Urban Design
Yones Changalvaiee; Mostafa Behzadfar; Mahmud Mohhamadi; Zahra Sadat Saeideh Zarabadid
Abstract
As an interface between humans and their peripheral environment, urban form is the embodiment of formative and transformative flows of the built form. Energy flows of urban form production, operation and maintenance lead to the generation and transformation of built form which is the transmitter of information ...
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As an interface between humans and their peripheral environment, urban form is the embodiment of formative and transformative flows of the built form. Energy flows of urban form production, operation and maintenance lead to the generation and transformation of built form which is the transmitter of information flows, such as visual and perceptual flows, between humans as receptor and the built environment. On this basis, continuous and integrated interactions between humans and the living environment is considered as energy operational flows of environmental comfort (heating and cooling energy demand) and informational flows of perception, cognition and evaluation of the built form (focusing on visual interaction) which are the two generic flows of built form in relation with humans. These relations and interconnections between energy and information flows are excavated based on the Eco Efficient Urban Form (EEUF) model. The present research aims to explore the relationship between these two flows and the built form based on two distinct states of occlusivity factor: distribution of built elements in vertical plane (Adolphe occlusivity factor for operational energy flows), and Benedikt occlusivity factor for visual information flows which demonstrates the interconnections between the horizontal built elements perimeter map and visual sight flows. The analytical content of the study was chosen from the morphological aspects of Isfahan in the form of ten morphological types presenting general morphological trends of Isfahan. With regard to these, results indicate that there is an inverse correlation between the two states of occlusivity: occlusivity in vertical planes for energy performances and occlusivity in horizontal planes for sustainable visual information flows between built form and humans. The results reveal that the fabrics with organic morphological aspects and structure have a higher value in terms of energy performance occlusivisty factor, especially effective for decreasing heating energy demand in cold seasons, and a lower value in terms of isovist occlusivity factor, indicating higher value of isovist compactness leading to coherency in visual information flows. Hence, the results indicate that the integration between two generic flows of sustainable urban form is demonstrable for old tissues with old organic morphological patterns. The main contribution of the study is to confirm the relationship and interconnection between generic flows of energy and information as the key content of EEUF model.The research is focused on the operational mode of energy flows (indoor energy demand) and the visual interactions of information flows. Finally, future research should therefore concentrate on the investigation of the integrity between perceptional aspects of urban form and outdoor environmental comfort as the main characteristics of urban form environmental performance in the form of EEUF model. It is worth to mention that the study is mostly focused on the environmental performance and morphological configuration in hot and arid climate. Therefore, other effective parameters such as structures, visual proportion of vertical facades, aesthetic aspects, meaning of place, environmental preferences, sense of place, etc. necessitate further investigations in the future. Reanalysis of the study model according to the new types of morphological units and other climates as well as addressing perceptional aspects can provide valuable results for developing sustainable urban form frameworks.
Urban Sustainability
Golnaz Mortezaei; Mahmoud Mohammadi; Farshad Nasrollahi; Mahmoud Ghalehnoee
Abstract
Rapid progress in technology and, consequently, the increasing growth of urban population has inevitably led to the development of residential neighborhoods. Changes in the form of urban texture and their inconsistency with climatic features, together with the rise of energy demand, have had manifold ...
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Rapid progress in technology and, consequently, the increasing growth of urban population has inevitably led to the development of residential neighborhoods. Changes in the form of urban texture and their inconsistency with climatic features, together with the rise of energy demand, have had manifold adverse consequences such as global warming and climate change. According to previous research, most energy in cities is consumed by residential buildings which is highly affected by the city shape, an issue which needs to be amended. Therefore, since buildings account for a significant portion of energy consumption in cities, wise decisions should be made for designing new urban textures that reduce energy consumption. Research on urbanism and energy efficiency has offered different views. The vast majority of studies conducted on the optimization of energy consumption in urban areas have focused on the impact of urban shape on fuel consumption in transportation or have evaluated energy consumption in micro scales. But, as thermal performance changes in scales beyond the building scale, researchers must analyze the thermal performance of buildings in larger scales such as neighborhoods. The missing part in this field is the assessment of energy consumption in neighborhoods. To fill this gap, the present paper attempts to assess the primary energy consumption of cooling, heating and lighting systems in new patterns of residential texture on neighborhood scale. Afterwards, on the basis of primary energy criterion, efficient and inefficient patterns are identified and, finally, some strategies are provided for optimizing energy consumption in new residential areas. The present study is an applied research conducted using descriptive-analytical method. Data was collected by documentary and field methods. In the first step, the concepts of primary energy, energy efficiency, and typo-morphology approach are described and analyzed in order to formulate the theoretical framework of the research. The relationship between microclimate and morphology is also investigated. Then, following the typo-morphology approach, the residential texture of Sepahan Shahr, Esfahan, Iran, is categorized on the neighborhood scale. Finally, simulating the primary cooling, heating, and lighting equipments’ energy consumption in the residential textures via Design Builder software, results are analyzed based on the comparative approach and statistical tests. The results show that there is a strong correlation between primary energy consumption and indicators of design layout, mass placement, form of the building, height of the building, and open spaces. Also, there is a moderate correlation between primary energy consumption and block proportions. Moreover, based on the results from the variance analysis, common row patterns and square-shaped patterns are the most and least efficient patterns of new residential textures, respectively, though the lighting systems’ energy consumption is lower in square-shaped patterns. Other patterns, such as H, T, I, and L shapes are in mid-level for primary energy consumption. Among these patterns, the H-shape is the best choice for four-storey buildings with high-density.
