Overheating and Daylighting; Assessment Tool in Early Design of London’s High-Rise Residential Buildings

Abstract

High-rise residential buildings in dense cities, such as London, are a common response to housing shortage. The apartments in these buildings may experience different levels of thermal and visual comfort, depending on their orientation and floor level. This paper aims to develop simplified tools to predict internal temperatures and daylighting levels, and propose a tool to quickly assess overheating risk and daylight performance in London's high-rise residential buildings. Single-and double-sided apartments in a high-rise building were compared, and the impact of their floor level, glazing ratio, thermal mass, ventilation strategy and orientation was investigated. Using Integrated Environmental Solutions Virtual Environment (IES VE), temperature and daylight factor results of each design variable were used to develop early design tools to predict and assess overheating risks and daylighting levels. The results indicate that apartments that are more exposed to solar radiations, through either orientation or floor level, are more susceptible to overheat in the summer while exceeding the daylighting recommendations. Different design strategies at different levels and orientations are subsequently discussed.

Grand designs for design policy: Associations between apartment policy standards, perceptions of good design and mental wellbeing

“…As our study cities are located in warm or mild temperate climactic zones, where summers can exceed the human comfort range ( Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2013 , p. 4671), it is unsurprising that requirements intended to increase daylight to apartments negatively impacted summer thermal comfort. However, this is not only a challenge for hotter climates – a study of high-rise apartments in London found that the attributes that increased sunlight exposure (i.e., orientation, higher floor level, high glazing ratios) exceeded sunlight requirements and increased vulnerability to overheating in summer ( Nebia & Tabet Aoul, 2017 ). This embodies the challenge of designing apartments that promote access to sunlight and thermal comfort in both summer and winter, as the design requirements intended to improve sunlight access undermined summer thermal comfort but promoted winter thermal comfort.…”

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“…For example, excessive internal heat caused by highly insulated and airtight structures without appropriate passive cooling strategies caused thermal discomfort of residents, as confirmed, e.g., by Badescu et al [5] and Shrubsole et al [6]. Overheating of the top stories of buildings frequently occurred [7][8][9]. During the summer season peak, ambient temperatures occasionally prohibit sufficient free cooling and require the use of mechanical cooling systems in very well-insulated buildings.…”

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