How building arrangements can improve outdoor thermal comfort and indoor sunlight?

Abstract

In the context of frequent extreme hot weather conditions, high-dense urban areas posed more life-threatening challenges. Such as university dormitories, as important residential spaces, have received very little attention. Moreover, how building arrangements can simultaneously impact internal and external environments remain poorly understood. To bridge this gap, student residential areas of Jiangsu University in Zhenjiang, China were considered as a case study, with the aim of optimal building arrangements that can simultaneously improve the outdoor thermal comfort (OTC) and indoor sunlight (ISL). A combination of on-site measurement and numerical models were employed to simulate various scenarios with different building orientations, building heights and layouts. The result revealed that: first, the building orientation emerged as a dominant factor influencing both OTC and ISL, with the optimal value identified as SE-30°. Second, in the context of extremely hot weather conditions, increasing building height or floor-area ratio contributed to improved OTC. Finally, the building arrangement with inconsistent heights of north-to-south descending order, exhibited a notable reduction in hot outdoor spaces by 18.6%, and attributed to enhanced airflow. The findings provide clear guidelines for improved strategies at the detailed urban design scale, and can further contribute to the development of sustainable cities.