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Mongolia is experiencing unprecedented urbanization along with recent economic growth. Ulaanbaatar is known to be the coldest capital in the world and heating demand is very high during the long winter season. Due to the increase of coal burning to provide heat, there is an urgent need to improve housing and to reduce energy use and air pollution. Currently, there is a revitalization of the Ger area of Mongolia and this presents a good opportunity to redevelop the region into an ecologically designed district with sustainable housing. Such a redesign will result in energy saving and air pollution reduction. With this goal in mind, a pilot project called Create Accord Living Environment (CALE), was developed to demonstrate living conditions with a new house design that is cost effective for Mongolia. This paper presents the house performance using an energy simulation and the results are correlated with measurement data taken during the wintertime. The average energy use intensity (EUI) for 5 CALE houses was found to be 112 kWh/m2/yr. This is a 71% energy savings compared to a typical detached house with a modern and efficient house design. If it is possible to redevelop 1000 houses in the Ger area, an estimated 6.5 kton/yr in carbon emission can be saved. In addition, a parametric study was conducted to investigate the impact of different construction materials, craftsmanship quality, and occupants' behavior on the house's energy efficiency. The proposed housing structures, which provide a comfortable living space with significantly reduced energy utilization, serves as a potential model for development both within Mongolia as well as for other similar climates.

Heating and cooling in high-rise buildings devour about one-third of overall energy consumption. Skycourts is increasingly integrated in high-rise buildings, in particular offices. Skycourts are perceived as transitional and social nodes. This paper aims to investigate potentials of a skycourt when perform as a ventilated buffer zone in offices in a temperate climate. Using a hypothetical office building in London, a coupled approach of energy simulation and CFD was carried out for two ventilation modes; air-conditioned skycourt, and alternative models that incorporate combined ventilation strategies with the adjacent offices’ zones of the skycourt. Furthermore, to determine the most critical ventilation conditions, different parameters were investigated. Overall, the results highlight that the incorporation of a ventilated skycourt potentially has a significant impact on the annual energy consumption. The optimized parameters enhance comfort temperature ranges of skycourts. Finally, the study developed guidelines to define the most effective configurations of ventilated skycourts.

Due to the increasing magnitude and high frequency of urban heatwaves, recently, there has been a surge of interest in the reflective roofs and the vegetative green roofs. Along with the rising temperature, there are also more frequent droughts and rainfall which have led to wider changes in weather conditions subsequently affecting the performance of green roofs and white roofs. However, there is still a lack of research in comparing dynamic energetic and hydrological performance of green roof and white roofs during heatwave events. This paper introduces a newly constructed outdoor test rig (installed with a semi-intensive green roof and an aluminium white roof) and a few initial monitoring results. The hydrological performance monitoring results showed that, although a noticeable peak runoff reduction of the white roof was observed, more significant water retention of green roofs had been established. The energetic performance monitoring results indicated that the green roof performed better than the white roof during the heatwave event reducing solar heat gains by 76% during day time, improving U-value by 28% and reducing indoor air temperature by 2.5°C. The peak indoor air temperature reduction in the green roof space occurred during late afternoons (around 7 pm).

This paper presents the results for the operating energy performance of the smart operation for a low carbon energy region (SOLCER) house. The house design is based on a &lsquo, systems&rsquo, approach, which integrates the building technologies for electrical and thermal energy systems, together with the architectural design. It is based on the concept of &lsquo, energy positive&rsquo, buildings, utilising renewable energy systems which form part of the building envelope construction. The paper describes how the building energy model HTB2, with a range of additional &lsquo, plugins&rsquo, has been used to simulate specific elements of the design and the overall energy performance of the house. Measurement data have been used in combination with the energy simulation results to evaluate the performance of the building together with its systems, and identifying the energy performance of individual components of the building. The study has indicated that an energy-positive performance can be achieved through an integrative systems approach. The analysis has indicated that the house, under normal occupancy, needs to import about 26% of its energy from the grid, but over the year its potential export to import ratio can reach 1.3:1. The paper discusses the performance gap between design and operation. It also considers the contribution of a transpired solar air collector (TSC) to space heating. The results have been used to gain a detailed understanding of energy-positive performance.

During winter-time in Mongolia, the air pollution is so severe that it threatens the citizens’ health. Ulaanbaatar is the capital city of Mongolia, and its population represents about half of the total population of Mongolia. The majority of people in the Ger area, approximately 50% of population of Ulaanbaatar, rely on direct coal burning to generate the required heat to maintain a comfortable environment in the cold season. The heavy reliance on coal leads to catastrophic air pollutant emissions including carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, which leads to global warming, climate change and human health. As it is identified that building insulation retrofit is one of the best ways to reduce the reliance on coal consumption due to the improved heat retention and air tightness, a tool, named “FIXIT” has been developed to quickly quantify the impact from insulation retrofit. This paper presents how “FIXIT” was developed and is applied to help house owners to understand their building performance. Not only can “FIXIT” be applied for individual houses, it can also be used to estimate the reduction of air pollution from coal burning due to insulation retrofit. With “FIXIT”, it is estimated that about 530 ktons of carbon emissions reduction can be targeted by applying building insulation retrofit, if around the 100,000 detached houses in Ulaanbaatar apply insulation retrofit. By highlighting the advantages on the building performance, “FIXIT” can encourage more house owners to improve their house insulation quality and thus contribute to the air quality, creating a cleaner and healthier environment and saving on fuel use.

A number of innovations in building envelope technologies have been Received 9 August 2016 implemented recently, for example, to improve insulation and air Accepted 24 September 2017 tightness to reduce energy consumption. However, growing concern KEYWORDS over the embodied energy and carbon as well as resource depletion, is Adaptability; energy beginning to impact on the design and implementation of existing and conservation measures; novel building envelope technologies. Biomimicry is proposed as one ecological design; intelligent approach to create buildings which are resilient to a changing climate, building; green building; embedded in wider ecological systems, energy efficient and waste free. biomimicry; biomimetics; However, the diversity of form and function in biological organisms and adaptable facade; plant cell therefore potential applications for biomimicry, requires a holistic wall approach spanning biology, materials science and architecture. It is considered timely to re-examine opportunities to learn from nature, including in the light of recent understanding of how plant form and function are determined at the cellular levels. In this article, we call for a systemic approach for the development of innovative biological and living building envelopes. Plant cell walls are compared to building envelopes. Key features of cell walls with the potential to inform the development of design principles of biological and living building envelopes are identified and discussed.

With around 1-2% annual replacement of the UK’s housing stock, housing retrofit must play a major role in reducing future energy use and CO2 emissions. This paper presents a whole-house approach for energy retrofit for five houses located in South Wales. This ‘systems based’ approach combines reduced energy demand, renewable energy supply and battery storage. The paper describes a combination of energy modelling, using the building energy model HTB2, and field measurements to analyse the performance of the houses before and after retrofit. The results indicate that significant reductions in energy use, CO2 emissions and energy costs can be achieved using a whole house approach, combining energy efficiency with building integrated renewable energy generation and energy storage. CO2 emission reductions are estimated to be in the range of 50-75%, with cost savings of £402 to £621 per year. The cost of carrying out the retrofitting ranges from £23,852 to £30,510. Although retrofits are still relatively expensive in relation to their annual cost savings, there are multiple benefits relating to reducing fuel poverty, reducing electricity grid stress and contributing to national CO2 emission reduction targets. Also, as costs of measures are further reduced and energy prices likely to rise in future, the cost balance will change more in favour of whole house retrofit. The paper demonstrates the advantages in using a combination of energy simulation and field monitoring to investigate the performance of buildings in use, which in this case concerns the impact of carrying out energy retrofits in housing.

Due to global warming and energy exhaustion, building retrofitting has attracted increasing attention worldwide. With 67.1 billion square meters of existing building area, China normally targets separate defect remedies to improve building energy efficiency in conventional renovation practices rather than taking a holistic approach to optimize whole building performance.\ud \ud This article presents a working procedure that is employed in the decision-making process of domestic retrofits in China from an architect’s perspective, combining building-sculpt redesign with the overall performance targets. This study examines three representative residences of different ages and dimensions as case studies to demonstrate a simulation-based holistic approach of integrating form, fabric and system strategies to improve environmental performance and reduce house-hold energy consumption without compromising building aesthetics in retrofit design. Different retrofit routes and corresponding priorities should be applied towards different conditions for different purposes. The simulation results indicate that within the service life, the older the residence, the greater the retrofit potential. For the 1981 residence, a holistic approach could achieve an energy savings of 78.1% and a CO2 savings of 92.6%. For the 1995 case, the holistic approach could reduce energy consumption by 66.6% and CO2 emissions by 76.6%. When designed properly, a 36.9% reduction in energy consumption and a 44.6% reduction in CO2 emissions could be achieved for the 2002 residence.

An on-site renewable energy system is developed and presented in this paper to supply electricity usage of potato cold stores in a UK food park. The system is designed to use the mass of the potatoes to store surplus power from PV when there are days of high solar radiation. It can also be charged from the grid during off-peak time when there are longer periods of overcast conditions. The paper presents results to show energy generated by the PV that can be used in the cooling system, and the storage potential of the potatoes in offsetting grid supply. The dynamic thermal model HTB2 with an energy system extension is employed to design the energy system. The base case representing the existing scenario is validated with previous weekly metering data. The system performance is examined in terms of annual energy performance and long-term cost-effectiveness. The simulation results indicate, 1) the cold store with potato storage is able to maintain the required temperature ranges for most periods when cooling is only powered by electricity from PV during peak-time, and it contributes to energy cost savings and electricity import reduction, but almost no cooling reduction; 2) the system combination of solar PV and off-peak cooling can be paid back within its lifespan, with the most optimal case taking only 11 years. The outcome of the research demonstrates the benefits of the optimized renewable energy system, which provides free or cheap energy supply, reduces industry-related CO2 emission, and contributes to overall energy cost savings. This technique might be applied to other type of food storage, where the thermal mass can contribute to thermal storage.

Transitional spaces have been widely applied in building designs. They may account for 10–40% of total volume in different types of buildings. Maintaining an acceptable level of thermal comfort for transitional spaces poses challenges to building designers and engineers. However, there is not in general a recommended acceptable comfort range for transitional spaces, nor are there specific thermal comfort prediction methods. This paper aims to investigate the thermal environmental performance and people's adaptive comfort in transitional spaces, by conducting field studies, which include on-site questionnaire surveys and physical measurements. Field studies were carried out for three selected case study buildings in Cardiff, each having some forms of transitional space. They were the National Assembly for Wales Senedd, the Hadyn Ellis Building and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. The total responses from the questionnaire surveys were 736 and 580, for all buildings, during the summer period in 2017 and the winter period in 2018 respectively. This paper first presents the findings from the field studies, followed by in-depth analysis of human adaptability to thermal environment. Strong correlations were identified between clothing value and indoor operative temperature. People's adaptability to the thermal environment is confirmed, with nearly 80% of the respondents opting for self-adaptive actions to overcome uncomfortable situations. The identified 90% acceptability comfort band (−0.5 < TSV< +0.5) were 4.0 °C and 4.2 °C for the summer period and the winter period respectively, implying that a fine control of the indoor temperature to maintain an acceptable comfort level is not necessary.

Several studies analyze the thermal performance of vegetated roofs, presenting either mathematical models or experimental quantifications of heat transfer process through them, also showing the effect of vegetation and soil parameters on the thermal and energy performance of this type of roofing system. However, presently the level of availability of these parameters, has not been enough considered. This work intends to investigate this underestimated issue of the green roofs’ thermal modeling, through the consideration of the availability of parameters pertinent to the shortwave radiation exchange, which are adopted by models based on leaf area index (LAI) and on the fractional vegetation coverage (σf). From the analysis of these models, the importance of a precise knowledge of such parameters arises, despite the availability of their values is still limited. In addition, the absence of a proper database including several green roof plant species and information on their stage of growth, to which a technician possibly will refer in the case of lack of field data, represents quite a worthwhile matter because it may lead to inaccurate estimations of the thermal loads for climatization of buildings equipped with green roofs. In this respect, the manuscript reports an estimation of the errors potentially occurring when not specific vegetation data are used. This evaluation is based on simulations, performed with the DesignBuilder© software, showing the energy effects produced by different assumptions in the green parameters (that is by adopting experimental data revealed by authors and a potential mix of the literature available parameters). Thus, the mission of the paper is to enlighten a difficulty that a technician possibly will encounter when performing an energy and thermal simulation of a green roof; therefore a strong call for making the current database more tailored on green roofs has also arisen.

European governments have set ambitious retrofitting targets driven by the commitment to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050. The United Kingdom has the oldest housing stock in Europe, with over 2/3 of dwellings built before 1976, when building regulations started to include energy efficiency. This raises concerns over carbon emissions, health, comfort and running costs, and government’s set targets and initiatives for significant improvements. Deep retrofitting by using innovative technologies with respect to aesthetics has considerable and measurable benefits, while it can be a costly and challenging process. This study examines a combination of measures undertaken in a pre-1919 dwelling in south Wales, including reduction of energy demand and the application of renewable energy supply and energy storage. A whole house performance and a systems breakdown evaluation is presented comparing the pre and post intervention status. Both monitoring and modelling tools where used, and the performance gap is also discussed. An annual reduction of 34% in space heating and 78% in electricity import was monitored with an additional electricity export of 3217kWh. This represents a total annual cost saving of £1115, at 2019 UK gas and electricity prices. The total cost of the retrofit was £55K.

Since the energy crisis of the mid and late 1970s, society has been aware of the need for a built environment that uses less fossil fuel energy. Although the built environment accounts for a large proportion of global fossil fuel use, it may be argued that the energy and buildings agenda is not being addressed at the depth or scale needed to meet global and national CO2 emission-reduction targets. Most actions to reduce energy use in the built environment have mainly used a ‘top-down’ decision-making approach, from government and industry, with little end-user engagement. Greenhouse gas emission-reduction targets will not be met without providing the technological and socio-economic pathways for achieving them. The paper is divided into three parts. Firstly, it discusses the need to reduce fossil fuel use and the apparent failure to transition policy goals and aims into practice. Secondly, top-down and bottom-up approaches are reviewed, advocating a greater emphasis on a ‘whole-system’ bottom-up approach in delivering multiple benefit solutions. Thirdly, the concept of ‘smart’ is considered in relation to bottom up with its implementation at a regional scale.

To improve energy efficiency of office buildings in Tianjin, we select a prototypical high-rise office tower as an example and focus on the effect of geometric factors on building energy performance. These factors include the orientation, plane shape, floor area, plane shape factor (the ratio of the plane length to the plane width, only as regards to a rectangle-shaped plane), floor height, floor number and window-to-wall ratio. The simulation is performed in DesignBuilder, which integrates artificial lighting with instantaneous daylight during the energy simulation process. The geometric factors of the defined prototype are examined in both single-parameter and multi-parameter evaluations. As to the multi-parameter results, the energy saving rate can vary by up to 18.9%, and reducing the floor height is observed to be the most effective means of reducing annual total end-use energy consumption, followed by increasing the plane shape factor and reducing the floor area. The results can serve as a reference for passive design strategies related to geometric factors in the early design stage.

Rapidly growing energy consumption and associated carbon emissions from building clusters and transport activities have raised concerns. Predicting carbon emissions combing building clusters and transport activities due to buildings’ users is an effective way to getting a better understanding of their energy use and carbon emissions, and thus to control carbon emissions for low carbon development. The purpose of this paper is to quantify and compare operational energy consumption and associated carbon dioxide emissions from building cluster and transport activities due to the buildings’ occupants. The energy consumption and carbon emission features on building cluster and transport activities are then presented and analysed. Finally, relevant low-carbon development strategies in the built environment from building cluster and transport activities are outlined and discussed. The results of the case study have shown that: (1) Energy consumption and carbon emissions from building clusters are almost four times higher than transport carbon emissions due to buildings’ users in the unit of the square metre per year. Therefore, more focus on energy-saving should be emphasised on the buildings sector compared to the transport sector. (2) Different building types significantly varied in energy demands. Specifically, residential buildings have the highest heating demands, while public buildings in term of commercial, office and hotel buildings consumed more energy on cooling demands. (3) Transport-related carbon emissions due to mobility from buildings’ users by car and taxi are the primary sources of carbon emissions. The highest average carbon emissions come from private cars/ taxis. By contrast, public transport has the lowest average transport carbon emissions due to their per capita low carbon emission factor. Transit modes are the preferred low carbon travel modes, so these should be promoted.

This paper presents an evaluation of the economic and technical feasibility of a renewable-led low carbon house in the UK. A holistic systems-based approach to achieve energy positive house has been taken. Long-term economic and technical feasibility analysis have been carried out based on a validated thermal and energy model of the house. The economic analysis employs the Return on Investment (ROI) method and considers changes to government financial support and technology progress over time. Results show that the extra investment on the house, compared with that for building a standard social house of similar size, can be paid back within the system lifespan under both the old Feed-in Tariff and its proposed replacement with reduced financial support. Variants examined in the technical feasibility analysis include housing type, orientation and location. Results show that the house can be replicated to achieve an energy positive performance for all variant combinations. Among the variants, location has the highest impact on building performance including annual electricity import, CO2 emission and electricity self-sufficient ratio, with South UK performing better than North UK. This implies that more efficient or advanced technologies would be needed to achieve similar building or system performance in areas of unfavourable climate. The outcome of the research has demonstrated the affordability of the energy positive house, and the technical feasibility of its replication with different housing types, orientations and locations in the UK. This study supports the wide scale replication of this affordable systems-based approach in domestic building design and construction when incorporating appropriate technologies.

This paper presents the design of a monitoring protocol to support retrofit strategies and drive the evaluation of a low carbon house. Monitoring is used during pre-intervention stage to facilitate the decision-making process, as well as in the post-intervention to evaluate the performance of the building and systems. The first phase refers to monitoring as a diagnostic tool with a view to reduce the uncertainty of suggested low carbon solutions by providing real measurements and evidence on building conditions, comfort, systems and occupants behaviour and interactions. The second phase utilises monitoring as an evaluation tool to quantify benefits and challenges of the retrofitting by providing information and analysis on the supply and demand reduction, the difference in comfort and the effectiveness of each intervention. The study explains the protocol development and discuss different monitoring depths and requirements based on the performance indicators required. A typical pre-1919 Welsh end-terraced dwelling is used as a case study to demonstrate the two phases of the proposed protocol. The protocol was developed as part of the Low Carbon Built Environment (LCBE) project at Cardiff University and it was tested in various building types and research-led retrofit packages.

Over the last twenty years China has witnessed rapid urbanisation process. The modification of urban land surface due to urbanisation changes not only affects the geometry of an urban settlement but also its thermal properties, which may give rise to the urban heat island (UHI) affect. Although there has been a large amount of research on mitigation strategies of UHI at the urban scale, there is still a lack of research that concerns the influence of urban geometrical settlement on UHI at a city block scale. Chengdu, a megacity in south-west China, has been chosen as the research subject in this study, to identify the existence of the UHI phenomenon, to measure its magnitude, and to investigate the relationship between UHI and urban design variables, including Floor Area Ratio, Building Coverage Ratio, Green Coverage Ratio, Building Height, Plot-layout Form, and Project Type (function). In this study, urban maps of UHI had been derived from MODIS satellite data for 103 selected projects and 28 urban zones. Correlations were carried out between UHI intensity and urban design variables. The study has developed design guidelines for improving outdoor thermal performance at an city block level. Moreover, a new approach to observe UHI at multi-scales in a long-time period had been conducted, providing a new method to analysis UHI at a city-block scale.

Fuelled by rapid urbanization, urban spatial expansion is increasingly encroaching on the rural hinterland of large metropolises in developing countries. Peri-urban residential settlement development in Chinese cities has seen unprecedented rate in recent years, however, its current situation and implications for sustainability are little understood. The purpose of this paper is to understand through empirical findings the current situation of peri-urban residential settlement development in a Chinese city and examine their progress against the requirements of the sustainable development agenda. In this paper, three recent development cases located in the city periphery of Tianjin, China are studied and a theme-based evaluation framework is used to examine their outcomes. Their specific approaches to achieving sustainable development are discussed, and emerging problems and challenges are identified and analysed with suggestions for the complementary approaches and progression in the planning and management of peri-urban settlements.

There is a global trend to deliver zero carbon buildings,\ud with European countries required to deliver near zero energy housing by 2020. This paper presents the results\ud of the simulation of the energy performance of the SOLCER house. The house was designed using a ‘systems’ approach to integrate the building technologies for thermal and electrical energy systems, based on the concept of buildings as power stations, using the renewable energy systems as part of the building envelope. The aim was to produce a house that achieves an ‘energy positive’ performance, which, on an annual basis, generates more energy than in consumes. The house is designed for wide-scale application, so, in addition to energy performance, the focus was also on affordability and ease of build. In order to assess the performance of the house a model was needed to assess the whole building energy performance of the building and its integrated energy systems. The paper describes the development of a simulation model based around the building thermal model, HTB2 (Heat Transfer in\ud Buildings: version 2). A number of sub-models were constructed to simulate the innovative heating, ventilation and power systems. Results are presented\ud relating to seasonal performance of the building, which\ud demonstrate that on an annual basis the building is around 70% self-sufficient in its energy needs, with a\ud grid export to import rate is 1.75.

Urban planning is a vital process in determining the functionality of future cities. It is predicted that at least two thirds of the world’s citizens will reside in towns and cities by the middle of this century, up from one third in the middle of the previous century. Not only is it essential to provide space for work and dwelling, but also for their well-being. Well-being is inextricably linked with the surrounding environment, and natural landscapes have a potent positive effect. For this reason, the inclusion and management of urban green infrastructure has become a topic of increasing scientific interest. Elements of this infrastructure, including green roofs and facades are of growing importance to operators in each stage of the planning, design and construction process in urban areas. Currently, there is a strong recognition that “green is good”. Despite the positive recognition of urban greenery, and the concerted efforts to include more of it in cities, greater scientific attention is needed to better understand its role in the urban environment. For example, many solutions are cleverly engineered without giving sufficient consideration to the biology of the vegetation that is used. This review contends that whilst “green is good” is a positive mantra to promote the inclusion of urban greenery, there is a significant opportunity to increase the contribution of plant science to the process of urban planning through both green infrastructure, and biomimicry.

This study assessed the influences of operative temperature on occupants’ perceptions of indoor thermal condition in three non-air-conditioned multi-storey hostels in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The thermal conditions of 24 measured rooms were recorded with and without an operating ceiling fan from May until July 2007. Measurements were made simultaneously at three different floor levels, namely, at the first, fifth and top floor of each of the case study hostels. A questionnaire survey was completed by 298 female student occupants of the same case study hostels. The results suggested that even though a significance above p < 0.01 was recorded between the operative temperatures with and without fan operation, the temperature difference remained small, i.e., from 0.5 K to 1 K. The findings of the questionnaire survey showed that the occupants perceived the thermal conditions in rooms that were shaded with a projected balcony (shading ratio of 0.9), a long roof overhang (shading ratio of 1.6) and an operable window-to-wall ratio of 0.3 to be thermally comfortable.

Possible solutions for zero energy building design in UK are discussed in this paper. Simulation software (EnergyPlus and TRNSYS 16) are employed in this study, where EnergyPlus simulations are applied to enable facade design studies considering building materials, window sizes and orientations and TRNSYS is used for the investigation of the feasibility of zero energy houses with renewable electricity, solar hot water system and energy efficient heating systems under Cardiff weather conditions. Various design methods are compared and optimal design strategies for typical homes and energy systems are provided.

This study focuses on assessing the effects of the indoor climate in typical multi-storey hostels in Malaysia on student occupants through objective, subjective and evidence based prioritisation measurements. The objective measurements consisted of operative temperature; daylight ratio; luminance and indoor noise level. The subjective measurements were sampled from the student occupants' thermal, visual, acoustics and overall indoor comfort votes. The prioritisation measurement using Multiple Linear Regression and Friedman Tests assessed the relationship between physical indoor thermal, visual and acoustics conditions and students' overall indoor comfort perception vote. Findings suggest that subjective sensor ratings were significantly more reliable than objective measurements at predicting overall indoor comfort. Moreover, students living in hostel rooms with projected balconies voted that they were more satisfied with their indoor condition than the ones living in rooms without projected balconies. The results of this study also provide evidence that student occupants were more concerned with their rooms' thermal condition then followed by acoustics and finally visual conditions.

Conventional tropical building designs are experiencing a new paradigm in their environmental response to improve lighting ambiance and occupants’ visual comfort through the exploitation of daylighting. However, it is important for architects to understand that flaws in daylighting strategies could lead to disadvantages as they could hinder vision, cause discomfort, increase interior heat gain, and result in excessive energy demands. The objective of this study was to assess how occupants’ perceived their visual conditions through daylight ratio and luminance level measurements. Measurements were conducted throughout a 2-month period starting from 12th May to 3rd July 2007. Three case studies were conducted at typical Malaysian hostels located in the Klang Valley. Those selected were: the Twelfth Residential College, Universiti Malaya (H1); the Eleventh Residential College, Universiti Putra Malaysia (H2); and Murni Student Apartments, Universiti Tenaga Nasional (H3). The daylighting source in all these case studies were from side-lit windows. Overall, the findings suggested that occupants were at ease with the level of daylighting available in their rooms even though rooms that were shaded by projecting balconies (i.e.,: H1) were dimmer than the rooms that were not shaded (i.e.,: H2 and H3).

The need to design for low energy consumption dwellings has induced Malaysian architects to design naturally ventilated high-rise hostels (HH), near the capital, Kuala Lumpur. Objective and subjective measurements for thermal comfort investigations were conducted in two high-rise university hostels located in Universiti Malaya, Petaling Jaya (HH1) and Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang (HH2) from May 12 to June 19 in 2007. Eighteen rooms located at first, fifth, and top floor of each HH were measured for different orientations. The measured rooms were naturally ventilated with ceiling fans. Thermal comfort variables were measured prior to the subjective measurement. A total of 208 student occupants responded to the questionnaire. Subjects with 6 months and over living experience in those HH were selected randomly. This study was aimed: (1) to assess the indoor microclimate of each naturally ventilated HH, (2) to identify student occupants' thermal sensation during rainy and clear day, and (3) to simulate the neutral operating temperature for rooms in naturally ventilated high-rise hostels. Findings revealed that room in HH1 which is located on high land and shaded has a more constant operating temperature distribution than rooms in HH2 that is located on lower land and un-shaded. Operating temperature ranges for HH1 and HH2 were 27—31°C and 26—41°C, respectively. Results suggested that there is also a possibility that thermal comfort is achievable in shaded naturally ventilated hostels with a window-to-wall ratio of 0.35 where the internal—external relative humidity is above 70% RH, especially in south-facing rooms.

BackgroundThere is increasing interest in the proposition that residential environment can affect mental health.AimsTo study the degree to which common mental disorder clusters according to postcode units and households. To investigate whether contextual measures of residential environment quality and geographical accessibility are associated with symptoms of common mental disorder.MethodA total of 1058 individuals aged 16–75 years (response rate 66%) participated in a cross-sectional survey The 12-item General Health Questionnaire measured symptoms of common mental disorder.ResultsOnly 2% (95% CI 0–6) of the unexplained variation in symptoms existed at postcode unit level, whereas 37% (95% CI 27–49) existed at household-level, but the postcode unit variation was reduced to zero after adjustments. There was little evidence to suggest that residential quality or accessibility were associated with symptoms.ConclusionsThere was substantial unexplained variation at the household level but we could find no evidence of postcode unit variation and no association with residential environmental quality or geographical accessibility. It is likely that the psychosocial environment is more important than the physical environment in relation to common mental disorder.

Heat transfer process and natural ventilation driven by a solar chimney attached to a sidewall of building are investigated with CFD technique (MITFLOW) in detail. In this paper, conditions and par...

This paper discusses an overall strategy for reducing energy demand in non-domestic buildings, mainly focusing on office developments. It considers four areas: reducing internal heat loads; addressing passive design through the building construction; using efficient and responsive HVAC systems and focusing on chilled (heated) surface systems; integrating renewable energy supply systems into the building design. The impact on energy use and carbon dioxide emissions will be discussed. The paper will draw from a range of design projects carried out in Europe, where this integrated approach has been applied, and then explore the benefits in relation to applications in the Middle East and China. Energy modelling results, to inform the design process will be presented, using energy simulation for three case study locations, in Zurich, the Chongqing and Abu Dhabi.

Study objective: To develop a cross disciplinary literature search methodology for conducting systematic reviews of all types of research investigating aspects of the built environment and the health of the public. Design: The method was developed following a comprehensive search of literature in the area of housing and injuries, using 30 databases covering many disciplines including medicine, social science, architecture, science, engineering, environment, planning and psychology. The results of the database searches, including the type (or evidence) of research papers identified, were analysed to identify the most productive databases and improve the efficiency of the strategy. The revised strategy for literature searching was then applied to the area of neighbourhoods and mental health, and an analysis of the evidence type of references was carried out. In recognition of the large number and variety of observational studies, an expanded evidence type classification was developed for this purpose. Main results: From an analysis of 722 citations obtained by a housing and injuries search, an overlap of only 9% was found between medical and social science databases and only 1% between medical and built environment databases. A preliminary evidence type classification of those citations that could be assessed (from information in the abstracts and titles) suggested that the majority of intervention studies on housing and injuries are likely to be found in the medical and social science databases. A number of relevant observational studies (10% of all research studies) would have been missed, however, by excluding built environment and grey literature databases. In an area lacking in interventional research (housing/neighbourhoods and mental health) as many as 25% of all research studies would have been missed by ignoring the built environment and grey literature. Conclusions: When planning a systematic review of all types of evidence in a topic relating to the built environment and the health of the public, a range of bibliographical databases from various disciplines should be considered.

Oversized equipment is one of the key factors for poor energy performance of commercial buildings in Hong Kong. Similar situations exist also in many buildings in different parts of the world. The use of realistic design criteria has been identified as an effective method to reduce the equipment oversizing problem. A set of realistic design criteria for lighting power density, occupation density, and appliances' load-intensity for various types of premises have been established based on data obtained in walk-through surveys of energy end-uses in 31 Hong Kong office buildings. Potential electricity savings through the use of realistic design criteria were estimated to be 6–22% of the electricity consumption of Hong Kong, which corresponds to an annual cost of HK$12.2–44.7 billion.

The world is rapidly urbanizing with the developing world contributing the largest percentage to this process. With urban dispersal as a common phenomenon, peri-urban development becomes critical for understanding urban sustainability. In recent years, peri-urban settlement development in Chinese cities has been put on a fast track, yet its current situation and implications for urban sustainability are little understood. This study discusses three recently planned and developed settlement cases in the city periphery of Tianjin, China, all of which lay claim to certain facets of sustainability. Based on the empirical findings, current and emerging challenges to sustainability are discussed and suggestions for the complementary approaches and progression in the planning and management of peri-urban settlements are proposed.

Background: Rates of injuries may occur more frequently in different types of homes. Methods: Retrospective population-based cohort study utilizing three linked databases: a population register, an architectural assessment of homes in the area, and an emergency departmentbased injury surveillance system. Results: Over 58,000 homes were classified into 94 different types according to age, size, and built form. Among the 112,248 inhabitants, there were 18,044 emergency department attendances for treatment of an injury suffered in the home. Adjusted odds ratio of injuries for residents of purpose-built apartments was substantially elevated for all injuries (2.07; 95% confidence interval [CI]�1.87–2.30) and poisoning episodes (5.6; 95% CI�3.8–8.3). Conclusions: Residents of apartment buildings have substantially higher injury rates. Additional research is required to investigate the contribution of environmental hazards and behavioral factors underlying these high rates.

There are many technical challenges and opportunities ahead as sustainability in the built environment becomes a major economic force in relation to both building construction and energy supply. Climate change, the depletion of fossil fuel energy sources, and the security of future energy supplies are becoming a major concern for all countries. Materials and water are also becoming short in supply. All these issues are a clear indication that we are living in unsustainable ways. Many countries are developing at a rapid pace and the global rate of building construction is unprecedented, generally with little attention given to the impact that the construction and operation of these building will have on the environment, both locally and from a global perspective. In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported a 90% certainty that global warming is caused by human activity associated with greenhouse gas emissions. The increased CO2 level in the global atmosphere is now a major concern. The reports states that if we are to avoid catastrophic climate change, average temperature rises must be maintained within 28C which equates to carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere staying below 450 ppm. Perhaps the most alarming aspect of this is that we must take action within 10 years from 2007. That means we have only 8 years, not just to plan, but to act on the sustainability issues concerning the built environment. In the longer term the planet needs to achieve carbon neutrality. If we take the view of climate change modellers that we have a finite amount of CO2 that we can put into the atmosphere before the 28C limit is exceeded then we must budget this over a period of time. We might take the view that the carbon neutrality target is to be achieved by the end of this century and that the amount of emissions must be agreed globally, with some countries allowed to continue to increase their emissions, whilst other more developed countries begin to reduce sooner. At some stage all countries would emit the same per capita and then reduce to zero carbon. This is called the contraction and convergence principle. So what role should the built environment play in this? In a global context the built environment is said to be responsible for about 50% of emissions and 70% if we include transportation associated with mobility within the built environment. It is convenient to divide the built environment into new build, existing buildings and supporting infrastructures (for transport, water/sewage, waste and energy supply). Probably the easiest sector to deal with first is new build. As they are likely to be around for some time it is important that they perform well in relation to CO2 emissions. Many governments worldwide are developing policies to reduce CO2 emissions. In the UK, the government has set a target for all new houses to be ‘‘zero carbon’’ by 2016, and in some regions of the UK, for example Wales, the regional government has set a target for all new buildings to be zero carbonby2011.Thedefinitionofazerocarbonbuilding in its simplest form is that it has a reduced energy demand for thermal energy and power and that the supply is from renewable energy sources, integrated into the building