Studying the thermal environment in classrooms is essential due to its impact on students' health, teaching, learning, and productivity. In the Nigerian context, there is a general lack of thermal comfort studies, and none specifically relate to secondary school settings. This study aims to investigate students' perceptions of the indoor thermal environment and to determine the optimum temperature in naturally ventilated classrooms in the tropical savanna climate. Field investigations were conducted in free-running classrooms in Abuja to evaluate occupants' thermal comfort and perceptions. The study involves 901 pupils from 21 classrooms. Data were obtained through physical measurements of thermal comfort variables and a questionnaire survey on occupants' perceptions of the indoor thermal environment. The objective assessment indicated that 86% of the classrooms were inconsistent with the ASHRAE standard–55. Although 60% of the pupils were satisfied with their thermal environment, 78% preferred a cooler than neutral temperature. The result revealed a comfort temperature of 28.9 oC. The results extend the literature on thermal comfort in classrooms to the tropical savannah climate of the west African sub-region, which has received little attention in earlier research. The findings provide foundation data for developing a comfort standard for classrooms in the zone.

The present study identifies issues pertaining energy efficiency of high-rise city hotels in Malaysia and aims to examine the thermal performance of high-rise hotels with different façade design configurations. Large hotels in the tropics of Malaysia are found to be energy intensive among commercial building categories. The present study proposes two case studies of high-rise city hotels in George Town, Penang, with different façade configurations to determine their capability to comply the Overall Thermal Transfer Value (OTTV) requirements set by the Malaysian Standards MS 1525;14 and the Green Building Index (GBI). Utilizing the OTTV formula as stipulated in the MS 1525:14, the OTTV of each case study was manually calculated using the identified façade design parameters. Comparative analysis of the results indicate that each of the cases garnered OTTV which exceeded the recommended value of 50 Wm-2. General guidelines and recommendations for improvement in the hotel façade design in the tropics are also included in the discussion.

Colonial buildings and monuments are the prominent symbolism of the architectural sovereignty over the existing local architecture of the conquered lands. Specifically referring to the British colonialism, the colonial architecture was disseminated to manifest the triumph of the British colonial governance and the thriving monetary economy. In examining the impact of the British colonial influence on the local architecture precisely driven by the British colonial governance and the thriving monetary economy, the study enlisted three case studies of government office buildings located in the city of George Town. These prominent case studies include the Penang Council State Assembly, the Town Hall and the High Court Building. The design coherence of these buildings in regard to the British colonial references became the essential requisite in the selection of these case studies. Analysis on the design elements of these case studies was meticulously undertaken to draw relevant relationship between the colonial design praxis and the local government office buildings. The outcome of the study underscores the profound influence of the classical style in representing the British institutional status and its monetary economic success. Intended to showcasing the grandeur of classical elements, the embodiment of classical orders such as Doric, Ionic, Tuscan and Corinthian columns is evident in abundance of institutional and financial buildings across the Peninsula Malaysia, tracing its design references to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Further stipulation on some of these buildings revealed the adornment of Greek pediments and a series of Roman arches and vaults intended to further uphold the notion of the British colonial success.

PurposeThe study's main objective is to evaluate the morphological developments in the characteristics of the spatial configurations of the residential layouts in Kerman, Iran, in examining the impact on the level of visual privacy through the spectrum of permeability and wayfinding in space syntax analysis.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, plan graph analysis is used to measure the syntactic properties of seven topological residential architecture plans in Kerman, Iran, built from the 1970s to 2010s. The methodology involves the development of mathematical measurements to signify permeability and simulation of visibility graph analysis (VGA) to indicate wayfinding.FindingsThe findings reveal the residential layouts of Iranian houses tend to be less integrated over decades of design development from the 1970s to 2010s. Reduction in spatial integration corresponds to increase segregation allowing for enhanced visual privacy. The study underpins that, even with the constraints in the scale of the house and reduction in the number of nodes, as evident in the design of the modern residential layout, the efficient level of visual privacy is still achievable with regards to the standards demanded by the local culture.Originality/valueThe study examines the development in residential spatial configuration and building scale on visual privacy through a proposed methodology based on the level of permeability and wayfinding measured as a combined effect using the space syntax analysis and visual accessibility.