urban design

In Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, Mark Lynas describes possible world scenarios as global temperatures rise. The central region of Brazil, where Brasília is located, will suffer major changes in its microclimate.Brasília's built environment has already provided a comfortable indoor and outdoor condition through planned urban design and vegetation.

The raise of sustainability in the urban design is a key-factor for addressing the challenges in response to climate change, resource availability, environmental degradation and energy consumption. Urban planners need comprehensive microclimatic information in order to take decisions. This paper addresses the rehabilitation at the municipality of Acharnes, one of the largest municipalities of Attica, built at the southern foothills of Mt Parnitha, and 10 km north of Athens. The reintegration approach included field measurements of the thermal characteristics in the examined area.

The study aimed to identify the behaviour of wind in the type of urban blocks usually found in cities in tropical climates. The results presented here were obtained in colonial type areas. The authors' approach was to establish a relationship between the clusters of buildings and the evidence of overpressures or low-pressure in proximity to the openings of occupied spaces. A prominent physical feature of natural ventilation is the maximal difference of pressure between windward and leeward building facades.

Wind access/protection in cities can be affected by the morphological characteristics of the built environment. Town-planning legislation, building codes and city plan regulations influence those characteristics. Substantial climate-responsive changes of such laws and by-laws as well as simplified environmental performance evaluation tools can contribute to the reduction of mechanical ventilation and air conditioning energy loads through natural ventilation-proned urban design.

This paper describes synthetically the work carried out by the Polytechnic University of Turin within the CE-funded .Research project PRECiS, aimed at valuating the effect of urban form on heating and cooling energy saving potential. A sens1tlv1ty analysis based on the parameter urban wind pressure drag was performed using the thermal simulation program ESP-r. The methodology used and a first set of results are presented.

A park influences its surroundings. Temperature inside and around the park varies in a special way. Air quality also varies. And the park creates its own wind system.          

The detailed urban plan of Kanjiza beside the two existing hotels at the grounds assigned for the development of the Institute of Special Medical Rehabilitation "Kanji"a Spa" comprises a plan to build a third hotel. An urbanistic solution of the complex was found, (positioning of the hotel) based on a bioclimatic study in which bioclimatic elements both in the analysis of the location and in the architectural design were taken into account. The bioclimatic study started by considering the elements of climate and the conditions of the location.

Although Saudi Arabia empowers the world with energy, the country is faced with unprecedented demand on electric energy. The issue, however, is neither affordability nor shortage but the exponential growth of demand on electricity, which reached an annual rate of 17% [Ministry of Industry and Electricity (MIE), 1995). This figure indicates that we need to double the number of our power generation plants within few years in order to meet the kingdom's present and near future demand.