Improving thermal comfort using biomimicry in the urban residential districts in New Aswan city, Egypt

Abstract

Egypt tends to construct new cities to provide social housing for its citizens. However, the planning of urban residential districts (URDs) in these cities lacks provisions for natural ventilation (NV), and indoor-outdoor thermal comfort, resulting in increased energy consumption during the summer months. This research aims to create a sustainable design through biomimicry to reduce the universal thermal climate index (UTCI) values in the URD in New Aswan thereby enhancing outdoor thermal comfort and reducing energy consumption inside buildings at the level of URD. In this research, the approach of prairie dogs in building their burrows was followed to rearrange and reorient the buildings. Autodesk CFD, Rhino7, Grasshopper, Ladybug, Honeybee, and Dragonfly software was used in the simulation. The rearrangement of the buildings, specifically the oriented design in the east-west direction, caused a difference in pressure between the buildings, leading to improved NV between the buildings. The improvement of NV resulted in a 4.2 °C reduction in UTCI values during specific hours over the six different days in the six summer months, resulting in significant energy savings of 10407.28946 KWh in the URD. The occurrence of a pressure difference between buildings not only improved NV but also enhanced outdoor and indoor thermal comfort, promoting energy conservation. Therefore, careful consideration of the arrangement and orientation of buildings is essential to establish sustainable URDs. Although the difference between the results is slight, it creates substantial differences in the long term for UTCI values, thus the energy conservation in the URDs.