Towards a Wind Urbanism in Tropical Environments

Abstract

One of the conditions for the proper functioning of passive comfort in humid tropical environments is successful implementation of natural ventilation in buildings and more specifically, how to achieve a 1m/s wind velocity within a building. In reviewing a rich literature, we asked ourselves how to ensure the sustainability of effective natural ventilation for a built complex in a humid tropical environment? This question led us to investigate the contextual aspects of sustainable natural ventilation through various dimensions: the chain of natural ventilation, the programmatic context, the climatic and geographical context, and the regulatory context. We applied these dimensions to a case study, the eco-district of Cœur de ville city of La Possession, on the island of La Réunion, Indian Ocean, France, in developing a new conceptual approach that integrates urban planning and aeraulic engineering from the beginning of the design process for maximum ventilation efficiency. To this end, we initiated a new approach based on co-design, the use of physical wind tunnel simulation at different scales and the integration of envir onmental, architectural, and landscape recommendations at the scale of the district and of the buildings making up this district, in an enforceable urban planning regulation. This has enabled us, within the framework of the eco-district study area, to consider comfortable natural ventilation under a new urban concept: the windy city (as compared to the sunny city) and how to guarantee the preservation of such natural comfort without adding air conditionning in any building of this new city. This approach has the potential to be applied in other eco-neighbourhoods in a tropical environment and could even be extended to other climatic zones, in the context of current global warming.