A climate responsive urban design tool: a platform to improve energy efficiency in a dry hot climate. Issue 8 (14th September 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: El Dallal, Norhan; Visser, Florentine
• Is Part Of: International journal of sustainable energy. Volume 36:Issue 8(2017)
• Page Start: 738
• Page End: 753
• Publication Date: 2017-09-14
• Subjects: Parametric urbanism -- parametric platform -- climate responsive urban form -- energy-efficient urban morphology -- infrastructure cost reduction; Solar energy -- Periodicals; Renewable energy sources -- Periodicals; 621.4705
• DOI: 10.1080/14786451.2015.1091836
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1478-6451

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, new urban developments should address the climatic conditions to improve outdoor comfort and to reduce the energy consumption of buildings. This article describes a design tool that supports climate responsive design for a dry hot climate. The approach takes the climate as an initiator for the conceptual urban form with a more energy-efficient urban morphology. The methodology relates the different passive strategies suitable for major climate conditions in MENA region (dry-hot) to design parameters that create the urban form. This parametric design approach is the basis for a tool that generates conceptual climate responsive urban forms so as to assist the urban designer early in the design process. Various conceptual scenarios, generated by a computational model, are the results of the proposed platform. A practical application of the approach is conducted on a New Urban Community in Aswan (Egypt), showing the economic feasibility of the resulting urban form and morphology, and the proposed tool.