Bioclimate in Built Environment

Abstract

The bioclimatic aspects are associated with building environmental performance that makes a building help minimum impact on the environment, attention to human health and safety, minimum energy consumption. The ergonomic design of buildings contributes to maintaining the bioclimatic aspects of the buildings. The study reflects building structure and materials used depend on occupant choices, lifestyle, and economic viability. Therefore, the low-cost mud houses of the coastal regions often follow local practices. The dwelling pattern (two adjacent rooms opening to the corridor) was more prevalent in rural and semiurban areas. The housing exteriors are typical rural locales, commonly comprising agricultural fields, vegetation areas, and ponds. The statistical analysis covering different bioclimatic components, such as transportation availabilities, surrounding environment, and building structure, indicated a significant difference among remote rural, rural and semi-urban residences. The climatic conditions of the four village blocks covered in the study were hot and humid. The component structures provided a basis to explore further the possible influence of additional passive design options in constructing dwellings in coastal rural and semi-urban areas and enhancing thermal comfort. Selective passive design solutions indicate improvements in yearly total thermal comfort hours. Given the viability of poor residents in coastal rural and semi-urban areas, introducing interventions like passive solar direct gain, high thermal mass, night flush, natural and fan-forced ventilation, and evaporative cooling can improve the extent of ~18% in yearly thermal comfort hours. An overall bioclimatic analysis of the rural and semiurban coastal dwellings suggests that some passive design strategies can substantially enhance the thermal comfort of the inhabitants.