HOLISTIC APPROACH TO ECOLOGICAL DESIGN PARAMETERS OF BUILDING AND LANDSCAPE DESIGN ON OUTDOOR THERMAL COMFORT IN HOT, HUMID CLIMATE

Abstract

In this study, academic staff residential buildings were studied as part of a university campus located in a hot and humid climate zone in Turkiye. Within the scope of the study, the energy efficient architec-tural and landscape design decisions of the buildings built in 1976 were examined. The aim was to determine the energy performance of buildings built about 50 years ago and to quantify the effect of chang-ing landscape conditions on thermal comfort. In this aim, the outdoor thermal comfort level was determined by creating microclimate simu-lations for the hottest day and time of the year. Microclimatic analy-ses were performed with ENVI-met software and thermal comfort was evaluated with two metrics, average PMV and ASHRAE scale. The energy performance of the buildings was determined using ecological design parameters. An approach to global environmental problems is the use of ecological design principles, including architectural and landscape design principles. It is important to consider both architec-tural design criteria and landscape design criteria when discussing an ecological design in the built environment. Architectural and land-scape design decisions for hot and humid climate regions together increased energy efficiency by 51.1% to 75.5%. It was found that although the plant design improves energy performance in buildings by that range value, it improved outdoor thermal comfort by 15% to 22%. As a result, the study evaluated climate-balanced plant design with building energy performance in order to improve outdoor ther-mal comfort.