The pure physical approach used to characterise thermal comfort is not informative for many urban designers and landscape architects. Significantly, this theoretical approach was criticised due to the lack of consideration of human sensations ad perceptions. Recent researches show an increased consideration for psychological and behavioural aspects of outdoor thermal comfort. However, the epist...

The focus on the needs and drives for adaptation of the building automatically leads to changing needs and demands of the occupants of the building. Building should really take care of its occupants and show adaptable behaviour and reaction to the changing outdoor environment during the day. Design for adaptability should start with the occupants needs for comfort and indoor air quality. These ...

Mean Radiant Temperature (MRT) is a critical physical quantity that indicates how human beings experience radiation in their surrounding environment. If taken outdoors, MRT depends on the temperature of the sky, ground, vegetation and surrounding buildings, and is therefore difficult to predict reliably. An additional challenge for designers is that publically available simulation tools do not ...

Meeting today's ventilation and comfort requirements in multiple-space VAV systems can be challenging. Building heating and cooling loads are typically not static; therefore VAV systems need to be flexible to respond to the continually changing outdoor conditions and occupant activities. To optimize comfort and minimize energy usage in this dynamic environment, the HVAC control system must also...

The adaptive thermal comfort model links indoor comfort temperatures to prevailing weather outdoors, shifting them higher in warm weather and lower in cool weather. Adaptive comfort engineering standards hold the potential to conserve energy, but for them to work effectively it is essential that building occupants are free to adapt themselves, primarily through clothing adjustment, to the varia...

The Universal Thermal Climate Index UTCI assesses the interaction of ambient temperature, wind, humidity and radiant fluxes on human physiology in outdoor environments on an equivalent temperature scale. It is based on the UTCI-Fiala model of human thermoregulation and thus also allows for thermal comfort prediction. Comparing UTCI predictions to thermal sensation votes recorded on the 7-unit A...

Due to the complexity of built environment, urban design patterns considerably affect the microclimate and outdoor thermal comfort in a given urban morphology. Variables such as building heights and orientations, spaces between buildings, plot coverage alter solar access, wind speed and direction at street level. To improve microclimate and comfort conditions urban design elements including veg...

11 Thermal comfort in outdoor spaces is strongly associated with the quality of social life 12 in an urban community. This study investigated dynamic outdoor thermal comfort under 13 cold, mild, and hot climatic conditions with air temperature ranging from -0.1 to 35.0 oC. 14 Using a total of 26 human subjects in 94 tests under these climatic conditions, this study 15 measured outdoor thermal e...

Given the climatic changes around the world and the growing outdoor sports participation, existing guidelines and recommendations for exercising in naturally challenging environments such as heat, cold or altitude, exhibit potential shortcomings. Continuous efforts from sport sciences and exercise physiology communities aim at minimizing the risks of environmental-related illnesses during outdo...