Indoor environmental conditions in Passive Architecture Terraced House

Abstract

Passive Architecture (PA) Terraced House is proposed as an alternative to conventional terraced house. In the local context, PA design strategies alleviate heat gain, encourage natural ventilation and optimise daylighting; achieved mainly by building orientation. This paper demonstrates the quantum of indoor environmental conditions in a PA Terraced House with reference to a Typical Terraced House, focusing on thermal comfort and visual comfort. Both houses are simulated using internationally accredited Indoor Environmental Solutions (IES) programme with ‘Apache’ and ‘Radiance’ software to ascertain the indoor air temperature and daylighting illuminance, respectively. When compared against the standard for thermal comfort, the rooms in the Typical Terraced House creates thermal discomfort eight times longer than the same in the PA Terraced House, annually. Similarly, PA Terraced Houses provides sufficient daylighting illuminance for a much longer time compared to the Typical Terraced House.