Landscape Sub(Vert.)Urbanity: a model for integrating gardens, as an architectural device, into higher density housing to encourage New Zealanders to live in the inner city

<p>New Zealanders continue to resist higher density housing as a way of living. The detached house in the suburbs remains the preferred housing choice for most. This proposal addresses the key attributes required for higher density living adoption as identified by the Centre for Housing Research, Aotearoa New Zealand (2011). Furthermore, this central Wellington proposal includes additional design features that increase the desirability of this type of housing to the suburban market. Combined, these and other drivers create a new typology of higher density housing in which vertical and other garden types bring a verdant living option to inner city Wellington. Key considerations include creating high levels of amenity: gardens, solar access and privacy to produce a vertical neighbourhood that balances collective and private amenity. The proposal provides three housing typologies (maisonettes, terraces, park houses) to accommodate household diversity to target various stages of the family cycle. This inner city proposal also demonstrates how public amenity access can be used to offset the (perceived) loss of amenity when moving from the suburbs. By drawing from the public amenity-rich city, the need for private amenities is minimised. Furthermore, just as the surrounding city contributes amenity to these dwellings, this proposal illustrates that this kind of development can in turn contribute back to the city.</p>

Landscape Sub(Vert.)Urbanity: a model for integrating gardens, as an architectural device, into higher density housing to encourage New Zealanders to live in the inner city

<p>New Zealanders continue to resist higher density housing as a way of living. The detached house in the suburbs remains the preferred housing choice for most. This proposal addresses the key attributes required for higher density living adoption as identified by the Centre for Housing Research, Aotearoa New Zealand (2011). Furthermore, this central Wellington proposal includes additional design features that increase the desirability of this type of housing to the suburban market. Combined, these and other drivers create a new typology of higher density housing in which vertical and other garden types bring a verdant living option to inner city Wellington. Key considerations include creating high levels of amenity: gardens, solar access and privacy to produce a vertical neighbourhood that balances collective and private amenity. The proposal provides three housing typologies (maisonettes, terraces, park houses) to accommodate household diversity to target various stages of the family cycle. This inner city proposal also demonstrates how public amenity access can be used to offset the (perceived) loss of amenity when moving from the suburbs. By drawing from the public amenity-rich city, the need for private amenities is minimised. Furthermore, just as the surrounding city contributes amenity to these dwellings, this proposal illustrates that this kind of development can in turn contribute back to the city.</p>

Optimizing solar access and density in Tel Aviv: Benchmarking multi-objective optimization algorithms

This paper explores the trade-off between redeveloping an urban site with higher density and maintaining solar access for the surrounding context in the hot and dry climate of Tel Aviv. Such trade-offs are important for future urban development in the Middle East, where densification is a demographic and environmental need. We explore this trade-off with multi-objective optimization (MOO). Specifically, we benchmark seven MOO algorithms on two test problems with different, parametric typologies: courtyard and high-rise. For both problems, we aim to maximize Floor Area Ratio and the simulation-based Context Exposure Index, a novel metric based on the Israeli green building code. The high-rise emerges as the better performing typology, and HypE, SPEA2, and RBFMOpt as the most efficient and robust MOO algorithms.

Improving the Efficiency of Stand-Alone Solar PV Power Plants

As a source of alternative energy, solar energy has apparent advantages, including a renewable, inexhaustible, and environmentally friendly resource. However, it has not become widely spread in the Russian Federation. Among the disadvantages of using solar energy are high equipment cost, low efficiency of photovoltaic solar cells, the generated electrical energy instability. The spatio-temporal variability of solar access causes electrical energy instability. It is possible to increase solar photovoltaic plant efficiency by using a tracking system to change the plant sun's spatial orientation. The paper offers mathematical and simulation models of a solar photovoltaic plant with a solar tracking system that allows the plant to be automatically oriented to the sun by matching the production mode and the solar access level. The use of the azimuth plant control system on the sun will increase the power production of the solar PV plant by an average of 28%. The same value will increase by 40% when using the full plant control system.

The Potential for Perennial Vines to Mitigate Summer Warming of an Urban Microclimate

Shading and evapotranspirative cooling by vegetation are important controls on moderating rise in city temperatures and mitigating urban heat islands. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the potential of Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata) to mitigate warming of building surface temperature in an urban core. Temperature loggers were placed on vine-shaded and non-shaded walls in Toronto, Canada to collect surface temperatures over a six-month period. During peak solar access periods, average vine-shaded and non-shaded temperature differentials of up to 6.5 °C and 7.0 °C for the south and west-facing walls were measured, respectively. Predictive models were developed to estimate daily degree hour difference (DHD), a metric for capturing the temperature moderating potential of vines. At ambient air temperatures exceeding 22 °C, ambient air temperature and solar radiation were significant positive drivers of DHD. Results are important to further understanding urban plant-microclimate interactions and strategies for heat island management.

The Potential for Perennial Vines to Mitigate Summer Warming of an Urban Microclimate

Shading and evapotranspirative cooling by vegetation are important controls on moderating rise in city temperatures and mitigating urban heat islands. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the potential of Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata) to mitigate warming of building surface temperature in an urban core. Temperature loggers were placed on vine-shaded and non-shaded walls in Toronto, Canada to collect surface temperatures over a six-month period. During peak solar access periods, average vine-shaded and non-shaded temperature differentials of up to 6.5 °C and 7.0 °C for the south and west-facing walls were measured, respectively. Predictive models were developed to estimate daily degree hour difference (DHD), a metric for capturing the temperature moderating potential of vines. At ambient air temperatures exceeding 22 °C, ambient air temperature and solar radiation were significant positive drivers of DHD. Results are important to further understanding urban plant-microclimate interactions and strategies for heat island management.

A Method for the Automated Construction of 3D Models of Cities and Neighborhoods from Official Cadaster Data for Solar Analysis

3D city models are a useful tool to analyze the solar potential of neighborhoods and cities. These models are built from buildings footprints and elevation measurements. Footprints are widely available, but elevation datasets remain expensive and time-consuming to acquire. Our hypothesis is that the GIS cadastral data can be used to build a 3D model automatically, so that generating complete cities 3D models can be done in a short time with already available data. We propose a method for the automatic construction of 3D models of cities and neighborhoods from 2D cadastral data and study their usefulness for solar analysis by comparing the results with those from a hand-built model. The results show that the accuracy in evaluating solar access on pedestrian areas and solar potential on rooftops with the automatic method is close to that from the hand-built model with slight differences of 3.4% and 2.2%, respectively. On the other hand, time saving with the automatic models is significant. A neighborhood of 400,000 m2 can be built up in 30 min, 50 times faster than by hand, and an entire city of 967 km2 can be built in 8.5 h.

Evaluating the impact of solar envelope zoning solar access and development density. A study of mid-rise buildings in Toronto

The global population is growing exponentially with a trend of people moving to cities, resulting in rapid growth in the urban built environment. It is critical for urban planners to promote health, comfort, and resiliency in urban areas through integrated solar access requirements within zoning regulations. This paper evaluates the potential for the Solar Envelope Zoning (SEZ) method as a zoning tool in Toronto, Canada. The SEZ method is compared with current zoning regulations and mid-rise buildings guidelines using parametric modelling to establish the solar envelope on a typical building site. The resulting development density and solar radiation incident on adjacent building facades is evaluated. A similar study is performed on a site that is currently proposed for development along one of Toronto’s main avenues. The results show that by redefining solar access requirements to include climate dependent variables, SEZ can provide competitive development density while improving solar access.

Evaluating the impact of solar envelope zoning solar access and development density. A study of mid-rise buildings in Toronto

The global population is growing exponentially with a trend of people moving to cities, resulting in rapid growth in the urban built environment. It is critical for urban planners to promote health, comfort, and resiliency in urban areas through integrated solar access requirements within zoning regulations. This paper evaluates the potential for the Solar Envelope Zoning (SEZ) method as a zoning tool in Toronto, Canada. The SEZ method is compared with current zoning regulations and mid-rise buildings guidelines using parametric modelling to establish the solar envelope on a typical building site. The resulting development density and solar radiation incident on adjacent building facades is evaluated. A similar study is performed on a site that is currently proposed for development along one of Toronto’s main avenues. The results show that by redefining solar access requirements to include climate dependent variables, SEZ can provide competitive development density while improving solar access.