Improving Thermal Comfort in the Outdoor Spaces of Universities through Planning: Corridors of the University of Al-Farahidi, Iraq

Abstract

As a result of the changing and large climatic variations occurring around the world, recent academic research has focused on climate and its most important aspects: how the communities maintain their existence in the climatic conditions, which affect thermal comfort. Similarly, this research focuses on "how to realize thermal comfort in the outer spaces of universities in general, and the outer spaces of the University of Al-Farahidi in particular".It presents the idea in a four-step process. It first introduces thermal comfort and climatic variables that affect it. It then examines the determinants that affect people, and presents the options available in hot dry climates. This is followed by an examination of the outside spaces of universities and methods of site design. It focuses on the University of Al-Farahidi in Iraq in particular, testing its outdoor spaces using the ENVI-met software. The site chart was drawn using AutoCad, and images were taken using the bitmap extension of the program. It produced a model of the exterior spaces of the University of Al-Farahidi which introduced the ENVImet program in the form of three options (three models). The variables were input, tested, analyzed, and the results of the three models were compared.The research concludes that it is possible to achieve thermal comfort in the outdoor spaces in university complexes by adopting a number of treatments in the proposed models, The study led to an improvement of thermal comfort of the exterior spaces of the University of Al-Farahidi in Iraq.