The Influence of Building Envelope on the Local Microclimate.

Urban areas have higher temperatures than the surrounding suburban/rural areas, a phenomenon known as the Urban Heat Island (UHI). There is a great interest in creating a healthy and comfortable environment for the growing number of urban dwellers to live in, therefore different methods of combating and diminishing the urban heat island are being studied. One such method is to reduce the energy contribution of buildings to the formation of the urban heat island. In this paper we analyzed the effect of building envelopment, both by seasonal monitoring of surface temperatures using the thermal camera at different time intervals, and by numerical simulations of air temperature at different levels in the atmosphere, using ENVI-met, a three-dimensional non-hydrostatic microclimatic model. The data sets resulting from the monitoring of the surface temperature with the thermal camera showed that the temperature recorded at the surface is lower for the enveloped buildings than for the non-enveloped buildings, during the night but also during the day, less at noon. The numerical simulations were based on two scenarios: i) buildings with non-enveloped walls and ii) the same buildings but with enveloped walls, after running the scenarios for enveloped and non-enveloped buildings. The results showed that following the enveloping process the air temperature in the areas between the buildings is lower for the enveloped buildings, at different heights, both during the night and during the day.