Optimising human comfort in medium-density housing via daylight and wind simulation

Abstract

This paper explores the pedagogical context for the inclusion of daylight and wind simulation as part of architectural design-studio teaching. The author describes both challenges as well as opportunities encountered by architecture students who applied high-end technology for optimizing environmental conditions during the conceptual design of a residential project within a thirteen week studio. Students located their projects in an inner urban context in a 'Temperate' climate zone, meaning that they had to account for hot conditions in summer while considering wind-chill factors in winter. Based on the studio experience, the paper scrutinizes how students tackled Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and daylight analysis on different scales of their project. The paper explores how the engagement with latest tools available to architecture students changes their ability to discuss building physics with engineers and question precedence typology. The author describes the pedagogical challenges when helping architecture students to overcome obstacles in communicating engineering aspects inherent to the design process.