Assessing the effectiveness of passive cooling design strategies to reduce overheating in epilepsy care homes in the UK

Siva Sai Varsha Kakuturu, Zoe Upton, Lisa Clayton, Sanjay Sisodiya and Anna Mavrogianni

With climate change, overheating in care homes is becoming a rising problem. This study analyses the current and future risks of overheating in care homes for epilepsy in the UK and tests passive design strategies to mitigate overheating to reduce its detrimental health impacts on residents with epilepsy.

Indoor environment of the care home was monitored and the occupancy, equipment profiles were established through surveys and field visits. Dynamic thermal modelling software was used to assess the impact of passive design strategies and to reduce the usage of active cooling. The results of the baseline model indicated that occupants were at a high risk of overheating, especially at night-time in bedrooms. A combination of night ventilation, shading strategies and high albedo surfaces had the most significant effect on overheating reduction in the current scenario. In the future scenarios, these passive strategies did not completely reduce overheating risks for night-time bedroom temperatures and active cooling measures should be considered.

This is a novel study that provides insights regarding methods to enable resilience to the rising temperatures for care settings with epilepsy. The findings can provide guidelines for passive design strategies and building adaptation methods for the industry and the users.

The Future of Responsive Facade for Multi-Storey Residential Buildings in Tropical Climates

Paloma Souza

The facade is one of the main features of a building to promote internal comfort and building performance, and in tropical climates, this became an essential feature to address. Unfortunately, they are usually taken for granted, resulting in a series of residential tower buildings with homogenous facades, not adequately designed for the climate.

Therefore, the design study aims to understand the principles and elements of a Responsive Facade and how it impacts energy efficiency and user comfort for space cooling. The research is based on analyses of precedent studies, occupants’ behavior, and a critical analysis of challenges in existing building facades in tropical climates. From this, understands the elements that interfere in the internal conditions for users and building performance to build parameters from the outcomes analysis that will shape possible design proposals.

Accordingly, a series of facade features were adopted, with ceramic as the primary material to create perforated and opaque panels that act as double-skin facades and flexible shading devices. Additionally, the dynamic operation was explored through automated elements, which move according to the sun or by occupants’ control. The result is a series of intervention scenarios explored to optimize performance in tropical climates.

Flow: Social Housing for the Fishing Community of Kerala, India.

Amritha MaryAnn Thomas and Joana Soares Goncalves

Rehabilitation housing models usually account to maximise density by fitting large amounts of people into a small site, without catering to their quality of life and the general comfort of spaces. The “Pratheeksha” government housing in Trivandrum, Kerala is one such example where a large population of people from the local fishing community of the region were rehabilitated into an inadequate site area after losing their homes in the 2018 ‘Ockhi’ cyclone. This new housing type did not consider or prioritise the needs of the user or the climate of the region. Therefore this thesis project aims to better understand the socio-economic and cultural life of these fishing communities and redesign a better social housing model that is more apt to their livelihood and routine, which could also in turn positively influence their quality of spaces and communal life. The project focuses on recognising the role of sustainable architecture elements such as courtyards, roofs and permeable membranes in improving the living conditions in such warm and humid climate type.