QUALITATIVE ASPECTS OF SPACES IN A KINDERGARTEN IN RELATION TO THE CLIMATE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract Electricity Consumption Orientation of the villa Water Consumption Survey Suggested Improvements by users in the Nursery Conclusion and Improvements References
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ABSTRACT This self-initiated research project was undertaken for three months in a children’s nursery called Al Thahabiah Nursery. The villa where this nursery is run is in Al Jazzat Area – Sharjah, UAE. The main idea of conducting this research work was to understand the physical environment such as the ambient noise, lighting, indoor air quality, and the thermal comfort of the nursery’s physical building and its location within the community. Understanding the qualitative aspects of spaces is important as it determines the performance and behavior of the users. Moreover a study of spaces in a kindergarten is even more necessary because young children and toddlers are at a higher level of risk in uncomfortable environment and physical environment is related to teacher’s levels of absenteeism, effort, effectiveness in the classroom, morale, and job satisfaction. To be able to design thermally comfortable spaces, designers require design guidelines that respond to people's thermal and spatial perception. This thermo-spatial perception is influenced by a range of dimensions: the nature and scale of spatial contexts, the kinetic state of the people and the time scale of their perception. Finally design guidelines have been proposed to improve the qualitative aspects of the spaces in the nursery in relation to the climatic conditions in the region.
ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION Parameters affecting electricity consumption in the nursery:
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Consumption (units)
1. The electricity consumption kept on decreasing from August 2018 to March 2019, mainly due to the following reasons: Climatic changes – Temperatures kept reducing during these months as can be seen from the Temperature Graph of Sharjah, so there wasn’t much need of airconditioning in the nursery spaces. The interior spaces used to remain cool. Cost-cutting – Since the electricity charges are overheads in a business, the nursery management tried to reduce the costs wherever possible. In doing so the airconditioners were switched on-off as per occupancy and requirement. 2. From April 2019, the electricity consumption again started to increase due to the increase in temperatures as is evident from the Temperature Graph of Sharjah. 3. Another parameter affecting the electricity consumption can be the construction materials used in the villa envelope. When the envelope of a structure is not sealed properly, the interior cool air can be lost easily, which causes extreme pressure on the cooling devices. 4. Since July 2019 the electricity consumption has remained almost equal just the way temperatures in Sharjah have remained steady.
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ORIENTATION OF THE VILLA Sun Direction Al Thahabiah Nursery Location
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Majority of the electricity consumption is due to the use of airconditioners. The lights are sparingly used due to the orientation of the nursery villa i.e. it receives lot of natural daylight through the windows.
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During the peak sun hours and summers (June 2018 to August 2018 and May 2019 to August 2019) which is evident from the Sun Hours Graph of Sharjah, the abundant sunlight and heat that penetrates inside the nursery villa may also be a reason for the excessive warmth in the nursery spaces, which in turn leads to the increased need for air-conditioning.
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The location of the villa is such that it is not shaded by any of the neighboring elements i.e. all the other villas in the immediate setting are also of similar height, the Falaj Eid Musalla area is an open land, there are no other shading structures such as greenery, trees, tall buildings. Therefore the sunlight reaches the nursery villa abundantly.
WATER CONSUMPTION
3. The upward trend could also be due to the increase in the number of students in the nursery over the months; as the number of users increased the water consumption also increased.
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2. As can be seen from the graph there is an upward trend in the consumption of water in the nursery.
Consumption (units)
Parameters affecting water consumption in the nursery: 1. The water consumption was the least in June 2018 than the consumption in the following months, because until June 2018 water was used only in the nursery, but from July 2018 water was consumed by the security guard and his family who live on the nursery villa premises.
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SURVEY A survey was conducted to understand the experience of nursery users and consequently advise design improvements. The survey was completed by a total of nine users who furnished their true feedback.
SURVEY RESULTS & ANALYSIS The survey takers included the Director and Manager of the nursery, teachers, assistant teachers, and a visitor. 77.78% of the survey takers spent 0 – 10 hours per week in the nursery spaces and 22.22% spent more than 21 hours per week.
Acoustics – 88.89% of the users said that outdoor noises (such as that of traffic) were not audible in the nursery spaces, whereas 11.11% of the users said that such noises were audible sometimes in the nursery spaces. This minor difference in views could be possible in the rare cases when any of the doors were left open for a short interval of time during peak traffic hours. Since the area where the nursery is located is a residential-cum-commercial area, the disturbance due to noise and traffic is quite minimal. The nursery is right on the main road, but none of the external noises are audible in the interior nursery spaces.
Nursery classroom with natural daylight & artificial lights on
• Natural Daylight – As many as half of the users believe that the provision of natural daylight is enough in the nursery spaces, even when the artificial lights are switched off. The reason for this could be that all the rooms in the nursery have clear windows which let in all the sunlight through them. 22.22% of the users feel that the amount of sunlight entering the nursery spaces is not enough. The other 22.22% users feel that natural daylight provision suffices the nursery spaces sometimes. The reason for this could be that the users visited or were present in the nursery during the time of the day when the sunlight levels were low. Natural Daylight
• Artificial Lighting – 100% of the survey takers believe that the amount and arrangement of artificial lights in the nursery spaces is good. These artificial lights were installed at a later stage during the operation of the nursery, when the pre-existing chandeliers were not able to provide for the necessary lighting needs. Therefore, the LED artificial light fixtures were chosen and placed wisely.
Natural Daylight level in the nursery pantry during mid-day
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Thermal Comfort – 77.78% of the users feel comfortable in the nursery spaces, whereas 11.11% of the users don’t feel comfortable in the nursery, and other 11.11% of the users said that their comfort level depends on the weather. Although there are ceiling fans in all the nursery spaces to add to the comfort in conjunction with ACs, but at times the fans just scatter warm air which is present in the rooms. So, the fans are mostly beneficial during winters or when the ACs are enough to cool the nursery spaces. Thermal comfort depends on several factors such as temperature, humidity, clothing of users, metabolism of a person etc. Therefore, this kind of variation is understandable.
Indoor Air Quality – 88.89% of the users said that they can comfortably breathe in the nursery spaces, and 11.11% feel that they sometimes have problem in breathing in the nursery. The reason for this variation can be due to reasons such as underlying medical problems with the user, absence of ventilation during non-operating hours of the nursery.
As can be seen from the Humidity Graph of Sharjah, the humidity levels are mostly above 50% in the region, which is too high and creates uncomfortable environment when combined with high temperatures. Therefore humidity worsens the thermal comfort and the indoor air quality of the nursery spaces. Indoor Air Quality
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Ceiling Fans to maintain uniform air temperature
Split AC unit
Air-conditioning
Air - conditioning – 33.33% of the users believe that the provision of air-conditioning is enough in the nursery spaces, 22.22% feel that the provision of airconditioning is not enough and 44.44% of the users believe that whether the air-conditioning suffices the cooling needs of the nursery spaces is dependent on the weather. The ones who feel that the airconditioning provision is enough might feel so because of their metabolism rate and clothing. The need for better air-conditioning might be felt because of certain reasons such as low maintenance or the need to replace the AC units, improperly sealed building envelope.
The outdoor play area walls look plain and dull
These antenna completely ruin the appearance of the nursery villa
Overall Nursery Design
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The main entrance looks uninviting and shady
Overall Nursery Design – 44.44% of the survey takers believe that the overall design of the nursery villa is good, 33.33% are neutral in this concern maybe because they are unaware of a good nursery design and 22.22% of the survey takers feel that there is scope for improvement in the nursery villa design.
Most active areas from 8am to 12 noon
Most active areas from 12 noon to 5pm
Nursery Floor Plan depicting the most favorable areas as per temperature comfort
Nursery Floor Plan representing the most active areas in relation to natural light
FRONT ELEVATION
SIDE ELEVATION
BACK ELEVATION
SECTION A-A
Before when the nursery looked unattractive and boring
Suggested Improvements by users in the Nursery 1. Indoor spaces need improvement in terms of play area and sleeping room design. 2. Since the air-conditioners installed in the nursery spaces are split type, the cooling in the nursery spaces is not uniform and effective. Therefore air conditioning units needs to be replaced. 3. Natural ventilation needed because the indoor air feels dusty and suffocating at times. During peak summers, it is impossible to be in the nursery for long hours. 4. The nursery design is not very attractive and welcoming, neither does it feel cozy for the young kids that come in. Now after making some design improvements
Conclusion and Improvements 1. The villa was originally constructed to act as a residential unit but was later converted to a commercial property, therefore the floor plan of the villa is not exactly suitable for a kids’ nursery. 2. Since the villa consists of only a ground floor and an open terrace acts as the roof, all the heat from sun directly reaches the villa interiors. Therefore the roof could either be covered by a green roof which would keep the lower floors cool, or else solar panels which will help in generating electricity. 3. Replace ac units - A seamless solution that can be installed with minimum disruption to the villa users and minimum cost to the villa owners is a ducted split system - using compact DX units. To maximize efficiency, the DX units should have an energy conservation mode which would raise the set temperature slightly in cooling mode using in-built software. As well as matching the existing power requirement in the villa, this will ensure the economic operation of the unit. This system is durable and has a long life-span. 4. Double glazing - Recent studies indicate that in order to reduce energy and achieve thermal comfort in a building, certain parameters such as humidity, noise, lighting and temperature should be considered. In buildings most of the heat gain or losses comes from openings such as windows. It is clear, therefore, that windows are the main element in the transfer of huge amounts of heat between a building and the exterior environment. The insulation of a window is determined by the space between two glass panels. The cavity created between the two panes of glasses can either be filled by gas or vacuumed. In this design, the glass can be filled with argon in order to reduce the transmission of heat i.e. the single glazing in the case study villa should be replaced by double glazing with a cavity containing Argon instead of air.
References
American Institutes for Research , n.d. Physical Environment. [Online] Available at: https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/topic-research/environment/physical-environment [Accessed 4 October 2019]. Lenzholzer, S., Klemm, W. & Vasilikou, C., 2018. Qualitative methods to explore thermo-spatial perception in outdoor urban spaces. [Online] Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212095516300463#f0015 [Accessed 4 November 2019]. M.Taleb, H., 2014. Frontiers of Architectural Research. [Online] Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S209526351400003X [Accessed 3 November 2019]. Taqeef, n.d. Yas Island - Aldar. [Online] Available at: https://www.taqeef.com/work-content/yas-island-aldar [Accessed 4 November 2019]. World Weather Online, n.d. Sharjah Monthly Climate Averages. [Online] Available at: https://www.worldweatheronline.com/sharjah-weather-averages/sharjah/ae.aspx [Accessed 5 October 2019].
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