Effect of Urban Texture on Building Energy Performance

Abstract

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">Today, ongoing discussions onclimate change, depletion of fossil fuels and energy efficiency emphasize theneed for a more sustainable built environment and thus the need to reduceenergy consumption in buildings and urban textures and reduce greenhouse gasemissions. Therefore the evaluation of building energy performance with aholistic approach, taking the effect of urban textures and microclimates intoconsideration has become very significant in the recent years. Urban texture isa commonly accepted expression including the form and height of buildings, thewidth of streets, their orientation, spatial configuration and arrangement inspace intersection, vegetation and so on. This study aims to develop andsuggest a model which allows the evaluation of the level of effects of thedesign parameters which should be considered at the scale of urban textures, onthe energy performance of buildings to design sustainable, energy efficientbuilt environments. In the first stage energy performance of a referencebuilding modeled in different urban texture alternatives was evaluated. Theevaluations are performed through DesignBuilder simulation program for thelocation of İstanbul representing temperate-humid climatic region. Theparameters of aspect ratio (H/W) and orientation were used to develop differenturban texture alternatives. In the second stage, analyses of outdoor thermalcomfort of the existing condition and the condition with the added effect ofvegetation for the alternatives with the lowest overall energy consumption wereconducted with the ENVI-Met program. The thermal comfort parameters of airtemperature, mean radiant temperature, wind speed and physiological equivalenttemperature (PET) index were used to evaluate outdoor thermal comfort in streets.As a result, the urban texture alternative which achieved the optimum resultfor energy performance and with regard to outdoor thermal comfort wasdetermined.</p>