No abstract

The quality of the indoor and outdoor has a significant impact on the quality of air that we breathe in our habitable spaces like homes and offices. The buildings especially that are ill-lit or ill-ventilated cause various illnesses, i.e. asthma, allergy, reduced efficiency, lack of energy, known as Sick Building Syndrome (SBS). The SBS, combined with other environmental issues, has a direct or indirect impact on the health of the workers, workplace comfort level, and productivity. However, not much effort is put into buildings to keep the cost of the buildings in check. The fact is both low-cost and high-cost buildings are equally prone to SBS if not dealt with at the design stage from the beginning. This paper aims to address this recurring problem of SBS in ill-lit and ill-ventilated buildings by exploring various systems taken from results from a structured questionnaire given to the users.

Small towns and suburbs have a lower capacity to absorb changes at various socio-economic fronts with an increased population, unlike big metro cities. Leeder Ville Reimagined aims to redefine Leeder Ville in such conditions as an accessible and sustainable forward-moving place, which constantly thrives to celebrate diversity, a sense of community, and character. This paper is focused on four key themes as guidelines to achieve this vision. The themes include making Leeder Ville more accessible, enhancing connectivity, densifying the housing, and creating a more defined and characterized Leeder Ville. In assessing the current conditions and intricacies of the site, a range of methods were undertaken to obtain an overall holistic understanding of Leeder Ville. Numerous site visits, public life, and comprehensive research and analysis were utilized and conducted to better understand the site. Through this case study, it was evident that Leeder Ville needed change and rejuvenation.

Building orientation is one of the most important design tools that can have a significant impact on the control of solar radiation and wind flow into a building. A country like Ethiopia has a predominantly hot and dry climate and hence receives an ample amount of sunlight throughout the year. The buildings need to be oriented to reduce the solar heat gain on the buildings and maximize the natural ventilation. The paper investigates the effect of orientation and facade treatment of the design studios on the thermal performance of students’ mental states and physical health. The design studio building is oriented in the east-west direction and located in Nekemte Campus of Wollega University, selected as the study area. The building orientation, facade treatment, window to wall ratio, and window size and level were studied and analyzed. The results from the data analysis clearly show that the east-west facing windows helps in thermal heat gain in the building, thereby increasing the inside temperature, compared to the windows oriented in north-south directions for both ventilated and unventilated rooms.

Newly built hospitals need to be assessed to evaluate the performance in the context of sustainability by means of comparing the thermal comfort level of the users and the ambient thermal conditions in hospital environment of high- and low-level designs. A perspective of facility management has been used to decide the responsibility of hospital administrators towards contributing for sustainable design outcome in order to make operational sustainable hospital with newly and restructured construction. To asses this, study data was extracted by using thermal environment equipment and energy simulation applications, through conducting survey of thermal comfort and interviewing authoritative personnel who provide services and care, facility provider and patients. The hypothesis suggests about how sophisticated sustainable ventilation design provisions provide a feel-good fact or from thermal comfort point of view and it helps to push down lower heat index in the wards that are designed with natural ventilation features.