American Journal of Engineering Research (AJER) 2016 American Journal of Engineering Research (AJER) e-ISSN: 2320-0847 p-ISSN : 2320-0936 Volume-5, Issue-12, pp-193-199 www.ajer.org Research Paper Open Access
Utilization of Adaptive Opportunity in Residential Buildings within a Warm-Humid Urban Environment Adewale Oluseyi Adunola Department of Architecture, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Johannesburg, South Africa Department of Architecture, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria
ABSTRACT: The focus in the design of buildings in cities must be energy-saving measures for sustainability. The adaptive nature of thermal comfort can provide a sustainable means of indoor comfort provision rather than dependence on active energy. A thermal comfort survey was conducted on residents of 528 buildings in 12 selected residential areas of Ibadan, a warm-humid city in Nigeria, to examine adaptive opportunity. The adaptive actions most utilized were: drawing of curtain, opening of window, putting on fan and movement to semi-outdoor spaces like verandah, porch and courtyard. The values of mean comfort vote for the respondents expressed better comfort levels than the corresponding values of Predicted Mean Vote. It was established that the adaptive principle was operational within this study context. Some adaptive actions were strongly correlated with adaptive opportunity as exhibited in the building design features and the design typology. Keywords: adaptive opportunity, adaptive thermal comfort, building design features, sustainability, urban, warm-humid.
I.
INTRODUCTION
The buildings within warm-humid tropical climate have to contend with high values of the environmental parameters of thermal comfort like air temperature, relative humidity and mean radiant temperature. There is usually a build-up of heat in such buildings in the afternoon periods bringing the experience of discomfort for residents. It is of concern that the urban air temperature is gradually rising in all cities of the world, caused by drastic reduction in the green area in cities [1]. It has also been submitted that the outdoor environment is deteriorating especially in tropical cities because of rapid urbanization thereby increasing thermal discomfort [2]. Due to thermal discomfort, many buildings in tropical cities utilize airconditioning with the energy demand increasing daily as well as the negative impact on the environment. Unfortunately, the use of air-conditioning has the disadvantage of high cost which the poor urban dwellers of developing countries which are mostly located in the tropics cannot afford. Additionally, power generators consuming substantial amounts of fossil fuels are used extensively in a country like Nigeria by both rich and poor alike because of incessant power outage. All these uncoordinated excessive energy use in buildings contribute to global environmental problems like climate change through the release of greenhouse and ozonedepleting gases into the atmosphere. Environmental challenges notwithstanding, indoor thermal comfort is considered a primary functional requirement of every building. The use of air-conditioning and space-heating for comfort provision, even though of necessity in many circumstances has proved to be negative as far as sustainability of the environment is concerned. The focus in the design of buildings within cities must be energy-saving measures for sustainability. The adaptive nature of thermal comfort has been expressed as a means of extending the comfort conditions within spaces as occupants utilize the adaptive opportunities available to them. The adaptive principle states that if a change occurs such as to produce discomfort, people react in ways which tend to restore their comfort [3]. The adaptive approach to thermal comfort can be utilized with a view to providing information on the passive design of buildings as a means of attaining sustainability in the built environment. In the study, a thermal comfort survey was conducted in Ibadan metropolis in the warm-humid zone in Nigeria, to examine the adaptive actions of the residents. The applicability of the adaptive approach in the context of a Nigerian urban residential environment is examined using the indoor thermal comfort experience and the adaptive opportunity.
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