under shade are
traditionally conceived for family spatial delight;
where shading becomes a key-performing feature in
which the roof has a hierarchical role.
The roof in Costa Ricas is primarily required to
provide shading and protection of heavy rains and
solar radiation. It is the element that yearly receives
the highest amounts of solar radiation. Since
openness in the building is required in such climates,
the roof has a hierarchical role among other
elements, which practically remains it as the only
considerable element that protects interior spaces or
any external surfaces from solar irradiation impinge.
Well designed, a roof can prevent any indoor
temperature raise above external air temperatures,
by keeping surface temperatures under the roof
(ceiling) around the same level as other surfaces in
the interior space.
3. COSTA RICAS CLIMATES & DESIGN
Costa Rica is a tropical country located between
latitudes 8 and 11 north and longitudes 82 and 86
west. It is a relatively small country nevertheless with
a great diversity of ecosystems and climates. Annual
temperatures are not very accentuated; with only two
season variations throughout the year (dry and
rainy). However climate differences exist due
dominant winds and variety of altitudes up to 3.820
meters above the sea level. There are more than 50
known microclimates in Costa Rica. For building
design purposes, based on temperatures, relative
humidity, rainfall and general design
recommendations, four main regions are
distinguished among others; cool (moderate,) warm,
warm-dry and Warm-humid.

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740 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)

2

Figure 1: Sun-path Diagram, Solar radiation Stress &
Typical Warm Regions Temperatures.

In all climatic design regions, the roof has
decisive protective role, especially to keep indoor air
temperature comfortable. In this latitude, solar
radiation has a strong impact over all exposed
surfaces, and unwanted radiant heat can be
conducted inside the dwelling through the buildings
elements, especially during sunshine hours close to
the zenith, were solar radiation reaches its peak
loads (Figure 1). The same sun path diagram can be
used due the countrys small size.
4. A THERMAL COMFORT TARGET
Research from various writers has proven that
the ASHRAE summer recommendation of 26.1C is
not applicable for tropical climates. In fact, in
developing countries due the limited available
resources, constructions are simple and operate
without any conventional cooling i.e. air conditioning.
People are more likely to tolerate higher
temperatures, hence to adapt to external ambient
conditions. Nonetheless, predominant corrugated
galvanized roofs under severe exposure can create
intolerable indoor conditions; with external surface
temperatures 30K higher than the air temperature.
A rule of thumb suggested by Koenigsberger &
Lynn (1974) for these type of climates, establishes
that the ceiling temperature should not exceed air
temperature by more than 4 K to keep comfortable
conditions. Despite the fact of a relative elderly
benchmark, the recommended standard has
practical implications for low cost materials that can
be easily provided.
5. ROOF MORPHOLOGY
The outside, middle and inside sections of a
roofing system contribute to prevent heat
transmission. All together determine layers of
thermal resistance with its correspondent U-value
(Figure 2).

Figure 2: Roof Morphology & Layers.

The outside layer or roofing sheet contributes
to reflect solar radiation, depending on surface
finishes. A white or shiny silver surface is preferable
because of its highest reflection, lowest absorption
and emission of radiant heat. Givoni (1998) suggests
assuming an absorbance value of 0.6, unless the
building is periodically painted because it is
impractical to assume a perfect white colour (0.9) in
warm humid climates, due abundant fungi growth or
even corrosion over roof and walls.
The middle layer separates the roofing sheet
from the ceiling, containing an attic space or air
cavity and linings of a reflective foil. In warm climates
the roof surface is warmer than the interior surface of
the ceiling, thus an air gap can help to reduce heat
gains by convection. Also, air spaces are good
insulators, however at higher temperatures, external
surfaces and airspaces conductance increases and
resistances become smaller. To prevent any heat
excess in the cavity, ventilation might be necessary
when the external air temperature is below internal
air temperatures. Heat gains can be furthered
reduced by adding a radiant barrier (reflective foil) in
the cavity; it reflects most of the long wave radiation
but if it absorbs any heat, very little will be reradiated
to the colder surfaces in the cavity. According to
Givoni (1995), lining one surface of the air gap with a
reflective lining increases its thermal resistance by
two to threefold and placing the lining on the upper
horizontal part of the air cavity reduces the possibility
of dust accumulation, which can greatly lower its
power to reflect or low emit.
The Inside layer is composed of insulation
materials and ceiling boards. Additional thermal
resistance comes along with materiality to prevent
ceilings interior surface temperature rise above the
performance standard, depending on surfaces
emittance.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 741

3
6. THERMAL RESISTANCE AND
RECOMMEND U-VALUE
In spite of the performance standard (4K) and
taking into account the sol-air temperature concept, a
temperature radiation gain can be estimated in the
roof surface, along with its correspondent thermal
resistance. Givoni (1998) suggest a procedure to
calculate the required thermal resistance, with
approximating assumptions as a function of external
colour, shading conditions and acceptable elevation
of indoor radiant temperature (Figure 3). The sol-air
temperature elevation can be estimated by the
equation:
dT
s-a = (a.I/Ho)-4K
(Where: Ho: heat transfer coefficient, a: absortivity
and I: Solar Radiation)

The required thermal resistance for medium-
colour roof:
R =(R * dTs-a) / 4K- R)

The assumptions for this calculation considered
0.6 of absorbance, external surface coefficient (Ho) of
15 w/m
2
C with very light winds, internal surface
resistance (R) of 0.14m
2
*C/w, where Ti = To and
solar radiation is 896 w/m
2
.
After Givonis procedure and by using the
correspondent climatic data
1
the external roof
surface temperature elevates 35.8 K above the
external air temperature. After subtracting the
recommended performance standard (4 K) the final
temperature radiation gain is 31.8 K, with its
required thermal resistance of 0.96 m
2
C/W.
Knowing the required resistance, individual values
are assessed for each layer of the roofing system.

Figure 3: Required Thermal Resistance.


1
Day 141 peak radiation at 13 hrs of 896 w/m2. Source:
Meteonorm V.6.

Figure 4: Layers of resistance & U-Value

Figure 4 shows that the most significant

resistance comes from the air cavity and insulation
materials, however the latter can be expensive. Also
by comparing the obtained U-value with similar
roofing systems, a range from 1 to 1.5 W/m2C can
be deduced for this purpose; expecting ceiling
temperature to be 2.5 to 3.5 K. above external air
temperature.
7. FORM CONSIDERATIONS
In Costa Rica, roofs are typically provided as
double-pitched slopes (15% to 20% gradient), with
short overhangs (0.50m), where economical issues
restrict orientation and any sloping criteria. Thus
careful attention has to be paid towards surface tilt
(slope degree), orientation and eaves extension to
obtain the best possible performance.
Figure 5 shows how solar radiation approaching
an exposed surface can be reduced as function of
the tilted plane (Weather files of Metenorm V.6);
such criteria has been well understood by local
vernacular architecture with prevailing 35% roof
slopes.
On the other hand, local regulations establish
overhangs with a minimum extension of 0.50m,
where only high altitude angles can be covered and
certain critical periods (Figure 6.A,B,C) are un-
shaded. Also south and north facades should
encourage longer eaves, without diminishing daylight
availability; and considering protection from diffuse
radiation coming from the whole sky hemisphere.
Balconies or shaded verandas are preferable for this
asset, however careful attention has to be paid in
terms of cost and daylight availability.
Figure 6: 1,2,3 presents shading studies where
VSA can cover almost all critical periods. For
example a VSA of 53, can provide sufficient shading
to a 2,40m wall height. A fully year coverage can be
enhanced by adding HSA. On the other hand east
and west facades are difficult to shade. In this case
VSA of 45 can cover periods from 8:00 to 16:00
hours. The addition of horizontal elements
underneath the overhang i.e. louvers, or vegetation
can enhance shading provision.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
742 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)

4

Figure 5: Effects of solar radiation as a function of a
tilted plane.

Furthermore shading the roof can reduce both;
solar radiation loads and cost for any expensive
insulation. This can be easily achieved by means of
adjacent trees, trunks or wide natural canopies.
However if natural means are absent, a Parasol roof
(Szokolay, 2004) can be used over the roof itself to
provide shade. Figure 6.G illustrate a lightweight
textile-shading element that can be set on top of a
roof. Such element can provide enough shading and
allow convective cooling underneath. At night it can
be folded if radiative cooling is required. Lightweight
roofs can cool down very fast, specially during night
hours, when its temperature is often below the
ambient air temperature, owing to long-wave
radiation to the sky (Givoni,1998).
8. DIGITAL EVALUATION: PARAMETRIC
TEST
A series of parametric simulations with TAS 9.0
(dynamic thermal simulation software) were
performed to determine the individual contribution of
each layer and materials. To ensure the
comparability of results, all other factors (wall
construction, window type and openings) were kept
the same for a 27 cubic meters generic box. The
internal surface of the ceiling was measured to
distinguish the differences by adding each layer and
materials. The external and ceiling temperatures
were taken at the same day (121) Figure 7.A.
The results show that starting from the roof sheet
alone, the greater impacts were perceived by adding
the ceiling board and air gap. Insulation showed less
improvement over the peak hours, and attain
temperatures higher than any other roof tested.
Lower U-values tend to dissipate heat at slower rate;
keeping ceilings temperature higher at night. In
opposition higher U-values dissipate heat
immediately to the environment. However it cannot
be denied that finding the right insulation material will
benefit the overall thermal performance targeted.
A parasol roof concept was tested under the
same assumptions with different distances between
the roof and a highly reflective lightweight fabric (0.9)
as second skin. The roofing sheet was kept alone (u-
vale 5.8) with the second skin (u-value 4.6). Then the
roof was improved as on the previous studies (0.9).
Figure 7.B illustrates that such element mitigates
the temperature raise of the ceiling interior surface
until 5 K above the external air temperature. The
temperature difference between offset distances of
0.15 to 1m is 1.3K, with a threshold after 0.25m. It
can be observed that short distances have a greater
chance to provide shading with similar effects to a
fully ventilated air gap situation, and with less
material consumption. Ultimately a roof u-value of
0.9 drops the ceilings temperature below the
acceptable standard.

Figure 6: Shading studies & Parasol Roof Concept.

Despite the fact of the software sensibility and
materials calibration, the resulting computational
values were approximates which help to illustrate
what was approached with the manual calculations.
Even though there are some minor discrepancies
between simulations results and manual calculations,
the performance contribution of each layer can be
visualized in a practical way.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 743

5

Figure 7: Roof performance simulations
9. ANALOGICAL TESTING: MODELS
All theoretical exercises studied digitally were
validated and tested under a series of 1:1 scale
models. The main objective was to explore low cost
local materials and a parasol roof. A set of plywood
boxes of 0.60 m
2
where built to explore form and
materiality. DBT, RH, solar radiation and ceiling
interior surface temperature were measured. The
latter and external DBT were the main performance
indicators. Measurements were taken under real
exterior conditions from September to early
November ensuring perpendicular solar radiation
during peak hours (due equinox proximity).
Environmental measures were taken from a local
weather station and infrared surface thermometers.
Sets of 4 boxes were displayed daily to compare
performance, each set of 4 boxes was arranged
under 6 categories varying: % ventilated air cavity,
slope degree, air gap width, thermal insulation,
external colour and a parasol textile.
Exercises 1,2 and 3 pursued form studies,
revealing slightly differences, upon a range not
greater than 2K. The external ceiling surface
temperature performed closely to the external air
temperature. Exercises 4,5,6 explored materiality
variations. As expected, temperature differences
were evident between performance curves (Figure 8)
and 4K standard. Test 4 (insulation) registered more
temperatures outside the required standard, whilst
test 6 showed a significant shading impact from the
parasol roof. The later can be easily achieved with
low cost fabrics for plants shading (zaran) or by
means of reused publicity tends.
10. CONCLUSIONS & DESIGN
CONSIDERATIONS
Roof design is contextual-dependant (location),
and should consider occupants needs and materials
optimization. Its main goal is to reduce the envelope
exposure against adverse climatic conditions.
Eaves extension or overhangs should be
encouraged as much as possible to ensure shading,
without diminishing daylight availability.
Pitch angles on a range of 15 to 30 or higher
can reduce the effects of solar radiation impinge. A
double pitch roof oriented north to south will benefit
from less exposure.
To prevent any ceilings temperature increase
above the recommended standard of 4K, it should
be considered reflective external surfaces (Light
colours), ventilated air cavities and resistive
insulation if necessary. A U-Value of 1.5 is
recommended for this asset.
Whenever the roof has no access contextual
shading (e.g. trees or natural canopies) a parasol
roof should be consider; reducing heat loads from
solar radiation. Previous analysis recommended an
offset distance of 0.25m, for a lightweight textile
element.
Finally analogical studies reveal the importance
to explore alternative low cost materials, while typical
applications can be furthered measured on local
case studies. Further qualitative research upon the
4K standard may be encouraged to validate its
feasibility.
11. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I will like to acknowledge UCR-INII director Mrs.
Ofelia for her support along the process. Also
Ernesto Viquez and Javier Castro for their assistance
and contribution to develop field studies,
environmental measurements and model fabrication.

4

Figure 5: Effects of solar radiation as a function of a
tilted plane.

Furthermore shading the roof can reduce both;
solar radiation loads and cost for any expensive
insulation. This can be easily achieved by means of
adjacent trees, trunks or wide natural canopies.
However if natural means are absent, a Parasol roof
(Szokolay, 2004) can be used over the roof itself to
provide shade. Figure 6.G illustrate a lightweight
textile-shading element that can be set on top of a
roof. Such element can provide enough shading and
allow convective cooling underneath. At night it can
be folded if radiative cooling is required. Lightweight
roofs can cool down very fast, specially during night
hours, when its temperature is often below the
ambient air temperature, owing to long-wave
radiation to the sky (Givoni,1998).
8. DIGITAL EVALUATION: PARAMETRIC
TEST
A series of parametric simulations with TAS 9.0
(dynamic thermal simulation software) were
performed to determine the individual contribution of
each layer and materials. To ensure the
comparability of results, all other factors (wall
construction, window type and openings) were kept
the same for a 27 cubic meters generic box. The
internal surface of the ceiling was measured to
distinguish the differences by adding each layer and
materials. The external and ceiling temperatures
were taken at the same day (121) Figure 7.A.
The results show that starting from the roof sheet
alone, the greater impacts were perceived by adding
the ceiling board and air gap. Insulation showed less
improvement over the peak hours, and attain
temperatures higher than any other roof tested.
Lower U-values tend to dissipate heat at slower rate;
keeping ceilings temperature higher at night. In
opposition higher U-values dissipate heat
immediately to the environment. However it cannot
be denied that finding the right insulation material will
benefit the overall thermal performance targeted.
A parasol roof concept was tested under the
same assumptions with different distances between
the roof and a highly reflective lightweight fabric (0.9)
as second skin. The roofing sheet was kept alone (u-
vale 5.8) with the second skin (u-value 4.6). Then the
roof was improved as on the previous studies (0.9).
Figure 7.B illustrates that such element mitigates
the temperature raise of the ceiling interior surface
until 5 K above the external air temperature. The
temperature difference between offset distances of
0.15 to 1m is 1.3K, with a threshold after 0.25m. It
can be observed that short distances have a greater
chance to provide shading with similar effects to a
fully ventilated air gap situation, and with less
material consumption. Ultimately a roof u-value of
0.9 drops the ceilings temperature below the
acceptable standard.

Figure 6: Shading studies & Parasol Roof Concept.

Despite the fact of the software sensibility and
materials calibration, the resulting computational
values were approximates which help to illustrate
what was approached with the manual calculations.
Even though there are some minor discrepancies
between simulations results and manual calculations,
the performance contribution of each layer can be
visualized in a practical way.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
744 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
6

Figure 8: Roof types test Models and performance

12. REFERENCES
[1] Auliciems, A. & S. Szokolay (1997) PLEA
Notes: Design Tools and Techniques 3 -
Thermal Comfort. PLEA, Brisbane.
[2] Corbella, O.D. and Magalhes, M.A. (2002).
Reflections about Bioclimatic Architecture in the
Tropics, pp693-696, PLEA 2002, Touluse.
[3] Givoni, B. (1998) Climate Considerations in
Building and Urban Design. John Wiley & Sons,
Inc., New York
[4] Givoni, B. (1994) Passive and Low Energy
Cooling of Buildings. Van Nostrand Reinhold.
[5] Hyde, R.(2000). Climate Responsive Design. E
& FN Son, London.

[6] Koenigsberger, O., T. Ingersoll, A Mayhew and
S. Szokolay (1973) Manual of Tropical Housing
and Building, Part 1: Climatic Design. Longman
Group Ltd., London.
[7] Koenigsberger, O. & R. Lynn (1965) Roofs in
the Warm Humid Tropics. Architectural
Association, London.
[8] Stagno,B. Ugarte, J.(1998). Rural Architecture
in the Tropics. Institute of Tropical Architecture,
San Jose.
[9] Szokolay, S.(2004) Introduction to Architectural
Science: the basis of sustainable design.
Architectural Press, London.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 745
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
The Application of Passive Downdraught Evaporative
Cooling in Hot and Dry Climate of China
Huang XUAN
1
and Brian FORD
2

1
Department of Architecture, School of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Civil Engineering
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan RD. Minhang District, Shanghai, 200240, China
2
Department of Architecture and Built Environment
The University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD UK
ABSTRACT: This paper describes the work on investigating the application of Passive Downdraught Evaporative
Cooling (PDEC) in hot and dry climate in China and the integration of different passive design strategies with PDEC
system in this climate. To test the systems performance in practice, made possible by the very similar climate
characteristics of the two locations, a full scale prototype field monitoring experiment was carried out in
collaboration between Nottingham University and AICIA, in Seville, Spain. The performance analysis showed that
the system can achieve significant cooling in Hot and dry climate conditions. Problems emerging during the field
work related to disturbances in air flow and the lack of integration of other passive environmental strategies with
PDEC were tested by PHDC - Airflow and TAS simulation. The optimal design found was tested in the climate
conditions of Kashi, results proving that the PDEC system can be a viable alternative to air conditioning in hot and
dry climates of China. The environmental strategy for a new commercial building in Kashi, China was assessed
with bioclimatic analysis. A natural ventilation and passive cooling strategy was developed taking in consideration
of the results of the previous testing and analysis.
Keywords: Passive Evaporative Downdraught Cooling, Climatic applicability, Hot and Dry climate, China

1. INTRODUCTION
The majority of projects adopting Passive
Downdraught Evaporative Cooling (PDEC) are
located in hot and dry climate conditions, where the
use of PDEC is the most appropriate, and together
with other passive strategies it can provide almost
100% of the cooling requirement in summer [1].
Despite a significant percentage of the climate in
China falls in this category, at present there is no
example of the use of PDEC. This paper investigates
the potential of using PDEC in the hot and dry climate
of Xinjiang, China through an experimental prototype
in Seville, South Spain characterized by similar
climate conditions. It describes a theoretical design
project of a new commercial building in Kashi,
southern Xinjiang, China, showing that the PDEC
system can be applied in the hot and dry climate of
China and can achieve good cooling performance.
2. CLIMATE OF XINJIANG AND SEVILLE
China is a large country with varied climate. To
assess the downdraught cooling climatic applicability
in China maps were developed for the first time as
part of the thesis research on The Application of
Downdraught Cooling in China. [2] A new approach
was proposed for the maps, which were developed
based on three related climatic characteristics: CDH
(Cooling Degree Hours), TDBT-TWBT (Dry Bulb
Temperature Wet Bulb Temperature) and 26-
TWBT (26 Wet Bulb Temperature). The two
indexes, TDBT-TWBT and 26 - TWBT, indicate the
potential of evaporative cooling and the possibility of
using evaporative cooling to reduce the cooling
demand. Seven climate zones for downdraught
cooling were classified. Three climate zones (Dry,
Moderate Humid and High Humid) were identified by
T
WBT
depression, which were divided into two sub-
zones with the difference of cooling degree hours (hot
and warm). Based on the map it was identified that
almost 100 km2 of floor space of non-domestic
buildings (non residential) is located in the Hot and
Dry climate and thus suitable for PDEC. [2]
Adopting PDEC in non-domestic buildings in this
climate locations in China has a great energy and
CO2 saving potential. The market analysis of China
showed that almost 100km2 non-domestic building
can achieve 500 million RMB and more that 50000
tonnes of CO2 savings per year when PDEC is
applied. [2]
Xinjiang is located in the northwest of China, and
stands in the centre of Eurasia, far from both the
Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, leading to an arid
and rainless, typical type of inland dry climate. The
climate of Kashi is a temperate continental arid
climate. It is a typical south city in Xinjiang province
with hot and dry climate. The highest monthly
average high temperature is 32.1 C in July. In
summer(Jun.-Aug.), daily maxima dry bulb
temperature is above 35C, RH minima is below 30%
and Wet bulb temperature generally is lower than
21C, providing ideal conditions for the application of
evaporative cooling. Furthermore in the difference of
temperature change between day and night is large,
meaning the possible use of night ventilation.
Kashi is located in the Hot and Dry zone. (Figure 1)
The T
DBT
-T
WBT
and 26 C T
WBT
value is 7.7 and 9.3
respectively. [2] This indicates the use of PDEC
6

Figure 8: Roof types test Models and performance

12. REFERENCES
[1] Auliciems, A. & S. Szokolay (1997) PLEA
Notes: Design Tools and Techniques 3 -
Thermal Comfort. PLEA, Brisbane.
[2] Corbella, O.D. and Magalhes, M.A. (2002).
Reflections about Bioclimatic Architecture in the
Tropics, pp693-696, PLEA 2002, Touluse.
[3] Givoni, B. (1998) Climate Considerations in
Building and Urban Design. John Wiley & Sons,
Inc., New York
[4] Givoni, B. (1994) Passive and Low Energy
Cooling of Buildings. Van Nostrand Reinhold.
[5] Hyde, R.(2000). Climate Responsive Design. E
& FN Son, London.

[6] Koenigsberger, O., T. Ingersoll, A Mayhew and
S. Szokolay (1973) Manual of Tropical Housing
and Building, Part 1: Climatic Design. Longman
Group Ltd., London.
[7] Koenigsberger, O. & R. Lynn (1965) Roofs in
the Warm Humid Tropics. Architectural
Association, London.
[8] Stagno,B. Ugarte, J.(1998). Rural Architecture
in the Tropics. Institute of Tropical Architecture,
San Jose.
[9] Szokolay, S.(2004) Introduction to Architectural
Science: the basis of sustainable design.
Architectural Press, London.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
746 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July
2011
2 xx.x SECTION NAME
systems to cool the air is applicable in Kashi. The
significant cooling potential of PDEC can yield
improvements in thermal comfort, and significant
reductions in energy demands compared with
equivalent air-conditioned buildings. [3]

Figure 1: Location of Kashi in the Downdraught Cooling
Applicability Map of China a) Map of China showing the
difference between outdoor Dry Bulb Temperature vs.
outdoor Wet Bulb Temperature. (b) Map of China showing
the difference between indoor Dry Bulb Temperature (taken
as 26C) vs. outdoor Wet Bulb Temperature. June August.
The climate of Seville is a typically Mediterranean
climate throughout the year, with cool winters and
sunny, hot and dry summers. The highest monthly
average high temperature is 36 C in July & August.
Sevilles climate in the summer is very similar to that
of Kashi. The T
DBT
-T
WBT
value is in the range of 7.2-
9.4 and 25 C T
WBT
is between 5.5-7.8. (Figure 2
and 3) [4] As the summer climate of the two locations
is highly similar the results of full scale field
monitoring there, can provide good indications about
the application of PDEC in hot and dry regions of
China and can be applied in Kashi as well.

Figure 2: Location of Seville in the PDEC applicability
map of Spain Temperature. Map showing the difference
between outdoor Dry Bulb Temperature vs. outdoor Wet
Bulb Temperature. Average over 24hours for June
September.

Figure 3: Location of Seville in the PDEC applicability

map of Spain Temperature. Map of China showing the
difference between indoor Dry Bulb Temperature (taken as
25C) vs. outdoor Wet Bulb Temperature. Average over
24hours for June September.
3. FULL SCALE FIELD MONITORING OF
THE EXPERIMENTAL BUILDING IN
SEVILLE
3.1. Background
To look at the PDEC system operation in real
climate conditions, a full scale prototype experiment
was carried out in collaboration between Nottingham
University and AICIA, in Seville, Spain. [5] The
experiment took place in the cell installed in the School
of Engineers of the University of Seville during the
months of August and September 2009. One of the
main aims was to see the effectiveness of PDEC from
the temperature difference achieved between the
outside temperatures and the inside ones. The
experimental plan was based on measures of
temperature inside the cell under various conditions:
with or without cooling system and various
configurations of this. To measure the inside
temperature 9 sensors were used. Furthermore, during
the field work spot measurements to record or surface
and air temperature, air velocity and RH were done.
The experimental cell consisted of a prefabricated
house with a tower attached to the system installed
with micronisers. (Figure 4)

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 747
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July
2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 3

Figure 4: Photo of the prototype building and Prototype
Airflow strategy

3.2. Cooling System
The system comprised of 8 nozzles at 1pair/bay
in four sets provided. The water volume flow required
for each nozzle is approximately 1litres/hour. Nozzles
operate with a total volume of 8 L/h of water, with 4
possible settings.
The wind catchers (north side of top tower,
2m0.5m) are subjected to considerable wind
condition (opening with no wind), the vent is operated
by five steel louver, rotated by pinions located on a
tubular drive shaft operated by motors. The tower
high level inlet vent is fully open with 2m0.3m which
located at top of south side.
The cell had 4 fans on a door, two extracting fans
400 m3/h 0.2 and the other two fans 600 m3/h
0.25, with 2 setting, 1000 m3/h and 2000 m3/h9.
When the air extraction fan are switch on, the inside
warm air exhausts via these fans, or when the fans
are switched off, inside warm air exhausts via these
fan vents by natural convection.
3.3. Cooling performance
During the testing period the system could
achieve significant cooling even in the hottest days.
With natural ventilation (8 microniser, no fan) the
system could achieve a 7 C reduction in the internal
temperature (Ti(medida)) compared to the External
temperatures (Te). (Figure 5)

Figure 5: Internal and external temperature on 28th
August, (8 microniser, no fan)

While when the system used forced convection (8
micronisers, 4 fans) the maximum Internal
Temperature is 32C and Temperature at tower low
level outlet (Tsaltorre(med)) 24C while the
Temperature without system obtained by correlation
(Ti (corr)) was 42C, meaning a 10C reduction by the
PDEC cooling effect. (Figure 6)


Figure 6: Internal temperatures on the 7th of September
(8 micronisers, 4 fans)
These results are promising and show the
potential of the PDEC system for cooling in Hot and
dry climate conditions. However the measurements
and observations also revealed more features which
could be improved such as insufficient air flow,
disturbance in air flow patterns in natural ventilation,
high humidity and stuffiness of the air, furthermore
still too high temperatures for comfortable conditions.
When looking at the results it needs to be taken
in consideration that no other environmental
strategies, such as shading, high thermal mass, night
ventilation were incorporated in the experimental
building, as it was solely build for testing purposes
and not to represent comfortable living conditions.
To address these problems air flow and TAS
simulations were carried out. First the cooling load
and the required air flow with the original conditions
was estimated and problems related to air flow were
investigated by using the PHDC Air Flow software,
created by AICIA [6]. After the findings it was
concluded that the cooling load is too high for the
PDEC system and by using TAS simulation different
environmental strategies were incorporated in the
design and an optimal design was suggested. (Table
1) The optimal design included the addition of an
exhaust tower to increase air flow and thermal mass,
night ventilation and solar shading to reduce the
cooling load were added.
The optimized example prototype was tested in
the climate conditions of Seville (day 202 in the
Seville Spanish Weather for Energy Calculations
weather file) [7] and also Kashi (specifically for day
215 in the Kashi CTYW weather file) [8].







PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July
2011
2 xx.x SECTION NAME
systems to cool the air is applicable in Kashi. The
significant cooling potential of PDEC can yield
improvements in thermal comfort, and significant
reductions in energy demands compared with
equivalent air-conditioned buildings. [3]

Figure 1: Location of Kashi in the Downdraught Cooling
Applicability Map of China a) Map of China showing the
difference between outdoor Dry Bulb Temperature vs.
outdoor Wet Bulb Temperature. (b) Map of China showing
the difference between indoor Dry Bulb Temperature (taken
as 26C) vs. outdoor Wet Bulb Temperature. June August.
The climate of Seville is a typically Mediterranean
climate throughout the year, with cool winters and
sunny, hot and dry summers. The highest monthly
average high temperature is 36 C in July & August.
Sevilles climate in the summer is very similar to that
of Kashi. The T
DBT
-T
WBT
value is in the range of 7.2-
9.4 and 25 C T
WBT
is between 5.5-7.8. (Figure 2
and 3) [4] As the summer climate of the two locations
is highly similar the results of full scale field
monitoring there, can provide good indications about
the application of PDEC in hot and dry regions of
China and can be applied in Kashi as well.

Figure 2: Location of Seville in the PDEC applicability
map of Spain Temperature. Map showing the difference
between outdoor Dry Bulb Temperature vs. outdoor Wet
Bulb Temperature. Average over 24hours for June
September.

Figure 3: Location of Seville in the PDEC applicability

map of Spain Temperature. Map of China showing the
difference between indoor Dry Bulb Temperature (taken as
25C) vs. outdoor Wet Bulb Temperature. Average over
24hours for June September.
3. FULL SCALE FIELD MONITORING OF
THE EXPERIMENTAL BUILDING IN
SEVILLE
3.1. Background
To look at the PDEC system operation in real
climate conditions, a full scale prototype experiment
was carried out in collaboration between Nottingham
University and AICIA, in Seville, Spain. [5] The
experiment took place in the cell installed in the School
of Engineers of the University of Seville during the
months of August and September 2009. One of the
main aims was to see the effectiveness of PDEC from
the temperature difference achieved between the
outside temperatures and the inside ones. The
experimental plan was based on measures of
temperature inside the cell under various conditions:
with or without cooling system and various
configurations of this. To measure the inside
temperature 9 sensors were used. Furthermore, during
the field work spot measurements to record or surface
and air temperature, air velocity and RH were done.
The experimental cell consisted of a prefabricated
house with a tower attached to the system installed
with micronisers. (Figure 4)

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Table 1: Added environmental strategies for optimal design
Environmental
strategy
Details
Exhaust
Tower
Height : 2.4m, Exhaust stack
height: 2.7m, Width: 1m, Cross
section: 2.6m2, Free section of
Exhaust: 1.5m2

Thermal mass
Cell wall and ceiling: 200mm
concrete (density of 1800 kg/m)
with 100mm rock wool insulation
(U-value: 0.34W/m2C)
Tower: 6mm steel with 100mm rock
wool insulation and covered with
low emissivity membrane (U-
value:0.37W/m2C)

Night
ventilation
Open with low night-time
temperatures

Solar shading
Adding to the south, west and east
facade

The analysis below shows the results for the TAS
simulation specifically for day 202 in the Seville
SWEC weather file. This is chosen as a reference day
for all comparisons as the warmest hour of the day
occurs on this day and reaches 41C. After adding
the proposed environmental strategies (thermal mass,
insulation, night ventilation and solar shading the
external heat gain was reduced to 365W. This
together with increased air flow by the exhaust tower
(1104.5 m3/h) resulted in the office hours peak
internal temperature reducing to 27.1C at its peak.
(Figure 7) A very good result considering the high
external temperature 41C used as a reference.


Figure 7: Cell T, External DBT, External WBT in Seville

Testing results in Kashi proved that the PDEC system
can be a viable alternative to air conditioning also in
the hot and dry climate regions of China. When
outside temperatures reached 36.7C the cell
temperature is below 27C its trend is fairly stable,
without bigger swings as a result of high thermal
mass. (Figure 8) During the night hours the
temperature reduces significantly and follows that of
outside as a result of night ventilation.

Figure 8: Cell T, External DBT, External WBT in Kashi

Findings and experiences of the field work and

simulation were considered when developing the
environmental, natural ventilation and passive cooling
strategy for a new commercial building in Kashi below.
4. XINJIANG DESIGN CASE STUDY
The project of the Tuman River Resort, in Kashi,
Xinjiang was a unique initiative in China, the only one
using PDEC system. Although due to financial
reasons the project was postponed, it has significantly
contributed to the knowledge of application of PDEC
cooling system in hot and dry climate of China, as
performance and emerging problems already can be
investigated in the design process.
4.1. Local Context
The project of the Tuman River Resort located at
the south of Kashi city centre and close to Tuman
River. The Resort has a total of 116309 m
2
building
areas, which includes retail-hotel buildings, theatre,
administration commercial and reception centre. The
experimental building for passive cooling is one of the
retail-hotel buildings of 1577 m2. The building
incorporates a three-storey atrium surrounded by
perimeter cellular rooms. The rooms on the first and
second floor are hotel rooms and ground floor is a
retail area.


Figure 9: Perspective of Tuman River Resort proposed
retail building
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xx.x SECTION NAME 5
The starting point for Kashi Tuman River Resort
Experimental Building is a new commercial building in
Xinjiang, China, which was designed by Xinjiang
architectural design institute. The author and some
other partners provided design proposes and
developed a natural ventilation and PDEC cooling
strategy for the Tuman River Resort Experimental
Building in Kashi, Xinjiang.
4.2. Environmental Design Strategy
The project aimed to explore the application of
PDEC in a new building scheme in urban sites of
China. The objective was to develop a natural
ventilation and passive cooling strategy able to
provide comfort conditions throughout the year to the
occupants of the experimental building.
To assess the environmental strategy Building
bioclimatic charts (BBCCs) were used, as they
provide an approach of rapid testing whether or not
PDEC is likely to produce comfortable conditions in
buildings [9]. The hourly temperatures for the period
of June to August for Kashi were plotted on the Givoni
BBCC (Figure 10). To assess PDEC, the hourly
values for June to August are plotted along with the
direct evaporative cooling boundary (27%). Integrated
with other passive strategies, such as natural
ventilation (17%), high thermal mass with night
ventilation (31%), sun shading (42%) thermal comfort
can be achieved all the summer time.

Figure 10: Bioclimatic Chart for Kashi (after Givoni)

This analysis suggests that PDEC can be effective
at maintaining thermal comfort and become a viable
alternative to air conditioning in buildings located in
hot and dry climates, but other applicable passive
strategies need to be used at the same time.
Taking this in consideration alternative
environmental strategies were incorporated in the
design proposal to minimize the solar gain and
reduce the cooling demand. The building has a
200mm concrete wall with 100mm external insulation.
The solar shading and low-E double glazing in the
south faade reduces the heat gain significantly. The
concrete walls are exposed, to absorb and store
warmth and coolness by night ventilation, the thermal
mass will dampen the temperature swing as well. The
building has different environmental strategies for
different seasons.
The environmental design strategy proposed a
PDEC Tower to provide cooling in the summer. The
implementation of PDEC within the central 14 metre
high atrium provides cooling air by using micronisers.
In summer passive evaporative cooling and
ventilation is provided by a PDEC atrium. The air is
cooled at high level by mean of water misting nozzles
supplied by Ingeniatrics S.L. and delivered by
openings in the corridor to the occupancy spaces.
The air will be then exhausted via the perimeter shaft.
The perimeter stacks are designed to exhaust air at
both high and low level, depending on the existence
(or absence) of wind. (Figure 11) The PDEC system
relies on 3 lines each one of 20 nebulizers, with a
predicted water consumption of 20 l/h and a pressure
of 2 bars in the line of nebulizers. The average size of
droplets is 15-30 microns. The PDEC system is
controlled by a control panel, it start, stop and purge
in automatic operations by temperature and RH
sensors. The PDEC system also operates in
conjunction with the motorized dampers. When the
system is on, both the motorized dampers at top of
the atrium and high level vents at corridor are set to
fully open or 50% open, according to the wind
speed/direction.



Figure 11: Kashi experimental building summer PDEC
Strategy

When the external temperature drops well below

the neutral temperature, which occurs frequently at
summer night, useful convective cooling is promoted.
This is achieved by encouraging flow reversal in both
still and windy conditions. The air comes in from the
perimeter windows and exhausts through the atrium
at high level by buoyancy forces reversing the
daytime air movement pattern under downdraught
cooling (Figure 12). The night cooling is controlled via
the motorised dampers. Night-time convective cooling
coupled with the mass of the building is also part of
the design strategy to enhance the performance of
PDEC.
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6 xx.x SECTION NAME


Figure 12: Kashi Experimental building summer night
cooling and mid-season ventilation strategy (right).

During the Mid-season (spring and autumn) the
building is naturally ventilated (by stack or wind
pressure differences) until the outside air temperature
is several degrees above internal. The use of natural
ventilation for cooling the building will depend on the
external temperature. When the outdoor temperature
are below internal temperatures, indoor cooling can
be achieved by natural ventilation.
4.3. Conclusion
The results from the full scale field monitoring and
TAS and Air flow simulation in Seville and Kashi
showed that the system can be applied in the hot and
dry climate of China and can achieve good cooling
performance. The findings and observations from this
project can give a good picture about the potential of
the application of PDEC in hot and dry climates of
China. The theoretical design project of a new
commercial building in Kashi, southern Xinjiang,
China considered the observations and results of the
previous testing. The results of the bioclimatic
analysis in line with the previous findings showed that
other environmental strategies are necessary for the
PDEC system to function well and to maximize its
cooling performance. To ensure the system is
working the first principle should be to try to reduce
external heat gain furthermore the cooling load of the
building. The right distribution air flow inside the
building (without fan) is extremely important. This can
decide if the system is able to work or not. The
building needs to be designed to achieve the required
air movement. Furthermore the location of the cooling
tower should be carefully considered to avoid solar
heat gain and by considering prevailing wind
directions.
4.4. Acknowledgements
I would like to recognise the efforts of Professor
Servando Alvarez and Professor Jos Salmern,
AICIA, University of Seville, Spain, for providing
technical guidance of the field monitoring of the
experimental building in Seville.
5. REFERENCES
[1] FORD, B., (2001). Passive downdraught
evaporative cooling: principles and practice.
Environmental Design. Architectural Research
Quarterly, 5, pp.271-280, Cambridge University
Press
[2] Xuan, H., (2010), The Application of
Downdraught Cooling in China, PhD Thesis
University of Nottingham, England
[3] FORD, B. and HEWITT, M.G. (1996), Passive
down-draught evaporative cooling in non-
domestic buildings: A review of the current state
of the art. Proc PLEA'96, Berlin
[4] ALTENER II, 2003. Solar Passive heating and
Cooling. Market Assessment of the Potential
Application of Passive Downdraught Evaporative
Cooling in Southern Europe 2001-2003-
4.1030/c/00-009/2000, Applicability Mapping,
Part of final report, ALTENER II Project on Solar
Passive Heating and Cooling, European
Commission DG Research.
[5] Alvarez S., Salmeron JM., Sanchez J., Ford B.,
Gillot M., Analysis of a PHDC (Passive and
Hybrid Downdraft Cooling) experimental facility in
Seville and applicability to the Madrid climate.
Submitted to Energy and Buildings. In review.
[6] Ford.B, Schiano-Phan.R, & Francis.E. The
Architecture & Engineering of Downdraught
Cooling: a Design Sourcebook ISBN 978-0-
9565790-0-3. PHDC Press, UK. 2010
[7] Spanish Weather for Energy Calculations
(SWEC). Available at :
http://www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energyplus/
cfm/Weather_data.cfm [Accessed: 07.03.2011]
[8] Zhang Qingyuan and Joe Huang. 2004. Chinese
Typical Year Weather Data for Architectural Use
(in Chinese). ISBN 7-111-14810-X. Beijing:
China Machine Press.
[9] LOMAS, K.J. et al. (2004). Building bioclimatic
charts for non-domestic buildings and passive
downdraught evaporative cooling. Building and
Environment 39, pp.661 676
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BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 751
Evaluation of passive cooling in low energy police
office
HILDE BREESCH
1
, BRAM DE MEESTER
2
, RALF KLEIN
1
, ALEXIS VERSELE
1
1
Catholic University College Ghent, Department of Industrial Engineering, Sustainable Building, Ghent, Belgium
2
Arcadis Belgium NV, Ghent, Belgium
ABSTRACT: Natural night ventilation is driven by wind and stack generated pressures and cools down the
exposed building structure at night, in which the heat of the previous day is accumulated. This passive cooling
technique is applied in the low energy police office Schoten (Belgium). Thermal summer comfort in the offices is
analysed based on the adaptive temperature limits indicator. Design, operation and performance of natural night
ventilation are also evaluated. The design is compared to design guidelines for natural night ventilation. The
operation is evaluated by comparing measured opening/closing of the windows to the designed control system.
The performance is analysed based on the achieved temperature drop overnight. Measured data of indoor
temperatures and opening/closing of windows were collected from the building management system during short
periods in the summers of 2009 and 2010. Good thermal summer comfort is noticed during normal and warm
summer periods. Only when the maximum outdoor temperature exceeds 30C, high indoor temperatures are
measured. Too low temperatures in the morning are noticed in some landscaped offices in normal summer
periods. This can be solved by raising the set point for indoor temperature. The users have a large impact on the
achieved thermal comfort by manual opening and closing of the windows by day. A rather good agreement is
found between measured and designed operation of natural ventilation. Daytime activation requirements have to
be checked. The temperature drop overnight varies between 0.3C and 2.9C.
Keywords: low energy building, passive cooling, natural night ventilation, thermal comfort
1. INTRODUCTION
Natural night ventilation uses the outside air at
night as a heat sink to cool down a building [1]. The
air enters the building and cools down the exposed
building structure, in which the heat of the previous
day is accumulated. This airflow is driven by natural
ventilation forces as thermal buoyancy (stack effect)
and wind. The cooling mechanism of natural night
ventilation is based on the convective heat transfer
from the exposed building structure to the cold air
flow at night, i.e. when the cooling potential of the
cold outdoor air temperature is maximal. By day, the
thermal mass of the building structure is used to
accumulate solar and internal heat gains and prevent
uncomfortable conditions during building operation
hours. This has three important consequences.
Firstly, to make natural night ventilation work, heat
storage in the internal structure is necessary [2], [3].
The phase difference between heat transfer to and
from the building structure has to be bridged.
Secondly, natural night ventilation is most effective in
cool and moderate climates with a large diurnal
temperature difference over the summer [4]. Thirdly,
since this technology provides primarily sensible
cooling, natural night ventilation is less applicable in
warm humid climates. The humidity ratio of the
outside air should be less than 15 g/kg dry air [4].
Natural night ventilation is applied to cool several
office buildings in Belgium, e.g. Renson in Waregem
[4], SD Worx in Kortrijk [5] and PROBE in Limelette
[6], office building of the Law Courts in Antwerp [7].
In addition, Pfafferott et al. [8], [9] studied the
performances of natural night ventilation in Germany
in the laboratory and office building of Fraunhofer
ISE (Freiburg) and office building of DB Netz AG
(Hamm). Voss et al. [10] monitored the energy
consumption in 21 office buildings in Germany with
night ventilation. Finn et al. [11] examined the role of
design and operational parameters in a naturally
night ventilated library in Ireland. Thermal comfort
was examined by monitoring the indoor temperature
and the relative humidity in these buildings. These
examples demonstrate that the requirements of good
thermal comfort can be fulfilled in a moderate climate
in case of a low cooling load.
Natural ventilation by day and night is designed
to guarantee a good thermal comfort and indoor air
quality in the low energy police office in Schoten
(Belgium). This paper aims to evaluate the design,
operation and performance of natural night
ventilation. Moreover, thermal summer comfort in the
offices is analysed. Measured data of indoor
temperatures and opening/closing of ventilation
openings were collected from the building
management system during short periods in the
summers of 2009 and 2010. This evaluation is based
on the results of Cnudde and Swankaert [12].
2. LOW ENERGY POLICE OFFICE
2.1. Building description
Figure 1 shows the low energy police office in
Schoten (Belgium). This office building has been in
use since September 2008 and is a design of
Huiswerk architecten (architect) and Arcadis
(engineering office HVAC systems and structural
engineering). The building includes individual and
landscaped offices, meeting rooms, storage rooms,
cells, sanitary and changing rooms on two floors
with a net floor area of 2514 m (see also Figure 2).
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752 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
As only the offices are naturally ventilated, this
analysis is limited to the offices.


Figure 1 Low energy police office Schoten (Belgium)
The building has a global insulation level K24 and
an energy performance level E55, significantly lower
than the required level for new office buildings in
Flanders: K45 and E100 [13][13]. In 2009, an
electricity consumption of 82.8 kWh/m.a and a
natural gas consumption of 76.1 kWh/m were
measured. The U-values of the walls are discussed
in Table 1. All walls are constructed of thermal
capacitive materials (e.g. concrete brickwork in
faade, hollow core concrete slab in floor) and the
internal surfaces are unfinished so that heat can be
stored in the internal structure.
Table 1:U-values of walls
wall
U
(W/m.K)
Faade 0.28-0.44
Roof 0.18
Floor on slab 0.31
Window 1.92

Figure 2 plan of first floor of police office (n6 meeting room,
n7 landscaped office ggpz, n8 office corps head, n9
adjunct corps head, n10 landscaped office cb)
The area of the windows, in relation to the floor
area, for each room is shown in Table 2. This
percentage varies from 11% to 30%. The solar heat
gain coefficient g of the windows is 0.60. The
windows in the atria have a g-value of 0.33. Figure 1
shows a large overhang on the west side of the
building. Moving blinds are provided as external solar
shading devices on the east and the south faade.
The solar blinds are automatically controlled based
on the measured illuminance on the faade and wind
velocity, but can also manually opened or closed by
the user.
The installed power of the lighting is on average
7.2 W/m in the offices. The lighting in the offices is
occupancy controlled. Most offices are occupied from
Monday till Friday from 7h30 till 17h30. Some
landscaped offices are also used in the weekends.
Table 2 gives an overview of the total internal heat
gains in each office during occupancy. In the offices,
a large variation is noticed, between 14 W/m in the
individual offices and 26 W/m in the landscaped
office vk2. The maximum internal heat gains in the
lunch and meeting room are higher, approximately
36 W/m.
Table 2 characteristics of windows, ventilation openings and
internal heat gains
room
Awindow/
Afloor
(%)
Internal
heat
gains
(W/m)
Aopening/
Afloor
(%)
Office corps head 29 14 1.7
Office adjunct corps head 29 14 1.7
Landscaped office ggpz 14 20 1.4
Landscaped office bp 14 14 0.8
Landscaped office
intervention
11 17 0.9
Landscaped office cb 28 17 1.1
Landscaped office vk1 30 20 1.0
Landscaped office vk2 28 26 0.7
Lunch room 30 37 1.1
Meeting room 23 35 1.6

2.2. Passive cooling
Natural ventilation by day and night is designed
to guarantee a good thermal comfort and indoor air
quality. The air enters the building in the offices
through automatically controlled bottom hung
windows and leaves the building at the top of 4 atria
in the centre of the building (see Figure 3). These
atria are marked in grey on Figure 2. The area of the
exhaust openings is 14.7 m. The area of the supply
ventilation openings, in relation to the floor area, is
shown in Table 2. This percentage varies between
0.7 and 1.7%. The height difference between supply
and exhaust openings measures 2m and 5m on
respectively the first and ground floor. The openings
are designed to deliver an airflow of 5 ac/h,
considering a temperature difference of 7C. These
supply openings are automatically controlled, as
shown in Table 3. The exhaust openings in an atrium
are opened when the supply openings in at least one
ventilation zone are opened and the indoor
temperature in the atrium exceeded 24C by day.
The same bottom hung windows are used for
hygienic ventilation and maximally opened for 25%
by day. This day ventilation is controlled by
occupancy in the individual offices and by CO2-
concentration in the landscaped offices i.e. opening
when the concentration is higher than 900ppm and
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BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 753
closing when it is lower than 600ppm. In addition, the
users can manually open and close these windows.

Figure 3 principle of natural night ventilation in police office
Table 3: Activation requirements natural night ventilation
Daytime activation
requirement
Night ventilation
activation requirements
i,max > 24C
e,mean > 12C
22h < time < 6h
i > 21C
i - e > 1C
v < 10 m/s
no rain
i : indoor temperature (C)
e : exterior temperature (C)
v: wind velocity (m/s)
3. EVALUATION PASSIVE COOLING
On the one hand thermal summer comfort in the
offices and on the other hand the design, operation
and performance of natural night ventilation are
evaluated. Measured data of indoor temperatures
and opening/closing of windows were collected from
the building management system during short
periods in August 2009 and July 2010. An overview
of the meteorological data of these periods is shown
in Figure 4. Both periods had extremely high average
and maximum temperatures. July 2010 and August
2009 had 15 respectively 14 summery days, i.e.
maximum temperature exceeding 25C, significantly
higher than normal (6 days). Sunshine duration was
normal in August 2009 and abnormally high, i.e. an
occurrence of once every 6 years, in July 2010.
average Tmean
(C)
average Tmax
(C)
average Tmin
(C)
normal 17.1 21.6 13.1
jul/10 20.5 25.8 15.6
aug/09 19.4 24.9 13.8
0
5
10
15
20
25
30

Figure 4 meteorological data of July 2010 and August 2009
in Uccle (Belgium)
3.1. Thermal summer comfort
The adaptive temperature limits indicator (ATL)
[14] is chosen as the criterion to evaluate the long
term performance of the police office building with
natural night ventilation in respect of thermal comfort.
This criterion, developed in the Netherlands, is based
on the adaptive thermal comfort theory [15].
The adaptive temperature limits indicator
distinguishes two types of buildings. The type alpha
and beta buildings differ in the availability of operable
windows and the possibility to adjust the indoor
temperature and clothing. The police office building
in Schoten is caracterised as a type alpha building.
Thermal comfort is divided into three levels, Level A
corresponds to 90% thermal acceptability and is
applied in buildings with high performance
requirements to thermal comfort. Level B (80%
thermal acceptability) means good indoor thermal
comfort and is the standard level. Level C (65%
thermal acceptability) finally, is only applied in
temporary situations in existing buildings. Figure 5
shows the adaptive temperature limits for an alpha
building. The minimum and maximum limiting indoor
operative temperatures on a given day depend on
the effective outdoor temperature Te,ref, i.e. the
running mean external temperature of that and the
three preceding days (Eq. 1). The effective outdoor
temperatures of 3, 9, 16 and 22C correspond to
winter, autumn/spring, summer and hot summer
situations in The Netherlands respectively.
Comparison of the climatological normals for Uccle
[17] and De Bilt (1971-2000) [18] shows that the
Dutch weather is comparable to the Belgian.
( )
4 . 2
T 2 . 0 T 4 . 0 T 8 . 0 T
T
yesterday before days 2 yesterday before day yesterday today
ref , e
+ + +
=
(1)
6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
18
20
22
24
26
28
30
32
T
e,ref
(C)
T
i
,
o

(

C
)
Tmax 65% acceptability
Tmax 80% acceptability
Tmax 90% acceptability
Tmin 90% acceptability
Tmin 80% acceptability
Tmin 65% acceptability
Figure 5 Limits of the adaptive temperature limits indicator
for an alpha building [14]
3.2. Design, operation and performance natural
night ventilation
The design of natural night ventilation in the
police office in Schoten is evaluated by comparing it
to design guidelines for natural night ventilation of
Breesch and Janssens [19]. Firstly, good thermal
comfort is only possible when the internal and solar
heat gains are restricted. The internal heat gains are
recommended not excessing 20 to 30 W/m floor
area. In addition, the window area is recommended
to be limited to 20% of the conditioned floor area.
External sunblinds have to be provided with a solar
heat gain coefficient g (glass included) smaller than
0.2. Secondly, to make natural night ventilation work,
heat storage in exposed heavy ceiling or walls is
necessary. This means that a lowered ceiling is
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754 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
discouraged. Moreover, it is recommended to
construct the faade or one or more internal walls in
heavy materials. Thirdly, cooling with natural night
ventilation requires large airflows and thus large
ventilation openings, i.e. an effective opening area of
1 to 3% of the cooled floor area. Finally,
automatically controlling of the ventilation openings is
recommended to maximize the cooling capacity and
to overcome overcooling in the morning. The most
important set point is the minimum zone or ceiling
temperature. Night ventilation should also only be
permitted when the zone temperature exceeds the
external temperature.
To evaluate the operation of natural ventilation,
measured opening and closing of the bottom hung
windows is compared to the designed control system
in Table 3.
The performance of natural night ventilation is
analysed based on the achieved temperature drop
overnight (between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. the next day).
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1. Thermal summer comfort
Thermal summer comfort is evaluated in an
individual office, i.e. the office of the corps head (n8
on Figure 2) and two landscaped offices, i.e. ggpz
(n7) and bp (same location as ggpz but on the
ground floor). Figure 6 shows the indoor temperature
in the office corps head in a warm week in July 2010.
On July 2
nd
, no registration of temperatures was
noticed from 13h till 20h. The indoor temperature
varied between 22.2 and 29.1 C.

Figure 6 indoor temperature in office corps head
To evaluate the indoor temperatures in this office,
the adaptive temperature limits indicator is applied in
Figure 7. Minimum and maximum temperatures in
July 2010 and August 2009 are compared to the
limits of thermal acceptability levels. In normal and
warm summer periods, thermal comfort in the office
of the corps head had a thermal acceptability of 80%,
i.e. level B. However, in hot summer periods, thermal
acceptability was only 65% or level C. This
conclusion corresponds to the observations in the
Renson office building [4].
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
T
i
[

C
]
T
e,ref
[C]
min 2010 max 2010 min 2009 max 2009

Figure 7 evaluation thermal summer comfort (ATL) in office
corps head
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
T
i
[

C
]
T
e,ref
[C]
min 2010 max 2010 min 2009 max 2009

Figure 8 evaluation thermal summer comfort (ATL) in
landscaped office bp
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
T
i
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]
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e,ref
[C]
min 2010 max 2010 min 2009 max 2009
Figure 9 evaluation thermal summer comfort (ATL) in
landscaped office ggpz
Figure 8 and Figure 9 show the evaluation of thermal
summer comfort with the adaptive temperature limits
indicator in the landscaped offices bp and ggpz
respectivelyFigure 7. It can be noticed that indoor
temperatures in office ggpz were on average 2C
higher than in office bp. Lower internal heat gains in
the latter office (see Table 2) explains this difference.
Moreover, too low temperatures in the morning were
noticed in the office bp in normal summer. Due to
this, thermal acceptability was less than 65% in this
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 755
office with regard to the lower temperature limit. This
problem can be solved by raising the night ventilation
control set point.
4.2. Design natural night ventilation
Firstly, Table 2 shows that the internal heat gains
in the offices in the police office are lower than 30
W/m as advised in the guidelines. The window area
does not meet the recommendation but is restricted
to 30% of the floor area (see Table 2). External
sunblinds are provided in the police office. Secondly,
heat storage in internal structure is possible because
all walls are constructed in thermal capacitive
materials and the internal surfaces are unfinished.
Thirdly, the area of the ventilation openings varies
between 0.7 and 1.7% in Table 2, barely exceeding
the minimum guideline of 1%. Finally, the automatic
control system in Table 3 meets the guidelines for
controlling night ventilation.
In conclusion, the designed natural night
ventilation system in the police office in Schoten in
general meets the recommendations for natural night
ventilation.
4.3. Operation and performance natural night
ventilation
The operation of natural night ventilation in the
office corps head is shown on Figure 10. The
daytime activation requirements were fulfilled every
day in this short period in July 2010. Consequently,
natural night ventilation has operated every night in
this summer period. On July 1-2 and 7-8, night
ventilation started later than 22h because the indoor-
outdoor temperature difference was lower than 1C.
Regularly opening and closing of the ventilation
openings was noticed on July 2-3, probably caused
by wind and/or rain. In the nights of July 4-5 and 5-6,
a low temperature drop overnight was noticed
although a large indoor-outdoor temperature existed.
Figure 11 discusses the operation in the
landscaped office ggpz. The operation in the
landscaped office bp is similar. Natural night
ventilation has only operated during short periods
although the activation requirements were fulfilled.
The maximum daytime indoor temperature exceeded
24C during the whole summer period. This set point
has to be checked to guarantee a good thermal
summer comfort. Consistent with the operation in the
individual office, delayed start was noticed on July 1-
2 and 7-8 and regularly opening and closing on July
2-3 in the landscaped offices.
The performance of natural night ventilation in the
office corps head and landscaped offices bp and
ggpz is shown on Figure 12. The temperature drop
overnight in the individual office varied between 0.7
and 2.9C with an average of 1.6C. In the
landscaped offices, the temperature drop overnight
was slightly lower with an average of 1.0C and a
variation between 0.3C and 2.2C.
The temperature drop in the police office building
Schoten was significantly smaller than the average
temperature drop of 3 to 4C in the Renson office
building [4].
Figure 10 operation night ventilation in office corps head

Figure 11 operation night ventilation in landscaped office bp
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

d
r
o
p

[

C
]
T indoor-outdoor[C]
corps head landscaped office ggpz landscaped office bp

Figure 12 temperature drop night ventilation in office corps
head, landscaped offices bp and ggpz
4.4. User impact
The users have a large impact on thermal
comfort by manually opening and closing the
ventilation supply openings and the windows by day.
The latter was not registered in the building
management system. This is demonstrated on Figure
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
756 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
13 showing the operation of hygienic ventilation in
the office corps head. A large increase of indoor
temperature on August 20 was noticed in this office
when the user manually opened the bottom hung
window for natural ventilation on a hot summer day.
In addition, Figure 6 shows a temperature drop in the
morning of July 5 in office corps head, probably
caused by manually window opening.

0
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%
]
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r
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indoor temperature outdoor temperature
hygienic ventilation

Figure 13 operation of hygienic ventilation in office corps
head
5. CONCLUSION
A good thermal summer comfort is noticed during
normal and warm summer periods. Only when the
maximum outdoor temperature exceeds 30C, high
indoor temperatures are measured. Too low
temperatures in the morning are noticed in some
landscaped offices in normal summer periods. This
can be solved by raising the set point for indoor
temperature. The users have a large impact on the
achieved thermal comfort by manual opening and
closing the windows by day. A rather good
agreement is found between measured and
designed operation of natural ventilation. Daytime
activation requirement with regard to the maximum
indoor temperature has to be checked. The
temperature drop overnight varies between 0.3C
and 2.9C.
6. REFERENCES
[1] M. Santamouris, D. Asimakopoulos (Eds.)
Passive cooling of buildings, James & James,
London, United Kingdom (1996)
[2] B. Givoni, Passive and low energy cooling of
buildings, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York,
USA (1994)
[3] C. Balaras, Heat attenuation, in: Santamouris,
M. and Asimakopoulos, D. (Eds.), Passive
cooling in buildings, James & James, London,
United Kingdom, (1996) 185-219.
[4] M. Kolokotroni, Night ventilation in commercial
buildings. Annex 28: Low Energy Cooling,
Subtask 1. IEA. United Kingdom (1995) 7-11
[5] H. Breesch, K. Descheemaeker, A. Janssens, L.
Willems, Evaluation of natural ventilation
systems in a landscaped office, proc. 21st PLEA
Conference, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (2004)
157-162
[6] H. Breesch, A. Bossaer, A. Janssens, Passive
cooling in a low-energy building, Solar Energy
79 (6) (2005) 682-696
[7] N. Heijmans, P. Wouters, Pilot study report:
Probe, Limelette, Belgium, In: Heiselberg, P.
(Ed.), Principles of Hybrid Ventilation, Hybrid
Ventilation Centre, Aalborg University,Aalborg,
Denmark, http://hybvent.civil.auc.dk (2002)
[8] W. Reyntiens, Monitoring of thermal summer
comfort of the new Antwerp Law Courts, Ghent,
Belgium, Ghent University, M.Sc, (2008)
[9] J. Pfafferott, S. Herkel, M. Jschke, Design of
passive cooling by night ventilation: evaluation
of a parametric model and building simulation
with measurements. Energy And Buildings 35
(2003) 1129-1143
[10] J. Pfafferott, S. Herkel, M. Wambsganss,
Design, monitoring and evaluation of a low
energy office building with passive cooling by
night ventilation. Energy And Buildings 36(5)
(2004) 455-465
[11] K. Voss, S. Herkel, J. Pfafferott, G. Lhnert, A.
Wagner, Energy efficient office buildings with
passive cooling Results and experiences from
a research and demonstration programme, Solar
Energy 81 (3) (2007) 424-434
[12] D.P. Finn, D. Connolly, P. Kenny, Sensitivity
analysis of a maritime located night ventilated
library building. Solar Energy 81(6) (2007) 697-
710
[13] W. Cnudde, S. Swankaert, Evaluation of passive
cooling in police office Schoten (in Dutch), M.Sc,
Catholic University College Ghent (2010)
[14] http://www.energiesparen.be/epb/overzichteisen
(in Dutch)
[15] A.C. van der Linden, A.C. Boerstra, A.K. Raue,
S.R. Kurvers, R. de Dear, Adaptive temperature
limits: a new guideline in The Netherlands A new
approach for the assesment of building
performance with respect to thermal indoor
climate. Energy and Buildings 38 (1) (2006) 8-17
[16] R.J. de Dear, G.S. Brager, Thermal comfort in
naturally ventilated buildings: revisions to
ASHRAE Standard 55. Energy and Buildings 34
(6) (2002) 549-561
[17] http://www.kmi.be/meteo/view/nl/360955-
Maandelijkse+normalen.html#ppt_4285694
[18] http://www.knmi.nl/klimatologie/normalen1971-
2000/per_station/stn260/4-
normalen/260_debilt.pdf
[19] H. Breesch, A. Janssens, Natural night
ventilation in office buildings built in passive
house standard, proc. Passive House, Brussels,
(2007) 271-278
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 757

Sustainability and Heritage Conservation
Assessment of Environmental Performance and Thermal
comfort conditions of historic churches.
MAGDALINI MAKRODIMITRI
1
, JAMES W. P. CAMPBELL
2

1
Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
2
Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
ABSTRACT: Large hall structures are particularly common in historic buildings. The way large halls have been
designed with very high ceilings, massive un-insulated masonry walls and cold stone floors, provides particularly
difficult environmental challenges. This paper consists part of a doctoral research currently being undertaken in
Cambridge, which focuses on a common type of hall structure-the church. The scope of the research is to study
the problems involved and provide guidance to allow managers and curators of historic buildings to understand
the consequences of the various decisions they take in devising suitable modern heating systems and
strategies. This paper presents the survey data of two pilot studies. The analysis of results is oriented to the
evaluation of current environmental conditions of the two representative cases in terms of thermal comfort
provision and risk of historic elements deterioration. The pilot study involved a sustained monitoring of the
internal environmental conditions coupled with carefully-designed questionnaires used to determine perceived
levels of comfort. This paper highlights the problems of sustainable thermal comfort provision in large hall
structures in historic buildings that host collections of artworks and proposes a route forward for finding
acceptable methods of heating such buildings without causing long-term damage.
Keywords: conservation, thermal comfort, churches, heating
1. INTRODUCTION
Reducing energy consumption from buildings
reduces bills, releasing funds to be spent in other
areas and helps to reduce the volume of harmful
greenhouse gases being released into the
atmosphere.
A growing range of issues are involved in
managing properties. Churches are large
structures, which are of value to local communities
and are often significant tourist attractions, yet they
are usually under-utilised. Historic buildings could
be put to alternative uses, but in order to attract
more activities, they need to provide a more
comfortable environment. However it is important
that any increase in thermal comfort level does not
compromise conservation requirements and the
need to reduce energy consumption and carbon
emissions.
This study focuses on historic churches in the
UK, because:
They are quite complex structures
Their large hall spaces present particular
difficulties when it comes to space heating and
managing humidity levels, air movements and
heat currents.
They are infrequently occupied
They are often listed buildings; therefore any
environmental adaptation needs to have no
adverse effect on the appearance and
behaviour of the structural materials and
artworks.
The Stern Review Report (2006) concluded that
Climate Change is an urgent problem that requires
immediate action. [1] The Church Buildings Council
accepted this, stating in The Church of Englands
SevenYear Plan: Shrinking the footprint,
published in October 2009, that it aims to achieve a
80% reduction in Churches carbon emissions by
2050. [2]
Figures presented by The Carbon Trust project
2008 reveal that most energy usage in church
buildings is attributed to heating, [3] However
modern heating systems are usually associated
with particular conservation problems. A well-
heated church is largely a Victorian invention and a
late twentieth-century expectation [4], while modern
societys demand for increased thermal comfort
conditions cannot be ignored.
The problem is how to improve thermal comfort
conditions in historic buildings, while reducing
energy consumption and making sure all
conservation requirements are still met. This paper
examines the problem from thermal comfort
perspective and presents and evaluation of
comfort levels in two representative types of heated
churches.
2. BACKGROUND
2.1. The challenge of historic churches
adaptation
Reducing energy consumption of church
buildings is a significant challenge. More than 2/3
of churches (16,000 in total) are listed buildings
(that is buildings protected under UK legislation and
recognised as being of great historic importance).
This means that conservation of historic fabric
needs to be carefully considered. [2] Thus, passive
measures, i.e. ceiling or wall insulation, windows
draught-proofing etc. are often impractical.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
758 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
The Church of England consists of 16,200
churches, 43 cathedrals, around 100 offices,
roughly 13,000 clergy homes and other buildings.
The figures released in the Carbon Trust project in
2008 estimated that during 2006 2007, these
building emitted over 330,000 tCO2 [3] (Fig. 1), of
which a staggering 65% of emissions
(approximately 212,000 tonnes) could be attributed
to churches and halls. [2]











Figure 1: Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Church of
England estimated by source. Source: CofE, 2008
43% of churches were found to use natural gas
for space heating and 21% used oil. [2] In all cases
it was found that space-heating is the most
significant factor in terms of carbon dioxide
emissions. [5]
2.2. Heating strategies in historic churches
Heating methods until now were chiefly
designed to serve economic and thermal comfort
requirements, while conservation issues have been
very rarely considered. [6] There are two heating
strategies often used in English Churches:
Constant operation of Central Heating system:
the whole church volume is heated and, it is
expected that uniform thermal conditions will be
achieved throughout. The most popular types of
central heating nowadays are warm-air heating,
convective and fan-assisted heating, under-floor
heating, and footboard heating. [6] In the case of
central constant heating, higher indoor
temperatures are generally expected to provide
higher levels of thermal comfort. [Camuffo 2007]
However, when a constant heating strategy is
adopted in cold regions, Relative Humidity (RH%)
might fall below the threshold of tolerability for
wood and other organic materials (30% - 60%). [7]
Intermittent operation of central or localised
heating: Local heating cuts the energy bills, since
heating is targeted at the occupied areas of the
church. Usually, IR heating from high-temperature
emitters and pew heating are used. [6] The local
method is less common than central heating, and
although it usually fails to provide thermally
comfortable conditions for the occupants, it causes
particular conservation problems.
Intermittent or mixed operation of heating often
causes damage to the upper parts of the structure
(e.g. ceiling, upper parts of walls, wall paintings
etc.); Heat tends to rise to the upper levels of the
internal space, while the intermittent operation of
heating causes high intensity heating-cooling
cycles. (Fig. 2) [8]












Figure 2: a).Temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH)
profiles sampled 4.5 m above the altar of a church with
intermittent heating in Italy. Source: Camuffo, 2007
2.3. Conservation vs Thermal comfort
The historic structures and artworks that are
often found in church buildings are invaluable. The
problems arise from rising demands for increased
levels of thermal comfort and most importantly
requirements for higher. [6] Modern heating
techniques have changed perceived levels of
thermal comfort. However, changes to the internal
environment always affect the historic fabric and
artworks which are at risk from a number of
different types of deterioration:

a). rising damp which is caused either by dispersed
or ground water [9]
b). Mould growth due to high humidity levels in the
interior, mainly because of rapid changes in
microclimate conditions
c). Condensation on cold wall surfaces, due to
changing thermal conditions, the increase of
indoor airs moisture content and condensation
of vapours.

There is a strong correlation between the
deterioration processes and the dynamic changes
room climate. The main factors which are
responsible for historic elements deterioration are
[10]:
Liquid Water: If drainage systems are not
maintained properly or the envelope itself is
damaged, rain or ground water may be able to
enter the structure through penetration, infiltration
or capillary action. The source of moisture is
generally easy to be identified, simply by examining
the distribution of damage in the building elements.
Water Vapor: Dampness is strongly correlated
with high relative humidity and sudden temperature
rise. When temperatures and relative humidity
fluctuations are sharp, water vapour rises on the
cold wall, ceiling or window surfaces and
condenses, causing deterioration in paintings,
surface elements of walls and stained glass.
Salt Activity: Hygroscopic salts are contained in
different types of construction and artifacts. Levels
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 759

of hygroscopic salts are determined by relative
humidity. As they have a particular equilibrium,
when RH rises above that point the salt dissolves
and usually moves into the porous structure of
traditional building materials. So when RH
decreases again the salt crystallizes and potentially
disrupts the pores of materials, which are normally
smaller than the crystals.
Microbiological growth: Microbiological growth,
also known as bio-deterioration, can cause either
physical disruption, as the micro-organisms
colonise an area of the affected element, or
chemical disruption, due to the by products, which
are produced by the life-cycle of the micro-
organism.
Dimensional Change: Changes in humidity
levels cause expansion and contraction of the
cellular structure of wood. Especially painted
elements, which consist of different layers of
materials that are vulnerable to dimensional
changes. As each layer expands by different
percentage when humidity levels rise, stress can
be caused across the structure resulting in de-
lamination and flaking of wood.
Historic fabric consists of porous materials and
the whole structure is often characterized by high
levels of porosity and air exchanges as a form of
natural ventilation. As a result, the internal
microclimate responds quickly to changes in
external conditions. The historic structure quickly
achieves a state of equilibrium with the ambient
air. However, when modern heating / ventilation
techniques are applied to historic structures this
moisture balance between elements and ambient
environment can be disrupted. [11]
3. THE PILOT RESEARCH
3.1. Methods employed
As part of the Pilot research, two case studies
were selected and surveyed. (Fig. 3) The case
studies chosen were:
I. A church with central gas boiler driving a
water pipe under-floor heating system in constant
operation (Great St Mary's university church in
Cambridge, UK)
II. A church with local electrical heating system
intermittently operated.
The case studies were chosen to evaluate the
indoor environment and thermal comfort conditions
occurring in the representative cases of constantly
and intermittently heated large spaces and thus to
extract conclusions on the effectiveness and
suitability of environmental controls in each case.
The final project will combine both quantitative
and qualitative research methods. This initial pilot
survey engaged only part of this methodology and
it is the results of the pilot study that are presented
here. Monitoring and site measurements took
place between 26/02/2010 and 24/4/2010. Data-
logger devices were installed around the churches
to measure Temperature (C) and Relative
Humidity (%) at different heights and locations.











Figure 3: Left: Gt St Marys church, Right: St Botolph;s
church, Cambridge, UK
The assessment of thermal comfort levels is
based on structured written questionnaires,
consisting of close ended questions, which were
distributed to occupants during services. In the
forthcoming academic year a Thermal Comfort
Monitor will be used to produce scientific
measurements of thermal conditions. The results
will be analysed statistically to evaluate the current
environmental performance of historic
ecclesiastical structures and the potential for
thermal comfort provision.
In addition IR thermography method will be
used to inspect the effect of heating strategies to
the moisture content of several structural elements.
The pilot research will also allow the case studies
to be modelled using advanced simulation software
to test possible alternative strategies for improving
the indoor conditions. A similar method has been
successfully employed by Geva (1998), to produce
systematic analyses of the energy performance of
historic structures. [12]
3.2. Results and Analysis
The constant under-floor heating in Gt St Marys
church, gives satisfactory levels of internal
temperature and relative humidity, resulting in
relatively comfortable indoor conditions
(Tav.=16,30C, RHaverage=59%). However, the
internal space is not heated uniformly, i.e. there are
several spaces, such as the chancel, and other
ancillary areas which are not heated directly by the
under-floor heating system. It is believed that
vertical heating currents result in noticeable
contrasts (2C-3C difference) between warm-
heated spaces and colder-unheated ones, creating
a possible risk of condensation in colder areas.
The second church (St Botolphs) appears to be
more efficient in terms of energy consumption, as it
is heated only for limited periods during the week.
However, the instantaneous local heating often fails
to provide thermally-comfortable conditions, as
most of the heat escapes to the top of the building
to the cold ceiling, where rapid changes in
temperature conditions, in combination with cold
ceiling surfaces create a major risk of vapour
condensation. (Fig. 4)
In Gt St Marys church, because the central
heating system is constant throughout the day,
temperature fluctuation is rarely bigger than 1C -
2C, while the relative humidity increases by
approximately 5% during services. In St Botolphs
church, the temperature increases more rapidly
during services, when the heating is turned on, and
the micro-climate is disrupted. The sharp
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
The Church of England consists of 16,200
churches, 43 cathedrals, around 100 offices,
roughly 13,000 clergy homes and other buildings.
The figures released in the Carbon Trust project in
2008 estimated that during 2006 2007, these
building emitted over 330,000 tCO2 [3] (Fig. 1), of
which a staggering 65% of emissions
(approximately 212,000 tonnes) could be attributed
to churches and halls. [2]











Figure 1: Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Church of
England estimated by source. Source: CofE, 2008
43% of churches were found to use natural gas
for space heating and 21% used oil. [2] In all cases
it was found that space-heating is the most
significant factor in terms of carbon dioxide
emissions. [5]
2.2. Heating strategies in historic churches
Heating methods until now were chiefly
designed to serve economic and thermal comfort
requirements, while conservation issues have been
very rarely considered. [6] There are two heating
strategies often used in English Churches:
Constant operation of Central Heating system:
the whole church volume is heated and, it is
expected that uniform thermal conditions will be
achieved throughout. The most popular types of
central heating nowadays are warm-air heating,
convective and fan-assisted heating, under-floor
heating, and footboard heating. [6] In the case of
central constant heating, higher indoor
temperatures are generally expected to provide
higher levels of thermal comfort. [Camuffo 2007]
However, when a constant heating strategy is
adopted in cold regions, Relative Humidity (RH%)
might fall below the threshold of tolerability for
wood and other organic materials (30% - 60%). [7]
Intermittent operation of central or localised
heating: Local heating cuts the energy bills, since
heating is targeted at the occupied areas of the
church. Usually, IR heating from high-temperature
emitters and pew heating are used. [6] The local
method is less common than central heating, and
although it usually fails to provide thermally
comfortable conditions for the occupants, it causes
particular conservation problems.
Intermittent or mixed operation of heating often
causes damage to the upper parts of the structure
(e.g. ceiling, upper parts of walls, wall paintings
etc.); Heat tends to rise to the upper levels of the
internal space, while the intermittent operation of
heating causes high intensity heating-cooling
cycles. (Fig. 2) [8]












Figure 2: a).Temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH)
profiles sampled 4.5 m above the altar of a church with
intermittent heating in Italy. Source: Camuffo, 2007
2.3. Conservation vs Thermal comfort
The historic structures and artworks that are
often found in church buildings are invaluable. The
problems arise from rising demands for increased
levels of thermal comfort and most importantly
requirements for higher. [6] Modern heating
techniques have changed perceived levels of
thermal comfort. However, changes to the internal
environment always affect the historic fabric and
artworks which are at risk from a number of
different types of deterioration:

a). rising damp which is caused either by dispersed
or ground water [9]
b). Mould growth due to high humidity levels in the
interior, mainly because of rapid changes in
microclimate conditions
c). Condensation on cold wall surfaces, due to
changing thermal conditions, the increase of
indoor airs moisture content and condensation
of vapours.

There is a strong correlation between the
deterioration processes and the dynamic changes
room climate. The main factors which are
responsible for historic elements deterioration are
[10]:
Liquid Water: If drainage systems are not
maintained properly or the envelope itself is
damaged, rain or ground water may be able to
enter the structure through penetration, infiltration
or capillary action. The source of moisture is
generally easy to be identified, simply by examining
the distribution of damage in the building elements.
Water Vapor: Dampness is strongly correlated
with high relative humidity and sudden temperature
rise. When temperatures and relative humidity
fluctuations are sharp, water vapour rises on the
cold wall, ceiling or window surfaces and
condenses, causing deterioration in paintings,
surface elements of walls and stained glass.
Salt Activity: Hygroscopic salts are contained in
different types of construction and artifacts. Levels
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
760 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
Thermal Comfort
Range
fluctuations of temperatures in St Botolphs church
are more likely to cause the sort of wet and dry
cycles at the ceiling level that according to Olstad
(2001) [13] are responsible for dimensional
changes and damage to painted wooden elements.












Figure 4: Temperature and Relative Humidity Fluctuation
in St Marys and St Botolphs church during a typical
Sunday
Applying the thermal comfort criteria produced
by CIBSE in 1980 [14], Gt St Marys churchs
central constant heating seems to provide more
satisfactory conditions than St Botolphs local
intermittent heating. Most of Gt St Marys
temperatures during services in occupied areas lie
in the thermal comfort range (17C - 13C), while
all temperatures occurring in St Botolphs church lie
in the Cold range of the following graph. (Fig. 5),
suggesting that the local intermittent heating is
simply not good enough to provide adequate levels
of thermal comfort even when it is turned on.












Figure 5: Temperature during services in occupied areas
in Gt St Marys and St Botolphs
Similarly the relative humidity in Gt St Marys is
within thermal comfort range, while in St Botolphs
the high relative humidity in combination with low
temperatures often causes the air to feel chilly.[15]
(Fig. 6) Research suggests that low comfort
temperatures of 20C combined with relative
humidity 40% - 70% are likely to provide more
pleasant conditions. [16] The following graph also
shows that St Botolphs internal fabric and artefacts
are more vulnerable to deterioration. However, in
St Botolphs, the relative humidity of 80% - 95%
should not cause mould growth as long as the
temperatures do not rise above their current low
levels. It is this conservation aspect of the problem,
which is critical when studying the thermal comfort
in historic churches as rapid changes in indoor
relative humidity can be particularly detrimental.










Figure 6: Relative Humidity occurrence in Gt St Marys
and St Botolphs
In summary, the locally-heated church provided
very low temperatures combined with high relative
humidity, while the constantly-heated church
provided more acceptable, higher temperatures
with more appropriate humidity levels. (Fig. 7) As
the following graph illustrates, the results from Gt
St Marys are less dispersed, while at St Botolphs
the results are more scattered and are more likely
to cause intense heating-cooling cycles in the
upper parts of the building, and thus excess
moisture levels, which can lead to conservation
problems. [8]















Figure 7: Temperature and Relative Humidity correlation
in Gt St Marys and St Botolphs

The questionnaire survey results showed that
occupants in both pilot studies felt generally cooler
at head level. Only a very few occupants have
stated that they felt too warm at head level, in St
Marys church where the warm air coming from
underfloor heating, next to, but not under the pews,
rises and fails to provide the lower pew areas with
warm air, thus creating a gradient, as relevant
thermal comfort studies have shown. [6] This is
rarely large enough to cause discomfort for St
Marys occupants (because the constant heating
creates almost uniform conditions). However, when
virtually the same situation occurs in St Botolphs
church, where localised heating in the pews is
used, thermal panels seem to be providing only
small amounts of heat mainly at knee level leaving
the upper parts of the body cold. (Fig. 8)







Percentage of Temperature Occurence in occupied areas
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
0 5 10 14 16 18 20 22 24 25
Temperature Range C
P
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e

%
St Mary's
St Botolph's

Percentage of Temperature Occurence in occupied areas
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
0 5 10 14 16 18 20 22 24 25
Temperature Range C
P
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e

%
St Mary's
St Botolph's

Percentage of Temperature Occurence in occupied areas
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
0 5 10 14 16 18 20 22 24 25
Temperature Range C
P
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e

%
St Mary's
St Botolph's
Warm range Thermal comfort Cold range
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
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BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC) 761












Figure 8: Thermal Comfort distribution on feet and head
level for Gt St Marys and St Botolphs
Occupants answering the survey agreed that
the performance of the heating system at Gt St
Marys is satisfactory, (Fig. 9) while the St Botolphs
intermittent heating method has gathered more
dispersed votes, which tended to rate the heating
system as poorly performing.












Figure 9: Heating System Performance in Gt St Marys
and St Botolphs
4. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
This paper investigates the effectiveness and
suitability of two representative heating strategies
in historic church buildings in terms of (1) provision
of thermal comfort and (2) provision of acceptable
indoor conditions (Temperature and Relative
Humidity levels) to protect fabric and artefacts from
deterioration [4]
The pilot survey has shown that neither strategy
is wholly satisfactory from the conservation point of
view, both raising issues of possible deterioration of
the historic fabric, either by physical damage or by
condensation, salt-activity or dimensional change
when indoor conditions change rapidly.
The other side of the equation is thermal
comfort. Thermal conditions were investigated in
both pilot studies and suggest that constant
operation of heating offers more satisfactory levels
of thermal comfort than intermittent local heating,
although the energy consumption per capita
appears to be higher.
When the results were plotted in psychometric
charts, to test if the perceived thermal comfort
estimation based on occupants' responses agrees
with the predicted thermal comfort based on the
actual environmental conditions, most of the points
laid within the thermal comfort zone for Gt St
Mary's church (17C < T < 22C & 40% < RH <
70%), whereas the results from St Botolph's church
lie completely outside the thermal comfort zone as
defined by the CIBSE guidance for the thermal
comfort and optimum indoor conditions for public
and commercial buildings. (Fig. 10 & 11)










Figure 10: Psychrometric chart for St Botolphs church:
Local Intermittent Heating








Figure 11: Psychrometric chart for St Botolphs church:
Local Intermittent Heating
At the moment the majority of surveys within the
UK and across Europe concentrate on
conservation issues and suggest that
environmental control systems should have the
least possible impact on the micro-climate and
serve occupants' needs as locally as possible.
This paper suggests that this strategy of
intermittent localised heating may not yield the
best results and indeed may be positively
detrimental while not achieving the thermal comfort
levels required. In addition, any environmental
control needs to ensure efficient usage of energy
resources, if it is to meet the demand for limiting
Climate Change.
Therefore more research urgently needs to be
done on the improvement of thermal comfort levels
and energy conservation in historic buildings before
inappropriate strategies are implemented, possibly
putting historic buildings at risk. The work done so
far raises three questions:
Presuming that the future of these buildings
must lie in their continued use, how can they be
heated satisfactorily without deterioration to the
fabric?
If localised systems alone fail to provide comfort
and are detrimental, what are the alternatives?
How can sustainable retrofit measures work
together with conservation and thermal comfort
requirements to limit current levels of energy
consumption?
The intention in the next part of the study is to use
modelling to explore a wide range of environmental
control strategies in more depth and suggest the
most energy - efficient ones to be used in specific
situations. Data collection through interviews and
structured questionnaires and observations will
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
Thermal Comfort
Range
fluctuations of temperatures in St Botolphs church
are more likely to cause the sort of wet and dry
cycles at the ceiling level that according to Olstad
(2001) [13] are responsible for dimensional
changes and damage to painted wooden elements.












Figure 4: Temperature and Relative Humidity Fluctuation
in St Marys and St Botolphs church during a typical
Sunday
Applying the thermal comfort criteria produced
by CIBSE in 1980 [14], Gt St Marys churchs
central constant heating seems to provide more
satisfactory conditions than St Botolphs local
intermittent heating. Most of Gt St Marys
temperatures during services in occupied areas lie
in the thermal comfort range (17C - 13C), while
all temperatures occurring in St Botolphs church lie
in the Cold range of the following graph. (Fig. 5),
suggesting that the local intermittent heating is
simply not good enough to provide adequate levels
of thermal comfort even when it is turned on.












Figure 5: Temperature during services in occupied areas
in Gt St Marys and St Botolphs
Similarly the relative humidity in Gt St Marys is
within thermal comfort range, while in St Botolphs
the high relative humidity in combination with low
temperatures often causes the air to feel chilly.[15]
(Fig. 6) Research suggests that low comfort
temperatures of 20C combined with relative
humidity 40% - 70% are likely to provide more
pleasant conditions. [16] The following graph also
shows that St Botolphs internal fabric and artefacts
are more vulnerable to deterioration. However, in
St Botolphs, the relative humidity of 80% - 95%
should not cause mould growth as long as the
temperatures do not rise above their current low
levels. It is this conservation aspect of the problem,
which is critical when studying the thermal comfort
in historic churches as rapid changes in indoor
relative humidity can be particularly detrimental.










Figure 6: Relative Humidity occurrence in Gt St Marys
and St Botolphs
In summary, the locally-heated church provided
very low temperatures combined with high relative
humidity, while the constantly-heated church
provided more acceptable, higher temperatures
with more appropriate humidity levels. (Fig. 7) As
the following graph illustrates, the results from Gt
St Marys are less dispersed, while at St Botolphs
the results are more scattered and are more likely
to cause intense heating-cooling cycles in the
upper parts of the building, and thus excess
moisture levels, which can lead to conservation
problems. [8]















Figure 7: Temperature and Relative Humidity correlation
in Gt St Marys and St Botolphs

The questionnaire survey results showed that
occupants in both pilot studies felt generally cooler
at head level. Only a very few occupants have
stated that they felt too warm at head level, in St
Marys church where the warm air coming from
underfloor heating, next to, but not under the pews,
rises and fails to provide the lower pew areas with
warm air, thus creating a gradient, as relevant
thermal comfort studies have shown. [6] This is
rarely large enough to cause discomfort for St
Marys occupants (because the constant heating
creates almost uniform conditions). However, when
virtually the same situation occurs in St Botolphs
church, where localised heating in the pews is
used, thermal panels seem to be providing only
small amounts of heat mainly at knee level leaving
the upper parts of the body cold. (Fig. 8)







Percentage of Temperature Occurence in occupied areas
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
0 5 10 14 16 18 20 22 24 25
Temperature Range C
P
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e

%
St Mary's
St Botolph's

Percentage of Temperature Occurence in occupied areas
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
0 5 10 14 16 18 20 22 24 25
Temperature Range C
P
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e

%
St Mary's
St Botolph's

Percentage of Temperature Occurence in occupied areas
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
0 5 10 14 16 18 20 22 24 25
Temperature Range C
P
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e

%
St Mary's
St Botolph's
Warm range Thermal comfort Cold range
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
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762 BUILDING PHYSIC (HYGROTHERMIC AND ACOUSTIC)
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
take place in a larger number of historic hall
structures to gather sufficient samples of
information to check the assumptions of the pilot
study and produce suggestions for performance
assessment and decision-making procedures for
controlling the internal conditions in historic
structures.
5. LIMITATIONS OF EXISTING STUDY AND
FUTURE WORK
As a final remark, there are some limitations of
the study, which are acknowledged. Firstly the
thermal comfort evaluation was generated by
statistical analysis of the occupants answers to the
questionnaire but no account was taken of clothing
worn (clo = 1,2 assumed) or metabolic rate (1 Met
assumed). Having carried out the pilot study, a
more elaborate survey will be employed in the main
study looking more widely at thermal comfort
perception of individuals in public places to extract
more accurate conclusions.
Secondly, the pilot study is based
fundamentally on environment data gathered by
monitoring instruments and the conclusions on
environmental performance are based on
assumptions based on those individual
measurements.
The main study will check these measurements
by expanding the number and variety of churches
monitored and doing so over a longer period. In
addition to create a better understanding of the
conditions and air flows occurring in large hall
spaces, each case will be modelled in simulation
software. The computer model will then be used as
the starting point to test possible adaptation
scenarios.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank Professor Koen
Steemers and Dr Nick Baker, for their valuable
comments and suggestions during this study and
for their continued interest in the research.
7. REFERENCES
[1] Stern, N., 2006. Review on the Economics of
Climate Change, UK: HM Treasury, [online].
Available from: http://www.sternreview.org.uk
(Accessed on 15/10/2009)
[2] CofE (Church of England) 2009, Shrinking the
Footprint, Church and Earth 2009 2016, The
Church of Englands Seven Year Plan on
Climate Change and the Environment, CofE,
October 2009
[3] Carbon Trust, Introducing Local Authority
Carbon Management, UK, April 2008, [online].
Available from: http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/
publications/pages/publicationdetail.aspx?id=C
TX601 (accessed on 10/04/2010)
[4] Bordass, W. and Bemrose, C., 1996. Heating
your Church. London: Church House Publishing
Ltd
[5] CofE (Church of England) 2008. Shrinking the
footprint, The Church of Englands National
Environmental Campaign, Guidance on Energy
Efficient Operation and Replacement of Plant
and Equipment, Deliverable D9 Carbon
Management Programme, Church of England
September 2008, [online]. Available from:
www.shrinkingthefootprint.cofe.anglican.org
(accessed on 10/04/2010)
[6] Camuffo, D. and Della Valle, A., 2007. Church
Heating: A Balance between Conservation and
Thermal Comfort, Contribution to the Experts,
Roundtable on Sustainable Climate
Management Strategies, held in April 2007, in
Tenerife, Spain. The Getty Conservation
Institute.
[7] Erhardt, D., Mecklenburg, M., Tumosa, C.S &
McCormick-Goodhart, M., 1997. The
determination of appropriate museum
environment. In: Bradley S., eds., The Interface
between Science and Conservation. London:
British Museum, Occasional paper., 1997(116):
p. 1 53 163.
[8] Arnold, A. and Zehnder, K., 1987. Monitoring
Wall Paintings Affected by Soluble Salts. In:
The conservation of wall paintings; proceedings
of a symposium organized by the Courtauld
Institute of Art and the Getty Conservation
Institute, London, July 13-16, 1987. pp. 103-135
[9] Massari, G. and Massari, I., 1985. Damp
Buildings, Old and New, Bulletin of the
Association for Preservation Technology,
Association for Preservation Technology
International (APT), 17 (1): 2-30
[10] Curteis, T., 2004. Environmental Conditions In
Historic Churches: Examining Their Effect On
Wall Paintings And Polychrome Surfaces,
Transactions of the Ecclesiastical Architects
and Surveyors Association, 5 (2004). pp. 36
46
[11] Camuffo D., Sturaro G., Valentino, A., Camuffo,
M., 1999. The Conservation of Artworks and
Hot Air Heating Systems in Churches: Are They
Compatible? The Case of Rocca Pietore, Italian
Alps, Studies in Conservation, 44 (1999): 209-
216
[12] Geva, A., 1998. Energy Simulation of Historic
Buildings: St Luis Catholic church, Castroville,
Texas. APT Bulletin, 29 (1): 36-41
[13] Olstad, T.M., Haugen, A., Nilsen, T.N., 2001.
Polychrome wooden ecclesiastical art - Climate
and dimensional changes, Oslo: NIKU
Publications, pp.1 - 24
[14] Brundrett, G.W., 1990. Criteria for Moisture
Control. London: Butterworth & Co. Ltd
[15] McMullan, R., 2002. Environmental Science in
Building, Fifth edition, Hampshire and New
York: Palgrave Macmillan
[16] Olesen, W., Schler, M. and Fanger, P.O.
1979. Discomfort caused by vertical air
temperature differences. In: P.O. Fanger and O.
Valbjrn, eds., Indoor Climate, Copenhagen:
Danish Building Research Institute

BUILDING PHYSICS
(DAYLIGHTING)
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 765
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
Daylight performance assessment and design
strategies in the adjoining spaces of atrium
buildings
Jiangtao DU
1
, Steve SHARPLES
2

1
School of Architecture, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

2
School of Architecture, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK


ABSTRACT: Daylight use in an atrium is particularly beneficial as the natural light can illuminate potentially dark
core areas and decrease energy consumption. This study has investigated, for overcast sky conditions, the
vertical daylight levels on atrium well walls and the horizontal daylight levels in adjoining spaces in atria. The
daylight levels in the rooms and on the walls were derived from scale model measurements, theoretical
calculations and predictions from the lighting simulation package Radiance. A comparison of the three data sets
showed generally good agreement. Some limitations in the calculations used in determining the daylight factors
in rooms with large window area to total wall area ratios were observed. In terms of the well geometry and well
faades (decided by the ratio of window area to solid wall area) and well surface reflectance, the variations of
daylight level in the adjoining rooms have been analysed and some design strategies for supporting preliminary
design decisions are presented.
Keywords: atrium, well wall, adjoining spaces, daylight performance, design strategies
1. INTRODUCTION
Daylighting is one of the most significant
environmental advantages an atrium can bring to a
building. The natural light from the atrium well can
not only decrease artificial lighting use but also
improve the interior on psychological and ergonomic
grounds. According to two reviews [1, 2], the daylight
levels in the adjoining rooms are significantly
influenced by the vertical daylight levels on the well
wall and the room properties (size and surface
reflectances). The well geometries and surface
reflectances are very important atrium characteristics
which have a direct effect on the vertical daylight
levels [3, 4]. The reviews [3, 5] indicated that much of
the research investigating daylight in atria has
tended to focus upon illuminance levels on the atrium
well floor. Studies relating to daylight levels in
adjoining rooms and on well walls are less common.
Two studies [6, 7] suggested changing the proportion
of glazing or open areas between well and adjacent
spaces could be a practical solution to the imbalance
of light flux received at the top and bottom of the
atrium walls and adjoining spaces. Based on a two-
stage concept [1], Aizlewood et al [8] and Degelman
et al [9] have developed theoretical approximations
to predict the average daylight levels in the adjoining
spaces from the known vertical daylight levels on the
window wall. A study [10] also analysed the impact of
atrium characteristics on the daylight levels of rooms
at ground floor level in atria using numerical
simulations. In most of these investigations the
geometric and reflectance ranges of the atrium
models studied were rather narrow. Most of the
atrium models just had a specific plan (square or
linear), while their shapes were defined by the
various heights. Some measurements only focus a
small number of typical surface reflectances.
Moreover, the theoretical approaches that were
developed and their applications need more testing.
It is still important to carry out more investigations for
a broader range of parameters to get more detailed
information which could effectively support
preliminary design practice.
This study utilized Radiance as a simulation tool
for the calculations of daylight factors in atria. Firstly,
a comparison between model measurements and
Radiance simulations was undertaken to validate the
Radiance outputs. Next, more simulations were
carried out to test the application of an analytical
theory. Thirdly, the impact of atrium shapes and
surface configurations on the average daylight
factors in rooms was considered. Finally, some
design strategies have also been developed.
2. ATRIUM GEOMETRY
The atrium geometry [1] can be quantified in
terms of the well index (WI), which is a function of
well length (l), width (w) and height (h). The other two
factors are plan aspect ratio (PAR), which just relates
to well width (w), and well length (l) and section
aspect ratio (SAR), which is the ratio between well
width (w) and well height (h). The equations are:
wl
l w h
WI
2
) ( +
=
(1);
l
w
PAR =
(2);
w
h
SAR =
(3).
3. MEASUREMENT AND SIMULATION
A physical atrium model (scale: 1:40) was used in
a mirror box artificial sky that reproduced a CIE
standard overcast sky. The measured data were
compared with the simulated data by Radiance. The
scale building model had an atrium well and
adjoining spaces (Fig.1). In the centre of the building
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
766 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
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2 xx.x SECTION NAME
the atrium well had a square plan of 200mm
200mm whilst the whole building had a square plan
of 500mm 500mm. With a height of 350mm the
atrium well had a WI value of 1.75, which represents
a medium atrium. Four-storey adjoining spaces were
set around the well and the height and the depth of
each side room at each floor were 70mm and
150mm respectively.

Figure 1: Scale atrium model in a mirror sky.
Photocells were positioned along the centre line
of the rooms at one side of the square plan. There
were twelve points altogether and each floor had
three photocells. For each floor, the distances of the
measured positions to the border of well were 25%,
50% and 75% of room depth (150mm) respectively.
The top surfaces of the photocells were level with the
working plane (20mm) in the room of each floor.











Figure 2: Comparison of measured (M) and simulated (S)
data at the three positions of each floor (g: ground floor; 1:
1
st
floor; 2: 2
nd
floor; 3: 3
rd
floor) in an atrium model.
The positions on the ground floor can be
expressed by the numbers: 1, 25% point; 2, 50%
point; 3, 75% point. Other points at other floors follow
this sequence so numbers 1, 4, 7, 10 are the
positions near the well while numbers 3, 6, 9, 12 are
the positions near the back wall. Fig. 2 shows the
comparison of measurements and simulations at
these positions. It can be seen that, generally, the
simulations agree with the measurements, especially
at the ground floor and the positions at a greater
distance from the well. Taking the measured value
as reference, the average relative difference
between the results is around 12%. The larger
divergence occurs at the first floor and second floor
for positions near the well. This might be explained
by the geometric and photometric deviations
between the physical model and the Radiance model.
However, the general trends in the data still indicate
the validation of the Radiance simulation.
4. SIMULATION AND THEORY
A theoretical formula developed in an earlier
study [8] was used for the calculation of the ratio of
average daylight factor (DFavr) in rooms to the
vertical daylight factor (DFw) at the centre of the
window. The original equation is given as:
) 1 (
2
2
r r
w i w
avr
R A
DF T A
DF

=
(4).
Then, the ratio between them can be derived as:
) 1 (
2
2
r r
i w
w
avr
R A
T A
DF
DF

=
(5).
where Aw is the area of the rooms windows and Ti is
its visible transmittance. Ar is the total area of the
rooms surface and Rr is the surfaces area-weighted
reflectance. In this study the theoretical calculations
of the ratio in a number of atrium models were
compared with simulated data from Radiance. The
atrium models studied were used with a broad array
of WI (0.9 to 2.2). Well surface reflectance (solid part)
ranged from 0 to 0.8. The adjacent rooms had a fixed
ceiling reflectance of 0.8, a wall reflectance of 0.5
and a floor reflectance of 0.25. In addition, all the
models were divided into four groups in terms of the
faade/balcony type - see Fig. 3 where (a) = window
with no balcony; (b) = 1/4 room height balcony; (c) =
1/3 room height balcony and (d) =1/2 room height
balcony.





(a) (b)





(c) (d)

Figure 3: Four different types of faade.


0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Position No.
D
a
y
l
i
g
h
t

F
a
c
t
o
r

(
%
)
M-g
S-g
M-1
S-1
M-2
S-2
M-3
S-3
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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 767
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xx.x SECTION NAME 3










































Figure 4: Comparisons of theoretical calculations and
Radiance simulations in models with four different facades.

Fig. 4 compares theoretical calculations and
Radiance simulations in models with different
window areas/balcony heights on the well faade.
Most of the simulated data agree well with the
theoretical calculations from equation (5), except for
the models with an open, unobstructed window.
There is a clear linear relationship between the
vertical daylight levels on the window and the
average daylight levels in the adjoining rooms off the
atrium well. The slopes of the lines relates to the
room size and room surface reflectances. For the
models with no balcony the theory data are close to
the simulations for vertical daylight factors < 20%
(rooms in the lower positions near the base). The
divergence starts from vertical daylight factors above
20% and increases with increasing daylight levels at
the window. The regression equation of the
simulated data is:

w avr
DF DF 19 . 0 = (6).
The theoretical expression of the open window
models is:
w avr
DF DF 24 . 0 = (7).
The deviations from these models might occur
because some reflected light in the room escapes
from the opening. The other linear relationships
between the two daylight factors are expressed as:
1/4 balcony:
w avr
DF DF 18 . 0 = (8);
1/3 balcony:
w avr
DF DF 16 . 0 = (9);
1/2 balcony:
w avr
DF DF 12 . 0 = (10).

The equations demonstrate that the higher balconies
block more received light in the rooms even though
they might increase the reflected light from other
faades. Radiance simulations can be seen to be a
valid tool from the agreement with the theoretical
data.
5. DF IN ADJOINING ROOMS
Radiance simulations were used to investigate
the impact of well geometries and surface
configurations on the average daylight factors in the
adjoining rooms for a range of atrium properties.





Figure 5: General plan of atrium models.

All atrium models consisted of a seven-story
building with a centre well and two sides rooms (Fig.
5). The well had two different plans: square and
rectangular. The WI value of the seven-story square
atrium was 2.17, which is a deep atrium. The
rectangular models were expressed by four different
PAR values (0.8, 0.67, 0.5 and 0.4) and one fixed
SAR (2.17). The solid part of the well had reflectance
values of 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8.The rooms had a
fixed ceiling reflectance (0.8), wall reflectance (0.5)
and floor reflectance (0.25). Similar to Section 4 and
Fig 3, four facades were used in the models.
5.1. Square models
With a WI = 2.17 and square plan the models had
various faade types and well surface reflectances.
Fig. 6 shows the variations of average daylight
factors on the top floor (6
th
floor). It is apparent that
the increased well reflectance increases the ADF
(average daylight factor) in rooms. The higher
balcony reduces the incident light for the rooms,
giving a lower ADF. The 1/2 balcony room had the
least daylight. The daylight level in the 1/4 balcony
room was similar to the room with no balcony.
Interestingly, the daylight factors decease at a
Models with opening window
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
0 20 40 60 80
Vertical DF on the window
A
v
e
r
a
g
e

D
F

i
n

t
h
e

r
o
o
m
simulation
theory
Models with 1/4 balcony
0
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0 20 40 60 80
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well

room

room
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
768 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
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4 xx.x SECTION NAME
proportionally greater rate than the increase in the
height of the balconies. Fig. 7 expresses the
variations of average daylight factors on the middle
floor (3
rd
floor). Again, increased well reflectances















Figure 6: Variations of ADF in top floor rooms with four
facades and different well surface reflectances.














Figure 7: Variations of ADF in middle floor rooms with
four facades and different well surface reflectances.
















Figure 8: Variations of ADF in ground floor rooms with
four facades and different well surface reflectances.

increase the ADF in the rooms. Also, the varying
trends among the different curves are similar to the
top floor. The slopes of the curves are much steeper
than those of the top floor, which means increased
magnitudes of DF by increasing reflectance are
larger than those for the top floor. For example, the
relative difference between refl0 and refl0.8 of the
open window and 1/2 balcony on top floor are 24%
and 27% respectively, whilst the two values have
increased to 85% and 140% on the middle floor. This
demonstrates that for the middle the rooms receive
more reflected light from the well surface. In addition,
the curves of the 1/3 balcony tend to approach the
curves of the open window and the 1/4 balcony,
which implies that the impact of the lower balcony
height is decreasing at the middle floor. Fig. 8 shows
the variations of average daylight factors on the
ground floor. All the patterns of ADF variations are
very similar to the middle floor. However, the two
shorter balconies do not significantly influence the
daylight levels in rooms at ground floor only the 1/2
height balcony is having a detrimental impact. The
slopes of the curves have become much steeper
than the curves of the middle and top floors. For
example, the relative difference between the ADF for
refl0 and refl0.8 of the open window and 1/2 height
balcony at ground floor are 253% and 490%
respectively. This means that the changing
magnitudes of ADF for various reflectances are much
larger at the ground floor. This might be due to the
fact that the main components of ADF at deeper
positions in atria consist of reflected light.
5.2. Rectangular models
With a SAR=2.17 (see equation (3)) the
rectangular models had various PAR (see equation
(2)) values (0.8, 0.67, 0.5 and 0.4) and faade types
and well surface reflectances (including well wall,
floor and external side of the room balcony).



























Figure 9: Variations of ADF in rooms on the two sides of
the top floor of atria with 1/3 height balcony and different
well surface reflectances and PAR values.

Fig 9 displays the variations of average daylight
factors in rooms on two sides of the top floor in atria
with 1/3 height balconies. For the room on the long
side of the top floor the ADF values slightly increase
with the decreasing PAR; for the room on the short
side of the top floor, the ADF does not clearly vary
Top floor
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
ref0 ref0.2 ref0.4 ref0.6 ref0.8
Well surface reflectance
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1/4 balcony
1/3 balcony
1/2 balcony
Middle floor
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
ref0 ref0.2 ref0.4 ref0.6 ref0.8
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1/4 balcony
1/3 balcony
1/2 balcony
Ground floor
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
ref0 ref0.2 ref0.4 ref0.6 ref0.8
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1/4 balcony
1/3 balcony
1/2 balcony
Long side (top fl oor)
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
PAR 1 PAR 0.8 PAR 0.67 PAR 0.5 PAR 0.4
Plan aspect ratios
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0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
PAR 1 PAR 0.8 PAR 0.67 PAR 0.5 PAR 0.4
Plan aspect ratios
A
v
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PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 769
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xx.x SECTION NAME 5
with a changing PAR. Only the higher well
reflectances (0.6 or 0.8) can bring a little impact.
This suggests that on the top floor the stretched well
space could take more sky light to the rooms of the
long side, but the rooms on the short side do not
receive significant more sky light compared with the
square well. The increasing well reflectances
increase the daylight factors in rooms on both sides.



























Figure 10: Variations of ADF in rooms on two sides of
the middle floor of atria with 1/3 height balcony and different
well surface reflectances and PAR values.

Fig 10 indicates the variations of average daylight
factors in rooms on two sides of the middle floor in
atria with 1/3 height balconies. In contrast to the
variations on the top floor, the rooms on the long and
short sides of the well express a similar varying trend
of ADF. The decreasing PAR will tend to increase
the daylight levels in the rooms. The rooms on the
short side, however, will get a proportionally greater
increase than the rooms on the long side. For
instance, the average relative difference between
PAR1 and PAR0.4 for a room on the short side is
62%, whilst the value for a room on the long side is
50%. For both sides, with the increasing well surface
reflectances, the ADF values increase and the
increasing magnitudes between two adjacent curves
increase proportionally. Each curve for the long side
expresses a parallel trend with others in the whole
PAR range. However, the slopes of the curves on the
short side increase with increasing reflectance. This
shows that the rooms at the middle positions of the
short wall are more easily influenced by the stretched
well length.
Fig 11 expresses the variations of average
daylight factors in rooms on the two sides of the
ground floor in atria with 1/3 height balconies. The
variations of average daylight factors in rooms on
both sides of the ground floor are very similar to the
rooms on both sides of the middle floor as the PAR
values get smaller the daylight levels in the rooms
get bigger. The rooms on the short side have a
proportionally greater increase in ADF with the
decreasing PAR than the rooms on the longer side.
Comparatively, the increasing rate of ADF in rooms
on the ground floor is much larger than the changes
in rooms on the middle and top floors. For the ground
floor the average relative differences between PAR1
and PAR0.4 for the short side and long side are
142% and 89% respectively.

























Figure 11: Variations of ADF in rooms on two sides of
the ground floor of atria with 1/3 height balcony and
different well surface reflectances and PAR values.
Table 1: Average daylight factors in rooms on the long
side of the middle floor with open window and different well
surface reflectances (R) and PAR values.


R
PAR1 PAR0.8 PAR0.67 PAR0.5 PAR0.4
0 1.63 1.91 2.12 2.46 2.7
0.2 1.87 2.17 2.4 2.74 2.97
0.4 2.17 2.47 2.71 3.04 3.26
0.6 2.53 2.86 3.09 3.39 3.59
0.8 3.01 3.31 3.53 3.81 3.97
Table 2: Average daylight factors in rooms on the long
side of the middle floor with 1/2 height balconies and
different well surface reflectances (R) and PAR values.


R
PAR1 PAR0.8 PAR0.67 PAR0.5 PAR0.4
0 0.97 1.12 1.27 1.47 1.61
0.2 1.16 1.35 1.49 1.71 1.85
0.4 1.40 1.62 1.78 2.00 2.15
0.6 1.76 2.00 2.17 2.41 2.56
0.8 2.33 2.58 2.77 3.00 3.15

Long side (middle floor)
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
PAR 1 PAR 0.8 PAR 0.67 PAR 0.5 PAR 0.4
Plan aspect ratios
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%
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0
1
2
3
4
5
6
PAR 1 PAR 0.8 PAR 0.67 PAR 0.5 PAR 0.4
Plan aspect ratios
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%
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Long side (ground floor)
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
PAR 1 PAR 0.8 PAR 0.67 PAR 0.5 PAR 0.4
Plan aspect ratios
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%
)
Short side (ground fl oor)
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
PAR 1 PAR 0.8 PAR 0.67 PAR 0.5 PAR 0.4
Plan aspect ratios
A
v
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PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
770 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
6 xx.x SECTION NAME
Table 1 and Table 2 indicate the variations of
average daylight factors in rooms on the long side of
the middle floor in atria with an open window and
atria with a 1/2 height balcony respectively. It can be
seen from the data that the variations of ADF in
rooms with various windows and balconies are very
similar. The only difference is the absolute values of
ADF. Generally, the rooms with the higher balconies
get the lower daylight levels.
6. DESIGN STRAGETIES
Based on the results and discussions above,
some suggested strategies for supporting daylight
design in the adjoining rooms of atria are:
(i). The average daylight levels in the adjoining
rooms have a linear relationship with the vertical
daylight level on the centre facade of the floor. The
former can be derived from the latter using equation
(4). However, when full windows are used at the well
side, the calculated result should be multiplied by a
value of 0.8.
(ii). High balconies can block direct sky light and
reflected light on different floors in atria whilst low
balconies do not have much effect on the incident
light. Medium balconies will only block the direct sky
light on the top floor. On the ground floor no
significant reflected light is obstructed by the medium
balconies.
(iii). For a given SAR (a fixed atrium height),
decreasing the PAR value of the atrium well would
increase the average daylight factors in rooms at
middle and low positions in the atrium. The rooms on
the short well wall have a proportionately bigger
increase in ADF than the rooms on long well wall.
(iv). For the rooms near the top of the atrium
changing the PAR value of the atrium well would not
significantly change the average daylight factors in
rooms at different positions because they are
dominated by the sky component.
(v).Increasing the reflectance of the well surfaces
of an atrium could improve the average daylight
factors in the rooms. As the reflectance values are
increased incrementally the average daylight factors
increase at a proportionally greater rate.
7. CONCOLUSIONS
This study has investigated the average daylight
levels in the adjoining spaces and vertical daylight
levels at the centre of windows in atria. Validated by
measurements and theory, Radiance, a ray-tracing
package, was used to calculate the daylight factors
for a wide range of atrium geometries and
reflectances. The theory used for calculating average
daylight factors in rooms was also tested and a few
small limitations have been found. The impact of
atrium geometries, well faade configurations and
well surface reflectances on the average daylight
levels in adjoining rooms has been assessed through
Radiance simulations. Based on the results, some
design strategies have been suggested.
8. REFERENCES
[1] M. Aizlewood, The daylighting of atria: a critical
review. ASHRAE Transactions 101(1995), 841-
857.
[2] P. Littlefair, Daylight prediction in atrium
buildings. Solar Energy 73(2002), 105-109.
[3] S. Sharples and D. Lash, Daylight in atrium
buildings: a critical review. Architectural Science
Review 50(2007), 301-312.
[4] J. Du and S. Sharples, Computational
simulations for predicting vertical daylight levels
in atrium buildings. Proc. of Building Simulation
2009, Glasgow UK (2009).
[5] J. Wright and K. Letherman, Illuminance in atria:
review of prediction methods. Lighting
Research & Technology 30 (1998), 1-10.
[6] R.J. Cole, The effect of the surfaces adjoining
atria on the daylight in adjacent spaces.
Building and Environment 25(1990), 37-42.
[7] M. Aizlewood, K. Isaac and P. Littlefair, "A scale
model study of daylighting in atrium buildings",
Proc. of the IESANZ, Perth Australia (1996).
[8] L. Degelman, J. Molinelli and K. Kim, "Integrated
daylighting, heating and cooling model for
atriums", ASHRAE Transactions 94(1988) 812-
825.
[9] . Aschehoug, Daylight in glazed spaces.
Building Research & Information 20(1992), 242-
245.
[10] B. Calcagni and M. Paroncini, Daylight factor
prediction in atria building designs. Solar
Energy 76(2004), 669-682.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 771
Daylight and solar control in building: a new angle
selective see-thorough PV-faade for solar control
Francesco FRONTINI
1

1
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy sytems ISE, Heidenhofstr. 2, 79110, Freiburg, Germany

Abstract: In a World more and more concerned about carbon emissions, global warming, and sustainable design,
the planned use of natural light in buildings and the design of good solar control faade has become an important
strategy to improve energy efficiency by minimizing lighting, heating and cooling loads. Buildings account for almost
40% of overall energy consumption. The majority of this demand is due to the energy needed to provide sufficient
indoor comfort. In addition electricity is required for artificial lighting and equipments. But fortunately it has been
shown by various projects that especially new buildings are able to become a neutral energy balance on an annual
basis (net-zero-energy buildings). To produce the same amount of energy, using renewable energy sources, as it
consumes during the entire year, significant reduction in energy consumption and the use of renewable or non-
finite energy sources are required. As result building envelop becomes really important as it provides the necessary
area for the installation of the collectors. An example of a new multifunctional angle selective glazing PV faade is
here presented. It combines in one-element four important tasks: solar protection, glare protection, visual contact
and integrated PV-system for electricity production. These four elements, as are completely integrated in the
function of the faade, do not reduce the architectural goal of the glazed faade and the view from the interior to
the exterior is guaranteed. RADIANCE simulations are carried out to assess the visual contact and the daylight
level in office space. The paper shows the capability of this new system together with the building integration.
Keywords: Daylight, Solar control, BIPV, Photovoltaic, Simulation
1. INTRODUCTION
In 2009 the regulatory framework and the
business environment for the construction sector has
changed significantly in order to reduce the CO2-
emissions of existing and new buildings. It is now
officially agreed within Europe that Net-Zero-Energy
buildings are the goal for the future. For the
renovation of existing buildings a net-zero energy
balance is not mandatory, but the reduction of the
annual primary energy balance is the target. In order
to achieve this goal, we have to do two things:
to increase the efficiency, especially in case
of existing buildings;
to cover the remaining energy demand with
renewable sources.
In case of single family houses and large single
or double-storey factory buildings with flat roofs it
might be sufficient to use only the roof of the building
for renewable energy conversion. But for many other
buildings with relatively small roofs it will be
necessary to use also the faade for energy con-
version in addition to the roof in order to achieve a
net-zero energy balance. This is especially the case
for multi-storeys buildings. Solar energy could be
utilized in buildings in several ways. Often we
differentiate between two main ways to utilize solar
energy. Either by letting the solar radiation transmits
through windows to passively contribute to space
heating and offer daylight that could reduce the
electricity need for lighting. Or by using active solar
systems on the building envelope to produce solar
heat and electricity that could be used to reduce the
buildings need for non-renewable energy supply.
Passive solar gains are part of the buildings
energy balance. Passive solar gains can have both
positive and negative impacts as they can reduce
heating and lighting demands together with cooling
demands and the risk of glare is a possibility.
Windows are used in most buildings and often well
integrated in the building envelope. Shading devices
are in many regions also frequently used even if
there are regional differences both regarding the
need and the tradition of using them, which
sometimes could be improved.
Active solar systems are sometimes integrated in
new buildings as well as put on existing buildings to
produce hot water or electricity. Most existing solar
collectors are developed as purely technical
elements, starting from the energy production point
of view only, sizing the collectors to optimise energy
collection, manufacturability, handling and instal-
lation, but only giving a marginal attention to
architectural integration issues. Collectors must be
developed to respond to their own technical
constraints, but should furthermore become
architectural elements, easy to integrate into the
building envelope. They should possibly fulfil more
than one function, consequently supporting
designers integration efforts and reducing the overall
cost.
In this paper a new See-Through Integrated PV-
Envelop system (STrIPe) is presented.
BIPV systems offer many advantages compared
to adding a PV system onto an existing building.
BIPV systems:
Require no additional support structures
because they use the buildings frame (struc-
ture)
Have limited additional construction exp-
enses
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
772 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
Can be designed to provide also daylighting,
heat control, and other benefits
Are designed in an aesthetically appealing
manner to maximize visibility or educational
impacts.
Can be financed as part of the entire building

Figure 1: On the left: schematic view of the new see-
through, angle-selective faade. The stripes (represented in
blue) can be produced with photovoltaic technology.
The new system (Figure 1) is a static, transparent
glazing faade, which can be produced using the
usual production technologies for windows and
glazing units. It is easily installable in conventional
double or triple glazing unit. Due to the different
refractive indices of air and glass together with the
specific position of the opaque stripes on the glass,
the new faade offers high solar control and can
protect the occupants against glare. The visual
contact to the outside is also guaranteed and varies
with the viewing direction.
The opaque stripes can be produced in different
materials or colours, depending on the architectural
concept and on the shading requirements: dark
colours are favoured to maximize the shading and
anti-glare performance.
The invention (patent application n DE 10 2007
013 331 A1, submitted by T. E. Kuhn - Fraunhofer-
ISE) can be implemented with photovoltaic stripes on
either the outer and/or the inner layer. The electrical
efficiency of the system strictly depends on the
design and on the technology adopted in the
construction.
2. VISUAL CONTACT, GLARE AND SOLAR
CONTROL PERFORMANCES OF THE
SYSTEM
A mathematical analysis and Radiance [7]
simulations were carried out by the author to
optimize the geometry and to assess the visual
transmittance and the optical properties of the new
window (see [4] for further details).The stripes
dimensions and the glass thickness were varied to
maximize the visual contact from the inside to the
outside [6]. The main viewing angles are considered
to be in the range of
20 35
, where negative
angles represent the downward viewing direction
and positive angles the upward one. A detailed
description of this analysis can be found in [4] and
[6]. Only the final structure is presented here
together with the architectural integration and the
installation details.
The new faade was modelled in Radiance as a
dielectric box (see [7] for a further description of the
dielectric material in Radiance) with opaque stripes.
The stripes were described as a plastic material.
To asses the visual contact, a cellular office
space was considered.
The simulations presented in [4] reveal the good
transparency of the system in particular in the lower
area of the faade. As the following picture shows
(Figure 2) this is due to the angle dependent
transmittance of the system.
The angle-dependent transmittance (
ang

) was
determined from laboratory measurements and
Radiance simulations. The angle-dependent total
solar energy transmittance (g-value, [2]) of the new
faade was simulated with the GWERT program
developed by S. Khn [7]. To allow the
measurements and to validate the simulations, a
prototype was produced in collaboration with a
German glazing industry partner (the angle
dependent light transmittance is shown in Figure 2).
The simulations reveal the good performance of the
new faade concerning visual contact to the outside
(more than 30% transparency for downward viewing)
and solar control (the effective g-value of the new
faade can be less then 10%, Table 1).



Figure 2: Photos of the first prototype. The angular dependency transmission is shown tilting the prototype from -30 on the left
(very high transmission) to +30 (the faade is more or less opaque).
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 773
Table 1: The table reports the angle-dependent direct transmittance of the system and the angle-dependent total solar energy
transmittance (for a solar azimuth of 0 with respect to the normal to the vertical faade). The solar altitude and positive viewing
angles are identical by definition. A double glazing unit with Argon gap is considered.
Viewing angles (positive upward, negative downward) and solar altitude
60 45 30 15 0 -15 -30 -45
ang
< 0.01 < 0.01 < 0.01 0.05 0.12 0.19 0.24 0.22
g-
value
< 0.05 0.06 0.06 0.07 0.14 0.20 0.25 0.23




Figure 3: The pictures present an idea of the integration of the new faade as an extra construction. The external pane can slide
among the faade changing the visual and solar transmission depending on the performance the users want to achieve.


Figure 4: The picture presents an idea of the integration of the new faade as external shading device. The external pane can
slide among the balcony. The user can move it to change the solar protection and the view to the outside.


Figure 5: The picture presents an idea of the integration of the new faade in the normal window. The new window pane can tilt
over a certain angle (>35) to change the visual and solar transmission depending on the performance the users want to achieve.
Can be designed to provide also daylighting,
heat control, and other benefits
Are designed in an aesthetically appealing
manner to maximize visibility or educational
impacts.
Can be financed as part of the entire building

Figure 1: On the left: schematic view of the new see-
through, angle-selective faade. The stripes (represented in
blue) can be produced with photovoltaic technology.
The new system (Figure 1) is a static, transparent
glazing faade, which can be produced using the
usual production technologies for windows and
glazing units. It is easily installable in conventional
double or triple glazing unit. Due to the different
refractive indices of air and glass together with the
specific position of the opaque stripes on the glass,
the new faade offers high solar control and can
protect the occupants against glare. The visual
contact to the outside is also guaranteed and varies
with the viewing direction.
The opaque stripes can be produced in different
materials or colours, depending on the architectural
concept and on the shading requirements: dark
colours are favoured to maximize the shading and
anti-glare performance.
The invention (patent application n DE 10 2007
013 331 A1, submitted by T. E. Kuhn - Fraunhofer-
ISE) can be implemented with photovoltaic stripes on
either the outer and/or the inner layer. The electrical
efficiency of the system strictly depends on the
design and on the technology adopted in the
construction.
2. VISUAL CONTACT, GLARE AND SOLAR
CONTROL PERFORMANCES OF THE
SYSTEM
A mathematical analysis and Radiance [7]
simulations were carried out by the author to
optimize the geometry and to assess the visual
transmittance and the optical properties of the new
window (see [4] for further details).The stripes
dimensions and the glass thickness were varied to
maximize the visual contact from the inside to the
outside [6]. The main viewing angles are considered
to be in the range of
20 35
, where negative
angles represent the downward viewing direction
and positive angles the upward one. A detailed
description of this analysis can be found in [4] and
[6]. Only the final structure is presented here
together with the architectural integration and the
installation details.
The new faade was modelled in Radiance as a
dielectric box (see [7] for a further description of the
dielectric material in Radiance) with opaque stripes.
The stripes were described as a plastic material.
To asses the visual contact, a cellular office
space was considered.
The simulations presented in [4] reveal the good
transparency of the system in particular in the lower
area of the faade. As the following picture shows
(Figure 2) this is due to the angle dependent
transmittance of the system.
The angle-dependent transmittance (
ang

) was
determined from laboratory measurements and
Radiance simulations. The angle-dependent total
solar energy transmittance (g-value, [2]) of the new
faade was simulated with the GWERT program
developed by S. Khn [7]. To allow the
measurements and to validate the simulations, a
prototype was produced in collaboration with a
German glazing industry partner (the angle
dependent light transmittance is shown in Figure 2).
The simulations reveal the good performance of the
new faade concerning visual contact to the outside
(more than 30% transparency for downward viewing)
and solar control (the effective g-value of the new
faade can be less then 10%, Table 1).



Figure 2: Photos of the first prototype. The angular dependency transmission is shown tilting the prototype from -30 on the left
(very high transmission) to +30 (the faade is more or less opaque).
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774 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
Within the program Evalglare (implementing a
new method for the Daylight Glare Probability, DGP,
which is described in [10]) the glare protection of the
system was evaluated. The new DGP index is
considered. DGP is a function of the vertical eye
illuminance as well as the glare source luminance, its
solid angle and its position index.
Three different simulations were carried out by
the authors in order to compare the new systems
(Design 1 and 2) with a conventional glazing faade
with external venetian blind (Design 3).
Design-1 is a fully glazed faade with the
new angle-selective faade covering 100%
of the window;
Design-2: the 70% of the external faade is
covered by the new system and the upper
part is transparent.
While the conventional system reveals different glare
sources due to the blind position (the slat angle of
the blinds is considered to be fixed at 35) with a
critical DGP value (more than 40%), the other two
systems provide good glare protection (e.g. the
design 1 has a DGP
1
=0.22) (more details about the
DGP simulation can be found in [4]).
3. BUILDING INTEGRATION
Despite the fact that several parts of the building
skin are suitable for the integration of active solar
systems, a great potential of utilizing solar energy in
architecture is still unused. There are several
reasons for this situation, covering economical,
technological and architectural issues. The research
community is moving to this direction: find out a way
for good solar energy technology building integration.
The International Energy Agency launched the Task
41 titled Solar Energy and Architecture
(http://www.iea-shc.org/task41) that gathers re-
searchers and practitioners to focus on the latter by
developing guidelines for architects and recom-
mendations for manufacturers to help instigate the
wide spread of high quality architecture and efficient
solar buildings; the European commission lunched
several project in the Seventh Framework program,
like for example the EU-Cost Effective (www.cost-
effective-renewables.eu) project that was launched
on October 1st 2008. The main focus of the project is
to convert facades of existing high-rise buildings
into multifunctional, energy gaining components. It is
in the framework of this project that the new angle
selective faced was developed.
3.1. Faade integration
The new angle-selective faade can be used
either as a stand-alone system for a glazed faade
or as an extra shading device layer. It is thought
mainly for retrofitting.
In this paper different faade designs and
different integrated concepts will be present in order
to give an idea of the capabilities of the new system.
The STrIPe faade can be either installed into
existing building, just replacing the existing windows
or into new buildings.
The new PV faade can be installed as sliding
external shading device to protect, depending on the
internal comfort, the office space and the windows
(Figure 3).
Especially for open space office or airport hall,
the new faade integrated with PV technology can
be installed instead of double or triple glazing
faade. If it is coupled with another glass pane and
filled in with gas e.g. argon gas the new system has
very height performances:
low solar transmission (effective g-value less
than 10%),
visual contact to the outside,
good daylighting,
electricity production.
Both in residential and in office buildings the
faade can be used as external movable shading
device (Figure 3, Figure 4) in order to protect the
windows area when the sun is shining (especially
during summer period). This solution has the
advantage to let the users decide when they need
more solar protection and in mean time to have full
transparency when the shading system is retracted.
Maintenance cost has to be taken into account
together with the control strategies of the system.
This solution needs also accurate technological
design in order to allow it to slide among the win-
dows.
Figure 5 shows another integration possibility: the
BIPV system replaces the existing windows and can
be tilted by the user to let the fresh air coming into
the building and to increase the transparency of the
window. In this case the system completely replace
the existing building element reducing on the same
time the g-value and the transmission of the glazing
system, no extra costs have to be considered. In
order to leave part of the faade area fully
transparent, as requested by the user (to have a
direct contact with the surround), it is suggested to
install the STrIPe in just part of the windows, as
shown afterward, replacing the remaining glazing
systems with high performance glass. This is the
case of small office space where the occupants are
really close to the external faade and the black
stripe of the system can disturb the view quality.

Figure 6: the new faade can be easily installed in airport
spaces or big open spaces. The picture shows an example
of the faade installed in a complete glazed faade of a big
open space (e.g. airport hall).
4. BUILDING SIMULATIONS
Thermal simulations with ESP-r [1], modified to
allow the modelling of such complex glazing systems
([3] and [5]), and Daysim/Radiance simulations (see
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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 775

www.daysim.com and [8]) were performed to
evaluate the optimum position of the new system in
the glazing faade. The thermal behaviour and the
daylight level (daylight autonomy and glare) of an
office space were assessed. Different sizes of
openings were simulated. There is no pat answer to
this question, it depends on the function of the room
and on the user tasks, for this reasons only
qualitative results will be here presented.
4.1. Model description
Six different faades were considered in order to
asses the contribution of each glazing system and
find out the optimum one (see Figure 7). The glazing
systems were changed between normal low-e
glazing ( % 73 =
vis
and ) and the new
STrIPe faade.
% 60 =
win
g

Figure 7: Six different faade designs were considered.
Table 2: Geometry description
Type Net
Floor
Area
Room
height
Faade
surface
Transparent
area
[m] [m] [m] [m]
Office 17.00 2.85 10.30 Different
(A,B,C,D,E,F)

The Annual simulations were carried out for the
location of Frankfurt (DE) (Lat: 50.10, long: -8.36)
and the working hours are considered to be between
8:00 AM and 6:00 PM. Two working areas were
placed at 1.0m from the window and facing each
other.
4.2. Results
The simulations reveal the importance of
designing correctly the external glazing faade in
order to have a good balance between the different
comfort metrics (daylight autonomy, glare protection
and the visual contact) together with the energy
performances of the systems (solar protection and
electricity production). The first simulated design
(design A in Figure 7) has a fully glazed faade
covered by the new angle selective faade with
integrated PV. This configuration (treated as start
case) has the highest solar protection (faade g-
value of about 10%) together with the optimum glare
control (DPG less than 0.24). As the full faade is
covered by photovoltaic element it also has the
highest electricity production index (see Table 3). On
the other hand the visual contact from the inside to
the outside is not enough and the daylight autonomy
(DA) during the whole year is always less than 40%,
that means that during 60% of the working hours the
luminaries must be switched on to reach an internal
illuminance of about 300 lux (benchmark for this
study).
For all the other designs (B, C, D, E and F) the
natural lighting entering the room is higher during the
whole year, differences are in the visual contact from
the inside to the outside and on the Glare protection.
As the window in the parapet level (design C)
does not provide light in the depth of the room it is
possible to leave the lower part of the faade semi-
transparent with the new system, also because the
visual transmission downward is more than 30% and
let the occupants see through. A window of equal
dimension at mid-height position provides much light
to the front (task position) of the room but does not
deliver sufficient light to the rear. For this reason it is
proved a good solution to leave the upper part of the
faade transparent (design B). A good balance is
reached with designs D, E and F. The area close to
the windows is normally too bright (glare). Local anti
glare screen (like internal rolling blinds) can be used
to prevent glare on the task positions and an
accurate office design must be planned. To have
also a considerable electricity production (with
photovoltaic), in order to balance the energy need of
the building, solution D has to be chosen.
Table 3: The table resumes the analysis performed with
Radiance and ESP-r and shows the daylight-autonomy
(DA), the solar control (SC), the Glare protection (GP), and
the visual contact (VL) performances together with the
electricity production (EP) of the six different faade
designs.
A B C D E F
DA -- o + o + ++
SC ++ + o + + -
GP ++ ++ - + + -
VC - - ++ + ++ +
EP ++ ++ -- + o -
5. CONCLUSIONS
The new angle selective pv-faade, proposed by
the author, is a static shading device. It combines in
one element four important tasks: solar protection (g-
value less than 10%), glare protection (DGP=0.22 for
fully glazed external faade), visual contact (good
visual transmission for view angle in the rage of
20 35
) and integrated pv-system for elec-
tricity generation. These four elements, as are
completely integrated in the function of the faade,
do not reduce the architectural goal of the glazed
faade and the view from the interior to the exterior
is guaranteed.
The system can be easily integrated in faade
design as glazing faade, as window or as movable
shading devices to protect the occupant from glare
and to reduce the solar gains.
RADIANCE and ESP-r simulations were done to
assess the daylight and energy performances of the
system if it is integrated in an office space faade.
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776 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
Six different faades design are assessed by the
author, in order to give a first guideline on the
optimum installation of the new system.
The simulations reveal the good performances of
the system especially for large office spaces or in
fully glazed large-buildings (e.g. airport hall, trade-
fair,).

6. REFERENCES
[1] J. Clarke, Energy Simulation in Building Design,
second ed., Butterworth-Heinemann, 2001.
[2] EN410: Glass in building - Determination of
luminous and solar characteristics of glazing,
March 2000.
[3] F. Frontini, S. Herkel, T.E. Kuhn, Validation of a
new method for solar control calculation in the
ESP-r building simulation programme, submitted
for publication to Energy and Buildings. 2010
[4] F. Frontini, T. E. Kuhn, A new angle-selective,
see-through bipv faade for solar control, Proc.
Eurosun 2010, Graz, 2010
[5] F. Frontini, T.E. Kuhn, S. Herkel, P. Strachan,
G. Kokogiannakis, Implementation of a new bi-
directional solar modelling method for complex
faades within the ESP-r building simulation
program and its application, Proc. of the 11th
International IBPSA Conference, 2009.
Glasgow.
[6] F. Frontini, T.E. Kuhn, Development of a new
vertical angle-selective faade for solar control.
7 convegno nazionale ISTeA, Lerici 2008.
[7] S. Khn, Modellierung von Transparenten
Wrmedmmaterialien auf der Basis spektraler
Daten, Diplomarbeit, University of Freiburg,
1996.
[8] G.W. Larson, R. Shakespeare, Rendering with
Radiance: the art and science of lighting
visualization, Morgan Kaufmann: San Francisco,
1998.
[9] J. Wienold, Daylight Glare in Offices. Doctoral
Thesis, University of Karlsruhe. 2009.
[10] J. Wienold, J. Christoffersen, Evaluation
methods and development of a new glare
protection model for daylight environments with
the use of CCD cameras, Energy and Buildings,
2008.
PLEA 2011 - 27
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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 777
A Method for integrating visual comfort criteria in
daylighting design of school
BEATRIZ PIDERIT
1
, MAGALI BODART
2
, TOMAS NORAMBUENA
3

1
Departamento de Diseo

y Teora de la Arquitectura, Universidad del Bio-Bio, Concepcin, Chile
2
Architecture et Climat, Universit catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
3
Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Pontificia Universidad Catlica de Chile.
ABSTRACT: This paper presents the principles and methods for the integration of natural light and comfort
criteria into architectural classroom design. The aim is to create the basis for incorporating these principles in the
design of Chilean classrooms, to improve daylighting design in order to minimize glare and achieve more
uniform daylighting levels throughout the school year. Firstly, the fundamental principles that directly affect
design are defined. Secondly, the evaluation methods and measurements for those principles are described.
Finally, we give some preliminary results for the various typologies and daylighting strategies. The research
context is the city of Concepcin, in Chile. Virtual models of classrooms were evaluated with the Radiance
software. The annual assessment of the light performance of each classroom type was made for each of the
four cardinal directions (north, south, east and west) and under the four sky types defined by CIE during the
school year, March to December. The methods used and the formats for the representation of results are
defined for each design principle. This paper proposes a new methodology, which could be implemented in
future classroom design and also could be employed to evaluate existing classrooms.
Keywords: daylighting, classrooms design, simulation, glare, visual comfort.
1. INTRODUCTION
Natural lighting and external views have
significant beneficial effects on human health and
wellbeing as well as on the productivity of the
building occupants [1]. Moreover, daylighting has the
potential to improve student performance [2]. Some
studies show that teachers and students can have
clear preferences in classroom lighting [3] and that
teachers prefer daylight.
In Chile, the relationship between daylighting
and wellbeing, and between visual comfort and
performance, has not yet been explored. Building
standards regulate daylighting in classrooms by
specifying minimum window area to be 20% of room
floor area. The minimum illuminance level required is
180 lux on the desk in the least illuminated sector of
the room [4]. However, this value is very low in
comparison to international levels. There is no
design recommendation to guide architects and
these standards fall far below those recommended
by the standards set by the Illuminating Engineering
Society of North America [5].
The objective of this paper is to create the
principles, analysis methods and representation
mechanisms for the study of natural illumination and
visual comfort in classrooms, and to provide a basis
for appropriate Chilean design standards. Four
fundamental criteria are established, which should be
integrated into architectural classroom design in
order to guide architects in how to optimise natural
light and avoid the risk of glare.
These basic principles are listed below:
1. Providing the adequate amount of daylight in the
classroom.
2. Achieving the adequate daylight uniformity in the
classroom.
3. Ensuring visual comfort in the field of view of the
students.
4. Preventing direct sunlight penetration in the
classroom.
2. METHODOLOGY
The method used in this study can be divided into
three parts: the calculation of illuminance, the
evaluation of the risk of glare and the determination
of sunlight penetration. These methods were applied
in a preliminary study, which helped to define the
method and to set the parameters for Radiance. The
definition of these parameters was supported by a
convergence study, which demonstrated that the
accuracy of the data is proportional to the simulation
time: the greater the accuracy of data obtained, the
more will the Radiance simulation be delayed.
2.1. Illuminance Value
The illuminance metric suggested in this study is
based on Lightsolve illuminance metric [6], which
presents the evolution of illuminance performance
over the year. It was used to evaluate if the first two
principles were achieved in the case studies. Three
ranges are proposed: satisfying illuminance values
(in range), too low illuminance values (too low), or
too high illuminance values (too high). This method
allows for the identification of satisfactory illuminance
for multiple-purpose classrooms.
IESNA recommends illuminance values for
classrooms with a maximum between 150-2000 fc
(1614-2150 lux) and a minimum between 30-70 fc
(322-753 lux) [5]. These ranges were adapted
according to the task performed in the classroom: in
range illuminances between 500-1500 lux; too low,
< 300 lux; or too high, > 2000 lux.
The horizontal illuminance on the students work
plane was calculated with 15 sensors, distributed
uniformly throughout the classroom, at a height of
70cm. Vertical illuminance was calculated on the
blackboard surface to evaluate light distribution on it.
PLEA 2011 - 27
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778 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
We located five sensors at a height of 1.5m on the
whiteboard surface (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1: Horizontal and vertical grid.
2.2. Glare Metric
The third principle suggests preventing sources
of glare. The risk of glare was evaluated through the
calculation of the Daylight Glare Probability (DGP)[7],
which determines the percentage of persons
disturbed by a daylighting glare source and was
calculated using the evalglare command-line in
Radiance. DGP values were validated in the range of
0.2-0.8, i.e., between 20% and 80% of disturbed
persons. This index is vertical illuminance at eye
level, luminance source, solid angle of source and
glare position.
For evaluating the discomfort glare in daylit
classroom we chose the least favourable view of the
preliminary study, where we studied four positions
within the classroom as seen in the figure. The DGP
was calculated for one direction: the horizontal view
in the direction of the whiteboard and teacher area
for a seated student (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2: Radiance rendering of view and classroom chosen,
with four positions taken from the preliminary study.
In order to guide and simplify the understanding
of the GDP index, we complement the glare risk
study with DGP rating proposed by Wienold who
organizes the DGP index in ranges in which human
subjects rated the glare within their field of view to be
imperceptible for DGP < 35%, perceptible for DGP
between 35%-40%, disturbing for DGP between
40%-45% and intolerable for DGP > 45% [8].
2.3. Sunlight Penetration
For the fourth principle this work included a study
of patches of sunlight on classroom surfaces. Fish-
eye view (quick rendering) images were created
which showed the whole room, from above looking
down (with the window at the top of each image),
and the sunlight patch patterns from the windows to
assess the moments in the year for which direct
sunlight entered the classroom (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3: Fisheye view images of patches of sunlight
corresponding to the five typologies, period 1(march 21) at
4pm for intermediate sky condition.
3. SIMULATION OF CLASSROOM DESIGN
OPTIONS
Five classroom design options, differing by their
daylighting strategies, were modelled. Modelling was
conducted for classrooms located in Concepcin in
the south of Chile at 3646S, 733 W. For the
design of these models, three common points are
used:
a) The classroom dimension was defined according
to national standards, with a floor area of 56m
2

for 45 students, a typical 6 x 9m room, and a
standard furniture arrangement was chosen as
well (Fig. 4).
b) We organize the main window into two windows,
a view window to provide visual connection to the
outdoors and a high sidelight window.
c) The main window does not touch the wall of the
whiteboard, leaving a distance of 1.50 meters
The typologies differ by their second open faade
(opposite to the main faade) as illustrated in Fig. 5.
In order to compare and assess the four
configurations according to the previously mentioned
principles, Radiance simulations were done for each
of the four main orientations: North, South, East and
West, with the purpose of determining the favourable
and unfavourable aspects of each orientation in
search of the most optimal solution.
3.1. Time Segmentation
The analysis was performed with Radiance for 20
time periods defined on the basis of the Chilean
academic year, which starts in March and ends in
December. Representative days and hours were
fixed: the 21st March, the 21st June, the 21st
Typologyg1
16h
SunlightPenetrationPeriod1
Typologyg2
16h
Typologyg5
16h
Typologyg4 Typologyg3
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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 779

September and the 21st December, 8am, 10am,
12pm, 2pm and 4pm hours.


Fig. 5: Sectional cuts showing five different classroom
designs.
3.2. Sky Conditions
For the definition of sky conditions for each
period, we considered weather data on the basis of
the TMY2 weather data file and the four standard
skies of the ASRC-CIE model [9]: the overcast sky,
the intermediate sky [10], the clear sky and the clear
turbid sky [11]. The TMY2 climate data provides
average horizontal illuminance for these types of
skies and the percentage probability in which each
sky type occurs for each representative period:
February to April, May to July, August to October and
November to January (Fig. 6). The average sky
conditions were obtained from the middle of the four
periods considered. Using these average values and
weights, we were able to create four realistic,
instantaneous sky maps which still represent the
entire period in question [12]. We calculated the
average illuminance based on the equation from the
ASRC-CIE model with the following formula:
Ei = pc Ei,c + pct Ei,ct + pi Ei,i + po Ei,o , where Ei is
the illuminance at the sensor and Ei,c, Ei,ct, Ei,i and
Ei,o are the illuminance values at the sensor under
the four defined skies. The weighting factors pc, pct,
pi and po were obtained from the weather data and
represent the frequency of each sky type over the
considered period, according to a methodology
similar to that developed by Andersen et al [13].
The risk of glare was evaluated through an
average DGP in the same way, using the average
value and weights. Finally, we made two graphs for
the DGP index: one for the predominant sky and the
other for the most glaring sky.

Fig. 6: TMY2 weather-based graph, period 1 (February to
April), period 2 (May to July), period 3 (August to October),
period 4 (November to January) skies frequency.
4. DAYLIGHTING ANALYSIS AND
PRESENTATION OF RESULTS
The next stage of this study was to generate a
database of daylighting results. The preliminary
results and conclusions of the analysis carried out
are presented in graph form. Results are separated
into temporal information that corresponds to the
annual information on the weighted values and
supplementary information with detailed information
for 20 moments of the year.
4.1. Temporal Information
Illuminance and glare information are displayed in
temporal maps, annually [14]. The temporal maps
were produced in MATLAB in order to show, in a
single graph, the periods of the year in which the
design objectives were achieved, represented in the
following way: x-axis for date, y-axis for time of day
(fig 6).
For illuminance temporal maps we used
Fig. 4: Classroom dimensions and main faades
We located five sensors at a height of 1.5m on the
whiteboard surface (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1: Horizontal and vertical grid.
2.2. Glare Metric
The third principle suggests preventing sources
of glare. The risk of glare was evaluated through the
calculation of the Daylight Glare Probability (DGP)[7],
which determines the percentage of persons
disturbed by a daylighting glare source and was
calculated using the evalglare command-line in
Radiance. DGP values were validated in the range of
0.2-0.8, i.e., between 20% and 80% of disturbed
persons. This index is vertical illuminance at eye
level, luminance source, solid angle of source and
glare position.
For evaluating the discomfort glare in daylit
classroom we chose the least favourable view of the
preliminary study, where we studied four positions
within the classroom as seen in the figure. The DGP
was calculated for one direction: the horizontal view
in the direction of the whiteboard and teacher area
for a seated student (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2: Radiance rendering of view and classroom chosen,
with four positions taken from the preliminary study.
In order to guide and simplify the understanding
of the GDP index, we complement the glare risk
study with DGP rating proposed by Wienold who
organizes the DGP index in ranges in which human
subjects rated the glare within their field of view to be
imperceptible for DGP < 35%, perceptible for DGP
between 35%-40%, disturbing for DGP between
40%-45% and intolerable for DGP > 45% [8].
2.3. Sunlight Penetration
For the fourth principle this work included a study
of patches of sunlight on classroom surfaces. Fish-
eye view (quick rendering) images were created
which showed the whole room, from above looking
down (with the window at the top of each image),
and the sunlight patch patterns from the windows to
assess the moments in the year for which direct
sunlight entered the classroom (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3: Fisheye view images of patches of sunlight
corresponding to the five typologies, period 1(march 21) at
4pm for intermediate sky condition.
3. SIMULATION OF CLASSROOM DESIGN
OPTIONS
Five classroom design options, differing by their
daylighting strategies, were modelled. Modelling was
conducted for classrooms located in Concepcin in
the south of Chile at 3646S, 733 W. For the
design of these models, three common points are
used:
a) The classroom dimension was defined according
to national standards, with a floor area of 56m
2

for 45 students, a typical 6 x 9m room, and a
standard furniture arrangement was chosen as
well (Fig. 4).
b) We organize the main window into two windows,
a view window to provide visual connection to the
outdoors and a high sidelight window.
c) The main window does not touch the wall of the
whiteboard, leaving a distance of 1.50 meters
The typologies differ by their second open faade
(opposite to the main faade) as illustrated in Fig. 5.
In order to compare and assess the four
configurations according to the previously mentioned
principles, Radiance simulations were done for each
of the four main orientations: North, South, East and
West, with the purpose of determining the favourable
and unfavourable aspects of each orientation in
search of the most optimal solution.
3.1. Time Segmentation
The analysis was performed with Radiance for 20
time periods defined on the basis of the Chilean
academic year, which starts in March and ends in
December. Representative days and hours were
fixed: the 21st March, the 21st June, the 21st
Typologyg1
16h
SunlightPenetrationPeriod1
Typologyg2
16h
Typologyg5
16h
Typologyg4 Typologyg3
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
780 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)

illuminance obtained with the predominant sky type
of each period was shown, with an initial graph that
displayed the minimum and maximum values and
average values, also observing the obtained
uniformity. Subsequently, the internal light
distribution could be determined for each moment of
the day, hour by hour.


Fig. 10: Graph from the preliminary database of the
illuminance on the whiteboard.
The DGP study was complemented by a graph
illustrating two represented values: first, the DGP
values for the predominant sky and, secondly, the
DGP values for the most glaring sky at each of the
dates and hours studied (Fig. 12). These graphs are
then used in order to qualify glare perception as per
the adjectives proposed by Reinhart and Wienold
[15].

Fig. 11: Images displayed in database.
To complement glare information, 20 views are
created for each classroom configuration. These
views represent the whole year (represented by 20
moments) and the predominant sky at each moment.
The views are represented in false-colour image with
a scale of luminance between 0 and 2000 cd/m.
Also, we show the glare source image and the
human sight(Fig. 11) in order to help the
understanding of where is the glare source.

Fig. 12: Example of DGP rating graph.
5. RESULTS
With regard to light distribution in the classroom,
the design objective is to ensure illuminance levels
within the proposed range over 50% of the time.
Table 1 summarises the temporal map results for
annual horizontal illuminance, where we can see that
no North-facing typologies fulfil this design objective,
being typology 3 the most unfavourable with a 44%
average too high illuminance value. In contrast,
nearly all South-facing typologies achieve values
above range 50% of the time, with the exception of
typology g2. In case of the East-facing classrooms,
all the typologies have problems in the morning with
sunlight penetration. For this reason, none achieves
the design goal. In the case of West-facing
classroom results, four typologies (g1, g3, g4, g5)
nearly reach the objective of the design, but it is
necessary to optimize the design by adding some
afternoon sunlight protection.
Table 1: Summary of average range value results for
horizontal temporal illuminance maps.

The results of vertical illuminance on the
whiteboard, for the South-facing classroom temporal
maps, show that all the typologies achieve a good
illuminance level, in range > 60 % of the year. North-
facing typologies g1 and g5 achieve the design goal
while the others have problems of sunlight
penetration in the whiteboard area.
Table 2: Summary of Spatial Illuminance distribution maps,
percentage of space over the year whose values are in
range, too low and too high

triangular scale proposed in Lightsolve in order to
easily interpret the range of values obtained in the
maps (Fig. 7). This scale summarises the percentage
of daylighting that annually falls either in range, too
high or too low.
4.1.1. Temporal Illuminance Maps
The Temporal Illuminance maps were drawn
according to goal values (goal oriented approach)
and represent the percentage of the task area
fulfilling these goals. The values shown are the
percentage that achieved the range defined between
the minimum required illuminance of 500 lux (with
partial credits up to 300 lux) and the maximum
acceptable illuminance of 1500 lux (with partial
credits up to 2000 lux).

Fig. 7: Temporal maps distribution and triangular scale.
4.1.2. Spatial Illuminance Distribution maps
In order to understand the distribution of
illuminance in the classroom, we showed illuminance
distribution in different areas of the classroom,
allowing for an easy identification of areas within the
classroom that meet target illuminance values or, in
the same way, knowing which areas have too much
or too little daylight.
This map is represented in the following way: x-
axis and y-axis are the meters, the size of the
classroom. The illuminance distribution is related to
the horizontal grid (Fig. 1).

Figure 7: Spatial maps distribution with triangular scale for
North-facing Typology g1.
Along with the development of spatial graphs, we
determined the percentage of space over the year
whose values are in range, too low and too high. The
three levels are defined to describe the distribution
and they are described below:
irregular spatial distribution, is defined as
irregular if there is less than 50% of the space
whose values are in range throughout the year.
regular spatial distribution, is defined as regular
if it is between 50% and 75 % of the space whose
values are in range throughout the year.
optimal spatial distribution. The distribution of
daylighting is defined as optimal if there is more
than 75% of the space whose values are in
range throughout the year.
4.1.3. Temporal DGP Maps
Two temporal DGP maps are presented: the first
has the DGP for the whole year weighted according
to weather and the second is maximum DGP for the
whole year when considering only skies which
induce the strongest glare (Fig. 8). The best way to
analyse the temporal maps is to compare the
different configurations tested.

Fig. 8: Temporal DGP and DGP max Maps of North-facing
Typology g1.
4.2. Supplementary Information
It is essential to present the global illuminance
and the average horizontal illuminance inside the
classroom for the four periods analysed for each
simulated sky in order to know both the available
global illuminance and the average illuminance within
each classroom configuration during a specific period
of the year for each sky type: overcast (o), clear
(c), intermediate (i), and clear turbid (ct), (Fig. 9).

Fig. 9: Graph for Global illuminance (outside), average
internal illuminance values. Below: Illuminance for the
predominant sky.
In order to study the daylight distribution in
classrooms types, both on the horizontal plane (Fig.
9) and on the whiteboard surface (Fig. 10), the
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 781

illuminance obtained with the predominant sky type
of each period was shown, with an initial graph that
displayed the minimum and maximum values and
average values, also observing the obtained
uniformity. Subsequently, the internal light
distribution could be determined for each moment of
the day, hour by hour.


Fig. 10: Graph from the preliminary database of the
illuminance on the whiteboard.
The DGP study was complemented by a graph
illustrating two represented values: first, the DGP
values for the predominant sky and, secondly, the
DGP values for the most glaring sky at each of the
dates and hours studied (Fig. 12). These graphs are
then used in order to qualify glare perception as per
the adjectives proposed by Reinhart and Wienold
[15].

Fig. 11: Images displayed in database.
To complement glare information, 20 views are
created for each classroom configuration. These
views represent the whole year (represented by 20
moments) and the predominant sky at each moment.
The views are represented in false-colour image with
a scale of luminance between 0 and 2000 cd/m.
Also, we show the glare source image and the
human sight(Fig. 11) in order to help the
understanding of where is the glare source.

Fig. 12: Example of DGP rating graph.
5. RESULTS
With regard to light distribution in the classroom,
the design objective is to ensure illuminance levels
within the proposed range over 50% of the time.
Table 1 summarises the temporal map results for
annual horizontal illuminance, where we can see that
no North-facing typologies fulfil this design objective,
being typology 3 the most unfavourable with a 44%
average too high illuminance value. In contrast,
nearly all South-facing typologies achieve values
above range 50% of the time, with the exception of
typology g2. In case of the East-facing classrooms,
all the typologies have problems in the morning with
sunlight penetration. For this reason, none achieves
the design goal. In the case of West-facing
classroom results, four typologies (g1, g3, g4, g5)
nearly reach the objective of the design, but it is
necessary to optimize the design by adding some
afternoon sunlight protection.
Table 1: Summary of average range value results for
horizontal temporal illuminance maps.

The results of vertical illuminance on the
whiteboard, for the South-facing classroom temporal
maps, show that all the typologies achieve a good
illuminance level, in range > 60 % of the year. North-
facing typologies g1 and g5 achieve the design goal
while the others have problems of sunlight
penetration in the whiteboard area.
Table 2: Summary of Spatial Illuminance distribution maps,
percentage of space over the year whose values are in
range, too low and too high

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
782 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)

The spatial illuminance results illustrated in Table
1 show the average values for each typology and the
qualification of classroom distribution illuminance
weight. We find for North, East and West-facing class
illuminances "too high" next to the window. They
have critical periods from March to April and from
August to October. Only typology g2 achieves a
regular distribution for all orientations.
Finally, the glare risk analyses with DGP index
results indicate that all _North-facing classrooms
DGP and DGPmax are within the intolerable range.
The East and West-facing classrooms have a
DGPmax also within an intolerable range. Most of the
South-facing typologies have no sources of glare,
with the exception of typology g2.
6. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
In conclusion, the research findings of this study
have provided some evidence that there is a relation
between the horizontal illuminance temporal maps
and the spatial temporal maps. If the average "in
range" is more than 55%, the result would be an
"optimal spatial distribution of weighted
illuminances.
It would be useful to optimise the architectural
design of those typologies that do not achieve an
optimal distribution, particularly of those classrooms
that have very high illuminance, in order to try to
achieve the proposed design range and optimal
distribution.
The next step of this work is to generate a
database that enables architects and designers to
read the results clearly and easily, and to use it as a
design tool. While the architectural possibilities are
endless, we believe it is possible to advise architects
in order to foresee and avoid potential problems that
some classroom configurations might cause.
The results of this study should be replicated for
other classrooms or for other cities in Chile or other
countries that could, hence, expand the database.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the
Bioinformatics Laboratory of the Catholic University
of Chile, in particular to Dr Francisco Melo for his
support in conducting the large number of Radiance
simulations.
8. REFERENCE
[1] Boyce, P. R., 2003, Human factors in Lighting.
Troy: Lighting Research Center, 2nd Edition.
[2] Heschong Mahone Group. 1999. Daylighting in
Schools: An Investigation Into Relationship
Between Daylighting and Human Performance;
Detailed Report, Pacific Gas and Electric
Company.
[3] Schneider, M.,2003. Linking school facility
conditions to teacher satisfaction and success.
Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse for
Educational Facilities.
[4] Ordenanza General de Urbanismo y
Construcciones. Titulo 4: Cap.5, Articulo 4.5.5.
Locales escolares y hogares, Chile.
[5] Rea, M. 2000. The IESNA Lighting Handbook.
published by the Illuminating Engineering
Society of North America. ISBN 0-87995-150-8
(New York, NY: IESNA).
[6] Cauwerts C., Bodart M., Andersen M. 2009. A
first Application of the Lightsolve Approach: Pre-
design of the new Belgian VELUX headquarters.
Proc. 26th International conference on Passive
and Low Energy Architecture (PLEA) : 373-378.
[7] Wienold J., Christoffersen J., 2006. Evaluation
methods and development of a new glare
prediction model for daylight environments with
the use of CCD camera. Energy and Buildings,
38(7): p.743-757
[8] Wienold, J., 2009, "Dynamic Daylight Glare
Evaluation", Proc. of Building Simulation 2009,
Glasgow (UK).
[9] [CIE] Commission Internationale de lEclairage.
1994. Spatial distribution of daylight luminance
distributions of various reference skies. Vienna
(Austria). CIE. Publication No1101994.
[10] Perez R, Michalsky J, Seals R., 1992, Modeling
sky luminance angular distribution for real sky
conditions: experimental evaluation of existing
algorithms. J ILLUM ENG SOC., 21, 84-92.
[11] Igawa N, Nakamura H., 2001, All Sky Model as
a standard sky for the simulation of daylit
environment. Building and Environment 36(6):
763770.
[12] Kleindienst S., Bodart M., Andersen M., 2008,
Graphical Representation of Climate-Based
Daylight Performance to Support Architectural
Design. Leukos, 5, 39-61.
[13] Andersen M., Kleindienst S., Yi L., Bodart M.
and Cuttler B., 2008. An intuitive daylighting
performance analysis and optimization
approach. Building Research and Information,
36(6): p 593-607
[14] Mardaljevic J., 2004, Spatio-temporal dynamics
of solar shading for a parametrically defined roof
system. Energy and Building 36(8): p. 815-823.
[15] Reinhart C. and Wienold J., 2011, The
daylighting dashboard - A Simulation-based
design analysis for daylit spaces, Building and
Environment 46 (2): p.386-396.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 783

1
A Novel Louver System for Increasing Daylight
Usage in Buildings
Kevin THUOT
1
, Marilyne ANDERSEN
2

1
Building Technology Group, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
2
Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Performance-Integrated Design, cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne,
Lausanne, Switzerland
ABSTRACT: Advanced daylighting systems can be effective in increasing light levels in building spaces and
reducing energy consumption due to electric lighting. However, a recurring issue found in most existing
daylighting systems is the necessity of coupling the light-redirecting technology with a separate light shade to
reduce glare risks. A different approach is proposed here, based on the use of a louver system which scatters
incoming light onto a reflective ceiling, where it is redirected deep into the space. This type of system is effective
for both diffuse daylight and direct sunlight without causing glare and without the need for a shading system.
Annual simulations of workplane illuminance were conducted with Radiance using Tokyo weather data and a
generic south-facing deep-plan office space. Glare was evaluated through testing of a physical prototype of the
system. The new system was compared to a base case consisting of an unshaded window of equal area to the
louver system. The results show that the novel louver system enables a significant decrease in electric lighting
usage and outperforms the uncovered window, while adequately controlling direct sunlight to prevent glare.
Keywords: daylighting, louver, anidolic, building technology
1. INTRODUCTION
This paper introduces the design and operation of
a new type of daylighting system. Daylighting
systems are used to provide natural light to building
spaces, reducing the need for electric lighting.
Effective use of daylight has several positive benefits
including lower energy bills, lower fossil fuel
consumption for electricity generation, and increased
work environment satisfaction for occupants [1].
The intention of this paper is to provide a proof-
of-concept for the new daylighting system. The
system described here is best suited for buildings
with deep open-plan spaces, commonly found in
office buildings. Both direct sunlight and diffuse
skylight are directed into the room at an angle near
horizontal, which allows the light to penetrate deeply.
The system is designed to laterally diffuse incoming
light in order to minimize glare resulting from direct
sunlight. In this paper, the nature of the design
problem is discussed and a description of the system
is given. Test results from computer simulations, as
well as a physical prototype, are also provided.
2. CONTEXT OF DESIGN
In general, daylighting systems can be divided
into two categories: passive and active. Passive
systems are fixed and contain no moving parts.
Active systems contain moving parts, which are
usually used to track the sun as it moves across the
sky.
Since they have no moving parts, passive
systems are generally less expensive and require
less maintenance than active systems. However,
these passive systems are typically only effective for
a limited range of sun and sky conditions and some
allow direct sun to pass through unimpeded at times,
potentially causing glare. As a result, a separate
shading system is often required, which leads to
additional problems resulting from suboptimal control
of the shading system [2].
Active systems are typically used to respond to
the active nature of the sun. A common example is
the venetian blind, whose slats can be adjusted,
manually or automatically, in response to different
insolation conditions. When automated, these
systems are typically more expensive in both upfront
and maintenance costs than their passive
counterparts because they require rotating
machinery, an accurate control system, and human
monitoring [1]. Another limitation is that since most
active systems are designed to use the suns
radiation as input, their effectiveness is severely
reduced under overcast conditions. In cloudy
climates it may be difficult to justify the additional
expense of a sun-tracking active system.
3. EXISTING SOLUTIONS
In broad terms, the goal of this design effort is to
develop a passive system that performs well under
all sky conditions, without causing glare. Two
existing groups of technologies that informed the
design of the new system were anidolic and louver
daylighting systems.
3.1. Anidolic Systems
The search for a passive system that could
redirect light deeply into a room, while also
preventing direct sunlight from entering at a
downwards angle, led to the science of non-imaging
optics and a technology called the Compound
Parabolic Collector (CPC). The field of non-imaging,
or anidolic, optics was initially used in the
development of solar energy collectors. The CPC
was first used as a solar concentrator that could
accept all light rays from a defined angular extent

The spatial illuminance results illustrated in Table
1 show the average values for each typology and the
qualification of classroom distribution illuminance
weight. We find for North, East and West-facing class
illuminances "too high" next to the window. They
have critical periods from March to April and from
August to October. Only typology g2 achieves a
regular distribution for all orientations.
Finally, the glare risk analyses with DGP index
results indicate that all _North-facing classrooms
DGP and DGPmax are within the intolerable range.
The East and West-facing classrooms have a
DGPmax also within an intolerable range. Most of the
South-facing typologies have no sources of glare,
with the exception of typology g2.
6. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
In conclusion, the research findings of this study
have provided some evidence that there is a relation
between the horizontal illuminance temporal maps
and the spatial temporal maps. If the average "in
range" is more than 55%, the result would be an
"optimal spatial distribution of weighted
illuminances.
It would be useful to optimise the architectural
design of those typologies that do not achieve an
optimal distribution, particularly of those classrooms
that have very high illuminance, in order to try to
achieve the proposed design range and optimal
distribution.
The next step of this work is to generate a
database that enables architects and designers to
read the results clearly and easily, and to use it as a
design tool. While the architectural possibilities are
endless, we believe it is possible to advise architects
in order to foresee and avoid potential problems that
some classroom configurations might cause.
The results of this study should be replicated for
other classrooms or for other cities in Chile or other
countries that could, hence, expand the database.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the
Bioinformatics Laboratory of the Catholic University
of Chile, in particular to Dr Francisco Melo for his
support in conducting the large number of Radiance
simulations.
8. REFERENCE
[1] Boyce, P. R., 2003, Human factors in Lighting.
Troy: Lighting Research Center, 2nd Edition.
[2] Heschong Mahone Group. 1999. Daylighting in
Schools: An Investigation Into Relationship
Between Daylighting and Human Performance;
Detailed Report, Pacific Gas and Electric
Company.
[3] Schneider, M.,2003. Linking school facility
conditions to teacher satisfaction and success.
Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse for
Educational Facilities.
[4] Ordenanza General de Urbanismo y
Construcciones. Titulo 4: Cap.5, Articulo 4.5.5.
Locales escolares y hogares, Chile.
[5] Rea, M. 2000. The IESNA Lighting Handbook.
published by the Illuminating Engineering
Society of North America. ISBN 0-87995-150-8
(New York, NY: IESNA).
[6] Cauwerts C., Bodart M., Andersen M. 2009. A
first Application of the Lightsolve Approach: Pre-
design of the new Belgian VELUX headquarters.
Proc. 26th International conference on Passive
and Low Energy Architecture (PLEA) : 373-378.
[7] Wienold J., Christoffersen J., 2006. Evaluation
methods and development of a new glare
prediction model for daylight environments with
the use of CCD camera. Energy and Buildings,
38(7): p.743-757
[8] Wienold, J., 2009, "Dynamic Daylight Glare
Evaluation", Proc. of Building Simulation 2009,
Glasgow (UK).
[9] [CIE] Commission Internationale de lEclairage.
1994. Spatial distribution of daylight luminance
distributions of various reference skies. Vienna
(Austria). CIE. Publication No1101994.
[10] Perez R, Michalsky J, Seals R., 1992, Modeling
sky luminance angular distribution for real sky
conditions: experimental evaluation of existing
algorithms. J ILLUM ENG SOC., 21, 84-92.
[11] Igawa N, Nakamura H., 2001, All Sky Model as
a standard sky for the simulation of daylit
environment. Building and Environment 36(6):
763770.
[12] Kleindienst S., Bodart M., Andersen M., 2008,
Graphical Representation of Climate-Based
Daylight Performance to Support Architectural
Design. Leukos, 5, 39-61.
[13] Andersen M., Kleindienst S., Yi L., Bodart M.
and Cuttler B., 2008. An intuitive daylighting
performance analysis and optimization
approach. Building Research and Information,
36(6): p 593-607
[14] Mardaljevic J., 2004, Spatio-temporal dynamics
of solar shading for a parametrically defined roof
system. Energy and Building 36(8): p. 815-823.
[15] Reinhart C. and Wienold J., 2011, The
daylighting dashboard - A Simulation-based
design analysis for daylit spaces, Building and
Environment 46 (2): p.386-396.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
784 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)

2
and concentrate them on a smaller area. The CPC,
when used for daylighting applications, uses the
same type of reflector profile, but light moves through
it in the opposite direction. Light enters from all
directions through a small inlet aperture and is
aligned into a controlled angular range at the outlet
[3].
Existing anidolic systems, based on the CPC,
were found to have several major shortcomings
when applied to an office building setting. First, for
the system to be effective, it had to be excessively
large, on the order of 1 to 2 m long and .5 to 1 m tall.
This size reduces the ceiling height, makes using the
space near the faade awkward, and complicates the
construction of the faade. Second, when exposed to
direct sun, the anidolic system is excessively bright
and requires shading. In an open-plan office, blinds
that are shut to control glare often remain shut for
long periods of time [2]. This problem is only fully
overcome by automating the shading system to
eliminate the need for adjustments by the occupants.
3.2. Louver Systems
Reflective louvers form a second relevant group
of daylighting systems. The main advantage of a
louver system over a full-size anidolic system is that
the louver systems are easier to integrate into a
building and maintain because they are much less
bulky and can be located between the panes of a
double glazing.
Examples of existing louver systems include the
Fish System and the LightLouver [1, 4]. These
systems generally consist of a vertical array of
identically-shaped curved slats, whose profile is
defined so that daylight is redirected up onto the
ceiling [1].
These existing systems, while useful, suffer from
several drawbacks. For particular times of the day
and year they can emit daylight at too high of an
angle to allow the light to penetrate deeply, or worse,
they can allow light to exit at a downward angle,
potentially causing glare under direct sunlight. A
second issue is the amount of light rejected by the
outer part of the louver. When designed as passive
systems, louvers often have difficulty admitting a
wide range of incoming light directions while also
effectively controlling the light output. Another
drawback of these existing louver systems is that,
although they may emit light at an angle near
horizontal, light penetration depth is limited because
they are designed to direct light onto a diffusing
ceiling which scatters light uniformly in all directions.
4. PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES
For the daylighting system to function effectively
in a real office building setting, it will be subject to
design constraints (visual comfort, space usage,
etc.). As a result, a set of relevant reference
performance objectives were developed based on
the needs of the project sponsor, a commercial real
estate development company located in Tokyo,
Japan. Below are the key reference design
requirements. The requirements reflect the desire for
the system to minimize maintenance and space
usage.
Effectiveness: The system must respond well to
both overcast and sunny conditions throughout
the day and year.
Visual Comfort: The system must avoid causing
glary conditions inside the building space for all
sky conditions.
Passive Operation: The system should not
require either human or computer-based
adjustments to operate effectively.
System Size: Real estate is usually very
precious (and particularly expensive in Tokyo,
the case study location), so the system size
must be limited and must not interfere with the
normal use of the office space, or the ability to
see outside. The vertical extent of the proposed
system is limited to the top .7 m of the faade.
This distance includes .1 m for a horizontal
mullion at the bottom of the daylighting unit,
leaving .6 m of vertical height for the system
itself.
Ceiling Height: The floor to ceiling height is fixed
at 2.8 m. A higher ceiling would improve lighting
performance but maximizing rentable area takes
precedence.
Office Space: The space to be daylit is very
deep at 12 m. The space is sidelit only.
Urban Surroundings: Tokyo's urban landscape is
full of tall, densely packed buildings. The result
is obstructed sky views, especially the lower
portions of the sky.
5. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
A key insight gained during the review process of
existing systems was that the principles of the CPC
could be used to create a new louver system, which
would improve on or eliminate the drawbacks of both
the anidolic and louver systems described in Section
3. The resulting design is an original louver system
that incorporates a CPC profile. The louvers, when
combined with two other system elements, form an
effective daylighting system which meets all of the
requirements laid out in Section 4.
The system is comprised of two major
subassemblies. The first of these subassemblies is a
window unit installed at the top of the daylit faade.
The other subassembly consists of reflective panels
which cover the ceiling from the daylit faade to a
distance of 6 m inboard (distance varies based on
room size).
5.1. Window Unit
Figure 1 shows views of the window units cross-
section. The unit contains two glass panes, similar to
a standard double glazed window unit. Two different
optical devices are located between the outer and
inner glass panes. Both of these devices are
sensitive to dust and scratching, so placing them
inside the window unit provides protection and
eliminates maintenance.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 785

3

Figure 1: Window Unit Side View (Left) and Top View
(Right)
The system is designed so as to ensure incoming
light is redirected and diffused when entering the
space so as to avoid glare risks. As a consequence,
there is no view through the window unit itself, and
the bottom of the unit should be no lower than
approximately 2.1 m off the ground to allow for a
view window on the rest of the faade.
5.2. Louver Assembly
The core of the system is a vertical array of
reflective louvers which redirects incoming light in a
controlled manner deep into the space. Figure 2
shows the relative positions of two louvers in the
vertical array. The absolute size of the louver cross-
section can be increased or decreased, but the ratio
of the dimensions must remain the same for the
device to function properly. The louvers have a
constant cross-section in the direction normal to the
page.
The output range for light emitted from the
louvers is between 0 and 40 above horizontal,
regardless of the incoming direction of the light.
Figure 2 also shows how incoming rays at different
positions and elevation angles will be redirected by
the louvers. Notice that of all the ray paths traced in
the image, none exits the louver channel at an angle
less than 0 above horizontal.

Figure 2: Ray Tracing through Louvers for Varying Incoming
Elevation Angles
One important limitation to note is that some low
angle light is rejected by the louvers. The cut off
elevation angle, where the majority of incoming light
rays are rejected, varies between 27 (for light
normal to the faade in azimuth) to 0 (for light nearly
parallel to the faade in azimuth). With this type of
louver design, the tighter the output light's angular
range, the more low angle light will be rejected at the
inlet. For an urban setting such as Tokyo, the impact
of losing light from near the horizon is less significant
than it otherwise would be because the urban
surroundings will often block the view to the bottom
portion of the sky. All light that impinges on the
louvers at an angle of 27 or greater will pass
through the louver array successfully (minus
absorption losses).
5.3. Refractive Rods
The louvers change the elevation of the incoming
light but they do not significantly alter the lights
azimuth angle. Without the inclusion of the refractive
rods, under direct sun, the reflective ceiling will
exhibit a bright streak located on a line between the
occupants eyes and the sun, similar in appearance
to the suns reflection off a moving body of water.
During mock-up testing (discussed in Section 7) a
maximum brightness of about 350,000 candelas/m
2

(or .02% of the luminance of the sun at mid-day) was
observed on the ceiling when using the louvers
without the refractive rods and this level of luminance
was deemed to be too high for an office environment.
To mitigate glare concerns, a horizontal array of
optically clear rods, made of either acrylic or glass,
placed at the outlet of the louvers has the effect of
spreading the incoming light in the azimuth direction,
without affecting the lights elevation angle. Under
direct sunlight conditions, the bright streak on the
ceiling is replaced with a much larger area of lower
brightness (see Figure 9). Diffusing direct sunlight in
this manner helps prevent glare from being an issue.
The total amount of light in the room is modestly
reduced by adding the rods, but the glare protection
they provide justifies their inclusion in the design.
Figure 3 provides an illustration of how the rods
affect light passing through them.

Figure 3: Ray Tracing through Transparent Rods Illustrating
Their Ability to Mitigate Glare Resulting from Collimated
Sunlight
5.4. Reflective Ceiling
The final element of the proposed daylighting
system is the reflective ceiling. The purpose of the
reflective ceiling is to redirect light emitted by the
window unit deeper into the space. To limit glare and
distracting mirrored reflections on the ceiling, the
reflective surface has bumpy texture, which helps to
scatter the light without eliminating its directionality.
If the surface of the ceiling had a typical matte or
diffuse finish then most of the light exiting the window
unit would hit the ceiling near the front of the room
and be scattered onto the workplane immediately
below. With a diffuse surface, impinging light is
scattered in all directions evenly so only a small

2
and concentrate them on a smaller area. The CPC,
when used for daylighting applications, uses the
same type of reflector profile, but light moves through
it in the opposite direction. Light enters from all
directions through a small inlet aperture and is
aligned into a controlled angular range at the outlet
[3].
Existing anidolic systems, based on the CPC,
were found to have several major shortcomings
when applied to an office building setting. First, for
the system to be effective, it had to be excessively
large, on the order of 1 to 2 m long and .5 to 1 m tall.
This size reduces the ceiling height, makes using the
space near the faade awkward, and complicates the
construction of the faade. Second, when exposed to
direct sun, the anidolic system is excessively bright
and requires shading. In an open-plan office, blinds
that are shut to control glare often remain shut for
long periods of time [2]. This problem is only fully
overcome by automating the shading system to
eliminate the need for adjustments by the occupants.
3.2. Louver Systems
Reflective louvers form a second relevant group
of daylighting systems. The main advantage of a
louver system over a full-size anidolic system is that
the louver systems are easier to integrate into a
building and maintain because they are much less
bulky and can be located between the panes of a
double glazing.
Examples of existing louver systems include the
Fish System and the LightLouver [1, 4]. These
systems generally consist of a vertical array of
identically-shaped curved slats, whose profile is
defined so that daylight is redirected up onto the
ceiling [1].
These existing systems, while useful, suffer from
several drawbacks. For particular times of the day
and year they can emit daylight at too high of an
angle to allow the light to penetrate deeply, or worse,
they can allow light to exit at a downward angle,
potentially causing glare under direct sunlight. A
second issue is the amount of light rejected by the
outer part of the louver. When designed as passive
systems, louvers often have difficulty admitting a
wide range of incoming light directions while also
effectively controlling the light output. Another
drawback of these existing louver systems is that,
although they may emit light at an angle near
horizontal, light penetration depth is limited because
they are designed to direct light onto a diffusing
ceiling which scatters light uniformly in all directions.
4. PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES
For the daylighting system to function effectively
in a real office building setting, it will be subject to
design constraints (visual comfort, space usage,
etc.). As a result, a set of relevant reference
performance objectives were developed based on
the needs of the project sponsor, a commercial real
estate development company located in Tokyo,
Japan. Below are the key reference design
requirements. The requirements reflect the desire for
the system to minimize maintenance and space
usage.
Effectiveness: The system must respond well to
both overcast and sunny conditions throughout
the day and year.
Visual Comfort: The system must avoid causing
glary conditions inside the building space for all
sky conditions.
Passive Operation: The system should not
require either human or computer-based
adjustments to operate effectively.
System Size: Real estate is usually very
precious (and particularly expensive in Tokyo,
the case study location), so the system size
must be limited and must not interfere with the
normal use of the office space, or the ability to
see outside. The vertical extent of the proposed
system is limited to the top .7 m of the faade.
This distance includes .1 m for a horizontal
mullion at the bottom of the daylighting unit,
leaving .6 m of vertical height for the system
itself.
Ceiling Height: The floor to ceiling height is fixed
at 2.8 m. A higher ceiling would improve lighting
performance but maximizing rentable area takes
precedence.
Office Space: The space to be daylit is very
deep at 12 m. The space is sidelit only.
Urban Surroundings: Tokyo's urban landscape is
full of tall, densely packed buildings. The result
is obstructed sky views, especially the lower
portions of the sky.
5. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
A key insight gained during the review process of
existing systems was that the principles of the CPC
could be used to create a new louver system, which
would improve on or eliminate the drawbacks of both
the anidolic and louver systems described in Section
3. The resulting design is an original louver system
that incorporates a CPC profile. The louvers, when
combined with two other system elements, form an
effective daylighting system which meets all of the
requirements laid out in Section 4.
The system is comprised of two major
subassemblies. The first of these subassemblies is a
window unit installed at the top of the daylit faade.
The other subassembly consists of reflective panels
which cover the ceiling from the daylit faade to a
distance of 6 m inboard (distance varies based on
room size).
5.1. Window Unit
Figure 1 shows views of the window units cross-
section. The unit contains two glass panes, similar to
a standard double glazed window unit. Two different
optical devices are located between the outer and
inner glass panes. Both of these devices are
sensitive to dust and scratching, so placing them
inside the window unit provides protection and
eliminates maintenance.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
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786 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)

4
portion would be reflected off the ceiling deeply into
the space. This is true even of light that exits the
louvers near horizontal. A diffuse ceiling wastes
much of the benefit of the louvers, because the
ceiling cannot take advantage of the fact that the
light impinges on it at a shallow angle.
Since increasing the distance from the louvers to
the ceiling is not an option due to economic
constraints, another solution to push light deeper
was sought. Using a ceiling with a specular, rather
than a diffuse, surface makes the overall system
much more effective. Light hitting the ceiling at a
shallow angle bounces off at a shallow angle. This
means that all the light is directed deeper into the
space at a favorable angle, rather than being
diffusely scattered.
The refractive rods and bumpy ceiling texture
prevent the specular reflection off the ceiling from
causing glare by reducing the peak brightness
associated with direct sunlight. This method of
diffusing incoming light should provide protection
from thermal discomfort as well, since the building
occupants are not exposed to direct sunlight. With
regard to solar gains, this system will allow a heat
input similar to the standard glazed curtain wall with
interior blinds. Its overall impact on building loads will
also be limited since the daylighting window unit only
covers a fourth of the full faade height.
For a daylit zone extending 12 m from the faade,
the recommended length for the reflective ceiling is 6
m, but this could be reduced to 4 m with a relatively
small impact on performance if cost or other
considerations limit the allowable length. The rest of
the ceiling beyond the end of the reflective section
could use a standard acoustical tile layout.
6. SIMULATION RESULTS
6.1. Model Description
To give a quantitative idea of how the system
performs, the figures in Section 6.2 show illuminance
results for a generic south-facing building space with
the full daylighting system compared to the same
space with an unshaded window and a diffuse white
ceiling for two different representative sky conditions.
The unshaded window is a common point of
comparison for daylighting systems under test and is
one of two standard reference cases defined by the
International Energy Agencys Solar Heating and
Cooling Task 21 [1]. A generic unshaded window
provides a simple reference case that is easily
modelled and understood.
The lighting simulation program Radiance was
used to run the simulations [5]. To conduct annual
simulations in a reasonable amount of time, the
daylight coefficient method employing the rtcontrib
Radiance program was utilized [6].
The faade below 2.2 m from the floor is
modelled as an opaque wall for both cases to isolate
the effects of the daylighting system. The base case
leaves the top .6 m of the glazed faade uncovered,
while the system case includes the full daylighting
system. The building space is located using Tokyos
latitude and longitude and its south faade has an
unobstructed view of the sky. Workplane illuminance
values are measured along the centerline of the
room moving away from the south faade. All walls,
other than the top of the south faade, are
completely opaque. The Tokyo weather file available
from the Energy Plus website was used as the
source for direct normal and diffuse horizontal
irradiance values. Additional model details are
provided in Figure 4 and Table 1.

Figure 4: Plan (Top) and Section (Bottom) Views of Model
Space with Dimensions
Table 1: Radiance Model Parameters


6.2. System Performance
Under sunny conditions, the louver system
outperforms the unshaded window base case, as
shown in Figure 5. The louver system provides
significantly more light than the base case for depths
of 2.5 m or greater. Also, the louver system avoids
the extremely high peak illuminance seen in the base
case resulting from direct sunlight transmission. In
practice, the illuminance peak from direct sun would
likely cause the occupants to partially or fully close
the blinds, reducing the room illuminance
contribution from daylight. For reference, the
minimum recommended illumination level for office
work is typically between 300 and 700 lux.

Figure 5: Sunny Case: March 24, 11:30am (Direct Normal
Irradiance: 955 W/ m
2
, Diffuse Horizontal Irradiance: 97 W/
m
2
) *Base Case at 1.5 m is 20,413 lux
Floor Reflectance 0.20
Wall Reflectance 0.60
Standard Ceiling Reflectance / Specularity 0.80 / 0.00
Reflective Ceiling Reflectance / Specularity 0.88 / 0.95
Louver Reflectance 0.92
Rod Transmittance / Index of Refraction 0.92 / 1.50
Window Transmittance (for Double Pane) 0.74
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
Meters from Faade
L
u
x

System
Base Case
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 787

5
Under totally overcast conditions, the overall
illuminance levels for both cases are much lower
than for sunny conditions. Despite the reduction in
absolute illuminance, the proposed louver system
still outperforms the uncovered window at distances
of 4.5 m or greater from the faade, as shown in
Figure 6. The system also increases the uniformity of
light levels in the room.

Figure 6: Overcast Case: March 25, 11:30am (Direct
Normal Irradiance: 1 W/ m
2
, Diffuse Horizontal Irradiance:
260 W/ m
2
)
For situations where there is significant sky
obstruction near the horizon due to the daylit
buildings surroundings, the louver system performs
even better relative to the uncovered window case.
This is because the uncovered window relies
primarily on light from near the horizon to illuminate
the deep parts of the space, unlike the louver
system. Also, for the open window case to be a
viable option it would require some type of movable
shading system to shield the office space from direct
sunlight, a drawback the louver system does not
suffer from.
To give a more complete impression of the
systems performance on an annual basis, Figure 7
provides the median annual workplane illuminance
values for selected hours of the workday. The louver
system consistently provides more light than the
base case at distances greater than 3.5 m from the
faade.

Figure 7: Median Annual Workplane Illuminance for
Daylighting System and Base Case
Figure 8 shows the annual percentage of working
hours where the workplane illuminance exceeds 300
lux.

Figure 8: Percent of Working Hours (8am-7pm) with
Workplane Illuminance Greater than 300 Lux
In addition to outperforming the uncovered
window base case, the new system appears to also
outperform many existing passive daylighting
systems. Aizlewood conducted a study of four
different advanced passive daylighting systems: a
light shelf, Okasolar louvers, a prismatic glazing, and
a prismatic film [7]. All of these systems were found
to reduce workplane illuminance compared to an
unshaded window for overcast conditions. Under the
variety of sunny conditions found over the course of
the day and year, no system was able to consistently
provide increased workplane illumination in the rear
part of the room either. Furthermore, it was
determined that all of the tested systems, other than
the prismatic film, required a separate shading
system in order to limit glare. Although these results
suggest that the new system may provide superior
performance in terms of amount of illumination,
depth of illumination, and glare control, making a
conclusive judgement of the relative effects of two
different daylighting systems requires that both be
tested under identical conditions.
7. PHYSICAL PROTOTYPE
A physical prototype of the daylighting system
was built to test for glare problems as well as to
obtain a qualitative understanding of aesthetics of
the system. The dimensions of the completed louver
unit were .27 m wide and .15 m tall, not including the
frame. The prototype used eight louvers, whereas
the real system would use approximately 30 to fill the
.6 m facade height allowed.
Glare was evaluated using point luminance
readings as well as qualitative assessments and was
not found to be a significant concern. At its brightest,
the reflective ceiling does not cause visual
discomfort, provided the ceiling is not in the center of
the field of view. The ceiling can cause slight visual
discomfort if in the center of the field of view. These
conclusions will be refined with additional testing.
The addition of the refractive rods to the system
reduces the peak luminance of the ceiling while
increasing the ceilings average luminance, as shown
in Figure 9. The data presented in Figure 9 was
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
Meters from Faade
L
u
x

System
Base Case
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
2000
2200
2400
Meters from Faade
L
u
x

System, 11-12pm
System, 2-3pm
Base Case, 11-12pm
Base Case, 2-3pm
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Meters from Faade
System
Base Case

4
portion would be reflected off the ceiling deeply into
the space. This is true even of light that exits the
louvers near horizontal. A diffuse ceiling wastes
much of the benefit of the louvers, because the
ceiling cannot take advantage of the fact that the
light impinges on it at a shallow angle.
Since increasing the distance from the louvers to
the ceiling is not an option due to economic
constraints, another solution to push light deeper
was sought. Using a ceiling with a specular, rather
than a diffuse, surface makes the overall system
much more effective. Light hitting the ceiling at a
shallow angle bounces off at a shallow angle. This
means that all the light is directed deeper into the
space at a favorable angle, rather than being
diffusely scattered.
The refractive rods and bumpy ceiling texture
prevent the specular reflection off the ceiling from
causing glare by reducing the peak brightness
associated with direct sunlight. This method of
diffusing incoming light should provide protection
from thermal discomfort as well, since the building
occupants are not exposed to direct sunlight. With
regard to solar gains, this system will allow a heat
input similar to the standard glazed curtain wall with
interior blinds. Its overall impact on building loads will
also be limited since the daylighting window unit only
covers a fourth of the full faade height.
For a daylit zone extending 12 m from the faade,
the recommended length for the reflective ceiling is 6
m, but this could be reduced to 4 m with a relatively
small impact on performance if cost or other
considerations limit the allowable length. The rest of
the ceiling beyond the end of the reflective section
could use a standard acoustical tile layout.
6. SIMULATION RESULTS
6.1. Model Description
To give a quantitative idea of how the system
performs, the figures in Section 6.2 show illuminance
results for a generic south-facing building space with
the full daylighting system compared to the same
space with an unshaded window and a diffuse white
ceiling for two different representative sky conditions.
The unshaded window is a common point of
comparison for daylighting systems under test and is
one of two standard reference cases defined by the
International Energy Agencys Solar Heating and
Cooling Task 21 [1]. A generic unshaded window
provides a simple reference case that is easily
modelled and understood.
The lighting simulation program Radiance was
used to run the simulations [5]. To conduct annual
simulations in a reasonable amount of time, the
daylight coefficient method employing the rtcontrib
Radiance program was utilized [6].
The faade below 2.2 m from the floor is
modelled as an opaque wall for both cases to isolate
the effects of the daylighting system. The base case
leaves the top .6 m of the glazed faade uncovered,
while the system case includes the full daylighting
system. The building space is located using Tokyos
latitude and longitude and its south faade has an
unobstructed view of the sky. Workplane illuminance
values are measured along the centerline of the
room moving away from the south faade. All walls,
other than the top of the south faade, are
completely opaque. The Tokyo weather file available
from the Energy Plus website was used as the
source for direct normal and diffuse horizontal
irradiance values. Additional model details are
provided in Figure 4 and Table 1.

Figure 4: Plan (Top) and Section (Bottom) Views of Model
Space with Dimensions
Table 1: Radiance Model Parameters


6.2. System Performance
Under sunny conditions, the louver system
outperforms the unshaded window base case, as
shown in Figure 5. The louver system provides
significantly more light than the base case for depths
of 2.5 m or greater. Also, the louver system avoids
the extremely high peak illuminance seen in the base
case resulting from direct sunlight transmission. In
practice, the illuminance peak from direct sun would
likely cause the occupants to partially or fully close
the blinds, reducing the room illuminance
contribution from daylight. For reference, the
minimum recommended illumination level for office
work is typically between 300 and 700 lux.

Figure 5: Sunny Case: March 24, 11:30am (Direct Normal
Irradiance: 955 W/ m
2
, Diffuse Horizontal Irradiance: 97 W/
m
2
) *Base Case at 1.5 m is 20,413 lux
Floor Reflectance 0.20
Wall Reflectance 0.60
Standard Ceiling Reflectance / Specularity 0.80 / 0.00
Reflective Ceiling Reflectance / Specularity 0.88 / 0.95
Louver Reflectance 0.92
Rod Transmittance / Index of Refraction 0.92 / 1.50
Window Transmittance (for Double Pane) 0.74
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
Meters from Faade
L
u
x

System
Base Case
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
788 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)

6
recorded on a clear November day in Cambridge,
Massachusetts near 10:45am at a constant distance
of 3.5 m from the window unit. The prototype was
aligned so that the azimuth angle of the incoming
direct sunlight was 90.

Figure 9: Prototype Ceiling Maximum Luminance (cd/m
2
) as
a Function of Azimuth Angle to Faade
Figure 10 illustrates how adding the refractive
rods reduces the peak luminance of the ceiling.

Figure 10: Peak Brightness of Prototype Under Direct Sun
Without Rods (Left) and With Rods (Right)
Figure 11 shows a picture of a full scale mockup
tested in Tokyo, Japan. Analysis of data from this
more sophisticated mockup is in progress, but the
results are well aligned with those of the initial
mockup.

Figure 11: Full Scale Mockup Installed in Office Building
Setting
8. CONCLUSION
The new daylighting system proposed here has
the potential to bridge the gap between automated
systems that are expensive and maintenance-
intensive and passive systems which are often
ineffective and cause glare. The system is simple,
passive, and maintenance free. It is also well suited
for both sunny and cloudy conditions without
requiring any reconfiguration.
The feasibility and performance of the system
has been evaluated through the use of computer
simulations and a physical prototype. The results are
very encouraging, for both illuminance levels and
visual comfort. Development of this technology is
continuing and the completed system is planned to
be permanently installed in a new Tokyo office
building in 2012.
9. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank Hulic Co. Ltd.,
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and
cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne for their
generous support of this research. Special thanks to
Masashi Fukuda of Hulic and Dr. Leon Glicksman of
MIT for their valuable input and collaboration. Thanks
also to Lambda Research Corporation for supplying
an educational TracePro licence.
10. REFERENCES
[1] Ruck, Nancy C., et al. Daylight in Buildings: A
Source Book on Daylighting Systems and
Components. Washington, D.C.: International
Energy Agency, 2000. Print.
[2] Reinhart, C., and K. Voss. "Monitoring Manual
Control of Electric Lighting and Blinds." Lighting
Research and Technology 35.3 (2003): 243-60.
Print.
[3] Scartezzini, Jean-Louis, and Gilles Courret.
"Anidolic Daylighting Systems." Solar Energy
73.2 (2002): 123-35. El Sevier Science. Web. 11
Aug. 2010.
[4] Rogers, Zach L., Michael J. Holtz, Caroline M.
Clevenger, and Neall E. Digert. Mini-Optical
Light Shelf Daylighting System. Architectural
Energy Corporation, assignee. Patent 6714352.
30 Mar. 2004. Print.
[5] Larson, Greg Ward, and Rob Shakespeare.
Rendering with Radiance: The Art and Science
of Lighting Visualization. San Francisco: Morgan
Kaufmann, 1998. Print.
[6] Jacobs, Axel. "Understanding Rtcontrib (Version
5)." Luminance.londonmet.ac.uk. London
Metropolitan University, 1 Feb. 2010. Web. 25
Feb. 2010.
[7] Aizlewood, M.E. Innovative Daylighting
Systems: An Experimental Evaluation. Lighting
Research and Technology (1993): 141-152.

100
1000
10000
100000
1000000
With Rods
Without Rods
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 789
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
The evaluation of solar energy potential and energy
needs for heating and lighting using LIDAR data
Applications on two real built up-areas
Virginia GORI
1
, Carla BALOCCO
1
, Claudio CARNEIRO
2
, Gilles DESTHIEUX
3
, Eugenio
MORELLO
4
1
Dpartment of Energy Engineering "Sergio Stecco", Universt di Firenze, Florence, Italy
2
Geographical Information Systems Laboratory, Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne, Lausanne,
Swilzerland
3
Haute Ecole du Paysage, d'Ingnierie et d'Architecture, University of Applied Sciences Western Swilzerland,
Genve, Switzerland
4
Laboratorio di Simulazione Urbana, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
ABSTRACT: A tool that estimates heating and lighting demand at the district level and at the same time
computes the potential energy supply through solar and PV panels is proposed. The aim of this study is to
provide useful guidelines to urban designers and policy makers in order to promote integrated energy strategies
to be tailored according to the specific urban form. The tool is based on the use of digital 3-D data of cities
derived from laser scanning to automatically compute energy needs at the district level. By focussing on urban
geometry implications, such as shadowing conditions and leaning effect, we propose a method that allows
calculating energy needs, available and useful solar energy of a group of buildings together. In particular,
heating demand is calculated according to the current European Regulations, whereas for lighting demand a
simplified method based on the Daylight Autonomy concept is suggested. Finally, solar irradiation is computed
on all roof points and the potential of solar energy uses and applications is derived. The tool was validated by
two case-study areas applications characterised by different building typologies: the centre of Florence (Italy)
and the CERN campus in Geneva (France - Switzerland).
Keywords: 3D data analysis, LiDAR data, 2.5-D urban surface models, digital image processing, renewable
energy potential
1. INTRODUCTION
The rational use of energy resources is the only
way to reduce the environmental impact of human
activities. Cities are thermodynamic systems that
must be organized by relating variable energy
demand to minimize entropy production. The aim of
this work is to provide a tool that estimates the
heating and lighting energy needs at the district level
and at the same time computes the potential energy
supply through solar and PV panels. Numerous and
sophisticated tools that investigate and simulate the
energy needs at the building level are available, but
tools that inform decision makers at the urban scale
are still lacking. In particular, the goals of this study
are the following:
- To provide useful information and guidelines to
urban designers and policy makers in order to
promote integrated energy strategies to be
tailored according to the specific urban form. In
fact, depending on the availability and
arrangement of urban surfaces, different
solutions can be proposed. For example,
incentives for the installation of PV panels can
be provided on a very fine-grained basis, i.e.
only where these are really effective.
- To set up an innovative tool to investigate
energy problems at the scale of the
neighbourhood and not of the building. We
propose a new method that can use different
data sources and different data bases for
evaluating energy needs at the urban scale,
without complex and time consuming
calculations.
- To provide a simple tool that considers a set of
relevant variables at the urban scale:
overshadowing by buildings, leaning effect
(buildings touching each others thus reducing
thermal dispersant surfaces).
- To make use of Laser Imaging Detection and
Ranging (LiDAR) data which is an increasingly
available and not so expensive source of
information. The use of this type of data allows
automatically reconstructing accurate 3-D city
models with a Level of Detail (LOD) that includes
superstructures, small objects and vegetation
and, consequently, a synchronic picture of the
urban environment (no time delays among the
represented objects).
The method applied in order to develop the tool is
based on the use of digital 3-D data of cities derived
from laser scanning and Digital Image Processing
(DIP) techniques to automatically derive energy
needs at the district level. By focussing on urban
geometry implications, such as shadowing conditions
and leaning effect, this innovative approach allows
calculating a group of buildings together in a fast and
accurate way.
Our method is applied, on purpose, to two
different urban areas respectively located in the
centre of Florence (Italy) and the CERN campus

6
recorded on a clear November day in Cambridge,
Massachusetts near 10:45am at a constant distance
of 3.5 m from the window unit. The prototype was
aligned so that the azimuth angle of the incoming
direct sunlight was 90.

Figure 9: Prototype Ceiling Maximum Luminance (cd/m
2
) as
a Function of Azimuth Angle to Faade
Figure 10 illustrates how adding the refractive
rods reduces the peak luminance of the ceiling.

Figure 10: Peak Brightness of Prototype Under Direct Sun
Without Rods (Left) and With Rods (Right)
Figure 11 shows a picture of a full scale mockup
tested in Tokyo, Japan. Analysis of data from this
more sophisticated mockup is in progress, but the
results are well aligned with those of the initial
mockup.

Figure 11: Full Scale Mockup Installed in Office Building
Setting
8. CONCLUSION
The new daylighting system proposed here has
the potential to bridge the gap between automated
systems that are expensive and maintenance-
intensive and passive systems which are often
ineffective and cause glare. The system is simple,
passive, and maintenance free. It is also well suited
for both sunny and cloudy conditions without
requiring any reconfiguration.
The feasibility and performance of the system
has been evaluated through the use of computer
simulations and a physical prototype. The results are
very encouraging, for both illuminance levels and
visual comfort. Development of this technology is
continuing and the completed system is planned to
be permanently installed in a new Tokyo office
building in 2012.
9. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank Hulic Co. Ltd.,
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and
cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne for their
generous support of this research. Special thanks to
Masashi Fukuda of Hulic and Dr. Leon Glicksman of
MIT for their valuable input and collaboration. Thanks
also to Lambda Research Corporation for supplying
an educational TracePro licence.
10. REFERENCES
[1] Ruck, Nancy C., et al. Daylight in Buildings: A
Source Book on Daylighting Systems and
Components. Washington, D.C.: International
Energy Agency, 2000. Print.
[2] Reinhart, C., and K. Voss. "Monitoring Manual
Control of Electric Lighting and Blinds." Lighting
Research and Technology 35.3 (2003): 243-60.
Print.
[3] Scartezzini, Jean-Louis, and Gilles Courret.
"Anidolic Daylighting Systems." Solar Energy
73.2 (2002): 123-35. El Sevier Science. Web. 11
Aug. 2010.
[4] Rogers, Zach L., Michael J. Holtz, Caroline M.
Clevenger, and Neall E. Digert. Mini-Optical
Light Shelf Daylighting System. Architectural
Energy Corporation, assignee. Patent 6714352.
30 Mar. 2004. Print.
[5] Larson, Greg Ward, and Rob Shakespeare.
Rendering with Radiance: The Art and Science
of Lighting Visualization. San Francisco: Morgan
Kaufmann, 1998. Print.
[6] Jacobs, Axel. "Understanding Rtcontrib (Version
5)." Luminance.londonmet.ac.uk. London
Metropolitan University, 1 Feb. 2010. Web. 25
Feb. 2010.
[7] Aizlewood, M.E. Innovative Daylighting
Systems: An Experimental Evaluation. Lighting
Research and Technology (1993): 141-152.

100
1000
10000
100000
1000000
With Rods
Without Rods
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
790 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
2 xx.x SECTION NAME
(France - Switzerland). In fact, these two sites differ
in terms of spatial arrangements and configurations
of buildings, typologies and materials of construction.
In addition, the climatic data of the two locations are
very different in terms of latitude, solar radiation,
external air temperature and humidity and wind
velocity and direction.
2. APPLICATION
Numerous tools implemented at the building
scale are based on expensive and dynamic
calculations. This level of detail is not needed at the
urban scale. In order to give back an overall idea of
energy consumptions at the urban scale, a simplified
tool is desirable.
The method is based on the integration of several
and different sectors and competences that include
urban design and morphology, geography, energetic
of urban systems, programming and image
processing. In fact, the method is organized in a
series of steps that cover those different technical
competences (figure 1):
1. 2.5 Digital Urban Surface Models (DUSMs)
reconstruction (mask construction);
2. The energy analysis of built up-areas based on
the use of DIP techniques implemented on the
Matlab environment;
3. Visualisation of results through maps;
4. Construction of energy scenarios for heating
lighting and solar energy generation.

Figure 1: The structure of the overall proposed method
In order to run our simulations, important information
about buildings included in the two case study areas
is inferred by two different databases respectively.
For Florence a structured GIS database provides
basic data on buildings belonging to a XIX century
development of a part of the city. This database, that
has been built up for the Municipality Environmental
Energy Programming (PEAC), allowed to obtain
thermo-physical parameters of the buildings and
consequently thermal maps and energy savings
scenarios basic for the whole urban area of
Florence. It was built on building energy need
evaluations on GIS using spatial analysis techniques
to connect descriptive data of different plant
typologies to the relevant buildings. A statistical
method was used to evaluate the energy needs of
the urban building system. The method utilises a
numerical map to extend to the universe the
evaluation obtained from a probability stratified
simple random sampling design with the optimum
allocation of sample buildings to the strata. The
strata considered refer to the age of construction of
buildings. This statistical approach to the energy
analysis of the urban system required the primary
definition of the energy characteristics of the
universe of buildings. This was necessary to avoid
systematic error in the calculation method of sample
size and techniques to select the elements of sample
units. An equal probability selection method (epsem-
design) of stratification by age classes was used,
referring to existing information and data,
cartography and historical series maps.
Disproportionate stratification utilization was due to
allocating sufficient sample size to certain strata,
identified with the age classes of construction of
buildings, in order to identify estimates of sufficient
precision. Under these conditions sample estimates
are required not only for the total population but also
for various subpopulations which are termed
domains of study. The energy balance of building
provided variables connected to the thermo-physical
parameters of the building and the energy
consumption was evaluated by using a correlation
between dimensionless numbers. Dimensional
number correlation was extended to each building of
the universe of buildings because the sample used
has a statistical meaning. Using spatial analysis
techniques and GIS, the energy consumption maps
of the population of buildings were obtained [1].
The CERN has a very rich GIS database
providing information about the year of construction,
type of wall, type of roof, function and number of
storey for each building under analysis.
2.1. Model reconstruction from LiDAR data and
the hybrid approach LiDAR and GIS
The 2.5-DUSMs here assumed as inputs for the
extraction of urban indicators, are image-based geo-
referenced information. They are constructed using a
hybrid approach that integrates: (1) raw LiDAR data
and 2-D vector digital maps for the definition of
building outlines; (2) raw LiDAR data and the 2-D
projection of 3-D roof lines existing in 3-D urban
models for the definition of roof outlines (this was
applied to the CERN campus only, because we have
a 3-D vector model). The LiDAR data used for the
construction of 2.5-DUSM is classified according to
the algorithms proposed by Axelsson [2]. Moreover,
interpolation techniques, such as TIN, are applied to
raw LiDAR data points in order to deduce terrain and
building surfaces.
The 2.5-DUSM constructed relies on two different
assumptions: (1) terrain and buildings; (2) terrain,
buildings and vegetation; the purpose of each
depends on the type of application defined, for
instance, on solar analysis along building roofs. A
normalized 2.5-DUSM of buildings (representing the
height of each building) is also interpolated by
subtracting the altitude of terrain to the model
representing the altitude of buildings. This type of
model is used for the extraction of morphological
properties of buildings, such as the area of facades,
area of roofs and volume [3], [4].
URBAN MODEL
CONSTRUCTION
FROM RAW
LiDARDATA
ENERGY
ANALYSIS
THROUGH
DIGITAL IMAGE
PROCESSING OF
URBAN MODELS
AHEATING
BLIGHTING
CSOLAR
IRRADIATION
CONSTRUCTION
OF ENERGY
SCENARIOS
1 2
3
2.5 DUSM
BUILDINGS
BUILDING IDs
ORIENTATIONS
SLOPES
LiDAR DATA ENVIRONMENTAL
DATA
NUMERICAL
OUTPUTS
4
2.5-DUSM
GENERATION
(DTM
+
nDSMof buildings)
PRODUCTION
OF MASKS:
NUMERICAL
OUTPUTS
NUMERICAL
OUTPUTS
HEAT MAPS
VISUALIZATION
OF RESULTS
2-D
2.5-D
3-D
ENERGY
ASSUMPTIONS
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 791
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 3
2.2. Energy analysis based on the use of Digital
Image Processing (DIP) techniques
Once the urban model is reconstructed, it can be
analysed with dedicated DIP techniques and
mathematical scripts aiming at computing Urban
Environmental Quality (UEQ) indicators. In particular,
the urban model can be considered a raster image,
where the intensity value of each pixel contains the
information about the height of the pixel itself.
Tools for the analysis and evaluation of the urban
texture were implemented at the University of
Cambridge in the 1990s [5], [6], [7] and further
developed at the Senseable City Laboratory at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston [8].
The energy analysis includes here three parts:
the estimation of energy needs for heating, artificial
lighting and the electrical and thermal energy
production from sun collectors. Inputs for this
analysis are the models and a series of masks
obtained from LiDAR data and GIS datasets, energy
assumptions for building types according to the
building class of age and environmental data referred
to the locations. In both case studies different
classes of age were established, according to the
information stored in the two databases. Outputs of
the analysis are visual maps and numerical data to
be used to provide energy scenarios.

The model computes the monthly energy
requirement building by building for the heating
period, taking into account the effects of mutual
shadowing by the urban fabric. Results are stored in
a data structure and these can be visualised either
for the whole case-study area or for each building, or
for each storey of the same building. Buildings are
sliced at 3 meters intervals in order to consider each
building storey. This subdivision allows to assign
different uses to spaces. In this paper the residential
use is considered. The core function calculates
thermal losses and gains through the building
envelope of each thermal zone corresponding to
each storey. This function is repeated for every slice
of every building. The heating period is provided by
climatic data of the location. Two different internal
climatic conditions for the heating period are set in
order to simulate the intermittent regime of the heater
during the day. As suggested in CEN standards for
indoor air quality [9], the temperatures are set as
follows: 20C temperature and 50% relative humidity
for the time span between 7 AM and 11 PM; 18.5C
and 50% relative humidity for the remaining hours.
The input data from the two databases are the
following: (a) thermal parameters of different
materials according to the class of age of buildings
(the transmittances of horizontal and vertical opaque
and glazed surfaces, the transmittance of the ground
floor, the conductivity of the ground, the solar
transfer coefficient of the window glasses, the
thermal capacity of the wall), (b) some constructive
characteristics of the buildings (glazing ratios,
external wall thickness). In case some accurate data
is not available, the minimum values are set
according to the standards. In particular building
geometry is provided by 2.5-DUSM.
A. Heating needs calculation (figure 2)
Initially, some geometrical quantities have to be
estimated from the 2.5-DUSM. For each building,
indeed, it is possible to derive the floor area, the
volume and the lateral surface just using basic DIP
techniques and matrix operations.
Then thermal gains and losses of the side-walls,
the ground floor or the top floor are computed. Heat
losses through external surfaces both caused by
transmission and ventilation are carried out.
Thermal gains are split into internal and solar gains.
Internal gains are computed referring to
UNI/TS 11300-1:2008 Standard [10] taking into
account different time intervals connected to building
zones utilization. Solar gains related to both opaque
and glazed surfaces depend on the solar radiation
intercepted by the external building envelope, on the
surfaces orientation and inclination and presence of
surrounding buildings. A 3-D array stores the
information containing the time percentage when
each pixel is obscured by the surrounding buildings.
The Sky View Factor (SVF, i.e. the visibility of the sky
vault) calculation for each faade pixel is computed
aiming at defining the correction factor to be used in
order to consider the urban geometry in the solar
gain estimation.
The monthly and seasonal energy balance for all
the buildings is carried out. For each building and
each storey thermal needs are computed taking into
account the intermittency and the efficiency of the
heating system and the utilization factor of total heat
gains.
Figure 2: Heating calculation structure
The simulation runs during the winter season and
takes into account a time span from 9 AM to 5 PM to
compute useful daylighting contributions. For the
other hours of usage, an estimation of consumptions
was made taking into account typical space
utilisation patterns and occupancy rates during the
day. The model used in this study is presented in
Morello et al. 2009 [11] and here summarized. It is
based on the computation of solar irradiances (W/m
2
)
intercepted on vertical urban surfaces [12]. The
contribution of beam and diffuse irradiation at each
point is derived using Ratti and Richens (2004) [6]
shadow casting routine, which allows to distinguish
among lit and shadowed pixels on the facades of the
urban model. In particular, the beam contribution of
irradiance is summed to the diffuse, only for lit pixels.
B. Artificial lighting needs evaluation (figure 3)
HEATING
1. Calculation of heat loss coefficients: H=Ht+Hg+Hv [kWh/m
2
yr]
2. Calculationof heat losses: Ql = Qt+Qg+Qv [kWh/m
2
yr]
3. Calculatioof free contributions: Qg = (Qi+ Qsi) [kWh/m
2
yr]
4. Calculationof the utilisation factor
5. Energy needs of the building Qh = Ql - *Qg [kWh/m
2
yr]
Primary energy needs of the building Q [kWh/m
2
yr]
2A
2.5 DUSM
BUILDINGS
BUILDING IDs
NUMERICAL
OUTPUTS:
Energy needs
Q
Qh
...
MASKS:
VISUALIZATION
OUTPUTS:
energy maps
SVF map
ENVIRONMENTAL DATA: ENERGYASSUMPTIONS:
ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT THE YEAR
OF CONSTRUCTION :
-U-values of opaque and transparent
surfaces;
- GRs for different orientations
- wall thickness
- thermal capacity of walls
BUILDING DATABASE:
- ID of building;
- year of construction
- use of the building
- geometry
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
2 xx.x SECTION NAME
(France - Switzerland). In fact, these two sites differ
in terms of spatial arrangements and configurations
of buildings, typologies and materials of construction.
In addition, the climatic data of the two locations are
very different in terms of latitude, solar radiation,
external air temperature and humidity and wind
velocity and direction.
2. APPLICATION
Numerous tools implemented at the building
scale are based on expensive and dynamic
calculations. This level of detail is not needed at the
urban scale. In order to give back an overall idea of
energy consumptions at the urban scale, a simplified
tool is desirable.
The method is based on the integration of several
and different sectors and competences that include
urban design and morphology, geography, energetic
of urban systems, programming and image
processing. In fact, the method is organized in a
series of steps that cover those different technical
competences (figure 1):
1. 2.5 Digital Urban Surface Models (DUSMs)
reconstruction (mask construction);
2. The energy analysis of built up-areas based on
the use of DIP techniques implemented on the
Matlab environment;
3. Visualisation of results through maps;
4. Construction of energy scenarios for heating
lighting and solar energy generation.

Figure 1: The structure of the overall proposed method
In order to run our simulations, important information
about buildings included in the two case study areas
is inferred by two different databases respectively.
For Florence a structured GIS database provides
basic data on buildings belonging to a XIX century
development of a part of the city. This database, that
has been built up for the Municipality Environmental
Energy Programming (PEAC), allowed to obtain
thermo-physical parameters of the buildings and
consequently thermal maps and energy savings
scenarios basic for the whole urban area of
Florence. It was built on building energy need
evaluations on GIS using spatial analysis techniques
to connect descriptive data of different plant
typologies to the relevant buildings. A statistical
method was used to evaluate the energy needs of
the urban building system. The method utilises a
numerical map to extend to the universe the
evaluation obtained from a probability stratified
simple random sampling design with the optimum
allocation of sample buildings to the strata. The
strata considered refer to the age of construction of
buildings. This statistical approach to the energy
analysis of the urban system required the primary
definition of the energy characteristics of the
universe of buildings. This was necessary to avoid
systematic error in the calculation method of sample
size and techniques to select the elements of sample
units. An equal probability selection method (epsem-
design) of stratification by age classes was used,
referring to existing information and data,
cartography and historical series maps.
Disproportionate stratification utilization was due to
allocating sufficient sample size to certain strata,
identified with the age classes of construction of
buildings, in order to identify estimates of sufficient
precision. Under these conditions sample estimates
are required not only for the total population but also
for various subpopulations which are termed
domains of study. The energy balance of building
provided variables connected to the thermo-physical
parameters of the building and the energy
consumption was evaluated by using a correlation
between dimensionless numbers. Dimensional
number correlation was extended to each building of
the universe of buildings because the sample used
has a statistical meaning. Using spatial analysis
techniques and GIS, the energy consumption maps
of the population of buildings were obtained [1].
The CERN has a very rich GIS database
providing information about the year of construction,
type of wall, type of roof, function and number of
storey for each building under analysis.
2.1. Model reconstruction from LiDAR data and
the hybrid approach LiDAR and GIS
The 2.5-DUSMs here assumed as inputs for the
extraction of urban indicators, are image-based geo-
referenced information. They are constructed using a
hybrid approach that integrates: (1) raw LiDAR data
and 2-D vector digital maps for the definition of
building outlines; (2) raw LiDAR data and the 2-D
projection of 3-D roof lines existing in 3-D urban
models for the definition of roof outlines (this was
applied to the CERN campus only, because we have
a 3-D vector model). The LiDAR data used for the
construction of 2.5-DUSM is classified according to
the algorithms proposed by Axelsson [2]. Moreover,
interpolation techniques, such as TIN, are applied to
raw LiDAR data points in order to deduce terrain and
building surfaces.
The 2.5-DUSM constructed relies on two different
assumptions: (1) terrain and buildings; (2) terrain,
buildings and vegetation; the purpose of each
depends on the type of application defined, for
instance, on solar analysis along building roofs. A
normalized 2.5-DUSM of buildings (representing the
height of each building) is also interpolated by
subtracting the altitude of terrain to the model
representing the altitude of buildings. This type of
model is used for the extraction of morphological
properties of buildings, such as the area of facades,
area of roofs and volume [3], [4].
URBAN MODEL
CONSTRUCTION
FROM RAW
LiDARDATA
ENERGY
ANALYSIS
THROUGH
DIGITAL IMAGE
PROCESSING OF
URBAN MODELS
AHEATING
BLIGHTING
CSOLAR
IRRADIATION
CONSTRUCTION
OF ENERGY
SCENARIOS
1 2
3
2.5 DUSM
BUILDINGS
BUILDING IDs
ORIENTATIONS
SLOPES
LiDAR DATA ENVIRONMENTAL
DATA
NUMERICAL
OUTPUTS
4
2.5-DUSM
GENERATION
(DTM
+
nDSMof buildings)
PRODUCTION
OF MASKS:
NUMERICAL
OUTPUTS
NUMERICAL
OUTPUTS
HEAT MAPS
VISUALIZATION
OF RESULTS
2-D
2.5-D
3-D
ENERGY
ASSUMPTIONS
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
792 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
4 xx.x SECTION NAME
Moreover, the model is sliced at every storey (3
meters intervals are used) in order to account for
solar admittance variations of vertically aligned
pixels.
Irradiances are then converted into illuminance
values (lx). Illuminances spread out inside the
building whereby the model considers a constant
Glazing Ratio (GR) applied to all orientations and
with openings run uninterruptedly along all the
perimeter of the buildings. Hence, referring to the
total flux method [13], the luminous flux
t
(lm)
entering the room can be calculated. The daylighting
level dramatically drops with the increase of distance
from the openings. We refer to literature (digital
simulations and measurements) to derive simplified
daylight factors profiles in indoor spaces assuming
these identical over all orientations [14]. We calculate
internal illuminance profiles on the passive zones
only [7]. In this case, we define as passive zones the
floor areas within a distance to the external perimeter
that is twice the height of the ceiling, hence e.g. 6
meters.
Once the patterns of indoor illuminance levels
are mapped, the integration of natural and artificial
lighting can be assessed. The model computes the
average hourly energy consumption in Wh/m
2
over
the passive zones required by the integration of
artificial lighting, whereas it assumes 5 W per m
2
as
the general electrical consumption for artificial
lighting in the non-passive zones where full electric
lighting system is always provided: this value is
calculated considering a 100 W lamp that covers an
area of about 20 m
2
whereby also unlighted floor
areas occupied by furniture or facilities are included
in this estimation. A threshold of minimum
illuminances over the work plane have to be
guaranteed, otherwise artificial lighting has to be
provided. We assume 100 lux as the minimum
illuminance that has to be reached on every point of
space. Even if this threshold does not represent a
high level of illuminance and is usually provided in
spaces that do not require specific visual tasks,
though it constitutes a good average limitation if
spread out on all points of the building.

Figure 3: Artificial lighting calculation structure
Solar geometry formulae allow deriving hourly
global irradiation on inclined surface (Ig h) from the
beam (Ib h), diffuse (Id h) and ground reflected (Ir h)
components of hourly radiations for every orientation
and inclination of surfaces.
C. Solar radiation calculation (figure 4)
As meteorological input of radiation on horizontal
surface, we used the database Meteonorm that
generates statistical data for the period 1980-2000
for many cities in the world, and thus for Geneva and
Florence. However, calculating irradiation for each
hour and for each pixel of a high resolution 2.5-
DUSM model would result of several days of
computer time simulation. Consequently, we reduced
our solar irradiation dataset by averaging hourly
values for each month. We compared in Geneva the
irradiation results from applying strictly and average
hourly: the relative error is statistically very few
significant particularly for the south oriented
surfaces.
The model of diffuse component on inclined
surface should be selected very carefully so as to
take into account the anisotropy of the phenomenon.
Among the numerous anisotropic models, those of
Perez [15] and Hay [16] are the most common. The
model of Hay was chosen as it is particularly
addressed to the use of average hourly values as
explained above.
Both of the main components of the global
irradiation direct and diffuse are multiplied by a
shadowing factor according the following formulae:
- Shadowing on direct component (Sb h) at a given
hour {0, 1}: The same shadow casting routine as
the one mentioned above (in 3.2/B) is applied to
the input masks of roofs.
- Shadowing on diffuse component (Sd) [0, 1]: the
calculation of the Sky View Factor (SVF) on the
model evaluates the reduction of the sky visibility
from the roof point of view due to obstacles in
the surrounding environment. It is thus not time-
dependent.
Hence, when we are able to determine for every
pixel its shadowing condition, its SVF, its orientation
and its inclination, we can assign the global incident
solar radiation calculated in W or J/m for various
time scales (hour, aggregation to month, year).
Finally, from the global irradiation and on the
pieces of building roof where irradiation is sufficient
(defined as > 1000 kWh/m
2
yr) and the area is
significant (>20 m
2
), it is possible to calculate
electrical and thermal energy production from sun
collectors. For most of the common technologies of
poly- and mono-crystalline, an electrical production
equivalent to 9% of the global irradiation is
considered. For the calculation of thermal production
for heating and DHW (with glazed and unglazed
collectors) the formulae used in the software
EnerCAD [17] were implemented in the image
processing script. The calculation is made for the
hours when outside temperature is below 16C
(heating cut off).
LIGHTING
- Assessment of beamradiation on vertical pixels with DIP technique
(shadowing routine);
-Assessment of global incident solar irradiation on pixels (solar
geometry);
- Irradiances are converted into illuminance values;
- Calculation of the luminous flux using the total flux method;
- Estimation of daylight factors profiles in indoor spaces;
- Computation of the ave. hourly energy consumption needed for el.
lighting as a compensation to natural lighting to reach minimum
illuminance threshold.
2B
NUMERICAL
OUTPUTS:
Daylighting
MASKS:
VISUALIZATION
OUTPUTS:
daylighting maps
-Percentage of
irradiated facades
(annual, monhly,
daily, hourly maps)
-- illuminance
maps indoors
ENERGYASSUMPTIONS:
BUILDING DATABASE
2.5 DUSM
BUILDINGS
BUILDING IDs
ORIENTATIONS
ENVIRONMENTAL DATA:
- geodata (latitude)
- statistical climatic data
ASSUMPTIONS FOR
THE LIGHTING MODEL:
- GRs for different orientations
- hours of usage
- common el. consumption for lighting
- minimum illuminance for indoors
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 793
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 5

Figure 4: Solar irradiation calculation structure
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Two types of outputs were produced: numerical
data and visualizations. Visualisations are
fundamental in order to communicate and to program
interventions in the decision making process and this
is a novelty at the urban level. The great flexibility of
the proposed method to interactively classifying
features in many ways allows the production of a
great number of thematic maps covering all the study
area to highlight the distribution of: heat production
structures; building geometry properties; building
energy needs (thermal and lighting). Among the
produced thematic maps we can mention: estimated
Heat Power [kW]: partitioning of buildings to different
age construction classes referring to estimated heat
power; energy consumption per m
2
; partitioning of
buildings to different classes referring to energy
consumption for square meters; available Heat
Power [kW]: partitioning of buildings to different
classes referring to available heat power and number
of installed plants; building Volume [m
3
]: partitioning
of buildings to different classes referring to their
volume; Form Factor (ratio between all the thermal
dispersing surface and volume) [m
-1
]: partitioning
buildings into eleven classes referring to their Form
Factor; building height [m]: partitioning of buildings
into different classes referring to their height; classes
of construction age of buildings; daylighting and solar
irradiation distribution.
A series of 2-D and 3-D maps showing the
energy needs and potential energy production follow
(figures 4, 5, 6).
Figure 4: Seasonal energy needs for heating visualized in
2-D on the CERN campus (MJ) and in 3-D in Florence (MJ)
Figure 5: Annual solar irradiation (kWh/m
2
yr): above,
values are grouped for each roof on the CERN campus;
below, the representation of irradiation on a pixel basis for
the Florence case study.
Figure 6: Hourly shadowing (October 15
th
, 9 AM) map used
for the determination of the pixels in shadow on the CERN
campus
SOLAR IRRADIATION
1. Calculation of hourly beam, diffuse and reflected components on
inclined surface from such components on horizontal surface and
pixel orientation and slope (solar geometry formulae).
2. Calculation of hourly shadowing on beam radiation and
shadowing on diffuse radiation :
S
b h
= {Pixel_in_light = 1; Pixel_in_shadow = 0}
S
d
= SVF [0, 1]
3. Calculation of hourly global irradiation on inclined surface:
I
g h
= I
b h
*S
b h
+ I
d h
*S
d
+ I
r h
4. Calculation of electrical and thermal energy production:
E
PVh
= 0.09* I
g h
E
heating h
= f(I
g h
, T
external
, T
internal
, T
distribution
, Area
roof
)
2C
2.5 DUSM
BUILDINGS
BUILDING IDs
NUMERICAL
OUTPUTS:
Energy needs
Q
Qh
...
MASKS:
VISUALIZATION
OUTPUTS:
solar maps
(annual, monhly,
daily, hourly maps)
SVF map
ENERGYASSUMPTIONS:
ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT
SOLAR IRRADIATION
BUILDING DATABASE
ENVIRONMENTAL DATA: 151150000
50000250000
250000500000
5000001000000
10000002884762
Legend [MJ]:
North
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
4 xx.x SECTION NAME
Moreover, the model is sliced at every storey (3
meters intervals are used) in order to account for
solar admittance variations of vertically aligned
pixels.
Irradiances are then converted into illuminance
values (lx). Illuminances spread out inside the
building whereby the model considers a constant
Glazing Ratio (GR) applied to all orientations and
with openings run uninterruptedly along all the
perimeter of the buildings. Hence, referring to the
total flux method [13], the luminous flux
t
(lm)
entering the room can be calculated. The daylighting
level dramatically drops with the increase of distance
from the openings. We refer to literature (digital
simulations and measurements) to derive simplified
daylight factors profiles in indoor spaces assuming
these identical over all orientations [14]. We calculate
internal illuminance profiles on the passive zones
only [7]. In this case, we define as passive zones the
floor areas within a distance to the external perimeter
that is twice the height of the ceiling, hence e.g. 6
meters.
Once the patterns of indoor illuminance levels
are mapped, the integration of natural and artificial
lighting can be assessed. The model computes the
average hourly energy consumption in Wh/m
2
over
the passive zones required by the integration of
artificial lighting, whereas it assumes 5 W per m
2
as
the general electrical consumption for artificial
lighting in the non-passive zones where full electric
lighting system is always provided: this value is
calculated considering a 100 W lamp that covers an
area of about 20 m
2
whereby also unlighted floor
areas occupied by furniture or facilities are included
in this estimation. A threshold of minimum
illuminances over the work plane have to be
guaranteed, otherwise artificial lighting has to be
provided. We assume 100 lux as the minimum
illuminance that has to be reached on every point of
space. Even if this threshold does not represent a
high level of illuminance and is usually provided in
spaces that do not require specific visual tasks,
though it constitutes a good average limitation if
spread out on all points of the building.

Figure 3: Artificial lighting calculation structure
Solar geometry formulae allow deriving hourly
global irradiation on inclined surface (Ig h) from the
beam (Ib h), diffuse (Id h) and ground reflected (Ir h)
components of hourly radiations for every orientation
and inclination of surfaces.
C. Solar radiation calculation (figure 4)
As meteorological input of radiation on horizontal
surface, we used the database Meteonorm that
generates statistical data for the period 1980-2000
for many cities in the world, and thus for Geneva and
Florence. However, calculating irradiation for each
hour and for each pixel of a high resolution 2.5-
DUSM model would result of several days of
computer time simulation. Consequently, we reduced
our solar irradiation dataset by averaging hourly
values for each month. We compared in Geneva the
irradiation results from applying strictly and average
hourly: the relative error is statistically very few
significant particularly for the south oriented
surfaces.
The model of diffuse component on inclined
surface should be selected very carefully so as to
take into account the anisotropy of the phenomenon.
Among the numerous anisotropic models, those of
Perez [15] and Hay [16] are the most common. The
model of Hay was chosen as it is particularly
addressed to the use of average hourly values as
explained above.
Both of the main components of the global
irradiation direct and diffuse are multiplied by a
shadowing factor according the following formulae:
- Shadowing on direct component (Sb h) at a given
hour {0, 1}: The same shadow casting routine as
the one mentioned above (in 3.2/B) is applied to
the input masks of roofs.
- Shadowing on diffuse component (Sd) [0, 1]: the
calculation of the Sky View Factor (SVF) on the
model evaluates the reduction of the sky visibility
from the roof point of view due to obstacles in
the surrounding environment. It is thus not time-
dependent.
Hence, when we are able to determine for every
pixel its shadowing condition, its SVF, its orientation
and its inclination, we can assign the global incident
solar radiation calculated in W or J/m for various
time scales (hour, aggregation to month, year).
Finally, from the global irradiation and on the
pieces of building roof where irradiation is sufficient
(defined as > 1000 kWh/m
2
yr) and the area is
significant (>20 m
2
), it is possible to calculate
electrical and thermal energy production from sun
collectors. For most of the common technologies of
poly- and mono-crystalline, an electrical production
equivalent to 9% of the global irradiation is
considered. For the calculation of thermal production
for heating and DHW (with glazed and unglazed
collectors) the formulae used in the software
EnerCAD [17] were implemented in the image
processing script. The calculation is made for the
hours when outside temperature is below 16C
(heating cut off).
LIGHTING
- Assessment of beamradiation on vertical pixels with DIP technique
(shadowing routine);
-Assessment of global incident solar irradiation on pixels (solar
geometry);
- Irradiances are converted into illuminance values;
- Calculation of the luminous flux using the total flux method;
- Estimation of daylight factors profiles in indoor spaces;
- Computation of the ave. hourly energy consumption needed for el.
lighting as a compensation to natural lighting to reach minimum
illuminance threshold.
2B
NUMERICAL
OUTPUTS:
Daylighting
MASKS:
VISUALIZATION
OUTPUTS:
daylighting maps
-Percentage of
irradiated facades
(annual, monhly,
daily, hourly maps)
-- illuminance
maps indoors
ENERGYASSUMPTIONS:
BUILDING DATABASE
2.5 DUSM
BUILDINGS
BUILDING IDs
ORIENTATIONS
ENVIRONMENTAL DATA:
- geodata (latitude)
- statistical climatic data
ASSUMPTIONS FOR
THE LIGHTING MODEL:
- GRs for different orientations
- hours of usage
- common el. consumption for lighting
- minimum illuminance for indoors
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
794 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
6 xx.x SECTION NAME
4. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK
The proposed method collects different and
important analysis in one tool. It can be implemented
by commercial software but it can also be easily
adapted to use free open source software. It is
dynamic because it allows to take into account new
data and to reproduce visualizations to show the up-
to-date situation, giving powerful tools to investigate
distribution of energy needs and solar irradiation
accesses at the urban level.
The update of the input data is fast, easy and
cheap. It can be applied to several situations, it is
friendly adaptable and it does not require high
computation time and high PC performance (a PC
with 7 9 GB RAM is sufficient). Data and information
used can be different from those used in the present
work: after a strong check on the quality of the input
data, the robustness and the efficacy of the method
and the results accuracy are however guaranteed.
Future work will expand the energy analysis to
the estimation of needs for cooling, which is a
fundamental issue in the overall energy balance of
cities and is highly dependent on urban geometry
aspects. More user-friendly interfaces and a higher
integration among the software used are also
desirable.
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank the Territorial Information
System (SIT) of Florence Municipality and the
international organization CERN, hosted in Geneva,
Switzerland, for providing us the information and
data needed to run the analysis.
6. REFERENCES
[1] Balocco C., Grazzini G., Andreani G., Rational
Use and Energy Planning: A Thermodynamic
and Geographical Approach, in Energy
Efficiency Research Advances, Chapter
Research and Review Studies,pp.11-62,
NOVA Publ.Ed. D.M. Bergamann, N.Y. 2008.
[2] Axelsson P., 1999, Processing of laser scanner
data - algorithms and applications. The
International Archives of the Photogrammetry,
Remote Sensing and Spatial Information
Sciences, Vol. 54, 138-147.
[3] Carneiro C., Morello E., Desthieux G., 2009,
Assessment of solar irradiance on the urban
fabric for the production of renewable energy
using LIDAR data and image processing
techniques, in Sester M., Bernard L., Paelke V.
(editors), Advances in GIScience, Lecture Notes
in Geoinformation and Cartography, Springer,
Berlin.
[4] Carneiro C., Morello E., Voegtle T., Golay F.,
2010, Digital urban morphometrics: Automatic
extraction and assessment of morphological
properties of buildings, in Transactions in GIS,
14 (4), 497-531.

[5] Ratti, C. (2001). Urban analysis for
environmental prediction. Cambridge: University
of Cambridge.
[6] Ratti, C., & Richens, P. (2004). Raster analysis
of urban form. Environment and Planning B:
Planning and Design , 31 (2), 297-309.
[7] Ratti, C., Baker, N., & Steemers, K. (2005).
Energy consumption and urban texture. Energy
and Buildings, 37 (7), 762-776.
[8] Morello, E., & Ratti, C. (2007). Raster Cities:
image processing techniques for environmental
urban analysis. In K. Thwaites, S. Porta, & O.
Romice (Eds.), Urban Sustainability through
Environmental Design: approaches to time,
people and place responsive urban spaces (pp.
119-122). London, UK: Spon Press.
[9] EN prENV 1752: 1996. Ventilation of buildings.
Design criteria for the indoor environment.
[10] UNI - TS 11300-1:2008. Energy performance of
buildings Part 1: Evaluation of energy need for
space heating and cooling.
[11] Morello E., Ratti C., 2009, SunScapes: solar
envelopes and the analysis of urban DEMs, in
Computers, Environment and Urban Systems,
33 (1), pp. 26-34.
[12] Carneiro C., Morello E., Ratti C., Golay F., 2008,
Solar radiation over the urban texture: LIDAR
data and image processing techniques for
environmental analysis at city scale, in Lee J.,
Zlatanova S. (editors), 3D Geo-information
Sciences, Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and
Cartography, Springer, Berlin.
[13] Szokolay, S. V. (2004). Introduction to
architectural science: the basis of sustainable
design. Amsterdam, Boston: Elsevier,
Architectural Press.
[14] Krarti, M., Erickson, P. M., & Hillman, T. C.
(2005). A simplified method to estimate energy
savings of artificial lighting. Building and
Environment, 40, 747754.
[15] Perez, R., Ineichen P., Seals R., Michalsky J.,
Stewart R. (1990). Modeling Daylight Availability
and Irradiance Components from Direct and
Global Irradiance. Solar Energy 44 (5), 271-289
[16] Hay, J.E., (1979). Calculation of monthly mean
solar radiation for horizontal and inclined
surfaces. Solar Energy 23, 301330.
[17] Lachal, B., 200, ENERCAD, calcul de la
production de chaleur de capteurs solaire sur
une base mensuelle. Rapport du CUEPE de
lUniversit de Genve.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 795
1
An Interactive Performance-Based Expert System
for Daylighting Design

Jaime M. L. GAGNE
1
, Marilyne ANDERSEN
2
, Leslie K. NORFORD
1

1
Building Technology Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
2
Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Performance-Integrated Design (LIPID), Ecole Polytechnique Federale de
Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
ABSTRACT: Architects are increasingly using digital tools during the design process, particularly as they
approach complex problems such as designing for successful daylighting performance. However, while
simulation tools may provide the designer with valuable information, they do not necessarily guide the user
towards design changes which will improve performance. This paper proposes an interactive, goal-based expert
system for daylighting design, intended for use during the early design phase. The expert system consists of two
major components: a daylighting knowledge-base which contains information regarding the effects of a variety of
design conditions on resultant daylighting performance, and a fuzzy rule-based decision-making logic which is
used to determine those design changes most likely to improve performance for a given design. The system
gives the user the ability to input an initial model and a set of daylighting performance goals in the form of
illuminance and daylighting-specific glare metrics. The system acts as a virtual daylighting consultant, guiding
the user towards improved performance while maintaining the integrity of the original design and of the design
process itself.
Keywords: daylighting, expert system, design process
1. INTRODUCTION
Designers have long considered daylight as an
important aid for architectural expression. In recent
decades, we have come to understand that
daylighting may provide additional benefits, such as
reduced energy consumption and improved occupant
health and well-being [1,2,3]. Nevertheless, simply
providing daylight in a building will not always result
in positive results. Daylighting is only as good as its
delivery system, so careful design is necessary to
ensure that enough light is available and that glare,
shadows, and reflections are reduced [4].
Unfortunately, it is often a challenge to create a
successfully daylit building.
Digital tools offer new ways of helping architects
create or find designs with high levels of daylighting
performance using efficient and intelligent guided
design exploration methods. Optimization algorithms
are a common solution, largely because they have
the capabilities necessary to find or generate
successful solutions; however, these methods
generally do not allow for user-interaction. As it is
highly unlikely for a designer to simply accept a
design generated by an optimization algorithm, a
better approach would be a more interactive search
method, which would accept input from a designer
and which would grant the designer a larger degree
of control.
An example of such an approach is a knowledge-
based or expert system. An expert system is one in
which human expert knowledge about a specific
domain is encoded in an algorithm or computer
system [5]. In the daylighting domain, such a system
would function as a virtual lighting consultant, guiding
the designer towards design modifications which
improve overall daylighting performance. Knowledge-
based systems have already been successfully
implemented for artificial lighting scenarios [6,7]. For
daylighting, a few simple expert systems exist. The
Leso-DIAL tool provides users with a qualitative
diagnosis using an expert system based on fuzzy
logic rules [8]. The NewFacades approach considers
energy and visual comfort based on a prescription
energy code for hot climates to suggest a range of
facade solutions to the designer [9]. These systems
represent first steps in expert systems for daylighting
in design, but they do not allow for a comprehensive
understanding of daylighting or a large amount of
user interactivity.
This paper will describe a user-interactive expert
system approach which enables a comprehensive
analysis of daylighting. This approach includes two
climate-based performance metrics, one for
illuminance and one for daylighting-specific glare, in
order for the designer to have an understanding of
the amount of light and the visual comfort in the
space. The method begins with a designer's own
initial design and performance goals. It then
evaluates the performance of the design and creates
a series of suggestions for design changes which are
likely to result in improved performance, thus
enabling a search process that is highly specific to
the user's design problem. Decisions are made using
an expert system which is comprised of a pre-
calculated database of daylighting-specific
information connected to a set of fuzzy daylighting
expert rules. Any design decision that the designer
chooses to allow will be automatically generated in
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
6 xx.x SECTION NAME
4. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK
The proposed method collects different and
important analysis in one tool. It can be implemented
by commercial software but it can also be easily
adapted to use free open source software. It is
dynamic because it allows to take into account new
data and to reproduce visualizations to show the up-
to-date situation, giving powerful tools to investigate
distribution of energy needs and solar irradiation
accesses at the urban level.
The update of the input data is fast, easy and
cheap. It can be applied to several situations, it is
friendly adaptable and it does not require high
computation time and high PC performance (a PC
with 7 9 GB RAM is sufficient). Data and information
used can be different from those used in the present
work: after a strong check on the quality of the input
data, the robustness and the efficacy of the method
and the results accuracy are however guaranteed.
Future work will expand the energy analysis to
the estimation of needs for cooling, which is a
fundamental issue in the overall energy balance of
cities and is highly dependent on urban geometry
aspects. More user-friendly interfaces and a higher
integration among the software used are also
desirable.
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank the Territorial Information
System (SIT) of Florence Municipality and the
international organization CERN, hosted in Geneva,
Switzerland, for providing us the information and
data needed to run the analysis.
6. REFERENCES
[1] Balocco C., Grazzini G., Andreani G., Rational
Use and Energy Planning: A Thermodynamic
and Geographical Approach, in Energy
Efficiency Research Advances, Chapter
Research and Review Studies,pp.11-62,
NOVA Publ.Ed. D.M. Bergamann, N.Y. 2008.
[2] Axelsson P., 1999, Processing of laser scanner
data - algorithms and applications. The
International Archives of the Photogrammetry,
Remote Sensing and Spatial Information
Sciences, Vol. 54, 138-147.
[3] Carneiro C., Morello E., Desthieux G., 2009,
Assessment of solar irradiance on the urban
fabric for the production of renewable energy
using LIDAR data and image processing
techniques, in Sester M., Bernard L., Paelke V.
(editors), Advances in GIScience, Lecture Notes
in Geoinformation and Cartography, Springer,
Berlin.
[4] Carneiro C., Morello E., Voegtle T., Golay F.,
2010, Digital urban morphometrics: Automatic
extraction and assessment of morphological
properties of buildings, in Transactions in GIS,
14 (4), 497-531.

[5] Ratti, C. (2001). Urban analysis for
environmental prediction. Cambridge: University
of Cambridge.
[6] Ratti, C., & Richens, P. (2004). Raster analysis
of urban form. Environment and Planning B:
Planning and Design , 31 (2), 297-309.
[7] Ratti, C., Baker, N., & Steemers, K. (2005).
Energy consumption and urban texture. Energy
and Buildings, 37 (7), 762-776.
[8] Morello, E., & Ratti, C. (2007). Raster Cities:
image processing techniques for environmental
urban analysis. In K. Thwaites, S. Porta, & O.
Romice (Eds.), Urban Sustainability through
Environmental Design: approaches to time,
people and place responsive urban spaces (pp.
119-122). London, UK: Spon Press.
[9] EN prENV 1752: 1996. Ventilation of buildings.
Design criteria for the indoor environment.
[10] UNI - TS 11300-1:2008. Energy performance of
buildings Part 1: Evaluation of energy need for
space heating and cooling.
[11] Morello E., Ratti C., 2009, SunScapes: solar
envelopes and the analysis of urban DEMs, in
Computers, Environment and Urban Systems,
33 (1), pp. 26-34.
[12] Carneiro C., Morello E., Ratti C., Golay F., 2008,
Solar radiation over the urban texture: LIDAR
data and image processing techniques for
environmental analysis at city scale, in Lee J.,
Zlatanova S. (editors), 3D Geo-information
Sciences, Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and
Cartography, Springer, Berlin.
[13] Szokolay, S. V. (2004). Introduction to
architectural science: the basis of sustainable
design. Amsterdam, Boston: Elsevier,
Architectural Press.
[14] Krarti, M., Erickson, P. M., & Hillman, T. C.
(2005). A simplified method to estimate energy
savings of artificial lighting. Building and
Environment, 40, 747754.
[15] Perez, R., Ineichen P., Seals R., Michalsky J.,
Stewart R. (1990). Modeling Daylight Availability
and Irradiance Components from Direct and
Global Irradiance. Solar Energy 44 (5), 271-289
[16] Hay, J.E., (1979). Calculation of monthly mean
solar radiation for horizontal and inclined
surfaces. Solar Energy 23, 301330.
[17] Lachal, B., 200, ENERCAD, calcul de la
production de chaleur de capteurs solaire sur
une base mensuelle. Rapport du CUEPE de
lUniversit de Genve.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
796 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
2
the original model and the new performance will be
calculated. The designer is allowed to interact with
the system during an iterative search process that is
both agreeable to the designer and likely to improve
the performance of the design.
2. EXPERT SYSTEM FOR DAYLIGHTING
The expert system described in this paper is a
fuzzy rule-based system combined with an external
database of previously computed daylighting
simulation data, called the daylighting knowledge-
base. This system has been implemented as a
functional tool within the Lightsolve project [10].
2.1. A Daylighting Knowledge-Base
Most expert systems are traditional systems in
the sense that they are populated using knowledge
from a human expert, and as a result, such systems
are restricted in terms of accuracy and complexity.
To create an expert system capable of more
sophisticated analysis, the expert system described
in this paper uses a daylighting-specific database, or
knowledge-base, which has been populated using
data from a set of completed daylighting simulations.
These simulations were performed for a set of
512 models with differing facade characteristics,
based on the Design of Experiments method [11].
For each model, the illuminance and a model-based
approximation of the daylight glare probability
(DGPm) [12] were calculated in five different zones
within the space (and four different views from within
each zone for the glare metric), over the whole year.
These climate-based metrics were calculated using
the Lightsolve Viewer (LSV) [13], the simulation
engine native to the Lightsolve program. The
knowledge-base contains information about the
relative effects of ten different facade parameters on
each of the two daylighting metrics from the various
zones and views within the space. The ten different
faade parameters considered are: window area,
window height-to-width ratio, vertical and horizontal
location of windows on the faade, window
distribution (how close or far apart windows are to
each other), total number of windows, length of
horizontal overhangs and/or vertical fins, glass
transmissivity, and glass type (regular or
translucent).
By using calculated data rather than heuristics to
populate the knowledge base, the expert system can
consider highly specific goals and multiple sets of
goals for the same design, which can differ based on
the daily time period(s), season(s), or zone(s) of
interest within a space. It also allows for more logical
and accurate comparisons of multiple design options
than mere heuristics. A more detailed explanation of
the knowledge-base can be found in [14]. The
knowledge-base used in this paper used simulations
from Boston, MA (USA).
2.2. Expert System User Inputs
The expert system rule base is a decision-making
algorithm that assesses specific design situations
and creates lists of suggested design changes which
should improve the current performance. The rule
base uses fuzzy logic [15], which allows it to better
emulate the human thought process than classical
logic. It has been developed to be a flexible
algorithm which can accommodate a wide variety of
initial design scenarios. The system was also created
in such a way that it requires user interaction and
user inputs in order to function.
The major user input is a 3d model of an original
design with sensor planes for illuminance and/or
glare. Additionally, performance goals for each
sensor plane must be specified. For each
illuminance sensor plane, the user must specify a
desired illuminance goal range in lux, including the
actual desired range and a buffer zone of acceptable
values. For example, the user may desire the
illuminance of a given sensor plane to fall between
400 lux and 1200 lux, but he or she will also accept
illuminances as low as 200 lux and as high as 1500
lux. For each glare sensor or glare sensor group, the
user must choose a glare tolerance. The glare
tolerance options are zero (which means that no
glare is tolerated), medium, and high (which
means that a high amount of glare is allowed). These
tolerance values correspond to the three glare
ratings of perceptible, disturbing, and intolerable
glare described by Wienold in [16].
In addition to the 3d model and performance
goals, the user must also several other inputs. One
set of inputs is the set of priority levels for each
performance goal. The priority level is a number
from 1 to n, where n is the total number of sensors.
The highest priority value is 1, and multiple goals
may have the same priority. The user must also
select a window uniformity scheme from three
possible choices: All windows in the model should
look the same, All windows on a faade should look
the same, or Windows can look different from other
windows on the same faade. Finally, the user must
indicate times and seasons of interest (the choices
are: winter, fall/spring, summer, morning, mid-day,
and afternoon) and input the latitude and a weather
file for the desired location.
2.3. Fuzzy Sets and Rules
After the user has begun the expert system
process, the LSV engine is used to calculate goal-
based performance metrics for both illuminance and
glare. This information, along with the original user
inputs, is used to create sets of fuzzy variables,
which help to describe the current scenario. These
fuzzy sets are: userPriority (high and low),
sensorPerformance (good and bad),
illuminanceSensorPerformance (too high and too
low), glareSensorPerformance (too high), and
distanceFromGoal (close and far). In addition to
these fuzzy variables, the system also creates a
customized knowledge-base, which is a subset of the
knowledge-base described in section 2.1 that
contains only the information most relevant to the
current design. Based on this customized
knowledge-base, each potential design action is
given values for the fuzzy set actionResult (Fig 1).
These fuzzy variables refer to the likely result of the
given design action on a given sensor, for example
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 797

3
Large Illuminance in Illuminance. Each sensor in
the model will have a unique actionResult fuzzy set.
Once the fuzzy variables have been created, they
are used to fire a series of fuzzy rules. The result of
this process is a set of design actions which has
been ordered based on which actions are most likely
to improve the performance of the current design
based on the users goals and preferences. The
rules are fired in four steps:
1. Determine priority of each sensor. For
example, IF SensorPerformance is Bad AND
UserPriority is High, THEN SensorPriority is High.
2. Determine which change(s) will improve
performance, based on the current scenario. For
example, IF SensorPriority is High AND SensorType
is Illuminance AND IlluminancePerformance is
TooLow: (a) IF distanceFromGoal is Far, THEN
DesiredChange is Increase Illuminance by a Large
Amount; (b) IF distanceFromGoal is Close, THEN
DesiredChange is Increase Illuminance by a Small
Amount.
3. Evaluate each possible design action in the
customized database using the desired changes
determine in Rule Base 2. For example, IF
DesiredChange is Increase Illuminance by a Large
Amount AND ActionResult is LargeIncrease, THEN
action is GoodForSensor. These rules are fired once
per potential action, and once per sensor.
4. Each potential action is ranked based on how
likely it is to improve each sensor and the sensor
priorities.
The final step is to sort the set of design actions
from highest to lowest rank. The first design actions
in the list will be those actions most likely to produce
positive performance results in the current design,
while those actions at the end of the list are likely to
decrease overall performance.
Figure 1: Membership functions for ActionResult fuzzy set.

2.4. System Implementation and Process
The expert system has been implemented within
the framework of the Lightsolve project. Google
SketchUp [17] is used as the 3d modeller, and the
embedded Ruby application programming interface
(API) within SketchUp is used to create pop-up
interfaces which allow the user to enter the initial
inputs and to perform the major processes and
calculations. The LSV simulation engine is a stand-
alone executable which is called directly from within
the SketchUp/Ruby environment.

Figure 2: Schematic diagram of expert system process.
The expert system has a functional, stand-alone
interface which allows designers to interact with the
system (Fig. 3), which has been implemented using
Adobe Flash. The interface has been designed to
provide an intuitive and clear way of communicating
the current performance of a design and the list of
changes suggested by the expert system. The
interface also allows designers to view the
performance of their design over multiple iterations of
the exploration process.
The overall expert system process is shown in
Figure 2 and consists of the following steps:
1. The user creates an initial 3d model of a
design with illuminance and/or glare sensor planes
and specifies all necessary initial inputs to the
system (using pop-ups in SketchUp).
2. Daylighting performance for the current model
is calculated using the LSV engine based on the
users illuminance and glare goals.
3. The knowledge-base described in section 2.1
is used to create a customized database which
contains only the information most relevant to the
current design.
4. Information about the users preferences, the
original 3d model, the current performance, and the
customized knowledge-base is used to create the
fuzzy variable sets.
5. Fuzzy rules are fired using the fuzzy variables.
The results are a set of suggested design changes
that the system will propose to the user in order to
improve performance.
6. Results are presented to the user in the user
interface (Fig. 3).
7. The user selects a design change to make,
and a new 3d model is created automatically. The
process begins again starting at step 2.
2.5. An Expert System Design Process
The users process begins when he or she
creates an initial 3d model in SketchUp and initiates
the expert system. Once the first set of simulations
is complete, the user interface will automatically
open. From there, the users design process is as
follows:
1. From the expert system interface, the user can
view a list of suggested design changes that can be
made to his or her initial model. The user may skip
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
798 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
4
forward or go backwards between the various
options on the list before choosing one.
2. After the user selects one design change to try,
the expert system will automatically make the
selected change to the 3d model, which should still
be open in SketchUp. The expert system will make
three different magnitudes of the selected change.
For each change, the expert system will create and
save a new 3d model, run the LSV engine, and
calculate the goal-based performance.
3. After the three different magnitudes of change
have been simulated, the expert system will display
all three results in the interactive graph within the
interface. The user may browse the views of the
current design and the temporal maps to see how
the performance and design have changed in each
of the three options. The user must choose one of
the three possibilities before continuing to the next
design iteration.
4. After one or more design iterations have been
made, the user may then choose either to select a
new design change to try from the list presented by
the expert system, or the user may return to a
previous iteration of the design (including the initial
model). If the user elects to make another design
change, steps 2 and 3 repeat.
5. After several iterations, the user should be able
to view the progressive performance of the design.
The user may stop the process at any point.
3. EXPERT SYSTEM EVALUATION
The main function of the expert system described
in this paper is to effectively guide a user towards
improved daylighting performance of an original
design. It is of critical importance that users have
confidence in the advice given to them by the
system, so a high level of performance is essential.
Although the expert system differs from a traditional
optimization algorithm due to its domain-specific and
user-interactive nature, it should be capable of
performing similarly to an optimization algorithm in a
best case scenario.
In order to assess the behaviour of the expert
system, a series of case studies were completed
which compare the performance of designs found
using the expert system to high performing
benchmark designs generated using a genetic
algorithm (GA). This paper will describe the results of
two case studies, which both have two illuminance
goals. These case studies were considered for
Boston, MA (USA). Although they are not presented
here, additional case studies were also completed
which consider other situations, such as conflicting
illuminance and glare goals. These studies can be
found in [18].
The GA used in these case studies was a micro-
genetic algorithm [19], which is a GA which uses a
very small population size. For comparison purposes,
the micro-GA was implemented within the Lightsolve
system and uses the same 3d models and
performance metrics as the expert system. This
system is described in more detail in [20].
3.1. Case Study Procedure
A set of study procedures was developed to
better compare results from the expert system to the
GA, given their differences in algorithm type. While a
GA is one that generates designs, the expert system
always assumes that an initial design is given and
suggests design changes based on the current
design. The following procedure was used:
Micro-GA procedure: An initial massing model
with no windows was used to generate a new model
Figure 3: Performance analysis and decision making interface for the expert system. Views of the current design
are shown (top left) along with annual performance in temporal map form (top right). Performance over multiple
iterations is shown in the interactive graph (lower left). Expert system design suggestions are given in the lower right.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 799

5
of each generated design. The algorithm was run for
ten generations before stopping. If a perfect solution
was not found, the best design was considered that
with the highest performance found over all
generations.
Expert system procedure: An initial model was
created with generic rectangular windows. This initial
model was designed to be of mediocre performance,
so as to avoid starting out with an initial design
whose performance was very poor or very good. For
these case studies, a perfect user was assumed.
The perfect user was defined as one who would
select the first suggested design change at each
iteration and the best performing magnitude of each
design change. The perfect user scenario was also
one in which the process continued even if
performance decreased after a given design
iteration. The algorithm was run for ten design
iterations before stopping. As with the GA study, if a
perfect solution was not found, the best design was
considered that with the highest performance found
over all completed iterations.
3.2. Case Studies

Figure 4: Massing model and sensor plane locations for L-
shape case study.
This paper will present two case studies, which
both have two illuminance goals. The first case
study features an L-shaped space (Fig. 4) where the
two sensor planes are located roughly parallel to the
facades of interest (west and south). The
performance goals for this case study were:
South zone: 400 lux minimum preferred (200 lux
accepted); No maximum.
West zone: No minimum; 500 lux maximum
preferred (800 lux accepted).
Based on these goals, the known design
solutions to this problem featured small, shaded
windows on the west facade and larger windows on
the south faade.

Figure 5: Massing model and sensor plane locations for
trapezoidal case study.
The second case study features a trapezoidal
space (Fig. 5) where the two facades of interest,
north and south, are perpendicular to the two sensor
planes. The performance goals for this case study
were:
East zone: 200 lux minimum preferred (100 lux
accepted); 800 lux maximum preferred (1200 lux
accepted)
West zone: 400 lux minimum preferred (200 lux
accepted); No maximum.
For this case study, it was assumed that good
solutions would have windows on both facades
shifted towards the west sensor.
For both case studies, the best performing
designs found after ten generations or ten design
iterations are shown in Figure 6. For the L-shaped
space, both the expert system and the micro-GA
were able to find designs which were close to
Figure 6. Average performances for the starter expert system design, final expert system design, and final micro-
GA design for both case studies.
4
forward or go backwards between the various
options on the list before choosing one.
2. After the user selects one design change to try,
the expert system will automatically make the
selected change to the 3d model, which should still
be open in SketchUp. The expert system will make
three different magnitudes of the selected change.
For each change, the expert system will create and
save a new 3d model, run the LSV engine, and
calculate the goal-based performance.
3. After the three different magnitudes of change
have been simulated, the expert system will display
all three results in the interactive graph within the
interface. The user may browse the views of the
current design and the temporal maps to see how
the performance and design have changed in each
of the three options. The user must choose one of
the three possibilities before continuing to the next
design iteration.
4. After one or more design iterations have been
made, the user may then choose either to select a
new design change to try from the list presented by
the expert system, or the user may return to a
previous iteration of the design (including the initial
model). If the user elects to make another design
change, steps 2 and 3 repeat.
5. After several iterations, the user should be able
to view the progressive performance of the design.
The user may stop the process at any point.
3. EXPERT SYSTEM EVALUATION
The main function of the expert system described
in this paper is to effectively guide a user towards
improved daylighting performance of an original
design. It is of critical importance that users have
confidence in the advice given to them by the
system, so a high level of performance is essential.
Although the expert system differs from a traditional
optimization algorithm due to its domain-specific and
user-interactive nature, it should be capable of
performing similarly to an optimization algorithm in a
best case scenario.
In order to assess the behaviour of the expert
system, a series of case studies were completed
which compare the performance of designs found
using the expert system to high performing
benchmark designs generated using a genetic
algorithm (GA). This paper will describe the results of
two case studies, which both have two illuminance
goals. These case studies were considered for
Boston, MA (USA). Although they are not presented
here, additional case studies were also completed
which consider other situations, such as conflicting
illuminance and glare goals. These studies can be
found in [18].
The GA used in these case studies was a micro-
genetic algorithm [19], which is a GA which uses a
very small population size. For comparison purposes,
the micro-GA was implemented within the Lightsolve
system and uses the same 3d models and
performance metrics as the expert system. This
system is described in more detail in [20].
3.1. Case Study Procedure
A set of study procedures was developed to
better compare results from the expert system to the
GA, given their differences in algorithm type. While a
GA is one that generates designs, the expert system
always assumes that an initial design is given and
suggests design changes based on the current
design. The following procedure was used:
Micro-GA procedure: An initial massing model
with no windows was used to generate a new model
Figure 3: Performance analysis and decision making interface for the expert system. Views of the current design
are shown (top left) along with annual performance in temporal map form (top right). Performance over multiple
iterations is shown in the interactive graph (lower left). Expert system design suggestions are given in the lower right.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
800 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
6
meeting the performance goals entirely. As
expected, both best designs have either very small
or highly shaded windows on the west facade with
larger or less shaded windows on the south facade.
For the trapezoidal case study, both algorithms
had more difficulty finding good solutions. In this
case study, the micro-GA was able to find a solution
which performed about 5% higher than the expert
system. This difference is due to the window
uniformity scheme selected for the expert system (all
windows on the facade must be uniform) and the
univariate (step-by-step) nature of the expert
system algorithm. While the micro-GA found a design
solution that features windows clustered towards the
west end of both facades as expected, the expert
system focused on changing the properties of the
windows without moving them.
These case studies demonstrate that the expert
system is successful at improving the performance of
designs for two illuminance goals. The difference in
performance between the expert system and the GA
was small (4.4% at most) and acceptable given the
fact that the expert system was designed with user
interactivity in mind, while the GA was not.
4. CONCLUSIONS
This paper presented a new user-interactive
expert system approach which enables architects to
consider daylighting goals in the early design stages
by engaging them in a performance-driven design
exploration process. The expert system was shown
to be successful at making design decisions which
improved the daylighting performance of two case
study designs. In both of these case studies, the
performances of designs found using the expert
system were comparable to those generated by a
micro-genetic algorithm (micro-GA).
In addition to the case studies presented in this
paper, additional case studies which consider more
complex scenarios such as conflicting illuminance
and glare goals were also completed. The expert
system has also been tested on a group of designers
who were asked to complete a design task with the
system and to evaluate their experiences using the
tool. These additional results will be presented in
future papers.
5. REFERENCES
[1] Rashid, M. and Zimring, C., 2008. A review of
the empirical literature on the relationships
between indoor environment and stress in health
care and office settings: Problems and
prospects of sharing evidence. Environment and
Behavior, 40(2), pp.151190.
[2] Edwards, L. and Torcellini, P., 2002. A literature
review of the effects of natural light on building
occupants. NREL.
[3] Boyce, P., Hunter, C., and Howlett, O., 2003.
The benefits of daylight through windows. U.S.
Department of Energy.


[4] Boyce, P., Heerwagen, J., Jones, C., Veitch, J.,
and Newsham, G., 2003. Lighting quality and
office work: A field simulation study. Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory.
[5] Luger, G., 2004. Artificial Intelligence:
Structures and Strategies for Complex Problem
Solving. 5
th
edition. Boston: Addison-Wesley.
[6] Jung, T., Gross, M, and Do, E., 2003. Light pen:
sketching light in 3D. Proceedings of 10th
International Conference on Computer Aided
Architectural Design Futures, Taiwan.
[7] Guo, B., Belcher, C., and Roddis, W., 1993.
RetroLite: an artificial intelligence tool for lighting
energy-efficiency upgrade. Energy and
Buildings, 20(2), pp.115120.
[8] Paule, B. and Scartezzini, J., 1997. Leso-DIAL,
a new computer based daylighting design tool.
Right Light 4(1), pp.9397.
[9] Ochoa, C. and Capeluto, I., 2009. Advice tool for
early design stages of intelligent facades based
on energy and visual comfort approach. Energy
and Buildings, 41(5), pp.480488.
[10] Andersen, M., Kleindienst, S., Yi, L., Lee, J.,
Bodart, M., and Cutler, B., 2008. An intuitive
daylighting performance and optimization
approach. Building Research & Information,
36(6), pp.593607.
[11] Montgomery, D., 2004. Design and Analysis of
Experiments. 6
th
edition. John Wiley & Sons.
[12] Kleindienst, S. and Andersen, M., 2009. The
adaptation of daylight glare probability to
dynamic metrics in a computational setting. In
Proceedings of LuxEuropa, Istanbul.
[13] Cutler, B., Sheng, Y., Martin, S., Glaser, D., and
Andersen, M., 2008. Interactive selection of
optimal fenestration materials for schematic
architectural daylighting design. Automation in
Construction, 17(7), pp.809823.
[14] Gagne, J., and Andersen, M. A daylighting
knowledge-base for performance-driven facade
design exploration. LEUKOS (submitted).
[15] Siler, W. and Buckley, J., 2005. Fuzzy expert
systems and fuzzy reasoning. John Wiley &
Sons.
[16] Wienold, J., 2009. Dynamic daylight glare
evaluation. In Proceedings of Building
Simulation, Glasgow.
[17] Google SketchUp, 2010. [online] Available at:
http://sketchup.google.com/ [Accessed
November 8, 2010].
[18] Gagne, J., 2011. An interactive performance-
based expert system for daylighting in
architectural design. PhD thesis, MIT.
[19] Krishnakumar, K., 1989. Micro-genetic
algorithms for stationary and non-stationary
function optimization/ SPIE Proceedings:
Intelligent Control and Adaptive Systems.
[20] Gagne, J., and Andersen, M. A generative
faade design method based on daylighting
performance goals. Journal of Building
Performance Simulation (in press).
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 801
A comprehensive method to determine performance
metrics for complex fenestration systems
Shreya DAVE
1
, Marilyne ANDERSEN
2

1
Building Technology Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA
2
Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Performance-Integrated Design (LIPID), Ecole Polytechnique Federale de
Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
ABSTRACT: The ability to accurately and concisely describe the performance of complex fenestration systems
(CFS) is essential to their effective implementation into the building industry. CFS are a diverse category of
daylighting technologies that manipulate the light that is permitted to enter a building space. The variety and
degree of dynamics that exist in the range of such technologies require a robust and flexible set of metrics that
can communicate performance simply and informatively. This paper presents an approach for processing their
detailed optical properties - expressed as Bi-Directional Transmission Functions (BTDF) - into a comprehensible
set of metrics that can convey useful information about a systems adherence to visual comfort and energy-
efficiency objectives. These metrics can then inform non-technical members of the building industry about the
performance capabilities of a faade. This paper describes the novel method by which performance is
evaluated, accounting for spatial and temporal variation in environmental condition.
Keywords: Daylighting, energy efficiency, metrics, complex faades.
1. INTRODUCTION
Solar radiation is a natural and inevitable source
of light and heat for buildings. Buildings in the United
States account for about 40% of total energy use,
18% of which is attributed to lighting and 33% of
which is attributed to heating and cooling [1].
Intelligent use of this resource by fenestration
technologies provides an opportunity to reduce a
buildings energy load attributed to window by about
41% [2]. Ultimately however, buildings are designed
to provide shelter and comfort for occupants, a goal
that cannot be ignored in light of optimizing energy
efficiency. Complex fenestration systems (CFS)
manipulate light in a number innovative ways in order
to achieve balanced performance objectives. In
order to facilitate the implementation of complex
fenestration systems in efficient building design, a
comprehensive set of metrics that relates a product
with relative performance is crucial.
1.1. Problem Context
While existing metrics are a suitable comparison
for heat transfer and visible light transmission for
conventional glazings, they are far too limited to
provide useful or even relevant information for more
complex glazings or for shading systems. These
faade systems require a detailed description of their
optical properties, typically expressed mathematically
as Bi-Directional Transmission Function (BTDF) data
in order to communicate their actual performance
characteristic [3]. A standard BTDFs format consists
of 145 incident angles relating to 145 emerging
angles [4]. The challenge is to develop a robust
method to manipulate this mathematical
representation into a form that is not simply a set of
technical specifications, but one that can inform the
user concisely of annual and spatial performance in
terms of energy use and occupant comfort.
Furthermore, due to the variation in technologies, it is
important that, despite their necessary brevity, these
metrics can still reflect information to the extent that
the user can differentiate or rank them according to
performance priorities.
1.2. NFRC Rating System
The technical specifications for windows, doors,
and skylights are mandated in the United States by
the National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC).
The NFRCs standards require that fenestration
manufacturers report the systems U-factor, solar
heat gain coefficient, and visible transmittance based
on a single predetermined set of assumptions and
environmental conditions. These qualifications are
then presented as absolute values to the consumer
using a concise, easy-to-understand label [5].
The NFRC specifications are appropriate for
describing conventional fenestration systems.
Although the established set of assumptions does
not explicitly represent all realistic environmental
conditions, it is reasonable to expect the user to be
able to extrapolate general performance
expectations using intuition about local temperatures
and orientation. Complex fenestration systems,
however, are much less intuitive. The complexities
of these systems cannot be represented with the
single set of conditions because this provides no
insight for accurate extrapolation. Thus, a concise
but more explicit set of performance-based metrics is
required to supplement physical perception.
1.3. Daylighting Metrics
A number of metrics have been developed to
describe how well a space performs with respect to
occupant visual comfort in daylit spaces. Most
fundamentally, quantitative light levels are defined for
various work activities by the Illumination
Engineering Society (IES) [6]. These illuminance
levels were later incorporated into metrics that define
6
meeting the performance goals entirely. As
expected, both best designs have either very small
or highly shaded windows on the west facade with
larger or less shaded windows on the south facade.
For the trapezoidal case study, both algorithms
had more difficulty finding good solutions. In this
case study, the micro-GA was able to find a solution
which performed about 5% higher than the expert
system. This difference is due to the window
uniformity scheme selected for the expert system (all
windows on the facade must be uniform) and the
univariate (step-by-step) nature of the expert
system algorithm. While the micro-GA found a design
solution that features windows clustered towards the
west end of both facades as expected, the expert
system focused on changing the properties of the
windows without moving them.
These case studies demonstrate that the expert
system is successful at improving the performance of
designs for two illuminance goals. The difference in
performance between the expert system and the GA
was small (4.4% at most) and acceptable given the
fact that the expert system was designed with user
interactivity in mind, while the GA was not.
4. CONCLUSIONS
This paper presented a new user-interactive
expert system approach which enables architects to
consider daylighting goals in the early design stages
by engaging them in a performance-driven design
exploration process. The expert system was shown
to be successful at making design decisions which
improved the daylighting performance of two case
study designs. In both of these case studies, the
performances of designs found using the expert
system were comparable to those generated by a
micro-genetic algorithm (micro-GA).
In addition to the case studies presented in this
paper, additional case studies which consider more
complex scenarios such as conflicting illuminance
and glare goals were also completed. The expert
system has also been tested on a group of designers
who were asked to complete a design task with the
system and to evaluate their experiences using the
tool. These additional results will be presented in
future papers.
5. REFERENCES
[1] Rashid, M. and Zimring, C., 2008. A review of
the empirical literature on the relationships
between indoor environment and stress in health
care and office settings: Problems and
prospects of sharing evidence. Environment and
Behavior, 40(2), pp.151190.
[2] Edwards, L. and Torcellini, P., 2002. A literature
review of the effects of natural light on building
occupants. NREL.
[3] Boyce, P., Hunter, C., and Howlett, O., 2003.
The benefits of daylight through windows. U.S.
Department of Energy.


[4] Boyce, P., Heerwagen, J., Jones, C., Veitch, J.,
and Newsham, G., 2003. Lighting quality and
office work: A field simulation study. Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory.
[5] Luger, G., 2004. Artificial Intelligence:
Structures and Strategies for Complex Problem
Solving. 5
th
edition. Boston: Addison-Wesley.
[6] Jung, T., Gross, M, and Do, E., 2003. Light pen:
sketching light in 3D. Proceedings of 10th
International Conference on Computer Aided
Architectural Design Futures, Taiwan.
[7] Guo, B., Belcher, C., and Roddis, W., 1993.
RetroLite: an artificial intelligence tool for lighting
energy-efficiency upgrade. Energy and
Buildings, 20(2), pp.115120.
[8] Paule, B. and Scartezzini, J., 1997. Leso-DIAL,
a new computer based daylighting design tool.
Right Light 4(1), pp.9397.
[9] Ochoa, C. and Capeluto, I., 2009. Advice tool for
early design stages of intelligent facades based
on energy and visual comfort approach. Energy
and Buildings, 41(5), pp.480488.
[10] Andersen, M., Kleindienst, S., Yi, L., Lee, J.,
Bodart, M., and Cutler, B., 2008. An intuitive
daylighting performance and optimization
approach. Building Research & Information,
36(6), pp.593607.
[11] Montgomery, D., 2004. Design and Analysis of
Experiments. 6
th
edition. John Wiley & Sons.
[12] Kleindienst, S. and Andersen, M., 2009. The
adaptation of daylight glare probability to
dynamic metrics in a computational setting. In
Proceedings of LuxEuropa, Istanbul.
[13] Cutler, B., Sheng, Y., Martin, S., Glaser, D., and
Andersen, M., 2008. Interactive selection of
optimal fenestration materials for schematic
architectural daylighting design. Automation in
Construction, 17(7), pp.809823.
[14] Gagne, J., and Andersen, M. A daylighting
knowledge-base for performance-driven facade
design exploration. LEUKOS (submitted).
[15] Siler, W. and Buckley, J., 2005. Fuzzy expert
systems and fuzzy reasoning. John Wiley &
Sons.
[16] Wienold, J., 2009. Dynamic daylight glare
evaluation. In Proceedings of Building
Simulation, Glasgow.
[17] Google SketchUp, 2010. [online] Available at:
http://sketchup.google.com/ [Accessed
November 8, 2010].
[18] Gagne, J., 2011. An interactive performance-
based expert system for daylighting in
architectural design. PhD thesis, MIT.
[19] Krishnakumar, K., 1989. Micro-genetic
algorithms for stationary and non-stationary
function optimization/ SPIE Proceedings:
Intelligent Control and Adaptive Systems.
[20] Gagne, J., and Andersen, M. A generative
faade design method based on daylighting
performance goals. Journal of Building
Performance Simulation (in press).
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
802 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
performance for determined conditions (for a static
sky type, annually, etc) such as the Daylight Factor
(DF), which is defined as the proportion of outdoor
light under an overcast sky that enters the space at a
given location [7]. Other metrics, such as Daylight
Autonomy (DA) and Useful Daylight Illuminance
(UDI) use climate-based simulation capabilities to
provide more realistic metrics [8, 9].
The Daylight Glare Probability (DGP) metric
evaluates the quality of light in a space. It is an
empirical correlation to describe the likelihood of
discomfort glare due to daylight [10]. A simplified
version of the DGP metric, known as DGPs, has also
been identified [11]. One of the vital advantages to
the DGP metric is its glare prediction for daylight
specifically, as opposed to being based on electric
lighting conditions.
1.4. Adopted Approach
This paper presents the methodology for
calculating quantitative performance-based metrics
to inform about what effects a complex fenestration
system will have on the performance of the space.
The complete data set will consist of analysis of five
selected complex fenestration systems defined by
their BTDF in each of the five orientations (north,
east, south, west, and horizontal) and in fifteen
climate locations that represent the variety in typical
conditions of the continental United States [12]. This
data will then be evaluated through a series of
sensitivity analyses in order to determine the critical
variables that affect ultimate performance and
provide insight as to how to reduce the information
into a usable form.
In this paper, the criteria most relevant to the
performance of a faade system namely relative
energy impact, occupant visual comfort, and view
through the faade are defined within the context of
a generic space and on an annual basis. A base
case scenario of a double-glazed clear window is
used to normalize assumptions and to provide an
intuitive reference case with which the building
industry is familiar. This base case scenario, along
with a sample complex fenestration system, have
been used to generate an initial dataset so as to
illustrate the feasibility of the proposed methodology
for a given climate location.
2. PROPOSED METHOD
Three performance criteria have been defined to
assess the performance of a complex faade system:
one addressing annual energy efficiency and based
on simplified lighting and heating/cooling estimations
to determine Relative Energy Impact (REI), one
related to visual comfort and approximated as a new
metric named Extent of Comfortable Daylight (ECD),
and one related to the ability to view through the
system and approximated as a new metric named
View Through Potential (VTP). These three criteria
are presented in the following sections.
2.1. Reference Scenarios
The generic space modelled for all spatial
comparisons is based on the geometric and material
properties of a proposed experimentation module at
the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
(EPFL), which will be built for a similar purpose of
assessing the effects of various faade system
designs.
The generic space is a single room with one
window oriented in the direction of the faade being
evaluated. The window is 3 by 1.5 meters and the
room is 3 meters wide, 9 meters deep, 3 meters high.
The reflectances of major surfaces are 0.87 (wall),
0.87 (ceiling), and 0.13 (floor). The locations of
measurement sensors form a grid at each 0.65 m
2
interval. Figure 1 provides schematic of the test
space.

Figure 1: Test module used for spatial simulations.
The base case fenestration system is a double-
glazed clear glass window with glass layers of
3.2mm thickness and an air gap of 6.4mm. In
conventional NFRC metrics, the U-factor would be
defined as being 3.12 W/m
2
and the overall visible
transmittance is 81% [5, 14].
2.2. Relative Energy Impact
A fenestration system affects the energy
performance of a space in two fundamental ways.
First, the amount of light that is permitted to enter a
space will, in an ideal situation (perfect daylight-
responsive photosensors) correlate inversely to the
amount of supplemental electric lighting required.
Second, the heat addition associated with solar
radiation and the heat loss associated with the
thermal conductivity of the faade both have an
impact on the heating and cooling loads within the
space. This impact is complex to assess accurately
but can generally be approximated with simplified
calculations. Our proposed calculation procedure
addresses each aspect.

Lighting
We suggest that the lighting load reduction
potential be evaluated based on a set of essential
assumptions to describe the behavior of the operator
and presence of a dimming system. These are:
- Lights may be on, dimmed, or off.
- The test space consists of three lighting zones,
the perimeter, the middle, and the deep zone.
- Lights are by default on, but if all sensors in the
zone receive sufficient daylight, lights may be
dimmed or off.
- Lights are turned on if the average illuminance
level of the time step is below 300 Lux. Lights are
off if the illuminance level is above 500 Lux.
Lights are dimmed if shades are drawn due to
uncomfortable glare (DGP > 0.33) [10].
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 803

- Bulbs are assumed to consume 10 watts per
square meter of floor area. Dimmed bulbs
consume 7 watts per square meter. Bulbs that are
off consume no electricity [15].
The thresholds for lighting conditions have been
derived from minimum IES recommendations and the
DGP metric for discomfort glare. According to the
IES Handbook, the minimum comfortable light level
in an office is about 300 Lux [7]. Maximum light
levels are less well defined, but too much light
presents the issue of glare. Therefore, daylight is
considered uncomfortable for occupants if the DGP
is above 0.33 which is the point at which blinds are
assumed to be drawn [10].
Estimation of the total amount of electricity is
determined from simulations that integrate weather
data with the faades angle-dependent
transmissivity to determine the indoor illuminance
and DGP values for each moment of the year in
order to suggest the amount of electricity required to
light the space comfortably. It is then possible to
determine a value for the annual electricity required
for the space for the base case window scenario and
thus each complex fenestration system as compared
to the base case.

Heating and Cooling
The 2001 ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals
defines energy flow through a fenestration product,
neglecting humidity difference, as being the
difference between heat flow in due to solar heat
gain and heat flow out across the surface of the
fenestration [16]. This net heat flow is calculated for
each moment of the year.
At each moment, the Solar Heat Gain Coefficient
is calculated by first determining the solar position for
each hour and applying the associated solar
transmittance derived from the BTDF. It is then
multiplied by the corresponding total incident
irradiance using a global vertical irradiance model
proposed by Hay and McKay [17]. The U-factor is
calculated as a function of the hourly exterior
temperature based on the heat transfer model
embedded in LBNLs WINDOW 6 software [18].
Previous versions of WINDOW are used to calculate
the single U-factor value for submission to the NFRC
certification.
The hourly climate data used both for the Solar
Heat Gain Factor and U-Factor calculations
determined from the typical-meteorological-year
values (TMY3) provided by the US Energy
Information Administration [18]. These represent
the typical weather for a representative city in each
of fourteen climate zones [19, 12]. At each climate
location, 56 representative moments have been
calculated to represent the year [22]. Weather data
is binned and averaged into 56 periods and all
calculations are based on this data set.
The AHSRAE Degree-Day method for annual
energy load suggests binning days into Heating
Degree Days (HDD) or Cooling Degree Days (CDD)
[16]. Karlsson et al. propose a simple annual energy
model derived from this heat flow equation that
allows for comparison of window performance [20].
Using the structure proposed by Karlsson et al. and
the assumptions of the Degree-Day method, we
propose a method that first determines whether the
net heat transfer is contributing to the energy load or
to the energy efficiency of the space. Each day is
identified as being a HDD or a CDD, so that the
energy flow due to the fenestration is applied as
contributing to or reducing the buildings heating or
cooling system accordingly. Summing these load
contributions and reductions for the year yields a
single number that characterizes the CFSs
contribution to annual energy performance.
2.3. Occupant Visual Comfort
While occupant comfort is a very subjective
concept, quantitative suggestions have been made
to define lighting conditions based on the avoidance
of visual discomfort. Drawing on the literature as
before, a minimum illuminance threshold of 500 Lux
represents the lowest acceptable light levels for an
office space [7]. Intolerable glare has been identified
as a DGP of greater than 0.42 [10]. We propose a
definition for the Extent of Comfortable Daylight
(ECD) metric as the percentage of floorplan over the
year which experiences comfortable daylight
conditions within this range. The upper threshold in
the ECD metric is thus defined with respect to
uncomfortable and intolerable glare, and the lower
threshold with respect to suitable illuminances. In
order to simulate the threshold of acceptance, credit
is assigned on a linear basis of semi-discomfort
range from 200 to 500 Lux and 0.33 to 0.42 DGP.
All light levels are determined from Radiance
simulations, and the data analysis is conducted with
MATLAB.
If both the minimum illuminance target and
maximum glare probability are achieved at a given
time, the sensor location receives a credit of 1. If
not, it receives a credit of 0, with fractional credits for
the buffer range. Thus, for each moment of the year,
we can identify how much of the space is
comfortably lit as a percent of area. The ECD of a
space will then represent a condensed version of
information in the form of a single number for the
year in a manner similar to the condensing process
in Gagnes Goal Based Illuminance calculation [21].
As with the energy efficiency calculations, the ECD
metric will be reported as a comparison to the base
case window scenario. This provides a physical
reference for how a complex fenestration is
performing relative to a standard and intuitive
alternative.
Temporal maps are a visual means to represent
data for an entire year. Horizontally, these images
show annual performance and vertically they show
performance along the hours of the day indicating
when a space is lit comfortably, too little or too much
[22].
2.4. View Clearness
The ability to see an accurate image through a
window component has been identified as being a
critical aspect of performance for its acceptance by
occupants [24]. One simple and relevant way to
characterize view is to define full, partial, or no view
to an occupant inside. View is a function of the light
performance for determined conditions (for a static
sky type, annually, etc) such as the Daylight Factor
(DF), which is defined as the proportion of outdoor
light under an overcast sky that enters the space at a
given location [7]. Other metrics, such as Daylight
Autonomy (DA) and Useful Daylight Illuminance
(UDI) use climate-based simulation capabilities to
provide more realistic metrics [8, 9].
The Daylight Glare Probability (DGP) metric
evaluates the quality of light in a space. It is an
empirical correlation to describe the likelihood of
discomfort glare due to daylight [10]. A simplified
version of the DGP metric, known as DGPs, has also
been identified [11]. One of the vital advantages to
the DGP metric is its glare prediction for daylight
specifically, as opposed to being based on electric
lighting conditions.
1.4. Adopted Approach
This paper presents the methodology for
calculating quantitative performance-based metrics
to inform about what effects a complex fenestration
system will have on the performance of the space.
The complete data set will consist of analysis of five
selected complex fenestration systems defined by
their BTDF in each of the five orientations (north,
east, south, west, and horizontal) and in fifteen
climate locations that represent the variety in typical
conditions of the continental United States [12]. This
data will then be evaluated through a series of
sensitivity analyses in order to determine the critical
variables that affect ultimate performance and
provide insight as to how to reduce the information
into a usable form.
In this paper, the criteria most relevant to the
performance of a faade system namely relative
energy impact, occupant visual comfort, and view
through the faade are defined within the context of
a generic space and on an annual basis. A base
case scenario of a double-glazed clear window is
used to normalize assumptions and to provide an
intuitive reference case with which the building
industry is familiar. This base case scenario, along
with a sample complex fenestration system, have
been used to generate an initial dataset so as to
illustrate the feasibility of the proposed methodology
for a given climate location.
2. PROPOSED METHOD
Three performance criteria have been defined to
assess the performance of a complex faade system:
one addressing annual energy efficiency and based
on simplified lighting and heating/cooling estimations
to determine Relative Energy Impact (REI), one
related to visual comfort and approximated as a new
metric named Extent of Comfortable Daylight (ECD),
and one related to the ability to view through the
system and approximated as a new metric named
View Through Potential (VTP). These three criteria
are presented in the following sections.
2.1. Reference Scenarios
The generic space modelled for all spatial
comparisons is based on the geometric and material
properties of a proposed experimentation module at
the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
(EPFL), which will be built for a similar purpose of
assessing the effects of various faade system
designs.
The generic space is a single room with one
window oriented in the direction of the faade being
evaluated. The window is 3 by 1.5 meters and the
room is 3 meters wide, 9 meters deep, 3 meters high.
The reflectances of major surfaces are 0.87 (wall),
0.87 (ceiling), and 0.13 (floor). The locations of
measurement sensors form a grid at each 0.65 m
2
interval. Figure 1 provides schematic of the test
space.

Figure 1: Test module used for spatial simulations.
The base case fenestration system is a double-
glazed clear glass window with glass layers of
3.2mm thickness and an air gap of 6.4mm. In
conventional NFRC metrics, the U-factor would be
defined as being 3.12 W/m
2
and the overall visible
transmittance is 81% [5, 14].
2.2. Relative Energy Impact
A fenestration system affects the energy
performance of a space in two fundamental ways.
First, the amount of light that is permitted to enter a
space will, in an ideal situation (perfect daylight-
responsive photosensors) correlate inversely to the
amount of supplemental electric lighting required.
Second, the heat addition associated with solar
radiation and the heat loss associated with the
thermal conductivity of the faade both have an
impact on the heating and cooling loads within the
space. This impact is complex to assess accurately
but can generally be approximated with simplified
calculations. Our proposed calculation procedure
addresses each aspect.

Lighting
We suggest that the lighting load reduction
potential be evaluated based on a set of essential
assumptions to describe the behavior of the operator
and presence of a dimming system. These are:
- Lights may be on, dimmed, or off.
- The test space consists of three lighting zones,
the perimeter, the middle, and the deep zone.
- Lights are by default on, but if all sensors in the
zone receive sufficient daylight, lights may be
dimmed or off.
- Lights are turned on if the average illuminance
level of the time step is below 300 Lux. Lights are
off if the illuminance level is above 500 Lux.
Lights are dimmed if shades are drawn due to
uncomfortable glare (DGP > 0.33) [10].
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
804 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
that is transmitted directly and without distortion. We
propose to define the View Through Potential (VTP)
metric as being the percentage of space which
receives direct and undistorted light, thus
corresponding to a rough estimation of how much of
the space will benefit from various levels of view.
Quantitative thresholds for these qualitative
definitions are being determined through sampling a
larger set of fenestration systems that are correlated
with particular levels of view. As before, the metric
will ultimately be reported with respect to a clear
double-glazed window in order for the user to
correlate quantitative values with qualitative
experience.
In order to determine quantitative values, we use
the visible spectrum BTDF data which provides local
information about the ratio of visible light transmitted
through the surface. We propose a quantitative
method to analyze the BTDF of each sample as a
comparison to a perfectly clear view. The ratio of the
undistorted light to the total amount of light
transmitting provides a quantity for how much
scattering occurs. Moreover, a hole can be assumed
to transmit light with no distortion, and thus has been
selected as the reference case (not to be confused
with the base case clear double-glazed window).
Quantitatively, the BTDF of a hole sample no
fenestration surface indicates how light behaves at
each incident condition. The BTDF of each
fenestration system can then be compared to the
unmodified behavior as represented by the hole
BTDF, as shown pictorally in Figure 3.

Figure 3: The quantity of direct undistorted light that
reaches each sensor location will be compared for each
system (e.g. right) to a hole reference case (left).
Each sensor location perceives each point on the
window with a unique angle of reference. Figure 4
shows the range in possible view angles for a single
sensor location. Each location on the window grid
will be associated with unique BTDF ratio for a given
sensor location. The average of these will then be
the overall ratio associated with that particular sensor
location.

Figure 4: Angles of view must be defined for each part of
the window at each sensor location.
For each sensor location, the overall ratio of the
systems BTDF to the value of the holes BTDF will
indicate how clearly an occupant can see outside. If
this ratio approaches 1, a clear view is achieved and
if this ratio approaches 0, no view is achieved. From
these qualifications, each sensor location will receive
a credit between 0 and 1 if it is provided with no,
partial, or full view. Again, the total credit that a
system receives will be compared with the base case
clear double-glazed window to provide increased
intuition for the user.
3. METHOD FEASIBILTY
A requirement to the feasibility of any method, but
particularly those relying on parallel ongoing
research like ours, is ensuring that the tools or
calculation procedures used to produce the desired
outcomes are validated to be consistent and
accurate. The use of BTDF data in Radiance
calculations has been attempted [13] but the
inclusion of BTDFs for time-efficient annual
simulations is still a work-in-progress [25]. To
determine which seems likely to produce the most
reliable results in our approach, both methods have
been applied for comparison and for a clear window
without angular dependence; the processes have
been shown to provide equivalent results.

3.1. Base case results
Using the methods presented in Section 2, the
base case scenario data set was constructed and is
presented here to demonstrate the feasibility of the
process.

Relative Energy Impact
The Solar Heat Gain Factor was calculated as a
function of angle-dependent transmissivity and local
weather conditions for each hour of the year. Using
the temporal map form as presented previously, it is
possible to view the heat flow due to solar irradiation
for each hour in a single graphical representation as
in Figure 5, which shows the angle dependence of
the solar heat gain factor for a south facing CFS
faade in Miami, FL. This graph does not speak to
whether the solar heat gain factor is contributing to
cooling loads or reducing the heating load but clearly
shows the times of the year which a south facing
faade receives direct sunlight due to solar angle.
Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
0
4
8
12
16
20
24
Days
Solar Heat Gain Factor (W/m
2
) Temporal Map

H
o
u
r
s
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450

Figure 5: Temporal map of Solar Heat Gain Factor in Watts
per square meter of faade area for a sample CFS.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 805

Similarly, the hourly resistance heat flow across
the faade can be calculated as a function of
weather conditions. As is clear in Figure 6, there is
little variation over the course of each day in amount
of heat flow across the system although it does vary
with season.
Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
0
4
8
12
16
20
24
Days
Heat Flow (W/m
2
) Temporal Map

H
o
u
r
s
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15

Figure 6: Temporal map of Resistance Heat Flow in Watts
per square meter of faade area for a sample CFS.
Combined, the data represented by Figures 5
and 6 show the total amount of heat transfer that
occurs for the space as a result of the fenestration
system. The net heat flow is described pictorially in
Figure 7. When there is no sunlight (at night), the
heat flow across the faade dominates, resulting in
near or slightly below zero heat passage.
Meanwhile, direct solar irradiation results in
substantial heat gains.
Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
0
4
8
12
16
20
24
Days
Net Heat Flow (W/m
2
) Temporal Map

H
o
u
r
s
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450

Figure 7: Temporal map of Total Net Heat Flow in Watts
per square meter of faade area for a sample CFS.
Occupant Visual Comfort
While the ECD metric is a single value that
represents the visual comfort performance over the
year, Figure 8 shows more explicitly the profile of
performance of two different faades, also in Miami,
FL. For each moment of the year, the space
achieves a certain value that can be represented as
a percentage of sensors that achieve comfortable
light conditions. Using the 56 representative
moments [23], it is possible to quantitatively assess
the relationship between the amount of time that
achieve comfortable conditions as the requirement
for the fraction of space that is comfortably lit the
amount of time the room achieves those conditions
decreases.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
P
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e

o
f

T
i
m
e
Percentage of Space
Comfortably Lit Conditions

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
P
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e

o
f

T
i
m
e
Percentage of Space
Comfortably Lit Conditions

Figure 8: Percentage of time and space that achieves
comfortable light levels according to the ECD metric for the
base case (top) and a sample CFS (bottom).
View Clearness
Finally, the VTP metric was also calculated for
the clear double-glazed window base case faade.
Because the view range is within 60 degrees of
normal incidence, this glazing does not exhibit any
angle-dependent properties. (For a standard
window, view angles greater than 60 degrees do
result in a decrease in transmittance and an increase
in reflectance.) As such, the VTP is equal to the
faades overall transmissivity of 82%. This faade is
characterized as providing a clear view to the
outside. The sample CFS is considered to provide
no view to the outside and its VTP value is 8%.
4. CONCLUSION
The method proposed is the first step toward
creating a comprehensive and robust set of metrics
that inform the user about the technical performance
of a complex fenestration system. Once the method
feasibility validation has been completed, detailed
technical data can be computed. Following, a phase
of data analysis will identify the critical aspects of
fenestration technology in actual implementation
through rigorous sensitivity analyses. Being able to
isolate the variables to which performance is most
sensitive will enable us to condense the data into
more readable forms and ultimately generate a
relevant rating system.
The goal of this research is to promote utilization
of complex fenestration systems to improve building
energy performance by disseminating technical
information in a form that is easily understandable,
thereby generating demand for an energy-efficient
product. By providing a standard on which
manufacturers can compete, this will also stimulate
innovation in a typically slow-moving industry. With
improved communication, designers and engineers
that is transmitted directly and without distortion. We
propose to define the View Through Potential (VTP)
metric as being the percentage of space which
receives direct and undistorted light, thus
corresponding to a rough estimation of how much of
the space will benefit from various levels of view.
Quantitative thresholds for these qualitative
definitions are being determined through sampling a
larger set of fenestration systems that are correlated
with particular levels of view. As before, the metric
will ultimately be reported with respect to a clear
double-glazed window in order for the user to
correlate quantitative values with qualitative
experience.
In order to determine quantitative values, we use
the visible spectrum BTDF data which provides local
information about the ratio of visible light transmitted
through the surface. We propose a quantitative
method to analyze the BTDF of each sample as a
comparison to a perfectly clear view. The ratio of the
undistorted light to the total amount of light
transmitting provides a quantity for how much
scattering occurs. Moreover, a hole can be assumed
to transmit light with no distortion, and thus has been
selected as the reference case (not to be confused
with the base case clear double-glazed window).
Quantitatively, the BTDF of a hole sample no
fenestration surface indicates how light behaves at
each incident condition. The BTDF of each
fenestration system can then be compared to the
unmodified behavior as represented by the hole
BTDF, as shown pictorally in Figure 3.

Figure 3: The quantity of direct undistorted light that
reaches each sensor location will be compared for each
system (e.g. right) to a hole reference case (left).
Each sensor location perceives each point on the
window with a unique angle of reference. Figure 4
shows the range in possible view angles for a single
sensor location. Each location on the window grid
will be associated with unique BTDF ratio for a given
sensor location. The average of these will then be
the overall ratio associated with that particular sensor
location.

Figure 4: Angles of view must be defined for each part of
the window at each sensor location.
For each sensor location, the overall ratio of the
systems BTDF to the value of the holes BTDF will
indicate how clearly an occupant can see outside. If
this ratio approaches 1, a clear view is achieved and
if this ratio approaches 0, no view is achieved. From
these qualifications, each sensor location will receive
a credit between 0 and 1 if it is provided with no,
partial, or full view. Again, the total credit that a
system receives will be compared with the base case
clear double-glazed window to provide increased
intuition for the user.
3. METHOD FEASIBILTY
A requirement to the feasibility of any method, but
particularly those relying on parallel ongoing
research like ours, is ensuring that the tools or
calculation procedures used to produce the desired
outcomes are validated to be consistent and
accurate. The use of BTDF data in Radiance
calculations has been attempted [13] but the
inclusion of BTDFs for time-efficient annual
simulations is still a work-in-progress [25]. To
determine which seems likely to produce the most
reliable results in our approach, both methods have
been applied for comparison and for a clear window
without angular dependence; the processes have
been shown to provide equivalent results.

3.1. Base case results
Using the methods presented in Section 2, the
base case scenario data set was constructed and is
presented here to demonstrate the feasibility of the
process.

Relative Energy Impact
The Solar Heat Gain Factor was calculated as a
function of angle-dependent transmissivity and local
weather conditions for each hour of the year. Using
the temporal map form as presented previously, it is
possible to view the heat flow due to solar irradiation
for each hour in a single graphical representation as
in Figure 5, which shows the angle dependence of
the solar heat gain factor for a south facing CFS
faade in Miami, FL. This graph does not speak to
whether the solar heat gain factor is contributing to
cooling loads or reducing the heating load but clearly
shows the times of the year which a south facing
faade receives direct sunlight due to solar angle.
Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
0
4
8
12
16
20
24
Days
Solar Heat Gain Factor (W/m
2
) Temporal Map

H
o
u
r
s
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450

Figure 5: Temporal map of Solar Heat Gain Factor in Watts
per square meter of faade area for a sample CFS.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
806 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
can engage in integrated design processes that will
contribute to a transformed building industry that is
mindful of the importance of energy efficient
technologies and objectives.
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Shreya Dave was supported in this research
effort by an MIT Energy Initiative Seed Grant.
Marilyne Andersen received support through MIT
and EPFL. In addition, a number of people were
instrumental in the brainstorming and implementation
of the method; the authors thank Anne Iverson, Mike
Rubin, Greg Ward and Jaime Gagne for being
resources in the development of these concepts.
6. REFERENCES
[1] Environmental Information Administration
(2008). EIA Annual Energy Outlook.
[2] Arasteh, D., Apte, J., Huang, Y.J. Future
Advanced Windows for Zero-Energy Homes,
ASHRAE Transactions, Vol 109 Part 2 (2003).
[3] Commission Internationale de lEclairage (CIE).
Radiometric and photometric characteristics of
materials and their measurements. CIE 38 (TC-
2.3). (1977).
[4] Klems, J.H., Warner, J.L. Kelley, G.O., A
comparison between calculated and measured
SHGC for complex glazing systems. ASHRAE
Transactions, Vol 102 Part 1 (1997).
[5] National Fenestration Rating Council.
<www.nfrc.org> Accessed 14 October 2010.
[6] IES Lighting Handbook, 8th Edition. IES of
North America, (1993).
[7] Rienhart, C.F. Tutorial on the use of daysim
simulations for sustainable design, Institute for
Research in Contstruction, National Research
Council Canada, (2006).
[8] Association Suisse des Electriciens, Eclairage
interieur par la lumiere du jour, Zurich, (1989).
[9] Nabil, A., Mardaljevic, J. Useful daylight
illuminances: A replacement for daylight factors.
Energy and Buildings 38, pp. 905-913 (2006).
[10] Wienold, J., Christoffersen, J. Evaluation
methods and development of a new glare
prediction model for daylight environments with
the use of CCD cameras. Energy and Buildings
38 (2006).
[11] Wienold J. Dynamic daylight glare evaluation.
Proceedings of the 11
th
International IBPSA
Conference, Glasgow, July 27-30, pp. 944-951,
(2009).
[12] U.S. Climate Zones. United States Energy
Information Administration. Accessed 25
January 2010.
<http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/recs/climate_zon
e.html>.
[13] Konstantoglou, M., Jonsson, J.C., Lee, E.
Simulating Complex Window Systems using
BSDF Data. 26th Conference on Passive and
Low Energy architecture. (2009).
[14] U-Factors for Various fenestration Products in
W/(m
2
K). ASHRAE Handbook Fundamentals
(2005).
[15] Reference Buildings by Building Type.
Commercial Building Initiative Database. United
States Department of Energy Energy
Efficiency and Renewable Energy. <
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/commerci
al_initiative/new_construction.html> Accessed
14 October 2010.
[16] American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and
Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and
Illuminating Engineering Society of North
America (IESNA). ASHRAE Standard Energy
Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise
Residential Buildings. (1999).
[17] Hay, J. E., McKay, D. C. Estimating Solar
Irradiance on Inclined Surfaces: A Review and
Assessment of Methodologies. International
Journal of Sustainable Energy. Vol 3, No 4.
203-240. (1985).
[18] WINDOW 6.1/THERM 6.1 Research Version
User Manual. Lawrence Berkeley National
Labs. (2006).
[19] Wilcox, S. and W. Marion. User's Manual for
TMY3 Data Sets, NREL/TP-581-43156. April
2008. Golden, Colorado: National Renewable
Energy Laboratory, (2008).
[20] Karlsson, J., Karlsson, A., Roos, A. A simple
model for assessing the energy performance of
windows. Energy and Buildings 33 (2001).
[21] Gagne, J., and Andersen, M. A Generative
Facade Design Method Based on Daylighting
Performance Goals. Journal of Building
Performance Simulation (forthcoming).
[22] Kleindienst, S., Bodart, M., Andersen, M.,
Graphical Representation of Climate-Based
Daylight Performance to Support Architectural
Design. LEUKOS - The Journal of the
Illuminating Engineering Society of North
America Vol 5 No. 1, pp. 39-61, (2008).
[23] Andersen, M., Kleindienst, S., Gagne, J.
Lightsolve Tutorial. Department of Architecture,
Building Technology Program. Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (2010).
[24] Laouadi, A., Parekh, A. Complex fenestration
systems: toward product ratings for indoor
environment quality. Lighting Research
Technology Vol. 39 No. 2 (2007).
[25] Saxena, M., Ward, G., Perry, T., Heschong, L.,
Higa, R. Dynamic radiance predicting annual
daylighting with variable fenestration optics
using BSDFs SimBuild forthcoming. (2010).
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 807


Balancing the Energy Savings and Daylighting
Performance of External Perforated Solar Screens
Evaluation of Screen Opening Proportions
Ahmed SHERIF
1
, Hanan SABRY
2,
Abbas EL-ZAFARANY
3
, Rasha ARAFA
1
, Tarek RAKHA
1

AND Mohamed ANEES
1

1
Department of Construction and Architectural Engineering, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt
2
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt
3
Department of Urban Design, Faculty of Urban and Regional Planning, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt
ABSTRACT: This paper aims at developing new types of external perforated solar screens by balancing
between energy efficiency and daylighting. Three objectives were targeted: First, evaluating the energy saving
potential of using solar screens in different geographic locations. Second: Examining the influence of screen
opening proportions on illuminance values. Third, investigating recommended screen opening proportions for
daylighting and their effect on energy efficiency. Two simulation software packages were used for the
assessment: Energy Plus for energy performance and Radiance for daylighting performance. Results
demonstrated the usefulness of utilizing external perforated solar screens in front of windows. The screens
reduced energy consumption by 25% to 35% in a number of cities that lie between 14N and 40N. Their
effectiveness was less obvious in cities that were further north. Daylighting performance investigations in a
chosen geographic location (30N) suggested that changing the screen opening proportion (horizontal: vertical)
from 1:1 to 18:1 efficiently enhanced daylighting. Changing the proportion to 18:1 was recommended as it
improved the deficient daylighting behaviour of the North direction, while resulting in a marginal effect on energy
consumption. The 1:1 proportion was recommended for the Southern orientation. As for the East and West
orientations, it is up to the designer whether the improvement of daylighting due to change in opening proportion
is worth the compromise in energy consumption.
Keywords: Energy efficiency, Daylighting performance, Solar Screen, Desert Environment, Egypt.
1. INTRODUCTION
In hot desert environments, solar radiation
passing through windows contributes significantly to
cooling loads and energy consumption of buildings.
Shading of windows reduces such loads. However,
this might compromise the availability of natural light.
One of the shading systems used to diffuse daylight
and reduce solar radiation indoors is a Solar Screen,
which is an external perforated panel that is fixed in
front of a window. It resembles a traditional solution
named Mashrabeya, which is described as a
wooden lattice of cylinders connected with spherical
joints (Fig.1).

Figure 1: Exterior detail, Mashrabeya bay window by e-
moonstone 2007.
The paper builds on previous publications by the
authors that addressed the energy and daylighting
performance of perforated wooden solar screens. In
a previous publication [1], the authors demonstrated
that perforated solar screens were effective in
achieving significant energy savings in hot desert
climates. The energy performance of the screens
was investigated by using Energy Plus simulation
software. The highest saving potential was found in
Solar Screens with 80 to 90% perforation. This
research continued through investigating different
screen depths. Highest energy savings reached 30,
30, 25 and 7% in comparison with windows without
screens for West, South, East and North orientations
respectively. Depth to perforation ratio 0.75 / 0.75
achieved the highest and most significant savings
with 80% perforation in West and North orientations
and 90% perforation in East and South orientations.
In other publications [2 and 3], the authors
addressed the daylighting performance of the
perforated wooden solar screens. Minimum and
maximum perforation percentages were
recommended for daylighting purposes. A tool that
could be used by architects for design of solar
screens that effectively achieve functional needs,
while maintaining visual comfort was provided. This
was accomplished by performing a series of
experiments using Radiance simulation software,
where different screen perforation percentages were
applied, and daylighting performance was analyzed.
This was studied in terms of adequacy through
illuminance levels and comfort through glare analysis
for a designed living room.
can engage in integrated design processes that will
contribute to a transformed building industry that is
mindful of the importance of energy efficient
technologies and objectives.
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Shreya Dave was supported in this research
effort by an MIT Energy Initiative Seed Grant.
Marilyne Andersen received support through MIT
and EPFL. In addition, a number of people were
instrumental in the brainstorming and implementation
of the method; the authors thank Anne Iverson, Mike
Rubin, Greg Ward and Jaime Gagne for being
resources in the development of these concepts.
6. REFERENCES
[1] Environmental Information Administration
(2008). EIA Annual Energy Outlook.
[2] Arasteh, D., Apte, J., Huang, Y.J. Future
Advanced Windows for Zero-Energy Homes,
ASHRAE Transactions, Vol 109 Part 2 (2003).
[3] Commission Internationale de lEclairage (CIE).
Radiometric and photometric characteristics of
materials and their measurements. CIE 38 (TC-
2.3). (1977).
[4] Klems, J.H., Warner, J.L. Kelley, G.O., A
comparison between calculated and measured
SHGC for complex glazing systems. ASHRAE
Transactions, Vol 102 Part 1 (1997).
[5] National Fenestration Rating Council.
<www.nfrc.org> Accessed 14 October 2010.
[6] IES Lighting Handbook, 8th Edition. IES of
North America, (1993).
[7] Rienhart, C.F. Tutorial on the use of daysim
simulations for sustainable design, Institute for
Research in Contstruction, National Research
Council Canada, (2006).
[8] Association Suisse des Electriciens, Eclairage
interieur par la lumiere du jour, Zurich, (1989).
[9] Nabil, A., Mardaljevic, J. Useful daylight
illuminances: A replacement for daylight factors.
Energy and Buildings 38, pp. 905-913 (2006).
[10] Wienold, J., Christoffersen, J. Evaluation
methods and development of a new glare
prediction model for daylight environments with
the use of CCD cameras. Energy and Buildings
38 (2006).
[11] Wienold J. Dynamic daylight glare evaluation.
Proceedings of the 11
th
International IBPSA
Conference, Glasgow, July 27-30, pp. 944-951,
(2009).
[12] U.S. Climate Zones. United States Energy
Information Administration. Accessed 25
January 2010.
<http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/recs/climate_zon
e.html>.
[13] Konstantoglou, M., Jonsson, J.C., Lee, E.
Simulating Complex Window Systems using
BSDF Data. 26th Conference on Passive and
Low Energy architecture. (2009).
[14] U-Factors for Various fenestration Products in
W/(m
2
K). ASHRAE Handbook Fundamentals
(2005).
[15] Reference Buildings by Building Type.
Commercial Building Initiative Database. United
States Department of Energy Energy
Efficiency and Renewable Energy. <
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/commerci
al_initiative/new_construction.html> Accessed
14 October 2010.
[16] American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and
Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and
Illuminating Engineering Society of North
America (IESNA). ASHRAE Standard Energy
Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise
Residential Buildings. (1999).
[17] Hay, J. E., McKay, D. C. Estimating Solar
Irradiance on Inclined Surfaces: A Review and
Assessment of Methodologies. International
Journal of Sustainable Energy. Vol 3, No 4.
203-240. (1985).
[18] WINDOW 6.1/THERM 6.1 Research Version
User Manual. Lawrence Berkeley National
Labs. (2006).
[19] Wilcox, S. and W. Marion. User's Manual for
TMY3 Data Sets, NREL/TP-581-43156. April
2008. Golden, Colorado: National Renewable
Energy Laboratory, (2008).
[20] Karlsson, J., Karlsson, A., Roos, A. A simple
model for assessing the energy performance of
windows. Energy and Buildings 33 (2001).
[21] Gagne, J., and Andersen, M. A Generative
Facade Design Method Based on Daylighting
Performance Goals. Journal of Building
Performance Simulation (forthcoming).
[22] Kleindienst, S., Bodart, M., Andersen, M.,
Graphical Representation of Climate-Based
Daylight Performance to Support Architectural
Design. LEUKOS - The Journal of the
Illuminating Engineering Society of North
America Vol 5 No. 1, pp. 39-61, (2008).
[23] Andersen, M., Kleindienst, S., Gagne, J.
Lightsolve Tutorial. Department of Architecture,
Building Technology Program. Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (2010).
[24] Laouadi, A., Parekh, A. Complex fenestration
systems: toward product ratings for indoor
environment quality. Lighting Research
Technology Vol. 39 No. 2 (2007).
[25] Saxena, M., Ward, G., Perry, T., Heschong, L.,
Higa, R. Dynamic radiance predicting annual
daylighting with variable fenestration optics
using BSDFs SimBuild forthcoming. (2010).
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
808 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)


A number of related publications also addressed
the performance of solar screens in regards to
daylighting and energy performance. A publication by
Aljofi examined the potentiality of reflected sunlight
through Rawshan screens [4]. Lee and Selkowitz
evaluated the performance of two daylighting control
systems installed in separate areas of an open plan
office, where automated roller shades were installed
and controlled to block direct sun [5]. Irregular screen
types, such as thermal louvers and vine screens,
were previously investigated. Cool or warm water
was circulated through the louvers, absorbing or
radiating sensible heat. It was suggested that it
would be used as a multi function tool that reduces
overall annual energy consumption [6]. A vertical
vine sunscreen and its passive cooling effect as a
solar control technique by plants was also examined.
A comparative experiment was conducted on
verandas with and without the vine screens [7]. Other
research work addressed issues of control [8], users
response [9], and geometry and tilt angle of venetian
blinds [10].
Reviewed literature demonstrates that solar
screens investigations did not address the balance
between energy performance in different geographic
locations and its relationship to daylighting.
Configuring Solar Screen parameters that provide
acceptable daylighting levels, while controlling
thermal comfort and achieving energy efficiency,
could pave the way for their utilization in an effective
manner that does not only build on historical
precedents, but also achieves performance goals of
todays modern buildings.
2. OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY
This paper aims at the development of modern
external perforated solar screens. The objectives of
this paper and their investigation methodology are
represented in following three phases:
2.1. Research phases
a) Phase I: Evaluating the energy saving potential
of using solar screens in different geographic
locations, and identifying locations that receive
highest savings due to their shading effect. A
computer model was created by the use of two
computer simulation programs, Design Builder
and Energy Plus 3.1.
b) Phase II: Examining the influence of screen
opening proportions as one of the parameters
that aid in the effective utilization of solar
screens in daylighting. Experimentation was
conducted using simulation software Radiance.
c) Phase III: Integrating results of Phase I and
Phase II. This results in a solar screen design
that balances between energy efficiency and
visual comfort.
2.2. Base case parameters
A typical indoor space with a number of assumed
fixed parameters was used as a base case for
experimentation. The architectural parameters were
chosen to represent the principal features of a typical
residential living room (Table 1).
Table 1: Architectural parameters for the tested space.
Indoor Space Parameters
Floor level Zero level
Dimensions 4.20 m * 5.40 m * 3.30 m
Wall Thickness 0.35 m
Window Parameters
Dimensions 2.30 m * 1.20 m
Visual Lighting Transmission 85%
3. PHASE I: ENERGY SAVINGS IN
DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHIC LOCATIONS
The focus of the simulation process of this phase
was to evaluate the energy demand resulting from
the cooling, heating and artificial lighting loads of the
modelled space. A dwelling lounge with a direct-
expansion, split-type, air-conditioning system was
modelled. The base case was opening-tuned to
focus on the thermal effect of using the tested
screens. The floor, roof and three of the room walls
were assumed adiabatic. The fourth wall had a
double glazed window at its centre where the solar
screen was attached. This wall was modelled as a
brick cavity wall covered with plaster on both sides.
Different cases of external perforated solar screens
were applied in front of the window of the base case.
Tested screen perforation percentages were 80%
and 90%. The screen openings were square shaped
and their depth ratios (opening height / opening
depth) ranged from 0.25 to 2 in different window
orientations during all seasons (Fig. 2). Monthly and
annual simulation runs were conducted for the main
four orientations using the weather files of a number
of cities located in the latitude range of 14N - 60N.
Simulation results of each of the simulated cases
were compared with those of their no screen base
cases (zero depth ratio).


Figure 2: Geometrical Effect of Changing Solar Screen
Depth Ratio.
3.1. Energy performance results
The following is a summary of the annual energy
loads resulting from changing the screen depth for
the screen case having 80% perforation percentage.
Results were analyzed for two geographic location
types: high and low temperature. Analysis figures
emphasize the 0.75 and 1 depth ratios, as they were
identified as efficient for energy consumption needs.
In the high temperature locations, such as the city of
Jeddah 21N-39E (Fig. 3), the energy consumption
is generally inversely proportional to the increase of
screen depth. The lowest energy consumption was
found in the range of depths between 0.75 and 1.25.
As depth increased, window transmitted solar energy
decreased with considerable rates till it reached the
0.5 depth ratio, where it decreased with lower rates
afterwards. However, the lighting electricity is almost
constant till depth 1.5, where it slightly increased.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 809


Cooling loads significantly decreased with the
increase of depth till a depth of 0.5. It slightly
increased after depth 1.5 till depth 2 due to the
increase in lighting loads.

Figure 3: Annual Energy Loads for a South Oriented Solar
Screen with an 80% Perforation, Jeddah (21N-39E).
In low temperature climates, such as the city of
Paris 48N - 2E (Fig. 4), the lowest energy
consumption was found in depths ranging from 0.5 to
1.25. Lighting electricity was directly proportional to
depth, especially after depth 0.5. Cooling loads
decreased with the increase in depth till it reached
depth 0.5, and then it became constant. Conversely,
heating loads increased significantly with the
increase in depth till depth 0.5, and then it stabilized.
This is due to the increase in lighting loads, which
generated heating loads that led to a decrease in the
need for heating energy.

Figure 4: Annual Energy Loads for a South Oriented Solar
Screen with an 80% Perforation, Paris (48N - 2E).
The energy savings resulting from using the
screens in front of windows at different geographic
locations was examined. Fig. 5 illustrates the energy
savings due to utilizing an 80% perforated Solar
Screen in the South orientation at different
geographic locations. Different depth ratios were
examined in search for the most promising energy
savings. In the South orientation, savings reached
32, 34, 30, 26, 27 and 27% of total energy
consumption in the cities of Dakar (14N), Jeddah
(21N), Kharga (25N), Taiwan (25N), Kuwait (29N)
and Damascus (33N) respectively. The use of
screens reduced the energy consumption by 28% in
the city of Barcelona (41N). On the other hand,
limited savings were accomplished in Paris (49N)
where it became almost 8%. Also, savings
diminished to 3% in Oslo (60N).
In the West orientation, the highest savings were
found. These reached 38, 33, 30, 26, 27, 27 and 34
% of the total energy consumption in the cities of
Dakar (14N), Jeddah (21N), Kharga (25N), Taiwan
(25N), Kuwait (29N), Damascus (33N) and Cairo
(30N) respectively. In the cooling dominated
climates, the use of screens reduced energy
consumption by 29% in Barcelona (41N), 7% in
Paris (49N) and 3% in Oslo (60N) (Fig. 6).
In the North orientation, the savings could barely
be recognized due to limited direct solar penetration.

Figure 5: Energy Savings of a South Oriented Screen with
an 80% Perforation at Different Geographical Locations

Figure6: Maximum Energy Savings of a West Oriented
Screen Having an 80% - 90% Perforation at Different
Geographical Locations
3.2. Energy performance discussion
In most locations, depth to perforation ratio 1/1
and 0.75/0.75 achieved considerable savings with
80% and 90% perforation percentages in the West
and South orientations. In addition, the effect of
depth/perforation configuration on energy
consumption proved to be an important factor. It was
found that while certain configurations reduced
energy consumption; other configurations increase
the energy consumption in some of the locations.
4. PHASE II: SCREEN OPENING
PROPORTION AND DAYLIGHTING
PERFORMANCE
In this phase, the impact of the solar screen opening
proportions on the daylighting performance was
evaluated. The purpose was to explore their potential
for performance enhancement, as daylighting has
dynamic unique features that create visual richness
and a productive atmosphere. Moreover, the
utilization of solar screens diffuses natural light. This
is important in the clear sky conditions of the desert
0.%
5.%
10.%
15.%
20.%
25.%
30.%
35.%
40.%
N14-E17
Dakar
N21-E39
Jeddah
N25-E30
Kharga
N25-E121
Taipei
N30-E31
Cairo
N29-E47
Kuwait
N33-E36
Damascus
N41-E 2
Barcelona
N48-E2
Paris
N59-E10
Oslo
E
n
e
r
g
y
S
a
v
in
g
s
Latitude/Town
West Orientation
80% Perforation 90% Perforation


A number of related publications also addressed
the performance of solar screens in regards to
daylighting and energy performance. A publication by
Aljofi examined the potentiality of reflected sunlight
through Rawshan screens [4]. Lee and Selkowitz
evaluated the performance of two daylighting control
systems installed in separate areas of an open plan
office, where automated roller shades were installed
and controlled to block direct sun [5]. Irregular screen
types, such as thermal louvers and vine screens,
were previously investigated. Cool or warm water
was circulated through the louvers, absorbing or
radiating sensible heat. It was suggested that it
would be used as a multi function tool that reduces
overall annual energy consumption [6]. A vertical
vine sunscreen and its passive cooling effect as a
solar control technique by plants was also examined.
A comparative experiment was conducted on
verandas with and without the vine screens [7]. Other
research work addressed issues of control [8], users
response [9], and geometry and tilt angle of venetian
blinds [10].
Reviewed literature demonstrates that solar
screens investigations did not address the balance
between energy performance in different geographic
locations and its relationship to daylighting.
Configuring Solar Screen parameters that provide
acceptable daylighting levels, while controlling
thermal comfort and achieving energy efficiency,
could pave the way for their utilization in an effective
manner that does not only build on historical
precedents, but also achieves performance goals of
todays modern buildings.
2. OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY
This paper aims at the development of modern
external perforated solar screens. The objectives of
this paper and their investigation methodology are
represented in following three phases:
2.1. Research phases
a) Phase I: Evaluating the energy saving potential
of using solar screens in different geographic
locations, and identifying locations that receive
highest savings due to their shading effect. A
computer model was created by the use of two
computer simulation programs, Design Builder
and Energy Plus 3.1.
b) Phase II: Examining the influence of screen
opening proportions as one of the parameters
that aid in the effective utilization of solar
screens in daylighting. Experimentation was
conducted using simulation software Radiance.
c) Phase III: Integrating results of Phase I and
Phase II. This results in a solar screen design
that balances between energy efficiency and
visual comfort.
2.2. Base case parameters
A typical indoor space with a number of assumed
fixed parameters was used as a base case for
experimentation. The architectural parameters were
chosen to represent the principal features of a typical
residential living room (Table 1).
Table 1: Architectural parameters for the tested space.
Indoor Space Parameters
Floor level Zero level
Dimensions 4.20 m * 5.40 m * 3.30 m
Wall Thickness 0.35 m
Window Parameters
Dimensions 2.30 m * 1.20 m
Visual Lighting Transmission 85%
3. PHASE I: ENERGY SAVINGS IN
DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHIC LOCATIONS
The focus of the simulation process of this phase
was to evaluate the energy demand resulting from
the cooling, heating and artificial lighting loads of the
modelled space. A dwelling lounge with a direct-
expansion, split-type, air-conditioning system was
modelled. The base case was opening-tuned to
focus on the thermal effect of using the tested
screens. The floor, roof and three of the room walls
were assumed adiabatic. The fourth wall had a
double glazed window at its centre where the solar
screen was attached. This wall was modelled as a
brick cavity wall covered with plaster on both sides.
Different cases of external perforated solar screens
were applied in front of the window of the base case.
Tested screen perforation percentages were 80%
and 90%. The screen openings were square shaped
and their depth ratios (opening height / opening
depth) ranged from 0.25 to 2 in different window
orientations during all seasons (Fig. 2). Monthly and
annual simulation runs were conducted for the main
four orientations using the weather files of a number
of cities located in the latitude range of 14N - 60N.
Simulation results of each of the simulated cases
were compared with those of their no screen base
cases (zero depth ratio).


Figure 2: Geometrical Effect of Changing Solar Screen
Depth Ratio.
3.1. Energy performance results
The following is a summary of the annual energy
loads resulting from changing the screen depth for
the screen case having 80% perforation percentage.
Results were analyzed for two geographic location
types: high and low temperature. Analysis figures
emphasize the 0.75 and 1 depth ratios, as they were
identified as efficient for energy consumption needs.
In the high temperature locations, such as the city of
Jeddah 21N-39E (Fig. 3), the energy consumption
is generally inversely proportional to the increase of
screen depth. The lowest energy consumption was
found in the range of depths between 0.75 and 1.25.
As depth increased, window transmitted solar energy
decreased with considerable rates till it reached the
0.5 depth ratio, where it decreased with lower rates
afterwards. However, the lighting electricity is almost
constant till depth 1.5, where it slightly increased.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
810 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)


environments. Consequently, an example clear sky
condition location was chosen for daylighting
simulation (El Sadat City, 30.2N - 30.2E),
Certain parameters of the base case were adjusted
due to their contribution to daylighting performance.
They include increase of wall and ceiling reflectance
to 85.7% (white colour paint) and addition of a solar
screen with a perforated top sun-breaker. The solar
screen dimensions and depth ratio were based on
results of Phase I to be equal to 0.75/0.75 with
perforation percentage 90%. Simulation results were
tabulated according to different orientations of the
window on which the solar screen was fixed (N, E, S,
W) and different seasons (spring, summer, autumn
and winter) with different times (9:00, 12:00, and
15:00).
Research methodology was twofold; the base
case was evaluated according to illuminance
adequacy (200Lux) and daylighting performance
was enhanced through change of the screens
opening proportion (Fig. 7).

1:3

1:1

3:1
Figure7: Geometric Effect of Changing Screen Proportions:
Horizontal : Vertical Dimension Ratio
Three zones were analyzed in the base case.
The first zone is located near the window: the near
zone, second zone at mid length of the indoor
space: the mid-length zone and third zone is near
the rear wall: the far zone. Each zone contained 84
measuring points in a grid of 0.3m *0.3m at a
working plane of height 1 m (Fig. 8). The average of
each zone was calculated, excluding the values of
direct sun penetration points that were having
illuminance levels higher than 5000 Lux.

Figure 8: Phase II base case parameters.
Depending on the time of day and the season,
each orientation had a different daylighting
performance (Fig. 9). In the south orientation,
daylighting performance was found adequate in
almost all seasons and at all three tested zones,
except for summer at the mid and far zone at 9:00
and 15:00. However, in the North orientation, there
was a significant decrease in illuminance values.
Consequently, daylighting performance was found
inadequate in almost all seasons in the mid-length
and far zones. Conversely, the near zone was
adequate in all the tests except for the winter
season, On the other hand, in the East and West
orientations, change in daylighting performance was
considerably affected by the time of the day. For
screens oriented towards East at 9:00 and West at
15:00, illuminance values were found adequate in
most cases. However, at 12:00 only the near zone
met minimum illuminance requirements in all
seasons. All other cases were found inadequate. As
a general result, the mid-length and far zones were
defined as problematic. Further research, thus,
focused on their enhancement.


Figure 9: Base case evaluation at the three tested zones in
different seasons and time ( 200 Lux = Inadequacy)
4.1. Daylighting performance simulation results
The base case solar screen dimensions,
perforation percentage and depth ratio were kept
constant. Opening proportions were increased in the
horizontal and vertical directions to be 1:3, 1:6, 1:12,
and 1:18. A comparative analytical study was drawn
in reference to the base case. The aim was to test
the usefulness of changing the proportion in either
direction on illuminance levels.
As a general observation, the illuminance levels
were directly proportional to the increase of opening
proportion in both directions. For example, when the
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
9 12 15 9 12 15 9 12 15 9 12 15
Dec(Winter) Mar(Spring) Jun(Summer) Sep(Autumn)
I
l
l
u
m
i
n
a
n
c
e

(
L
u
x
)
Time/Season
South
Near Middle Far
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
9 12 15 9 12 15 9 12 15 9 12 15
Dec(Winter) Mar(Spring) Jun(Summer) Sep(Autumn)
I
l
l
u
m
i
n
a
n
c
e

(
L
u
x
)
Time/Season
North
Near Middle Far
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 811


opening proportions were tripled in the horizontal and
vertical directions, the daylighting performance
increased in all tested zones of all orientations,
seasons and times. In the near and mid-length
zones, all illuminance values increased by at an
average rate of 23.5% in reference to the base case,
while the far zone increased by 18% (Fig. 10).

Figure 10: Effect of Changing Opening Proportion to 1:3 on
the Illuminance Levels of the Far Zone in South Orientation.
A comparative analysis of daylighting
performance in terms of adequacy was undertaken
for all tested cases. Analysis of improvement was
based on the percentage of cases that became
adequate after applying a change in opening
proportion. Special attention was given to the mid-
length and far zones due to their identification as
inadequate in most of the base cases (Fig. 11 & 12).

Figure 11: Effect of Changing Opening Proportion on the
Illuminance Levels of Mid-Length Zone in North Orientation.

Figure 12: Effect of Changing Opening Proportion on the
Illuminance Levels of Far Zone in East Orientation.
An increasing trend in performance was observed
until the 1:12 ratio was reached. However in the 1:18
ratio, performance increased, decreased or remained
constant as compared to 1:12. To verify if the
observed reduction forms a trend, an extreme case
of 1:32 ratio was tested. Results showed that
performance either decreased or remained constant
in comparison with the 1:18 ratio (Fig. 13 & 14).

Figure 13: Illuminance Levels Resulting from Changing
Opening Proportion at 12:00 Noon in Autumn at South.

Figure 14: Illuminance Levels Resulting from Changing
Opening Proportion at 12:00 Noon in Summer at North.
4.2. Daylighting performance discussion
In all orientations, the different opening
proportions achieved comparable improvements in
daylighting performance. However, it was found that
the 1:18 ratio in the horizontal direction had the most
positive impact in terms of adequacy and relative
illuminance values. Table 2 compares improvement
percentages of each orientation in all tested zones.
Table 2: Percent Improvement Due to Changing Screen
Opening Proportions.
Orientations Zones
Base
Case
H:V
18:1
Total
Improvement
North
Near 75% 100%
22% Mid 8% 42%
Far 0% 8%
East / West
Near 83% 100%
14% Mid 42% 58%
Far 33% 42%
South
Near 100% 100%
6% Mid 83% 92%
Far 75% 83%

The percentage of adequate cases increased in
the mid-length and far zone when the square
proportions of the opening were changed in ratio to
become rectangle-like. This is because the screen
openings started to resemble light louvers that reflect
daylight deep into the space. This effect was
exploited till the ratio increased more than 1:18.
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
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Horizontal Vertical
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12 : 1
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environments. Consequently, an example clear sky
condition location was chosen for daylighting
simulation (El Sadat City, 30.2N - 30.2E),
Certain parameters of the base case were adjusted
due to their contribution to daylighting performance.
They include increase of wall and ceiling reflectance
to 85.7% (white colour paint) and addition of a solar
screen with a perforated top sun-breaker. The solar
screen dimensions and depth ratio were based on
results of Phase I to be equal to 0.75/0.75 with
perforation percentage 90%. Simulation results were
tabulated according to different orientations of the
window on which the solar screen was fixed (N, E, S,
W) and different seasons (spring, summer, autumn
and winter) with different times (9:00, 12:00, and
15:00).
Research methodology was twofold; the base
case was evaluated according to illuminance
adequacy (200Lux) and daylighting performance
was enhanced through change of the screens
opening proportion (Fig. 7).

1:3

1:1

3:1
Figure7: Geometric Effect of Changing Screen Proportions:
Horizontal : Vertical Dimension Ratio
Three zones were analyzed in the base case.
The first zone is located near the window: the near
zone, second zone at mid length of the indoor
space: the mid-length zone and third zone is near
the rear wall: the far zone. Each zone contained 84
measuring points in a grid of 0.3m *0.3m at a
working plane of height 1 m (Fig. 8). The average of
each zone was calculated, excluding the values of
direct sun penetration points that were having
illuminance levels higher than 5000 Lux.

Figure 8: Phase II base case parameters.
Depending on the time of day and the season,
each orientation had a different daylighting
performance (Fig. 9). In the south orientation,
daylighting performance was found adequate in
almost all seasons and at all three tested zones,
except for summer at the mid and far zone at 9:00
and 15:00. However, in the North orientation, there
was a significant decrease in illuminance values.
Consequently, daylighting performance was found
inadequate in almost all seasons in the mid-length
and far zones. Conversely, the near zone was
adequate in all the tests except for the winter
season, On the other hand, in the East and West
orientations, change in daylighting performance was
considerably affected by the time of the day. For
screens oriented towards East at 9:00 and West at
15:00, illuminance values were found adequate in
most cases. However, at 12:00 only the near zone
met minimum illuminance requirements in all
seasons. All other cases were found inadequate. As
a general result, the mid-length and far zones were
defined as problematic. Further research, thus,
focused on their enhancement.


Figure 9: Base case evaluation at the three tested zones in
different seasons and time ( 200 Lux = Inadequacy)
4.1. Daylighting performance simulation results
The base case solar screen dimensions,
perforation percentage and depth ratio were kept
constant. Opening proportions were increased in the
horizontal and vertical directions to be 1:3, 1:6, 1:12,
and 1:18. A comparative analytical study was drawn
in reference to the base case. The aim was to test
the usefulness of changing the proportion in either
direction on illuminance levels.
As a general observation, the illuminance levels
were directly proportional to the increase of opening
proportion in both directions. For example, when the
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Near Middle Far
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
812 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)


5. PHASE III: POTENTIAL OF ENERGY
SAVINGS THROUGH RECOMMENDED
SCREEN OPENING PROPORTION
In this phase, the overall energy performance of
the screen proportion that resulted from phase II
analysis (18:1) was tested. Cases with 1:1 and 18:1
opening ratio screens were compared with a no
screen window. The same architectural parameters
of the base case of Phase II were used.
Energy savings through use of 1:1 solar screen
reached 17, 15, 14 and 4% in West, East, South and
North orientations respectively in comparison with
the window without screen. However, savings
through utilization of 18:1 solar screen configuration
were only 8, 7, 9 and 1% respectively in comparison
with the window without screen (Fig. 15).

Figure 15: Comparison of Energy Consumption.
6. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
The usefulness of utilizing external perforated
solar screens in front of windows was demonstrated.
The screens reduced energy consumption by 25% to
35% in a number of cities that lie between 14N and
40N. Their impact was less obvious in cities that
were further north. The depth to perforation ratios of
1/1 and 0.75/0.75 achieved considerable savings in
most locations with 80% and 90% perforation
percentages in the West and South orientations. An
in-depth investigation of the above configurations
daylighting performance suggested that changing
screen opening proportions (horizontal: vertical) from
1:1 to 18:1 would effectively improve daylighting.
The energy behaviour of the suggested screen
opening proportion was tested. Changing the
opening proportion to 18:1 improved the deficient
daylighting behaviour of the North direction, while
resulting in a marginal effect on energy consumption.
It is, then, recommended. On the other hand, the 1:1
proportion is recommended in the Sothern
orientation, since use of the 18:1 proportion
increased the energy consumption by 5.6%. This
was not justified especially that the daylighting
performance was almost satisfactory in the 1:1
proportion. As for the East and West orientations, it
is up to the designer whether the improvement of
daylighting due to change in opening proportion is
worth the compromise in energy consumption, which
ranges between 9-10%.
A satisfactory balance between achieving
efficient energy savings and daylighting performance
within an indoor space constitutes the real challenge
when selecting and designing solar screens. Further
research is directed towards exploring other screen
configurations and their efficient combinations.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This publication is based on work supported by
Award No. C0015, made by King Abdullah University
of Science and Technology (KAUST).
8. REFERENCES
[1] Sherif, A., Faggal, A., Arafa, R., 2010, External
Perforated Solar Screens For Thermal Control In
Desert Environments: The Effect Of Perforation
Percentage On Energy Loads, Renewable
Energy 2010, Joint with 4th International Solar
Energy Society Conference, Asia Pacific Region,
27 June- 2 July 2010, Yokohama, Japan.
[2] Sherif, A., Sabry, H. and Rakha, T., 2010,
Daylighting For Privacy: Evaluating External
Perforated Solar Screens In Desert Clear Sky
Conditions, Renewable Energy 2010, Joint with
4th International Solar Energy Society
Conference, Asia Pacific Region, 27 June - 2
July 2010, Yokohama, Japan.
[3] Sherif, A., Sabry, H. and Rakha, T., 2010,
External Perforated Solar Screens for
Daylighting in Residential Desert Buildings:
Identification of Minimum and Maximum
Perforation Percentages, Solar Energy,
submitted in August 2010.
[4] Aljofi, E., 2005, The Potentiality of Reflected
Sunlight Through Rawshan Screens,
Proceedings from the International Conference:
Passive and Low Energy Cooling for the Built
Environment, Santorini, Greece.
[5] Lee, E. and Selkowitz, S., 2006, The New York
Times Headquarters Daylighting Mock-up:
Monitored Performance of the Daylighting
Control System, Energy and Buildings, vol. 38,
pp. 914-929.
[6] Hoyano A., 1985, Solar Control by Vine
Sunscreen and its Passive Cooling Effects,
Proceedings of the International Symposium on
Thermal Application of Solar Energy, Hakone,
Japan.
[7] Meckler G., 1979, Energy integrated building
envelopes, Specifying Engineer, Vol. 41 (1), pp.
54-60.
[8] Lindelf, D., 2009, A fast daylight model
suitable for embedded controllers, Solar
Energy, vol. 83, pp. 57 68.
[9] Sutter, Y., Dumortier, D., and Fontoynont, M.,
2006, The use of shading systems in VDU task
offices: A pilot study, Energy and Buildings, vol.
28, pp. 780 789.
[10] Tzempelikos, A., 2008, The impact of venetian
blind geometry and tilt angle on view, direct light
transmission and interior illuminance, Solar
Energy, vol. 82, pp.1172 1191.
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
West East South North
K
W
H
Orientation
H:V= 1:1 H:V= 18:1 Without Screen
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 813


The Performance Evaluation of an Advanced
Daylighting System in Multi-story Office Buildings:
Measurement and Simulation

Jianxin Hu
1*,
, Jiangtao Du
2
, Wayne Place
1

1
College of Design, School of Architecture, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA
2
School of Architecture, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
* Corresponding author. Tel: +10 919-4234955, Fax: +10 919-5158951, E-mail: jhu3@unity.ncsu.edu
ABSTRACT: This study investigates the climate-based performance of a lightshelf system in the context of multi-
story office buildings, which is regarded as one of the most important strategies for achieving the comfortable daylit
environment in areas with a highly luminous climate. Computer simulations by DAYSIM are performed to predict
annual light quantities in the daylit zones. The DAYSIM results are also compared to several simplified
experimental methods, in which the systems are tested under diffuse skies only. These methods use either
Daylight Factor (DF) or Coefficient of Utilization (CU) as the performance indicator. The findings show that certain
simplified experimental methods, especially the ones based on CU, can be reasonably accurate for climate-based
assessments of sidelighting systems in a daylight climate similar to Raleigh, North Carolina.
Keywords: daylighting, lightshelf, DAYSIM, daylight factor, coefficient of utilization
1. INTRODUCTION
Understanding daylight from a climate-based point
of view differs greatly from the traditional approach of
the Daylight Factor method, which only addresses
overcast conditions and leaves out important design
factors, such as building orientation [1].
Consequently, it would be more practical to assess
daylighting systems in areas with a highly luminous
climate by a climate-based method, in which case
various types of sky conditions (e.g. clear sky or
intermediate sky) are all taken into considerations.
As a dynamic Radiance-based simulation tool,
DAYSIM is capable of carrying out Climate-based
Daylight Modelling (CBDM) using meteorological
dataset [1, 2, 3]. By the comparisons with
measurements, it has been proven to be accurate for
performing annual daylight predictions [2].
Conducting climate-based daylighting research by
physical experiments can be time consuming.
Monitoring design options in a full year is normally not
feasible for most research projects. Simplified
methods are thus adopted by testing the systems on
a heliodon so that a limited number of sky conditions
can be simulated quickly. Based on these limited
data, Daylight Factor (DF the ratio of interior
illuminance and exterior unobstructed horizontal
illuminance) or Coefficient of Utilization (CU the
ratio of interior illuminance and exterior vertical
illuminance) is often developed to establish the
correlations between interior illuminances and exterior
daylight resources [4]. If exterior daylight recourse
data (e.g. hourly sky illuminances on vertical and
horizontal planes in a full year) are available at the
building site, annual system performances can be
assessed by multiplying the exterior daylight levels by
the DFs or CUs.
Although daylighting designs can be studied and
compared by these simplified experimental methods,
it has been a challenge to understand their accuracy
and validity when predicting interior daylight levels on
a full-year basis. It is thus the intent of this study to
answer the following questions:
Compared with the results from DAYSIM
simulations, how accurate are the simplified
experimental methods (e.g. testing systems under
diffuse sky conditions only) for assessing annual
performances of sidelighting designs, such as a light
shelf system, in multi-story office buildings?
By using DAYSIM as a benchmark, which one is a
more reliable indicator for annual daylight predictions,
Daylight Factor or Coefficient of Utilization?
This paper is not intended to evaluate the
accuracy of DAYSIM, which has already been
validated [2]. The goal of the study is to assess the
validities of certain simplified experimental methods
by using DAYSIM as a benchmark.
2. METHODS
2.1. The context and the lightshelf system
In a previous project conducted in North Carolina
State University, a lightshelf system was designed
and assessed for a multi-story office building (Figure
1) located in Raleigh, North Carolina [5].


Figure 1: NC Wildlife Resources Commission Headquarters
The building, along with the daylighting system, is
used as the context for the study. A 6-ft (1.83 M)


5. PHASE III: POTENTIAL OF ENERGY
SAVINGS THROUGH RECOMMENDED
SCREEN OPENING PROPORTION
In this phase, the overall energy performance of
the screen proportion that resulted from phase II
analysis (18:1) was tested. Cases with 1:1 and 18:1
opening ratio screens were compared with a no
screen window. The same architectural parameters
of the base case of Phase II were used.
Energy savings through use of 1:1 solar screen
reached 17, 15, 14 and 4% in West, East, South and
North orientations respectively in comparison with
the window without screen. However, savings
through utilization of 18:1 solar screen configuration
were only 8, 7, 9 and 1% respectively in comparison
with the window without screen (Fig. 15).

Figure 15: Comparison of Energy Consumption.
6. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
The usefulness of utilizing external perforated
solar screens in front of windows was demonstrated.
The screens reduced energy consumption by 25% to
35% in a number of cities that lie between 14N and
40N. Their impact was less obvious in cities that
were further north. The depth to perforation ratios of
1/1 and 0.75/0.75 achieved considerable savings in
most locations with 80% and 90% perforation
percentages in the West and South orientations. An
in-depth investigation of the above configurations
daylighting performance suggested that changing
screen opening proportions (horizontal: vertical) from
1:1 to 18:1 would effectively improve daylighting.
The energy behaviour of the suggested screen
opening proportion was tested. Changing the
opening proportion to 18:1 improved the deficient
daylighting behaviour of the North direction, while
resulting in a marginal effect on energy consumption.
It is, then, recommended. On the other hand, the 1:1
proportion is recommended in the Sothern
orientation, since use of the 18:1 proportion
increased the energy consumption by 5.6%. This
was not justified especially that the daylighting
performance was almost satisfactory in the 1:1
proportion. As for the East and West orientations, it
is up to the designer whether the improvement of
daylighting due to change in opening proportion is
worth the compromise in energy consumption, which
ranges between 9-10%.
A satisfactory balance between achieving
efficient energy savings and daylighting performance
within an indoor space constitutes the real challenge
when selecting and designing solar screens. Further
research is directed towards exploring other screen
configurations and their efficient combinations.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This publication is based on work supported by
Award No. C0015, made by King Abdullah University
of Science and Technology (KAUST).
8. REFERENCES
[1] Sherif, A., Faggal, A., Arafa, R., 2010, External
Perforated Solar Screens For Thermal Control In
Desert Environments: The Effect Of Perforation
Percentage On Energy Loads, Renewable
Energy 2010, Joint with 4th International Solar
Energy Society Conference, Asia Pacific Region,
27 June- 2 July 2010, Yokohama, Japan.
[2] Sherif, A., Sabry, H. and Rakha, T., 2010,
Daylighting For Privacy: Evaluating External
Perforated Solar Screens In Desert Clear Sky
Conditions, Renewable Energy 2010, Joint with
4th International Solar Energy Society
Conference, Asia Pacific Region, 27 June - 2
July 2010, Yokohama, Japan.
[3] Sherif, A., Sabry, H. and Rakha, T., 2010,
External Perforated Solar Screens for
Daylighting in Residential Desert Buildings:
Identification of Minimum and Maximum
Perforation Percentages, Solar Energy,
submitted in August 2010.
[4] Aljofi, E., 2005, The Potentiality of Reflected
Sunlight Through Rawshan Screens,
Proceedings from the International Conference:
Passive and Low Energy Cooling for the Built
Environment, Santorini, Greece.
[5] Lee, E. and Selkowitz, S., 2006, The New York
Times Headquarters Daylighting Mock-up:
Monitored Performance of the Daylighting
Control System, Energy and Buildings, vol. 38,
pp. 914-929.
[6] Hoyano A., 1985, Solar Control by Vine
Sunscreen and its Passive Cooling Effects,
Proceedings of the International Symposium on
Thermal Application of Solar Energy, Hakone,
Japan.
[7] Meckler G., 1979, Energy integrated building
envelopes, Specifying Engineer, Vol. 41 (1), pp.
54-60.
[8] Lindelf, D., 2009, A fast daylight model
suitable for embedded controllers, Solar
Energy, vol. 83, pp. 57 68.
[9] Sutter, Y., Dumortier, D., and Fontoynont, M.,
2006, The use of shading systems in VDU task
offices: A pilot study, Energy and Buildings, vol.
28, pp. 780 789.
[10] Tzempelikos, A., 2008, The impact of venetian
blind geometry and tilt angle on view, direct light
transmission and interior illuminance, Solar
Energy, vol. 82, pp.1172 1191.
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
West East South North
K
W
H
Orientation
H:V= 1:1 H:V= 18:1 Without Screen
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
814 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)


lightshelf and a 3-ft (0.92 M) overhang are integrated
in the south elevation (Figure 2) and the interior
space is divided into six daylit zones The surface
reflectances are: ceiling and walls: 90%; floor: 20%;
lightshelf top and bottom surfaces: 90%; overhang top
and bottom surfaces: 15%; exterior ground
reflectance is assumed at 20%; glazing transmittance:
70%. A scale model (scale: 1:6) is established to
represent a 30X40 (9.14M X 12.19M) portion of the
typical office floor in the building. Annual daylight
levels in each zone are predicted by both DAYSIM
and physical experiments.

Where:
- Ceiling height = 11-2 (3.40M)
- Light shelf length = 6-0 (1.83M)
- Overhang length = 3-0 (0.92M)
- Top of view glazing: 7-2 (2.18M) above the floor
Figure 2: Section view of the lightshelf system

2.2. DAYSIM simulations
Similarly, a virtual model of the building has been
built in a CAD tool, which coincided with the physical
model. Several typical points studied were placed
along the center line of the daylit zones. The weather
file of the site (Raleigh-Durham International Airport)
was used as a typical climate data for the simulation.
With a proper ambient parameter setting, the annual
illuminance profile was first calculated by DAYSIM
3.0.

Figure 3: 3D model prepared in Google Sketch-up for

DAYSIM simulations
2.3. Experimental testing
A physical scale model was constructed by
lightweight materials and placed on a heliodon for
outdoor testing (Figure 4).

Figure 4: The scale model being tested on a heliodon

To simplify the experimental procedures, the

model was only tested under diffuse skies mostly
cloudy sky and blue sky (clear sky without the sun
component) for the following reasons:
- A diffuse sky is a much more reliable light source
than the sun. Sunlight is highly variable depending
on seasons, solar angles and weather conditions.
- Mostly cloudy sky represents the marginal
condition in terms of daylight availability. Testing
systems under mostly cloudy skies is thus crucial
for predicting daylight autonomy (the amount of
time expected to reach a certain light level through
the use of daylight).
- Daylight Factor is defined in the context of a
diffuse sky condition.
- Testing under diffuse skies is much less time
consuming and much more flexible than testing
under various solar angles, since the experiments
can be conducted at any time of the year, even in
winters when the full range of sun angles cannot
be achieved.
To be consistent with the DAYSIM model, a LI-
COR photocell sensor (Model 210L) was installed at
the center of each daylit zone (Sensor Ez1 through
Ez6). An exterior sensor (Ev) was mounted on a
vertical plane facing the same direction as does the
window. Two additional exterior sensors were placed
horizontally to measure global (Eg) and diffuse (Ed,
with a shadow band) illuminances.
The model was first tested under blue sky
condition. To simulate a blue sky condition on a clear
day, the system designed for facing south was rotated
so that it faced only diffuse sky (Figure 5). This
approach allows for the system to be tested only
under diffuse blue sky by eliminating the sun
component. A DF and a CU can then be developed
for each zone to establish the relationship between
the sky and interior illuminances. Using Zone 1 as an
example, the DF and CU are calculated by the
following formulas:
DF1 = Ez1 / Ed
CU1 = Ez1 / Ev
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 815


Shadow-banded horizontal sky illuminance (Ed) is
used in this case to calculate the Daylight Factor,
since diffuse sky light is the only light source for the
system.

Figure 5: Model being tested under blue sky. (The lightshelf

system is designed for south-facing. However, it is
rotated in the experiment to face away from the sun,
towards diffuse sky light only)
The model was also tested on a mostly cloudy day
(Figure 6). Similarly, a DF and a CU can be obtained
for each zone under this sky condition. Again, using
Zone 1 as an example, the DF and CU are calculated
by:
DF1 = Ez1 / Eg
CU1 = Ez1 / Ev
Note that global horizontal sky illuminance (Eg) is
used for calculating the DF, because the sun
component has little contribution under a mostly
cloudy sky. In fact the global and shadow-banded
horizontal measurements are very close in this case.

MOSTLY CLOUDY SKY

Figure 6: Model being tested under mostly cloudy sky

All illuminance data were stored in a Campbell

Scientific CR1000 data logger and then collected by a
laptop computer (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Instrumentation panel mounted on heliodon for
storing and collecting illuminance data
3. DATA ANALYSIS
3.1. Calculating DFs and CUs
Illuminance values measured by the interior and
exterior sensors under both blue sky and mostly
cloudy conditions are displayed in Table 1. A DF and
a CU are then calculated for each of the six interior
daylit zones (Table 1).
Table 1: Interior & sky illuminances and calculations of DFs
and CUs
!"#$%&&'()*+*,-.$/0'12
Skv Lv La Ld
8lue Skv 12,090 33,330 8,130
MosLlv Cloudv 2,296 4,342 4,191
%*3-4)54$%&&'()*+*,-.$/0'12
Skv Lz1 Lz2 Lz3 Lz4 Lz3 Lz6
8lue Skv 1,708 1,134 804 628 323 311
MosLlv Cloudv 260 190 131 96 80 70
67$6+&,'&+3)5*.
Lz1 Lz2 Lz3 Lz4 Lz3 Lz6
Cu-8lue Skv 0.1413 0.0938 0.0663 0.0319 0.0434 0.0423
Cu-MosL Cloudv 0.1134 0.0826 0.0370 0.0418 0.0348 0.0303
Averaaed Cu 0.1273 0.0882 0.0617 0.0469 0.0391 0.0364
89$6+&,'&+3)5*.
Lz1 Lz2 Lz3 Lz4 Lz3 Lz6
ul-8lue Skv 0.2096 0.1391 0.0986 0.0770 0.0644 0.0627
ul-MosL Cloudv 0.0373 0.0418 0.0288 0.0211 0.0176 0.0134
Averaaed ul 0.1333 0.0903 0.0637 0.0491 0.0410 0.0391

3.2. Predicting annual daylight quantities

By multiplying the CUs or DFs by the annual
exterior illuminance data (Ev, Eg, or Ed), hourly
daylight levels in all six zones can be predicted in a
full year. Based this strategy, six methods can be
developed:
1. CU based on blue sky
2. CU based on mostly cloudy sky
3. Averaged CU based on both blue sky and
mostly cloudy sky
4. DF based on blue sky
5. DF based on mostly cloudy sky
6. Averaged DF based on both blue sky and
mostly cloudy sky
The annual exterior illuminance data were made
available by the Daylighting Research Lab at NC
State University. The data set, including hourly Ev, Eg,
and Ed values in a full year (from 5:00am to 7:00pm,
solar time), was collected in a two-year period (1991
& 1992) in Raleigh, North Carolina [6].
Table 2 shows the process of using Method 1 (CU
based on blue sky) to predict hourly illuminances
(Lux) in daylit zones by incorporating south-facing Ev
(Lux) from the annual sky illuminance data set.
Table 2 only shows the calculations for the first
day of the year. When the full year predictions are
completed, the number of hours, during which the
predicted illuminances are above a target illuminance
level (this study assumes 500 Lux, as recommended
by IESNA for general office lighting), are counted in
each zone. These numbers can be used to develop
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
816 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)


Daylight Autonomy, which is one of the important
indicators for climate-based assessments.
Table 2: Using Method 1 (CU based on blue sky) to predict
hourly illuminances (Lux) in daylit zones by multiplying CUs
with the south-facing vertical sky illuminances (Ev in Lux)
from the annual sky illuminance data set.
CU - 8|ue 5ky
!"# $%&'
( )*++
( ,*++
( -*++
( .*++
( /*++
( (+*++
( ((*++
( (0*++
( (1*++
( (2*++
( ()*++
( (,*++
( (-*++
( (.*++
( (/*++
CU - 8|ue 5ky 0.1413 0.0938 0.0665 0.0519 0.0434 0.0423
Lv 34( 340 341 342 34) 34,
0 + + + + + +
0 + + + + + +
66 / , 2 1 1 1
3,074 212 0.. 0+2 (,+ (12 (1+
7,804 (5(+1 -10 )(/ 2+) 11/ 11+
13,424 (5./- (50)/ ./0 ,/- ).1 ),-
12,617 (5-.0 (5(.1 .1/ ,)) )2. )11
28,730 25+)/ 05,/) (5/(+ (52/0 (502. (50(2
29,434 25(). 05-,( (5/), (5)0/ (50-. (5022
64,603 /5(0- ,5+,+ 250/2 151)) 05.+) 05-1(
52,715 -522- 25/2) 15)+2 05-1. 050./ 0500.
11,934 (5,., (5((/ -/1 ,0+ )(. )+2
528 -) )+ 1) 0- 01 00
0 + + + + + +
0 + + + + + +

Annual performances are then assessed by the

rest five methods in a similar fashion, expect that
Methods 1, 2 and 3, which are using CU, are based
on annual vertical sky illuminances, whereas Methods
4, 5 and 6, which are using DF, are based on annual
horizontal sky illuminances.
3.3. Comparing simplified experimental methods
with DAYSIM
Predicted by the six experimental methods and by
the DAYSIM simulations, the numbers of hours, in
which interior illuminances are above 500Lux, are
shown in Table 3. The percentage of the differences
between DAYSIM and each of the experimental
methods are shown in Table 4.
Table 3: The numbers of hours in which interior
illuminances are above 500Lux predicted by DAYSIM and
the six experimental methods
Lz1 Lz2 Lz3 Lz4 Lz3 Lz6
!"#$%& '()*+ '(,-. '(+/. '(/++ *(0+0 *(,/1
Cu-8lueSkv 3,610 3,348 3,101 2,883 2,699 2,678
Cu-MosL Cloudv 3,488 3,242 2,978 2,669 2,306 2,370
Cu-Averaae 3,336 3,298 3,040 2,778 2,620 2,347
ul-8lueSkv 4,049 3,880 3,746 3,633 3,333 3,316
ul-MosL Cloudv 3,463 3,224 2,890 2,393 2,389 2,214
ul-Averaae 3,871 3,716 3,340 3,371 3,224 3,183

Table 4: Percentage of differences when comparing results

from the experimental methods with those from DAYSIM
Lz1 Lz2 Lz3 Lz4 Lz3 Lz6
!"#$%& ' ' ' ' ' '
Cu-8lueSkv -3.6 -7.4 -8.9 -3.2 -1.7 2.6
Cu-MosL Cloudv -8.8 -10.3 -12.3 -12.3 -8.8 -9.2
Cu-Averaae -7.0 -8.8 -10.7 -8.7 -4.6 -2.4
ul-8lueSkv 3.9 7.3 10.0 19.4 28.6 34.8
ul-MosL Cloudv -9.4 -10.8 -13.1 -14.8 -13.0 -13.1
ul-Averaae 1.2 2.8 4.0 10.7 17.4 22.0

To estimate how close the results are between
DAYSIM and experimental methods, the Sums of
Squares of the differences between DAYSIM and
each of the experimental methods in all six zones are
calculated. For example, the Sum of Squares for
Method 1 (CU based on blue sky) is calculated by:

Sum of Squares = (3610 3824) + (3348 3615) +

(3101 3405) + (2885 3044) +
(2699 2747) + (2678 2609)
=241847

Table 5 shows the Sums of Squares for all six
methods.
Table 5: Sums of Squares of the differences between
DAYSIM and each experimental method in all six zones
Lz1 Lz2 Lz3 Lz4 Lz3 Lz6 !"#$%&$!'
Cu-8lueSkv 43,796 71,289 92,416 23,281 2,304 4,761 ()*+,)-
Cu-MosL Cloudv 112,896 139,129 182,329 140,623 38,081 37,121 ./0+*,*
Cu-Averaae 71,824 100,489 133,223 70,736 16,129 3,844 1/.+(.-
ul-8lueSkv 30,623 70,223 116,281 349,281 617,796 822,649 (+0(.+,2-
ul-MosL Cloudv 128,881 132,881 263,223 201,601 128,164 136,023 *+01(+---
ul-Averaae 2,209 10,201 18,223 106,929 227,329 329,476 ./)+2./

A smaller Sum of Squares indicates a closer

match. Apparently Method 1 CU based on Blue Sky
generates the closest results to DAYSIM. This trend
is also illustrated in Figure 8, which visually presents
the same information as in Table 3.

Figure 8: The numbers of hours in which interior

illuminances are above 500Lux predicted by DAYSIM and
the six experimental methods
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 817


4. CONCLUSION
Although computer-based simulation is
increasingly used for daylighting studies, conducting
physical experiments is still crucial for this type of
research, because light quality and spatial perception
can be difficult to assess by computer simulations. A
large enough scale model, such as the one used in
this study, allows people to assess light quality by
observing through the view ports provided on the
walls, so that the observer can be immersed in the
luminous surround.
As mentioned earlier, measuring annual light
quantity by physical testing can be difficult, since
monitoring a design on a year-around basis is
extremely time consuming. However, as proven by
this study, if DAYSIM is used as the benchmark,
certain simplified experimental methods (testing
systems under diffuse skies only) can be reasonably
accurate for climate-based light quantity assessments
in a daylight climate similar to Raleigh, North
Carolina. This is significant and reassuring in that,
without solar angles involved, testing systems under
diffuse skies can be fairly quick. The system in this
study was tested on two days, a clear day and a
mostly cloudy day.
Of the two groups of experimental methods CU
based and DF based, results show the former
generally provides closer predictions to DAYSIM.
Especially, Method 1 CU based on blue sky
generates the closest match. A CU relates the interior
illuminance to exterior vertical illuminance, while a DF
relates the interior illuminance to exterior horizontal
illuminance. The exterior horizontal illuminance under
clear skies only depends on solar altitude, which
makes the factor of building orientation out of the
question, whereas exterior vertical illuminance under
clear skies depends on both solar altitude and
azimuth. The exterior vertical illuminance provides a
measurement of how much light actually enters the
room through wall-based apertures [7]. Vertical
illuminance should be a better indicator of lighting
conditions outside when assessing sidelighting
designs, which are highly dependent upon building
orientation. Currently DF is used in LEED as the
performance indicator for evaluating all daylighting
systems. It is our recommendation to re-evaluate this
method of certification.
5. LIMITATIONS & FUTURE RESEARCH
There are certainly possibilities for errors in both
computational simulations and the physical testing.
The divergences might occur at the geometric and
photometric characteristics between physical models
and computer models [8, 9].
Small errors could be caused by the random
nature of the ray tracing process [10] or the sky model
generation from solar radiation data. The site for the
experiments is generally open, but there are minor
blockage of the sky due to the surrounding buildings
and vegetation.
Useful Daylight Illuminances (UDI) can be a better
performance indicator than the Daylight Autonomy
method used in this study. UDI is defined as the
annual occurrence of illuminances at any given point
on the work plane that are within a range considered
useful by occupants (e.g. 100 Lux to 2000 Lux).
Light levels above 2000 Lux can be a source of
discomfort. Therefore, the UDI approach can be a
more effective indicator than Daylight Autonomy,
since it addresses not only the lower limit but also the
upper limit of the useful daylight range.
As the next step of this research, it is our proposal
to monitor the models of typical sidelighting and
toplighting systems for one year and to measure
daylight climate data (e.g. sky illuminances and
irradiances) simultaneously, so that the concurrent
data of the systems and the skies at the same
location can provide a solid basis for evaluating any
simplified experimental methods and computer
simulations on various types of daylighting systems.
6. REFERENCES
[1] Mardaljevic, J., Examples of Climate-Based
Daylight Modelling, CIBSE National Conference
2006: Engineering the Future.
[2] Reinhart C F, Walkenhorst O, Dynamic
RADIANCE-based daylight simulations for a full-
scale test office with outer venetian blinds.
Energy & Buildings, 33:7 pp. 683-697, 2001.
[3] Reinhart C F, Herkel S, The simulation of annual
daylight illuminance distributions a state-of-the-
art comparison of six Radiance-based methods.
Energy & Buildings, 32 pp. 167-187, 2000.
[4] Brackett, W., Daylighting Coefficient of
Utilization Tables, 83.038, AD-A134028. Port
Hueneme, CA: Naval Civil Engineering
Laboratory, 1983.
[5] Hu, J., The design and assessment of advanced
daylighting systems integrated with typical
interior layouts in multi-story office buildings,
Doctoral Dissertation, North Carolina State
University, 2003.
[6] Place, W., Howard, T., and S. Howard, Daylight
Resource Data for Illuminating Building Interiors
in North Carolina, North Carolina Alternative
Energy Corporation, 1992.
[7] Li, D. and J. Lam, Measurements of Solar
Radiation and Illuminance on Vertical Surfaces
and Daylighting Implications, Renewable
Energy, 20 pp. 2000.
[8] Thanachareonkit, A., Scartezzini, J-L., Andersen,
M., "Comparing daylighting performance
assessment of buildings in scale models and test
modules", Solar energy, 79 pp. 168-182. 2005
[9] Thanachareonkit, A., Comparing physical and
virtual methods for daylight performance
modelling including complex fenestration
systems, PhD, EPFL, Switzerland, 2008.
[10] Ward, G. L., & Shakespeare, R., Rendering with
Radiance: The art and science of lighting
visualization. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc.
1998.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 819


Investigation of 3D projection
for qualitative evaluation of daylit spaces
Coralie CAUWERTS
1
, Magali BODART
1

1
Architecture et Climat, Universit catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
ABSTRACT: This paper presents the results of a study that investigates 3D projection for lighting quality
evaluations. Thirty-nine participants forming groups of three visited eight daylit rooms and rated them through
seven-grade bipolar scales. During the visit of each room, a series of pictures were taken at different exposure
time. Then, they were combined to reconstitute HDR pictures capturing scene luminances. A global tone-mapping
operator mimicking the human visual system was then applied to the resulting HDR pictures to compress the range
of real world luminances to that of the projector. In the second place, participants rated through the same
questionnaire the pictures projected in 2D and in 3D. Finally, they chose which kind of projection was the more
realistic. Comparison of subjective ratings issued from the visit of real spaces, and from 2D and 3D projections of
these scenes suggests that projected tone-mapped pictures can be used for lighting evaluation of bright scenes.
Dim scenes whose luminances are much lower than those available with the projection presented significant
differences of scores. In addition, even if some scenes are judged more realistic in 3D than in 2D, subjective ratings
are not significantly different according to the kind of projection.
Keywords: lighting quality evaluation, HDR imaging, tone mapping, stereoscopy, 3D projection.
1. INTRODUCTION
Several studies have demonstrated that pictures
could be used as a substitute in lighting evaluation of
real spaces. Some worked with 2D projections but did
not deal with the question of luminance [1, 2, 3].
Some others considered that it was important to
display real luminances [4, 5].
The present study investigated 3D projections in
the frame of a research exploring factors influencing
luminous quality and visual interest of daylit spaces.
Luminance issue is addressed by applying a global
tone mapping operator to HDR pictures taken in the
real space. This tone mapping aims at reproducing
visual impressions similar to those felt in the real
space [6].
Three dimensional projections on a large screen are a
way to improve realism of the pictures and can help
the immersion of the observer in the projected space.
In fact, linear perspective, treatment of shadows and
atmospheric perspective are already clues helping the
human brain to recreate depth in 2D pictures.
Stereoscopic pictures (3D pictures), in mimicking
natural binocular vision of humans, still increase the
illusion of relief in introducing the third dimension on
the 2D medium [7].
The aims of the present study were to determine if
luminous impressions felt in the real space were well
reproduced with projections and if subjective ratings
were closer to the reality with 3D projections than with
2D projections.
2. STEREOSCOPIC PRINCIPLE
Stereoscopic principle consists in delivering two
slightly different pictures to the eyes, mimicking
human binocular vision. In this research, polarized
projection on a large screen was used to deliver these
two different pictures, the large screen helping the

immersion of the observer in the projected space.
Pictures were projected superimposed onto the
screen, each projector providing a picture for an eye,
and polarized glasses ensuring that each eye sees
the picture which was designed for it. In 3D
projection, perceived depth of an object (A or B) is
directly proportional to screen disparity which is the
distance (AlAr and BlBr) between two corresponding
points of the left and right pictures, projected on the
screen (fig.1).

Fig.1: Stereoscopic principle a) A seems behind the screen
b) B seems in front of the screen.
In this experiment, the screen disparity was set,
for each scene, to produce realistic space.
3. METHOD
The experiment was divided in two sessions: the
visit of the real spaces and the projection of pictures
taken in these spaces. The first part of the experiment
took place at the Vinci building of the faculty of
Architecture in Louvain-la-Neuve (5040N 437E).
Participants were invited to visit eight daylit rooms of
the building and to rate them through 14 seven-grade
bipolar scales. One week later, they evaluated the
same spaces projected on a large screen, in 2D and
in 3D.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
820 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)


3.1. Participants
Participants were recruited by emails and were
not paid. The email explained briefly the purpose of
the study without saying any word about 3D
projection, to avoid recruiting people with a particular
interest in this kind of projection.
Thirty-nine participants (20 females), forming
groups of three and aged between 20 and 62, took
part to the study. Nineteen participants worked or
studied in the building. Fifteen were architects or
students in architecture. Thirty participants viewed 2D
projections before 3D projections.
3.2. Daylit spaces
The experiment took place at the end of June and
at the end of July. Thirty-eight percents of visits were
fixed at noon; other visits took place between 9.00
and 17.00. On average, six days separated the visit of
the real space and the day of the projection. Visit of
the real spaces took about 30 minutes and the
projection, 45 minutes. Visit of the real space always
took place before the projection in order to project
pictures taken during the visit.
3.2.1. Real spaces
Participants, forming groups of three, visited the
eight rooms in the same order: lobby, staircase,
mezzanine, second floor corridor, Pepermans
meeting room, first floor corridor, 2-person office and
library. Rooms presented different patterns and levels
of luminances. During the visit of each group, a series
of low dynamic range (LDR) pictures were taken at
different exposure time, in order to recompose high
dynamic range (HDR) pictures. Pictures were taken at
160cm from the floor which corresponds to the
Belgian average eye height [8]. The camera used in
this study is a FUJIFILM FinePix Real 3D W1 and is
the first device with double lenses on the market
capturing simultaneously two pictures, one for each
eye.
The angle shots were identical for all the groups.
However, in the mezzanine, the position of the
camera was modified during the experiment in order
to improve 3D pictures. In the office, it is the
inclination of the camera which was modify for the
same reason. In each room, observers were standing
at a fixed position and were asked to look in a
particular direction and not to move their head during
the rating. In this way, their field of view was as close
as possible to those captured by the camera.
3.2.2. Projections
Spaces were projected in the same order than the
visit. Each group of three participants viewed
specifically pictures taken during their visit of the
rooms.
The projection room (fig.2) was equipped with two
LCD projectors (Barco iQ R500) and a polarizing
filter. The two projectors were necessary for the 3D
projection while only one of the projectors was turned
on for the 2D projection. Pictures were projected on a
non-depolarizing screen. Black curtains were placed
around the screen to favorize the immersion in the
picture and to reduce reflections in the room.

Fig.2: Projection room.
During the projections, observers were standing in
order to be in the same position than in the real
space. Position of the observer was indicated by
marks on the ground and was chosen in order that 3D
pictures looked fine and that cast shadows of the
observer on the screen were avoided. Luminance
correction of projected pictures had been determined
according to this position in the room.
3.3. Creation of projected pictures
Before their projection, HDR pictures taken during
the visit had been processed in order that luminances
projected on the screen and viewed through passive
glasses were as close as possible to real world
luminances captured by HDR imaging techniques.
3.3.1. HDR pictures
LDR pictures were combined in HDR pictures
capturing real world luminances, according to the
method described in [9, 10] and using the hdrgen
command-line in Radiance [11].
3.3.2. Luminance correction
Performances of the display device were
determined in projecting successively black and white
backgrounds with each projector. Luminances on the
screen were measured using HDR techniques and a
luminance meter.
Variation of luminances on the screen, due to the
projection technology, was observed. A filter was
determined to correct it [12]. This filter reduces
luminances in the center of the screen, increases
luminances near the border and fixes maximal
displayable luminance to 300cd/m. Measured
minimum display luminance was equal to 7cd/m.
As it was not possible to display the entire range
of real world luminances with the chosen technology,
HDR pictures were tone-mapped to reduce luminance
range in creating pictures reproducing visual
impressions felt in the real space.
A global tone mapping operator mimicking the
human visual system was used to compress the
range of real world luminances to that of the
projectors [6, 13]. This tone mapping was realized
using the Radiance pcond command-line.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 821


Finally, luminances of the picture were overall
increased by 15% to counter the wearing of passive
glasses.
3.4. Measures
3.4.1. Luminances
HDR pictures, recomposed on the basis of
pictures taken in the real space, inform about
repartition and level of luminances in the room.
3.4.2. Illuminances
During the visit of each group and for each room,
horizontal and vertical illuminances at eye height
were measured with a lux meter.
3.4.3. Subjective evaluation
Rooms were rated by each participant through 14
seven-grade bipolar scales. The same questionnaire
(fig.3) was distributed for the visit of the real spaces
and for each type of projection.
The questionnaire contained ten bipolar adjective
scales and four questions oriented on the general
satisfaction of space and light. The questionnaire was
developed on the basis of the work of [14, 15, 16, 17,
18, 19].

Fig.3: Questionnaire (translated from French).
4. RESULTS
4.1. Luminances
A global tone-mapping operator adapted
luminances of the real scene to the performances of
the display devices (see fig.4 and fig.5).

Fig.4: Luminances of the 2-person office
(a) before and (b) after tone-mapping

Fig.5: Luminances of the second floor corridor
(a) before and (b) after tone-mapping
4.2. Level of illuminance
The second floor corridor is the darkest space. It
is followed by the library, the staircase, the
mezzanine and the first floor corridor. The Pepermans
meeting room, the 2-person office and the lobby
present the highest horizontal and vertical
illuminances (see fig.6).

Fig.6: Horizontal and vertical illuminances at eye height.
4.3. Frequency histogram of scores
The analysis of the frequency of scores of each
question (all the rooms together) reveals that two
questions (Stimulating/Relaxing and Tense/Relaxed)
present a higher frequency of neutral responses.
During the visit, some participants said that they had
some difficulty to take a decision because they found
that the space was neither the first adjective nor the
second.
4.4. Mean scores
Mean scores of all participants, for each room and
each question was calculated for the three different
300

200

100

0 cd/m
300

200

100

0 cd/m


3.1. Participants
Participants were recruited by emails and were
not paid. The email explained briefly the purpose of
the study without saying any word about 3D
projection, to avoid recruiting people with a particular
interest in this kind of projection.
Thirty-nine participants (20 females), forming
groups of three and aged between 20 and 62, took
part to the study. Nineteen participants worked or
studied in the building. Fifteen were architects or
students in architecture. Thirty participants viewed 2D
projections before 3D projections.
3.2. Daylit spaces
The experiment took place at the end of June and
at the end of July. Thirty-eight percents of visits were
fixed at noon; other visits took place between 9.00
and 17.00. On average, six days separated the visit of
the real space and the day of the projection. Visit of
the real spaces took about 30 minutes and the
projection, 45 minutes. Visit of the real space always
took place before the projection in order to project
pictures taken during the visit.
3.2.1. Real spaces
Participants, forming groups of three, visited the
eight rooms in the same order: lobby, staircase,
mezzanine, second floor corridor, Pepermans
meeting room, first floor corridor, 2-person office and
library. Rooms presented different patterns and levels
of luminances. During the visit of each group, a series
of low dynamic range (LDR) pictures were taken at
different exposure time, in order to recompose high
dynamic range (HDR) pictures. Pictures were taken at
160cm from the floor which corresponds to the
Belgian average eye height [8]. The camera used in
this study is a FUJIFILM FinePix Real 3D W1 and is
the first device with double lenses on the market
capturing simultaneously two pictures, one for each
eye.
The angle shots were identical for all the groups.
However, in the mezzanine, the position of the
camera was modified during the experiment in order
to improve 3D pictures. In the office, it is the
inclination of the camera which was modify for the
same reason. In each room, observers were standing
at a fixed position and were asked to look in a
particular direction and not to move their head during
the rating. In this way, their field of view was as close
as possible to those captured by the camera.
3.2.2. Projections
Spaces were projected in the same order than the
visit. Each group of three participants viewed
specifically pictures taken during their visit of the
rooms.
The projection room (fig.2) was equipped with two
LCD projectors (Barco iQ R500) and a polarizing
filter. The two projectors were necessary for the 3D
projection while only one of the projectors was turned
on for the 2D projection. Pictures were projected on a
non-depolarizing screen. Black curtains were placed
around the screen to favorize the immersion in the
picture and to reduce reflections in the room.

Fig.2: Projection room.
During the projections, observers were standing in
order to be in the same position than in the real
space. Position of the observer was indicated by
marks on the ground and was chosen in order that 3D
pictures looked fine and that cast shadows of the
observer on the screen were avoided. Luminance
correction of projected pictures had been determined
according to this position in the room.
3.3. Creation of projected pictures
Before their projection, HDR pictures taken during
the visit had been processed in order that luminances
projected on the screen and viewed through passive
glasses were as close as possible to real world
luminances captured by HDR imaging techniques.
3.3.1. HDR pictures
LDR pictures were combined in HDR pictures
capturing real world luminances, according to the
method described in [9, 10] and using the hdrgen
command-line in Radiance [11].
3.3.2. Luminance correction
Performances of the display device were
determined in projecting successively black and white
backgrounds with each projector. Luminances on the
screen were measured using HDR techniques and a
luminance meter.
Variation of luminances on the screen, due to the
projection technology, was observed. A filter was
determined to correct it [12]. This filter reduces
luminances in the center of the screen, increases
luminances near the border and fixes maximal
displayable luminance to 300cd/m. Measured
minimum display luminance was equal to 7cd/m.
As it was not possible to display the entire range
of real world luminances with the chosen technology,
HDR pictures were tone-mapped to reduce luminance
range in creating pictures reproducing visual
impressions felt in the real space.
A global tone mapping operator mimicking the
human visual system was used to compress the
range of real world luminances to that of the
projectors [6, 13]. This tone mapping was realized
using the Radiance pcond command-line.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
822 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)


types of presentation (real space, 2D projection and
3D projection).
Fish-eye view, projected picture (for left eye) and
mean score for each type of presentation are showed
in fig.7 and fig.8 for two different spaces: the 2-person
office and the second floor corridor.



Fig.7: View of the 2-person office and mean scores.



Fig.8: View of the second floor corridor and mean scores.
4.5. Mean absolute error (MAE)
The mean absolute error (MAE) between scores
given in the real space and respectively those given
during the 2D projection and the 3D projection was
firstly calculated over all rooms, for each question
separately. For the 2D projection, MAE varies
between 0.72 (question #9) and 1.48 (question #3)
with a mean of 1.11. For the 3D projection, it varies
between 0.86 (question #8) and 1.45 (question #3)
with a mean of 1.10.
MAE was then calculated over all questions, for
each room separately. The Pepermans meeting room
and the 2-person office present smallest MAE while
the second floor and the first floor corridor the highest
MAE.
Differences between 2D and 3D projections are
minor and vary between 0.003 (question #8) and 0.17
(question #9) with a mean of 0.06.
4.6. Analyses of variance
Subjective ratings were analyzed using R software
[20]. A series of multivariate and univariate analyses
of variance (MANOVA and ANOVA) were conducted
to determine if differences of score given in the real
space and for each type of projection were significant.
Differences are statistically significant when p <
0.05(*), very significant when p<0.01(**) and
extremely significant when p<0.001(***). To address
the problem of multiple comparisons (ANOVAs), p-
values were adapted using the Bonferroni correction
[21].
A first two-way presentation type x room
MANOVA revealed a statistically significant
interaction (p=0.018) between the type of projection
and the room, suggesting that the room influences the
effect of the presentation type.
We conducted then a series of 1-way MANOVA,
for each room separately, to evaluate for which room
differences of scores (real space vs 2D projection,
real space vs 3D projection and 2D projection vs 3D
projection) were significant. This analysis shows
significant differences between scores for the library
(real vs 2D: p=0.00329** and real vs 3D: 3.82e-05***),
for the second floor corridor (real vs 2D: p=1.078e-
08***and real vs 3D: 6.722e-07***) and for the
staircase (real vs 2D: p=0.001010** and real vs 3D:
0.0003362***).
The first floor corridor and the lobby present
statistically significant differences between scores
given in the real space and the 3D projection. While
the Pepermans meeting room presents statistically
significant differences between scores given in the
real space and those issued from the 2D projection.
The 2-person office and the mezzanine do not
present significant differences neither between real
space and 2D projection nor between real space and
3D projection.
The conducted 1-way projection type (2D vs 3D)
MANOVA showed that differences between 2D and
3D scores are not significant.
A series of 1-way ANOVAs, for each room
separately, was finally conducted to evaluate which
question presented significant differences (see Table
1). Question #1 (Bright/Dim), question #3 (Glaring/Not
glaring), question #4 (Stimulating/Relaxing), question
#12 (Light satisfaction), question #13 (Quality of light)
and question #14 (Quantity of light) present very or
extremely significant differences. Questions #2
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 823


(Pleasant/Unpleasant) and questions #11 (Space
satisfaction) present statistically significant
differences while questions #5 to #10 never present
significant differences.
Table 1: Results of the 1-way presentation type (real vs. 2D
and real vs. 3D) ANOVAs.
Q
u
e
s
t
i
o
n

R
e
a
l

v
s
.

L
o
b
b
y

S
t
a
i
r
c
a
s
e

M
e
z
z
a
n
i
n
e

2
n
d

f
l
o
o
r

c
o
r
r
i
d
o
r

P
e
p
e
r
m
a
n
s

r
o
o
m

1
s
t

f
l
o
o
r

c
o
r
r
i
d
o
r

2
-
p
e
r
s
o
n

o
f
f
i
c
e

L
i
b
r
a
r
y

Q1
2D *** ***
3D *** * ***
Q2
2D
3D *
Q3
2D ** ***
3D ** ***
Q4
2D **
3D * **
Q5
2D
3D
Q6
2D
3D
Q7
2D
3D
Q8
2D
3D
Q9
2D
3D
Q10
2D
3D
Q11
2D *
3D
Q12
2D *** ** *
3D ** ** **
Q13
2D *
3D **
Q14
2D *** *
3D *** *
Differences: * Significant ** Very signif. *** Extremely signif.

The second floor corridor and library present
significant differences for several questions while
staircase present significant differences for the
question #3 (Glaring-Not glaring). First floor corridor
presents significant differences for questions about
general satisfaction of light and space. Lobby,
mezzanine, Pepermans meeting room and 2-person
office do not present significant differences of scores
(real vs. 2D and real vs. 3D).
4.7. Chi-square test
Chi-squared test was used to evaluate the realism
of 2D and 3D projections. Participants were invited to
choose, for each scene, which projection seemed
more realistic. Three rooms were significantly judged
as more realistic in 3D than in 2D: the first floor
corridor, the lobby and the mezzanine (see Table 2).
Table 2: Results of the Chi-square test
Room
Number of
participants who
judged the room
more realistic

2D 3D
Lobby 10 22 4.50 *
Staircase 18 15 0.27
Mezzanine 12 24 4.00 *
2nd floor corridor 13 20 1.48
Pepermans room 15 12 0.33
1st floor corridor 11 24 4.83 *
2-person office 19 15 0.47
Library 14 17 0.29
Signif.: *=p<0.05 ; **=p<0.01 ; ***=p<0.001
5. DISCUSSION
Our hypothesis was that 3D projections, in
increasing realism of the pictures would help the
immersion of the observer in the projected picture and
reduce differences of subjective ratings between
projections and real space.
The creation of high quality 3D pictures requires
some supplementary adjustments than 2D pictures.
Perspective should not be exaggerated but should be
sufficient to be perceived and geometric and
luminance discordances should be avoided. Before
each projection, pictures were visualized to determine
the better screen disparity and to correct white pixels
appeared at the creation of the picture.
Three rooms among eight were judged more
realistic in 3D: the first floor corridor, the lobby and
the mezzanine. The first floor corridor presented a
view framed by a window. This frame was redrawn
with the screen of the projection. Lobby and
mezzanine were the two larger visited spaces.
But even if some rooms are judged more realistic
in 3D, analyses showed that there are no significant
differences between 2D and 3D projections.
First floor corridor, library and staircase are the
three darkest rooms visited. They are also the three
rooms presenting extremely significant differences of
scores between real space and projections. When
luminances of the scene were low i.e. inferior to the
performances of the display device, tone-mapping
increased overall luminance of the picture (see fig. 4
and 5). That is the case for the staircase, the second
floor corridor and the library. These three spaces are
globally judged more luminous and/or glaring with the
projections. The chosen tone-mapping is not adapted
to this kind of dark spaces. Moreover the presence of
sun rays in the scene increased contrast in tone-
mapped pictures which seemed more glaring. That
means that glare could not be evaluated when
contrast in the projected scenes is too high.
The mezzanine, the 2-person office and the
Pepermans room do not present significant
differences of subjective ratings between real space,
2D and 3D projections. The lobby and the first floor
corridor present some slight differences. These five
rooms are the most luminous visited rooms.


types of presentation (real space, 2D projection and
3D projection).
Fish-eye view, projected picture (for left eye) and
mean score for each type of presentation are showed
in fig.7 and fig.8 for two different spaces: the 2-person
office and the second floor corridor.



Fig.7: View of the 2-person office and mean scores.



Fig.8: View of the second floor corridor and mean scores.
4.5. Mean absolute error (MAE)
The mean absolute error (MAE) between scores
given in the real space and respectively those given
during the 2D projection and the 3D projection was
firstly calculated over all rooms, for each question
separately. For the 2D projection, MAE varies
between 0.72 (question #9) and 1.48 (question #3)
with a mean of 1.11. For the 3D projection, it varies
between 0.86 (question #8) and 1.45 (question #3)
with a mean of 1.10.
MAE was then calculated over all questions, for
each room separately. The Pepermans meeting room
and the 2-person office present smallest MAE while
the second floor and the first floor corridor the highest
MAE.
Differences between 2D and 3D projections are
minor and vary between 0.003 (question #8) and 0.17
(question #9) with a mean of 0.06.
4.6. Analyses of variance
Subjective ratings were analyzed using R software
[20]. A series of multivariate and univariate analyses
of variance (MANOVA and ANOVA) were conducted
to determine if differences of score given in the real
space and for each type of projection were significant.
Differences are statistically significant when p <
0.05(*), very significant when p<0.01(**) and
extremely significant when p<0.001(***). To address
the problem of multiple comparisons (ANOVAs), p-
values were adapted using the Bonferroni correction
[21].
A first two-way presentation type x room
MANOVA revealed a statistically significant
interaction (p=0.018) between the type of projection
and the room, suggesting that the room influences the
effect of the presentation type.
We conducted then a series of 1-way MANOVA,
for each room separately, to evaluate for which room
differences of scores (real space vs 2D projection,
real space vs 3D projection and 2D projection vs 3D
projection) were significant. This analysis shows
significant differences between scores for the library
(real vs 2D: p=0.00329** and real vs 3D: 3.82e-05***),
for the second floor corridor (real vs 2D: p=1.078e-
08***and real vs 3D: 6.722e-07***) and for the
staircase (real vs 2D: p=0.001010** and real vs 3D:
0.0003362***).
The first floor corridor and the lobby present
statistically significant differences between scores
given in the real space and the 3D projection. While
the Pepermans meeting room presents statistically
significant differences between scores given in the
real space and those issued from the 2D projection.
The 2-person office and the mezzanine do not
present significant differences neither between real
space and 2D projection nor between real space and
3D projection.
The conducted 1-way projection type (2D vs 3D)
MANOVA showed that differences between 2D and
3D scores are not significant.
A series of 1-way ANOVAs, for each room
separately, was finally conducted to evaluate which
question presented significant differences (see Table
1). Question #1 (Bright/Dim), question #3 (Glaring/Not
glaring), question #4 (Stimulating/Relaxing), question
#12 (Light satisfaction), question #13 (Quality of light)
and question #14 (Quantity of light) present very or
extremely significant differences. Questions #2
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
824 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)


6. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
This study shows that projected tone-mapped
pictures can be a substitute for real space if this one
is not too dim. Indeed, subjective ratings in brighter
rooms are similar using the projection than in the real
space. But, visual impressions felt in dark rooms are
not well reproduced with projections of tone-mapped
pictures. Projected dark rooms seem brighter than
real spaces, and contrasted scenes, more glaring.
The chosen global tone-mapped operator and
projection technology are not well adapted to lighting
evaluation of dark rooms.
In addition, this study demonstrated that some
scenes are judged more realistic with the 3D
projection than with the 2D projection. However, this
realism does not influence subjective ratings:
differences of rating between 2D and 3D projections
are not significant.
Experiment will be reiterated with a 3D LCD
display (Samsung 2233rz, 1680*1050, 22 inches,
120Hz) which is smaller than the screen in the
projection room but which offers a more uniform
luminance distribution and higher contrasts. Tone-
mapping will be adapted to this display and pictures
will be rated, by the same participants, in 2D and in
3D.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was supported by the Belgian
Research National Foundation (FNRS). We thank the
Communications and Remote Sensing Laboratory
(TELE) of the Universit catholique de Louvain (UCL)
for the access to their projection room and are
particularly grateful to Benot Michel and Rony Darazi
for their precious advice in the field of stereoscopy.
REFERENCES
[1] Lo W, Steemers K (2009), The art of brightness
and darkness: a critical investigation on
daylighting quality, Proceedings of the Passive
and Low Energy Architecture (PLEA) 2009
Conference, Quebec City - Canada.
[2] Oi N (2005), The difference among generations
in evaluating interior lighting environment,
Journal of Physiological Anthropology and
applied Human Science 24, 87-91.
[3] Hendrick C, Martyniuk O, Spenser T, Flynn J
(1977), Procedures for investigating the effect of
light on impression: simulation of a real space by
slides, Environment and behavior 9(4), 491-510.
[4] Newsham G, Richardson C , Blanchet C, Veitch
J (2005), Lighting quality research using
rendered images of offices, Lighting Research
and Technology 37(2), 93-115.
[5] Newsham G, Cetegen D, Veitch J, Whitehead L
(2010), Comparing lighting quality evaluations of
real scenes with those from high dynamic range
and conventional images, ACM Transactions on
Applied Perception 7(2), 1-25.
[6] Larson G W, Rushmeier H, Piatko C (1997), A
Visibility Matching Tone Reproduction Operator
for High Dynamic Range Scenes, IEEE
Transactions on Visualization and Computer
Graphics 3(4), 291-306.
[7] Sakata H, Tsutsui K, Taira M (2003),
Representation of the 3D world in art and in the
brain, International Congress Series 1250, 15-35.
[8] http://www.dinbelg.be/anthropometry.htm
[9] Inanici M (2006), Evaluation of high dynamic
range photography as a luminance data
acquisition system, Lighting Research and
technology 38(2), 123-136.
[10] Jacobs A (2007), High Dynamic Range Imaging
and its Application in Building Research,
Advances in Building Energy Research 1(1), 177-
202.
[11] Radiance software (http://radsite.lbl.gov/)
[12] Cauwerts C, Bodart M (2010), Luminance
correction of 3D projection pictures for qualitative
evaluation of daylit spaces, Proceedings of
Illuminating Engineering Society of North
America 2010 Annual Conference, Toronto
Canada.
[13] Reinhard E, Ward G, Pattanaik S, Debevec P
(2005), High Dynamic Range Imaging:
Acquisition, Display, and Image-Based Lighting,
The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer
Graphics, 246-252.
[14] Flynn JE, Spencer TJ, Martyniuk O, Hendrick C
(1973), Interim study of procedures for
investigating the effect of light on impression and
behavior, Lighting design and application, 16-17.
[15] Flynn JE, Spencer TJ, Martyniuk O, Hendrick C
(1973), Interim study of procedures for
investigating the effect of light on impression and
behavior, Journal of the Illuminating Engineering
Society 3(1), 87-94.
[16] Loe DL, Mansfield KP, Rowlands E (1994),
Appearance of lit environment and its relevance
in lighting design: experimental study, Lighting
Research and Technology 26(3), 119-133.
[17] Newsham G, Marchand R, Veitch J (2004),
Preferred surface luminances in offices, by
evolution, Journal of the illuminating engineering
society 33(1), 14-29.
[18] Blow-Hbe H (1994), Subjective reactions to
daylight in rooms: effect of using low-emittance
coatings on window, Lighting Research and
Technology 27(1), 37-44.
[19] Dubois MC, Cantin F, Johnsen K (2007), The
effect of coated glazing on visual perception: a
pilot study using scale models, Lighting Research
and Technology 39(3), 283-304.
[20] R software (www.r-project.org)
[21] Rice W.R. (1989), Analyzing tables of statistical
tests, Evolution 43(1), 223-225.
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 825
The potential daylight penetration in deep plan
offices
Viktoria Lytra
Technological Educational Institute (T.E.I.) of Athens, Greece
ABSTRACT: This paper investigates the potential daylight penetration in deep plan offices in Northern Europe.
The goal of the present work is to define the term daylight passive zone in a building and form understanding of
parameters that influence the depth of this zone. Initial for this paper was an observation of an architectural
office in London, whose lighting performance is not as it should be according to existing literature. Parameters
for further study were chosen after checking literature lighting standards. A typical office space has been
modelled and simulated using Ecotect and Radiance software respectively while parametric simulations have
been undertaken to estimate the impact of different factors, such as window size, external obstruction level and
reflectance values, on daylight levels and penetration depth. From all tests it was assumed that the optimum
required 300lux for office work reaches in depth approximately the room height at most cases and rarely gets
beyond one and a half time the window head height in deep plan offices.
Keywords: daylight, passive zone
1. INTRODUCTION
The importance of daylighting in architectural
design is well known. Generally, it is widely accepted
that natural light not only reduces energy costs and
enhances visual quality but also improves workers
performance according to several studies. A typical
practical limit for daylight penetration (from side
windows) in buildings is approximately 6-9m (rule of
Thumb) or equal to two times the window head
height [1], given that the space meets some
premises given below. The passive zone which is
created, i.e. the potential passively daylit zone, is
defined as the limited area near windows which
receives the required light levels 300lux for office
work [2].
The lighting performance analysis of a deep plan
office was the initial for further study of this rule. It is
about an architectural office in Covent Garden in
London, and specifically its 1
st
floor with an open
deep plan (width=12m, length=15m, floor
area=192,5m
2
, height = 3,8m). It is almost single lit
from east side with a window area of 11,3m
2
and
window head height equal to 3,4m. South windows
are not taken into account since they are facing a
shaft with almost no light. After being monitored with
spot measurements on 17
th
October 2008, it was
observed that illuminance levels from east windows,
facing the courtyard, fall off rapidly as somebody
moves deeper into the room, away from the window
wall (Fig. 1).

Figure 1: Section of daylight levels from spot measurement
in architectural office.
In spot 10 (Fig. 1) in the afternoon the illuminance
increases because the light is on above this specific
point. The passive zone - the potential light
penetration zone as referred above - was monitored
to exceed not more than three meters in depth even
if the windows are located high in window wall [3],
which is the basic parameter for sufficient light
penetration [4]. More specifically, the 300 lux
required for office work is available only up to 2,9m
(Fig. 2) from the windows instead of 6,8m as it was
expected.


Figure 2: Floor plan with indicated passive zone
(overcast sky). (Source: Choudhary, Limpou, Lytra,
Sarkar, 2009)
Some questions, such as which is actually the
potential passive zone in deep plan offices, which
parameters and up to which extend they influence its
depth, has raised from this observation and are
going to be studied further. The method to
investigate this hypothesis is to specify during step
one these parameters and their role to buildings
performance. In step two, a series of parametric
simulations are developed to assess the most
important factors window size, external obstruction,
and surfaces reflectance - assumed from the
previous discussion. Therefore, a typical office
environment is modelled and simulated in Ecotect
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
826 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
(v5.6.2008) [5] and Radiance (2000) software [6] -
due to its accuracy in the prediction of daylighting -
respectively. The study concerns cloudy climates, so
light availability which derives from diffuse sky
illuminance is taken into account. Since CIE
Overcast sky type is used, Daylight Factor is another
critical point that is discussed and more specifically,
the relation of average DF (a quantitative parameter)
with light distribution, since not only light quantity but
also quality, which the well distributed light gives,
plays a significant role [4].
Accounting all observations and parametric
studies mentioned, this paper comes up with the
assumption that passive zone depth needs to be
redefined in deep plan offices, since the optimum
required 300lux reaches in depth approximately one
time the room height and rarely two times the window
head height.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Generally, Baker and Steemers (2002) argue
that the potential daylight penetration is determined
by the geometry of the space, the configuration,
position and size of the windows, the external skyline
obstruction and the internal as well as external
reflectance finishes [4]. The objective of this chapter
is to analyse further and evaluate these criteria.
2.1. Skylight and external obstruction
For cloudy climates as in the UK, it is
considered that skylight is the main source of
daylighting for buildings [4]. Therefore available
visible sky, which is defined by external obstruction,
plays a significant role. A maximum 25
o
skyline
obstruction angle above horizon from the centre of a
window is proposed for daylight oriented buildings
(Fig. 3) [7]. In case this angle is bigger, direct skylight
penetration is decreasing while the external
reflectance surface is increasing (Fig. 4).
Figure 3: Shading by neighbouring buildings (Source: after
CIBSE,1999).
Figure 4: Shading by high neighbouring buildings (Source:
after CIBSE,1999).
As Dietrich (2006) points out, insomuch the light
spreads linearly, shading from opposite buildings
affects directly also the no-sky line point in a room
[8]. She also remarks that further from this point the
room receives no direct skylight and remains gloomy.
Figure 5 shows that in order sufficient amounts of
skylight to penetrate a room up to a distance equal to
twice the height of window upper edge, the angle of
visible sky should be at least 60 degrees minus the
window head obstruction. The angle of 60 degrees
has nothing to do with the position of the sun, but
arises from the available light in the sky. On the other
side, minimizing the external obstacles means
automatically that the surrounding area is not related
to an urban environment.

Figure 5: Skylight penetration up to two times the window
head height (Source: after CIBSE, 1999)
2.2. Window size and position
Not only the surrounding built environment but
also the apertures define the potential skylight
availability in a space. In many studies, it is affirmed
that except of window position on the wall, the
window size is important for daylight oriented
buildings. There are three rules of Thumb that are
quoted in the literature for sizing window glazing
ratio window/wall area=35%, ratio window/floor area
= 10% and ratio window/total room area = 4% [1], [7].
In a typical example of a 60m
2
rectangular room
(6x10x3m), according to the first two equations the
window area is equal approximately to 6m
2
whereas
according to the third equation is 8,6m
2
- almost the
half of the wall. For spaces with depth less than 8m a
window to wall area ratio of 20% [1].
2.3. Daylight factor
Another important criterion that is often applied
in design is the daylight factor, i.e. the value that
determines the quantity of daylight supply at a
specific workplace [4]. Daylight factor describes the
illuminance on an interior work plane in relation to
the outdoor illuminance under an overcast sky [7].
Another assessment criterion for skylight is the
average daylight factor (Dav), which is estimated
according to the formula Dav=AgxxT/A(1-R
2
),
where A is total internal surfaces area, Ag glazing
area, angle of visible sky, T - glazing
transmittance properties and R - interior surface
reflectances) [1]. Dietrich (2006) contends that this
equation shows that amount of interior daylight is
determined solely by spaces geometry but not by
exterior illuminance and external reflectances [8]. As
far as the last is concerned, Bell and Burt (1995)
note that when external obstacles obscure the view,
reflected light goes further from the no-sky line point,
i.e. the point in the room that direct skylight cannot
reach [9]. Taking into account the above proposed
premises, i.e. Ag/A = 1/25 (window/total room area
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 827
ratio), =60, T=0,8 (single-glazing transmittance) and
R=0,7 (high reflectance value for offices), a room
with an average DF=3,7% is calculated. Hence, room
with an average DF=5% given, would be regarded as
brightly daylit [2].
3. EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS
3.1. Design example: Office space
The model of a 60m
2
deep plan office
(6x10x3m) in London is employed to assess the
impact of the most important aspects such as
window size, external obstruction and reflectance
finishes on the depth of passive zone. This design
example is modelled in Ecotect (v5.6.2008) and
simulated in Radiance (2000), taking into account the
previous assumptions as well as given benchmarks.
The office is single lit from the south side and
the window head height (Hw) is 2,7m. The aperture
was highly placed on the wall, so that better light
distribution is achieved. In addition, by this way, sky
obstruction angle is measured from the point of 2m
above ground [7]. The mean reflectance of enclosing
room surfaces is 0,7. Sky condition was defined as
overcast, with a reference of 8500lux. Under these
sky conditions, a minimum DF=3,5% is required, so
that the optimum 300lux for office work to be
achieved.
3.2. Parametric studies
The first series of daylight simulations consist of
varying the window size. Three cases are chosen
regarding the window to wall area ratio. The first
case was the proposed from literature window to wall
area ratio equal to 35%, while a fluctuation of 15%
defined the two other two cases (Fig.6). Namely, in
case2 the window to wall area ratio is 50% (equal
approximately to the ratio window/total room area =
4%) and in case3 the ratio is 20%.





Figure 6: Parametric studies window area / wall area
(a. w/w = 35%, b. w/w=50%, c. w/w=20%)
In literature, it is mentioned that a window to wall
area ratio of 20% is appropriate for room depth less
than 8m [1], another 24m
2
office area (4x6x3m) with
the same characteristics is also studied under the
same conditions (Fig.7). In all cases, the building is
free standing so that only windows attribute to be
testified. The window head height was constant at
Hw=2,7m so as a thorough comparison for the depth
of passive zone can be conducted.
Figure 7: Parametric studies window area / wall area
(a. w/w = 35%, b. w/w=50%, c. w/w=20%)
The second series of daylight simulations consist
of varying the external obstruction. Except of the
free-standing condition, one case with a sky
obstruction angle of 25
o
(as proposed in literature)
and one of 50
o
(heavy obstruction) are tested. In the
first run, the window to wall area ratio is 35% (Fig. 8)
while in the second is 50% (Fig.9).
Figure 8: Parametric studies obstructions (a. free-
standing building, b. obstruction angle of 25 degrees, c.
obstruction angle of 50 degrees)
Figure 9: Parametric studies obstructions (a. free-
standing building, b. obstruction angle of 25 degrees, c.
obstruction angle of 50 degrees)
The third series of daylight simulations consist of
varying reflectance values. Mean internal (in
enclosed room surfaces) reflectance values of 0,5,
0,7 and 0,9 (almost unrealistically high) are used in
order to specify the impact of internal reflectance
attributes (or internally reflected light component).
Keeping constant the mean internal reflectance to
R=0,7, different external reflectance values of 0,5,
0,7 and 0,9 are tested to verify the influence of the
externally reflected light component. Composing the
two other cases in a third, where internal and
external reflectance values change similarly,
examines the contradiction between reflectance and
obstruction attributes that influence daylight
penetration, since daylight factor is the sum of
skylight component, external reflected light
component as well as the internal reflected light
component [4].
3.3. Results discussion
The following sections (Fig. 10, 11) examine
different ratio of window/wall area and their impact
on average daylight factor as well as depth of
passive zone. Although in the case of window to wall
area ratio of 50% - i.e. the window area covers the
1/25 (4%) of the total room surface - an average DF
of 5% is reached, the depth of passive zone does not
exceed 4m. It is important to mention that
fluctuations of the graph (Fig. 11) are not
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
828 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
proportional since there is a remarkable increase of
20% in daylight penetration from 35% ratio to 50%.
Whereas from 20% ratio to 35%, it increased by
12%. Cases of more than 50% window to wall area
ratio were not taken, due possible overheat problems
during summer period.















Figure 10: Plot of calculated average DF% against room
window area for overcast sky condition (8500lux).










Figure 11: Plot of penetration depth against room window
area for overcast sky condition (8500lux).
The window area seems to influence more the
quantity of light levels in the room than daylight
distribution. Although the average daylight factor
values seem satisfying for all of three case - above
3% for offices - the back of the room is still gloomy,
since almost the rear half of it gets no more than
DF=1% (Fig. 12).
a.
b.
c.
Figure 12: Light simulation of an 60m
2
office - RAD Daylight
Factors (sky illuminance=8500lux) - window/wall: a) 20%_
DFav=3,1%, b) 35%_DFav=3,7%, c) 50% _ DFav=5,0%
In order to testify the limit of 8m depth in case of
window to wall area ratio of 20%, a smaller model of
a 24m
2
deep plan office (4x6x3m) with the same
characteristics as the previous one was simulated.
Hence also in this case, ratio 20% has not given the
respected results and indeed average DF and
daylight penetration were even smaller (Fig. 13, 14).
Although the quota difference of average DF for each
ratio is higher, in no case the limit of 4m depth is
exceeded. It is important to mention that in this case
of room depth equal to 6m, average DF and light
penetration depth are changing proportionally to
window area size.
Figure 13: Plot of calculated average DF% against room
window area for overcast sky condition (8500lux).
Figure 14: Plot of penetration depth against room window
area for overcast sky condition (8500lux).
With a fixed ratio of window size (window / wall
area=35%), light distribution in the room varies
according to the sky obstruction angle. For an
increase of 25
o
to the obstruction angle, the depth of
passive zone as well as the average DF decreases
by 10% (Fig. 15, 16). Hence, from figure 15 the
average DF seems satisfying (more than 3%
required for offices) even if there is high obstruction
level. Generally, although when increasing skyline
obstruction, the external reflectance surface is
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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 829
increased, the light levels are decreased. From the
above one could conclude that obstruction influence
overcomes reflection contribution.
Figure 15: Plot of calculated average DF% against room
window area for overcast sky condition (8500lux).
Figure 16: Plot of penetration depth against room window
area for overcast sky condition (8500lux).
Important observation from this graph is that even
if in the free-standing building with an average
window area ratio, the depth of passive zone
reaches 3,30m instead of 5,4m, which was respected
according to the existing rule of Thumb i.e.
approximately 1,2 times the window head height, as
far as standard light levels required for office work
(Fig. 17).
Figure 17: Light simulation of an 60m2office - RAD Daylight
Factors (sky illuminance=8500lux) for free standing building
- DFaverage =3,7%
According to previous observation, the case of
window to wall area ratio of 50% comparing to the
typical ratio of 35% not only performs better in light
levels but also in light distribution. Therefore the case
of w/w=50% was tested with external obstacles in
order to examine which of the two factors influences
more daylight availability in the room. Figures 18, 19
indicate that external obstacles decrease the
average DF and the daylight penetration but in a
lower quota (almost the half of 10%) than in the case
of smaller windows. So it can be derived that
windows size plays a primary role to daylit oriented
offices, since they define the potential amount of light
penetration into a room.









Figure 18: Plot of calculated average DF% against room
window area for overcast sky condition (8500lux).








Figure 19: Plot of penetration depth against room window
area for overcast sky condition (8500lux).
Surface reflection seems to contribute almost the
same to light levels and light delivery into the room.
From figures 20 and 21 becomes apparent that an
increased by 0,2 reflectance value contributes
approximately 20% to light levels and light
penetration as well.









Figure 20: Plot of penetration depth against room window
area for overcast sky condition (8500lux).
Figure 21: Plot of penetration depth against room window
area for overcast sky condition (8500lux).
Situation becomes more complicated when reflection
from surrounding surfaces occur. In this second
case, the impact of different external reflectance
values are tested, while the mean internal is kept
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830 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
constant at R=0,7. From the following graph (Fig. 22)
it is obvious that higher external reflectance values
are of limited results. When external reflectance
surface is doubled, it contributes by 10% to light
delivery deeper in the room. In case that external
and internal reflectance values change similarly (Fig.
23), for a 0,2 reflectance value increase, a minimum
increase of 25% in daylight penetration is observed.
The peak in value 0,9 for the free-standing case
indicates the higher impact of internal reflectance
finishes on daylight penetration comparing to
external.








Figure 22: Plot of penetration depth against room window
area for overcast sky condition (8500lux).







Figure 23: Plot of penetration depth against room window
area for overcast sky condition (8500lux).
4. CONCLUSIONS
As stated in the introduction, passive zone in
deep plan offices is observed not to follow the
practical limit of two times the window head height.
This research proves this assumption to be justified
as far as daylight assess is concerned.
The experimental analysis, which has been
conducted under three main aspects: building
obstructions, window size and reflectance finishes,
seems to prove that small window area and external
big obstruction could be the reasons for limited
daylight penetration. In fact, the results indicate that
daylight penetration in deep plan offices at most
cases reaches in depth approximately the room
height and rarely goes beyond one and a half time
the window head height. Even if benchmarks or other
values better than these are tested, the depth of
passive zone is not improved more than 30%.
As far as average daylight factor is concerned, in
most cases it is over 3%. Hence, this fact does not
confirm the daylight brightness of the space, since
light distribution remains the main problem. The
undertaken parametric studies also confirmed that
window size has a greater impact on average DF
than in penetration depth, since they are the primary
factor determining the amount of light entering the
space. External obstacles, for an increase of 25
degrees in sky obstruction angle, present a decrease
of 10% in average DF as well as passive zone depth.
From the above results one can conclude that the
impact of sky obstruction overcomes slightly the
impact of external reflectance premises in daylight
penetration. This is also indicated from external
reflectance test, which improved the situation but of
limited results. In contrast, internal reflectance
premises seem to have an impact of 20% on light
penetration depth.
Overall, deep plan space geometry, built density
and available diffuse illuminance in cloudy climates
as UK do not imply daylight autonomy for a big part
of the year in office buildings.
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper is based on work undertaken for an
MSc Research Paper in Sustainable Environmental
Design at the Architectural Association School in
London. I would like to thank my MSc course director
Dr. Simos Yannas for his kind guidance on this
project.
6. REFERENCES
[1] BRE (1998). GPG 245: Desktop guide to
Daylighting. pp.5-9. Crown.
[2] The society of light and lighting (2006). Lighting
guide 7: Office lighting. pp. 15, 34-36. Chartered
Institution of Building Services Engineers,
London.
[3] Choudhary, M. Limpou, K. Lytra,V. and A.
Sarkar (2009). Architects Office, Covent Garden
Term 1 Project. MSc SED 2008-2009.
Architectural Association, London.
[4] Baker, N. and K. Steemers (2002). Daylight
Design of Buildings. pp. 32-34, 43-46, 60-68,
222-224. James & James Science Publishers.
[5] Ecotect (v. 5.6, 2008). Square One / Autodesk
[6] Radiance (2000). Environmental Energy
Technologies Division, Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory.
[7] CIBSE (1999). LG10: Daylighting and window
design. pp. 16-17, 20, 24, 27-28. Chartered
Institution of Building Services Engineers,
London.
[8] Dietrich, U. (2006). Daylight Characteristics and
Basic Design Principles, in: Lighting design:
principles, implementation, case studies. pp.19-
23, Birkhauser. Edition Detail.
[9] Bell,J. and Burt, W. (1995). Designing Buildings
for Daylight. pp 28-31. BRE Publications.
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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 831


Decision making in selecting the best matching
hybrid lighting system
Mohammed MAYHOUB
1
, David CARTER
2

1
School of Architecture, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK - on leave from Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt
2
School of Architecture, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
ABSTRACT: Part of the lighting designers task is to decide whether daylight or electric light best meet user
needs, architectural requirements and lighting guidelines. The desire to maximize the benefits of both daylight
and electric systems has lead to the recent development of a number of hybrid lighting systems, each with
different characteristics and performance. These systems offer many advantages, but because of their nature,
they present very different decision making problems to designers than those of conventional lighting methods.
A multi-criteria decision making approach is suggested to help this process, in which alternatives and criteria
were defined and treated numerically to select the preferred choice. Sensitivity analysis has been carried out to
examine the impact of modifying the importance of the criteria in the alternative selection. Results imply that the
on-going criteria tend to influence alternatives ranking more than the one-off criteria.
Keywords: Hybrid lighting systems, Decision making, Alternatives, Criteria, Sensitivity analysis
1. INTRODUCTION
Daylight is the preferred source in buildings due
to its beneficial effect on human well-being and
performance. Its potential to conserve energy and
hence protect the environment has stimulated
interest as an electric lighting substitute. The recent
development of daylight guidance technology allows
redirection of daylight into areas of buildings that
cannot be lit using conventional glazing. The main
guidance types are the commercially successful
tubular daylight guidance systems, and the newer
hybrid daylight/electric systems (HLS). The later has
different approaches to combine both sources of
light; which consequently led to a large diversity in
terms of light collecting, guiding and distributing, in
terms of costs and benefits, and in terms of
performance and influences. Because of the
variations in the HLS, the decision maker(s) need to
know which system best suits building needs and
budget. This study investigates selecting alternative
HLS and develops a decision making procedure
which can be applied to real cases.
2. HYBRID LIGHTING SYSTEMS
Throughout the last decade many HLS have
been developed in which daylight is captured and
combined with electric light prior to delivery within a
building via an output device similar to a luminaire.
HLS consist of three parts. The external part,
mostly called collector, collects and concentrates
sunlight. The internal part, mostly called diffuser,
spreads transported daylight in the required space.
Guidance system; which delivers collected sunlight
to the diffuser.
A variety of methods are used to collect sunlight,
deliver it into remote spaces, and distribute it over
required area. Control systems regulate the electric
flux output to top up deficiency of natural light supply.
The current study will investigate only the three HLS
considered have high potential to penetrate the
market. These are; hybrid solar lighting (HSL) and
solar canopy illuminance system (SCIS) which have
been installed for real demonstration, and Parans
system which is commercially available.
2.1. Hybrid Solar Lighting
The Hybrid Solar Lighting (HSL) collector is a
1.22m-diameter parabolic sun-tracking mirror with an
elliptical secondary mirror (Fig. 1-A). The latter
separates the visible and infrared portions of sunlight
and focuses the visible sunlight into a bundle of
optical fibres; which delivers the sunlight to the end
of a side emitting acrylic rod located inside a
conventional electric luminaire also equipped with
dimmable fluorescent lamps. A control system tracks
the sun; light sensors monitor daylight levels; and
electronic dimming ballasts regulate the electric light
output to a pre-determined level [1]. A second type
of luminaire uses end emission from the fibres and
has a light distribution similar to a parabolic reflector
lamp.
2.2. Parans System
The Parans sunlight collector is a roof or faade
mounted 1m
2
modular solar panels containing 64No
Fresnel lenses (Fig. 1-B). Each lens is able to track
and concentrate sunlight into optical fibre. Sixteen
fibres are combined into a cable each of maximum
length 20m. The tracking is controlled by a
microprocessor which is continually fed information
from a photo-sensor which scans the sky to detect
sun path. The system has five luminaire types, three
of which are hybrid luminaires equipped with
fluorescent or CF lamps which dim automatically
depending on sunlight conditions [2].
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832 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)

Figure 1: A: HSL collector, B: Parans collector, C: SCIS collector
2.3. Solar Canopy Illumination System
Solar Canopy illuminance System (SCIS) is a
facade mounted system collects sunlight using a grid
of mirrors located inside an enclosure. On the faade
each unit is approximately 3m wide x 1.2m high (Fig.
1-C). This is connected to a 0.25m high duct which
extends some 10m into a building. The orientation of
the mirrors changes with sun position. By a series of
lenses and mirrors the light is concentrated and
redirected into a rectangular cross section guide
lined with multilayer optical film (MOF) which has
high reflectance at all angles, and optical lighting film
(OLF) which reflects light preferentially. Fluorescent
lamps located inside the guide. Sunlight travels along
the guide using total internal reflection within the
MOF until hits an extractor material made of OLF.
This diffusely reflects the light and the portion that no
longer meets the angular conditions for total internal
reflection exits the guide via the bottom surface. A
control system maintains the desired interior
illumination level [3].
3. NEED FOR DECISION MAKING
Broad variation in HLS characteristics means
decision must be made based on system
performance, economics, relationship with the host
building and nature of HLS components. Each of
collector, guidance and diffuser may vary in size,
mounting method, flexibility and technology; hence
vary in performance, economics, compatibility and
suitability. Selecting a HLS for purpose and budget
has to take in consideration these variables.
3.1. Systems components and technologies
- Collector: in HSL is a roof mounted mirror, while
in Parans it is a roof or faade mounted solar panels,
though it is a facade attached canopy in SCIS. All
collecting devices are strongly recommended to be
south oriented.
- Guidance: both HSL and Parans guide sunlight
via flexible fibre optic cables of few centimetres
diameter, whilst SCIS uses a 60cm-wide x 25cm-high
rigid ducts. Fibre optics lengths are as long as 20m,
meanwhile illuminance ducts are of about 12m.
- Diffuser: HSL outputs are either a side emitting
acrylic rod located inside a conventional 1.2m x 0.6m
electric luminaire, or end emission fibres have a light
distribution similar to a parabolic reflector lamp.
Parans custom designed luminaires are PMMA
diffusing sheets with sizes from 45 x 45 cm to 90 x
90 cm, or spotlight luminaire. SCIS employs the
traditional 60cm-wide linear ceiling luminaire.
- Technology: both HSL and Parans system use
high-tech to collect sunlight, which track sun path
and highly concentrate its ray (up to 1000 times) to
be transferable via small sections of fibre optics.
SCIS tracks and concentrates sunlight some ten
times and deliver it via relatively big ducts.
3.2. Systems influences
The variations described above, in components
and technologies, lead to differences in performance,
economics, compatibility and suitability.
3.2.1. Lighting performance
Lighting performance can be determined by the
amount of delivered sunlight, overall efficiency and
lighting quality. High concentration of sunlight makes
system work efficiently only under clear sky
condition, whilst a low concentration level allows a
portion of skylight to be delivered. Overall efficiency
depends on optical characteristics of every
component and number of optical processes, where
light loss occurs with every process. Uniform
distribution and consistency level enhance lighting
quality. Efficient diffusers allow light to be evenly
distributed and avoids lighting problems. Sunlight
concentration affects lighting consistency; the more
concentration, the less consistency is obtained.
3.2.2. Economic performance
Economical performance is vital for HLS to be a
convincing alternative to electric lighting systems.
Lifetime costs and benefits determine whether it can
replace conventional electric system or not. Costs
include initial and running costs. Both costs and
benefits include tangible and intangible aspects.
Initial capital cost depends on manufacturing
complexity and production volume. Installation cost
depends on system size, weight, mountain location,
building modification necessity, and labour skills
required. Intangible cost may occur in loosing rental
area for ducts routes or so. Benefits may include for
example, besides saving energy, improving building
occupants well-being due to the beneficial effects of
enhanced daylight, thus raising users productivity.
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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 833


3.2.3. System-building relationship (compatibility)
System-building relationship can be determined
by systems ability to adapt to new and existing
buildings. Structural supports may be required to
hold collectors weight and resist the wind force.
Facade attached collectors influence its appearance.
Interior design may be affected by system guidance
and outputs. Wall and ceiling holes are required to
accommodate the guidance, which additionally
needs to meet fire protection compartment
requirements. Big-section guidance may need
special arrangements. Horizontal routes need to be
coordinated with other building networks. Vertical
routs may disturb space function or interior design.
3.2.4. Possibility of use (suitability)
Diversity in HLS features enables them to fit into
different building forms and types. Facade mounted
systems suit multi-storey buildings regardless
number of stories; however they are strongly
recommended to be south oriented. Sunlight can be
delivered up to 20m into the building. Roof mounted
systems are more suitable for deep-plan buildings
with an average of three stories. High attention has
to be paid in low rising buildings to avoid sunlight
obstructs. Guidance ducts with side emitting provide
linear luminaires that are more likely to be used in
open plans. End emitting guidance provide variety of
spot luminaire and conventional like luminaires which
can be used for a wide range of purposes.
4. DECISION MAKING METHODOLOGY
The objective of the decision maker(s) is to rank
alternatives in terms of their ability to meet building
(or space) needs and budget, and come up with a
choice of one of them. To make a perfect decision
some criteria have to be defined and the
performance of each alternative has to be measured
in terms of these criteria. Because of the variety of
alternatives and the decision criteria, the Multi-criteria
decision making (MCDM) approach appears to be a
reasonable way to make these decisions.
In this paper, three HLS assumed alternatives for
a general case and decision has to be made to
decide the best selection. A set of criteria was
defined, depending on HLS analysis, to measure
alternative performance. The decision criteria have
been assigned importance weights. A widely used
MCDM method is utilized to rank the alternatives;
after applying three-step process in which weighting
(of criteria), rating (of performance) and evaluating
(of alternatives) have been carried out. Impact of
changes in the evaluation process inputs on the
decision making output has been discussed.
An online survey was conducted, targeted at
decision makers in the fields of building design and
operating. This was designed to measure to what
extend each HLS component or requirement was
been preferred. The decision criteria relative
importance weights were derived from recipients
responses. Forty-eight responses were received from
twelve countries spread in five continents. The
values obtained were used to examine the MCDM
method and the impacts of changes in importance
weights and performance measures.
5. MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION MAKING
The MCDM is one of the most well known
branches of decision making. It uses numeric
techniques to help decision maker(s) choose among
a discrete set of alternative decisions. This is
achieved on the basis of the impact of the
alternatives on certain criteria thereby on the overall
utility of the decision maker.
5.1. The MCDM problem
Although MCDM methods may be widely diverse,
many of them have certain aspects in common.
These are the notions of alternatives and criteria.
Alternatives usually represent the different choices of
action available to the decision maker(s). Decision
criteria represent the different dimensions from which
the alternative can be viewed. Each criterion needs
to be assigned relative weight of importance [4].
An MCDM problem, with m alternatives and n
criteria, can be easily expressed in a matrix format. A
decision matrix A is an (m x n) matrix; in which
decision maker(s) has to determine aij measures the
performance of alternative Ai when it is evaluated on
terms of decision criterion Cj (for i = 1, 2, 3, ..., m,
and j = 1, 2, 3, ..., n). For each criterion the decision
maker(s) has to determine its importance, or weight
wj. Figure 2 represents the typical MCDM problem
examined in this paper.
Criteria

Alts
C1
(w1
C2
w2
C3
w3
...
...
Cn
wn)
A
1
A
2
A
3
.
.
.
A
m

a
11
a
21
a
31
.
.
.
a
m1

a
12
a
22
a
32
.
.
.
a
m2

a
13
a
23
a
33
.
.
.
a
m3

...
...
...
.
.
.
...
a
1n
a
2n
a
3n
.
.
.
a
mn

Figure 2: A typical decision matrix
Three steps have to be followed, as presented in
sections 6.1 6.3 respectively, to utilize MCDM:
A. Define the set of alternative and the set of
decision criteria.
B. Attach numerical measures to the relative
importance of the criteria and to the impacts of
the alternatives on these criteria.
C. Process the numerical values to determine a
ranking of each alternative.
5.2. The weighted product model
The weighted product model (WPM) can be
considered a modification of the weighted sum model
(WSM); the earliest and probably the most widely
used method [5]. Whilst the WSM should be used
only when the decision criteria can be expressed in
identical units of measure, the WPM eliminate any
units of measures which makes it suitable for the
current application.
In the WPM each alternative is compared with the
others by multiplying a number of ratios, one for each
criterion. Each ratio is raised to the power equivalent
to the relative weight of the corresponding criterion.
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834 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
In order to compare two alternatives AK and AL the
following product [6] has to be calculated:
R(AK/AL) = ] ( o
K]
o
L]
)
w
]
n
]=1
(1)
Where n is the number of criteria, aij is the
performance measure of the i
th
alternative in terms of
the j
th
criterion, and wj is the weight of importance of
the j
th
criterion.
If the term R(AK/AL) is greater than one, then it
indicates that alternative AK is more desirable than
alternative AL. The best alternative is the one that
better than or at least equal to all the others.
6. DECISION MAKING PROCESS
In order to apply the WPM method, four inputs
have to be determined. These are the alternatives,
the criteria, relative importance weights of the criteria
and performance measures of the alternatives. Then
pair-wise comparison will be made to rank the
alternatives and determine the preferred choice.
6.1. Defining the alternative and criteria
Suppose decision maker(s) is planning to install
HLS, review of HLS [7] shows that HSL, Parans and
SCIS systems are intending to be the most promising
HLS. Therefore, they are defined as the most
suitably available alternatives.
Defining appropriate criteria able to measure
different aspects of the alternatives are more
complicated. The defined criteria should be systemic,
reliable, measurable and comparable [8]. Defining
criteria in this study based on the authors knowledge
and analysis of hybrid systems components and
performance; previously discussed in Sec. 3. Criteria
defined to cover architectural, technical, economical
and operational aspects (see list of the criteria in
table 1). Social criteria, such as users productivity
improvement or building prestige enhancement due
to use of natural light, may be considerable if electric
lighting system is considered one of the alternatives.
Table 1: Decision criteria relative importance weight
Decision Criteria Relative Weight
Lighting Quality & Quantity 13.1 %
Ease of Maintenance 12.1 %
Cost 12.1 %
Fire hazard 11.9 %
Luminaire Flexibility 10.8 %
Light Guidance Size 10.3 %
Possibilities of use 10.2 %
Light Collector Location 9.9 %
Ease of Installation 9.5 %
6.2. Numerical measures
Importance weights and performance measures
are unavailable data and have to be determined by
decision maker(s). Numerical values of the weights
or the performance can be determined by subjective,
objective, or combined methods. The subjective
methods depend only on the preference of decision
maker(s). Contrarily the objective values are
obtained by mathematical methods based on the
analysis of initial data. It can said that none of them
is perfect, so combined methods are suggested [8].
In this paper, combined method was used.
Values obtained from the survey are the recipients
subjective evaluation. These values numerically
treated to obtain the importance weights and
performance measures. Practically, decision
maker(s) in each case has to determine the more
likely related values for their situation; taking into
account building use type and times, building form
and orientation, location and budget.
6.2.1. Weighting
Recipients have weighted the criteria and the
importance weights averages have been calculated.
Then normalized to add up to one and ranked as
listed in table 1. In reality, change of priorities
responses to decision maker(s) appraisal of the real
situation, which is possibly depends on clients
needs, customers complains or even feed backs.
Reprioritization leads to changes in the criteria
importance weights, and as a result changes in the
alternatives preferences. For instance, an existing
building with low clear height; light guidance size will
be of greater importance than new building or high
clear height building. Light collector location
criterion, in another example, may be of high priority
in a building with a sensitive iconic form.
6.2.2. Rating
Performances of alternatives corresponding to
each criterion have been derived from recipients
preferences. For example, regarding light collector
location preferences; valid responses percentages
were as follows: 65.6% prefers roof mounting, 9.4%
facade attached, 6.3% facade concealed, and 18.8%
any method. HSL, as a roof mounted system,
obtained performance measure of 84.4% (65.6% +
18.8%). Since Parans is a roof mounted or facade
attached system, it obtained 93.8%. SICS, a facade
attached or concealed system, obtained 34.5%.
Since performance measure corresponds to
decision criteria, corresponding to light collector
location criterion in iconic building will widely vary.
Roof mounted method may obtain in this case 100%
preference rather than 65.6% to avoid influencing
elevations appearance, or obtain 0% if it is a doom
roofed building and roof mounting is conceptually
unacceptable. In order that, as said in the weighting,
in reality change of rating could happen in response
to specific situations.
6.3. Determining alternatives ranking
Decision matrix includes all alternatives and
decision criteria was set in as illustrated in table 2.
Obtained relative weight of importance of decision
criteria and performance measures of alternatives
were filled in the matrix. Considering presented
values in table 2, equation 1 was used to compare
each two alternatives together. The following
relations are produced:
R(HSL/Parans) = (0.30/0.18)
0.121
x (0.57/0.54)
0.095
x
... x (0.17/1.00)
0.102
= 1.03 > 1
Similarly, we also get:
R(HSL/SCIS) = 1.15 > 1 , R(Parans/SCIS) = 1.12 > 1
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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 835


Therefore, the best alternative in this case is HSL
system, since it superior to all other alternatives, then
Parans, and finally SCIS.
7. SENSITIVE ANALYSIS
7.1. Background and definition
In the WPM method weights assigned to the
decision criteria attempt to represent the genuine
importance of the criteria. In the above case, light
quality criterion obtained the best weight, therefore it
intuitively attempts to be believed the most important
criterion. Since the defined criteria in the current
case have different units of measure, and cannot be
all expressed in quantitative terms, then it is difficult
to represent accurately the importance of these
criteria. In a situation like this, the decision making
process can be improved considerably by identifying
the critical criteria. Sensitivity analysis is the
approach by which the critical criteria can be
identified to determine what is the smallest change in
the current weights of the criteria, which can alter the
existing ranking of the alternatives? The most critical
criterion can be determined to see whether it will
alter the rank of any two alternatives or just change
the rank of the best alternative.
7.2. Determining the most critical criterion
Let k,i,j (1 i j m and 1 k n) denote the
minimum percent of change in the current weight wk
of criterion Ck so that the ranking of alternatives Ai
and Aj will be reversed. When the WPM method is
used, the quantity k,i,j is given as follows [5]:
k,i,j > Z if, 0 Z 100
k,i,j < Z if, Z < 0
Where Z is defined as:
Z=[(log(] (o
y
o
]y
)
w
V
n
y=1
))x100 ]/[(log(aik/ajk))xwk] (3)
Also, the following constraint has to be satisfied:
k,i,j 100 (4)
In order to determine the most critical criterion a
total of n x m (m 1) values need to be calculated.
For example, the minimum quantity (expressed as
%) needed to change the current weight of light
quality, so consequently the current ranking of HSL
and Parans systems will be reversed; can be
calculated using relation (3) as follows:
Z
(HSL/Parans)
=
Iog ( (0.300.18)
0.121
x (0.570.54)
0.09S
x . x (0.171.00)
0.102

Iog (0.420.09)
x
100
0.131
= 12.83
The quantity 12.83 satisfies (4) as it is less than
100. Therefore the value of k,i,j have to be bigger
than 12.83. Thus the modified weight w* of the light
quality criterion has to be reduced 12.83% at least. It
can be calculated as follows (before normalization):
w*K = wk (wk x k,i,j )
= 0.131 (0.131 x 12.83%) = 0.114
The use of the modified weights values (after
normalization) makes the relation R(HSL/Parans) equal to
one. Any further reduction in the modified weight of
light quality criterion makes R(HSL/Parans) less than
one, which accordingly reverses the rank and makes
Parans alternative superior to HSL.
Working as above for all possible pairs of
alternatives, all possible Z values can be determined
as depicted in table 3. Note that n/f stands for non-
feasible value, which is value that cannot satisfy the
constraint given as (4). That means it is impossible to
reverse the existing ranking of pair of alternatives by
making changes on the current weight of the
corresponding criterion. It can be observed that the
criterion with the highest weight is the critical criterion
in two cases only.
Table 2: Decision making matrix

Decision
Criteria
C
o
s
t

E
a
s
e

o
f

i
n
s
t
a
l
l
a
t
i
o
n

E
a
s
e

o
f

m
a
i
n
t
e
n
a
n
c
e

C
o
l
l
e
c
t
o
r

l
o
c
a
t
i
o
n

G
u
i
d
a
n
c
e

s
i
z
e

L
u
m
i
n
a
i
r
e

f
l
e
x
i
b
i
l
i
t
y

L
i
g
h
t

q
u
a
l
i
t
y

&

Q
u
a
n
t
i
t
y

F
i
r
e

h
a
z
a
r
d

P
o
s
s
i
b
i
l
i
t
i
e
s



o
f

u
s
e

Alts Weight 0.121 0.095 0.121 0.099 0.103 0.108 0.131 0.119 0.102
HSL Rating 0.30 0.57 0.72 0.84 0.87 0.93 0.42 0.50 0.17
Parans Rating 0.18 0.54 0.53 0.94 0.90 0.93 0.09 1.00 1.00
SCIS Rating 0.91 0.17 0.38 0.34 0.30 0.50 1.00 0.50 0.33
(0) rate means no fit at all, (1) rate means excellent fit.
Table 3: All possible Z values
Pairs of
Alternatives
Decision Criteria
C
o
s
t

E
a
s
e

o
f

i
n
s
t
a
l
l
a
t
i
o
n

E
a
s
e

o
f

m
a
i
n
t
e
n
a
n
c
e

C
o
l
l
e
c
t
o
r

l
o
c
a
t
i
o
n

G
u
i
d
a
n
c
e

s
i
z
e

L
u
m
i
n
a
i
r
e

f
l
e
x
i
b
i
l
i
t
y

L
i
g
h
t

q
u
a
l
i
t
y

&

Q
u
a
n
t
i
t
y

F
i
r
e

h
a
z
a
r
d

P
o
s
s
i
b
i
l
i
t
i
e
s



o
f

u
s
e

HSL/Parans 42.12 524.24 70.89 -249.07 -934.81 12.83 -31.39 -14.14
Parans/SCIS -58.78 105.30 282.87 115.01 100.41 172.38 -36.25 138.01 101.40
HSL/SCIS -105.70 123.60 182.02 157.73 126.33 211.58 -124.4 -197.26
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836 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
7.3. Degree of criticality
Importance ranking of the criteria may change
after determining the critical criteria. The criticality
degree, Dk, of criterion Ck is the smallest percent
amount by which the current value of wk must
change, so that the existing ranking of the
alternatives will change [5]. That is, the following
relation is true:
Dk = min 1 i < j m {

} , for all n k 1
Therefore, from table 3, the criticality degrees are
as depicted in table 4.
Table 4: The criticality degree of the criteria
Decision Criteria D
Lighting Quality & Quantity 12.83
Possibilities of use 14.14
Fire hazard 31.39
Cost 42.12
Ease of Maintenance 70.89
Light Guidance Size 100.41
Ease of Installation 105.30
Light Collector Location 115.01
Luminaire Flexibility 172.38
8. DISCUSSION
Although HLS have a common concept they vary
in features. That what makes a rational choice is a
very difficult decision. Thus, this work aims to
practice a method by which a particular HLS can be
identified ideal for a particular application. The
MCDM offers numerical methods to help decision
maker(s). The WPM method, a dimensionless MCDM
method, was utilized to make a decision in a general
case, in which a HLS is desired to be selected.
In order to apply the WPM method, a set of three
HLS was nominated as alternatives. A set of nine
decision criteria were defined based on alternatives
components and performance analysis. The relative
importance weights of the criteria and the
alternatives performance were derived from decision
makers responses to an online survey. Changes in
these values are more likely to happen with every
new situation to reflect the new circumstances.
Light quality and ease of maintenance criteria,
as whole life aspects, were selected by the surveyed
decision makers as the most important criteria, in
addition to the cost criterion. Contrarily, ease of
installation criterion, as one-off aspects, emerged as
the least important criterion. The criterion elected by
decision maker(s) as the most important one is not
necessarily to be the most influential or critical one;
especially in cases where different units of
measurement were used. Therefore, the criticality
degree can be measured by the criterions ability to
change the alternative ranking. The smaller change
in the criterion weight required to alter the ranking,
the more critical the criterion is. Thus, criterion that
cannot alter alternatives ranking whatever change to
its weight can be eliminated.
A sensitivity analysis was carried out to
determine critical degrees of the criteria. Light
quality, the most important criterion was the most
critical one as well. Only 12.83% reduction in its
relative weight is enough to nominate Parans system
the best alternative instead of HSL. In order to bring
SCIS to the top, the cost criterion is the critical one
and its relative weight has to be increased 105.7% at
least. Meanwhile, only 58.78% raise is enough to
reverse SCIS rank with Parans system.
Alternatives performance show close similarity on
some criteria and wide variation on others. For
example, HSL and Parans obtained 0.57 and 0.54
values respectively in terms of ease of installation,
whilst SCIS obtained only 0.17, as SCIS collector
and guidance are much bigger in size and weight,
thus more supports and building modification are
needed. In terms of cost a big variation exists which
reveals the decision makers acceptance of the
systems payback periods. The difference between
0.91 obtained by SCIS and 0.18 obtained by Parans
reflects the big difference between the costs of both
of them. Similarly, Parans obtained 0.90 in terms of
guidance size, whilst SICS obtained only 0.30 which
demonstrate the difference between the small-
diameter fibre optic cables and the big-section
illuminance ducts. Sensitivity analysis can be carried
out to determine the critical changes in performance
measures to change alternatives ranking. For
example, to know the minimum change in Parans
measure in terms of the cost to be ranked the best
alternative. Performance measures sensitivity
analysis is a subject for future research.
9. REFERENCES
[1] LAPSA M., MAXEY L., EARL D., BESHEARS
D., WARD C. & PARKS J. (2007) Hybrid Solar
Lighting Provides Energy Savings and Reduces
Waste Heat. Energy Engineering, 104 (4), 7-20.
[2] Parans Solar Lighting. Available at:
http://www.parans.com/Products/tabid/892/langu
age/en-US/Default.aspx [Accessed 10/2010].
[3] ROSEMANN A., COX G., FRIEDEL P.,
MOSSMAN M. & WHITEHEAD L. (2008) Cost-
effective controlled illumination using daylighting
and electric lighting in a dual-function prism light
guide. Lighting Res. Technol. 40, 77-88.
[4] TRIANTAPHYLLOU E. (2000) Multi-criteria
decision methods : A comparative study.
Dordrecht : Kluwer academic publishers.
[5] TRIANTAPHYLLOU E. (1997) A sensitivity
analysis approach for some deterministic multi-
criteria decision making methods. Decision
Sciences, 28 (1), 151-194.
[6] MILLER W. & STARR M. (1969) Executive
decisions and operations research, Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc.
[7] MAYHOUB M. & CARTER D. (2010) Towards
hybrid lighting systems: A review. Lighting Res.
Technol. 42, 51-71.
[8] WANG J., JING Y., ZHANG C. & ZHAO J. (2009)
Review on multi-criteria decision analysis aid in
sustainable energy decision making. Renewable
and sustainable energy reviews, 13, 2263-2278.
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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 837
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
Comparative Analysis of Admitted Luminous Flux
and Daylight Spatial Distribution in Openings with
Solar Control Devices
Amilcar J. BOGO
1
, FERNANDO O. R. PEREIRA
2
, ANDERSON CLARO
2
1
FURB, Regional University of Blumenau, Blumenau, Brazil
2
UFSC, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianpolis, Brazil
ABSTRACT: The evaluation of daylight admittance through openings of solar control devices SCD is not a
simple task, for the addition of obstacles near the opening modifies the quantity of daylight transmitted, as well
as its trajectory to the interior. This paper shows the results of the comparative analysis of the luminous
performance of openings with complex SCD geometry compared with others of differentiated geometry but with
the same solar protection angle. A method analogous to a goniophotometer used in photometric studies in the
laboratory was developed for this analysis, using computational simulation from a spatial representation virtual
model of the inner environment. The method was implemented with the use of the APOLUX 1.0 daylight
computational simulation program (validated), identifying admitted luminous flux and daylight spatial distribution
under the interference of the SCD. Regarding the admitted luminous flux, for example, for a solar control device
of 10 horizontal slats compared to one with 1 horizontal slat, there was a 3 to 6 times increase. The method
developed permits the evaluation of daylight admission through openings with SCD, showing advantages in
relation to the laboratory experimental methods, such as lower analysis time, lower cost and easy access to
researchers interested in such methods.
Keywords: luminous flux, solar control, openings, daylight
1. INTRODUCTION
The amount of daylight transmitted through
windows varies according to its optical properties:
transmittance, reflectance and absorptance, which
influence the transmitted fragments, reflected and
absorted in the glass adopted in the openings, which
in turn influence the quantity of thermal and luminous
energy transmitted to the interior of buildings.
According to [7], the transmittance, reflectance and
absorptance properties are influenced by the
direction of incidence on the material and by each
radiation wavelength, with some materials being
selective, that is to say, their optical properties vary
according to the radiation incidence and wavelength.
For simple openings with no obstacles or control
devices, it is easy to calculate the estimated
transmitted daylight, which depends mainly on glass
transmittance and the light incidence angle. The
addition of obstacles such as solar control devices
close to the opening modifies both the trajectory and
the quantity of daylight transmitted, affecting natural
illumination in the interior of buildings. This influence
occurs due to a partial obstruction / filtration of
daylight incident on the opening, and due to a
variation of the light direction for the internal
environment because of multiple reflexion processes
among the solar control devices.
According to [8] and [5], for the characterization
of the luminous behaviour of openings with protective
obstacles (such as solar control devices SCD type
which influence the admission of daylight to the
interior environment), two optical properties must be
known: hemispheric directional transmittance (Tdh)
and hemispheric bidirectional transmittance (Tbh).
On the luminous characterization of openings, [5]
presents characteristic luminous measurements of
several materials for natural illumination, such as
directional and bidirectional light transmittance
measurements, prismatic film for glass, sunlight
directing glass (lumitop) and plexiglas. [4] and [1]
also present results for four types of glazed materials
and / or solar control devices: diffuser (acrylic glass),
light redirecting glass, light directing blinds, prism,
laser cut panel, blinds and gratings.
This work presents the hemispheric directional
transmittance (the ratio between the admitted
luminous flux - transmitted and the incident one) for
different types of windows with solar control devices,
which characterizes the admitted luminous flux to the
interior, according to what was presented in [6].
This study presents an alternative
way to generate input data for more precise
characterization of the luminous behaviour
through the openings, assisting in
the processof computer simulation of this
phenomenon.
2. METHOD
The method used was the computational
simulation of daylight passing through an opening in
a hollow hemisphere with a vertical base, which was
the daylight resource (window), analogous to a
goniophotometer used in photometric studies in the
laboratory, [2]. This simulation of a virtual
environment is identified in literature as the ideal
study model for the luminous characterization of
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838 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
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2 xx.x SECTION NAME
openings for admitted light and its interior spatial
distribution [1], as illustrated in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1 Ideal set-up model configuration: hemispherical
absorbing detector and virtual sun.
In the study, different solar control systems were
comparatively evaluated for the quantity of daylight
admission (luminous flux), and daylight spatial
distribution.
For the implementation of the method a special
module of the APOLUX 1.0 daylight computational
simulation software, [3], was used. This module
identified the illuminance results in the outer glass
plane that was adopted for the calculation of the
admitted luminous flux under the interference of the
solar control devices added to the window. The
equivalent luminance of the window plane was
identified for the spatial distribution of admitted light.
This program was validated by [9], and is based
on the Spherical Vector Model, which consists of a
general globe reference by which all the relationships
of visibility of this studys object are defined.
Different opening systems were evaluated in
relation to the geometry (horizontal and vertical slats)
and the reflectance of the solar control devices (75%;
20%), considering differentiated periods of solar
incidence at 30 and 60 degree altitudes, and 0, 60
and -60 degree azimuths from the centre of the
opening, depending on the situation.
From the definition of CAD models in 3 D Face
format, it is possible to simulate the luminous
behaviour of different types of geometric
configuration of solar control devices with the
APOLUX program, which allows various parametric
studies.
Geometric configuration characteristics of the
solar control devices analyzed in the 4 m
2
(2 x 2m)
area, are presented below.
Elements with horizontal slats on the opening:
With a 30 degree frontal vertical obstruction
angle:
Type A: 1 HS, 1 horizontal slat, with depth 3.466
m:
Figure 2: 1 HS (sectional view), 1 horizontal slat, with depth
3,466 m.
Type B: 10 HS, 1 horizontal slat, with depth
0.346 m:
Figure 3: 10 HS (sectional view), 10 horizontal slats, equally
distributed through the height of the window, with depth
0.346 m.
With a 60 degree obstruction frontal vertical
angle:
Type C: 1 HS, 1 horizontal slat, with depth 1.154
m:
Figure 4: 1 HS (sectional view), 1 horizontal slat, with depth
1.154 m.
Type D: 10 HS, 1 horizontal slat, with depth
0.115 m:
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xx.x SECTION NAME 3
Figure 5: 1 HS (sectional view), 1 horizontal slat, with depth
0.115 m.
The depth dimensions of different slats were
determined according to the two solar altitude angles
of analysis (30 and 60 degrees) for the horizontal
type solar control devices - SCD, aiming at
shadowing the Suns rays in those solar height
angles.
Elements with vertical slats perpendicular to the
opening:
With a 45 degree lateral horizontal obstruction
angle:
Type E: 5 VS, 5 x 0,5m vertical slats, with 0,5m
interval between them:
Figure 6: 5 VS (plan view), 5 x 0,5m vertical slats, with 0,5m
interval between them.
Type F: 10 VS, 10 x 0,222 m vertical slats, with
0,222 m interval between them:
Figure 7: 10 VS (plan view), 10 x 0,222 m vertical slats, with
0,222 m interval between them
For the SCD types with vertical slats
perpendicular to the window, the depth of the slats
was determined considering a 45 degree lateral
horizontal shadowing angle.
The alteration in the dimensions refers to the
definition of the different geometric configuration
situations, one with five vertical slats and the other
with 10.
Calculating the Luminous Flux:
Quantitative identification of daylight passing
through the window in the hollow hemisphere model
with an opening was obtained from a numerical
report of luminance in the external plane of the glass,
generated by the APOLUX Software.
Because luminance (E) is equal to the luminous
flux () divided by the area (A), the luminous flux ()
is calculated for each point of luminance
measurement, where the values of luminance are
identified in the window plane (in a set of mapping
points of the whole window area) as being equal to
the luminance (E) multiplied by the area:
A E
[01]
Thus, according to the contribution area of each
point in the window (total area of the window divided
by the number of mapping points = 121), the
luminous flux of each parcel is identified as a point.
The total luminous flux admitted through the window
equals the total amount of partial luminous fluxes
identified before.
Calculating the Equivalent Luminance of the
Window:
The spatial distribution of admitted daylight is
identified in concordance with the concept of
equivalent luminance of the window. It depends on
the luminance generated in the window, according to
each point of luminance identified in the interior of
the hemisphere, obtained from a numerical report
generated by the APOLUX Software.
Starting from the numerical data of luminance
generated in the window (in the central opening
point), dxf type images are created by the APOLUX
Software Special Module, identifying the direction of
different light vectors, from the center of the opening
to the interior of the hemisphere, representing the
spatial distribution of admitted daylight.
The equivalent luminance of the window (L equiv)
for each value of luminance (E) identified in the
interior of the hemisphere according to the directions
starting from the center of the opening was obtained
from equation 2 below:
cos
2

A
r E
Lequiv [02]
Source: [08]
Where:
A = window area;
r = distance between the windows central point
and the luminance identification in the interior
surface of the hemisphere.
= angle formed between the direction normal to
the opening and the internally reflected ray of light.
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4 xx.x SECTION NAME
3. RESULTS
The results presented and analyzed herein refer
to the admitted luminous flux and represent the
quantity of light that passed through the window after
undergoing the effect of solar control devices and
passing through glass transmittance (85%), allowing
the comparison of different types of elements
according to the analyzed altitudes and azimuth
angles, which represent the solar incidence in the
opening.
These results for the luminous flux (lm) are
presented further on, in comparative tables for the
types of solar control devices (SCD) analyzed
according to their geometry and reflectance
influence.
3.1 Daylight admission - Luminous Flux (lm):
The values calculated for luminous flux were
identified as specified below:
Ext (lm) Sun + Sky: luminous flux in the
external vertical plane of the opening, situation
without SCD due to the daylight resources Sun and
sky;
Ext (lm) Only Sun: luminous flux in the external
vertical plane of the opening, situation without SCD
due to the daylight resource Sun;
Effect ECS (lm): luminous flux in the external
glass only with the effect of SCD, due to the daylight
sources Sun and sky;
Adm (lm): luminous flux admitted internally
after passing through the glass, due to the daylight
sources Sun and sky;
Tdh: hemispheric directional transmittance
according to the light incidence (altitude and
azimuth): the quotient between the admitted
luminous flux and the incident flux.
The luminous flux results for comparative
situations of solar control devices types (two by two),
are presented below.
These values are presented in tables, with the
comparative results obtained for different conditions
of daylight exposure and taking the solar control
device types into consideration
Table 1 Comparative Daylight (Luminous Flux) admission
for SCD types 1 HS and 10 HS
Sun Position ALTITUDE 30and AZIMUTH 0
Frontal daylighting
Ext (lm)
Sun + Sky
SCD
Types

Effect
ECS
lm

Adm
lm
Tdh
(%)
1 HS 6631 5637 1.72
326 818
10 HS 41347 35145 10.75
Analysis of the results:
As observed in Table 1, there are variations in
daylight admission for the same situation of
shadowing opening through different types of SCD
(1HS and 10 HS).
For 10 HS compared to 1 HS, there was a
623.46% increase in the admitted flux (from 5637 lm
to 35145 lm), due to an increase in daylight admitted
by reflection in the 10 horizontal slats.
Table 2 Comparative Daylight (Luminous Flux) admission
for SCD types 1 HS and 10 HS
Sun Position ALTITUDE 30and AZIMUTH 60
Side daylighting
Ext (lm)
Sun + Sky
SCD
Types

Effect
ECS
lm

Adm
lm
Tdh
(%)
1 HS 4967 4222 3.78 111 693
10 HS 18089 15375 13.76
Analysis of the results:
As shown in Table 2, there are variations in
daylight admission for the same situation of
shadowing opening through different types of SCD
(1HS and 10 HS),
For 10 HS compared to 1 HS, there was a
364.25% increase in the admitted luminous flux (from
4221 lm to 15375 lm), due to an increase in daylight
admitted by reflection in the 10 horizontal slats.
Table 3 Comparative Daylight (Luminous Flux) admission
for SCD types 1 HS and 10 HS
Sun Position ALTITUDE 30and AZIMUTH 60
Side daylighting
Ext (lm)
Sun + Sky
SCD
Types

Effect
ECS
lm

Adm
lm
Tdh
(%)
1 HS 4946 4204 3.95 106 378
10 HS 18682 15880 14.92
Analysis of the results:
The table 3 presented show that there are
variations in daylight admission for the same
situation of shadowing opening through different
types of SCD (1HS and 10 HS).
For 10 HS compared to 1 HS, there was a
377.73% increase in the admitted luminous flux (from
4204 lm to 15880 lm), due to an increase in daylight
admitted by reflection in the 10 horizontal slats.
Table 4 Comparative Daylight (Luminous Flux) admission
for SCD types 1 HS and 10 HS
Sun Position ALTITUDE 30and AZIMUTH 60
Side daylighting
Ext (lm)
Sun + Sky
SCD
Types

Effect
ECS
lm

Adm
lm
Tdh
(%)
1 HS 8977 7631 5.97 127 805
10 HS 54083 45971 35.96
Analysis of the results:
As observed in Table 4, there are variations in
daylight admission for the same situation of
shadowing opening through different types of SCD
(1HS and 10 HS).
For 10 HS compared to 1 HS, there was a
602.42% increase in the admitted luminous flux (from
7631 lm to 45971 lm), due to an increase in daylight
admitted by reflection in the 10 horizontal slats.
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xx.x SECTION NAME 5
Table 5 Comparative Daylight (Luminous Flux) admission
for SCD types 1 HS, 10 HS, 5 VS and 10 VS
Sun Position ALTITUDE 30and AZIMUTH 60
Side daylighting
Ext (lm)
Sun + Sky
SCD
Types

Effect
ECS
lm

Adm
lm
Tdh
(%)
1 HS 7669 6519 17.50
10 HS 26652 22654 60.81
5 VS 17243 14656 39.35
37251
10 VS 16776 14259 38.27
Analysis of the results:
Table 5 shows there are variations in daylight
admission for the same situation of opening
shadowing through different types of SCD (1HS and
10 HS; 5 VS and 10 VS).
For 10 HS compared to 1 HS, there was a
347.50% increase in the admitted luminous flux (from
6519 lm to 22654 lm), due to an increase in daylight
admitted by reflection in the 10 horizontal slats.
When comparing 10 VS to 5 HS, there was a
reduction of 2.70% in the admitted luminous flux
(from 14259 lm to 14656 lm), due to light loss in
successive inter reflection processes between the 10
VS, where this process is more intense than with 5
VS.
Table 6 Comparative Daylight (Luminous Flux) admission
for SCD types 1 HS and 10 HS
Sun Position ALTITUDE 30and AZIMUTH 60
Side daylighting
Ext (lm)
Sun + Sky
SCD
Types

Effect
ECS
lm

Adm
lm
Tdh
(%)
1 HS 7788 6619 15.37
43077
10 HS 27718 23560 54.69
Analysis of the results:
As observed in Table 6, there are variations in
daylight admission for the same situation of
shadowing opening through different types of SCD
(1HS and 10 HS).
When comparing 10 HS to 1 HS, there was a
355.94% increase in the admitted luminous flux (from
6619 lm to 23560 lm), due to the increase of daylight
admitted through reflection in the 10 horizontal slats.
Table 7 Comparative Daylight (Luminous Flux) admission
for SCD types 1 HS and 10 HS with height and azimuth
variation, 75% reflectance, 0.15 m wall thickness
Azimuths
Altitude 30
0 60 - 60
1 HS 5637 4222 4204
10 HS 35145 15375 15880
Azimuths
Altitude 60
0 60 - 60
1 HS 7631 6519 6619
10 HS 45971 22654 23560
Analysis of the results:
A great variation in the luminous flux admission
for situations of same solar protection angle and
different physical configurations (1 HS e 10 HS) was
identified and can be observed in this table.
Table 8 Comparative Daylight (Luminous Flux) admission
for SCD types 5 PV and 10 PV with altitude and azimuth
Altitude 30 Azimuth Altitude 60 Azimuth
5 PV 27351 5 PV 14656
10 PV 29275 10 PV 14259
Analysis of the results:
As already identified, a small variation in the
admitted luminous flux for the same solar protection
angle situations and different physical configurations
(5 VS and 10 VS) can be observed in this table.
3.2 Equivalent Luminance of the Window
(cd/m
2
):
The calculated values of equivalent luminance of
the window were identified to exemplify the four
types of solar control devices (SCD) analyzed
(spatial distribution of the admitted light in altitude
and azimuth co-ordinates positioned in the window
plane), as specified below:
- Type A: 1 HS of 3.466m, 30 ALTITUDE, 0
AZIMUTH, (Sun + Sky)
-80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
AZIMUTH
-80
-70
-60
-50
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
A
L
T
I
T
U
D
E
0
1
250
500
750
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2250
Figure 8: Spatial distribution of the admitted light in altitude
and azimuth co-ordinates
- Type B: 10 HS of 0.346m, 30 ALTITUDE, 0
AZIMUTH, (Sun + Sky)
-80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
AZIMUTH
-80
-70
-60
-50
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
A
L
T
I
T
U
D
E
0
1
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
8535
Figure 9: Spatial distribution of the admitted light in altitude
and azimuth co-ordinates
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- Type C: 1 HS of 1.155m, 60 ALTITUDE, 0
AZIMUTH, (Sun + Sky)
-80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
AZIMUTH
-80
-70
-60
-50
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
A
L
T
I
T
U
D
E
0
1
250
500
750
1000
1250
1500
1750
2000
2500
Figure 8: Spatial distribution of the admitted light in altitude
and azimuth co-ordinates
- Type D: 10 HS of 0.115m, 60 ALTITUDE, 0
AZIMUTH, (Sun + Sky)
-80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
AZIMUTH
-80
-70
-60
-50
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
A
L
T
I
T
U
D
E
0
1
2500
5000
7500
10000
12500
15000
17500
20000
21890
Figure 9: Spatial distribution of the admitted light in altitude
and azimuth co-ordinates
4. CONCLUSIONS
From the methods and proceedings identified in
the revision of literature, and from the simulation task
conducted, the conclusion was that one of the
possible means to adequately characterize the
luminous behaviour of openings with obstructions,
like solar control devices, is the improvement of
daylight simulation softwares through the use of
algorithms, which could better represent the real
physical situation.
Both the APOLUX simulation software and other
existent programs consider opaque surfaces as
perfect diffusers. This diffuser opaque surface
situation is found in some materials surfaces, as in
the case of the solar control devices - wall or sill
thickness - considered in the adopted simulation
models. For the window glass representation, the
program considers it to be a specular transmitting
surface.
There is also the need to define a generation of
light performance computational simulation programs
integrated to the CAD programs, allowing the
architect to effectively simulate his ideas of the
project as well as its realization.
The results previously analyzed identified the
expected variation (reduction and / or increase) of
light admission and spatial distribution for the
addition of different types of solar control devices (1
HS; 10 HS; 5 VS; 10 VS) in windows.
The method presented helps
in determining the variables of assessment of visual
comfort (luminance of the source -
opening), contributing to the calculation of indices
of visual comfort.
5. REFERENCES
[1] ANDERSEN, Marilyne, DE BOER, Jan (2006)
Goniophotometry and assessment of
bidirectional photometric properties of complex
fenestration systems. Energy and Buildings,
Vol. 38, pp.836-848.
[2] BOGO, Amilcar Jos (2007) Mtodo para
Avaliao da luz Natural atravs de Aberturas
com Elementos de Controle Solar. Tese de
Doutorado. Programa de Ps-Graduao em
Engenharia Civil PPGEC. Universidade
Federal de Santa Catarina UFSC,
Florianpolis.
[3] CLARO, A., PEREIRA, F. O. R., AGUIAR, G. P.
(2003) Desenvolvimento do Prottipo do
Software LuzSolar para Anlise e Projeto de
Iluminao Natural em Arquitetura e
Urbanismo. 1
o
Frum de Pesquisa &
Desenvolvimento da CELESC, Florianpolis/SC.
[4] DE BOER, Jan (2006). Modelling indoor
illumination by complex fenestration systems
based on bidirectional photometric data. Energy
and Buildings, Vol. 38, pp.849-868.
[5] IEA. International Energy Agency (1999)
Measurement of luminous characteristics of
daylighting materials. A Report of IEA SHCP
Task 21/ECBCS Annex29.
[6] KESSEL, Jeffrey, SELKOWITZ, Steve (1984)
Integrating sphere measurements of directional-
hemispherical transmittance of window systems.
Journal of IES, October.
[7] MCCLUNEY, R. (1987) Determining solar
radiant heat gain of fenestration systems.
Passive Solar Journal, Vol. 4, no. 4, pp 439-487.
[8] PAPAMICHAEL, K., KLEMS, J., SELKOWITZ,
S. (1988) Determination and application of
bidirectional solar-optical properties of
fenestration systems. 13
th
National Passive
Solar Conference. Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. LBL-25124, March.
[9] PEREIRA, Roberto Carlos (2009). Metodologia
Para Avaliao de Ferramentas de Simulao
de Iluminao Natural Atravs de Mapeamento
Digital de Luminncias. Tese de Doutorado.
Programa de Ps-Graduao em Engenharia
Civil PPGEC. Universidade Federal de Santa
Catarina UFSC, Florianpolis.
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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 843
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
The Light Comfort Zone of Micro-landscape Plant
community from the Viewpoint of Occupancy
Environment
CHUANG-HUNG LIN
1
, CHIEN-YUAN HAN
2
, RUEY-LUNG HWANG
1

1
Department of Architecture, National United University, Taiwan
2
Department of Electro-optical Engineering, National United University, Taiwan
ABSTRACT: Micro-landscape plant communities are quite common in building clusters, and with a typical
example being the atrium. Situated in the sub-tropical regions, Taiwan (120.75 E, 24.54 N) is a place where the
distribution of solar radiation is highly connected to peoples outdoor activities. Therefore, as the effects from
sunlight and the coverage of a building structure may be accurately predicted, the conditions of human activity,
as well as floral reproduction, can be settled in an accurate and comfortable manner. This research focuses on
an atrium (4452m) at National United University as an object of study. We investigated the disposition of the
plantation and measured the Photosynthesis Active Radiation (PAR), compared and analyzed in terms of
Relative Shine Hours (RSH) using computer simulations, thus producing distribution figures for the Daily Light
Integral (DLI) inside the atrium. This method allows us to easily discuss the comfort range of growth conditions
in the Micro-landscape plant communities and, at the same time, illustrate the important role that the climate
scale plays in landscape design.
Keywords: Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Daily light integral, Sunshine duration
1. INTRODUCTION
Plant environmental stress constitutes a major
limitation to crop production and plant growth, and
these stresses to natural areas are closely related to
such subjects as nutrition and water availability, in an
investigated area. Meanwhile, the major contributing
factor to plant growth and development within an
occupancy area is the building pattern. Lighting, an
influence issue to be discussed, has three principal
characteristics that affect plant growth: quality,
quantity, and duration. Quality refers to the spectrum
of greatest effect on plant growth. It is common
knowledge that photons with a wavelength between
400 and 700 nm (referred to as Photosynthetically
Active Radiation or PAR) provide the energy required
for photosynthesis. Quantity and duration refer to the
intensity of and period of time exposed to the lighting,
while the Daily Light Integral (DLI) is the amount of
PAR received each day as a function of light intensity
and duration. DLI is therefore an important variable
in determining the influences of light on plant growth.
Generally, formal garden projects of landscape
architecture usually implement symmetrical shapes
and placement within the garden space in order to
create a clean and crisp look, rather than considering
the daily light effect influenced by structures located
near or adjacent to the garden. Thus, sun plants in
the garden often fail to blossom and bear fruit as a
result of a deficiency in the daily light integral. In
contrast, prolonging daylight hours for shade plants
usually causes their leaves to become pale or even
to become sunburned, turn brown, and die.
Therefore, small-scale and local levels of light are
crucial factors to be considered in garden and
landscape design.
If quantitative analysis of the local light
environment can be performed in advance of plant
cultivation and landscape design, the optimal light
intensity of each locale or area can be determined in
order to maximize photosynthesis and the growth of
the plants. As the additional considerations of local
light environments are involved in garden and
landscape design, operating and maintaining the
localized ecosystem in an efficient and economic
manner will be consistent with the goal of sustainable
development.
In this paper, we propose a method by which to
evaluate the local light environment in order to
determine the suitable species of trees or seeds prior
to afforesting a selected area. This study was begun
by mapping daylight hours on the spring equinox, the
summer solstice, the autumnal equinox, and the
winter solstice of an atrium, whose daylight hours are
influenced by adjacent or nearby structures.
Afterwards, the PAR value of a reference spot in
which the amount of daylight hours was not affected
by structures was measured on the equinox. In
consequence, the DLI value for each lot in the area
can easily be predicted from the results obtained
from mapping daylight hours and a reference PAR
value. The DLI map, taking the localized daylight
hours of an artificial afforestation area into
consideration, could thus specify the species suitable
for afforestation based on the scientific study.
2. SUNLIGHT CONDITIONS AND
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PLANTS
When water and CO
2
are not limiting factors, the
rate of photosynthesis is proportional to the strength
of sunlight. A single leaf normally has the highest
rate of photosynthesis under a light strength of
13klux or 240 mol/m
2
s, which is thus known as the
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light saturation point (LSP). However, leaves
produce shading effects on one another; thus, in
order to attain the highest rate of photosynthesis for
an individual plant on a cloudless day, the light
strength should be 108klux or 2000 mol/m
2
s. The
light intensity at which the rates of photosynthesis
and respiration are equal is referred to as the light
compensation point (LCP). This condition fulfils the
basic living conditions of plant survival without
additional energy for growth. The normal LCP for
shade-oriented plants is about 10mol/m
2
s, and the
LSP value is 60 199mol/m
2
s [1].
In general, photosynthesis takes place during the
day. The number of photons received in one day is
called the DLI, which is a common index for
determining the light quantity and duration in a
particular area. DLI is measured in mol/m
2
d (the
number of moles of photons per square meter (m
2
)
per day (d), and its values vary depending on latitude,
weather, clouds conditions, artificial structures, and
so forth. In the northern part of the America, the
maximum outdoor DLI is about 60 mol/m
2
d on a
cloudless day in summer, but DLI may be less than 5
mol/m
2
d in winter [2]. In a large open space within a
building, light may be blocked by structure depending
on the sun's zenith angle, and therefore DLI varied at
each lot. Lam gathered regression data from many
investigations, indicating that solar radiation and
sunshine duration are linearly correlated [3]. Based
on this idea, the different values of solar radiation in
a specific site can be estimated according to the
duration of sunlight measured in each district [4], and
the concept diagram of this approach is illustrated in
Figure 1.

Figure 1: Concept diagram of DLI mapping procedure

2.1. Site condition
The campus atrium of the National United
University (120.75 E, 24.54 N) was selected as a
simulation and served as the investigated site for this
research. It was surrounded by three-story buildings
on three sides, with an opening facing south. The
south side was defined by a pedestrian walkway and
a four-story building. Related conditions are listed as
follows:
Major reasons for the case choice:
1 The ratio of building height to the atrium is
between 1:3 and 1:4, which is suitably human-scaled
and appropriate for peoples activities, generating
neither a feeling of oppression or loneliness. This
may be a helpful reference for future lighting design.
2 The building to the north blocks the strong
north wind, thereby reducing the impact of wind from
the north on the plants. This is helpful for observation
and discussion of sun exposure.
3 All buildings are simply-shaped, rectangular
with balanced distribution among their surfaces. The
building elevation opening ratio is close to 1:1 and
will not vary significantly during the investigation.
2.2. Investigated Periods
PAR measurements were conducted over four
days in 2009, namely on Oct 24th, Oct 31st, Nov 7th
and Dec 20th. More measurements were conducted
in 2010 for further analysis, namely on Sept 24th,
Sept 30th, Oct 7th, Oct 11th, Oct 12th, and Oct14th.
The main reason for doing so on these dates is that
after summer, the temperature and lighting decrease
dramatically and the shadow distribution of the
buildings becomes more evident, and these factors
facilitate the discussion of the issue at hand.
2.3. The instruments
The data logger employed is Campbells CR1000,
with Delta OHMs Probe LP PAR 01 as a sensor.
Data is recorded each minute.
2.4. Planting Distribution and Mapping
The surrounded open area amounts to 2288m
2

(44m52m). Plantings in the site include 10 different
types of trees (39 in total), and 3 different types of
shrubs.
3. ATRIUM SUNLIGHT SIMULATION
3.1. Atrium Coordinates and measured point
location
The atrium is divided into 2m 2m square lots to
conduct investigation on the effects of lighting on
various plantings, as shown in Figure 2. The
instruments are set up at coordinate M04, at a
location least impacted by buildings or planting. Test
height is set at 100cm, approximately the height of
the shrubs.

Figure 2: The atrium coordinates and measuring points
location
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3.2. Simulation and Calibration
Three user-friendly and widely-used simulation
software packages were used in this study: (1)
Ecotect 5.6, (2) Sketch Up 7, and (3) Auto CAD 2008.
These software programs can allow us to conduct
three-dimensional visual analysis based on building
shadows. The software allows us to cross-reference
their accuracies, as well as the precision of the data
obtained.
After building models are completed, the location,
longitude, latitude, and simulation period are set in
order to calculate the number of lighting hours in the
atrium based on map overlay.
The definitions of terms specific to sunshine
hours are listed as follows:
Possible duration of sunshine: Measure the time
duration on a day when sunshine is on the ground.
Duration of sunshine: Refers to the actual amount
of time within a day when the sun directly shines on
the ground.
Rate of sunshine (RSH %): Refers to the ratio of
the duration of sunshine to the possible duration of
sunshine.
RSH (%) = duration of sunshine hours/possible
duration of sunshine hours
Relative RSH (RSH %) = duration of sunshine
hours/ possible duration of sunshine hours for a
reference point.
3.3. RSH(%) of vernal/autumn equinox, summer
solstice, and winter solstice.
The results of light environment simulation on the
vernal/autumn equinox, summer solstice, and winter
solstice of the campus atrium were listed in Table 1,
and shown in Figure 3-5. We briefly reviewed the
results as follows:
1. Vernal/autumn equinox: There are 12 hours of
sunshine hours on the vernal/autumn equinox in
unshaded conditions. In the atrium, the highest
number of sunshine hours is 9 hours, and the lowest
is 4 hours. If plant cultivation is arranged in an east-
west orientation rather than in a south-north
orientation, the RSH of Phoenix loureir Kunth would
have made a difference of 25% per day.

Figure 3: The distribution of RSH on Vernal /Autumnal

equinox
2. Summer solstice: With unshaded conditions,
there are almost 13.58 sunshine hours on a
cloudless day. However, the highest number of
sunshine hours in the atrium is 12, and the lowest is
2. Examining the conditions of plant cultivation in the
atrium, Pinus thunbergii Parl placed next to the North
building would result in the lowest number of
sunshine hours, RSH are only 22%-37%.
Nevertheless, there are 44% for three Araucaria
excelsa R.Br, which are 5m away from the North
building. The other one Araucaria excelsa R.
Br.located in the south of the atrium would receive
74% per day, the RSH would have made a difference
30%. In contrast, the sunshine hours of Phoenix
loureir Kunth placed in a south-north orientation
would be more equal than Araucaria excelsa R.
Br.and Pinus thunbergii Parl, placed in east-west
orientation.

Table 1: RSH (%) of Summer solstice& Vernal / Autumnal

equinox& Winter solstice

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Figure 4: The distribution of RSH on Summer solstice

3. Winter solstice: 10.51 hours of sunshine hours
were estimated on the winter solstice in unshaded
conditions. 7 hours and 0 hours are the maximum
and minimum number of sunshine hours per day in
the atrium, and 0 hours of sunshine per day is
number for the so-called complete shadow region. At
present, the complete shadow region is the pathway,
and there is one hour of sunshine per day near the
pathway. Three Araucaria excelsa R. Br.on the north
side of the atrium enjoy 57-66% per day; however,
the other Araucaria excelsa R. Br.on the south side
only receives 19% sunshine per day, the exact
opposite of the conditions on the summer solstice.

Figure 5: The distribution of RSH on Winter solstice

We observed that the plant most influenced by
the change of sunshine hours in winter is Phoenix
loureir Kunth, located within range X01-X19, and
placed in a south-north orientation. Especially, eight
of Phoenix loureir Kunth three of whose distance is
within 10 meters, had RSH varying from 9%-57%.
Consequently, only high light tolerance plants are
preferable for cultivation in this area due to the
obstruction of light for the buildings.
4. INVESTIGATED RESULTS OF PAR AND
DLI VALUES
According to references [5], the DLI value can be
calculated as follows:
DLI (mol/m
2
d) = 0.0864average daily PAR
(mol/m
2
s)
The DLI of each lot in the atrium can be obtained
by measuring the PAR value of a reference point and
mapping the sunshine hours. We can observe that
the DLI values varied significantly with the seasons
as shown in Table 2. Furthermore, the difference in
relative sunshine hours previously mentioned, that is,
the amount of light received by the plant in each lot,
actually varies greatly within a small investigated
area.
We measured the PAR of the reference point on
2009 September 24th, and converted the daily
average value 196 mol/m
2
s into the DLI. Based
upon the results 17 mol/m
2
d the appropriateness of
plant design on campus in terms of their reaction to
sunlight conditions could be examined. On the
autumnal equinox, the SH ranges from 4 hours to 9
hours, and the DLI gap is 7.14 mol/m
2
d. If the
summer solstice daily average value reaches 50
mol/m
2
s, SH ranges from 2 hours to 12 hours, then
the DLI gap will almost reach 36.5 mol/m
2
d. This gap
reveals that the rate of photosynthesis decreases if
we do not estimate the shading conditions of the
plants precisely, resulting in increased plant
maintenance costs.

Table 2: Investigated PAR (mol/m

2
s) and
converted to DLI (mol/m
2
d)


5. RELATIVE DLI MAPPING AND
DISCUSSION
The atrium plantings can be divided into east-
west and north-south plantings, based on their
distribution. The east-west plantings are 1, 5, and 13
meters from the north building, respectively. Based
on the number of sunshine hours, the following was
found in Table 3:
1. The DLI of the 4 Pinus thunbergii Parl on the
winter solstice are 11-16. Although they are located
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in the southern section of the building, they are too
close to the building. Thus, the lighting conditions are
relatively poor, and the tree crowns only receive
sunshine from one direction. These circumstances
have resulted in rather sparse Pinus thunbergii Parl,
and as a consequence of the phototropism effect, in
branches of Pinus thunbergii Parl-3 being bent 45
degrees, exhibiting sick landscape syndrome.

Table 3: Relative DLI (mol/m

2
d) of plants

2. Three out of four Araucaria excelsa R. Br.are
located five meters from the north building, but due
to mutual shading, the actual sunshine hours are
lower than in the simulation data. In particular,
Araucaria excelsa R. Br.-4 is planted on the southern
side of the atrium, which receives significantly lower
amounts of sunshine compared to the other three
Araucaria excelsa R. Br.on the winter solstice, with a
DLI value of 5. This value stands in stark contrast
with the DLI values of 14 to 16 of the other Araucaria
excelsa R.Br.
3. Three out of four Bauhinia variegata Linn are
located on the eastern side and have a DLI value of
9 on the winter solstice, a value significantly lower
than the DLI value of 16 of the other three Bauhinia
variegata Linn on the western side.
4. Twelve Phoenix loureir Kunth form two rows of
plantings on the north-south. On the equinox, the DLI
diagram clearly indicated that the four on the western
side of the atrium have significantly higher values
than the eight on the eastern side. However, on the
winter solstice, the DLI value increased sharply from
2 to 16, creating an environment with greatly varying
lighting conditions, as shown in Figure 6.


Figure 6: DLI map of the atrium on the winter solstice

Reading the shadow map allows one to deduce

that the shrubs in the circular central flowerpots
cannot grow freely. The rhododendron will not reach
its expected full blossom and is being displaced by
the duranta repens growing. However, this shift is
resulting in great aesthetic disharmony,
demonstrating that the varying effects of lighting are
directly manifested in the density of shrubs.
Overall, the environment of the atrium
unsatisfactorily fulfils the requisite nurturing
conditions in terms of its symmetry or geometric
design, particularly in the use of a fixed flower bed.

6. CONCLUSION
Generally, climate data provides the general
sunlight duration throughout a city [6], failing to
recognize the precise microclimates that are critical
for plant installation design. The assumed sunshine
conditions derived from meteorological observation
stations using interpolation do not provide the
information required on the microclimate scale.
However, long-term quantum flux data captured in
the greenhouse cannot be applied to numerous
construction sites that require greening. Therefore,
computer simulation should be conducted before
greening design in the future.
From a long-term perspective, studies have
indicated that plant shadows can reduce the heat
gain of buildings and have also demonstrated that
their effects manifest themselves differently
according to climate [7,8,9]. In contrast, no readily
available investigation has focused on the impact of
building shade on nearby plants. However, such a
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study could prove to be a valuable reference in plant
design [10]. In the future, landscape design would do
well to incorporate live elements by employing a
more scientific and quantitative method to enhance
the survival rate of plantings, as well as to provide a
comfortable environment. Taking such measures
would ensure the aesthetic value of the landscape
and fulfil the goal of sustainable energy conservation.
Taking visual effects as well as the rate of sunlight
into consideration, symmetric or row plant designs
usually neglect the fact that plants are living
organisms. Unlike statues, electric lights, chairs,
ponds, and so forth, plants grow and change as time
passes. Gardening is a living art. When visiting the
same place after decades, the trees will have grown
taller or will have withered away, creating new visual
effects. In seeking to produce comfort zones for
human beings, we should also understand the
comfort zones necessary to plants in order to
establish a mutual-beneficiary environment for plants
and human beings [11].

7. REFERENCES
[1] J. Janick, Light , Horticultural Science (1986),
253.
[2] E. Runkle, Technically speaking: Daily light
integral defined, Greenhouse Product News
(2006) ,16.
[3] J.C. Lam, D.H.W. Li, Regression analysis of solar
radiation and sunshine duration, Architectural
Science Review (1996), 15.
[4] C. H. Lin, D. L. Ling, and Y. S. Chang, Visual
ecology: Outdoor light environment for plant
design by using computer simulation. Building
Environ (2007) , 42.
[5] E. Runkle, Technically speaking: Do you know
what your DLI is? Greenhouse Product News
(2006) ,16.
[6] P. C. Korczynski, J. Logan, and J. E. Faust,
Mapping Monthly Distribution of Daily Light
Integrals across the Contiguous United States.
HortTechnology (2002) ,12.
[7] A.W. Meerow, R.J. Black, Enviroscaping to
Conserve Energy: Determining Shade Patterns
for South Florida. Univ. of Florida: Food and
Agricultural, Inc. 1993 , Circular EES-48.
[8] J.C. Lam, Shading effects due to nearby
buildings and energy implications. Energy
Conversion Management. (2000),41
[9] V. Olgyay, Design with Climate: Bioclimate
Approach to Architectural Regionalism. New York:
Van Nostrand Reinhold (1992), 74.
[10] C. H. Lin, D. L. Ling, and Y. S. Chang, Make
reasonable decisions for greening planeffects
of distribution of shading duration by building
structures, Design & Nature 2, UK: WIT press
(2004), 73.
[11] C.H. Lin, D. L. Ling, Y. S. Chang, Enviroscaping
and Sunlight Design: An Energy-based Study of
Plant Design by Calculating Sunshine Duration,
The 41st IFLA World Congress, Taipei.
(2004),710
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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 849
The Visual Environment in the vernacular dwellings
at Mount Pelion, Greece
Natalia SAKARELLOU-TOUSI
1
, Benson LAU
2
1,2
School of the Built Environment, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
ABSTRACT: This paper explores the visual delight created by the appropriate and sensitive use of unique
architectural features of a particular type of vernacular dwelling to provide the desirable luminous environment.
They are contained on a well-preserved mansion located in Vysitsa village (3919N and 2309E) at Mount
Pelion in Greece, which reserves all architectural elements of the Greek traditional mountainous architecture,
playing the role of a typical representative model. For the understanding the design of the internal luminous
environment, both daylighting and sunlighting behaviour inside the building is investigated, the quality and the
quantity of light is examined and the effect of specific architectural elements to control the natural light for
achieving desirable lighting conditions and visual comfort is tested in different seasons, days and times by
conducting field measurement, physical model testing as well as computer simulations. In addition, the co-
relation between the occupants social activities background, seasonal migratory living patterns, the needs for
environmental comfort and the quest for light has been critically analyzed. The derived conclusions of this study
identify the lighting control techniques used to achieve the ingenious bioclimatic adaptation of this particular type
of vernacular building to the external climatic conditions and the daylight and sunlight availability.
Keywords: Climatic responsive design, daylight, visual comfort, migratory living patterns
1. INTRODUCTION
The light in the Geek mountainous traditional
structures, examined in this analysis, plays the role
of a boundary, aiming occasionally to the
connection or separation between the indoor and
outdoor spaces [1,3]. The design of these mansions
is based on the harmonic interaction of the historical
context and occupants visual needs. Two basic
controversial issues- Defence and protection from
predatory raids and frequent conflicts that
accompanied the establishment of Ottoman rule and
need of adequate illumination light according to the
room type, use and occupation frequency- created a
unique habitat, mainly based on the builders
accumulated experiences. The fenestration design
aims to unify and differentiate the rooms, according
to the occupants activities and visual needs [2,3].
The design which integrates all the social, cultural
and climatic characteristics of this area in
mountainous Greece, provide exemplary design
guidelines and valuable references for modern
designers.
1.1. Case study
Fig.1: Mansion external and internal views - Public and
private zones.
The under investigated L-shaped Mansion is
orientated in a deviation of 27 from due North to
East, having a view to the Pagasic Gulf. This house
built in 1791, which is now used as a guesthouse,
still retains all the typical characteristics of Pelion
vernacular architecture. The building has a ground
floor and two storeys above connected by a narrow
wooden staircase, which enables the vertical
circulation of the occupants. All storeys have the
similar layout and each floor is separated into two
zones: the public zone (living rooms, sitting rooms
and kitchen) which is in the southwest and has the
advantage of a good view and orientation to the sea
and the private zone (bedrooms and bathrooms),
which is in the northeast and is protected by the
steep mountain slope (Fig.1).
The ground and first floors have very thick
external and internal stonewalls, which play a
fundamental supporting role with very few windows.
The first floor is called with an introvert character
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850 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
directly related to occupants winter activities, visual
and thermal needs and to its defensive historical
role. The internal environment is dimly lit. In stark
contrast to this winter accommodation, the second
floor is a combination of lightweight and heavyweight
construction and is normally used as the summer
accommodation with an extrovert character and
relatively brightly lit luminous environment. The
private zone here is a heavyweight construction,
same as in the lower storeys and the public zone is a
lightweight construction, punctured by numerous
windows. There is no obstruction that overshadow
the mansion, or block its view to the sea [4,5,6].
1.2. Research Methodology & limitations
In this study, in order to understand the
daylighting and sunlighting performance in the
building, different analytical tools have been used to
study the luminous environment. These tools
highlight the role of this mansions typical
architectural features in terms of lighting control and
visual comfort.
Fig.2: Photographs of the physical model: Artificial Sky and
Heliodon laboratories
The conclusions and results of the daylight and
sunlight analysis are obtained through the following
means:
1. Field measurements taken in June 2008.
Generic observations and monitoring results were
obtained due to the relatively short research time
scale. Nevertheless, the results are very close to
reality. Additionally, the onsite measurements
consider both sunny and overcast sky conditions.
2. Physical models, tested in Artificial Sky to
investigate the internal luminous environment in
terms of daylight levels and distribution.
3. Physical models were also tested on Heliodon
to explore the solar ingress.
4. Three dimensional computer simulations of the
buildings, through the use of Ecotect and Radiance
software for quantitative assessment. The properties
(i.e. reflectance, roughness, brightness and colour)
of the materials used in the simulations are similar to
the reality. The external illuminance used is 7000 lux
(overcast sky in Greece in December) as a worst
case scenario is tested.
5. Interview with the owner and visitors have
been conducted on site to support the quantitative
studies.
2. DAYLIGHTING AND SUNLIGHTING
PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
2.1. Climate
In general, the climate in Mount Pelion is
moderate during the summer (27C-30C) and cold
during the winter (-5C-4C). During the summer
months there is an average of 11 hours of daily
sunshine on Mount Pelion, and during the winter
months there is an average of 4 hours/day. The
overcast sky illumination in this area is as follows [7]:
The solar altitude is very steep: 79 in summer
solstice, 57 in equinox and 32 in winter solstice [8].
Thus the key environmental consideration in this
climate is to control the solar radiation in order to
provide passive solar heating during the winter
months and to prevent the building from overheating
during the summer months, through adopting specific
envelope designs and window apertures. Due to the
low temperature during the winter, thermal comfort
was the primary concern for the occupants [5, 7].
2.2. Typical Architectural Elements and their
impact on the internal luminous
environment
The key architectural features of the mansion,
which control the light, are the followings (Fig.3) [5]:
A. Roof overhang: summer accommodation (public
and private zone)
B. Wooden shutters: in summer accommodation
(public zone)
C. Clerestory fixed windows: in summer
accommodation (public zone)
D. Small splayed reveal windows and wide
windowsill and lintel of the thick walls (in the entire
ground floor and winter accommodation and
private zone of the summer accommodation).
Fig.3: Key envelope architectural features of the mansion
Analysis:
A. Roof overhang: summer accommodation (public
and private zone)
The eave of the roof is extended beyond the wall of
the summer accommodation (second floor) about
0.7m. This acts as an overhang, and provides
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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 851
additional protection to the lightweight east, west,
and south facades from the intensive solar radiation
in summer and the frequent rain and snowfall during
winter. It can be observed that in summertime the
overhang of the roof plays a very important role,
shadowing the second floor, whilst in mid-season
and winter, instead of blocking out the sun, it allows
direct solar ingress and provides beneficial solar
gains to the communal southwest
rooms.
Fig.4: Roof eave - Detailed diagram of sun penetration and
sun shading in summer solstice, equinox and winter solstice
B. Wooden shutters: summer accommodation (public
zone)
Fig. 5: a. Wooden shutters of the summer accommodation,
with various levels of openness. b. Detailed diagram of sun
penetration and sun shading in three key days. c. Summer
accommodation daylight distribution (computer simulation)
On the second floor, the public zone is exposed
to the sun on two most vulnerable facades: the
southwest and the northeast. The envelope, which is
pierced by nineteen large apertures and multi-
coloured clerestory windows, indicates the need of
the occupants to live in well daylit but controllable
luminous environments, mostly in summer and mid-
season. To protect the communal spaces from
overheating and very high internal daylight levels, the
windows of the public zone are protected by wooden
shutters which are separated into three parts (two
vertical and one horizontal) (Fig.5a, 5b). Each part
can be moved independently, so as to provide the
occupants with the opportunity to adjust it (rotating
and fixing one, two, or all parts of the shading
devices) according to their needs and comfort level,
as well as to the climatic characteristics of each
season (solar altitude and light intensity). This gives
the occupants the ability to convert the room from a
relatively dark enclosed area into a semi-outdoor
one. These rooms thus function to provide an
intermediate adaptation zone between the very dark
northern bedrooms and the external very luminous
environment. It is important to mention that the
shutters are solid and not louvered, because they
also act as a wind barrier, compensating
simultaneously the occupants thermal needs;
prevention form overheating during the summer and
minimisation of the heat losses during the winter.
Based on the computer simulations, the
summers accommodation internal daylight levels in
the public zone are adequate and the daylight
distribution is quite even, to provide desirable visual
comfort (Fig.5c).
The onsite measurements, taken in summer
(morning and afternoon), show that the public space
of the summer accommodation is very luminous
whereas the daylight distribution is uneven. The
daylight factor and the Uniformity Ratio of these
spaces are as follows:
It should be pointed out that these measurements
take into account not only the diffused but also the
direct light. The uneven distribution can be explained
by the fact that the external illumination is very high
and the flimsy walls with the numerous big apertures
create a very bright zone close to the window, which
causes a great contrast between this area and the
back of the room. In addition, the second floors
flimsy envelope protected by the three-part opaque
shading devices partly blocks the incoming light,
creating fragments of light patches in the rooms
(Fig.7).
The Artificial Sky testing shows adequate daylight
levels but the daylight distribution is not even. The
seconds floor summer accommodation public space
consists of a living room and a formal room. The
results for these two spaces are as follows: Living
room: DF: 3.6% and UR: 0.1, Formal room: DF: 2.8%
and UR: 0.16.
It should be noted that for internal dwellings/hotel
spaces, the adequate DF% levels are the following
[living rooms: 2%, bedrooms: 1.5%, kitchen 2% [7].
As for the uniformity ratio, above 0.5 indicates a
relatively even lit internal environment, while 0.2
shows uneven light distribution.
C. Clerestory fixed windows: summer accommodation
(public zone)
The height of the public zone in the summer
accommodation is greater than that of the other
storeys. It varies from 3m to 6.50m where the roof is
internally exposed. Above the large numerous
windows, multi-coloured clerestory windows are
placed. These windows are designed to provide
diffused light on the upper part of the wall of the
room, preventing from glare vertically and to smooth
the daylight distribution of the room in plan, by
increasing the daylight levels at the back; only
diffused light is provided during the equinox and
summer because the roof eave blocks the direct
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852 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
light. Both diffused and direct light is provided during
the winter months (Fig.6).
Fig.6: a. Clerestory fixed windows, b. Detailed diagram of
sun penetration through the clerestory windows in three key
days
A comparative study has been carried out to
prove the significant role that the clerestory windows
play in enhancing the luminous environment:
Qualitatively by using Heliodon and quantitatively by
carrying out computer simulations.
From the Heliodon testing it is obvious that the
upper part of the front wall is always brighter where
clerestory windows are introduced (Fig.7).
Fig.7: Heliodon solar study (perspective of the living room)
with and without clerestory windows in equinox.
Comparing the existing living room of the summer
accommodation (with the clerestory windows) with
the hypothetical case (without clerestory windows),
the computer simulation results show that- even
thought in both cases the living room is not
adequately illuminated- in the existing scenario the
internal daylight levels are numerically greater and
the daylight distribution more even (Fig.8).
Fig.8: Living room with and without fixed clerestory windows
in plan.
It should be taken into account that in this
simulation no direct light is considered and the
shutters are not fully open.
D. Small splayed reveal windows and wide windowsill
of the thick walls (ground, first and second floor)
The ground and first floors (winter
accommodation) have very thick external stonewalls
(0.9m-1m) and internal stonewalls (0.5m-0.7m) with
very few and small windows, for historical defensive
and thermal comfort reasons. Wooden shutters,
which open internally, keep out the sun and the cold
or hot winds when necessary (used for keeping the
heat in or minimization of heat losses). All of the
openings on the ground and first floors and the ones
in the private zone of the second floor (bedrooms)
are either simply rectangular, or rectangular with
clam-shaped lintels (Fig.9).
Fig. 9: a. Splayed reveal windows with internal shutters
b. Detailed diagram of sun penetration and sun shading
through the small graded reveal windows in three key days.
This design highlights the priority in the winter
accommodation to minimize the heat losses and to
protect the occupants from the invasions. Therefore,
by this introvert and firm construction visual comfort
was not easily achievable (Fig.9a). Thus, this design
has the potential to reduce the solar gains in winter
and to make the rooms very dark and gloomy.
Fig.10: Daylight distribution of the winter accommodation
(computer simulation)
From the computer simulation results shown in
Fig.10, it is evident that visual discomfort occurs due
to uneven light distribution which leads to poor
uniformity. This is explained by the fact that the thick
walls with the very small and few windows block the
light considerably and, even though the external
illumination is high, only a small portion of the
available natural light can enters the rooms.
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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 853
The results from the field measurements, taken in
summer (morning and afternoon), show that all the
winters accommodation rooms are considered
almost gloomy, with a very uneven daylight
distribution. The very high external illumination,
which is testified also in the computer simulation
testing, improves the overall internal natural light
levels but greatens the contrast between the area
close to the windows and the back of the room,
causing glare. Direct sunlight aggravates the glare
occurrence. The monitoring results are summarised
as follows:
As for the Artificial Sky testing, the rooms are
also very gloomy, whereas the daylight distribution is
slightly smoother than in the reality. The testing
results are as follows:
The occupants in the past had as a priority the
winter accommodation to provide them safety and
thermal comfort. However, to reduce the risk of glare
occurrence, the windows reveal is made in a
splayed form to reduce the excessive contrast
between the glazing unit and the internal walls
brightness. The occupants perception is that visual
discomfort is reduced while looking at these
rectangular or rectangular with clam-shaped lintels
windows, by the intermediate splayed reveal, which
provides graded contrast between the dark wall and
the bright external illumination and greater internal
daylight levels. The following Heliodon study shows
qualitatively the effective role of the splayed window
reveal (Fig.11).
Fig.11: Heliodon solar study (perspective of kitchen on the
ground floor) in equinox.
It should be noted that this is a simulation that
took place in a laboratory with only one light source
representing the sun. No diffused light is taken into
account and therefore the contrast here looks greater
than reality. In reality it is assumed that the diffused
light lowers the contrasts. In equinox, because of the
small size of the windows glare is observed in
specific surfaces and hours of the day, but the
configuration of the apertures improves the visual
discomfort.
A sample room of the building is tested to
demonstrate the importance of this window
configuration quantitatively (Fig.12).
A luminance ratio less than 1:10 shows that glare
is not a problem and that the contrast between the
glazing unit and the wall is acceptable for the
occupants visual comfort. Indeed, in all tests the
splayed reveal improves both the internal daylight
levels and distribution and lowers the brightness
contrasts between the glazing unit and the
surrounding surfaces.
Fig.12: a. Brightness contrast comparative study (without
and with splayed reveal windows): Artificial Sky (diffused
light) and Heliodon (direct light). b. Daylight distribution
comparative study (without and with splayed reveal window
in plan): computer simulation.
On site measurements are taken also to test the
glare occurrence. Three representative windows of
the three storeys of different orientations are showed
below (Fig.12).
Fig.12. On site measurements; brightness contrast testing
for glare occurrence
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854 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
On the ground floor kitchen southwest windows
glare problem occurs, which is partly explained by
the fact that a brown wooden cladding has been
applied around the glazing units of the window. The
colours of the surfaces that surround the glazing unit
play considerable role to the glare occurrence, since
the colour is related to the brightness of a surface.
In terms of sunlight penetration, the thick walls
(the internal part of the sill and the external part of
the lintel of the windows) were carefully designed to
shade the openings during the summer and equinox,
but not to block the sun during the winter (Fig. 9b).
3. CONCLUSION
Evaluation of the Vernacular Architecture in
Terms of Natural Light
The design, location, and size of the windows in
this typical vernacular dwelling at Mount Pelion in
Greece are based on the solar and wind vulnerability
of each facade. The design of the fenestration
responds well to the functional and light
requirements of the communal and private spaces.
Most of the openings are placed on the southwest
facade (the front) for receiving the suns radiation
and fewer on the northeast facade (the back) for
reducing the heat losses (northeast facade) in winter.
The roof overhang, the three-part shutters of the
summer accommodation and the window sills of the
apertures of the ground floor and the winter
accommodation, contribute to the successful solar
control of the mansion during the summer and mid
season, especially for the southwest facade.
However, in most of the mansions rooms daylight
illuminance varies according to the function of the
rooms. Light level is low in the bed rooms, but
relatively high in the communal spaces. Although the
small openings in the winter accommodation tend
to create high brightness contrast between the
peripheral zone and the back zone of the rooms at
times, the splayed window reveals of the masonry
walls and the clerestory fixed windows of the second
floors public zone, effectively contribute to the
deeper light penetration and contrast grading within
the structure. As a result, the adverse impact from
the discomfort glare is reduced.
As for the glare occurrence, from the onsite
measurements it can be concluded that on the
southwest facade (the front), which is the most
vulnerable facade because of direct excessive solar
radiation, glare is a problem at times. On the
northwest and the southeast facades fewer problems
with glare have been observed; the northwest facade
(the back) does not receive much solar radiation, and
therefore has no problems with glare. In early
summer, when the measurements were taken,
excessive brightness contrast was observed only in
the lightweight construction of the second floor and
the very dark northwest bedrooms of the ground and
first floors. It can be assumed that glare will be more
intense during the winter, when the sun altitude is
much lower. However, the provision of shutters,
splayed window reveals and clerestory windows
allow the users to control their internal environment.
The lesson learnt from this vernacular structure
is that the size, type and the amount of openings and
shading devices on each fa ade were constructed
according to the seasonal activities of the occupants
in each room, and the social contexts in which they
were living in the past. Basically the fenestration
design respects the migratory living patterns of the
occupants. Based on the function of the rooms (e.g.,
bedroom or living room), different quantity and
quality of natural light is provided. All bedrooms of
the building have only one window because of their
individual use and the resting activities (i.e. sleep,
get dressed or rest), meaning that they needed little
natural lighting (private zone). Whereas the living
rooms of the second floor, where people gather and
spend time together have many apertures because
of their use for work or communal activities, meaning
that they needed brighter spaces. Therefore, the
bedrooms were designed to be gloomier and the
communal spaces to be more luminous.
Furthermore, the occupants used to stay in the
winter accommodation during the winter months and
in the summer accommodation in the summer
months (seasonal migratory living pattern) [4], so the
luminous environment is in tune with this internal
migratory living pattern. Additionally, it should be
taken into account the priority for thermal comfort
and the defensive role that the winter
accommodation played in the past. Therefore, the
visual delight was not the primary concern on the
ground and first floor. Thus, the social needs and the
daily and seasonal activities dictated the building
envelope design, the materials, and the placement of
apertures on different facade. This vernacular
dwelling is an exemplar precedent for demonstrating
how building design can respond to the seasonal
needs of the occupants in terms of visual comfort
and delight.
4. REFERENCES
[1] Moore F., Concepts and Practice of Architectural
Daylighting, Van Nostrand Company New York,
1985
[2] Millet S. M., Light Revealing Architecture, John
Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1996
[3] Baker N., Steemers K., Daylight design of
Buildings, James & James , 2000
[4] Sakarellou-Tousi N., Lau B., The Vernacular
Dwellings of Mount Pelion in Greece: A
migratory living pattern, PLEA Conference,
Architecture Energy and Occupants Perspective,
Quebec City, 22
nd
-24
th
June 2009
[5] Kizis Y., Mount Pelion Constructions (in Greek
Language), Cultural Technological Institute,
1994
[6] Leonidopoulou Stilianou R., Greek Vernacular
Architecture, Pelion, Melissa, 1992
[7] Tsipiras T., Tsipiras K., Ecological Architecture,
Kedros, June 2007
[8] http://www.hnms.gr
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ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July2011)


The poetics of contemplative light in the Church of
Notre-Dame-du-Haut designed by Le Corbusier

Dimitris KAIMAKLIOTIS
1
, Benson LAU
2

1,2
Department

of

Architecture and Built Environment, Nottingham University

Abstract: Le Corbusier was one of the most influential architects of the 20
th
century and his built structures and writings
have become the sources of inspiration for practitioners and students. As Le Corbusier wrote: Architecture is the
masterly, correct and magnificent play of volumes brought together in light. Daylight was one of the key design
elements which Le Corbusier used to illuminate and dramatise the space and form, and to evoke special luminous
environments which are appropriate for the programme and function of the building in order to enhance and enrich the
spatial and visual delight in architecture. The objective of this paper is to investigate the poetics of the contemplative
light which one can vividly experience in the Ronchamp chapel. Through on site monitoring and physical model testing,
the lighting techniques which Le Corbusier adopted in this Chapel to define the collective and individual light in this
sacred structure were qualitatively and quantitatively analysed. This study concluded that Le Corbusiers skilful
orchestration and manipulation of adaptive light, building fenestration, window aperture and the sacred form have led to
a poetic luminous environment where both dynamic and static luminous balance co-existed in a harmonious manner.
Much can be learnt by studying Le Corbusiers religious buildings which were built by using daylight as the primary light
source and the built form as the solar clock to register and respond to daily arc of the sun. Detailed analysis on the
contemplative light created by Le Corbusier in the Ronchamp Chapel would provide valuable insights and data which
can be applied to the more routine design of the luminous environment.

Key Words: Spatial poetry, adaptive light, sacred realm

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. History
Ron champ Chapel, one of the most influential
buildings of modern architecture, is Le Corbusiers
autobiography. It is the confession of his true nature
as an artist, although being an architect he was also a
prolific painter and sculptor. The result of such
versatile skill was the creation of a chapel at the top
of the Notre-Dame-du-Haut hill in East France near
Ronchamp village, 20km from Belfort, on the way to
Vesoul. Ronchamp Chapel was one of the three
religious buildings ever designed by him. The Chapel
of Ronchamp and the Monastery of La Tourette were
built during his lifetime while the parish church of
Saint-Pierre was completed in 2006, 41 years after
his death by French architect, and Le Corbusiers
student, Jose Oubrerie.
In 1950 the manager of the photographic archives
of France, the director of the museum of decorative
arts in Paris and Canon Lucien Ledeur from the
seminar of Besanon on the recommendation of
Father Alain Couturier of Lyons approached Le
Corbusier and asked for his help as he was well
known for his design freedom and free play of
expression. Le Corbusier was neither a religious
extremist nor an atheist as he was raised as a
protestant with both his Aunt and Pauline being
devout. Bearing in mind the sensitivity of different
religious identities in the 1950s, Le Corbusier when
asked about his design intentions at Ronchamp he
replied: " I have not experienced the miracle of faith,
but I have often known the miracle of ineffable
space..."[1]. After five years of design and two years
of work, on the 25th June 1955, the chapel was finally
inaugurated. This paper is not intended to criticise or
find faults but on the contrary, it is an appreciation of
adaptive light inside a sacred realm in the chapel of
Ronchamp.

1.2. The Key is Light
Light has been a vital drive for Le Corbusier in
designing a space. He said that "Architecture is the
masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses
brought together in light..."[2]. Through his religious
buildings Le Corbusier used light in different ways
"the key is light and light illuminates forms. And these
forms take on an emotive power [...]"[3] In this paper
the authors study will focus on Le Corbusiers skilful
manipulation of Adaptive Light in the chapel of
Ronhamp. A significant attribute of the human vision
is the ability to clarify between levels of light that vary
from complete darkness to the vivid glare of a bright
day. This phenomenon is known as adaptation and
the mechanisms by which it occurs and its
implications for building design have been the subject
of much study [4].

1.3. Methodology
In order to understand the poetics of adaptive light
in the Chapel of Ronchamp, the luminous
environment had been analyzed both qualitatively and
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ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July2011)


quantitatively. The qualitative analysis, involving tonal
sketching and on site observations of the luminous
environment reveal the techniques used by Le
Corbusiers to achieve light adaptation within a
sacred structure.
In order to bring to life the light dramas through
longer time periods, a detailed 1:50 scale model was
constructed and tested under the Heliodon and
Artificial sky. Furthermore, an animation has been
composed by the authors to fully appreciate Le
Corbusier's skilful orchestration and manipulation of
light adaptations within the Chapel. All these
information have been cross referenced by the
quantitative analysis which involved spot
measurements of the photometric data on site.

2. LUMINOUS ENVIRONMENT IN THE
RONCHAMP CHAPEL

2.1. The Promenade Architecturale
The way you approach, how you enter or exit, all
perceive the architects notion of procession to a
building, inspired by the Greek Parthenon on the
Athenian Acropolis. Le Corbusier envisioned
Ronchamp as a three dimensional sculpture to be
admired from all perspectives and intended visitors to
follow what he described as promenade
architectural", Of this journey he wrote: It is the
promenade, the movements we make that act as
the motor for architectural events [5].

2.2. Outside
The journey begins from the road linking Belfort
with Vesoul as the white outline of the chapel starts to
appear going up the hill. The adventure starts from
the village of Ronchamp when the visitor takes a
steep path and after arriving at the summit of path
(figure 1) vision becomes shallower by the trees and
bushes and then suddenly, "Outside: we approach,
we see, our interest is aroused, we stop, we
appreciate..." [6]. As usual, nature had a role in the
design as there are various sketches of shells
examining the way that outside surfaces become
inside ones, and inside ones become outside ones.

2.3. Inside
One of the great accomplishments at Ronchamp is
the precise planning of its various phenomena
through time and space, to produce a totality of light
in motion. A combination of white convex and
concave sprayed concrete walls covered by a dark
grey shell like roof, compiled by three towers, one
being significantly taller than the others, make the
Chapel. The architect used concrete because
"concrete is a material that doesn't cheat...rough
concrete says: " I am concrete.[7] The transition of
light changes respectively as the earth rotates. The
chapel's two main facades are oriented towards the
South and East, separated by a pinched wall that
gradually rises as it reaches the end corner. The
South Facade with its gently sloping wall holds the
main entrance of the chapel.

Figure 1: The site, context and surroundings, Interior &
Exterior Elevations, photos- from Kaimakliotis, 2008
In the interior of the chapel the use of different
colours is dominant to the eye, from the roof to the
concrete entrance and finishing with the painted
windows on the south wall. Natural light is present in
every space and form. Within the chapel there are
three private praying spaces under the light towers
where light can be classified as Individual Light; the
open space where the nave is located can be
classified as Collective Light. These two types of light
within the chapel contribute to a well balanced
luminous environment. The approach to each space
is also vital for the architectural notion of light
adaptations. In relation to the Individual light which
occurs inside all the towers further testing will show
how the balance of light occurs to the human eye.
Within the Collective Light which covers the nave,
East and South wall, further qualitative analysis will
show how asymmetrical balance help create a static,
yet dynamic luminous environment .
The journey continues to the inside and as one
enters the chapel from the North the attention is
immediately drawn to the South wall, "the south wall
provokes astonishment"[8], but also to the choir on
the East, the East wall comes to life as the first light
comes up. As one views the East faade, multiple
light sources meet the eyes, a horizontal ray of light
between the East wall and roof gives the impression
of a floating roof, scattered holes behind the altar
seem like stars in heaven, followed by a beam of light
flushing through from the south east corner, and
finally glimpses of natural light from the south wall
openings interfere within the space as they naturally
balance the scene.


Figure 2: East Facade, Physical model photo & sketch-from
Kaimakliotis, 2008.
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The asymmetrical balance of light created by this
lightning technique enhances visual perception by
eliminating excessive brightness and contrast[9]. In
other words in order to prevent glare the architect
used various light sources from different directions
to interact on each other. The only point where glare
occurs from the East facade is during morning hours
were the Virgin Mary Statue is lit by the morning light.
As this is the only point in the chapel were glare is
observed. After thorough site monitoring, it seems
that this was done intentionally by the architect. The
importance of Virgin Mary in Christianity is seen
through a brightly lit square aperture which produces
high levels of contrast, in the chapel at specific points
in time, symbolizing the divine light.
Photometric measurements were taken on site as
indicated in Figure 3. In the CIBSE code for interior
Lighting (1994) and in Daylighting by Hopkinson, the
suggested ratio of task luminance to immediate
surround to general surround should be in order of
10:3:1 [10]. The strong contrast between a light
source and its background can often create glare.


Figure 3: Luminance Contrast Study (on site monitoring) for
East, Virgin Mary Statue-from Kaimakliotis, 2008.
Inside the chapel a single statue of the Virgin Mary
was displayed in the square window on the east wall
and as mentioned above Le Corbusier intentionally
emphasized its importance by manipulating the
brightness contrast. The ratio calculated for the Virgin
Mary statue, the immediate surround and general
surround is 63:3:1, indicating high contrast ratio and
the occurrence of glare (fig. 3).
In the chapel three towers can be found, each
represents an individual sacred space. All towers
point at different directions but the third chapel
extends from the sacristy in an east west axis
capturing the rays of sunrise which become a holy
spread as they encounter the tower's red walls.
As the visitor encounters the more private and
individual spaces within the chapel, luminance levels
and light sources change accordingly but only within
that specific space. This is an individual light within a
collective space therefore it does not interfere with the
luminous balance of the east and South facade.
Moving away from the east facing tower, and as
the rays of light within the east wall gradually dim out,
the south wall comes to life, lighting up the deep
splayed windows which capture the sun at a specific
point in time. As time passes and the earth rotates
around the sun different window apertures light up on
the South Wall. After conducting on site monitoring,
Aperture F, (figure 4) experienced glare. This was
because at the specific time when the reading was
taken, window F was directly facing the sun. All the
openings are orientated in slightly different angles
capturing momentarily the sun at different times of the
day. Le Corbusier used this technique to gradually
prepare ones adaptation to the constantly changing
light through the thick south wall and led the visitors
to the next spiritual realm.

Figure 4: Luminance Contrast Study South Wall, top centre
image from physical model-from Kaimakliotis, 2008.

Although facing South one can barely experience
glare as the large thicknesses of the walls gradually
diffuse light through, and at the same time the shell
like roof acting as a canopy on the outside, blocks
most light beams from the sun, especially during
summer months. An effective technique used by the
architect to block the direct sun beams from the
outside without interfering with the inside and
therefore creating a well balanced internal lighting
condition. Due to varying positions of the sun, winter
sun is lower, summer sun is higher, the luminous
environment during both seasons changes
dramatically with the winter season exposing the
south wall to direct solar penetration.(figure 5) This is
the only season when sun rays are allowed to
penetrate into the chapel, to bring direct light and
warmth to the nave.


Figure 5: Section through south wall, images from physical
model showing how roof blocks the sun in summer-from
kaimakliotis, 2008.
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As the South Wall gradually dims out to ambient
light levels, and as the sun sets, the West facade
takes on its turn to contribute to the poetics of
contemplative light. In order to demonstrate the
balance of light on the West faade, the architect
used a combination of individual and collective light.
The West facade is the only blind facade in the
chapel but it is accompanied by the South Tower
(figure 6), in a north/south axis receives the relatively
constant north light through the calotte above it, the
other tower aligned west-east axis lights the structure
with the setting sun through its west facing calotte.
Again the skilful lighting technique is clearly shown
here as the two towers on the West facade create an
asymmetrical balance which in turn enhancing the
light adaptation.

Figure 6: Light Tower facing North, Graph showing light
evenly dispersing down the tower-from Kaimakliotis, 2008.

Based on figure 6 we can observe how light is
evenly distributed from the top of the tower to the
bottom. Although human eyes operate over a large
range of light levels. They need to adjust gradually to
its surroundings. Le Corbusier managed to disperse
light inside the tower which helps the human eye to
gradually adapt to the relatively dark luminous
environment.
As the journey continues on the blind West facade
from the North tower, attention is drawn to the smaller
chapel as the sunset funnels light through the
calottes above (figure 7). A more individual space
with access only allowed by the priest. Again the
architect managed to calm the human eye by
providing only the necessary levels of light for light
adaptation.


Figure 7: Physical model photo showing entrance to West
facing tower, photo inside tower-Kaimakliotis, 2008.

2.4. The quantitative analysis of the adaptive
light in Ronchamp chapel
In order for the architect to achieve an asymetrical
balance by introducing various light sources to
balance the human perception of a specific place,
much thinking and testing had been done. One of Le
Corbusiers assoiates, Iannis Xenakis, a Greek
architect / engineer was thought to have helped in the
design and testing although the extend of his
involvement in the design is unlcear. As shown on
figure 8 a 1:50 model was built and tested on the
heliodon in order to capture the dramatic luminous
environment from sunrise to sunset. The model was
also used by the authors in the artificial sky to
observe how light filters through the building. Daylight
factor was also calculated and compared with the
onsite measurements. In order to understand how the
architet managed to evenly disperse natural light
throught various apertures of the chapel various tests
have been carried out.


Figure 8: Physical model, Heliodon study-Kaimakliotis, 2008.
The daylight factor in the chapel of Ronhamp will
be expected to be low since it is normal to have low
illuminance levels in a church. Le Corbusier tried to
control the light intensity but at the same time to
balance the light inside the chapel (figure 9). a simple
test was constructed to prove this. The onsite
measurements for the daylight illuminance were taken
when the North door was deliberately left open and
then closed. The photometric data taken from the
physical model were recorded with the door closed
and a comparison was made. A 1mx1m virtual grid
was mapped on the floor plan to help derive the
daylight distribution pattern under overcast sky
conditions.


Figure 9: 3d model, light entering the chapel from all
directions-from Kaimakliotis, 2008.
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Figure 10: Daylight factor Door open: 0.6%, uniformity ratio
0.23 % ( on site measurements)-from Kaimakliotis, 2008.

Figure 11: Daylight factor with north door closed, uniformity
ratio 0.3 %(artificial sky)-from Kaimakliotis, 2008.

Daylight Factor came out to be as low as
expected. This is normal for a sacred place like
Ronchamp because a more tranquil and meditative
luminous environment is needed. However the
Daylight Factor is double the value when the north
door was left open (figure 10). Ronchamp has many
window apertures but because each one has a
specific task towards controlling the light entering the
space and in turn contributing to the poetics of
contemplative light, one single door when opened
would make a huge difference inside the space. This
proves how the architect used various light apertures
to bring in the light in different spaces. As we can see
from the graph in figure 12 the red line indicates
illuminance levels when door is opened and blue line
when door is closed. It is important to point out how
uniform the light levels are within the sacred space
while the door is kept close. Uniformity, light
adaptation, contrast grading and balance of light is
the lighting techniques that Le Corbusier frequently
used in this sacred structure.
The Luminous environment on the South wall
were tested by using the Heliodon and physical model
and the results can be clearly seen on the matrix
(figure 13). Light on the key dates like Winter solstice,
Figure 12: On site analysis with physical model comparison-
Kaimakliotis, 2008.
Summer Solstice and Equinox have been
investigated by taking pictures using a high resolution
webcam, every half an hour starting from 6:00 in the
morning till 18:00.The luminous environment varies at
different times and depending how one views the
south wall different perspectives can be perceived.
According to Figure 13 the most interesting season to
visit the chapel is winter. In winter, the south wall has
full exposure to the sun due to the fact that the suns
arc is lower, and therefore light penetrates the chapel
along the whole length of the south wall. For all
seasons, the most revealing times of various
luminosities are when the sun rises in the morning
and when the sun sets in the evening. The poetry
behind light exposure is controlled at specific times of
the day. Quite cleverly the architect tried to keep the
luminosity of the south wall relatively constant from
about 11:00 o clock until 15:00 in the afternoon. This
can be observed clearly from Figure 13. In the
morning the East wall becomes alive, and as the sun
sets, change in luminance levels can be clearly seen
on the south wall and west facade (towers). Light
does not change in a drastic manner, but in a rather
gradual way. Light slowly fades away, proving how
the architect managed to control the light balance
inside this sacred place by avoiding high brightness
contrast and glare.
As the south wall provokes astonishment, it is at
the same time an exhibition of the architects talent
and techniques. It is particularly interesting to observe
how Le Corbusier used the roof to partially shade the
south wall in the summer. He allowed light to
penetrate only through the first row of openings on
the south wall. This explains the architectural poetics
on the south wall besides the modulor. The south wall
is 3.7 meters thick at the bottom and 50 cm thick at
the top. The first row of openings on the south wall is
wider than all the others as the architect used the
thicknesses of the wall to diffuse light evenly through
the space.
Using a high resolution web camera, inside the
north facing tower of the physical model, tests have
been conducted to investigated how light is being
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diffused accurately and achieving sufficient
adaptation levels for visual comfort.
From Figure 14 we can understand how the
architect used multiple light sources to funnel light
through the tower. If one light source is temporarily
blocked (Figure 14-C ) then the contrast ratio
increases dramatically to an uncomfortable levels,
also reducing the light intensity through the tower
(figure 14-1) tip the balance in the luminous scene.
Image D and image 2 in Figure 14 shows all the light
sources actively working together to create a well
balanced luminous environment at the west end of
the chapel.

Figure 13: The luminous environment, physical model-from
Kaimakliotis, 2008.

Figure 14: North ambient light inside the North facing tower-
from Kaimakliotis,2008
3. CONCLUSION

Ronchamp is a light machine, a solar clock
registers the movement of the sun in different
seasons. Different light traps capture the sunrise and
follow through to sunset. What is fascinating is that
whatever the devices are on the outside; they
mirrored on the inside. Glare is skillfully avoided
within the chapel by using architectural elements like
calottes, doors and splayed apertures. Thicknesses of
walls also play a vital role in funneling light though the
tapered South wall. As the roof design might have
been inspired from a crabs shell, it plays a significant
role for blocking out the summer sun and controlling
the luminous environment inside Ronchamp Chapel.
Finally the poetry behind the contemplative light
can be further explained by referring to Figure15. two
interior views captured moments within the chapel
showing how Le Corbusier used a minimum of two
light sources within a scene to create asymmetric
balance of light. If high degree of brightness contrast
exists between the brightly lit opening and the darker
surrounding, then glare will occur. But glare can be
avoided by allowing natural light to enter a space from
at least two directions. Also Le Corbusier rarely used
direct light, light gets filtered as it enters the space by
using various calottes, colored glass, wide aperture
openings with splayed reveal, and thick walls, Le
Corbusier achieved the dynamic luminous balance by
allowing diffused and reflected light to enter the
Ronchamp Chapel, thus providing desirable luminous
environment for the visitors. This study demonstrates
how light balance and adaptation had been skillfully
considered and manipulated by Le Corbusier in the
sacred realm.


Figure15: Physical model showing multiple light sources.
Light sources partially blocked - from Kaimakliotis, 2008.
4. REFERENCES

1. Curtis`, W.J.R. (1986) Le Corbusier: Ideas
and Forms`, (Phaidon`, Oxford).p.179.
2. Le Corbusier. (1923). Translated by Etchells`,
F. (1989). Towards a New Achitecture.
Butterworth Architecture`, London`, p.31.
3. Le Corbusier. (1957). Les Carnets de la
Recherche Patiente no. 2`, p.27.
4. Lewerentz`, S. Architecture of Adaptive
Light`, Essay 6.
5. Le Corbusier.(1936)`, Architecture Vivante :7.
6. Le Corbusier.(1936)`, " Les tendanes de
l``arhitecture rationaliste en relation avec la
peinture et la sulpture`, " Arhotecture
Vivante7 : 7.
7. Bouvier Y. and Cousin. C.(2005)`,
Ronchamp Chapel of Light`, p.50
8. Le Corbusier`, The Chapel at Roncamp`,
Architectural Press`, London translated by
Jacqueline Cullen`, p.99
9. Lau`, Benson. (2007) The poetics of Sacred
Light-an investigation of the luminous
environment in the Monastery La Tourette.
Plea conference paper no. 0532.
10. Hopkinson`,R.G.`,
Peterbridge`,P.`,Longmore`,J.Daylighting`,
Heinemann`, London`,1996`,p.11

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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 861
The poetics of civic light in Le Corbusiers Assembly building
at Chandigarh.
Saurabh BARDE
1
, Benson LAU
1
.
1
Department of Architecture and Built Environment, Nottingham University, UK.
ABSTRACT: The art of expressing architecture through poetics of light was mastered by Le Corbusier during his career.
Assembly building at Chandigarh, an important Civic Building built by Le Corbusier with emphasis on the creative use of
daylight and sunlight has rarely studied in detail. This paper focuses on the critical qualitative and quantitative studies of the
luminous environment in the Assembly Building by investigating Le Corbusiers lighting techniques and the method of
transferring his artistic ideologies into reality with light as one of the key architectural elements. Much can be learnt from Le
Corbusiers buildings which mainly use daylight as the primary light source to create the dramatic luminous environments.
The research data obtained from this study are useful references for the design professionals to understand the dynamic
interaction and sensitive balance between form, space and light in architecture.
Keywords: Poetry, architecture, daylight.
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background
Chandigarh was a new town developed after
Indian independence with the progressive ideologies
proposed by the first prime minister of India Mr.
Jawaharlal Nehru and Le Corbusier. The State
Legislative Assembly at Chandigarh, an important
Civic building was designed and built during the
same time as Le Corbusier designed the other three
religious buildings, Le Tourette, Chapel at
Ronchamp and the parish church of saint-pierre,
Firminy. The Church at Firminy was completed 41
years after his death by French architect Jose
Oubrerie. This paper aims to investigate the
luminous environment of Assembly building in
Chandigarh and compare its lighting strategies with
the Church at Firminy which has similar built form
and design ideologies.
1.2. The Indian Context
Figure1. Fatepur Sikri and the Assembly building. From-
Jencks (2000), Author .
Chandigarh has a seasonal monsoon rains
lasting no more than 4 months. The temperatures
rise up to 45 degrees Celsius in summers. Le
Corbusiers first visit to India was in the summers of
1950. The idea of the Capitol complex was
developed by taking inspiration from an old Mughal
town of Fatepur Sikhri in Agra a city near Delhi
(Fig1). Le Corbusier was fascinated with the fact that
Indians were connected to the cosmic occurrences
to such a great deal. He had visited the Jantar
Mantar (Fig1) which is a physical solar clock built by
precise understanding of the solar geometry and the
suns movement and it also displays time. Le
Corbusier took inspiration from this solar clock
precedent and developed a design which would
respond to the solar trajectory and allow access for
the sun rays to enter the building on particular days.
He has also related this phenomena to the Hindu
temples in which the deity is illuminated with direct
sun rays at particular days of the year. Le Corbusier
used symbolism to demarcate the Indianess to the
building by introducing elements on the roof of this
parabola. The horns of a bullock (fig2) and the moon
and the sun paths depict the intense relation of
Indian tradition to the cosmic beliefs.
Figure2. Le Corbusiers Sketch book and the Assembly
building. From Phaidon Editors (2008), Author.
1.3. The Legislative Assembly Building, Concept
and Ideologies.
Le Corbusier designed the assembly at
Chandigarh as the centrepiece of the proposed
Capitol complex and used architectural elements to
display an identity and precise function inside the
building. Curtis, states that as at Ronchamp and Le
Tourette, Le Corbusier explored the Mythical
qualities of light and darkness in the Parliament
Building [1]. Light hence can be noted as an
important design element in the conception and
evolution of the building. The building showed a
complete absence of the parabolic form in the initial
designs. A box was proposed with the arches on the
face to commemorate the central plaza facing the
high courts (Fig.3)
Figure3. Le Corbusiers sketches from Foundation Le
Corbusier showing the initial faade. (2008).
The composition of the roofline determines the
profile of the building with the triangular skylight of
the Governors chamber, The Parabolic roofline of
the Assembly Chamber and the cube containing the
Lifts. A metal sky bridge connects this box with the
parabolic dome of the Assembly maintaining a
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862 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
relation between the forms. (Fig.4) The new design
showed the arches been replace by a huge gutter.
Figure4. Section through the assembly chamber. Showing
the gutter added. From Boesiger (1995).
1.4. The Journey to the Assembly
Le Corbusier planned the areas around the main
assembly chamber and located the forum as the
central enclosed space, where the light dramas
could be experienced before entering into the main
assembly gallery. It is a noticeable space which
creates a unique interplay of space and light for each
step of the travel towards the grand chamber of
assembly. To study the poetics of light in this space,
the luminous environment is analysed qualitatively
and quantitatively. For the purpose of this study the
visitors path to the Assembly chamber is
demarcated on the plan. The notable drama created
by the light is recorded and analysed to understand
the impact of the luminous environment on the user.
It can be observed that the delegates would normally
use two paths to reach the chamber
(Fig.5)
Figure5. Plan showing the journey to the assembly
chamber. From Boesiger (1995), Author.

The first path commonly used by which the

delegates enter through the door on the west or from
the ramp at the lower levels circulates clockwise to a
low height dark passage leading to the chamber.
The second path is entered from the same western
face of the building but takes an anticlockwise turn
towards the ceremonial door. The second path is
also joined midway when the delegates use the
ceremonial door moving circular, anti clockwise
towards the east of the chamber.
2. METHODOLOGY
The qualitative analysis was carried out to
explore the effects of light inside the spaces of the
building. The identification of Le Corbusiers lighting
techniques used in the assembly building was
carried out with the help of tonal sketches. This
method was adopted from the study conducted by
Lau (2000) for the Monastery of Le Tourette. The
technique and the methodology of the typological
summarising the light effects are acknowledged to
Lau [2]. Physical model test by using heliodon
revealed the daylight behaviour on particular days
inside the assemble chamber. Computer simulation
of the luminous environment inside the assembly
was also conducted by using the software Autodesk
Ecotect 2009. The available photographs and the
drawings of the interiors and the sketches from the
previous site visit helped gain extra inputs to the
construction of the physical and computer model.
The daylight measurement plane was set at 800mm
form ground surface. Zones were formed according
to the light typologies and were designated
according to the function it carries. The zones
demarcated is as follows (see Fig.5),
Zone 1: The Forum
Zone 2: The Assembly Chamber Hyperboloid
Zone 3: The Governors Chamber- under the
tetrahedron.
Zone 4: The Office areas on surrounding the
Forum.
The daylight studies were carried out by using
Radiance, a light simulation programme plug-in for
Ecotect which can provide more accurate daylight
performance prediction results.
3. LUMINIOUS ENVIRONMENT OF
ASSEMBLY AT CHANDIGARH.
Qualitative analysis of light inside the
assembly building
The analysis of the light dramas shows that four
distinctive types of light have been introduced to the
offices and to the forum and finally to the assembly
chambers:
1. Balanced light.
2. Discrete light (light beam).
3. Ceremonial light (light beam entering the
space at desired times).
4. Reflected light.
3.1. Balanced light.
The Forum is a transitional space between the
outside and the enclosed auditorium. Evanson, while
describing the forum states that lofty, dramatically
illuminated, seemingly scaleless in visual dimension,
this space is one of the noblest in modern
architecture, infusing some of the serenity and
exaltation of a cathedral with excitement of a great
concourse [3]. It is illuminated by two major light
sources: the clerestory windows on the intersection of
the wall and roof and the Oculus on the roof slab. It
can be said that these light sources inside the forum
act as Fill light and the Key light of illuminations for
the whole space rather than an object. (Fig.6) The
space under the triple height forest of columns is
used for informal gathering of the delegates outside
the assembly. The fenestration design suggests a
lear intention of avoiding direct sunlight. The sketches
captured the cinematic views of the journey and
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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 863
(Fig.8) shows the upper floor flooded with daylight
and the ground slab in dark shade.
Figure6. Forum area. From Phaidon Editors
(2008), Sections from author (2009).
To dramatise this space, Le Corbusier painted the
ceiling black and the floor was finished with polished
granite. The floor helps reflect daylight into the
interior. The clerestory windows act as the source of
fill light to this area while the key light is provided in
by the Oculus.
In the Governors Chamber which sits inside a
square enclosure with a tetrahedron roof opening
facing the north. (Fig.7) The north side openings
always prevent the direct sunlight. The triangular
fenestration has vertical fins similar to the ones used
in Le Tourette. They are denser at the eastern side.
Thus it can be noted that there is a clear intention to
illuminate the chamber with adequate ambient light
but no glare which is required for visual comfort in the
working environments. The balanced light is
uncluttered and emphasises more on creating a
mood for calm and undisturbed atmosphere inside
the forum.
3.2. Discrete light (light beam).
Discrete Light is used in the forum with the puncture
in the roof. This Oculus is placed at the centre of
the forum which acts like a complementary key light
source to the clerestory window. (Fig.9) The sudden
shaft of light penetrating the otherwise mundane
space enlightens ones mood and dramatise the
luminous environment. Even though it does not
focus in particular towards any object, it brings back
the memories of the Hagia Sophia at Istanbul which
Le Corbusier had visited in his early days (Corbusier,
1989) [4]. This discrete light illuminates the floor of
informal discussion and leads the way towards the
assembly chamber. The oculus being at the start of
the passage makes area brightly lit.

Figure8. Sketch views and Simulated images of the
forum. From- Author.
Figure9. Forum area. From Phaidon Editors (2008),
Sections from author (2009).
3.3. Ceremonial light
The Cerimonial light was used as a dynamic
design element in the building. The light responds to
the sun position and interacts with the users. This
light enters the assembly area to commemorate
special days. (Fig.7) The ceremonial light was earlier
intended to touch the Ashoka pillar at the speakers
table; inside the parabolic assembly on 26
th
January
(Indian Republic Day) by mechanically opening the
roof itself but later the idea was found to be
unrealistic and not feasible. Le Corbusier then
designed the roof at an angle to allow beam of light
penetrate into the space on the equinoxes and the
winter solstice of the year. The roof shows three
fixed openings with ornamentation indicating the
ideologies of Le Corbusier. They also act as the sun
shades to guide the light enter the dome at desired
times of the year only. The light drama in the
assembly was tested on a heliodon and the results
are summarised in figure 11.The heliodon tests show
that the building was designed to take in the winter
sun and avoid the summer sun as the local climate
in Chandigarh is hot and dry. It can be seen on the
summer solstice (22
nd
June) the sun is exactly above
the openings and the roof aperture was profiled in an
angle to avoid any direct solar ingress. (Fig.10) The
testing of the roof on Equinox shows a beam of light
is allowed to enter the dome at noon. There is no
direct sun inside the assembly in the morning and
afternoon, while the middle and the upper
fenestrations help to provide ambient light inside the
assembly at other times of the year. On Winter
Solstice, a light beam enters the dome and
illuminates the walls of the parabola. The surface
behind the Speakers rostrum glows during this time.
The circular form prompted the acoustic to be
Figure.7 Roof of the two chambers. From
Boesiger (1995), Author.
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864 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
improved inside the assembly leading to the infusion
of sound absorbent material along the slope of the
dome. The artificial light is used behind the panels to
give a uniform light effect and create an undisturbed
ambience (Fig.11).

Figure10. Identification of Dynamic and Static Zones of

Illumination inside the parabola.-From Ford (1996), Author.

The dome is coloured with bands of red at the

bottom and yellow at the centre. The upper half of
the dome is left uncoloured and also without any
acoustic treatment. Le Corbusiers design intends to
reflect the relation between human and the sun
which is expressed by the solar incursion of sunlight
beam inside the chamber on particular days.
Figure11. The Results of heliodon testing showing the
drama of light inside the assembly chamber. From- Author.

3.4. Reflected Light

The offices located on the periphery of the
building are illuminated glazed faade which are
shielded by concrete BriseSoleils on the outer
sides (Fig.12).The angles of the Brise Soleil change
in accordance to the orientation they face. They are
at an angle of 45 degrees on southwest and north
west facades, but are at 90 degrees on the north
east side. They completely avoid the sun entering
the office which may cause glare and overheating in
summer. The Brise Soleil help this area receive an
indirect illumination desirable for office work. Le
Corbusier experimented the use of these sunshades
and use them in other parts in the complex.
4. QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE
LUMINIOUS ENVIRONMENT
Zone1: Forum (Fig. 13)
The light distribution patterns obtained from the
computer simulation were organised with respect to
the functions and the light typology. The graph in
Figure 13 shows distribution of daylight in the
building. The two prominent light sources in forum
area show their presence in terms of the daylight
intake. It can be noted that the daylight factor is
more at the central space of the forum diagonally
opposite the west entry. It increases gradually as
one moves through transitional path 1 towards the
assembly (Fig.5,13). The light intensity varies from
262 Lux to 340 lux because of the Oculus at the roof
level. The delegates are directed to move towards
the assembly through the passage in which the light
intensity is reduced to a miniscule amount before
suddenly opening up into the assembly chamber
where the light is taken from the skylights above. If
one moves from the transitional path 2 as shown in
(fig.13) then the circumambulation is from west to
east in the anticlockwise direction. The light in the
passages have relatively low intensity as one follows
the circular path towards the east ceremonial door.
The light intensity falls before its gradual increase
near the entry to the assembly.
The light levels were noted to decrease from 230
Lux to 53 Lux and again increase to 215 lux. The
Light intensity again falls to around 119 lux before
entering the chamber. The average daylight factor
for the forum was calculated to be 4.4% under
overcast sky conditions. The uniformity ratio was
calculated to be 0.3 which is acceptable for an area
intends for informal sitting and not for reading. The
balanced light can be observed as the ceiling is dark
Fig.13 Isolux contour for the assembly building.
From Boesiger (1995) & Author.
Figure.12 Brise Soleil angles for the offices.
From Boesiger (1995), Author.
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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 865
and the floor is polished. The oculus plays an
important role in maintaining the daylight level
towards the northern part of the forum which
otherwise will be a dull and dark space.
Zone2: Inside hyperbola. (Fig. 13)
The assembly dome carries three sky lights
which allows the diffused light (other than direct solar
penetration on key days of the year) to illuminate the
sitting arrangement under it. The results show a
uniform but a low daylight factor for the area. The
assembly is aligned to the cardinal points and the
openings at the roof level face south. The two
balconies for the viewers which were placed on the
concentric southern edge cast shadows on the floor
below and do not allow the sunlight from roof to
reach the floor at edges. The light distribution pattern
indicates that there is a focus of light at the centre of
the assembly. The average daylight factor is 0.84 %
and the uniformity ratio inside the assembly is 0.5.
The Daylight Factor is low inside the Assembly
Chamber. The delegate Seats which face the north
receives an illumination level of around 250 300
lux at the floor level. The central space which is
occupied by the officials responsible for conducting
the sessions of the assembly is the area receives
greater intensity of daylight. The daylight factor was
noted to be in the range of 0.2% to 0.4%. The
average daylight factor was noted at 0.84% which
can be considered to be low.
Zone3: Inside the governors chamber - Under the
tetrahedron. (Fig. 13)
The governors chamber or the 2
nd
assembly is a
cubical chamber where the delegates assemble
under the tetrahedron projected skylight. The results
show that the area is satisfactorily illuminated all
round the day. The square chamber has the roof
light located at the height of 4.5M form the floor
surface. The Daylight factors fall from the central
region to the edge of the cuboid. The central space
which holds the seating areas during the assembly is
illuminated with greater intensity of daylight. The
rows of the seats are designed at a slope as in case
of the Assembly Chamber. The tetrahedron is added
with Ondulatories, vertical fins which were designed
to control the light intake. Considering the overcast
sky condition for simulation, results show the
Average daylight factor inside the chamber is at
1.93%. An isolux graph of the horizontal illumination
levels inside the assembly shows that the lux levels
at the edge of the chamber are close to 200 lux. This
proves the fact that even though the daylight factor is
low the chamber, it has satisfactory illumination
received from the tetrahedron. The maximum
illuminance levels are 1000lux at the centre of the
assembly and falls to 150lux at the edges. Hence the
luminous environment can be considered as
satisfactory for the function of the space.
Zone4: Offices. (Fig. 13)
The testing shows that the Brise- Soleil not only
prevent the direct sunrays but provide a suitable
illumination inside the office work area. The two
column rows demarcate the floor space. The light
intensity near the windows is presumably high but
the light scatters uniformly inside the office. The
Brise-Soleil angles are designed according to the
solar altitude and azimuth angle. Considering the
external weather conditions of Chandigarh it can be
said that the fins (Brise-Soleil) are an appropriate
solution for solar control. The illumination levels at
the floor are at around 350 to 550 lux, which can be
stated to be within the recommended limits. Even
though the Daylight factor is seem to drop at the
walls, the lowest light level stands at around 100lux.
The Office at the South West shows an Average
Daylight Factor of 4.8% which can be considered as
a well day lit space. The Office at the North West
shows an Average Daylight Factor of 2.5% which
indicates that supplementary artificial light is required
at times. The uniformity ratio was calculated to be
0.5 which shows that the office area is uniformly lit.
The Office on the North East receives insufficient
daylight as it falls on the northern side and never
receives direct sunlight on the faade. The Brise
soleil angle was intentionally kept at 90 degrees but
this does not benefit much for the daylight ingress,
but the on the contrary obstruct the light. The
average Daylight Factor was calculated at 1.2%
which implies that artificial lighting is required for
most of the time.
Daylight factor% Uniformity Ratio
Max Min. Avg.
Assembly
chamber
1.4 0.07 0.9 0.06
Forum 14.4 2 4.4 0.4
Offices SW 8.8 1.4 4.8 0.3
Offices NW 3.7 1.5 2.5 0.5
Offices NE 5.2 0.1 1.2 0.1
Governors
chamber
4.1 0.8 2.06 0.3
The table indicates the values recorded and shows
its close proximity towards the actual required.
5. COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN
ASSEMBLY AT CHANDIGARH AND CHURCH
AT FIRMINY FRANCE.
For the better understanding of the daylighting
design strategies used in the Assembly, a
comparative study was carried out between the
Assembly and the Church at Firmny, France. The
Church was completed in the absence of Le
Corbusier and the building interior is mainly
artificially lit which may not be Le Corbusiers original
design intent. The results of the daylight analysis
were categorised into different times of the selected
days to understand the exact behaviour of the two
light sources on the roof, the east and west windows
and the peripheral openings.
Morning Light: The Orion effect is seen to work
when the sun is on East. The small star like
apertures on the surface of the wall help achieve the
effect. The alter shines on till 11 am in mornings and
becomes dark after noon time. This effect seems to
fade much earlier in winters and on equinox.
Mid day Light: The two cannons start to emit light at
noon time, lasting until 3pm. The focus is targeted
towards the cone and gives a diffused lighting effect
at the floor level. The design of these two cannons is
similar to the skylights at the assembly, but they are
insufficiently sized to illuminate the church interior.
Evening Light: The west Window plays an important
role of keeping the focus on the altar. This focus
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866 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
gains importance on Christmas, Easter and St.
Peters day. This light is similar to the ceremonial
light in Assembly at Chandigarh.
Figure 14. Comparison of daylighting strategies.
Daylight factors from Artificial sky testing showed
that the light levels in the Church at Firminy are too
low for the visitors to rely on natural light. The lux
levels drop from 15 to almost 8 lux at certain places
compared to 1300 lux or more outside. The Daylight
Factor is hence below 0.01% and the Uniformity
Ratio is 0.06% which shows low luminosity and
uneven light distribution. The low illuminance level
inside the church makes the use of artificial light
necessary during the day. The windows with the
slope pointing downwards do not benefit the
luminous environment of the church. The windows
have same sun shading device on all the sides
which does not allow the light penetrating into the
interior. The Church at Firminy even though has
similar daylighting strategies as the Assembly, its
aperture sizing and design does not provide
adequate daylight to the interior of the church. Le
Corbusiers improvisations as seen in the assembly
building where he sculpted the roof of the building in
order to allow selective solar ingress is seen absent
in Church at Firminy.
6. CONCLUSION
The success of the design of the luminous
environment inside the assembly lies in the visual
delight that has been achieved. The use of light as a
element to illuminate the space in order to create
various impacts on the users is evident from the
study of the fenestrations and its designs. The light
dramas created by the collective impacts from the
balanced light, discrete light ceremonial light and
the reflected light inside the assembly further
enhance the visual environment. Le Corbusier
designed the roof as a solar clock to allow the light to
enter the area at particular dates and times and
illuminate the speakers area. This interaction
between the occupants and the sun movements was
sourced from traditional Indian architecture in which
the deity is highlighted with sunlight beam on certain
days inside the temple. These lighting technique
used heightens the poetics of light in the Assembly.
Although some areas tend to get dark during the
day, it can be concluded that the emphasis on
keeping the area cool from the scorching heat and
using artificial light as a supplementary light due to
the function was the priority. By comparing the
luminous environments of Assembly and the Church
at Firminy, unlike Ronchamp or Monastery of Le
Tourette, the Church at Firminy does not evoke the
poetic sensation. The lack of adequate daylight
illuminance inside the church does not allow the
luminous environment to be well daylit. Since the
interior of the church is mainly artificially lit, the
church looses the Le Corbusierian identity. By
comparing these two buildings, it is evident that the
drama created by natural light cannot be recreated
by artificial light. Learning from Le Corbusier, It is
important for design professionals to understand the
solar geometry, trajectory and the effects of light on
architectural forms and to use natural light as form
giver in architecture.
7. REFERENCES
[1] Curtis, W. (1986). Le Corbusier: ideas and
forms. Oxford: Phaidon Press Limited.
[2] Lau, B. (2000). Luminious environment at Le
Tourette. M. Phil. Dissertation. University of
Cambridge: School of Architecture Cambridge.
[3] Evanson, N. (1966). Chandigarh. London:
Cambridge, University Press.
[4] Corbusier, L. (1989). Journey to the East.
London: The MIT Press, Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
[5] Phaidon Editors. (2008). Le Corbusier Le
Grand. London: Phaidon Press Limited.
[6] Jencks, C. (2000). Le Corbusier and the
Continual Revolution. New York: The Monacelli
Press, Inc., and Charles Jencks.
[7] Boesiger, W. (1995). Le Corbusier et son atelier
rue de Sevres 35. Bale Switzerland: Birkhauser.
[8] Ford, E. (1996). The Details of Modern
Architecture, Volume 2, 1928 -1988. London:
The MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusetts.
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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 867
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
Architectural light in Contemporary
Religious buildings
Isha Anand
Architectural Association School of Architecture, London, UK
ABSTRACT: Daylight can be very informative in the generation of architectural form and has been a celebrated
tool in highlighting cultural, contextual and experiential regard in architectural design. Exploring this concept, the
paper assesses and re-interprets spatial, sensorial and form-giving characteristics of daylight using religious
buildings as a forum. The project explores the effects created through daylight in three iconic religious buildings;
Notre Dame du Haut, the Church of Light and the Bagsvaerd Kirke; the daylighting effects created in these
buildings are identified, evaluated and analysed. The three built precedents had very unique intentions with the
kind of daylighting ambience created, they were evaluated in the same way; daylight factor used for analysing
the distribution of light in the buildings, solar penetration to study the role and extent of solar play in them and
luminance distribution to the study contrast and glare issues. The study helps elaborate the process and intent
of the architects to create a certain theme in the building through daylighting and the tools that go into creating it.
Keywords: daylight, religious building, daylight distribution, illuminance

1. INTRODUCTION
This visual understanding of the art of building is
manifested in Le Corbusiers poetic credo:
Architecture is the masterly, correct and
magnificent play of masses brought together in
light. [1]
Daylight indeed is an important part of the
revelation of architecture and the role of daylight in
architecture is dissected and integrated at the time
as an art and science, an emotion or quantity [2].
This does lead to a loss of holistic approach
understanding to the role of daylight but does provide
tools to scrutinize some architectural marvels and be
able to acquire share the vision of the creators.
However, there is a need for both personal emotional
needs- of well being comfort and health- and the
performance for an environmentally sustainable
future.
An integral move towards this approach has been
observed in religious buildings. Daylight is elevated
from the mere tool for visibility to evoking emotion
and creating symbolic gestures. For over centuries
religious buildings have developed their own liturgy
and architecture, and light features prominently in the
symbolism of most religions, it is embraced,
shadowed, reflected, concealed or revealed to
determine the ethereal quality of space. [3] With
most buildings possessing a slice of sun which
belongs to the place. For example the mosque in the
desert dissolves light, the Nordic churches explore
the darkness of light and the classical temple with its
plastic forms reveals the dialectic of light [3] .
Religious buildings provide ample opportunity to
study the role of as both a functional and experiential
element in architecture.
2. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The main research questions are, what factors
influence the effect of light in marking/making a
certain outcome or event and how are the effects
rationalized objectively through concrete elements
such as the use of material, source and geometry of
space? Religious buildings can prove to be a
possible forum for this study as the intention of
daylighting scheme in the built environment has
greater purpose than mere visibility. The answer to
these should be able enumerate a process for
developing evocative architecture through daylight.
3. METHODOLOGY
The methodology for this paper is based on a
twofold approach:
3.1. Criteria for selection of built precedents
The first step is to determine the most recurring
effects tried to be created in religious buildings and
identify certain built precedents utilizing them. This
step shall be enumerated through deconstruction of
daylight effects in valid built precedents. The
precedents chosen for the study have been based on
three distinct themes, a response for creating a
stimulating environmental experience, a response
to the cultural sensitivities of the place and
people and a response to the systems of the place
[4]. Subsequently these are Notre Dame Du haut at
Ronchamp, France, Church of Light at Osaka, Japan
and the Bagsvaerd Church at Copenhagen,
Denmark All three precedents successfully use
daylighting as a major tool to express these themes.
This chapter tries to decipher the thoughts behind
the creation of these buildings through valid site and
analytical work.
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2 xx.x SECTION NAME
3.2. Analysis
This has done through effective literature review
and analytical work. The process is very objective
and consists of deconstructing the effects of light to
the source of light in the building, and components of
the building like geometry and materials. This step
also includes finding valid performance indicators for
the same. The buildings have been analyzed
through: daylight factor for analyzing the distribution
of light in the buildings, solar penetration to study the
role and extent of solar play in them and luminance
distribution to the study contrast and glare issues.
4. NOTRE DAME DU HAUT, RONCHAMP
4.1. Introduction
A cinematic vessel [3], the Chapel at Ronchamp
is a timeless piece of architecture. The interior of the
church is an in the expressive use of light which
translates into a dynamic form commanding the
summit of a hill at Ronchamp.
Architecturally, Ronchamp is system of convex
and concave concrete walls covered by a shell. The
altar is on the east wall which has small apertures in
it. Light is entered into the space by shafts of light in
southwest corner, orthogonal openings in the
northeast, light shafts in the northern wall( which
mark the entrance to the chapel) and the south wall
which is punctuated with deep splayed windows of
variable sizes proportions and fitted with coloured
glass in some. [5]

Fig. 4.1 Notre Dame du Haut, Chapel at Ronchamp
4.2. Solar play
The chapel acts as a forum for capturing pieces
of sun at various times of the day. Each daylight-
capturing device is timed and placed according to
solar events/ angles [6]. At dawn east wall comes
alive, in late morning the vertical fissure dissolves
away under the impact of sun, followed by an
afternoon long illumination of openings in the south
wall. The embrasures capture different moments of
the sun. Cavities brighten and dim at different hours
and remain lit for different extents of time. The
embrasures also have a seasonal rhythm, their
openings adjusted in section to intercept high
summer sun, while letting low angles of winter sun
penetrate through the width of the church. Figure 4.2
shows the solar penetration through the south wall in
the narthex of the church on September 21 [7]. The
two back to back chapels receive sunlight for half a
day a piece; the west tower has been shown in
fig.4.3.

Fig.4.2 Solar movement in the narthex of the chapel,

September 21 (Ecotect [7])

Fig. 4.3 Solar movement in the west tower of Chapel at

Ronchamp, September 21 (Ecotect [7])

4.3. Daylight distribution
In terms of distribution in the central nave has a
very uneven distribution of light with bright and dark
zones. The brightest zones in ascending order are
the orthogonal windows in the north east corner, the
entrances at north and south east, the west facing
light scoop, area adjoining the south wall and the
brightest zone is the area under the north facing light
scoop. The darkest zone is the east facing light
tower. Although the tower is equipped with the same
apparatus as the other two light scoops, the interior
of it is painted red. The resultant reflectance is
approximately of the other surfaces , thus the wall
reflects little light down the tower. The results have
been interpreted from the analysis of the chapel in
Radiance [8]. The results have been expressed in
fig.4.4.

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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 869
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xx.x SECTION NAME 3

Fig. 4.4 Daylight distribution in the main body and down the
light towers at Chapel at Ronchamp (Radiance [8])
4.4. Luminance ratio
The main zone of the chapel is characterized by
even texture and colour of material. Hence the
luminances are distributed quite smoothly with the
exception of the east end of the chapel which sharp
contrast as indicated in. This leads to a very
animated effect as the visitor is facing the altar. If we
look the other way round the luminance distribution is
more subtle and smooth as the light sources are
indirect (The light scoops). Seasonal study also
shows punctuation of the main narthex with areas of
high luminance greater intensity in summers[8]. The
luminance studies have been demonstrated for the
main altar and south wall for June 21 in fig 4.5
showing smooth luminanaces with areas of high
brightness

Fig. 4.5 Luminance study for the altar and south wall of
chapel at Ronchamp on Jun 21 (Radiance [8])
5. CHURCH OF LIGHT, OSAKA
5.1. Introduction
Connected with the link between light and spirit of
a place is the link between light and culture. [9]
Japan is one country which shows a traditional
sensitivity towards natural cycles of time, and the
temporality is expressed in a variety of ways in its
culture and religion Elements such as shoji screens
are used to alter the interior environment throughout
the day as the sun moves across the sky. The effect
of light on these screens is purely captivating [10]
This event of light and shadows is also an
outcome of how the Japanese have also embraced
its rather dull sky conditions by affectionately naming
it Rikyu Grey. [10] The omnipresent monochromes
sky conditions are replicated to create very subdued
and passive environments. The temporal
phenomenon commonly expressed in the countrys
traditional buildings continues to be of relevance to
Architect Tadao Andos works. Ando describes that
Architecture is intimately involved with time [11]
and this is clearly visible in most of his works such as
the Church of light.
5.2. Solar play
The orientation of the chapel and the presence of
angled wall limit solar penetration only from the
crucifix opening. (With the exception of solar
penetration from the North West in late evening in
summers). The sun patches caused by the crucifix
do not cause any potential glare problems due to the
architectural proportions of the opening, the
slenderness of the proportions along with the depth
of the opening (250mm) limit the area of solar
penetration to a tolerable extent. Solar studies in
ECOTECT [7] reveal that the sun patches are limited
to the altar area for most part of the year, only
accessing into the deeper zones in winters. The
experience of time and direction is very pronounced
and the combination of this simple daylighting
strategy with architecture creates a very vivid
experience for the visitor. The process has been
enumerated through visuals in fig 5.1 for September.

Fig. 5.1 Solar study for Church of Light September 21
(Ecotect [7])
9:00a.m
12:00p.m
3:00p.m
cd/sq.m
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
2 xx.x SECTION NAME
3.2. Analysis
This has done through effective literature review
and analytical work. The process is very objective
and consists of deconstructing the effects of light to
the source of light in the building, and components of
the building like geometry and materials. This step
also includes finding valid performance indicators for
the same. The buildings have been analyzed
through: daylight factor for analyzing the distribution
of light in the buildings, solar penetration to study the
role and extent of solar play in them and luminance
distribution to the study contrast and glare issues.
4. NOTRE DAME DU HAUT, RONCHAMP
4.1. Introduction
A cinematic vessel [3], the Chapel at Ronchamp
is a timeless piece of architecture. The interior of the
church is an in the expressive use of light which
translates into a dynamic form commanding the
summit of a hill at Ronchamp.
Architecturally, Ronchamp is system of convex
and concave concrete walls covered by a shell. The
altar is on the east wall which has small apertures in
it. Light is entered into the space by shafts of light in
southwest corner, orthogonal openings in the
northeast, light shafts in the northern wall( which
mark the entrance to the chapel) and the south wall
which is punctuated with deep splayed windows of
variable sizes proportions and fitted with coloured
glass in some. [5]

Fig. 4.1 Notre Dame du Haut, Chapel at Ronchamp
4.2. Solar play
The chapel acts as a forum for capturing pieces
of sun at various times of the day. Each daylight-
capturing device is timed and placed according to
solar events/ angles [6]. At dawn east wall comes
alive, in late morning the vertical fissure dissolves
away under the impact of sun, followed by an
afternoon long illumination of openings in the south
wall. The embrasures capture different moments of
the sun. Cavities brighten and dim at different hours
and remain lit for different extents of time. The
embrasures also have a seasonal rhythm, their
openings adjusted in section to intercept high
summer sun, while letting low angles of winter sun
penetrate through the width of the church. Figure 4.2
shows the solar penetration through the south wall in
the narthex of the church on September 21 [7]. The
two back to back chapels receive sunlight for half a
day a piece; the west tower has been shown in
fig.4.3.

Fig.4.2 Solar movement in the narthex of the chapel,

September 21 (Ecotect [7])

Fig. 4.3 Solar movement in the west tower of Chapel at

Ronchamp, September 21 (Ecotect [7])

4.3. Daylight distribution
In terms of distribution in the central nave has a
very uneven distribution of light with bright and dark
zones. The brightest zones in ascending order are
the orthogonal windows in the north east corner, the
entrances at north and south east, the west facing
light scoop, area adjoining the south wall and the
brightest zone is the area under the north facing light
scoop. The darkest zone is the east facing light
tower. Although the tower is equipped with the same
apparatus as the other two light scoops, the interior
of it is painted red. The resultant reflectance is
approximately of the other surfaces , thus the wall
reflects little light down the tower. The results have
been interpreted from the analysis of the chapel in
Radiance [8]. The results have been expressed in
fig.4.4.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
870 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
PLEA2011
4
5.3. Day
Daylig
light usin
Decembe
light can
exception
of the c
however
angled w
The main
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area has
near the
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bright spo
but the p
the high
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impact. A
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extent of

Fig 5.2
s
5.4. Lum
Lumin
conditions
to evalua
the field o
luminance
range [12
On
throughou
expresse
be impo
between
- 27th Internati
xx.x SECTION
ylight distribu
ght factors we
ng Radiance
er. The distrib
be considere
n of a few brig
hurch is the
cordoned off
wall. This enab
n chapel has
of 1.24%(fig.5
a daylight fac
crucifix ope
oo the dayligh
n, the ends o
ots on the no
atches are di
reflectance o
across the c
ome bright p
these howeve
Again the fac
to play, the ar
e therefore the
evel is felt bu
causing glare
Daylight factor
section of Churc
minance ratio
nance levels w
s in June acro
ate any exceed
of vision. The
e ratio of 1:2
2]
evaluating
ut the day ac
d in fig.5.3 (un
rtant to note
the zone of t
onal conference
N NAME
ution
ere simulated f
[9] for overca
bution of light
ed to be fair
ght zones. Th
entrance ar
from the ma
bles to reduce
very low day
.2). More than
ctor of 0.5% w
ening brightly
ht factors are f
of the cross d
orth-east and
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ctor of archite
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e visual impac
ut is not over
.
distribution acro
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o
were simulate
oss the day [8
dingly high lum
simulations s
20, which is w
the luminan
cross the chap
nder sunny co
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the altar and
e on Passive an
for the Church
ast conditions
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ly even with
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ain chapel by
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with a small zo
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fairly low with
do lead to so
south west w
oothly because
ete surface. T
gh the open
oth ends of
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ectural propor
daylight factor
ct of the chang
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oss the plan and
iance [8])
ed for Sunny
8]. This was d
minance ratio
show a maxim
within accepta
nce distribu
pel on Jun 21
onditions) it wo
uminance ra
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nd Low Energy A
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6.
6.1
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Fig 5.3 Luminan

adiance [8]) and
BAGSVAE
1. Introductio
With relation
ht and the s
perienced as
sulting from th
n, phenomena
ace. A group
nsitivity to thi
. They have
aginative ligh
flective finishe
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this league
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hat started as
as rendered a
zon interplays
the Bagsvaer
at reflected or
directed
e design shou
nual paths wit
e realization t
ade into inhab
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
9:00
ouvain-la-Neuve
0 or higher w
of visual f
he opening alt
to creating thi
nce across the s
d subsequent ra
ERD KIRKE
on
ship to place,
spirit of a p
a specific ki
he local climat
a recognized
of architects w
s process are
found a proc
t scoops and
es to capture
aylight is sca
e of context
ch in Copenha
has been des
an obsessio
as a remarka
s all three of t
rd Church wh
diffused light
view of
ld be sensitive
th reference t
hat light rece
itable spaces
a.m 12:
e, Belgium, 13-1
which is funda
focus. The
though a huge
s effect.
section of Churc
ange in adaptati
each place h
place, Genius
ind of light a
te and a certa
immediately in
who have a h
e the Nordic
cess of invent
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e precious li
rce. A brillian
tual response
agen, Denmar
sign by Jorn U
n to abstract
able laboratory
this day lightin
ich are Unde
is usually pre
a light
e to the suns
to particular p
eiving devices
[13]
:00 p.m
15 July 2011
mental for
size and
e symbolic
ch of light
ion level [2]
as its own
s loci [9]
and mood,
ain slant of
n any true
heightened
architects
ting highly
with highly
ight. in a
t example
e is the
rk.
Utzon and
the skies
y of light.
ng themes
erstanding
eferable to
source,
s daily and
places and
s could be
3:00 p.m
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 871
PLEA2011

6.2. Sola
The d
sensitive
altitude s
always a
design fo
Solar stu
penetratio
The exten
the light
deepest i
6.1 with h
in winter.
a period
hence the
animation

Fig. 6.1
6.3. Day
Daylig
under O
Decembe
Bagsvaer
distributio
the room
illuminate
zone from
the light
adjoining
levels ver










Fig. 6.2 Da
- 27th Internati
ar play
design for the
to the solar c
un can alway
round the co
or the church
dies in ECOT
on in the chur
nt of solar infi
scoop much
infiltration is in
high solar altit
This tempora
when the lit
e visitors can
n.
1 Solar moveme
(EC
ylight distribu
ght factors we
vercast sky
er [8]. The
rd church is
on of light. Th
m is 1.64% w
ed evenly. The
m the west wh
scoop, but
corridors mak
ry small.
aylight distributio
onal conference
e Bagsvaerd
cycle of Cope
ys be a source
rner of the e
h takes care
TECT [7] reve
rch is only allo
ltration is limit
h above the
n June as dem
tude and the
al phenomena
turgical activi
n enjoy the ch



ent in Bagsvaerd
COTECT [7]).
ution
ere calculated
conditions in
luminous
defined by
he average d
with the mai
e darkest zon
hich lies in the
t ambient lig
kes the discre




on in Bagsvaerd
[8])
e on Passive an
church is hig
nhagen. The
e of glare as
eye. The unus
of this probl
eal that the so
owed after no
ted to the brim
visual field. T
monstrated in
shallowest be
a is also limited
ties are finis
hurch with vis
d church, Jun 2
d for the chu
n the month
environment
a very unifo
daylight factor
in visiting ar
e is the entra
e leeward area
ghting from
epancy in dayl
d church (Radia
nd Low Energy A
ghly
low
it is
sual
em.
olar
oon.
m of
The
fig.
eing
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hed
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urch
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for
reas
nce
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ight
ance
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in
Th
zon
(re
dire
6.4
has
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val
the
Th
fair
wh
Fig
7.
inte
cre
day
in t
and
dis
in
Architecture, Lo
On evaluatin
ction of the ch
the upper ha
is however co
ne although c
flection of the
ectly visible to

4. Luminance
The luminan
s very low dis
urse of the da
lues however
ere is solar in
is leads to a f
rly uniform b
hen there is su

g. 6.3 Luminanc
9:00 a.m, 1
CONCLUS
The three
entions with
eated, they w
ylight factor
the buildings,
d extent of s
stribution to
order to iden
ouvain-la-Neuve
xx
ng the distribu
hurch (fig.10)
alf and the low
oincides with t
contributes to
e surface of th
o the visitor.
e ratio
ce distribution
stinction, as s
ay in a summ
r are enhanc
nfiltration as o
fair conclusion
brightness rati
un movement i
ce study in Bags
2 noon and 4:0
SIONS
built precede
the kind of
were evaluate
for analyzing
solar penetr
solar play in
the study con
ntify certain th
e, Belgium, 13-1
x.x SECTION NA
tion of light th
there is a dis
wer half of th
the fact that th
the overall il
e light scoop)
n in the main
hown in fig.11
mer day. The
ced considera
on Jun 21 at
n that the sanc
ios with the
inside it.
svaerd church o
0p.m (Radiance
ents had ver
daylighting
ed in the sa
the distributio
ration to stud
them and lu
ntrast and gla
hemes in the
15 July 2011
AME 5
hrough the
screpancy
he church.
he brighter
lumination
) but is not
sanctuary
1 over the
luminance
ably when
t 4:00p.m.
ctuary has
exception
n Jun 21 at
e [8])
ry unique
ambience
ame way;
on of light
dy the role
uminance
are issues;
e buildings
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
872 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
6 xx.x SECTION NAME
through daylighting and the tools that go into creating
them.
The following observations were made:
1. Notre Dame du Haut: the daylight ambience of
the chapel is governed by solar movement
around it. The apparent brightness of areas is
orchestrated by solar inclusion or exclusion and is
purely time and season based.
2. Church of light: the main body of the church
almost has a gravitational pull towards the cross
opening, this being driven by daylighting principles.
The proportions of the opening are small as
compared to the wall area and created a great
brightness contrast between the opening and the
immediate wall surface. If we look across the
section the brightness of the area near the cross
opening is elevated substantially from the
remaining body of the church. Solar movement
has a great role in indicating the passage of time
but is secondary to the visual focus created in the
chapel.
3. Bagsvaerd Kirke: the church has predominantly
uniform daylighting conditions with primary
daylighting source oriented towards west. This
results in permitting only diffused light into the
sanctuary for most part of the day. The proportion
of the light funnel does not allow any solar
infiltration in the occupied zone.

The average daylight factors of the three
buildings are relatively low (< 2%, with 2% being the
norm for a space to appear day lit [12]) but they are
gratified by instances or areas of high brightness to
create an overall stimulating daylight environment. It
is worth noticing that the utilization of some very
basic tools has led to the creation of exemplar effects
in these iconic buildings. While the chapel
Copenhagen adopts a form generative response to
daylighting effects, the chapel at Ronchamp uses
both form generative ( in the form of the light towers)
and locating and proportioning the fenestrations
appropriately and the Church at Osaka does so
through the manipulation of fenestration in a simple
concrete box. This leads to a reasonable conclusion
that the architectural form or its appropriate
punctuation can be devised with an underlying theme
or intent besides illumination, light can be embraced,
shadowed, reflected, concealed or revealed to
highlight areas of a space, set a mood for an event
or evoke a certain emotion
8. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to thank my tutor Dr.Joana Carlos
Goncalves Soares for her vital encouragement,
knowledge, my family and my dear friend Nitin for
their support.
9. REFERENCES
[1] J. Pallasma , Tangible light: integration of sense
and architecture, Daylight and architecture,
magazine by Velux (Issue 07), 2008
[2] N Baker, K. Steemers , Daylight Design of
Buildings, James and James, 2000, p-5, 172
[3] H.Plummer , Poetics of Light, A&U Publishing
Co. Ltd, 1987, p5, 157,158
[4] M.DeKay, M Guzowski, A Model for Integral
Sustainable Design Explored through
Daylighting, Proceedings of the American Solar
Energy Society, 2006
[5] B Lou , The Poetics of Sacred Light - a
comparative study of the luminous environment
in the Ronchamp Chapel and the Church in the
Monastery of La Tourrette, PLEA 2008 25th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy
Architecture, Dublin, 2008
[6] H.Plummer, Masters Of Light, First Volume:
Twentieth-Century Pioneers. Tokyo: A&U, 2003
[7] Autodesk Ecotect 2010
[8] Desktop Radiance 2.0 Beta
[9] M Millet, Light Revealing Architecture Van
Nostrand Reinhold, 1996, p-9, 10,11
[10] A Veal , Time in Japanese architecture: tradition
and Tadao Ando, Architectural Research
Quarterly, 6:4: Cambridge University Press,
2002, p-349-362
[11] Drew P ,Church on the water and Church of the
light: Architecture in detail, Phaidon publishing,
1996, p-19
[12] M Claude Dubois , Integration of daylight quality
in the design studio: from research to practice,
PLEA2006 - The 23rd Conference on Passive
and Low Energy Architecture, Geneva,
Switzerland, 6-8 September 2006, 2006
[13] R Weston, Jorn Utzon Logbook Volume 2:
Bagsvaerd Church, Edition Blondal, 2005
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 873

The user intervention on the environmental
delight of the BASF research house at university of
Nottingham
DINESHKUMAR SEKAR
1
, BENSON LAU
2
, JYOTHSNA DURGA GIRIDHAR
3

1
Department of Architecture and built environment, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
2
Department of Architecture and built environment, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
3
Department of Architecture and built environment, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
ABSTRACT: This paper investigates the influence of the occupants active control on the ventilation and
thermal performance of the BASF Research house built at the University of Nottingham. The objective of this
research project undertaken by the School of Architecture and Built Environment, Nottingham University is to
explore the feasibility of building low cost and environmentally friendly houses. The research outcomes have
demonstrated that it is feasible and possible to build affordable low energy houses in the global context of
normally over-priced and energy inefficient domestic dwellings. Also detailed post occupancy evaluation has
been conducted to realistically monitor the buildings environmental performance. After completion, the BASF
House is occupied by a group PhD and Masters research students, who have been living in the house and
monitoring the performance of the house. The objective of this paper is to explore how the daily operation of the
home by its occupants after construction determines the environmental comfort and occupant satisfaction. The
research involves the investigation of the current usage pattern of the ventilators by the occupants and the
houses comfort conditions due to this usage pattern. Qualitative analysis is done by means of on-site
observation, interview with occupants and user feedback from the survey by using questionnaire. Quantitatively,
the buildings performance has been assessed starting from the understanding of the site context, the impacts
from the macro and micro climate. The research data obtained from this research raises the awareness among
the building professionals and users as how the proper user intervention would potentially enrich and enhance
the environmental delight in architecture.
Keywords: sustainable house, passive environmental control, user intervention, environmental delight.
1. INTRODUCTION
Building usage pattern by occupants have a
significant impact on the overall performance of a
building. Perception of thermal and visual delight
varies among different individuals. The collective
usage patterns by different occupants have
significant impact on the efficiency of a building. This
study focuses on the effect this pattern on a high
performing building like the BASF House. After
understanding the design and environmental design
principles based on which the BASF house was
constructed, this research explores the real
performance of the building, which was designed and
built based on those theories.
2. BASF HOUSE
The BASF House is one of the University of
Nottinghams Creative Energy Homes Projects,
where 6 houses of varying strategies and efficiency
were constructed in the University campus. The
University is considering futuristic designs for a
sustainable tomorrow. This house has been
designed to demonstrate that it is possible to build an
affordable low energy house and it was designed by
Architect Dereck Trowell.[3] It was officially opened
on January 30th 2008. Currently the house is
occupied by 3 research students belonging to
different age groups, and cultural backgrounds.

Figure 1 Dry bulb temperature, Nottingham - (Source:
CIBSE DSY weather data)

Figure 2 Relative humidity, Nottingham (Source: CIBSE
DSY weather data)
2.1. Climate
Nottingham (530N 12W) is geographically
located in Central England. The weather data used is
CIBSE DSY (Design Summer Sky - Year) weather
file which was developed taking all the warmer years
into consideration considering the general change of
weather towards warmer conditions. The range of
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
874 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
temperature in summer (June to August) is between
14.86C to 29.5C, while in winters (December to
February) is from -6.7C to 3.3C which is well below
comfort range. The comfort boundaries during
summer can be delimited at the upper end by a
maximum of 70% relative humidity and a
temperature of 25 C. The average summer
conditions in Nottingham just fall within these limits
both in terms of temperature and RH. The winter
period in Nottingham is humid with temperatures
ranging from -5 C to 10 C. The comfort in winter
time is defined as 20 C in terms of temperature and
ranges between 60% & 80% RH. This shows the
need for capturing heat during winter. Nottingham
has prevailing winds predominantly from Southwest
that has an overall effect of reducing the temperature
and increasing the humidity characterizing the cold
winters.

Figure 3 building plans (Source: Author)

Figure 4 Photographs showing building elevations North-
left, South-right (Source: Author)
2.2. Building information
The design brief was to build a highly energy
efficient house which at the same time is affordable.
The result is a compact house with an open floor
area which relies heavily on passive solar principles.
The house has dense vegetation in the North, East
and West which acts as a noise buffer.
Southern side of the house is a natural mound
sloping downwards allowing good solar exposure.
The house has buffer spaces in the North that
contains the entrance lobby, biomass boiler and bike
storage. It has a conservatory in the south which
benefits the living areas in the Ground Floor and the
bedrooms in First floor adjoining it. The conservatory
has external shading devices designed to protect the
southern facade from direct solar radiation during
summer to prevent overheating. It has a centrally
located stairwell separating the living room from the
dining room areas which helps in stack ventilation.
All other energy related controls like solar thermal
hot water cylinder and rainwater harvesting controls
are located in the ground floor. Window less facades
on the north and east enables future terracing. The
Northern facade has smaller windows enabling
daylight while controlling heat loss from this facade.
The house employs insulated concrete formwork
(ICF) (U Value: 0.177 W/m2C) for its foundation,
Structurally Insulated Panels (SIPS) (UValue: 0.15
W/m2C) for its first floor walls and roof, and Phase
change materials incorporated in plasterboards in the
internal partitions to regulate temperature. Since it is
a display/research project the house is open to
visitors two open days per month.


Figure 5 Photograph of BASF house (Source: Author)
3. EFFECTS OF CLIMATE ON PASSIVE
DESIGN
3.1. Effect of solar radiation
It is clear from the solar study that the
building would benefit from the useful solar gains in
winter. The building captures the solar radiations
from the 100% glazed south surface and it acts as
the area which absorbs the Sunlight and the. The
external shading devices have been designed to
protect the southern facade from direct solar
radiation during summer to prevent overheating,
which is evidently seen in the solar study.
3.2. The role of building envelope
The building envelope acts as a climate
moderator. It provides a balance between the heat
gain and the heat losses required to maintain a
comfortable interior. The house is designed such that
the floor area is compact .The north; west and east
facades cut off the cold with the use of heavy
insulation and limited openings to admit in adequate
daylight. The materials used for the building
envelope are explained in detail below. Insulated
Concrete Forms (ICF) is a lightweight means of
constructing walls that is incorporated in the ground
floor of BASF house. It gives form to the ground floor
of the building and it has high insulating properties.
Low energy Concrete is poured in between to fill in
the space. The concrete is made water resistant by
the use of Relius. Prefabricated Structural Insulated
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 875


Panels (SIP) is used in the First floor walls and the
roof. These are made of Elastopor H Polyurethane
foam insulation (low thermal conductivity)
sandwiched between OSB (oriented strand board)
[1]. Heat absorbing pigment present in the paint
coating used for steel has the capacity to transfer the
heat to the material and into the air. Smart Board
plasterboard has been used on the internal wall
facades. This helps to regulate temperatures,
because it contains Micronal PCM phase-change
material - microscopically small plastic spheres with
a wax core. When the temperature rises, the wax
melts and the phase-change material absorbs heat.
When the temperature drops, the wax solidifies, and
heat is emitted [4].

Figure 6 Section with environmental strategies-summer
(Source: Author)

Figure 7 Section with environmental strategies-winter
(Source: Author)
3.3. Environmental strategies for thermal
comfort
The buffer zone in the Southern facade
although acts as the area which absorbs the Sunlight
and the heat so that they may be redistributed within
the building. During winter the Openings between the
Southern part and the rest of the house can be
opened to allow recirculation of warm air, see figure
7. The Ground to air heating system allows the
preheated warm air to be brought into this area and
helps in transferring heat from the earth into the
building. The facade in the southern part is fully
glazed (Interior double glazed curtain wall, U-value of
1.6W/m2K and exterior double glazed curtain wall,
U-value 2.7 W/m2k) with multi layered sun spaces.[5]
During summer the buffer zone ventilators are open
to prevent excessive heating and are also included
as a living space. Convective cooling in the night by
automatic ventilation controls keeps the indoor
temperature under control [6]. The centralised
location of the staircase ensures movement of air by
stack effect to the first floor. The warm air is
extracted by windows places along the ridge line on
the roof.
3.4. Previous works on the houses thermal
performance
The pre construction report on the thermal
performance analysis of the BASF house done in the
University of Nottingham by Lucelia Taranto
Rodrigues, PhD candidate, Lecturer in Architecture
and Dr. Rosa Schiano-Phan explains the progress
on the dynamic simulation of the thermal
performance of the BASF house. Based on the
conclusions from the report the material specification
of the external walls, internal walls and the glazing
was revised to improve the performance of the
house. The report also discusses the difference in
the performance of the building with original
specification and proposed UK passivHaus
specification for construction. This report remained
as a strong base for understanding the thermal
performance building better.
3.5. Building usage and peoples perception
The building has been occupied by Nina
Hormazbal Poblete and Deborah Adkins, two PhD
students at the University of Nottingham. Nina, stays
along with her husband in the home and uses the
bedroom on the south west. Deborah, is in her third
year PhD in the university and uses the bed room on
the south east. They have been living in the house,
and monitoring the performance of the home as well.
It is interesting to understand how the rooms are
used by users from different generations, culture.
This report will discuss the influence of the
occupants on the internal temperatures according to
their usage pattern in the two bedrooms.
3.6. Onsite Observations
Visiting the home frequently between 26
th
March
2009 and 7
th
April 2009 the following observations
were made. This time period falls in the spring
period. The occupants usage pattern derived from
the study has been considered as the spring usage
pattern.
The outdoor dry bulb temperature was less than
16 C on an average during midday, and it was for
rainy couple of days. No artificial lights were used in
the home during the day. The house takes full
advantage of its glazed south facade, both in terms
of daylight and solar gains. Irrespective of the
outdoor weather conditions, the indoor temperatures
in the living and dining area were warm and
comfortable, showed temperatures ranging from
22C to 24C. All the ventilators in the living/dining
space were closed during most of the time in the
day. The solar area showed temperatures above
27C during midday, as expected. It was taking
advantage of the direct solar gains. The kitchen was
temperature in summer (June to August) is between
14.86C to 29.5C, while in winters (December to
February) is from -6.7C to 3.3C which is well below
comfort range. The comfort boundaries during
summer can be delimited at the upper end by a
maximum of 70% relative humidity and a
temperature of 25 C. The average summer
conditions in Nottingham just fall within these limits
both in terms of temperature and RH. The winter
period in Nottingham is humid with temperatures
ranging from -5 C to 10 C. The comfort in winter
time is defined as 20 C in terms of temperature and
ranges between 60% & 80% RH. This shows the
need for capturing heat during winter. Nottingham
has prevailing winds predominantly from Southwest
that has an overall effect of reducing the temperature
and increasing the humidity characterizing the cold
winters.

Figure 3 building plans (Source: Author)

Figure 4 Photographs showing building elevations North-
left, South-right (Source: Author)
2.2. Building information
The design brief was to build a highly energy
efficient house which at the same time is affordable.
The result is a compact house with an open floor
area which relies heavily on passive solar principles.
The house has dense vegetation in the North, East
and West which acts as a noise buffer.
Southern side of the house is a natural mound
sloping downwards allowing good solar exposure.
The house has buffer spaces in the North that
contains the entrance lobby, biomass boiler and bike
storage. It has a conservatory in the south which
benefits the living areas in the Ground Floor and the
bedrooms in First floor adjoining it. The conservatory
has external shading devices designed to protect the
southern facade from direct solar radiation during
summer to prevent overheating. It has a centrally
located stairwell separating the living room from the
dining room areas which helps in stack ventilation.
All other energy related controls like solar thermal
hot water cylinder and rainwater harvesting controls
are located in the ground floor. Window less facades
on the north and east enables future terracing. The
Northern facade has smaller windows enabling
daylight while controlling heat loss from this facade.
The house employs insulated concrete formwork
(ICF) (U Value: 0.177 W/m2C) for its foundation,
Structurally Insulated Panels (SIPS) (UValue: 0.15
W/m2C) for its first floor walls and roof, and Phase
change materials incorporated in plasterboards in the
internal partitions to regulate temperature. Since it is
a display/research project the house is open to
visitors two open days per month.


Figure 5 Photograph of BASF house (Source: Author)
3. EFFECTS OF CLIMATE ON PASSIVE
DESIGN
3.1. Effect of solar radiation
It is clear from the solar study that the
building would benefit from the useful solar gains in
winter. The building captures the solar radiations
from the 100% glazed south surface and it acts as
the area which absorbs the Sunlight and the. The
external shading devices have been designed to
protect the southern facade from direct solar
radiation during summer to prevent overheating,
which is evidently seen in the solar study.
3.2. The role of building envelope
The building envelope acts as a climate
moderator. It provides a balance between the heat
gain and the heat losses required to maintain a
comfortable interior. The house is designed such that
the floor area is compact .The north; west and east
facades cut off the cold with the use of heavy
insulation and limited openings to admit in adequate
daylight. The materials used for the building
envelope are explained in detail below. Insulated
Concrete Forms (ICF) is a lightweight means of
constructing walls that is incorporated in the ground
floor of BASF house. It gives form to the ground floor
of the building and it has high insulating properties.
Low energy Concrete is poured in between to fill in
the space. The concrete is made water resistant by
the use of Relius. Prefabricated Structural Insulated
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876 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
warmer than the living/dining area, probably because
of the heat gain from the appliances. The buffer
space in the north helps in maintaining the internal
temperature and prevents the cold wind entering the
habitable space. The bedrooms in the first floor were
warm and comfortable and showed temperatures
ranging from 22C to 24C during midday. The
shading device in the south was protecting half of the
glazed facade from mid day sun, as seen in the solar
study. Overall, indoor conditions were warm and
comfortable. There is a risk that house might get
overheated during the summer days, a detailed site
observation during summer would help to answer
questions related to overheating during summer.
4. RESEARCH METHOD
The study was carried out in 2 stages. The first
stage focuses on the usage pattern of the regularly
controlled openings in the House. An extensive list of
all the ventilators and doors in the building was made
and a survey was conducted to understand the
usage pattern of the doors and ventilators. A
questionnaire containing the hour schedule was
stuck in all the doors and ventilators that were used.
Figure 8 Schedule of ventilators, with the ventilators that
were used during survey period marked. (Source: Author)
4.1. Occupancy
The House is occupied by 3 occupants, 2 of
whom are PhD students in the School of the Built
Environment, University of Nottingham. The
performance of the house is monitored by Webrick
system in terms of its thermal performance, daylight
performance and energy consumption. Related
details such as increase in number of occupants
when the house is open to visit, duration when hot
water and other systems are used are recorded by
the occupants for each day. The study of the
occupants usage focussing on their thermal comfort
was carried out from 26th March to 7th April 2009.
4.2. Occupant involvement in research
The occupants were asked to mark the time they
open/close the ventilators/doors and the reason for
opening (i.e. ventilation, smell, and special usage).
Based on the survey, it was possible to identify the
ventilators and doors that were used during the
survey period (31st March 6th April). The usage
pattern of the openings was derived from this
exercise. The ventilators marked (in yellow) show the
ventilators that were manually opened by the
occupants. The feedback from the survey was used
to arrive at a simple usage pattern of the ventilators
and doors. This pattern can be regarded as the
spring usage pattern of the doors and ventilators of
the UK BASF research house. [7] Also this pattern
enables to identify the influence users on ventilation
and the internal temperature. Comparing the onsite
temperature measurements on the survey dates,
enables to identify the influence of the users on the
ventilation and thermal performance.
Figure 9 Schedule of doors, with the ventilators that were
used in survey period marked. (Source: Author)
Windows/ Ventilators Thermal zone Usage time
First floor sunspace exterior (south west) Zone 1 8:00 - 17:00 hrs once a day
Top ventilator bedroom 3 (stack) Zone 10 8:00 - 17:00 once a week
Top ventilator bedroom 3 (stack) Zone 10 8:00 - 17:00 once a week
Bathroom ventilator 1 Zone 11 7.30 - 14.30 - all occupied days
Bathroom ventilator 2 Zone 11 7.30 - 14.30 - all occupied days
First floor stair case Zone 3 5 hours a week
Kitchen ventilators Zone 6 13.00 -13.30 occupied days
First floor south west bedroom interior Zone 10 8:00 - 17:00 once a day
Doors Thermal zone Usage time
Exterior South Ground floor - Door 2 Zone 1 18:00 - 19:00 hrs once a day
Interior South Ground floor - Door 4 Zone 2 18:00 - 19:00 hrs once a day
Interior South west bedroom - Door 5 Zone 10 14:00 - 16:00 hrs, twice a week
Interior South East bedroom - Door 6 Zone 8 14:00 - 16:00 hrs, twice a week
Figure 10 spring usage pattern of ventilators, derived from
occupant usage. (Source: Author)
Qualitative analysis through interviews was
conducted to measure the occupants overall
satisfaction with the House. The second stage of the
study involves analysis the thermal performance of
the house from 26
th
March to 7
th
April 2009 by
quantitatively analysing the data collected by the
wetbrick system. The qualitative and quantitative
analyses were correlated with each other to draw
suitable conclusions.
5. ANALYSIS- BUILDING USAGE AND
OCCUPANTS PERCEPTION
The usage of the occupants differs depending on
their age and culture. In this period outdoor dry bulb
temperature was less than 16 C on an average
during midday, and there was precipitation for a
couple of days. All the ventilators in the living/dining
space were closed during most of the time in the
day.
Qualitative analysis by means of interview of the
occupants helped determine the usage pattern of the
house is mostly unoccupied from 09:00 to 13:00
hours and from 14:00 to 18:00 Hours. The bedrooms
are unoccupied from 08:00 to 21:00 hours. Overall
the occupants are satisfied with the daylight,
ventilation and thermal performance of the house.
The occupants feel that due to the stack effect and
PLEA 2011 - 27
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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 877


the sunspace the interiors spaces are thermally
comfortable to stay.
5.1. On site temperature measurements
The building is being monitored for different
variables such as temperature, relative humidity,
solar radiation and ventilation through the Webrick
system. The system also records the occupancy
patterns. Figure 10, Figure 11 and figure 12 show the
indoor temperatures recorded in the two bedrooms in
the first floor of the house, on 3 different days during
the survey period. The comfort range has been
marked between 20C to 25C for the study. The
images clearly show that indoor temperatures are
well above the external temperatures and show a
steady temperature curve. The results have been
discussed in detail in the summary below.
Figure 11 Temperatures recorded on 31
st
March 2009.
(Source: Author)
Figure 12 Temperatures recorded on 1
st
April 2009.
(Source: Author)
Figure 13 Case1 Temperatures recorded on 4
th
April 2009
(Source: Author)
6. SUMMARY
Irrespective of the outdoor weather conditions,
the indoor temperatures in the living and dining area
were warm and comfortable, showed temperatures
ranging from 22C to 24C. The solar area showed
temperatures above 27C during midday, as
expected. It was taking advantage of the direct solar
gains. The Internal temperatures of the bedrooms
predominantly fall in the comfort range, in spite of the
low external temperatures. The south east bedroom
records higher temperature compared to the south
west bedroom, in spite of the fact that the south west
bedroom is used by two occupants, which means
higher occupancy gains. This can be related to the
usage pattern of the external ventilator adjacent to
the bedroom zone. The exterior ventilator adjacent to
the south west bedroom was open at least 5 hours
for a day during the survey period, but the exterior
ventilator adjacent to the South east bedroom was
never left open during the survey period. Inferring
Measurements taken from site, it is clear that the
ventilators and doors (I/O) have been used in an
optimum rate by the users to achieve comfortable
indoor air temperatures (during spring) in most of the
habitable spaces of the home during the survey
period. However, the south east bedroom records
temperatures more than 25C for more than 4 hours
in the daytime during the survey days; see figure 14,
15 and 16. Current observations show that there are
hazards of overheating during summer with the
current ventilator usage. Hence, the exterior
ventilators in the south buffer space have to be
operated to prevent overheating during summer.
Comparing the measurements on site it is clear that
the PCM used in the internal walls and the ground air
heat exchanger contributes to maintain a steady
internal temperature all through the day.
The internal temperatures in the bedrooms are
predominantly falling under comfort range. But
according to UK good building practice guide for
naturally ventilated buildings, the internal
temperatures of habitable spaces should not exceed
more than 25C for more than 5% of occupied time.
In the graphs it is clearly seen that the south east
bedroom records temperatures more than 25C for
more than 4 hours a day during the survey days (in
spring). Hence with the current ventilation pattern,
there are hazards of overheating in summer. The
south west bedroom seems to be working fine in the
current usage pattern of the ventilators for spring. In
order to improve the performance of the south east
bedroom the exterior ventilators in the sunspace,
adjacent to the south east bed room could be
opened for at least 2hours in the day will bring down
this zones temperature to comfort levels during
spring time. During summer, the house has been
designed to rely much more on natural ventilation.
Hence the usage pattern for summer has to be
different to keep the home within comfort range.
7. CONCLUSION
The aim of this study was to study the effect of
the occupants usage pattern on the efficiency of a
high performance building. The usage pattern of
occupants of the BASF House, with respect to
controlling openings in the house for thermal comfort
was studied from 26
th
March to 7
th
April 2009. The
period of this study falls under spring season in the
UK. Qualitative analysis by means of interviews was
used to measure the satisfaction level of the
occupants. This analysis was correlated with
quantitative analysis of performance data including
temperature variations in the house collected by the
Wetbrick monitoring system.
Comparing the temperature profiles in the
bedrooms and correlating them against the indoor
temperature profiles clearly indicate the users
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
878 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
influence on the thermal performance of the house.
The analysis shows that, with the current usage
pattern there is potential overheating of the house
during summer. Opening the external ventilators in
the sunspace during summer will reduce
overheating. The house is designed to rely more on
natural ventilation during summers. Hence the usage
pattern in summer should accordingly change taking
the comfort levels into consideration. From this study,
it is evident that users intervention in controlling the
internal environment is an important factor to be
considered in architectural design. If a building is
only designed and built by blindly following the
recommended design guidelines and technical data
without considering the human factor, an undesirable
living environment will be created and it can be
potentially counter-productive for energy
conservation.
8. REFERENCES
[1] www.house.basf.co.uk [20th May 2009]
[2] http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/sbe/creative_energ
y_homes/ [20th May 2009]
[3] http://www.basf.de/en/uk/house/pressreleases/p
m.htm?pmid=3189&id=V00-RELFbE7t3bw2.xk
[20th May 2009]
[4] http://www.energyefficiency.basf.com/ecp1/Ener
gyEfficiency/en_GB/content/show_houses/UK/0
3_The_Site/The_Site
[5] CIBSE TM 36, 2005. Climate change and the
indoor environment of buildings. United
Kingdom: Charted institution of building services
engineers.
[6] Rosa Schiano-Phan1*, Brian Ford1, Mark
Gillott1, Luclia T Rodrigues1, The Passivhaus
standard in the UK: Is it desirable? Is it
achievable?: Papers delivered at PLEA 2008
25th Conference on Passive and Low Energy
Architecture, Dublin, 22nd to 24th October 2008
[7] Luclia T Rodrigues, Dr Rosa Schiano-phan
Thermal Analysis of the BASF house Report
submitted to the University of Nottingham, Reg.
Creative energy homes project.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 879

xx.x SECTION NAME 1
Design Tools for Architects: The Meaning of Solar
and Daylight Access Information in Design
Isaac Guedi CAPELUTO
Climate and Energy Lab in Architecture, Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning
Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Technion City, Haifa 32000, Israel

ABSTRACT: During the conceptual design phase of urban areas, the designer deals with different geometrical
characteristics related to the buildings orientation, height and width, in relation to open spaces and pedestrian
sidewalks. New buildings may create a different microclimate, like changing the wind regime, daylight access
and shading of existing neighborhoods. Protecting solar and daylight rights is a complex task, strongly
influenced by early decision made by the designer. It is imperative that design tools could support architects
from the beginning of the design process. However, existing design tools are still rudimentary with many
limitations for use by designers in early design stages of any architectural project. They generall y are aimed to
external consultants and require exact data in a stage when designers consider conceptual ideas from a range
of options rather than precise details and numbers. Design tools that suggest solutions based on ideas are rare.
The paper presents several approaches for design tools for architects to support the entire design process.
Moreover this work will demonstrate how existing modeling tools, widely used by architects for modeling
purposes only, can be easily enhanced presenting information with a new meaning most valuable for design
generation, giving architects new ways to make informed design decision towards high-performance
architectural and urban design.
Keywords: Design tools, Performance, Daylight Access, Solar Rights
1. INTRODUCTION
The early stages of the architectural design
process characterize themselves by a constant
search for a design direction. But as demonstrated
by specialists in design methods, decisions taken in
those moments can determine the success or failure
of the end product. The determination of a preferable
design solution becomes specially complicated due
to mutual influences. For example, the orientation
and proportions of streets will influence the exposure
of sidewalks to the winter sun, as well as creating the
required shading during summer. On the other hand,
ignoring the solar rights at the stage of the
preparation of a master plan may cause unrepairable
discomfort conditions around and inside the
buildings, and seriously compromise their energy
performance. The early stages of this process
characterize themselves by a constant search for a
design direction. But decisions taken in those
moments can determine the success or failure of the
proposed project.
1.1. Passive Solar Design
The idea of ensuring solar access is not new; the
Roman Empire had solar access laws; the "Leyes de
Indias" (The Law of the Indies) that were applied on
the foundation of new towns in America consider
block layout and street orientation to allow solar
access, and the Doctrine of Ancient Lights protected
landowners' rights to light in nineteenth-century
Britain. Many cities and countries in the world
defined regulations to keep solar rights. Some were
created from a public point of view to keep open
spaces and sidewalks insolated as defined in cities
such as New York [1], San Francisco [2] and Toronto
[3], [4]. In other places, regulations were defined to
ensure the full use of private properties such as
private open spaces and solar collectors.
Additionally, several U.S. communities adopted solar
access regulations in response to the energy crisis
and as a way to save energy and reduce air pollution
and costs. In Israel, the planning authorities of Tel
Aviv Municipality adopted solar envelopes as a tool
for urban development in a new business district [5].
In these examples, daylight and solar radiation are
considered as significant factors in the determination
of urban development policies.

The importance of solar insolation in winter has
been studied in many research works. The
consideration of solar rights in urban design is
essential in order to allow passive heating of
buildings in winter and to improve the comfort
conditions of people in streets, sidewalks and open
spaces. It can reduce the energy consumption of the
building if used indoors, while insolation of exterior
spaces may create climatically comfortable areas
which can be used for outside activities in winter. On
the other hand, shading should be provided in order
to avoid overheating of buildings and create pleasant
spaces during summer.
1.2. Active Solar Systems
Furthermore, interest in the building integration of
solar systems, like solar water heating (compulsory
for residential buildings in Israel) or photovoltaics
panels, where these systems actually become an
integral part of the building envelope often serving as
the exterior weather skin, is growing worldwide.

influence on the thermal performance of the house.
The analysis shows that, with the current usage
pattern there is potential overheating of the house
during summer. Opening the external ventilators in
the sunspace during summer will reduce
overheating. The house is designed to rely more on
natural ventilation during summers. Hence the usage
pattern in summer should accordingly change taking
the comfort levels into consideration. From this study,
it is evident that users intervention in controlling the
internal environment is an important factor to be
considered in architectural design. If a building is
only designed and built by blindly following the
recommended design guidelines and technical data
without considering the human factor, an undesirable
living environment will be created and it can be
potentially counter-productive for energy
conservation.
8. REFERENCES
[1] www.house.basf.co.uk [20th May 2009]
[2] http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/sbe/creative_energ
y_homes/ [20th May 2009]
[3] http://www.basf.de/en/uk/house/pressreleases/p
m.htm?pmid=3189&id=V00-RELFbE7t3bw2.xk
[20th May 2009]
[4] http://www.energyefficiency.basf.com/ecp1/Ener
gyEfficiency/en_GB/content/show_houses/UK/0
3_The_Site/The_Site
[5] CIBSE TM 36, 2005. Climate change and the
indoor environment of buildings. United
Kingdom: Charted institution of building services
engineers.
[6] Rosa Schiano-Phan1*, Brian Ford1, Mark
Gillott1, Luclia T Rodrigues1, The Passivhaus
standard in the UK: Is it desirable? Is it
achievable?: Papers delivered at PLEA 2008
25th Conference on Passive and Low Energy
Architecture, Dublin, 22nd to 24th October 2008
[7] Luclia T Rodrigues, Dr Rosa Schiano-phan
Thermal Analysis of the BASF house Report
submitted to the University of Nottingham, Reg.
Creative energy homes project.

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
880 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)

2 xx.x SECTION NAME
The local urban environment, location of
collectors on different building surfaces and with
different tilt angles, may affect the system
performance, and as well the period of time over the
year that they will be exposed to direct solar
radiation. Since the amount of unobstructed solar
radiation is critical to the efficient operation of solar
systems in new or existing buildings as a part of
roofs or building facades, the solar access to the
collectors and the solar rights must be assured year-
round.
1.3. Daylight Access
Lighting is responsible for 30% to 50% of all the
energy utilized in commercial and office buildings.
Daylight can be used to reduce lighting energy use
and the heat gains associated with electric lighting.
The efficient utilization of daylighting can dramatically
reduce the total electricity load and the peak
demand.

However, the availability of daylight in certain
areas of the city can be difficult due to the influence
of the external built environment. In medium and high
density zones, where generally office buildings are
located, the lack of light from the sky at street level
can cause design problems for the architect that
wishes to use daylight to provide a high quality
working environment and as an energy efficient
design strategy. Tall buildings and elongated
obstructions can affect dramatically the amount of
light received and its distribution inside the building
[6], [7]. Given that only the upper floor in multi-story
buildings can eventually make use of skylights,
generally the only source of daylighting inside the
office space is through side windows. In addition, the
provision of side-daylit offices places limitations on
building depth and interior organization. In dense
urban areas buildings arrangement is the most
important factor affecting daylighting as well as the
thermal comfort of public and private open spaces.
The surrounding built environment can seriously
affect the possibility of using daylight inside offices.
2. DESIGN TOOLS
Different design tools for solar rights and daylight
access were developed. Broadly, we can classify
these tools into generation tools and evaluation tools.

Generation tools aid to define the proper
geometry to achieve a certain performance.
Performance-driven form generation refers to the
idea that performance data can be used to generate
architectural form. Shaviv [8] proposed a method and
a computerized model for the design of fixed external
sunshades. The method was extended later for the
generation of solar rights envelope for the design of
solar communities [9]. Arumi [10] developed a
computerized model that determines the maximum
allowed height of a building that does not violate the
solar rights of the existing neighboring buildings.
Knowles [11] suggested a method for assuring solar
access to each residential unit in a community. De
Kay [12] made a comparative analysis of various
envelopes allowing daylight access. Schiler and Uen-
Fang [13] developed a computer program for the
generation of solar envelopes for flat-rectangular
sites based on Knowles work, and Koester [14]
presented energy armatures using passive resources
like winds and rain water, for urban sustainable
development. The model SustArc developed by
Capeluto and Shaviv [15] uses the Solar Rights
Envelope (SRE), Solar Collect Envelope (SCE) and
Solar Volume (SV) data as target functions (Fig. 1).
These solar envelopes define the space of all
possible design solutions that either considers solar
insolation or solar shading. SustArc allows the
generation of different building configurations,
ensuring solar rights of each neighboring building,
and open spaces like sidewalks, gardens and
squares. The model presents the maximum available
volume in which it is possible to build without
violating the solar rights of any existing building, as
well as the designed one.

The Solar Rights Envelope presents the
maximum buildings' heights that do not violate the
solar rights of any existing buildings, during a given
period of the year.
The Solar Collection Envelope presents the
lowest possible locus of windows and passive solar
collectors on the considered building's envelope, so
that they are not shaded by the existing neighboring
buildings, during a given period of winter.
Clearly, it is possible to determine the volume
between both envelopes. This volume is called the
solar volume (SV), and can be defined as follows:
The Solar Volume contains the maximum
buildings' volume to be designed so that these
buildings allow solar access to all the surrounding
buildings, and at the same time are not shaded by
them, during a given period of the year (Fig. 1).



Figure 1: Solar Envelopes: Solar Rights Envelope (1), Solar
Collection Envelope (2), and Solar Volume
Evaluation tools, on the other hand, analyse the
performance of a given design alternative. Although
architectural design processes ends up with a single
built design, during the design process numerous
design alternatives are generally created and
evaluated. Examining several design alternatives
meant that labour had to be dedicated to the creation
of every singular design alternative. As architectural
design is often performed under tight schedule and
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th
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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 881

xx.x SECTION NAME 3
budget, the amount of resources designers have to
investigate design alternatives is highly limited.
In practice, the large majority of existing
evaluation models is geared to simulate and evaluate
finished alternatives. According to Ochoa and
Capeluto [16] they are unsuitable as practical design
aids for architects, since they share the following
characteristics:
Not all of them follow the logic of the
architectural design process, which involves an
iterative and sometimes loose method based on
incoming information, stated principles and mental
schemes.
Early design decisions are based on vague
ideas that cannot be evaluated with tools that rely
on exact data. They require complex input
procedures, together with translations from one
format type to another.
The majority of evaluation programs are
designed for use by consultants, generally
engineering companies that enter the design field
very late, when main geometric characteristics of the
building are already fixed.
Input of current evaluation models needs
detailed information and precision not known and not
relevant at the beginning. Tools can also have
complex interfaces that require much time to learn
and use. Both factors can distract from the design
activity itself.
Most tools are dedicated to evaluate and
model a certain finished alternative, not to suggest
and evaluate different design options and directions.
This implies fitting an idea to the modelling tool, thus
filtering out information that could be useful or
distorting the process.
Architects trying to use these tools are thus
subject to evaluate finished alternatives using a trial
and error approach. This slows down production
schedules or forces to depend exclusively on factual
experience.
For complex projects on the boundary of his
or her expertise, the designer has few criteria about
which design direction to develop in order to pass
from idea to concept.

In the next sections we will introduce and
demonstrate the application of SunTools [17],
implemented using Ruby scripting language as a
plug-in for the Sketch-Up modelling program [18],
which allows visualization of sun position and the sun
path; produces axonometric views from the sun to
easily analyze mutual shading and solar access and
penetration at any design stage (Fig. 2), providing
evaluation results that can be used as generative
information. The analyses are easily done without
the need of exporting the geometric data to external
programs, using the same existing 3D model. We will
discuss as well, new developments that allow using
evaluation of solar irradiance in complex urban
environments as a design tool, as part of the toolbox
available to designers. These tools aim to serve
students, teachers, architects and consultants from
the early design stages, to include solar
consideration in the design.
3. MEANING OF INFORMATION IN DESIGN
SunTools was developed as an attempt to
investigate the possibility of using existing design
tools, widely used by architects, providing the
designer all along the design process with new
performative information that can help him in the
generation of design solutions.
3.1. Sun Path and Sun Position
The key to designing a successful passive solar
building is to best take advantage of local
environmental conditions and climate. The ability to
improve building performance and comfort as well as
the quality of open spaces in winter and summer is
fundamentally dependent on the understanding of
the seasonal variations in the sun's path throughout
the day in relation to the designed building.
Fortunately common modelling tools widely used
nowadays by architects very early in the design
process provide capabilities of visualization of
accurate shadow casting by the design during
various times of the year. This feature allows quick
visualization and understanding of mutual influences
among buildings at certain times.
However, these tools generally do not allow
visualizing the sun itself despite that they calculate
internally its relative position in the sky, according to
the geographical definitions of the model. Visualizing
the sun path during a required period of the year or
at a certain date and time can help to better
understand the impact of the sun in relation to the
project and its surrounding areas. Since this
information exists in the model is very simple
exposing it to the designer creating a new layer of
information to work with (Fig. 2).



Figure 2: Sun Path and Sun Position visualization in
SunTools as part of the model
3.2. Sun Penetration
Once the solar geometry information was
incorporated as part of the working model it can be
manipulated in order to perform evaluations of the
design proposals. Using this information SunTools

2 xx.x SECTION NAME
The local urban environment, location of
collectors on different building surfaces and with
different tilt angles, may affect the system
performance, and as well the period of time over the
year that they will be exposed to direct solar
radiation. Since the amount of unobstructed solar
radiation is critical to the efficient operation of solar
systems in new or existing buildings as a part of
roofs or building facades, the solar access to the
collectors and the solar rights must be assured year-
round.
1.3. Daylight Access
Lighting is responsible for 30% to 50% of all the
energy utilized in commercial and office buildings.
Daylight can be used to reduce lighting energy use
and the heat gains associated with electric lighting.
The efficient utilization of daylighting can dramatically
reduce the total electricity load and the peak
demand.

However, the availability of daylight in certain
areas of the city can be difficult due to the influence
of the external built environment. In medium and high
density zones, where generally office buildings are
located, the lack of light from the sky at street level
can cause design problems for the architect that
wishes to use daylight to provide a high quality
working environment and as an energy efficient
design strategy. Tall buildings and elongated
obstructions can affect dramatically the amount of
light received and its distribution inside the building
[6], [7]. Given that only the upper floor in multi-story
buildings can eventually make use of skylights,
generally the only source of daylighting inside the
office space is through side windows. In addition, the
provision of side-daylit offices places limitations on
building depth and interior organization. In dense
urban areas buildings arrangement is the most
important factor affecting daylighting as well as the
thermal comfort of public and private open spaces.
The surrounding built environment can seriously
affect the possibility of using daylight inside offices.
2. DESIGN TOOLS
Different design tools for solar rights and daylight
access were developed. Broadly, we can classify
these tools into generation tools and evaluation tools.

Generation tools aid to define the proper
geometry to achieve a certain performance.
Performance-driven form generation refers to the
idea that performance data can be used to generate
architectural form. Shaviv [8] proposed a method and
a computerized model for the design of fixed external
sunshades. The method was extended later for the
generation of solar rights envelope for the design of
solar communities [9]. Arumi [10] developed a
computerized model that determines the maximum
allowed height of a building that does not violate the
solar rights of the existing neighboring buildings.
Knowles [11] suggested a method for assuring solar
access to each residential unit in a community. De
Kay [12] made a comparative analysis of various
envelopes allowing daylight access. Schiler and Uen-
Fang [13] developed a computer program for the
generation of solar envelopes for flat-rectangular
sites based on Knowles work, and Koester [14]
presented energy armatures using passive resources
like winds and rain water, for urban sustainable
development. The model SustArc developed by
Capeluto and Shaviv [15] uses the Solar Rights
Envelope (SRE), Solar Collect Envelope (SCE) and
Solar Volume (SV) data as target functions (Fig. 1).
These solar envelopes define the space of all
possible design solutions that either considers solar
insolation or solar shading. SustArc allows the
generation of different building configurations,
ensuring solar rights of each neighboring building,
and open spaces like sidewalks, gardens and
squares. The model presents the maximum available
volume in which it is possible to build without
violating the solar rights of any existing building, as
well as the designed one.

The Solar Rights Envelope presents the
maximum buildings' heights that do not violate the
solar rights of any existing buildings, during a given
period of the year.
The Solar Collection Envelope presents the
lowest possible locus of windows and passive solar
collectors on the considered building's envelope, so
that they are not shaded by the existing neighboring
buildings, during a given period of winter.
Clearly, it is possible to determine the volume
between both envelopes. This volume is called the
solar volume (SV), and can be defined as follows:
The Solar Volume contains the maximum
buildings' volume to be designed so that these
buildings allow solar access to all the surrounding
buildings, and at the same time are not shaded by
them, during a given period of the year (Fig. 1).



Figure 1: Solar Envelopes: Solar Rights Envelope (1), Solar
Collection Envelope (2), and Solar Volume
Evaluation tools, on the other hand, analyse the
performance of a given design alternative. Although
architectural design processes ends up with a single
built design, during the design process numerous
design alternatives are generally created and
evaluated. Examining several design alternatives
meant that labour had to be dedicated to the creation
of every singular design alternative. As architectural
design is often performed under tight schedule and
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
882 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)

4 xx.x SECTION NAME
allows assessing Sun Penetration and Solar Access
at any specific point of the project (Fig. 3). This
powerful evaluation is produced taking advantage of
common capabilities of modeling tools of producing
custom views from pre-set viewing points and
directions.


Figure 3: Solar Access in open spaces as evaluated using
SunTools
The evaluation allows designers using their own
3D working models understanding in one
comprehensive view the periods of exposure and
shading for the analyzed position in the project.

Furthermore, the designer can see and
understand the causes of overshadowing and modify
accordingly the design in order to obtain the desired
performance. This feature can be applied to study
Sun Penetration inside buildings, as shown in Fig. 4.
The geometry of the shading devices can be
modified interactively as necessary to protect the
building as required.




Figure 4: Assessing Solar Penetration inside an office
building (up) and modifying sunshades dimension according
to required performance (down).
3.3. Sky View
In a well-designed space, daylight reduces
energy costs, enhances the visual quality, and
provides others psychological benefits that are hard
and expensive to imitate with electrical lighting. The
availability of daylighting in certain areas of the city
can be difficult due to the influence of the external
built environment. The surrounding built environment
can seriously affect the possibility of using
daylighting inside buildings and compromise daylight
availability at street level.
The penetration of daylight into the building
depends on many design parameters, among them
the depth of the room from the window wall, ceiling
height, internal reflectances, window orientation,
shape and size, and optical properties of the glazing.
It must be stated that most of these factors are
unknown by the designer at the early design stages.
However, the most significant factor is the availability
of daylight outside the building which can be
seriously affected by external obstructions like
neighboring buildings or trees.

According to Capeluto [6], the sky solid angle
(SSA) presents the solid angle subtended by the
path of the sky visible from the studied point. The
SSA is proposed as a means to assess the influence
of the external obstructions on the availability of
daylighting inside buildings. There exist a correlation
between the SSA and the DFave, serving as an
indicator of the daylighting potential of the site.

The solid angle subtended by a surface is defined
as the surface area of a unit sphere covered by the
surfaces projection onto the sphere. This method
can help architects consider, evaluate and as a
consequence make design decisions by keeping in
mind the daylighting potential (or limitations) of the
site, and its implications on building design. It can
provide also valuable information for authorities
trying to regulate development in a way that
considers daylight as a key for urban development
and ensures an acceptable access to light for
different city zones.
With SunTools, the SSA can be easily
determined using the 3D model that contains the
volumetric information of the studied built
environment. The method consists in tracing rays
from the studied point in all directions to the sky vault
and determining if it is visible or obstructed from this
position. In this way the SSA and the percentage of
the visible and obstructed sky can be calculated.
Moreover, the visible and/or obstructed part of the
sky vault can be visualizes as part of the working
model. Supplementary information can be super
imposed to provide extra information to the designer
as seen in Fig. 5(down) and Fig. 6 showing together
sun paths and visible sky vault.


PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 883

xx.x SECTION NAME 5

Figure 5: Visible (and obstructed) part of the sky vault as determined by SunTools




Figure 6: Visible sky vault and combination with sun paths
4. CONCLUSION
This paper discusses the meaning and value of
performative information presented to designers
during their work throughout the different stages of
the design process. It presents different approaches
for design tools for architects allowing generation
and evaluation of design solutions. It demonstrate
through the development of SunTools, a plug-in for
SketchUp, how existing design tools can be
enhanced in order to overcome limitations of existing
tools and provide architects with evaluations that
have generative value using the same 3D working
model. Using the same model for performing the
evaluations allows making changes interactively to
improve and adapt the design to a required
performance. SunTools is being extended to include
evaluations of additional subjects as new layers of
information that may contribute to generate design
based on solar and daylight access Information.

4 xx.x SECTION NAME
allows assessing Sun Penetration and Solar Access
at any specific point of the project (Fig. 3). This
powerful evaluation is produced taking advantage of
common capabilities of modeling tools of producing
custom views from pre-set viewing points and
directions.


Figure 3: Solar Access in open spaces as evaluated using
SunTools
The evaluation allows designers using their own
3D working models understanding in one
comprehensive view the periods of exposure and
shading for the analyzed position in the project.

Furthermore, the designer can see and
understand the causes of overshadowing and modify
accordingly the design in order to obtain the desired
performance. This feature can be applied to study
Sun Penetration inside buildings, as shown in Fig. 4.
The geometry of the shading devices can be
modified interactively as necessary to protect the
building as required.




Figure 4: Assessing Solar Penetration inside an office
building (up) and modifying sunshades dimension according
to required performance (down).
3.3. Sky View
In a well-designed space, daylight reduces
energy costs, enhances the visual quality, and
provides others psychological benefits that are hard
and expensive to imitate with electrical lighting. The
availability of daylighting in certain areas of the city
can be difficult due to the influence of the external
built environment. The surrounding built environment
can seriously affect the possibility of using
daylighting inside buildings and compromise daylight
availability at street level.
The penetration of daylight into the building
depends on many design parameters, among them
the depth of the room from the window wall, ceiling
height, internal reflectances, window orientation,
shape and size, and optical properties of the glazing.
It must be stated that most of these factors are
unknown by the designer at the early design stages.
However, the most significant factor is the availability
of daylight outside the building which can be
seriously affected by external obstructions like
neighboring buildings or trees.

According to Capeluto [6], the sky solid angle
(SSA) presents the solid angle subtended by the
path of the sky visible from the studied point. The
SSA is proposed as a means to assess the influence
of the external obstructions on the availability of
daylighting inside buildings. There exist a correlation
between the SSA and the DFave, serving as an
indicator of the daylighting potential of the site.

The solid angle subtended by a surface is defined
as the surface area of a unit sphere covered by the
surfaces projection onto the sphere. This method
can help architects consider, evaluate and as a
consequence make design decisions by keeping in
mind the daylighting potential (or limitations) of the
site, and its implications on building design. It can
provide also valuable information for authorities
trying to regulate development in a way that
considers daylight as a key for urban development
and ensures an acceptable access to light for
different city zones.
With SunTools, the SSA can be easily
determined using the 3D model that contains the
volumetric information of the studied built
environment. The method consists in tracing rays
from the studied point in all directions to the sky vault
and determining if it is visible or obstructed from this
position. In this way the SSA and the percentage of
the visible and obstructed sky can be calculated.
Moreover, the visible and/or obstructed part of the
sky vault can be visualizes as part of the working
model. Supplementary information can be super
imposed to provide extra information to the designer
as seen in Fig. 5(down) and Fig. 6 showing together
sun paths and visible sky vault.


PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
884 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)

6 xx.x SECTION NAME
5. REFERENCES
[1] New York City, Departmnet of City Planning
website: http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/dcp/
[2] San Francisco Planning department website:
http://www.sf-planning.org/
[3] Bosselmann P., E. Arens, K. Dunker and R.
Wright. Sun, Wind, and Pedestrian Comfort. A
Study of Torontos Central Area. Center for
Environmental Design Research, University of
California at Berkeley and Centre for Lanscape
Architecture Research, University of Toronto.
The Dept. of Planning and Development, City of
Toronto (1991).
[4] Brown, J., K. Storey, B. Jin and D. Lago, The
Open Spaces of Toronto. A Classification. Final
Report, Prepared for the City of Toronto, Dept.
of Planning and Development (1991).
[5] Capeluto I.G., A. Yezioro and E. Shaviv, 2003.
"Climatic Aspects in Urban Design A Case
Study", Building and Environment (2003),
38(6):827-835.
[6] Capeluto, I.G., The influence of the urban
environment on the availability of daylighting in
office buildings in Israel. Building and
Environment (2003), 38(5):745-752.
[7] Li, D.H.W., Wong, S.L., Tsang C.L., and
Cheung, G.H.W, A study of the daylighting
performance and energy use in heavily
obstructed residential buildings via computer
simulation techniques. Energy and Buildings
(2006), 38(11):1343-1348.
[8] Shaviv E. A method for the design of fixed
external sunshades. In Build International
(1975), 8:121-150, Applied Science Publishers,
UK.
[9] Shaviv E. Design tools for solar rights and sun-
shades determination. In Proceedings of the
Ninth National Passive Solar Conference, ASES,
Boulder, CO, (1984):1419.
[10] Arumi F. In Computer-aided Energy Design For
Buildings. Energy Conservation Through
Building Design, Watson D. (Ed.), McGraw-Hill,
NY (1979).
[11] Knowles R. L.. Sun Rhythm Form, The MIT
Press, Cambridge, MA. (1981).
[12] De Kay M. A comparative review of daylight
planning tools and a rule-of-thumb for street
width to building height ratio. In Proceedings of
the 17th National Passive Solar Conference
ASES, Boulder, CO. (1992).
[13] Schiler M. and Uen-Fang P. Solvelope: an
interactive computer program for defining and
drawing solar enveDlopes. In Proceedings of the
18th National Passive Solar Confer- ence
ASES, Washington, D.C. (1993).
[14] Koester R. J. Energy armatures ordering an
integration of passive energy resources for
community sustainability. In Proceedings of the
19th National Passive Solar Conference
ASES, San Jose, CA. (1994).
[15] Capeluto, I.G. Shaviv, E. On the Use of Solar
Volume for Determining the Urban Fabric. Solar
Energy (2001), 70(3):275-280.
[16] Ochoa C.E, and I.G. Capeluto, 2009. "Advice
Tool for Early Design Stages of Intelligent
Facades based on Energy and Visual Comfort
Approach", "Energy and Buildings" journal, Vol.
41 pp 480-488, Elsevier Science Ltd.,
doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2008.11.015
[17] SunTools plug-in website:
http://tx.technion.ac.il/~arrguedi/SunTools/downl
oad.html
[18] Google Sketch-Up website:
http://sketchup.google.com/


PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 885
Daylight evaluation of retrofitting methods:
Conversion of the Spierer tobacco warehouse in Volos,
Greece.
Polytimi ILia
Environment & Energy Studies Programme, Architectural Association School of Architecture, London, UK
ABSTRACT: This analysis begins with a broad discussion of typical tobacco warehouses typology and the ways
in which this typology can be modified throughout an environmental daylight retrofitting conversion. Specifically,
the study focuses on cases linked to the Mediterranean region, and mainly to warehouses in Greece. Besides,
the analysis incorporates the proposal of a series of environmental methods for improving daylight conditions. A
generic case study in Volos is introduced to the analysis; the Spierer Tobacco Warehouse. Through intensive
research, fieldwork, and analysis in the form of daylight simulations, various conclusions will be drawn with
regard to structures alteration and environmental performance. According to the final conclusion, the initially
proposed hypothesis will be verified. Particularly, it will be concluded that old tobacco warehouses which are
converted into multi-purposed spaces can be transformed architecturally in a way that satisfies the new visual
occupancy requirements in a Mediterranean climate and consequently, energy consumption can be reduced
through the implementation of a number of specific interventions. The following paper is based on my MSc
Dissertation in Sustainable Environmental Design undertaken at the AA School of Architecture. The outcome of
the following research could comprise a useful tool for both architects and environmental engineers working in
the field of sustainable design.
Keywords: tobacco warehouse, retrofitting, intervention, daylight, occupant visual comfort
1. INTRODUCTION
Greece is a country with valuable cultural
heritage, whose traditional industrial buildings
comprise a substantial component of its historical
legacy. These traditional buildings are typically listed
as cultural heritage sites in Greece and are usually
protected (Fig.1). Buildings with this peculiar
designation have to be preserved in their original
pattern, without distorting their external architectural
appearance during any kind of renovation. This
governmental limitation combined with any current
architectural need, provides an exceptional chance
for conversion. Throughout this conversion, a
number of interventions have to take place with
regard to the buildings daylight performance, as a
different occupancy and usage usually demands
different conditions. These interventions typically
influence a buildings energy performance and
daylight levels.

Figure 1: Listed tobacco warehouse buildings in Greece. [1]
For the purpose of further investigation, a
generic case study has been chosen as the most
convenient tool for carrying out this type of analysis.
The case study concerns the Spierer tobacco
warehouse located in Volos on the central mainland
of Greece. This study will seek to give answer to the
following query: Can the old tobacco warehouses,
which are converted into public multi-purposed
spaces, be transformed architecturally in a way that
satisfies the new visual occupancy requirements in a
Mediterranean climate?
2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
2.1. Architectural contribution to tobacco
warehouse typology

Figure 2: Representative tobacco warehouse typology.
Erman Spierer tobacco warehouse (1925). [1]

6 xx.x SECTION NAME
5. REFERENCES
[1] New York City, Departmnet of City Planning
website: http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/dcp/
[2] San Francisco Planning department website:
http://www.sf-planning.org/
[3] Bosselmann P., E. Arens, K. Dunker and R.
Wright. Sun, Wind, and Pedestrian Comfort. A
Study of Torontos Central Area. Center for
Environmental Design Research, University of
California at Berkeley and Centre for Lanscape
Architecture Research, University of Toronto.
The Dept. of Planning and Development, City of
Toronto (1991).
[4] Brown, J., K. Storey, B. Jin and D. Lago, The
Open Spaces of Toronto. A Classification. Final
Report, Prepared for the City of Toronto, Dept.
of Planning and Development (1991).
[5] Capeluto I.G., A. Yezioro and E. Shaviv, 2003.
"Climatic Aspects in Urban Design A Case
Study", Building and Environment (2003),
38(6):827-835.
[6] Capeluto, I.G., The influence of the urban
environment on the availability of daylighting in
office buildings in Israel. Building and
Environment (2003), 38(5):745-752.
[7] Li, D.H.W., Wong, S.L., Tsang C.L., and
Cheung, G.H.W, A study of the daylighting
performance and energy use in heavily
obstructed residential buildings via computer
simulation techniques. Energy and Buildings
(2006), 38(11):1343-1348.
[8] Shaviv E. A method for the design of fixed
external sunshades. In Build International
(1975), 8:121-150, Applied Science Publishers,
UK.
[9] Shaviv E. Design tools for solar rights and sun-
shades determination. In Proceedings of the
Ninth National Passive Solar Conference, ASES,
Boulder, CO, (1984):1419.
[10] Arumi F. In Computer-aided Energy Design For
Buildings. Energy Conservation Through
Building Design, Watson D. (Ed.), McGraw-Hill,
NY (1979).
[11] Knowles R. L.. Sun Rhythm Form, The MIT
Press, Cambridge, MA. (1981).
[12] De Kay M. A comparative review of daylight
planning tools and a rule-of-thumb for street
width to building height ratio. In Proceedings of
the 17th National Passive Solar Conference
ASES, Boulder, CO. (1992).
[13] Schiler M. and Uen-Fang P. Solvelope: an
interactive computer program for defining and
drawing solar enveDlopes. In Proceedings of the
18th National Passive Solar Confer- ence
ASES, Washington, D.C. (1993).
[14] Koester R. J. Energy armatures ordering an
integration of passive energy resources for
community sustainability. In Proceedings of the
19th National Passive Solar Conference
ASES, San Jose, CA. (1994).
[15] Capeluto, I.G. Shaviv, E. On the Use of Solar
Volume for Determining the Urban Fabric. Solar
Energy (2001), 70(3):275-280.
[16] Ochoa C.E, and I.G. Capeluto, 2009. "Advice
Tool for Early Design Stages of Intelligent
Facades based on Energy and Visual Comfort
Approach", "Energy and Buildings" journal, Vol.
41 pp 480-488, Elsevier Science Ltd.,
doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2008.11.015
[17] SunTools plug-in website:
http://tx.technion.ac.il/~arrguedi/SunTools/downl
oad.html
[18] Google Sketch-Up website:
http://sketchup.google.com/


PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
886 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
In Greece, Thessaloniki, Volos and Agrinio were
some of the first tobacco centres developed around
the end of the 16
th
century [2]. Due to the needs of a
growing tobacco industry in Greece, a considerable
number of tobacco warehouses were built to
accommodate the increasing needs for tobacco
processing and storage.
The architectural oeuvre of Austrian engineer
Konrad Jacob Josef von Vilas played a major role in
the architectural style of cities known as tobacco
centres in Northern Greece [2]. For this reason, a
representative example of his work is used in order
to define the architectural tobacco warehouse
typology (Fig.2).

2.2. Occupancy Pattern
The distribution of occupancy is determined by
the architectural design of tobacco warehouse
building [1]. The storeys of tobacco warehouses all
include a semi-basement, intermediate storeys, and
an attic. Windows size and stories height are
different on each floor depending on the needs of
their main occupancy. At the floors of lower heights
(smaller windows) raw tobacco was stored, while at
the floors of higher heights (bigger windows) the
tobacco production process was taken place (Fig.3),
where workers were sitting on the floor positioned
very close to the perimetrical walls, trying to take
advantage of the increased daylight levels which
were provided by a high window-to-wall ratio. Not
only the distribution of space, but also the occupants
schedule demonstrates the significance of visual
comfort to tobacco production [2].

Figure 3: Occupancy pattern of tobacco warehouses
according to function requirements. Section. [1]
2.3. Environmental Retrofitting Methods
Building conversion projects must align with the
new occupancy pattern, as a matter of prime
importance to a buildings energy consumption [3].

Figure 4: Innovative classification of daylight retrofitting
methods.
The applied retrofitting methods have to be set
on a hierarchy (Fig.4), in terms of their intervention
degree on a traditional building, according to the
following innovative classification: 1.Mild Methods,
2.Conventional Methods, 3.Advanced Methods.
3. CONTEXT AND CLIMATE
CONSIDERATIONS
Volos is located in the centre of Greek mainland
and is built on the innermost point of the Pagasetic
Gulf. In latest decades, Volos reflects remarkable
achievements in the maintenance of local heritage
with regard to citys old industrial structures. There
are architectural organisations in progress that seek
to preserve these structures by accommodating
modern uses to retrofitted buildings that serve public
needs [4]. The goal of this inspiration is to generate
sustainable and energy-efficient buildings.
Volos experiences a moderate climate with
evident distinction of seasons, as it is a
Mediterranean city (Fig.5). The most frequent sky
condition is sunny sky with sun [5]. It is declared that
spaces need to be protected from the extreme solar
radiation during summer, when buildings vertical
surfaces are shaded while horizontal are exposed. In
such climates, this can be accomplished by using
shutters or else light shelves placed in front of panes
to avoid solar gains [6].

Figure 5: Monthly average values for air temperature,
daylight hours and cloud cover. Volos, Greece. [7]
4. CASE STUDY
4.1. Building Description
Spierer tobacco warehouse is situated in the
centre of Volos (Fig.6).

Figure 6: Spierer tobacco warehouse building under study.
General external views.
It was designed by Konrad Jacob Josef von Vilas
in 1927. Spierer building was restored at about
1998 and nowadays it accommodates the Municipal
Cultural Centre of city. Presently, ground and second
floor accommodate public service offices, first floor
serves architectural studios, while an exhibition
space is provided in the attic floor (Fig.6,7).
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 887


Figure 7: Spierer tobacco warehouse building under study.
Plans mapping the distributed occupancy at each floor. [1]

4.2. Typical architectural features of
environmental value
Although tobacco warehouse is now converted
into a multi-purposed building, it still contains some
elements of typical industrial architecture. In terms of
windows construction method, the parts of walls that
contain windows are inclined in a way that provides
gradient daylight distribution in the interior space
(Fig.8). Thus, the daylight contrast between the
internal wall surfaces (reduced daylight levels) and
the outdoor illuminance (increased daylight levels) is
reduced [8].

Figure 8: Splayed reveal windows. On-site sketches.
In the case of Spierer tobacco warehouse, every
window on each facade has shutters which provide
solar control and keep the space dark while the
temperature remains low. By and large, shutters are
separated into two or four parts (depending on the
storey), they are dark and made by wood. Therefore,
occupants have the opportunity to control the
shutters depending on the needs of their activity and
the climatic conditions of each season.
4.3. Architectural changes resulting from the
environmental retrofitting and the new
occupancy pattern
The reform of the uniform tobacco space into
new sub-space environments is a fundamental mild
change during the conversion. This internal
architectural space distribution required the creation
of both public and private spaces, since the in
question building needed to be converted into a
multi-purpose space with diverse schedules and
occupants (Fig.9).

Figure 9: Mapping of public and private zones at each floor.
It seems that architects assigned the floors
based on the frequency of each floors new function.
The most advanced retrofitting intervention that
was applied is the construction of two internal
atriums aiming to enhance ventilation on each floor.
Along with the initial buildings function, the daylight
zones were considered to be exclusively the areas
on the perimetrical sides (due to buildings compact
and deep plan). The construction of atriums is
combined with the application of rooflights on the
attic storey as an additional applied retrofitting
method for increased daylight distribution, improving
drastically the new occupants visual comfort (Fig.10).

Figure 10: Atriums and rooflights applications at Spierer
building. Advanced daylight retrofitting methods. [1]
Subsequently, the architectural space distribution
of the various functions is determined by the addition
of the two atriums. The atriums are part of the
circulation zone in public areas, where people are in
transit. Each storey has different layout depending
on the distribution of space. Each atrium is adjacent
to a different space on each storey and every side of
each atrium may also have a different type of
adjacency. The sort of adjacency proclaims the
degree of atriums impact, giving out the
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
888 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
environmental and the applied architectural design.
(Fig.11)

Figure 11: Architectural types of adjacency between spaces
and atriums. Innovative classification.
Therefore, it is worth investigating the relationship
between the designed atriums and their adjacent
spaces. Thus, the architectural manipulation of
atriums side borders can be worked out in order to
determine if there was any strong initial
environmental concept on which the architectural
design was based. Besides, the nature of
environments that were created after the
implementation of atriums is explored in order to
classify these areas.
The architectural concept corresponds to the
function and occupancy requirements of each
attached space to the atrium. For instance, public
spaces such as transitional and exhibition spaces
can be categorized as cases of Natural Access. In
these cases, the main function of atrium is not only to
enhance the daylight levels, but also to improve the
airflow in each storey. These constitute open spaces
that both serve the moving of occupants from one
office to another and are used during the occupants
break times. On the other hand, private spaces
usually border atriums sides by offering Optical
Perception while acoustic problems are deterred. It
has been observed that strictly private spaces
require Semi-Optical Perception in order to keep
concentration at the greatest possible extent (with
additional manual control of blinds), while at the
same time the daylight is being also offered at the
greatest extent on the working plane. Private spaces
that have uncertain use, such as lounge spaces,
have side borders that offer Optical Perception with
Full Glazing directly adjacent to the atrium. In some
of the offices, air circulation through the clerestories
can be expected. (Fig.11)
4.4. Quantitative Approach (On-site
Measurements)
Aiming to recognise and clarify the way in which
the daylighting source interacts with the buildings
renovated architecture, the on-site measurements
have been studied through plans and sections.
In terms of daylight performance on typical floors,
measurements show that storeys are inadequately lit
from daylight in most of buildings sub-spaces.
Therefore, daylight penetration is not sufficient for
visual task requirements [9], since the daylight
incoming from the roof has hardly reached the lower
floors due to the atriums small dimensions. The
transitional space is also dark apart from the areas
around the atriums which are bright but create visual
discomfort due to daylight contrasts. (Fig.12)
With reference to daylight performance on attic
level, it is demonstrated that the uniform attic space
is naturally lit at the maximum of the surface, in terms
of the plan. The daylight penetrates the space and
creates a kind of homogeneous light at the working
plane (90cm). The direct solar radiation contributes
to the creation of notable sun patches which
generate visual discomfort for occupants, especially
those occupied in the space around the atriums.
According to occupants, this discomfort due to the
glare contrast results to the use of electrical lighting
throughout the year, even though there are adequate
lighting levels during summer sunny days. The
intermediate zone between the southwest wall and
the atriums stays dark regardless of the sky
conditions. Empirical methods have been applied to
control the indoor daylight performance such as
putting bright vertical surfaces (sheets) in front of
areas to reduce the daylight surface contrasts. No
shading control is observed on the rooflights. (Fig.12)

Figure 12: (Top) Mapping showing daylight distribution at 1
st

floor and attic floor, derived from on-site measurements.
(Bottom) Daylight penetration at the spaces.
5. DAYLIGHT PARAMETRIC STUDIES
Throughout the on-site measurements, it was
found that several problems occurred in the point of
daylight performance of the in question renovated
building. Thus, it would be beneficial to quest for an
optimal final design proposal [10]. For this purpose,
there will be indicated a number of sequential
implemented interventions.

Base Heritage Case (Conventional retrofitting
method):
The daylight building performance will be calculated
after the rehabilitation of the tobacco warehouse by
re-opening all the perimetrical apertures. After the
rehabilitation of the windows has been implemented,
the daylight effect will be in specific areas. (Fig.13)
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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 889


Figure 13: Daylight effect distribution by re-opening all
perimetrical windows (Base Heritage Case). Simulations by
using Radiance [11].
Case 1: Base Heritage Case + Atriums bridges
removal (attic floor) (Conventional retrofitting
method):
In terms of the plan, it is observed that the effect of
this intervention influences the daylight distribution
on all floors, improving the daylight levels even on
the ground floor. (Fig.14)

Figure 14: Daylight effect distribution by removing the
atriums bridges (Case 1).Simulations by using Radiance[11]
Case 2: Case 1 + Exchange of occupancy on
the 1st floor and in the attic (Conventional retrofitting
method):
After exchanging the uses between the 1
st
floor and
the attic, and after removing the internal partitions, it
is proved that the lack of internal partitions improves
the daylight distribution on the floors. Rooflights are
able to give as much daylight as possible and all
areas under this configuration can be lit by natural
means. (Fig.15)

Figure 15: Proposed exchange of functions distribution
between 1
st
floor and attic floor. (Case 2)
Case 3: Case 2 + Atriums and rooflights
doubled size (Advanced retrofitting methods):
The building is tested in section in order to see the
effect of rooflights on all floors. It is observed that the
effect of rooflights during the autumn equinox and
the winter solstice is small on lower floors.

Figure 16: Daylight effect distribution by duplicating atriums
and rooflights dimensions (Case 3).Simulations by using
Radiance [11].
During summer solstice, it is shown that daylight
reaches the ground floor but solar gains are
increased and the space is overheated; which is
undesirable result. By increasing rooflights
dimensions, the issue of daylight distribution is not
solved to a remarkable extent since the daylight
distribution remains more or less the same in terms
of plan (Fig.16). However, daylight adaptability can
be improved since daylight sources are increased
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890 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
and therefore the gloomy areas in the space are
decreased.
Case 4: Case 3 + Shading roof protection
(Conventional retrofitting method):
The addition of internal shading controls (white
fabric) in front of rooflights is a necessary
intervention for a Mediterranean climate, especially
during warm periods. This is not only for regulating
the daylight quality of the space, but also for
eliminating the penetration of solar gains, fact that
consequently contributes to the reduction of cooling
loads. Therefore, occupants control can offer the
appropriate internal daylight conditions, according to
occupancy requirements. (Fig.17)

Figure 17: Simulated daylight with and without rooflight
control, by using Radiance [11]. Attic floor. (Case 4)
6. CONCLUSIONS
The key purpose of this study was to present a
descriptive analysis of various retrofitting methods
and to record the repercussions of Spierer tobacco
warehouse conversion in Volos. The conversion of
Greek traditional industrial heritage through
retrofitting methods is one of the most discussed
topics in the environmental milieu. Thus, the need to
consider the impact of retrofitting concept on a
traditional structure was evident, and formed the
basis of the in question analysis. By studying the
architectural typology of old industrial buildings on
the mainland of Greece, it is obvious that the
construction is directly related to occupancy pattern.
However, the interventions on a traditional building
must be gentle to the initial bearing structure.
In terms of both daylighting and buildings
heritage, it is concluded that the splayed reveal
windows of tobacco warehouses improve buildings
daylight performance, and energy can be saved by
reducing lighting needs. In such cases, internal
surfaces should also be of high reflectance for a
brighter interior environment. Additionally,
perimetrical windows contribute to daylight
penetration exclusively on the perimetrical areas of
each floor. The application of rooflights has notable
contribution to daylight distribution for the deep plans
of tobacco warehouses and functions to help meet
the needed visual requirements within the building.
Daylight efficiency of the proposed rooflights and
atriums designs depends on the number of floors in
the building. In summer, atriums and rooflights
dimensions play a major role in buildings energy
consumption, in Mediterranean climates. For this
reason, shading control on the rooflights is
necessary to adjust solar gains, and also to improve
occupants visual comfort. Finally, the removal of
internal partitions enhances the daylight distribution
of tobacco warehouses; fact that is highly dependent
on the new occupancy requirements (in terms of
spatial distribution). Uniform spaces usually have
flexible uses and thus can be easily amended into
tobacco warehouses under the condition to achieve
the most appropriate distribution for the best
buildings energy efficiency.
To conclude, the initial hypothesis has been
verified through the conducted analysis. It can
therefore be asserted that old tobacco warehouses
which are converted into public multi-purposed
spaces can be transformed architecturally in a way
that satisfies the new visual occupancy requirements
in a Mediterranean climate. Above all, the
implementation of deliberate interventions
contributes to a further reduction of the converted
buildings lighting consumption.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to express my
gratitude to Professor Simos Yannas for helping me
to draw the foundation of this dissertation. I would
also like to acknowledge and thank Maria Ampatzi,
for offering insightful recommendations and advice
during the dissertation period.
8. REFERENCES
[1] Ilia, P., (2010). Thermal evaluation of retrofitting
methods: Conversion of the Spierer tobacco
warehouse in Volos, Greece. Passive & Low Energy
Cooling for the Built Environment, Proc. of PALENC
Conference. Rhodes.
[2] Trakosopoulou-Tzimou, K., (2002). The
Architecture of Konrad Jacob von Vilas. Municipality
of Drama. Drama.
[3] Richarz, C., Schulz, C., and Zeitler, F., (2007).
Energy-Efficiency Upgrades. Die Deutsche
Bibliothek. Berlin
[4] In Volos, (2006). Industrial Heritage in
Magnesia. Volos Municipality. Issue 23. October-
December 2006.
[5] Satel-Light, (2008). The European Database of
Daylight and Solar Radiation. www.satel-light.com
[6] Yannas, S., (1994). Solar Energy and Housing
Design. Vol.1. Principles, Objectives Guidelines.
Architectural Association, London.
[7] Meteotest, (2008). Meteonorm v6.0.2.5 Global
Meteorological Database. Meteotest. Bern.
[8] Oikonomou, A., Bougagioti, F., (2004). Visual
Behaviour of Traditional Architecture in the City of
Florina in North-Western Greece. Sustainable
Architecture. Proc. Of PLEA Conference,
Netherlands.
[9] CIBSE (a), (2005). Lighting Guide 7: Office
Lighting CIBSE Publications Department. The
Society of Light and Lighting. England.
[10] Ecotect v5.6, (2008). Square One / Autodek.
[11] Radiance (2000). Environmental Energy
Technologies Division. Lawrence Berkeley Nat. Lab.
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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 891
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July
2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx. x SECTION NAME 1
Effectiveness of Dynamic Daylighting
Post Occupancy Evaluation of a Higher Ed Building
Judy THEODORSON
1
, Julia DAY
1

1
Interdisciplinary Design Institute, Washington State University, Spokane, U.S.A.
ABSTRACT: The resurgence of interest in daylighting in support of both energy efficiency and human factors
presents the need to study daylit buildings within the context of occupation. This paper studies the effectiveness of
a state of the art LEED Gold higher education classroom building in the US Inland Northwest. The design earned
both the EQ 8.1 and EQ 8.2 credits for daylighting by employing a variety of strategies including sidelighting with
automated shades in a double ventilated facade and toplighting in light wells for interior spaces. The research
includes predictive performance, post occupancy field measurements, and a user survey. Field measures
document daylight variability and product performance. The user survey probes issues of satisfaction with interior
conditions and behaviours around system operations; it is adapted from IEA SHC Task 21 (1999). By triangulating
physical evidence and occupant experience, a multi-faceted understanding of daylighting effectiveness emerges.
Keywords: daylighting, post-occupancy evaluation, occupant, comfort
1. INTRODUCTION
Architectural daylighting is emerging as a
cornerstone strategy for low energy and high
performance buildings. A building designed to utilise
daylight has the potential to significantly reduce loads
for electrical lighting and HVAC. Additionally, there
are human benefits: a growing body of literature
suggests the potential for improved human
performance [1,2] and a strong relationship between
natural light and favourable health outcomes [1,3].
Furthermore, natural light and views are highly
desired and valued by occupants [1,5,6]. The
welcome resurgence of daylit buildings presents
opportunities to study emerging daylight practices.
This paper specifically addresses the effectiveness of
daylight strategies within the context of occupancy.
The intent is to create a feedback loop that considers
the end-user while advancing high performance
daylighting design.
There are inherent challenges in designing
buildings that utilise natural light as the primary
ambient lighting system. Daylight is a highly variable
resource, changing in direction, intensity, and quality
throughout the day and the year. Designers must also
consider the thermal implications that accompany the
introduction of natural light into a space. Successful
daylighting requires integration of architecture,
building systems, and specialised products. Interior
daylight control systems must sense and adapt to the
ever-changing luminous inputs, while accommodating
a variety of programmatic functions. The interaction
between the occupant and the system further
complicates daylighting prediction and design; Hygge
and Lfberg (1999) suggest that daylighting systems
will be successfully used only if the building
occupants are satisfied with the indoor environment
and the operation of the system. [6]
The object of study is a higher education
classroom and office building located in a temperate-
cold climate in Washington State, USA. The building
houses two academic departments and serves mostly
young adult students. The building achieved LEED
2.0 Gold certification and obtained EQ 8.1 and EQ
8.2, Daylighting and Views, through multiple
daylighting strategies including sidelighting with an
automated, dynamic blind system, and toplighting for
interior spaces on the third floor.
Two issues emerge that are of importance to this
study: the concept of dynamic daylighting and interior
daylight controls. Reinhart, Mardaljevic, & Rogers
(2006) argue the current daylight metrics and
prediction tools are focused on static circumstances
and fail to capture the complexities of interactions
between climate, building, and occupant [7].
Furthermore, the LEED metric does not consider
qualitative aspects beyond elimination of sunlight. In
the case of this project, the designers had to
aggressively pursue all daylighting opportunities to
meet the LEED requirements for EQ 8.1. Studies of
daylight variability and consideration of climate forces
ultimately led to the adoption of a dynamic daylighting
scheme for the primary classrooms.
The second topic significant to this study is the
issue of daylight controls within the interior. Heschong
(2010) noted that blinds in daylit spaces play an
extremely important role, yet there is limited research
that predicts how blinds are used and their influence
on daylighting performance [8]. As this project utilises
a state-of-the-art blind system, there is a unique
opportunity to gain insight into both the user
experience and the blinds effectiveness in achieving
daylighting goals.
2. BACKGROUND
2.1. Design Intent
This building project was intended to be an
exemplar for sustainable higher education buildings,
demonstrating contextual design and environmental
responsibility. The design team had an integrated
design perspective and a willingness to consider
strategies that were innovative and untested in the
region. The architectural vision was grounded in the
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studies with physical models. An artificial skybox
provided testing circumstances for the overcast sky
condition and verified the daylight factor requirement
(Fig.4). Office windows, clerestories and light wells
were developed and fine-tuned through this process.
Diurnal and annual solar patterns were studied with a
fixed-sun heliodon. The original idea was to control
the southwest sun in the perimeter classrooms with
fixed louvers in the thermal buffer wall. When testing
demonstrated that this approach would be inadequate
to control sunlight over annual conditions (Fig.5), the
architects selected an automated dynamic louver
system and worked with the product representatives
to design appropriate algorithms and user overrides.

Figure 4: Classroom A, daylight model in artificial skybox.

Figure 5: Daylight control testing in heliodon

3.3. Post Occupancy Field Observations

Graduate students conducted field research
approximately two years after building completion.
Data was collected from each classroom type through
field measurements and during July (clear sky
conditions) and October (mixed sky conditions). Field
measurements recorded hourly illuminance data for
each room type during typical occupied hours (Fig. 6).
Observed data from the field study work includes
photograph recordings of hourly interior shades
positions. Additionally, HOBO data loggers collected
illuminance, temperature and relative humidity
readings for each room type for one week, under
variable sky conditions in July. Data loggers were
placed centrally within the space, near the window,
and near the lightwell if one was present.
3.4. Post Occupancy User Survey
An online questionnaire was administered to
faculty members with both offices and teaching
assignments in the building. Responses were
collected over a period of one week, approximately
one month after the fall equinox. Sky conditions
varied from sunny to overcast, but 86% of all
respondents completed the survey under sunny sky
conditions. The overall response rate was 38%
(n=22). Of these responses, there were 12 female
(55%) and 10 male (45%) participants. The ages of
respondents were reported as follows: (32%) above
the age of 60 years, (27%) between the ages of 50 to
59 years, (32%) between the ages of 40 to 49
years, (9%) between the ages of 30 to 39 years, and
no individuals (0%) were below the age of 30 years.


Figure 6: Sample illuminance readings across classrooms
The survey structure was composed of two
sections. The first section related to both light and
thermal conditions in the three different types of
classrooms; the questions were adapted from the
occupant questionnaire used in the IEA SHC Task21
Project [6]. Additional questions were developed to
specifically probe the interactions between the user
and the daylight controls and to assess qualitative
impressions. The second part of the survey revolved
around the environmental attributes of faculty
members personal offices. The questions for the
office environment were largely borrowed from the
aforementioned Task21 Project. The questionnaire
was designed to elicit occupant appraisal of the
luminous environment over time.
4. FINDINGS
The intent of this study is to advance the
understanding of the relationship between the
occupant and their daylit environment. Physical data
were gathered to support user survey responses and
determine daylight effectiveness, user interactions,
and user satisfaction. Ultimately, the survey revealed
a highly positive response to both the classrooms and
the faculty offices. In response to the open-ended
question Is there anything you particularly like about
this building, 68% of individuals mentioned the
natural light or daylight. Additionally, in response to
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2 xx. x SECTION NAME
concept of learning lanterns. The expansive double
glazed facade was intended to visually connect the
buildings classrooms to the heart of campus while
providing students with an opportunity to see a
building interact with exterior climatic conditions. The
site dictated a southwest orientation for the primary
lecture classrooms. This presented challenging
climate conditions (low sun angle with potential for
glare and overheating in the late afternoons). To
mitigate climate forces while achieving daylight goals
and visual connection, the architects implemented a
multi-story double ventilated facade, described by the
architects as a thermal buffer wall (Fig.1). The
approximately 4-0 interstitial space was designed to
naturally vent heat through a two-story stack. To
control the variability of natural light, a proprietary
automated daylight system was installed in the cavity.
The system adjusts the blinds in response to exterior
climate sensors and occupancy schedules. User
overrides are available, allowing occupants to control
the blinds for light, views, and to accommodate
teaching needs. As these building features -- double
ventilated facade and automatic louvers -- had not
been previously employed in region, there was
interest in studying the daylighting effectiveness of
the design.

Figure 1: Building section showing double ventilated facade,

per architect.

2.2. Daylighting Strategies
Three types of classrooms were evaluated for this
study (Fig. 2). The perimeter classrooms on the third
floor (A) and the second floor (B) utilise sidelighting
for the perimeter zone. Daylight control is provided by
the automated horizontal louvers in the ventilating
cavity. The slats are reflective on both sides, for the
purpose of daylight and heat re-direction. At eye level,
the blinds are perforated to allow for a nominal
exterior view when closed. The third floor classroom
(Fig.3) has the added benefit of a northeast-facing
clerestory, opposite the window wall, creating a
balanced daylit environment. These spaces are
lecture halls with tables-chairs arranged
perpendicular to the window wall. The small interior
classrooms (C) are equipped with a south-facing
lightwell at the back of the space, providing natural
light to approximately 50% of the classroom area; the
height of the lightwell provides daylight control. There
are no view windows in these interior spaces. In all
the classrooms, daylight harvesting is accomplished
through a dimmable fluorescent lighting system.

Figure 2: Section diagram of three classroom types

Figure 3: Classroom type A, typ.
3. METHODOLOGY
3.1. Overview
This applied research is the product of an on
going initiative to bridge the academy and the
profession through project based research and
education specific to the emergent field of daylighting
design. The intent is to build interdisciplinary
knowledge that is mutually beneficial to all
communities.
This study implements multiple methods at
various stages of design and occupation, including
predictive performance modelling, field study, and a
post-occupancy user survey. Systematic post-
occupancy evaluation facilitates linkages between
design processes, building performance and human
responses. The voice of the occupant provides a
unique perspective on how daylighting systems
function over extended time periods with varying
climatic conditions. Additionally, user views lend
insight to what is valued within their work and
teaching environments, and what is not.
This paper specifically addresses three areas of
inquiry: (a) effectiveness of daylighting strategies (b)
interactive behaviours with daylighting system, and
(c) satisfaction with daylighting as the primary
ambient light source.

3.2. Daylighting Prediction and Design
The criteria that provided the benchmark for the
daylighting design was a daylight factor of 2% with
sunlight control per LEED 2.0 E.Q 8.1. The WSU
Daylighting and Integrated Design Lab was engaged
during pre-design to conduct iterative daylighting
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BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 893
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July 2011
xx. x SECTION NAME 3
studies with physical models. An artificial skybox
provided testing circumstances for the overcast sky
condition and verified the daylight factor requirement
(Fig.4). Office windows, clerestories and light wells
were developed and fine-tuned through this process.
Diurnal and annual solar patterns were studied with a
fixed-sun heliodon. The original idea was to control
the southwest sun in the perimeter classrooms with
fixed louvers in the thermal buffer wall. When testing
demonstrated that this approach would be inadequate
to control sunlight over annual conditions (Fig.5), the
architects selected an automated dynamic louver
system and worked with the product representatives
to design appropriate algorithms and user overrides.

Figure 4: Classroom A, daylight model in artificial skybox.

Figure 5: Daylight control testing in heliodon

3.3. Post Occupancy Field Observations

Graduate students conducted field research
approximately two years after building completion.
Data was collected from each classroom type through
field measurements and during July (clear sky
conditions) and October (mixed sky conditions). Field
measurements recorded hourly illuminance data for
each room type during typical occupied hours (Fig. 6).
Observed data from the field study work includes
photograph recordings of hourly interior shades
positions. Additionally, HOBO data loggers collected
illuminance, temperature and relative humidity
readings for each room type for one week, under
variable sky conditions in July. Data loggers were
placed centrally within the space, near the window,
and near the lightwell if one was present.
3.4. Post Occupancy User Survey
An online questionnaire was administered to
faculty members with both offices and teaching
assignments in the building. Responses were
collected over a period of one week, approximately
one month after the fall equinox. Sky conditions
varied from sunny to overcast, but 86% of all
respondents completed the survey under sunny sky
conditions. The overall response rate was 38%
(n=22). Of these responses, there were 12 female
(55%) and 10 male (45%) participants. The ages of
respondents were reported as follows: (32%) above
the age of 60 years, (27%) between the ages of 50 to
59 years, (32%) between the ages of 40 to 49
years, (9%) between the ages of 30 to 39 years, and
no individuals (0%) were below the age of 30 years.


Figure 6: Sample illuminance readings across classrooms
The survey structure was composed of two
sections. The first section related to both light and
thermal conditions in the three different types of
classrooms; the questions were adapted from the
occupant questionnaire used in the IEA SHC Task21
Project [6]. Additional questions were developed to
specifically probe the interactions between the user
and the daylight controls and to assess qualitative
impressions. The second part of the survey revolved
around the environmental attributes of faculty
members personal offices. The questions for the
office environment were largely borrowed from the
aforementioned Task21 Project. The questionnaire
was designed to elicit occupant appraisal of the
luminous environment over time.
4. FINDINGS
The intent of this study is to advance the
understanding of the relationship between the
occupant and their daylit environment. Physical data
were gathered to support user survey responses and
determine daylight effectiveness, user interactions,
and user satisfaction. Ultimately, the survey revealed
a highly positive response to both the classrooms and
the faculty offices. In response to the open-ended
question Is there anything you particularly like about
this building, 68% of individuals mentioned the
natural light or daylight. Additionally, in response to
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the question, the overall lighting in this classroom
seems..., 83% of all respondents described the
classrooms as pleasant, while 0% selected
undesirable as a descriptor.
4.1. Daylighting Effectiveness
Daylighting effectiveness was first investigated
through predictive modelling during the design phase
to verify compliance with the LEED EQ credit 8.1
criteria. However, as previously noted, this metric
inadequately addresses issues related to the quality
and dynamic nature of natural light. Post occupancy
field studies and user impressions provided additional
insights and data to better evaluate daylight
effectiveness.
Findings from the field study suggest that the
classrooms did indeed meet the intention of the LEED
EQ credit 8.1: daylight as the primary ambient light
source in 75% of areas with critical visual tasks. The
perimeter classrooms revealed a fairly wide range of
ambient light levels and distribution under the clear
sky conditions. In the second floor classroom, electric
light contributions helped to balance the daylight
zone. The third floor interior classroom had relatively
uniform distribution with integrated daylight and
electric light.
Photograph documentation of blind positions
indicated that the system was responding
successfully to varying daylight inputs throughout the
diurnal cycle.

Figure 7: Survey - Glare in the classrooms

There was a higher occurrence of reported glare

interference on the third floor perimeter classroom
(Fig. 7): 65% of faculty that taught in the second floor
perimeter classroom said that glare never or only
occasionally interfered with teaching. Alternatively,
74% of third floor respondents reported that glare
from the window wall often or sometimes interfered
with teaching. Even so, sometimes was the most
frequent answer, indicating that the daylight system is
effectively mitigating glare most of the time. The
discrepancies between classrooms may be attributed
to the presence of the lightwell in the third floor
classroom.
The occupants impression of the effectiveness of
the automatic daylight system was gauged by
questions surrounding automatic blinds and the
perceived presence of glare. The users were
predominately positive or neutral in their appraisal of
the effectiveness of the automated blind system. In
response to the question, how well does the
automatic blind system control sunlight and glare,
52% responded excellent or good, while 48%
responded okay or poor. When asked for their
impression of the automatic blinds 35% of
respondents, for both the second and third perimeter
classrooms, thought the blinds worked well in
response to the sun and sky conditions, while 35%
believed that sometimes they worked and sometimes
they did not.

4.2. Interactive Behaviours
Interactive behaviours were evaluated through
occupant responses to the survey. Overall, there was
a positive appraisal of the automatic blinds. Over 60%
of respondents in both the second and third floor
perimeter classrooms (Fig. 8) found the blind controls
easy to understand, while 25% (third perimeter) and
35% (second perimeter) of respondents thought that
it took a while to understand, but I do now. Very few
people found the automatic system hard to
understand or frustrating. Two occupants made
comments that they did not know the blind controls
could be modified; this suggests a potential issue in
occupant training and education of the daylighting
system.

Figure 8: Survey Blind control perceptions

Figure 9: Survey Reasons for blind overrides
Occupants were also asked to select the reasons
that they chose to override blind controls by
frequency (Fig.9). The most frequent responses were
to darken the room for media or to brighten the room
for visual comfort or preference. The third floor
perimeter classroom had a higher frequency of blind
control overrides in all categories; this may be
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explained by the additional daylight source, the
lightwell opposite of the window wall, not present on
the second floor perimeter classroom.
4.3. Satisfaction
Satisfaction was measured through multiple
satisfaction survey questions and responses. The
graph (Fig. 10) illustrates a high level of satisfaction
for all types of classrooms. Mean scores were all on
the positive to highly positive side of the rating scale,
except for satisfaction with thermal conditions. A
slight difference also existed between the two
southwest facing perimeter rooms and the interior
room; although the interior room responses were still
on the positive side, the perimeter rooms were
consistently ranked higher in satisfaction. Overall, the
highest ratings were seen for the quality of light, the
amount of light and satisfaction with the lighting
system (both the electric and daylight systems). The
mean scores for each of these categories were either
equivalent to or above 1.5, on a seven point Likert
scale ranging from -3 to +3, with one exception: the
interior classroom was rated slightly below a +1 value
for satisfaction with amount of light. Field
measurements corroborate this finding, as the overall
illuminance value in this classroom was much lower
than those of the two perimeter rooms.

Figure 10: Survey Classroom satisfaction average ratings

The lower instance of satisfaction with the thermal
environment can be further explained by additional
questionnaire responses, open-ended comments, and
HOBO readings; 58% of individuals that taught in the
second floor perimeter classroom thought the
temperature was about right, while 42% believed
that the third floor interior classroom was too hot.
Responses indicated that 75% of occupants agreed
or noticed that the temperature varied with season in
the third floor perimeter classroom. Each classroom
type revealed a wide range of responses.
Additionally, 70% of respondents commented in the
optional text boxes that the building was either too
hot, or too cold.
The HOBO field data further supports these
claims revealing relatively warm temperatures across
classrooms during a July time period (Fig.11). The
third floor perimeter classroom was consistently the
warmest space. It is unknown if the double ventilating
wall was operating effectively during this period. The
HVAC system was not studied as part of this
research.



Figure 11: Hobo temperature readings, July
The personal office attribute satisfaction values (Fig.
12) were also very positive in appraisal, but
satisfaction with thermal conditions again represented
the lowest score. In fact, the majority of the written
optional comments revolved around occupant issues
with the thermal environment.

Figure 12: Survey classroom temperature ratings
DISCUSSION
In general, this building represents an effective
daylit environment-- one that responds to the variable
nature of natural light and is well accepted and used
by the end-user. The following points summarize the
primary themes and findings:
1. A predominate theme is that there is value in
a daylighting system that responds dynamically
to changing light conditions while also supporting
user engagement. This is demonstrated by a
positive response and acceptance of the
automated blinds. Significantly, a majority of the
faculty regularly interacted with the daylight
control system to successfully meet a variety of
classroom needs and preferences. The few
negative comments stemmed from a lack of
understanding between the end-user and
controls, suggesting that an opportunity exists for
occupant education.
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6 xx. x SECTION NAME
2. The daylight source in the interior classroom
was seen as a positive environmental attribute,
despite lack of views, suggesting that the
addition of daylight to interior spaces is a
valuable architectural strategy.
3. The thermal environment was reported as
the most challenging and least positive attribute
for the classrooms and offices. Dissatisfaction
with thermal conditions is a common theme in
post-occupancy evaluation, possibly attributed to
a wide range of personal comfort factors,
personal preferences and adaptation. In this
case, there may be a relationship between the
fully glazed double ventilated facade and thermal
conditions; further study is recommended.
4. Windows and comfortable temperature were
rated as the most highly valued physical
attributes of personal offices. Daylight related
office attributes, such as window size and view
received the highest satisfaction ratings.
5. The overarching focus of this study was the
occupant response to the luminous environment;
as noted, the response was overall positive.
Aside from observations of the daylight controls
and the daylight harvesting system responding to
changing climate inputs, this paper did not
specifically address the energy effectiveness.
This is an area for future study.

5. CONCLUSION
This study demonstrates the value of applied
research to better understand emergent building
trends. Future projects can leverage collected
knowledge, potentially advancing innovative
daylighting strategies. In this particular case, the
designers were successful in viewing daylighting as a
dynamic system, considering interactions between
building, site, and user. Furthermore, this paper
underlines the importance of the end-user perspective
in providing insight to the merits, perceived value, and
successes of daylit environments and related
systems.
REFERENCES
[1] Edwards, L., & P. Torcellini, P. 2002. A Literature
Review of the Effects of Natural Light on
Building Occupants National Renewable Energy
Laboratory, (NREL/TP-550-30769) Golden, CO.
[2] Heschong, L, Wright, R. and S. Okura, 2002.
Daylighting Impacts on Human Performance in
School. Journal of the Illuminating Engineering
Society, 31(2). pp.101-114.
[3] Kuller, R. & C. Lindsten, 1992. Health and
behaviour of children in classrooms with and
without windows. Journal of Environmental
Psychology, (12), pp.305-317.
[4] Heerwagen, J. and L Zagreus, 2005. The
Human Factors of Sustainable Building Design:
Post Occupancy Evaluation of the Philip Merrill
Environmental Center. Summary Report for U.S.
Department of Energy, Center for the Built
Environment, University of California, Berkeley,
CA. [online] available at
http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/67j1418
w#page-1
[5] Theodorson, J. 2009. Daylit Classrooms at
47N, 117W. In: PLEA 2009, Architecture
Energy and the Occupant s Perspective:
Quebec City 22-24 June, 2009. Quebec: Les
Presses de lUniversite Laval.
[6] Hygge, S. and H.A. Lofberg, 1999. Post
occupancy evaluation of daylight in buildings.
[Online] IEA SHC Task21 Project, (Published
December 1999) Available at: http://www.iea-
shc.org/task21/publications/D_POE_proced
ures_and_results/Task21POE.pdf
[7] Reinhart, C., Mardaljevic, J., & Rogers, Z., 2006.
Dynamic daylight performance metrics for
sustainable building design. Leukos, 3(1), pp.7-
31.
[8] Heschong, L., 2010. Daylighting Metrics: Status
and Promise. Las Vegas: LightFair 2010
Daylighting Institute. 11 May 2010.

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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 897
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, Proceedings of PLEA 2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (July 2011)
ISBN xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x - ISBN (USB stick) xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x @ Presses universitaires de Louvain 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 1
Solar Control Mechanisms:
Effects on Daylight & Thermal Performance
An Experimental Study on a Public Library
Karl BORG
1
, VINCENT BUHAGIAR
2

1,2
Faculty for the Built Environment, University of Malta
ABSTRACT: This study is focused on the twin-prong effects of a solar shading device in a typical Mediterranean
climate, where shading from excessive solar gains needs to be well balanced by adequate daylighting. The
public library at the University of Malta was considered the ideal case study for such an all-round assessment. A
golden opportunity was available where the faade of the building was being retrofitted with a new innovative
shading screen. The building was monitored for its temperature and humidity levels, both before and after the
shading device was installed.
Keywords: energy, solar control, daylighting, overheating, spectrally selective film, solar gains
1. INTRODUCTION
Typically libraries are universally associated with
entraining a generous amount of daylight throughout.
Although highly commendable in all reading areas, it
is not so ideal in Melitensiae or in the reserved
collections area, where old or high value books tend
to suffer from prolonged exposure to natural light.
Reading and writing for research was the order of
the day, but today we are rapidly verging towards
paperless research, as we scroll the intranet across
more generous databases of the same librarys
internal records as well as other libraries worldwide.
The computer has taken libraries by storm: it has
shaken library operations and design, with quasi-
vertical flat screens taking over the larger horizontal
writing surfaces. All this implies a change in strategy
in library lighting design. In spite of the state-of-the
art in flat screen technology, horizontal glare from
vertical or overhead surfaces is almost inevitable.
Therefore there is no longer such a fixation with
abundant natural light, especially as libraries are
becoming larger and deeper in plan layout,
demanding PSALI (Partial Supplement of Artificial
Lighting). Invariably, this brings with it a greater
expenditure of energy per square metre of floor
space, independent of occupancy levels.
This paper investigates the potential of carefully
balancing adequate natural light with controlled solar
gains, particularly in between reading and reference
areas on a predominantly south facade at the
University of Malta Library, currently (literally)
experiencing a facelift.
Quick fix energy saving measures include
switching over form incandescent lamps or linear
fluorescent neon fittings to compact fluorescent
energy saving lighting, as well as the application of
solar films, tinting the glass from undesirable solar
gains, albeit even if all year round.
2. THE LOCAL SCENE
Malta is a three Island archipelago, with a
Mediterranean marine climate. A climate overview is
first given.
2.1. Climate Overview



Figure 1: Percentage of total solar radiation over Malta
Malta, located at latitude 35"52'N experiences a
typical Mediterranean high insolation exposure with a
solar altitude at 79C above the horizon in summer
on 21 June and a winter low altitude sun at 31C in
winter on 21 December [1].
Solar radiation is very intense during the summer
period especially since minimal cloud cover is
experienced, if any. However in winter although the
direct sunlight availability is reduced due to a higher
cloud cover, a high amount of diffused radiation is
present. Subsequently winter diffused light combined
with a low altitude sun may be a persistent source of
glare, often distracting in a working environment.
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2.2. Balanced lighting and Solar Control
Although not commonly evident in most buildings,
the well designed solar control system takes into
consideration the need for natural light and view, and
must therefore marry a number of environmental
performance criteria with social, physiological and
psychological requirements. [2]
2.3. Relevant Parameters
In the light of the predominantly intense hot
seasons, local architecture has been largely
concerned with providing solar control and passive
cooling. The high solar altitude during the hot
seasons has given local architects a challenge to
develop and incorporate simple yet effective physical
solar control systems in their designs.
3. LOCAL CASE STUDY
3.1. The Need for a Face-Lift
The University Library originated from within the
Old University buildings in Valletta, 1954.In 1967, it
was transferred to a new University Campus, Msida.
The design by British firm Norman & Dawbarn [3]
comprised a four-storied modular glass and concrete
building with a ceramic egg-crate shading screen.


Figure 2: Library building in course of construction in 1965
The use of the concrete and ceramic egg-crate
screen was a much discussed issue. Those in favour
saw it as an innovative way of protecting books from
light and heat without creating a completely closed
environment. Those against saw it as a heavy-
handed external solution to a problem that could
have been solved inside the building. The screen,
an Islamic inspiration from the Moshrabija, was
eventually decided upon. It served to reduce the
cooling load by limiting solar heat gains from the
persistent solar radiation. Although not an initially
service, since the 1990s, the library building
presently relies completely on large scale and
individual HVAC systems. In spite of deploying the
latest technology, they are still considered as energy
guzzlers, especially in view of the long library open
hours. For security reasons and dust penetration,
natural ventilation was not considered an option.


Figure 3: The intricate pattern of the egg-crate geometry
gave the librarys facade a contrasting play of light and
shade
The limitations of the screen manifested
themselves in the deterioration of its supporting
concrete frame. The concrete elements were
observed to be cracking and spalling. Under architect
Alex Torpiano, remedial work was carried out and
the ceramic modules were dismantled and rebuilt.
Although this added another 13 years to the life of
the screen, further structural damage soon
reappeared, putting the safety of passers-by at risk.
In August 2007, Professor Torpiano informed the
Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA)
about the situation, and MEPA later issued an
emergency permit for the screens removal [4].
The screen gave the library building an iconic
status within the University Campus. The
architectural quality of the facade combined with the
prominence of its location gave the building a unique
character library and University students alike
recognizing that the aesthetic value of the screen
made it almost synonymous with the UoM.


Figure 4: The prominent location of the building and its egg-
crate ceramic screen gave it iconic status within UoM
campus
3.2. The importance of Solar Control in a Library
Following the dismantling of the screen the library
building remained completely unshaded, exposing
the fully glazed faades on its worst three sides,
facing east, south and west. In order to limit solar
heat gain and mitigate the effect of UV radiation on
books, internal blinds were kept closed. Where
possible, in the absence of blinds, canvas material
was used to shield the interior from direct solar
radiation. Heat ingress was still practically inevitable.

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xx.x SECTION NAME 3

Figure 5: Having become dangerous, the old ceramic
screen was dismantled and removed, leaving the glazed
curtain wall of the library exposed

Figure 6: The scenario at the Meiltensiae department
threatened the books being stored there, and produced
unbearable heat to staff members and students alike. A
makeshift solution to limit the damage can be seen here.

Figure 7: The absence of a solar control system forces a
heavy dependance on internal blinds. As an internal
shading device, the blinds mostly serve to limit glare and
direct UV radiation, but have little bearing on limiting solar
heat gain
MEPA approved the temporary replacement of
the original screen with a woven steel sunscreen,
until possibilities of other alternatives were explored.
The MEPA board was initially reluctant to issue a
permit and insisted on evaluating whether a replica
of the old screen was possible hence preserving
the historical and architectural value of the building.

Figure 8: The particular woven metal mesh proposed as the
new solar control system
Producing an exact replica of the old screen went
against the principle of conservation. Furthermore,
considering the system had already succumbed to its
own structural defects, it would not be feasible to
produce such a replica. Under the direction of
architect Prof. Alex Torpiano, a temporary metal
shading screen would be installed for 18 months,
during which time, the possibilities of building a
permanent sun-screen close to the old design will be
evaluated.
The new screen would be integrated into the
existing faade and the spirit of the original building
design will be retained the dense mesh pattern
being divided into vertical segments along the length
of the faade.
The mesh would be tensioned along the faade
using a spring system. Steel beams will be attached
to the existing concrete beams on the first and
second floors, and the screen will span from the top
of the faade to ground level using the beams as
supports.
4. AIM OF THE STUDY
After determining the performance requirements
of the solar control system at the U.O.M library, the
study strived to test the proposed system using an
experimental physical model setup.
A number of alternative systems were
earmarked, finally selecting spectrally selective glass
treatment as a potential functional solution to the
current situation [5]. This permitted the development
of a comparative analysis, throught which the
strengths, weaknesses and potential flaws of both
systems could serve to give a thorough
understanding of the buildings solar control strategy.
5. METHODOLOGY
Physical models were used to compare the
environmental performance of the woven metal mesh
screen and the spectrally selective film.
Two identical cells were constructed in order to
create two enclosed volumes with only one variable
difference between them the glazing system.
The specified solar transmittance of the mesh for
a 60 degree solar altitude was used to select a
spectrally selective film with similar properties. Two
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6.3. Stage 3: Visual Transmittance Properties
Table 3: (Spectrally Selective Film) 3-Day Averaged values
of incident illuminance on the exterior surface of the glazing
system, and of the transmitted illuminance within the cells.

3-Day Averaged Values
4mm Clear
Glass
4mm Clear Glass +
Spectrally Selective film
Interior Direct Illuminance (in
sunpatch) / Lux
76,600 15,070
Exterior Illuminance / Lux 87,830
% Visible Light Transmittance = (15070/87830) * 100
= 17.16% (0.17)

Table 4: (Woven Metal Mesh) 3-Day Averaged values of
incident illuminance on the exterior surface of the glazing
system, and of the transmitted illuminance within the cells.

3-Day Averaged Values
4mm Clear
Glass
4mm Clear Glass +
Spectrally Selective film
Interior Direct Illuminance (in
sunpatch) / Lux
76,100 14,270
Exterior Illuminance / Lux 87,100
% Visible Light Transmittance = (14270/87100) * 100
= 16.38% (0.16)

6.4. Effect on View

Figure 12: View through a 4mm pane of clear glass

Figure 13: View through a 4mm pane of clear glass with the
spectrally selective film applied to its outer surface

Figure 14: View through a 4mm pane of clear glass with the
woven metal mesh screened over its exterior
6.5. UV Transmittance Properties
As a protective measure against UV degradation
of the film itself, an external coating serves to limit
UV ingress to <1%.
The woven metal mesh does not provide a
selective filter and cannot discern between different
wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Therefore the percentage UV transmittance is a
function of the overall solar transmittance of the
mesh hence a function of solar altitude.[6]
7. DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
Temperature monitoring and solar transmittance
properties: From a solar control performance
perspective, internal temperature build-up showed
that the spectrally selective film and the woven metal
mesh could markedly improve the solar rejection
properties of a south facing glazing system with
quasi-identical results. The actual solar transmittance
value for the given experimental setup was also
measured in order to quantify the actual solar
properties of the two systems. Measured values of
percentage solar transmittance were found to be
marginally higher than those stipulated in
specifications. The film exhibited a lower solar
transmittance, but conversely results showed that
surface temperature of the glass was higher than
with the woven mesh. Finally, internal temperature
patterns proved to be very similar.
The essential finding was that minor performance
variations could easily be attributed to solar altitude.
[Basically the mesh functioned better than the film at
high solar altitudes].
Although the south faade is the main potential
source of heat gain, consideration of East and West
faades can show how the low summer sun can be a
source of significant heat gains if not properly
shaded. Due to its characteristic geometrical
arrangement, the solar transmittance of the mesh
increases as the solar altitude decreases, hence its
overall solar performance decreases on the east and
west faades. The film does not exhibit any notable
variations in solar transmittance with different
orientations. Visual transmittance properties: The
actual measured values were very close to the
specified values of the products. As was the case for
solar transmittance at the particualr solar altitude, the
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 4
more test series included a lower performance mesh,
and the same woven metal mesh mounted in a
vertical orientation. The glazed fronts of the test cells
were given the same orientation as that of the south-
facing faade of the U.O.M. library.
Testing took place between 15
th
and 30
th
of April
2009.
The methodology was divided in the following
stages in order to assess the systems on a number
of selected criteria:
5.1. Stage 1: Temperature monitoring
The temperature inside the two cells was
measured and recorded over the course of ten hours
during the day. The control cell was equipped with a
4mm clear glass pane while the test cell was
equipped with a similar glass pane treated with the
particular solar control system being tested.
Using thermocouple temperature sensors
connected to a digital chart logger, temperatures
were recorded at two distinct points within the cells
at the centre at mid-height, and at the centre of the
internal surface of the glass pane at mid-height.
The results were recorded and plotted as graphs
of temperature difference against time; figures 10,11
refer. However the temperature difference between
the test cell and control cell was used as the plotted
value. This served to demonstrate and compare the
heat rejection capacities of the two systems.


Figure 9: Experimental setup of test cell (right) and control
cell (left).
5.2. Stage 2: Solar Transmittance Properties
The solar transmittance of the solar control
system was measured using a solar power meter.
This measuring instrument was used to quantify the
solar irradiation on the external surface of the solar
control system, and again behind it. The two values
were then used to compute the percentage solar
transmittance of the system.
5.3. Stage 3: Visual Transmittance Properties
In a method similar to the one mentioned above,
a typical lux-meter was used to measure the
illumination level incident on the glazing system and
within the cell, to compute the visual transmittance
Due to the nature of the building in question
(keeping into consideration its function and the
prominence of the intervention), further to the above
testing, the systems were also assessed on UV-
performance, their effect on view, and aesthetic
considerations.
6. RESULTS AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
6.1. Stage 1: Temperature monitoring

Figure 10: Graph showing averaged internal temperature
differences between test and control cell, over a 10hr
interval

Figure 11: Graph showing averaged glass internal surface
temperature differences between test and control cell, over
a 10hr interval
6.2. Stage 2: Solar Transmittance Properties
Table 1: (Spectrally Selective Film) 3-Day Averaged values
of incident solar irradiation on the glazing system, and of
transmitted irradiation within the cells.

3-Day Averaged Values
4mm Clear
Glass
4mm Clear Glass +
Spectrally Selective
Film
Interior: Direct Incident Solar
Radiation BTU/ ft2/hr

201

38
Exterior: Direct Incident Solar
Radiation BTU/ ft2/hr

252
% Direct Solar Transmission = (38/252) * 100
= 15.08% (0.15)
Table 2: (Woven metal mesh) 3-Day Averaged values of
incident solar irradiation on the glazing system, and of
transmitted irradiation within the cells.

3-Day Averaged Values
4mm Clear
Glass
4mm Clear Glass +
Woven metal mesh
Interior: Direct Incident Solar
Radiation BTU/ ft2/hr

196

51
Exterior: Direct Incident Solar
Radiation BTU/ ft2/hr

248
% Direct Solar Transmission = (51/248) * 100
= 20.56% (0.21)
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
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xx.x SECTION NAME 5
6.3. Stage 3: Visual Transmittance Properties
Table 3: (Spectrally Selective Film) 3-Day Averaged values
of incident illuminance on the exterior surface of the glazing
system, and of the transmitted illuminance within the cells.

3-Day Averaged Values
4mm Clear
Glass
4mm Clear Glass +
Spectrally Selective film
Interior Direct Illuminance (in
sunpatch) / Lux
76,600 15,070
Exterior Illuminance / Lux 87,830
% Visible Light Transmittance = (15070/87830) * 100
= 17.16% (0.17)

Table 4: (Woven Metal Mesh) 3-Day Averaged values of
incident illuminance on the exterior surface of the glazing
system, and of the transmitted illuminance within the cells.

3-Day Averaged Values
4mm Clear
Glass
4mm Clear Glass +
Spectrally Selective film
Interior Direct Illuminance (in
sunpatch) / Lux
76,100 14,270
Exterior Illuminance / Lux 87,100
% Visible Light Transmittance = (14270/87100) * 100
= 16.38% (0.16)

6.4. Effect on View

Figure 12: View through a 4mm pane of clear glass

Figure 13: View through a 4mm pane of clear glass with the
spectrally selective film applied to its outer surface

Figure 14: View through a 4mm pane of clear glass with the
woven metal mesh screened over its exterior
6.5. UV Transmittance Properties
As a protective measure against UV degradation
of the film itself, an external coating serves to limit
UV ingress to <1%.
The woven metal mesh does not provide a
selective filter and cannot discern between different
wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Therefore the percentage UV transmittance is a
function of the overall solar transmittance of the
mesh hence a function of solar altitude.[6]
7. DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
Temperature monitoring and solar transmittance
properties: From a solar control performance
perspective, internal temperature build-up showed
that the spectrally selective film and the woven metal
mesh could markedly improve the solar rejection
properties of a south facing glazing system with
quasi-identical results. The actual solar transmittance
value for the given experimental setup was also
measured in order to quantify the actual solar
properties of the two systems. Measured values of
percentage solar transmittance were found to be
marginally higher than those stipulated in
specifications. The film exhibited a lower solar
transmittance, but conversely results showed that
surface temperature of the glass was higher than
with the woven mesh. Finally, internal temperature
patterns proved to be very similar.
The essential finding was that minor performance
variations could easily be attributed to solar altitude.
[Basically the mesh functioned better than the film at
high solar altitudes].
Although the south faade is the main potential
source of heat gain, consideration of East and West
faades can show how the low summer sun can be a
source of significant heat gains if not properly
shaded. Due to its characteristic geometrical
arrangement, the solar transmittance of the mesh
increases as the solar altitude decreases, hence its
overall solar performance decreases on the east and
west faades. The film does not exhibit any notable
variations in solar transmittance with different
orientations. Visual transmittance properties: The
actual measured values were very close to the
specified values of the products. As was the case for
solar transmittance at the particualr solar altitude, the
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 4
more test series included a lower performance mesh,
and the same woven metal mesh mounted in a
vertical orientation. The glazed fronts of the test cells
were given the same orientation as that of the south-
facing faade of the U.O.M. library.
Testing took place between 15
th
and 30
th
of April
2009.
The methodology was divided in the following
stages in order to assess the systems on a number
of selected criteria:
5.1. Stage 1: Temperature monitoring
The temperature inside the two cells was
measured and recorded over the course of ten hours
during the day. The control cell was equipped with a
4mm clear glass pane while the test cell was
equipped with a similar glass pane treated with the
particular solar control system being tested.
Using thermocouple temperature sensors
connected to a digital chart logger, temperatures
were recorded at two distinct points within the cells
at the centre at mid-height, and at the centre of the
internal surface of the glass pane at mid-height.
The results were recorded and plotted as graphs
of temperature difference against time; figures 10,11
refer. However the temperature difference between
the test cell and control cell was used as the plotted
value. This served to demonstrate and compare the
heat rejection capacities of the two systems.


Figure 9: Experimental setup of test cell (right) and control
cell (left).
5.2. Stage 2: Solar Transmittance Properties
The solar transmittance of the solar control
system was measured using a solar power meter.
This measuring instrument was used to quantify the
solar irradiation on the external surface of the solar
control system, and again behind it. The two values
were then used to compute the percentage solar
transmittance of the system.
5.3. Stage 3: Visual Transmittance Properties
In a method similar to the one mentioned above,
a typical lux-meter was used to measure the
illumination level incident on the glazing system and
within the cell, to compute the visual transmittance
Due to the nature of the building in question
(keeping into consideration its function and the
prominence of the intervention), further to the above
testing, the systems were also assessed on UV-
performance, their effect on view, and aesthetic
considerations.
6. RESULTS AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
6.1. Stage 1: Temperature monitoring

Figure 10: Graph showing averaged internal temperature
differences between test and control cell, over a 10hr
interval

Figure 11: Graph showing averaged glass internal surface
temperature differences between test and control cell, over
a 10hr interval
6.2. Stage 2: Solar Transmittance Properties
Table 1: (Spectrally Selective Film) 3-Day Averaged values
of incident solar irradiation on the glazing system, and of
transmitted irradiation within the cells.

3-Day Averaged Values
4mm Clear
Glass
4mm Clear Glass +
Spectrally Selective
Film
Interior: Direct Incident Solar
Radiation BTU/ ft2/hr

201

38
Exterior: Direct Incident Solar
Radiation BTU/ ft2/hr

252
% Direct Solar Transmission = (38/252) * 100
= 15.08% (0.15)
Table 2: (Woven metal mesh) 3-Day Averaged values of
incident solar irradiation on the glazing system, and of
transmitted irradiation within the cells.

3-Day Averaged Values
4mm Clear
Glass
4mm Clear Glass +
Woven metal mesh
Interior: Direct Incident Solar
Radiation BTU/ ft2/hr

196

51
Exterior: Direct Incident Solar
Radiation BTU/ ft2/hr

248
% Direct Solar Transmission = (51/248) * 100
= 20.56% (0.21)
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
902 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 6
visual transmittance properties of the two systems
were very similar.
The fine gauge of the weave still permits a decent
view to the outside, but psychologically the woven
metal mesh gives the effect of a secluded obstructed
view, verging on a caged feeling. Somehow this will
always give the impression of a physical barrier
impairing an otherwise unobstructed connection to
the outside world.
On the other hand the spectrally selecvtive film
does not obstruct the view. However itdoes give a
relatively gloomy effect when compared to clear
glass possibly too much even on bright days,
making even bright days seem dull. Psychologically
this generates a feeling of gloom, affecting library
users moods, hence their performance.
8. CONCLUSIONS
Both systems are a valid solar control option for
the south facing facade of the University Library
building, and from an environmental performance
standpoint, it can be concluded that they would give
similar results. The mesh screen in reality will also
serve to shade the structure, and non glazed
features of the building facade, further reducing the
overall heat gains of the building.
Physical geometrical constraints of the woven
metal mesh however, limit its viability for the east and
west orientations, both requiring a solar control
system. This ultimately jeopardizes the mesh screen
as the singular holistic solar control system for the
entire library building curtain wall.
Good daylighting design of a library revolves
around a multitude of parameters; in this case it was
deemed important to establish the actual visual
transmittance properties of the two systems in order
to be able to broaden their comparative analysis.
Perimeter zones enjoy the benefits of abundant
daylighting. However one must consider the effects
of glare in todays studying process commonly
involving the use of vertical computer screens
albeit even with todays anti-glare screens.
UV-inhibiting properties make the spectrally
selective film a more functional solution than the
mesh especially since the books are the main
stockpile asset of the library. Measured in W/lumen,
UV is a function of the overall building lighting design
scheme, but the library building with its fully glazed
curtain wall, owes most of its UV degradation to
uncontrolled natural light. Another advantage of the
film lies in the fact that the view is largely unaffected,
whereas with the mesh, one must consider the
impact of the physical obstruction created.
When considering the potential use of the
spectrally selctive film, given the typology of the
existing facade and the reminiscent aesthetic/iconic
spirit sought [7], the overall visual effect might not be
as appealing as that created by the mesh. From an
architectural perspective therefore, the sole use of
the film cannot be considered as a permanent
solution.
9. OVERVIEW
The original aim was namely to compare the
proposed solar control solution for the library with an
alternative system, in terms of the performance
characteristics deemed to be most prominent by the
author.
The various performance criteria tested/evaluated
served to demonstrate the multi-disciplinary
approach typically required to assess the most viable
daylight/solar control system.
Although in itself the methodology is by no
means exhaustive, the tests themselves served to
tangibly exhibit how the spectrally selective film
technology could equally serve as a valid alternative
to the library's proposed solar control solution.
Consequentially, the study showed how the
technology can be intended to serve as a minimal-
intervention retrofitting solution, to potentially difficult
solar control problems.
Finally, as the outcome, four salient features
include (i) giving that much-needed respite to the
building's already over-stretched mechanical cooling
system especially in light of the librarys building
log, (ii)- delivering an acceptable level of visual light
transmittance, (iii) retaining a good view to the
exterior, (iv) eliminating UV radiation ingress in a
paper-sensitive interior.

10. REFERENCES
[1] Meteorological Office, Dept. of Civil Aviation,
MIA - Malta International Airport, Luqa, Malta.
[2] Calleja, H., (2004) Solar and Daylight Control as
Applied in the Maltese Context (B.E.&A.
Dissertation, University of Malta).
[3] Norman & Dawbarn Architects & Town Planners,
Masterplan for the New University of Malta,
1963.
[4] Malta Environment & Planning Authority
Planning Permission, 2007.
[5] Recowatt Co. Ltd., Provider of spectrally
selective film.
[6] GKD Gebr. Kufferath AG (est. 1925), a
German company specializing in woven metal
meshes for architectural, solar control, privacy
and security applications.
[7] Torpiano A.,(2009), Dean, Faculty for The Built
Environment, University of Malta, (personal
communication, Msida, 08 April 2009).
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 903

Strategies for improving thermal performance and
visual comfort in office buildings of Central Chile
Waldo BUSTAMANTE G.
1
, Felipe ENCINAS
2
, Alan PINO
3
, Roberto OTAROLA
3

1
Escuela de Arquitectura, Pontificia Universidad Catlica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
2
Architecture et Climat, Universit catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
3
Facultad de Ingeniera, Pontificia Universidad Catlica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
ABSTRACT: Overheating, high cooling energy demand and glare are recurrent problems in office buildings in
Santiago and Valparaso, Chile. Santiago (33S) presents a Mediterranean climate, with a high temperature
oscillation between day and night during cooling period. Valparaiso (33S), by the coast, shows lower
temperature fluctuation compared with Santiago. In order to evaluate impact on thermal and lighting
performance of office buildings of these cities, a sensitivity study has been made. Variations on window faade
area, type of glazing, orientation, solar protection, nocturnal ventilation and respective impact on energy and
lighting performance has been considered. The methodology includes an evaluation of heating and cooling
demand and variation of indoor temperature when no conditioning system is applied. For this purpose a
simulation software under dynamic conditions was used (TAS). The effect on natural lighting was also analysed
using Radiance software. This analysis was made using Daylight Factor, Daylight Autonomy (DA) and Useful
Daylight Iluminance (UDI), considering different sky conditions. Completely glazed facades, even with selective
glazing are not recommended for these cities. Glare problems are possible to be avoided with appropriated solar
protection, orientation of windows and selective glazing.
Keywords: cooling demand, nocturnal ventilation, daylight, office buildings, visual and thermal comfort
1. INTRODUCTION
In Chile, around 4.73 million of square meters of
buildings of the Industry, Commerce and Financial
Institutions sector were constructed during 2008 [1].
53,2% was built in Santiago and 6,6% in Valparaso.
In Chile there is no mandatory thermal behaviour
requirements for office buildings and most of their
design patterns are brought from developed
countries, even if some architectural strategies, such
as double skin, are not suitable for example- in
Central European countries due to the generation of
overheating problems, especially when they are
designed with fully glazed faades [2,3].
The effect of using different strategies of
architectural design and its impact on energy
demand of office buildings has been extensively
studied in various countries. A study in the city of
London concluded that a building with effective sun
protection, optimised size of windows and reduced
internal gains are important to achieve energy
efficiency. This cooling demand was reduced to 23%
for a week with moderate temperatures and 40% for
a week of extreme temperatures, compared with the
same demands of the building without using the
mentioned strategies. Adding night ventilation, an
additional reduction of 13% was possible [4].
Given that the mentioned problems in office
buildings in countries with even less severe climate
than ours during summer periods and due to scarce
of information available in Chile about the effect of
using certain design patterns, particularly fully glazed
facades in office buildings, it is important to develop
quantitative studies in order to evaluate and define
design strategies for comfort and energy efficiency in
this type of buildings of the country.
This paper shows results of a sensitivity analysis
in order to know impact on cooling and heating
demand on office buildings of Valparaso and
Santiago considering different variables. These
variables are: window area, solar protection, type of
glazing (single, double, clear and selective) and
orientation of offices. On the other hand, in order to
verify lighting comfort, also day light factor and
iluminance for different combinations of mentioned
variables have been studied.
Climate of Santiago is Mediterranean, showing
high temperatures and solar radiation during spring
and summer. The city is located between the coastal
and the Andes Cordillera. Mean value of maximum
temperature is 29,7C and mean minimum is 13C
for the warmest month of the year (January). Mean
temperature of coldest month (July) are: 3,9 C
(mean minimum) and 14,9 C (mean maximum). A
high temperature fluctuation is observed, especially
in summer and intermediate seasons Climate of
Valparaiso is influenced by the Pacific Ocean,
showing lower temperature oscillation than Santiago
Mean value of maximum temperature is 20,8C and
mean minimum is 13,5C for the warmest month of
the year (Jan.). For the coldest month (July), mean
minimum is 9,2C and mean maximum is 14,3C.
2. METHODOLOGY
The methodology aims to study and analyze the
thermal and lighting behavior of office buildings. The
main objective of this work is to be able to conclude
with recommendations for achieving simultaneously
thermal and lighting comfort with energy efficiency. In
other words, if certain strategies are recommended
for achieving comfort with minimum heating and/or
cooling energy demand, these strategies should also
allow lighting comfort throughout the year, with
PLEA2011 - 27th International conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011
xx.x SECTION NAME 6
visual transmittance properties of the two systems
were very similar.
The fine gauge of the weave still permits a decent
view to the outside, but psychologically the woven
metal mesh gives the effect of a secluded obstructed
view, verging on a caged feeling. Somehow this will
always give the impression of a physical barrier
impairing an otherwise unobstructed connection to
the outside world.
On the other hand the spectrally selecvtive film
does not obstruct the view. However itdoes give a
relatively gloomy effect when compared to clear
glass possibly too much even on bright days,
making even bright days seem dull. Psychologically
this generates a feeling of gloom, affecting library
users moods, hence their performance.
8. CONCLUSIONS
Both systems are a valid solar control option for
the south facing facade of the University Library
building, and from an environmental performance
standpoint, it can be concluded that they would give
similar results. The mesh screen in reality will also
serve to shade the structure, and non glazed
features of the building facade, further reducing the
overall heat gains of the building.
Physical geometrical constraints of the woven
metal mesh however, limit its viability for the east and
west orientations, both requiring a solar control
system. This ultimately jeopardizes the mesh screen
as the singular holistic solar control system for the
entire library building curtain wall.
Good daylighting design of a library revolves
around a multitude of parameters; in this case it was
deemed important to establish the actual visual
transmittance properties of the two systems in order
to be able to broaden their comparative analysis.
Perimeter zones enjoy the benefits of abundant
daylighting. However one must consider the effects
of glare in todays studying process commonly
involving the use of vertical computer screens
albeit even with todays anti-glare screens.
UV-inhibiting properties make the spectrally
selective film a more functional solution than the
mesh especially since the books are the main
stockpile asset of the library. Measured in W/lumen,
UV is a function of the overall building lighting design
scheme, but the library building with its fully glazed
curtain wall, owes most of its UV degradation to
uncontrolled natural light. Another advantage of the
film lies in the fact that the view is largely unaffected,
whereas with the mesh, one must consider the
impact of the physical obstruction created.
When considering the potential use of the
spectrally selctive film, given the typology of the
existing facade and the reminiscent aesthetic/iconic
spirit sought [7], the overall visual effect might not be
as appealing as that created by the mesh. From an
architectural perspective therefore, the sole use of
the film cannot be considered as a permanent
solution.
9. OVERVIEW
The original aim was namely to compare the
proposed solar control solution for the library with an
alternative system, in terms of the performance
characteristics deemed to be most prominent by the
author.
The various performance criteria tested/evaluated
served to demonstrate the multi-disciplinary
approach typically required to assess the most viable
daylight/solar control system.
Although in itself the methodology is by no
means exhaustive, the tests themselves served to
tangibly exhibit how the spectrally selective film
technology could equally serve as a valid alternative
to the library's proposed solar control solution.
Consequentially, the study showed how the
technology can be intended to serve as a minimal-
intervention retrofitting solution, to potentially difficult
solar control problems.
Finally, as the outcome, four salient features
include (i) giving that much-needed respite to the
building's already over-stretched mechanical cooling
system especially in light of the librarys building
log, (ii)- delivering an acceptable level of visual light
transmittance, (iii) retaining a good view to the
exterior, (iv) eliminating UV radiation ingress in a
paper-sensitive interior.

10. REFERENCES
[1] Meteorological Office, Dept. of Civil Aviation,
MIA - Malta International Airport, Luqa, Malta.
[2] Calleja, H., (2004) Solar and Daylight Control as
Applied in the Maltese Context (B.E.&A.
Dissertation, University of Malta).
[3] Norman & Dawbarn Architects & Town Planners,
Masterplan for the New University of Malta,
1963.
[4] Malta Environment & Planning Authority
Planning Permission, 2007.
[5] Recowatt Co. Ltd., Provider of spectrally
selective film.
[6] GKD Gebr. Kufferath AG (est. 1925), a
German company specializing in woven metal
meshes for architectural, solar control, privacy
and security applications.
[7] Torpiano A.,(2009), Dean, Faculty for The Built
Environment, University of Malta, (personal
communication, Msida, 08 April 2009).
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
904 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
different sky conditions. A design strategy for thermal
comfort should not avoid achieving lighting comfort at
the same time.
2.1. The building and thermal analysis
The sensitivity analysis is developed considering
a square building containing office rooms on all four
orientations. This 9 story building has been specially
proposed and designed for this sensitivity analysis.
Figure shows a plan (16X16m) of this building.



























Figure 1: Plan of the building with the selected spaces
and their orientations

Specifications of the original building are:

Reinforced concrete 150mm with external EPS

30mm. U=1,0 W/m2C
Roof: Reinforced concrete 150mm with EPS 60mm.
U=0,59W/m
2
C (in Valparaso) and with 80 mm of
EPS in Santiago. U= 0,40 W/m2C.
Windows: single glazing, clear. U=5,8 W/m
2
C,
Lighting transmittance: 0,90 Solar transmittance:
0,87.
In case of windows, this corresponds to the initial
situation. Later, this type of glazing is changed during
the sensibility process. It is necessary to mention that
it is still common to find new office buildings with
single glazing in the country.
Heating and cooling demand for different
specifications of the building were estimated with
TAS, software under dynamic conditions. Different
ventilation rates may also be applied using this
software, which permits to evaluate impact of
nocturnal ventilation.
2.2. Internal gains and internal conditions
Internal gains of the buildings considered are the
following:
People: 9,38 W/m
2
(sensible) 6,88 W/m2 (latent).

Lighting: 11 W/m2.
Equipment: 11,25 W/m2.
When cooling demand was estimated, the
following temperatures in the inside of each office
were considered:
Week days: Maximum of 26C from 8:00 AM till
19:00 PM.
Weekend days: No temperature restrictions.
Infiltration rate: 0,3 ach.
Ventilation rate: 1,18 ac during week days from
8:00 AM till 19:00 PM.
2.3. Methodology for the thermal analysis
The methodology for thermal analysis (and for
sensitivity analysis of the next point) considers the
building of Figure 1, which changes on type of
glazing, the presence and type of solar protection
and in some cases, for cooling periods, nocturnal
ventilation was assumed. Type of glazing used are:
Clear single glazing clear (CS, 4mm) selective single
glazing (SS, 6mm), clear double glazing (DGC) and
selective double glazing (DGS). Properties of these
types of glazing are shown in Table 1. LT: Light
transmission, ST: Solar transmission
Table 1: Properties of different types of glazing.

CS SS DGC DGS
LT 0,90 0,60 0,82 0,54
ST 0,82 0,50 0,68 0,41
U (W/m2C) 5,80 5,70 2,78 2,76

Type of solar protections that have been used

are: Horizontal blinds (HB) and overhangs (OH).
Nocturnal ventilation has been applied on cooling
periods of the year with 8,0 ach from 23:00 till 7:00
AM of the next day, from Sunday night till Friday in
the morning.
Finally, 3 different window sizes (window to
faade ratio) were also applied. Cooling and heating
energy demand was estimated (with TAS). Also, for
each zone of a certain floor of the building, these
energy demands were also estimated for offices with
different orientations (N, NW, NE, W, E, SW, S, SE.
See Figure 1).

2.4. Methodology for the sensitivity analysis

The seminal study of Hamby (1991) indicates that
sensibility analysis may be conducted for a number
of reasons including the need to determine: (1) which
parameters require additional research in order to
reduce the uncertainty of the input model, that is, the
building performance; (2) which parameters are
insignificant and can be eliminated from the final
model; (3) which inputs contribute most to output
variability; and (4) which parameters are most highly
correlated with the output [5].
Besides sensitivities that can be defined as the
level of influence on the output model the
importance of the variables can be assessed. The
term importance is used here in the sense
described by De Wit (2002), which expresses the
relative contribution of a certain variable to the
uncertainty, in the model output [6].
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 905


0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
0,0
5,0
10,0
15,0
20,0
25,0
30,0
35,0
40,0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Solar
Rad,
W/m2
T
C
Hours
ExternalTemperature ZoneNDGS
ZoneNDGC+solarprotection Globalsolarradiation
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Solar
Rad.
W/m2
T
C
Hour
ExternalTemperature ZoneNDGS
ZoneNDGC+solarprotection Globalsolarradiation
Between all the initially described aspects, (3)
and (4) appears closely related since according to
the same author, an important parameter is always
sensitive because parameter variability will not
appear in the output unless the model is sensitive to
the input [5].
In this context, a factorial design involves a given
number of samples per each input parameter and
consequently running the model for all combination
of samples [5]. This method is based on the
sampling-based approach, where the model is
repeatedly executed from the combination of input
parameters sampled with some probability
distribution. Since the design of this sensibility
analysis consists in 4 input parameters with 3, 3, 4
and 8 parameters per each one, the total
combination of samples gives a complete sample of
288 cases. Each case has an equal probability of
occurrence corresponding to 1/N (0,35%, where
N=288) due to a uniform probability density function
was applied to each input parameter. Table 1
presents the different input parameters considered
for this study and their associated variables.

Table 2: Input parameters for sensibility analysis

Input
parameters
Number of
variables
Description of variables
Glazing ratio* 3
20%
50%
100%
Types of
solar
protection
devices
3
Without solar protection
Overhang in N orientation
and blinds for E and W
orientations
Blinds in N, E and W
orientations
Types of
glazing
4
Single glazing, clear
Single glazing, selective
Double glazing, clear
Double glazing, selective
Orientations 8
All orientations (N, NE, E,
SE, S, SW, W, NW)
(*) Ratio of the glazed area with respect to the total area of
the exposed envelope
3. RESULTS
3.1. Thermal analysis
Respecting to temperature variation, as
expected, overheating is observed in offices of
northern, west and east orientation. When having
100% glazed buildings, even in Santiago and
Valparaso, overheating (or a high cooling energy
demand) does surely exist in a summer day.
Under clear sky conditions, even in winter days,
overheating is also possible to be reached. Figure 2
shows temperature variation in zones N of the
building (according to Figure 1), when the building is
completely glazed, with and without solar protection
(which is supposed to be designed for cooling
periods). Temperature is little higher when
considering selective double glazing (DGS),
respective to clear double glazing (DGC) with solar
protection in this northern office room.

Figure 2: Temperature variation in Zones N of the

building for a winter day in Valparaso. 100% glazed faade.
Winter day

Figure 3 shows that identical problems are also
observed in the case of Santiago, applying a
completely glazed faade during a winter day under
clear sky condition.

















Figure 3: Temperature variation in Zones N of the
building for a winter day in Santiago. 100% glazed faade.
Winter day.

As observed, 100% faade ratio is not
recommended for both cities considered in this study
due to overheating generated even in some clear sky
winter days. If the phenomenon occurs during winter
time, it is expected to have it during summer.
In the city of Santiago, overheating is also
observed with 20% of glazing ratio (clear or selective
double glazing), especially when no solar protection
is used. In this case, temperatures higher than 32C
are reached in western offices of the building. The
problem is less intensive in Valparaso.
Respecting to office energy demand, as
expected, cooling is significantly higher than heating
in both cities.
Table 2 shows cooling energy demand for the 6
th

floor of the building when using different glazing ratio
on faade (considering double glazing selective). In
all cases solar protection is applied, (blinds for east
and west facades and overhangs for northern
faades). On the right column, the cooling demand
corresponds to situation when nocturnal ventilation is
used. Comparing these values with those of the left
column, it is observed that this strategy is highly
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
906 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
10 30 50 70 90 110 130 150 170 190
Cooling demand [kWh/m/y]
20%
50%
100%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
10 30 50 70 90 110 130 150 170 190
Cooling demand [kWh/m/y]
N
NE
E
SE
S
SW
W
NW
effective in the city of Santiago (especially when
combined with high thermal inertia due to use of
external insulation). On the other hand, the lower
cooling demand is reached when minimizing the
glazing ratio.
Table 2.: Building cooling demand in Santiago
Glazing ratio kWh/m2 y kWh/m2 y
20% 20.2 9.9
50% 37.2 30.6
100% 62.9 47.2

In all cases showed in Table 2, heating demand
is low, reaching 4,6 kWh/m2 y in the case of 20% of
glazing and only 1,6 kWh/m2 y, in the case of a
completely glazed faade.
In the case of Valparaso, the lower cooling
demand on floor 6 of the building was reached when
considering 20% of selective double glazing, with a
cooling demand of 14.6 kWh/m2 y and a heating
demand of 3.7 kWh/m2 y.
3.2. Sensibility analysis
One of the most applied methods for parameter
sensitivity analysis that use sampling techniques is
the Pearsons product moment correlation coefficient
[7]. This method appears as appropriate since
parameter sensitivity depends not only on the range
and distribution of an individual parameter, but also
on those of other parameters to which the model is
sensitive [5].
Pearsons correlation coefficient represents the
quantitative estimation of the linear correlation for
parameters values of input and output. This indicator
is denoted by r and is defined as:

for the correlation between Xi and Y. The larger the

absolute value of r, the stronger the degree of linear
relationship between the input and output values. At
the same time, a negative value of r indicates that
the output is inversely (or negatively) related to the
input.
Table 3 presents the correlation coefficients for
the different input parameters with respect to the
cooling demand in the case of Valparaiso. According
to this, glazing ration appears clearly as the most
sensitive parameter, secondly ranked by the types of
solar protection devices (which is negatively
correlated) and finally by the types of glazing. On the
contrary, orientation does not appear with a
statistically significant correlation (at the 0.01 or 0.05
level).
This result is highly consistent with the one-at-a-
time sensitive analysis of the Figures 4 and 5, where
the uncertainty of the glazing ratio and orientation,
respectively, is propagated on the assessment
results. Figure 4 shows as the high level of
importance of glazing ratio, since the variability in
output as consequence of the input variability is
noticeable. On the contrary, Figure 5 shows as the
variability of the output results per orientation is
reduced, which is even more critical with regard to
the range of low cooling demands. At the light of
these results, it is clear that any design strategy
proposed for new office developments in Valparaiso,
should prioritize the ration of the glazed area with
respect to the exposed faade. Very similar results
were observer also in the case of Santiago.

Table 3: Pearsons correlation coefficient for the different

input parameters with respect to the cooling demand in the
case of Valparaiso

Pearsons r
Glazing ratio 0.73
Types of solar protection devices -0.25
Types of glazing 0.12
Orientation 0.10
Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2 tailed)
Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2 tailed)

Figure 4: Cumulative frequency for cooling demand with
respect to glazing ratio in the case of Valparaiso.

Figure 5: Cumulative frequency for cooling demand with
respect to orientations in the case of Valparaiso

PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING) 907


0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
3.3. Daylight analysis
Figures 6 and 7 present the results of the daylight
analysis in terms of daylight autonomy (DA) and
useful daylight illuminance (UDI) for the range over
2000 lux for the case of Santiago.
DA uses work plane illuminance as an indicator
of whether there is sufficient daylight in a space so
that an occupant can work by daylight alone [8]. In
this case, the required minimum illuminance level
was defined for a basis of 500 lux according to the
recommendations of IESNA [9].
UDI constitutes other important dynamic daylight
metric. This indicator is dynamic daylight
performance measure illuminances, which uses
hourly climate-data (mainly direct and diffuse
radiation and cloudiness) for a specific location and
based also on a work plane. The advantage of this
condition in comparison to static metrics is that
the UDI considers the quantity and character of daily
and seasonal variations of daylight for a given
building site [8].

N E S W
Without solar protection
With blinds in N, E and W orientations

Note: The centre point of each bubble is the extent of
overeating measured in percent (mean value for the
different points across the space). The area of the
bubble represents the standard deviation for the
distribution of values including the same points.
Figure 6: Bubble plots for daylight autonomy (DA) based on
a required illuminance level of 500 lux in different
orientations in Santiago

N E S W
Without solar protection
With blinds in N, E and W orientations
Figure 7: Bubble plots for UDI in the range over 2000 lux for
different orientations in Santiago
As it name suggest, the aim of UDI is to
determine when daylight levels are useful for the
user, in this cases neither too dark (less than 100
lux) nor too bright (over 2000 lux). This range is
proposed by Nabil & Mardaljevic (2006) based on
occupant preferences in naturally illuminated offices
[8].
Based on the upper thresholds of 2000 lux, the
resultant UDI metric was applied to this research,
which may suggest the presence of glare. At the
same time, daylight autonomy was applied for a level
of 500 lux. Both of them were assessed over a grid
of 36 points (6 rows x 6 columns) at 1.0 m height in
the study case office already represented in Figure 1.
Figures 6 and 7 show the impact of incorporating
horizontal blinds in north, east and west orientations
in terms of the useful illuminance. The percentage of
UDI over 2000 lux is clearly lower when these
devices are considered. However, as the area of
each bubble represents the standard deviation, the
dispersion of values may be higher. At the same
time, DA shows that it is possible to guarantee an
adequate minimum level of illuminance even with the
use of blinds.
These results suggest, for example, that the
incorporation of lightshelves (in combination with
blinds) may contribute to reach a most homogenous
illuminances inside the room, without jeopardize the
favorable mean values. However, this hypothesis
constitutes a new aspect of the research that it
should be tested by means of a series of new
simulations. Consequently, the use of lightshelves in
the context of office buildings in Santiago is
proposed as further research.
4. CONCLUSIONS

First of all, completely glazed faade office
buildings are not recommended for cities of Santiago
and Valparaiso, Chile. In both cities, with different
climates, the best thermal performance (regarding
cooling energy demand) is reached with the lower
the window ratio (20%), especially when considering
solar protection on glazed areas, which is highly
recommended in order to avoid overheating - for
north, east and west orientations. At the same time,
with respect to the visual comfort, the incorporation
of blinds permit to suggest that glare problems at
least may be reduced or even avoided.
It was also observed that in the case of
Valparaiso, higher attention to window area than to
orientation of the building should be taken into
account.
In the case of Santiago due to high temperature
fluctuation during cooling period of the year and use
of thermal inertia, nocturnal ventilation has been
shown to be highly effective for reducing cooling
demand. When considering this strategy, combined
with a low window ratio (20%, double glazing
selective) and effective solar protection, cooling
demand decreases in an 84% respective to a
completely glazed office building, with identical type
of glazing and solar protection.

PLEA 2011 - 27
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908 BUILDING PHYSIC (DAYLIGHTING)
This research permitted to conclude that it may
be possible to reach thermal and visual comfort with
energy efficiency in office buildings of Santiago and
Valparaiso.
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research has been carried out as part of the
project FONDECYT N 1090602 funded by
CONICYT, Chile.
6. REFERENCES
[1] INE 2008. Anuario de Edificacin 2008. Instituto
Nacional de Estadsticas Santiago. Chile.
[2] Manz, H. and Th. Frank 2005. Thermal
simulation of buildings with double-skin faades.
Energy and Building, 37: p. 1114-1121.
[3] Gratia, E. and A. De Herde 2007. Are energy
consumption decreased with the addition of a
double skin? Energy and Building 39 : p. 605-
619.
[4] Kolokotroni, G.I.&Watkins R. 2006. The effect of
London heat island summer cooling demanda
and night ventilation strategies. Solar Energy,
N80, pp.383-392.
[5] Hamby, DM 1994, A review of techniques for
parameter sensitivity analysis of environmental
models, Environmental Monitoring and
Assessment, no. 32, pp. 135-154.
[6] De Wit, S & Augenbroe, G 2002, Analysis of
uncertainty in building design evaluations and its
implications, Energy and Buildings, no. 34, pp.
951-958.
[7] Hopfe, C, Hensen, J & Plokker, W 2006,
Introducing uncertainty and sensitivity analysis
in non-modifiable building performance software
Proceedings of the 1st IBPSA Germany/Austria
Conference BauSIM, International Building
Performance Simulation Association, Munich, 9-
11 October.
[8] Reinhart, C, Mardaljevic, J, & Rogers, Z 2006,
Dynamic daylight performance metrics for
sustainable building design, National Research
Council Canada, http://www.nrc-
cnrc.gc.ca/obj/irc/doc/pubs/nrcc48669/nrcc4866
9.pdf
[9] IESNA 2000, The IESNA Lighting Handbook.
Reference & Application (Ninth Edition ed.). (M.
S. Rea, Ed.) New York, United States of
America: Illuminating Engineering Society of
North America.

PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
909
Author Index
Abreu Loyde Vieira de ............................. T1-245
Acha Consuelo ......................................... T2-267
Acha Romn Consuelo............................. T1-279
Adhikari Rajendra S.................................. T2-515
.................................................................. T2-577
Adolphe Luc.............................................. T1-375
Agnoli Stefano .......................................... T1-357
Aguirre Nunez Carlos ............................... T2-23
.................................................................. T2-125
Aguliar Alexis ............................................ T2-59
Akbar Taghvaee Ali ................................... T2-291
Alders Noortje ........................................... T1-601
Aleixo Joana ............................................. T2-38
Alonso Javier ............................................ T1-685
Alonso Carlos ........................................... T2-59
Alpuche Maria Guadalupe ........................ T1-571
Altan Hasim .............................................. T1-52
Altomonte Sergio ...................................... T1-83
Alucci Marcia Peinado .............................. T1-433
lvarez Dominguez Servando .................. T2-23
An Xipo ..................................................... T1-227
Anand Isha ............................................... T1-867
Andersen Marilyne.................................... T1-783
.................................................................. T1-795
.................................................................. T1-801
Andrade L. M. S........................................ T1-95
Anees Mohamed ...................................... T1-807
Arafa Rasha.............................................. T1-807
Arrieta Marta ............................................ T2-441
Asawa Takashi .......................................... T1-273
.................................................................. T2-29
.................................................................. T2-565
Asmussen Thorbjrn Fring .................... T1-615
Athway Abigail .......................................... T1-183
Attia Shady ............................................... T2-77
.................................................................. T2-205
.................................................................. T2-459
Avesani Stefano ....................................... T2-83
Azarbayjani Mona .................................... T2-533
Baeli Marion.............................................. T2-613
Balocco Carla ........................................... T1-789
Bansal Nitin .............................................. T2-309
Barde Saurabh ......................................... T1-861
Barlet Aline ............................................... T1-421
Barros R. R. M. P. ..................................... T1-95
Bastos Jorge............................................ T2-193
Beaumont Jacques ................................... T1-421
Beckers Benoit ......................................... T2-395
Bedir Merve .............................................. T1-469
Bedoya Frutos Csar................................ T1-107
.................................................................. T1-279
.................................................................. T1-685
.................................................................. T2-229
Ben Avraham Oren .................................. T2-107
Beneyto-Ferre Jordi .................................. T1-319
Besser Jelves Daniela .............................. T1-157
.................................................................. T2-471
Biesbroeck K. ........................................... T2-279
Bignon Jean-Claude ................................. T1-257
Blanco-Lion Cristina ................................. T2-435
Blumsack Seth.......................................... T1-621
Bodart Magali ........................................... T1-777
.................................................................. T1-819
Bogo Amilcar J.......................................... T1-837
Bohnenberger Sascha .............................. T1-319
Bojrquez-Morales Gonzalo ..................... T1-547
Boland Philippe......................................... T2-187
Bonneaud Frdric ................................... T1-375
Borg Karl................................................... T1-897
Bothwell Keith ........................................... T2-589
Boualem Ouazia ....................................... T2-425
Boughlagem Dino ..................................... T1-65
Braz Susana ............................................. T2-389
Breesch Hilde ........................................... T1-751
.................................................................. T2-279
Broers Wendy ........................................... T1-45
Bueno-Bartholomei Carolina Lotuffo ........ T1-415
Buhagiar Vincent ...................................... T1-897
.................................................................. T2-651
Bustamante Gomez Waldo ....................... T1-903
Caamao Estefania .................................. T1-107
Cadoni Gianluca ....................................... T1-659
Caldieron Jean-Martin .............................. T1-427
.................................................................. T1-595
Cameron Ellen .......................................... T1-565
Campbell James W. P. .............................. T1-757
Campo Elena ............................................ T2-441
Canbolat Tlay (zdemir) ........................ T2-489
Canton Mara Alicia .................................. T2-477
Capeluto Isaac Guedi ............................... T1-879
.................................................................. T2-107
Cardoso Ana Gabriela S.A. ...................... T1-673
Carfrae Jim ............................................... T2-255
Carneiro Claudio....................................... T1-789
Carnielo Emiliano ..................................... T1-357
Carter David ............................................. T1-831
Castorena Gloria ...................................... T2-507
Castro Luza C.......................................... T1-119
Cauwerts Coralie ...................................... T1-819
Celis Mercier Silvestre .............................. T2-425
Cern Isabel ............................................. T1-345
Cevada Caroline ....................................... T2-407
Chanampa Mariana .................................. T1-279
Chen Yanti ................................................ T1-157
Chen Ruei-Ling......................................... T1-269
Chisholm Sophie ...................................... T1-33
.................................................................. T2-181
Claro Anderson ......................................... T1-837
Clette Vronique ....................................... T1-293
Cocci Grifoni Roberta ............................... T1-397
Coch Roura Helena .................................. T2-59
.................................................................. T2-235
Conto Olga ............................................... T1-565
Cormier Chaim Giselle Marie ................... T2-145
Cornelis An ............................................... T2-541
Corral Maria .............................................. T2-363
Correia Guedes Manuel ........................... T2-381
Costa Angelina ......................................... T2-407
Craddock Nigel ......................................... T2-133
Cre Johan ................................................. T2-601
Curreli Alessandra .................................... T2-235
Czajkowski Jorge...................................... T2-583
Dacanal Cristiane ..................................... T1-195
.................................................................. T1-415
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
910
.................................................................. T1-553
Daems Amlie .......................................... T1-293
Daly Patrick .............................................. T1-369
.................................................................. T2-369
Dave Shreya ............................................. T1-801
Dawance Thomas ..................................... T1-293
Day Julia ................................................... T1-891
De Bondt Kevin......................................... T1-263
De Flander Katleen................................... T1-45
De Herde Andr ........................................ T2-77
.................................................................. T2-205
De La Pea Gonzlez Ana Mara ............. T2-345
de Meester Tatiana ................................... T1-451
De Meester Bram ..................................... T1-751
De Myttenaere Kristel ............................... T1-21
.................................................................. T2-553
De Siqueira Gustavo ................................ T1-583
De Wilde Pieter......................................... T1-529
.................................................................. T2-139
Delas Julien .............................................. T1-421
Deligne Chlo ........................................... T1-263
Deshpande Jayashree.............................. T1-297
Desthieux Gilles........................................ T1-789
Deveci Gokay ........................................... T2-261
Dewilde Pieter .......................................... T2-255
Dijkmans Tim ............................................ T2-547
Dobbert La Y. .......................................... T1-553
Domin Christopher.................................... T1-631
Drakou Aikaterini ...................................... T1-475
.................................................................. T1-583
Drogemuller Robin.................................... T2-47
Drori Daphna ............................................ T1-177
Dry Maria .................................................. T2-595
Du Jiangtao .............................................. T1-765
.................................................................. T1-813
Duchhart Ingrid ......................................... T2-459
Duer Karsten ............................................ T1-615
Durga Giridhar Jyothsna........................... T1-873
Edelman Marja ......................................... T2-175
Elsharkawy Heba...................................... T1-313
El-Zafarany Abbas .................................... T1-807
Encinas Pino Felipe .................................. T1-541
.................................................................. T1-903
.................................................................. T2-23
Ernest Raha.............................................. T2-303
Espinoza Jos Antonio ............................. T2-321
Esposito Fulvio ......................................... T2-223
Exner Dagmar .......................................... T2-83
Farias Macarena....................................... T2-441
Farias Dos Santos Myrthes Marcele ........ T1-169
Fedrizzi Beatriz ......................................... T1-727
Feifer Lone ............................................... T1-133
Fernndez Holloway Daniela.................... T1-327
Fernandez Llano Jorge ............................ T2-477
Figueroa Anbal ........................................ T2-507
Finocchiaro Luca ...................................... T1-511
Foglia Luigi ............................................... T2-151
Foldbjerg Peter ......................................... T1-615
Fonseca Raphaela W. .............................. T1-119
Foradini Flavio .......................................... T2-175
Ford Brian ................................................. T1-157
.................................................................. T1-745
.................................................................. T2-495
Frazer John .............................................. T2-47
Frontini Francesco .................................... T1-771
Fuentes Vctor .......................................... T2-507
Gagliano Antonio ...................................... T1-639
Gagne Jaime M. L. ................................... T1-795
Galesi Aldo ............................................... T1-639
Ganem Carolina ....................................... T2-477
Garcia Chvez Jos Roberto ................... T2-273
.................................................................. T2-507
Garca-Cueto Rafael................................. T1-547
Garcia-Santos Alfonso .............................. T1-107
Gbedji Flora .............................................. T1-421
Gentry Thomas A. ..................................... T1-125
.................................................................. T1-665
Georges Laurent....................................... T1-609
Geurts Chris ............................................. T2-547
Ghisi Enedir .............................................. T1-673
Gibson Andrew ......................................... T1-83
Gillot Mark ................................................ T1-493
Givoni Baruch ........................................... T2-273
Gomez Adolfo ........................................... T1-46
Gmez Anala Fernanda........................... T2-583
Gmez Gonzlez Alberto.......................... T1-279
Gmez-Azpeitia Gabriel ........................... T1-54
.................................................................. T1-463
Gommans Leo .......................................... T1-45
Gonalves Hlder ..................................... T1-645
.................................................................. T2-193
Gonalves Joana Carla S. ........................ T2-375
.................................................................. T2-447
Gonzales Jose Carlos .............................. T1-351
Gori Virginia .............................................. T1-789
Grandjean Martin ...................................... T1-293
Greenan Rory ........................................... T2-559
Gregg Matthew ......................................... T1-233
Grigoletti Giane......................................... T1-703
Grondzik Walter ........................................ T1-71
Guedes Manuel Correia ........................... T2-389
Guerra Raquel .......................................... T2-229
Gupta Rajat .............................................. T1-233
Grani Fehime Yeim ............................... T2-489
Gurgel de Castro Fontes Maria Solange .. T1-415
Gwilliam Julie............................................ T1-151
Gylling Gitte .............................................. T2-11
Haefeli Peter ............................................. T2-625
Haglund Bruce .......................................... T1-71
Haksar Rohan R. ...................................... T1-621
Ham Michiel .............................................. T2-547
Hamada Luciana ...................................... T1-169
Hamza Neveen ......................................... T1-39
Han Chien-Yuan ....................................... T1-843
Hancock Mary........................................... T2-17
Hanin Yves ............................................... T1-293
Hansen Ellen K. ........................................ T2-11
Hasselaar Evert ........................................ T1-469
Heiselberg Per K. ..................................... T2-11
Henreique Rangel Costa George ............. T1-301
Hernndez-Martinez M. Carolina.............. T1-107
.................................................................. T1-345
Herrera Luis Carlos .................................. T1-463
Hestnes Anne Grete ................................. T1-511
Hilderson Wouter ...................................... T2-601
Horne Ralph ............................................. T2-101
Hoyano Akira ............................................ T1-273
.................................................................. T2-29
.................................................................. T2-113
.................................................................. T2-465
PLEA 2011 - 27
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Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
911
.................................................................. T2-565
Hu Jianxin ................................................. T1-813
Huang Kuo-Tsang ..................................... T1-559
Humel Lafratta Fernando.......................... T1-301
Hwang Ruey-Lung .................................... T1-269
.................................................................. T1-843
Hyde Richard ............................................ T2-607
Ignatius Marcel ......................................... T1-239
.................................................................. T1-445
Ilia Polytimi ............................................... T1-885
Indraganti Madhavi ................................... T1-505
.................................................................. T2-413
Irger Matthias............................................ T1-285
Itard Laure ................................................ T1-469
Iulo Lisa D................................................. T1-621
.................................................................. T2-247
Iyer-Raniga Usha...................................... T2-101
Jenkins Huw ............................................. T2-637
Jinghua Liu ............................................... T2-339
Jobard Nicolas .......................................... T2-297
Johansson Erik ......................................... T1-577
.................................................................. T1-589
Jones Laura .............................................. T1-529
Jones Phil ................................................. T2-637
.................................................................. T2-651
Jonkers Job .............................................. T2-54
Jowett Owen ............................................. T1-339
Jusuf Steve Kardinal................................. T1-219
.................................................................. T1-239
.................................................................. T1-445
Kafassis Natalia ........................................ T1-481
Kaimakliotis Dimitris ................................. T1-855
Kalisperis Loukas ..................................... T2-527
Kanters Jouri ............................................ T2-65
Karlapudy Devasahayam ......................... T2-413
Karthaus Roland ....................................... T1-145
Kates Joshua ............................................ T1-487
Kawai Hidenori ......................................... T2-565
Keeffe Greg .............................................. T1-721
Keonil Nuchnapang .................................. T2-211
Kimpian Judit ............................................ T1-33
.................................................................. T2-181
Klein Ralf .................................................. T1-751
Knudstrup Mary-Ann................................. T2-11
Ko Joy....................................................... T2-53
Kondratenko Irena .................................... T2-601
Konstantina Saranti .................................. T2-419
Kowaltowski Doris C. C. K. ....................... T2-169
Kubota Tetsu ............................................. T1-457
Kumakura Eiko ......................................... T2-113
Kurvers Stanley ........................................ T1-601
Kwok Alison .............................................. T1-71
Kyrkou Dimitra .......................................... T1-145
Labaki Lucila Chebel ................................ T1-189
.................................................................. T1-195
.................................................................. T1-245
.................................................................. T1-415
Lannon Simon .......................................... T2-637
Latini Giovanni .......................................... T1-397
Lau Ka Lun ............................................... T1-213
Lau Benson .............................................. T1-387
.................................................................. T1-849
.................................................................. T1-855
.................................................................. T1-861
.................................................................. T1-873
.................................................................. T2-471
Leme Neusa ............................................. T2-407
Lenzholzer Sanda..................................... T1-403
Liang Han-Hsi ........................................... T1-269
.................................................................. T1-559
Lichtenberg Jos ........................................ T2-547
Lima Eliane ............................................... T2-441
Lin Chuang-Hung ..................................... T1-559
.................................................................. T1-843
Lin Cheng ................................................. T2-339
Lisboa Marcio ........................................... T1-301
Liu Ning .................................................... T2-297
Liu Margaret ............................................. T2-607
Lollini Roberto........................................... T2-83
Longo Elena ............................................. T2-515
.................................................................. T2-577
Lpez Cristina........................................... T2-441
Lopez De Asiain Maria.............................. T1-101
Lopez De Asiain Jaime ............................. T1-101
Lucchi Elena ............................................. T2-571
Luna-Len Anbal ..................................... T1-547
.................................................................. T2-363
Lytra Viktoria ............................................. T1-825
Ma Jie ....................................................... T2-315
Ma Maggie Mei Ki ..................................... T2-453
Mahaut Valrie .......................................... T1-263
Mainwaring David E.................................. T1-319
Makrodimitri Magdalini.............................. T1-757
Malekzadeh Masoud ................................ T1-65
Mallion Paul .............................................. T2-589
Mandalaki M. ............................................ T1-627
Mangone Giancarlo .................................. T1-427
.................................................................. T1-595
Marina Michailidou.................................... T1-439
Marincic Irene ........................................... T1-571
Marique Anne-Franoise .......................... T1-27
.................................................................. T1-451
.................................................................. T2-119
Marmolejo Duarte Carlos.......................... T2-125
Marsh Phillipa ........................................... T1-691
Martin Craig Lee ....................................... T1-363
.................................................................. T2-401
Massart Catherine .................................... T1-609
.................................................................. T2-217
Mayhoub Mohammed ............................... T1-831
Medlin Larry .............................................. T1-631
Meizoso Maria .......................................... T1-351
Melero Sofa ............................................. T2-267
Mena-Deferme Maria................................ T1-59
Mquignon Marc ....................................... T1-375
Mestre Nieves........................................... T2-431
Miana Anna C. .......................................... T2-375
Mills Gerald............................................... T1-409
Mirthes Hackenberg Ana .......................... T1-301
Mlecnik Erwin ........................................... T2-601
Mohanty Pattnaik Ompriya ....................... T2-495
Monfared Ida G......................................... T1-535
Monteiro Leonardo Marques .................... T1-433
.................................................................. T2-375
Montejo Carmen ....................................... T1-345
Morello Eugenio........................................ T1-789
Morgado Baca Inmaculada....................... T1-279
.................................................................. T2-267
Motalaei Ajmeh ......................................... T2-291
Moura Norberto C. ................................... T2-375
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
912
Mu Jun ...................................................... T2-315
Mulfarth Roberta C. K. ............................. T2-375
Muller Smila ............................................ T1-703
Munari Probst MariaCristina .................... T2-175
Murakami Edson....................................... T1-301
Murakami Akinobu .................................... T2-465
Murphy Mark............................................. T1-511
Musau Filbert ............................................ T2-261
Nakamura Ben.......................................... T2-565
Nakamura Miwako .................................... T2-565
Nakaohkubo Kazuaki................................ T2-113
Neila Gonzlez Javier............................... T1-107
.................................................................. T1-279
.................................................................. T1-345
.................................................................. T1-685
.................................................................. T1-733
.................................................................. T2-229
.................................................................. T2-267
Nemeth Robert ......................................... T2-533
Ng Edward ................................................ T1-213
.................................................................. T1-227
.................................................................. T2-315
N Hgin Sadhbh .................................... T2-631
Nikolopoulou Marialena ............................ T1-415
Nocera Francesco .................................... T1-639
Norambuena Tomas ................................. T1-777
Norford Leslie K. ....................................... T1-795
Ochoa Jos Manuel.................................. T1-571
Oliveira Mariela......................................... T1-189
Oliveira Pano Marta ................................ T1-645
Olivieri Francesca ..................................... T1-685
.................................................................. T1-733
.................................................................. T2-229
Otarola Roberto ........................................ T1-903
Otis Tiffany ................................................ T1-77
Pan Wei ................................................... T2-139
Paoletti Giulia ........................................... T2-83
Papamanolis Nikos ................................... T1-627
Patania Francesco.................................... T1-639
Patil Arti .................................................... T1-381
Pelsmakers Sofe...................................... T1-145
.................................................................. T2-89
.................................................................. T2-435
.................................................................. T2-613
Pea Leticia ............................................. T2-333
Pereira Fernando O. R. ............................ T1-119
.................................................................. T1-837
Pereira Alice C. ......................................... T1-119
Pereira Italma ........................................... T2-381
Peretti Giulia ............................................. T2-285
Perez Del Real Pilar ................................. T1-101
Perriccioli Massimo ................................... T2-501
Pesquale Lisa Ann .................................... T2-17
Peters Terri ............................................... T2-655
Pettinari Sonia .......................................... T2-501
Philokyprou Maria ..................................... T1-89
Piderit Beatriz ........................................... T1-777
Pilling Matthew ......................................... T2-401
Pino Alan .................................................. T1-903
Pires Fernando C. ................................... T1-119
Pitts Adrian ............................................... T2-645
Place Wayne ............................................ T1-813
Poerschke Ute .......................................... T2-527
Polakit Kasama......................................... T1-427
.................................................................. T1-595
Potvin Andr ............................................. T2-425
Pracchi Valeria .......................................... T2-515
.................................................................. T2-577
Prata Alessandra R................................... T2-375
Quigley Bruce L. ....................................... T2-247
Radhi Hassan ........................................... T1-251
Rafq Yaqub .............................................. T2-139
Rakha Tarek ............................................. T1-807
Ramirez Li Ramn .................................... T2-345
Ranjbar Ehsan .......................................... T2-291
Regnault Ccile ........................................ T1-421
Reiter Sigrid .............................................. T1-27
.................................................................. T1-451
.................................................................. T2-119
Reja Yousuf .............................................. T1-201
Ren Chao ................................................. T1-213
Reyes Javier ............................................. T2-327
Reza Pourjafar Mohammad...................... T2-291
Rodrigues Lucelia ..................................... T1-493
.................................................................. T2-471
Rodrigues Fernanda ................................. T2-199
Rodrigues Raissa ..................................... T2-407
Rodriguez Jorge ....................................... T1-59
Roecker Christian ..................................... T2-17
Roels Staf ................................................. T1-679
Roetzel Astrid ........................................... T1-475
.................................................................. T1-583
Rogora Alessandro ................................... T2-515
.................................................................. T2-577
Romero Ramona ...................................... T2-363
Rosina Elisabetta...................................... T2-515
.................................................................. T2-577
Rossi Monica ............................................ T2-501
Rotta Renata ............................................ T1-703
Rousseaux Vronique .............................. T1-293
Rovers Ronald .......................................... T1-45
Ruiz-Torres Pavel ..................................... T1-463
.................................................................. T1-547
Rutherford Peter ....................................... T1-83
.................................................................. T1-313
S Maria Joo .......................................... T2-199
Saadon Nurul Ain...................................... T1-499
Sabhaney Rudrajit .................................... T2-95
Sabry Hanan............................................. T1-807
Saelens Dirk ............................................. T1-679
Sahachaisaeree Nopadon ........................ T2-211
Saich Mark................................................ T2-589
Sakarellou-Tousi Natalia ........................... T1-849
Salim Flora ............................................... T2-47
Salman Tugba .......................................... T2-89
Salvalai Graziano ..................................... T2-223
Salvetti Mara Beln ................................. T2-583
Samsudin Rosita ...................................... T1-239
Sanchez De La Flor Francisco Jos......... T2-23
Sandoval Lidia .......................................... T2-333
Santamouris Mattheos.............................. T2-527
Santos Joel ............................................... T2-407
Saranti Konstantina .................................. T1-565
Sato Rihito ................................................ T2-29
.................................................................. T2-565
Sattler Miguel Aloysio ............................... T1-95
.................................................................. T1-727
Savioli Deliberador Marcella ..................... T2-169
Schippa Giulia .......................................... T2-515
.................................................................. T2-577
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
913
Schuster Heide ......................................... T2-285
Sekar Dineshkumar .................................. T1-873
Semidor Catherine.................................... T1-421
Serra Rafael ............................................. T2-59
Sesana Marta Maria ................................. T2-223
Shajahan Amreen ..................................... T1-201
Sharples Steve ......................................... T1-183
.................................................................. T1-251
.................................................................. T1-517
.................................................................. T1-523
.................................................................. T1-535
.................................................................. T1-765
Shaviv Edna ............................................. T1-139
.................................................................. T1-177
Sherif Ahmed ............................................ T1-807
Sheta Wael ............................................... T1-517
Shue Shiu-Ya ............................................ T1-269
Silva Cleide A.M. ..................................... T1-553
Silva Gonalo ........................................... T2-389
Silva Filho Demstenes F. ........................ T1-553
Sliwinsky Ben ........................................... T2-533
Smith-Masis Michael ................................ T1-59
.................................................................. T1-739
Soriano Hugo............................................ T1-207
Spanou Anastasia.................................... T2-527
Spiegelhalter Thomas ............................... T1-651
Srivastav Shweta ...................................... T2-637
Stasinopoulos Thanos N. ......................... T2-241
Stephan Andr .......................................... T2-553
Stephens Cathal ....................................... T2-521
Stevenson Fionn....................................... T2-17
Stojkovic Milena........................................ T1-565
.................................................................. T2-619
Stott Craig................................................. T1-363
.................................................................. T2-401
Straver Mark ............................................. T2-547
Suriyothin Phanchalath............................. T1-307
Szcs gota ............................................. T1-409
Tablada De La Torre Abel ......................... T1-679
Takata Masahito ....................................... T1-273
.................................................................. T2-465
Tan Chun Liang ........................................ T1-219
Tan Beng-Kiang ........................................ T1-499
Tan Erna ................................................... T1-709
Tan Alex Yong Kwang ............................... T1-715
Tardif Michel ............................................. T2-425
Tascini Simone ......................................... T1-397
Tavares Mrcia ......................................... T2-193
Taylor Melissa ........................................... T1-145
.................................................................. T2-89
.................................................................. T2-435
.................................................................. T2-631
Tenorio G. S.............................................. T1-95
Theodorson Judy ...................................... T1-891
Thitisawat Mate ........................................ T1-427
.................................................................. T1-595
Thuot Kevin .............................................. T1-783
Tian Wei.................................................... T2-139
Toe Doris Hooi Chyee............................... T1-457
Topouzi Marina ......................................... T2-35
Torgue Henry ............................................ T1-421
Toth Bianca ............................................... T2-47
Touceda Maria Isabel ............................... T1-733
Trachte Sophie ........................................ T2-217
Trebilcock Maureen .................................. T2-327
Tsangrassoulis Aris ................................... T1-475
.................................................................. T1-583
Tsitoura Marianna ..................................... T1-439
Tsoutsos Theocharis ................................. T1-439
Tweed Chris.............................................. T2-71
Ulloa Mirentxu........................................... T1-387
Umakoshi Erica Mitie ................................ T2-447
Uson Guardiola Ezequiel .......................... T2-483
Valesan Mariene ....................................... T1-727
Valkhoff Hans ........................................... T1-333
Van Den Ham Eric .................................... T1-601
van Moeseke Geoffrey ............................. T1-697
.................................................................. T2-41
Vander Werf Brent D. ............................... T1-631
Vatavuk Paulo ........................................... T1-189
Verbeeck Griet .......................................... T2-157
.................................................................. T2-541
Verhoeven C. ............................................ T2-279
Versele Alexis ........................................... T1-751
.................................................................. T2-279
Vianna Eduardo ........................................ T2-407
Vicente Romeu ......................................... T2-199
Wallemacq Vronique ............................. T2-119
Walsh Vincent ........................................... T2-401
Wan Li ...................................................... T2-315
Ware Jacob .............................................. T2-645
Wargas De Faria Ricardo ......................... T1-169
WasimYahia Moohammed ........................ T1-589
Wattanapailin Wannee .............................. T1-307
Wauman B. ............................................... T2-279
Weber Willi ............................................... T2-625
Weijers Jeroen .......................................... T2-547
Weissenstein Charline .............................. T1-257
Weytjens Lieve ......................................... T2-157
Wheeler Andrea ........................................ T1-65
Whitman Christopher J. ............................ T1-327
Widder Lynnette ....................................... T2-53
Widera Barbara ........................................ T1-113
Wigenstad Tore ......................................... T1-511
Wilson Robin ............................................ T1-313
Wong Nyuk Hien ....................................... T1-219
.................................................................. T1-239
.................................................................. T1-445
.................................................................. T1-709
.................................................................. T1-715
Wong James Pow Chew .......................... T2-101
Xianhong Liu............................................. T2-339
Xuan Huang.............................................. T1-745
Yahia Moohammed Wasim ....................... T1-577
Yamakawa Mary A. ................................... T1-119
Yiu Kam Po ............................................... T1-213
Yoshida Tamon ......................................... T1-273
Yu Gao...................................................... T2-339
Zahiri Sahar .............................................. T1-523
Zambrana Alejandra ................................ T2-441
Zapata Gabriela ........................................ T2-71
Zebun Nasreen Ahmed............................. T2-163
Zeiler Wim ................................................ T1-53
.................................................................. T1-163
.................................................................. T2-351
.................................................................. T2-357
Zhou Tiegang........................................... T2-315
Zilka Leanne ............................................. T1-319
Zinzi Michele............................................. T1-357
With the major financial support of :
With the financial support of :
PLEA 2011 - 27
th
Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13-15 July 2011.
The 27th PLEA conference PLEA2011 - Architecture and Sustainable Develop-
ment marks the 30th anniversary of PLEA. The topics of the conference tackle a
broad range well beyond the subject of energy.
Following from the last PLEA conference that was held in Quebec in 2009, we
want this celebratory PLEA 2011 in Louvain-la-Neuve to provide a special meeting
ground for architects, engineers and researchers to debate the theme of sustai-
nable architecture and the different aspects of sustainable development that range
from the scale of the city to those of materials and components.
This book of Proceedings presents the latest thinking and research in the rapidly
evolving world of architecture and sustainable development through 255 papers
which were selected out of more than 750 abstracts that were proposed by au-
thors coming from over 60 countries.
ARCHITECTURE
& SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
PLEA2011
27
th
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
PASSIVE AND LOW ENERGY ARCHITECTURE
LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE 13 - 15 JULY 2011
Conference Proceedings Volume 1
Facult darchitecture,
dingnierie architecturale,
durbanisme,
9 782874 632785
ISBN 978-2-87463-278-5