Study of the factors for thermal comfort in residential high-rise in Dhaka city

Abstract

Living in high-rise apartments has been accepted In "':lOgested busy Cltie. all over th& world and Bangladesh IS no exception. A few years' back high-rise apartments were considered to have been so costiy a. to have been owned by th& affluent people only, The recenl developments like reduced price, availability of bank loan and government programs to accommodate government personnel in multi •• toried buoldings have paved the ~ for the middle income people to live In such apartments With lhi. change, however, a new responsibility has been piaced On fue shoulders of the deSigners ot such bUildings While Ihe alliuent owners could afford to install and maintain costly gadgets 10 moderata climatic adversities, the new owners and users, being less affluent can neitl1er afford to install nor maintain costly gadgets Also, Ihe exees.",e uses of such gadgets shouid be discouraged In view of the power crisis In the country, specially in the large Clues, The new responsibility that has been placed upon lhe designers of high-rise apartments is to design userfriendiy, ci,matically comfortable and energy-effldent apartments The succe.s of such design lies ,n lhe optLmum utilization of natural light and ventilation for ensuflng thermal comfort, This .tudy project was undertaken to study the existing srtuatlons of climates in.ide high-rise ap.anments One objective was to understand the current problems and inadequacies, 10 conduct stl>dles and investigation to fifld oul causes, such that deSign guidelines for their improvement can be suggested. The l>enefit of prevailing wind may be utilized in case of buildiflg, where the designer gets .cope to ma~euver its orientation and configurntion. This is seldom possible In case of buildings to be constructed on smal~size plots Inside congested bu.y cities Th. best Ymi to en.ure optimum naturai light and ventilation inside IS \0 have SUitable-sIZed windows and olher opening' at sUlta.ble locatIOns The architects, ,n general, provide nece.sary opemng. and the middle-income people are used 10 keep their wLndows open, of course with the use of curtains, for ge\tmg in natural light and Ir.sh air. and also ror good .iews, With light and air .uch openings .1.0 bring In Ihe exlemal temperature and humidity. These two important factors of dimalic comfort increase further due to pre.ence of human Mlng and lheir gadgets. One novel way to keep this internal-extemal variation 'minimum' is to Intelligently design the opening. by size, iocatLon., fragmen1ation and passive de.lgn elements. Becau.e of Ihe" natural seltings the rooms at various cardinal 10catLons show dilferenoe in temperature and humidity. So, MOIher intellLgent Ymi of optimum use of clirnatLc benef~ is to accommodate the appropnate type of "ctiv~les at the proper location., One objecllve ot this sludy was 10 lind out the climatio charactenstlc, of room. at .ariou. location. due 10 Iheir natural setlings This sludy may be consider&d as a 'Po", Occu~ncy OccupatIOn Evaluation (POE) of high-rise apartments in climatic aspect', that may aoqualnt the de.igners of such apartments 10 have understanding of various factors responsible and contributing to the creation of 'comtortable' and 'uncomfortable' climatic condition., It is expected lhat this understanding would help them to have fue knowledge and underslandlng most essential for designing 'cllmate-friefldly and energy.effident high-rise apartm""ts for Ih& le ••.. affluent users',