Natural ventilation performance of air welled single storey terrace house

Terraced housing in Malaysia hardly provides its occupants with thermal comfort. More often than not, the occupants need to rely on mechanical cooling, which contributes to outdoor heat dissipation that leads to urban heat island effect. Alternatively, encouraging natural ventilation can eliminate heat from indoor environment. Unfortunately, with static outdoor air condition and lack of windows at terraced houses, the conventional ventilation technique does not work well, even for houses with an air well. Hence, this research investigates ways to maximize natural ventilation in terraced housing by exploring the air well and louvre’s passive design. By adopting an existing single storey house with air well in Kuching, Sarawak, the existing indoor environmental conditions and thermal performance was monitored using scientific equipment, namely HOBO U12 air temperature and air humidity, HOBO U12 anemometer and Delta Ohm HD32.3 Wet Bulb Globe Temperature meter for six-month duration. The collected data was used as background study and benchmark for simulation. In this case, a simulation software – DesignBuilder® was utilised. The field study illustrated that there is a need to improve indoor thermal environment. Thus, the study further proposed improvement strategies to the existing case study house. The proposition is to turn the existing air well into solar chimney to take advantages of constant and available solar radiation for stack ventilation. The study also considers the effect of louvre windows to further accelerate the wind movement. The results suggest that the enhanced air well with proposed louvres were able to improve the indoor room air velocity and reduce air temperature. The enhanced air well with 3.5m height, 1.0m air gap width, 2.0m length with 45° tilted room opening louvres with 167mm slate gap were able to induce higher air velocity. During the highest air temperature hour, the indoor air velocity in existing test room increased from 0.02m/s in the existing condition to the range of 0.15 to 0.40m/s in the hottest month while during the lowest temperature month, the air velocity could be increased to the range of 0.25 to 0.53m/s. Installation of louvres at test room with solar chimney increases the percentage average air velocity of 16.5% and reduce percentage average air temperature to 1.1% compared to test room with solar chimney only. For indoor room temperature, the greatest mean air temperature could be reduced by up to 1.8°C compared to the outdoor air temperature during the hottest day. The findings revealed that the proposed air well and louvres could enhance the thermal and ventilation performance under Malaysia tropical climate

Lighting impact on architectural modifaction of an adaptive reuse building: a case study of Tate Modern Gallery in the Sounthbank of London

This research explores the analysis method of the current situation in Tate Modern, an adaptive reuse gallery that injects architectural intervention in terms of its massive modification from an industrial powerhouse station building to a gallery. Thus, exploration of lighting fundamentally and significantly impacts holistic and stage performance in the gallery design. However, there was a still few research that focused on the condition in lighting design performance for an adaptive reuse building of an industrial building to gallery. Therefore, this study explores design recommendations study made in the current state of the Tate Modern gallery as a methodology which includes passive and active design implications used recorded as part of the discussion. The result shows that the proposed design helped in lighting enhancement of the Tate Modern compound towards the Southbank area of London and how it injects end users' livability through its architectural modification through implementation of the skylight, upwards lighting, designated window, and sunbreak for the best rectification recommendation. Furthermore, the result of the study suggests such minimum glare and effective lighting distribution contribute to the amount reduction of energy consumption, improve the quality of reading, performance and properly enlighten the gallery activities and other exercises carried out to optimum brightness from its previous state as a powerhouse station

Adaptive reuse of old colonial building, Muar as gallery & resource centre design: a comparative study on Islamic architecture influence towards Kuala Lumpur colonial buildings

While several studies have noted on the effectiveness of reusing historical colonial buildings as sustainable mechanism, there is still an absence of Islamic influence study on the performance-based framework to rank optimal usage element in historical building as resource centre and gallery. This research focusses on the elements of Islamic influence in old colonial building to be imparted as part of the framework study for an adaptive reuse library and gallery. The methodology comprises of case studies on identifying current Islamic layout influence demarcation of the old colonial building and at the same time evaluating possible elements for adaptive reuse library and gallery towards achieving resilient building. With the invited collaboration of library design study from Muar, Johor parliament for community library, an initiative proposal study of adaptive reuse old colonial which was previously an office building in Jalan Othman been made aligned with an approach to local authority, Majlis Perbandaran Muar with the council vision of low carbon city for the town. Several case studies of colonial building will be selected to explore the Islamic principles, garden element and design development to balance their framework screening for the vacant colonial office building. The findings are anticipated to establish useful validated framework in balancing the list of priorities and interests of Islamic design principles for designing future adaptive reuse library and gallery in Muar. Hence, this research provides a significant contribution to the development of design framework will then enabling the decision makers to achieve a logical result and support the visualization impact of different priority of Islamic principal elements and criteria on colonial buildings

Implementation of solar chimney in orang asli settlement in Bukit Lagong Selayang

In compliance with the Malaysia Housing Policy, providing adequate, affordable and quality housing for all is the major goal. The case study house for the study is in the existing settlement for Indigenous people located at Bukit Lagong, Selayang, Kuala Lumpur which was built under the 7th Malaysia Plan (1996-2000). However, the poor thermal performance of the existing house does not satisfy the occupants and cause most of the occupants rather carrying out the daily activities outside the house during the daytime. A field measurement was carried out from 12am of 4 March 2011 to 11pm of 5 March 2011 in order to obtain the real-time data and compared with the CFD simulated result. The experiments followed by introducing solar chimney at the simulation model and examine the result of the thermal performance. The findings show that the thermal performance of the mean air temperature and mean air velocity of the indigenous house has been improved after introducing solar chimney by 2.6% and 15% respectively at the hottest hour compared to the measurement results. This has shown that the solar chimney is useful and functions as the stack ventilation tool in the tropics

Field investigation of indoor thermal performance in Malaysia air-welled terraced house

This paper aims to determine the performance of the air well system in a hot and humid tropical climate with existing full-scale air well of single-storey terraced house. The application of air well in residential building widely applied in a traditional building, especially in the Middle East and Europe countries. However, resulted from the development, the application of passive cooling strategies such as air well is gradually replaced by a mechanical cooling system. The aim of the study is to investigate the cooling system role in tropics, where hot and humid climate the overheating of building interior are a critical dilemma due to solar penetration through building fenestration. A field measurement has been carried out in a single storey terraced house with built-in air well in Kuching, Sarawak for 5 days. The field measurement investigates the thermal performance of the single-storey terrace house air well under tropical context. The investigation was measured with U-12 HOBO data logger for temperature and humidity while the air velocity was measured with HD32.3 DeltaOhm measurement logger. Both types of the instrument placed in the air well in a vertical position while another U12 HOBO datalogger placed in a test room with window connected to air well. The outdoor weather data set were measured with HOBO U30. Findings show that the under Malaysia tropical climate, the mean air velocity induced by the air well throughout the measurement days marked as 0.91m/s while during the hottest hour of the measurement days, the air velocity induced in the upper air well could reach 1.09m/s with an outdoor air temperature of 33.6°C and solar radiation of 198 Wh/m². The findings of the study have explained the effectiveness of the air well in providing the thermal performance in the indoor environment and further study on modification of the air well configuration could enhance the airflow and air temperature

Daylighting evaluation and optimisation of window to wall ratio for lecture theatre in the tropical climate

A base case model is a more potent dose for applied research; the passive architectural design for sustainability requires optimised experiments. However, experimenting with physical developments require construction and deconstruction until they achieved the optimal scenario. These wastes resources and time; hence, base models' development as useful instruments in the optimisation design process is desirable. Lecture theatres in universities have no specific design model whereby optimising one may not apply to the other. Therefore, this research evaluated a base model for lecture theatre regarding spatial configuration, daylighting potentials, and optimised window-to-wall ratio (WWR) for tropical daylighting. A study of ten existing lecture theatres in eight universities within eight states in Nigeria's hot-humid climate was analysed descriptively for the base model. The study employed Simulations with IES-VE software. The daylighting performance analysis adopted the daylighting rule of thumb, daylight factor, work plane illuminance (WPI), and WPI ratio. The results show that a typical lecture theatre in the study area has a dimensional configuration of 12×20 m floor plan, 6 m ceiling height, and a window wall ratio (WWR) of 13%. In the deduced base model, 4H was required for adequate daylighting against the thumb's 2.5 H daylighting rule. The research concludes a low window-wall ratio with poor daylighting quality and quantities in the base model; therefore, it implies that the daylighting was not a criterion in the designs. However, the experiment revealed a progression in daylighting performance with an increase in WWR from the base case until 30% WWR. Beyond that, there was a decline in the daylighting performance. Therefore, 30% WWR was optimal for daylighting performance in lecture theatre retrofitting within the tropical climate

Interrelationships between land use land cover (LULC) and human thermal comfort (HTC): A comparative analysis of different spatial settings

A few studies on outdoor human thermal comfort (HTC) have been conducted in the tropical region in a hot and humid climate; however, there is a paucity of discussions on how exactly different spatial settings influence HTC. Thus, this paper aims to examine how land use land cover (LULC) affects HTC on the basis of the simulation of Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET) indices via ENVI-met and Rayman. The results reveal that people living in the urban area have a higher tendency to experience strong heat stress (25% of the areas with PMV ranging from 3.4 to 3.9 and 2% of the areas, where PMV reached 4.1), followed by the rural area (43% of the areas with PMV ranging from 2.1 to 2.4), and the suburban area (more than 50% of the areas with PMV values less than 2.4). Surprisingly, a concrete LULC in the suburb area exhibits a higher air temperature than an asphalt surface at 4 p.m., due to the large area of high albedo that increases the reflection of solar radiation, subsequently contributing to warming up the airmass. Similarly, sandy, and loamy LULC tend to emit more heat during nighttime, while the heat is absorbed slowly during daytime, and it is then slowly released during nighttime after 6 p.m. Spatial settings that promote heat stress in the urban area are mainly contributed by an LULC of asphalt, concrete, sandy, and loamy areas. Meanwhile, people in the suburban and rural areas are less likely to experience heat stress, due to agricultural plantations and lowland forest that provide shade, except for the barren lands-loamy areas. The result also indicates that tree-covered areas near the river in the suburban area afforded the best thermal experience with PMV of 2.1 and PET of 30.7. From the LULC comparison, it is pivotal to consider tree species (canopy density), surface material (albedo), sky-view factor, wind direction, and speed toward designing a more comfortable and sustainable environment

Pentakrifan sosial daripada pembuat dasar dalam rekabentuk ruangan untuk perumahan golongan berpendapatan rendah di Malaysia

Setelah 60 tahun pembangunan perumahan untuk kumpulan berpendapatan rendah disiapkan, masih lagi terdapat kritikan-kritikan dari bidang akademik berhubung kepada kualiti ruang perumahan. Oleh sebab itu, kajian ini bertujuan untuk memeriksa manuskrip-menuskrip daripada pembuat dasar yang berkaitan dengan dasar perumahan untuk memahami bagaimana catatan dasar berhubung dengan perekabentuk. Kajian ini menggunakan kaedah analisis kandungan dengan melibatkan dokumen-dokumen dasar perumahan yang diterbitkan untuk bacaan umum. Kajian ini telah berjaya menghimpunkan tiga tema utama yang mencerminkan hasrat Pembuat Dasar untuk menyampaikan khidmat mereka dalam menyediakan stok perumahan untuk kumpulan B40 di Malaysia. Dapatan kajian telah memperlihatkan bahawa secara teoritis, dasar-dasar perumahan yang dicatatkan adalah dibuat secara abstrak yang perlu diperhalusi pemahamannya oleh perekabentuk sebagai rujukan untuk merekabentuk. Pentakrifan sosial dari Pembuat Dasar berkemungkinan telah menjadikan perumahan untuk kumpulan B40 tidak mencapai kualiti berhubung kepada kesesuaian rekabentuk perumahan dengan corak sosial penghuni. Penyataan-penyataan didalam dasar dilihat tidak jelas untuk mendorong perekabentuk-perekabentuk menghasilkan rekaan yang berinovasi dalam menangani permasalahan penghunian. Dapatan kajian ini menyampaikan kekhuatiran terhadap pengaruh Pembuat Dasar berisiko untuk kelihatan lemah oleh perekabentuk dalam menghasilkan perumahan yang benar-benar menepati aspirasi Pemerintah dalam menyediakan perumahan yang berkualiti. Oleh sebab itu, kajian ini mencadangkan supaya penyataan-penyataan yang digunapakai oleh pembuat dasar perlu ditambahbaik supaya lebih jelas untuk dipatuhi oleh perekabentuk bagi mencipta perumahan yang berkualiti dalam mencapai hasrat Pemerintah untuk menyediakan perumahan yang mampan dan berdaya huni

Solar chimneys as an effective ventilation strategy in multi-storey public housing in the post-COVID-19 era

This paper studies the effectiveness of a solar chimney for improving ventilation and air-exchange rates in multi-storey public housing in tropical climates for the potential mitigation of airborne disease transmission. Virtual models of a typical apartment room with natural cross-ventilation, replicated across four levels to mimic a multi-storey block, were set up with six internal wind velocity sensor points per floor. The simulation software Energy2D was then used to evaluate the performance of the models, first testing the presence of a solar chimney, and then additionally the degree to which the solar chimney model was affected by a complementary ceiling fan. Wind velocity was also measured, as this is a variable that affects ACH rates. Using a non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test, the introduction of a solar chimney was found to have a significant impact on air-flow rates (a variable that positively affects air-exchange rates), resulting in a p-value of 0.000 and Z-value of -3.920. Regression analysis determined that the solar chimney’s effect was enhanced when complemented by a ceiling fan (R-squared value of 0.4687). Consequently, we propose several design strategies that may enable the adoption of the solar chimney concept to improve natural ventilation in residential units

A review on architectural and urban design approaches to reducing the urban heat island effect

With the ongoing rapid urbanisation, humans enjoy the comfort of living with the use of advanced technology and infrastructure, without consideration towards the pollution produced daily, such as waste, heat, and exhaust gas emissions. Human-induced climate change has resulted in extreme weather and climate events, causing a consequential increase in the urban heat island effect. A large amount of radiant heat is focused in the city area, threatening the threshold of comfort in urban living, affecting our future generations to come. Therefore, this paper discusses how this phenomenon could be mitigated through a few design approaches. The existence of green roofs helps reduce the direct absorption of heat in buildings while water bodies help lower the surrounding temperature of a place. Additionally, using high reflectivity and spectral emissivity materials in buildings can also lower heat absorption into a building. Also, the design of urban wind corridors increases airflow into an area, hence cooling the surrounding temperature. When these steps are strategically incorporated into a design, the amount of heat could be significantly reduced, hence extenuating the urban heat island effect. However, more in-depth research is needed to ensure that it could successfully palliate the urban heat island effect in a city. It is hoped that this study could be a comprehensive guide to designers and engineers, or any individuals in the field of architecture and urban design in tackling the problem, hence achieving their target in eliminating the urban heat island effect in future works