BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN Principles and Practices Donald Watson 1

BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN Principles and Practices

This paper is an update of a Chapter “Bioclimate Design Research” by Donald Watson that
originally appeared in Advances in Solar Energy: An Annual Review of Research and
Development Vol. 5 edited by Karl W. Boer American Solar Energy Society, New York:
Plenum Press (1989) [pp. 402-438]

© Donald Watson
e-mail [email protected]

The terms “bioclimatic design” and “design for climate” — terms introduced by the Victor
and Aladar Olgyay [Reference 2]—became current in the literature of architectural design
in the 1950s. It gained currency in academic research and architectural and building
practices in the 1970s, as fundamental to energy conservation and energy-efficient design.
Its core principles and practices were absorbed in the concepts of “sustainable design” that
followed the United Nations Rio Earth Summit 1992. Bioclimatic design and “passive
sustainability” are now part of design for resilience, adaptation and mitigation of climate
change. This paper summarizes the principles and practice as they developed over
approximately 50 years from 1960 to 2010.

Table of Contents

1 OVERVIEW

2 PRINCIPLES OF BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN

3 BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN STRATEGIES

4 BIOCLIMATIC ANALYSIS

5 BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN PRACTICES

6 BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN OF ATRIUMS AND WINTER GARDENS

7 LARGER SCALE APPLICATIONS

8 FUTURE DIRECTIONS: BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN AT THE URBAN SCALE

9 SUMMARY

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

REFERENCES

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BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN Principles and Practices Donald Watson 2

1 OVERVIEW

Bioclimatic design had been part of practical knowledge of indigenous building throughout
historical periods, including early modern architecture. When air-conditioning systems
became widely available at the end of the 1950s, interest in bioclimatic design became less
evident in professional and popular literature and in built work.

With emergence of global environmental concerns of the 1990s—recognizing that energy

conservation has “cascading” effects and benefits in reducing pollution and in mitigating
global warming—the scope of bioclimatic design was enlarged to include landscape, water,
and waste nutrient recovery.

Some bioclimatic design techniques—earth sheltering is an example—can contribute to

comfort and reduce both heating and cooling loads year-round. Other techniques are useful
only part of the year. The effectiveness of passive solar heating, for example, is very specific
to the need for heating and otherwise needs to be tempered by sun shading and thermal
mass. Natural ventilation can provide comfort in all seasons, especially in summer when it
can reduce or eliminate the need for air conditioning in some climates.

All buildings experience interruptions of conventional energy availability, often coincident

with weather extremes and natural disasters. A precautionary approach to design is to
provide bioclimatic means to insure subsistence levels of heating, cooling, and daylighting
for comfort, health and safety in case all power sources are interrupted. For the longer term,
in which conventional energy shortages and emergencies are unpredictable, buildings
without natural heating, cooling and lighting impose serious liabilities on occupants and
owners.

2 PRINCIPLES OF BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN

Bioclimatic design strategies are effective for “envelope-dominated” structures—such as

homes and one- or two-story facilities—to provide a large portion if not all of the energy
required to maintain comfort conditions.

“Internal load dominated” buildings—such as hospitals, offices, commercial kitchens,

windowless stores—experience high internal gains imposed by the heat of occupancy,
lights, and equipment. In such cases, the external climatic conditions may have less
influence on achieving comfort and low energy utilization. However, as internal loads are
reduced through energy-efficient design—such as low-wattage lighting, energy-efficient
equipment, occupancy scheduling and zoning—the effects of climate become more obvious
and immediate. All buildings can benefit from available daylighting, but large glazed areas
require careful shading control, glazing selection, and possibly night insulation.

The “resources” of bioclimatic design are the natural flows of energy in and around a
building—created by the interaction of sun, wind, precipitation, vegetation, temperature and
humidity in the air and in the ground. In some instances, this “ambient energy” is useful
immediately or can be stored for later use. There are definable “pathways” by which heat is
gained or lost between the interior and the external climate in terms of the classic definitions
of heating energy transfer mechanics. From these, the resulting bioclimatic design strategies
can be defined. (Figure 1 and Table 1)

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BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN Principles and Practices Donald Watson 3

• Conduction—from hotter object to cooler object by direct contact.

• Convection—by flow of air between warmer objects and cooler objects.
• Radiation—from hotter object to cooler object within the direct view of each other
regardless of the temperature of air between, including radiation from sun to earth.
• Evaporation—the change of phase from liquid to gaseous state: The sensible heat (dry-
bulb temperature) in the air is lowered by the latent heat absorbed from air when
moisture is evaporated.
• Thermal storage—from heat charge and discharge both diurnally and seasonally, as a
function of its specific heat, mass, and conductivity. Although not usually listed alongside
the four classic means of heat transport, this role of thermal storage is helpful in
understanding the heat transfer physics of building climatology.

Figure 1. Paths of energy exchange at the building microclimate scale. Watson and
Labs, 1993. (Reference 13)

Table 1: Strategies of bioclimatic design Watson and Labs, 1993 (Reference 13)

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BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN Principles and Practices Donald Watson 4

Bioclimatic Predominant Process

design strategy season [a] of heat transfer

Conduction Convection Radiation

Evaporation

Minimize
conductive heat flow. winter and summer [b] √

Delay
periodic heat flow winter and summer √ √

Minimize
infiltration winter and summer [b] √

Provide
thermal storage [c] winter and summer √ √ √

Promote
solar gain winter √

Minimize
external air flow winter √

Promote
ventilation summer √

Minimize
solar gain summer √

Promote
radiant cooling summer √

Promote
evaporative cooling summer √

NOTES:
[a] Properly described as “underheated” and “overheated.”
[b] In overheated periods where air-conditioning is required.
[c] Thermal storage may utilize “phase change” materials and the latent heat capacities of chemicals such as
eutectic salts.

3 BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN STRATEGIES

In winter (or underheated periods), the objectives of bioclimatic design are to resist loss of
heat from the building envelope and to promote gain of solar heat. In summer (or
overheated periods), these objectives are the reverse, to resist solar gain and to promote
loss of heat from the building interior. The strategies can be set forth as:

• Minimize conductive heat flow. This strategy is achieved by using insulation. It is

effective when the outdoor temperature is significantly different, either lower or higher,
than the interior comfort range. In summer, this strategy should be considered
whenever ambient temperatures are within or above the comfort range and where
natural cooling strategies cannot be relied upon to achieve comfort.

• Delay periodic heat flow. While the insulation value of building materials is well
understood, it is not as widely appreciated that building envelope materials also can

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delay heat flows that can be used to improve comfort and to lower energy costs. Time
lag through masonry walls, for example, can delay the day’s thermal impact until
evening and is a particularly valuable technique in hot arid climates with wide day-night
temperature variations. Techniques of earth sheltering and berming also exploit the
long-lag effect of subsurface construction.

• Minimize infiltration. “Infiltration” refers to uncontrolled air leakage around doors and
windows and through joints, cracks, and faulty seals in the building envelope. Infiltration
(and the resulting “exfiltration” of heated or cooled air) is considered the largest and
potentially the most intractable source of energy loss in a building, once other practical
insulation measures have been taken.

• Provide thermal storage. Thermal mass inside of the insulated envelope is critical to
dampening the swings in air temperature and in storing heat in winter and as a heat
sink in summer.

• Promote solar gain. The sun can provide a substantial portion of winter heating energy
through elements such as equatorial-facing windows and greenhouses, and other
passive solar techniques which use spaces to collect, store, and transfer solar heat.

• Minimize external air flow. Winter winds increase the rate of heat loss from a building
by “washing away” heat and thus accelerating the cooling of the exterior envelope
surfaces by conduction, and also by increasing infiltration (or more properly, exfiltration)
losses. Siting and shaping a building to minimize wind exposure or providing
windbreaks can reduce the impact of such winds.

• Promote ventilation. Cooling by air flow through an interior may be propelled by two
natural processes, cross-ventilation (wind driven) and stack-effect ventilation (driven by
the buoyancy of heated air even in the absence of external wind pressure). A fan (using
photovoltaic for fan power) can be an efficient way to augment natural ventilation
cooling in the absence of sufficient wind or stack-pressure differential.

• Minimize solar gain. The best means for ensuring comfort from the heat of summer is
to minimize the effects of the direct sun by shading windows from the sun, or otherwise
minimizing the building surfaces exposed to summer sun, by use of radiant barriers,
and by insulation.

• Promote radiant cooling. A building can lose heat effectively if the mean radiant
temperature of the materials at its outer surface is greater than that of its surroundings,
principally the night sky. The mean radiant temperature of the building surface is
determined by the intensity of solar irradiation, the material surface (film coefficient) and
by the emissivity of its exterior surface (its ability to “emit” or re-radiate heat). This
contributes only marginally, if the building envelope is well insulated.

• Promote evaporative cooling. Sensible cooling of a building interior can be achieved

by evaporating moisture into the incoming air stream (or, if an existing roof has little
insulation, by evaporative cooling the exterior envelope such as by a roof spray.) These
simple and traditional techniques are most useful in hot-dry climates if water is available
for controlled usage. Mechanically assisted evaporative cooling is achieved with an
economizer-cycle evaporative cooling system, instead of, or in conjunction with,
refrigerant air conditioning.

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4 BIOCLIMATIC ANALYSIS

Analysis of climatic data is a first step in bioclimatic design. Preliminary design direction and
rules of thumb can be determined by graphing bioclimatic data. While the method can be
done by hand, computer-assisted methods allow this approach to be increasingly accurate.

Humans are comfortable within a relatively small range of temperature and humidity
conditions, roughly between 68-80F (20-26.7°C) and 20-80% relative humidity (RH),
referred to on psychrometric charts as the “comfort zone.” These provide a partial
description of conditions required for comfort. Other variables include radiant temperature
and rate of airflow, as well as clothing and activity (metabolic rate). Such criteria describe
relatively universal requirements in which all humans are “comfortable.” There are significant
differences in and varying tolerance for discomfort under conditions in which stress is felt,
depending upon age, sex, health, cultural conditioning and expectations.

Givoni [3] and Milne and Givoni [4] proposed a design method using the Building Bioclimatic
Chart, modified by Arens. [5] (Figure 2) The chart adopts the psychometric format,
overlaying it with parameters for the appropriate bioclimatic design techniques to create
human comfort in a building interior. If local outdoor temperatures and humidity fall within
specified zones, the designer is alerted to opportunities to use specific bioclimatic design
strategies to create effective interior comfort.

Figure 2. Building
Bioclimatic Chart, indicating parameters for bioclimatic design strategies. Based on
Givoni, 1976 and Arens, 1986. (References 3 and 5)

Computer-based simulation and energy design tools make it possible to utilize site-specific
hourly weather data to analyze data for bioclimatic design. This makes it possible to
compare bioclimatic design strategies for a given climate, comparing a proposed design with

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a “base case.” The base case is the same building without a proposed design feature, such
as south-facing glass, added insulation, shading, ventilation, and thermal mass, and so
forth.

Figure 3 depicts a simulated “representative winter week” (7 days) comparison of a “base

case” house with a combined set of options, including solar oriented windows (while
decreasing windows on other orientations), increased insulation including night-time
curtains, and interior thermal mass. The “base case” house represented U.S. code-
compliant national average construction, published by the National Association of Home
Builders. Bioclimatic design strategies were added as achievable within a 5% increase in
construction cost. The “representative winter week” represented a 30-year average winter
week (November to January) in which three days of clouds followed by three days of
sunshine. Heat gains in Btu are indicated above the horizontal bars, and losses below it.
The illustration indicates the benefit of the “solar pulse,” that is, passive solar gain in the
three sunny days at the end of the seven days (lower right), compared to negligible solar
benefit in the Base case during the same sunny period (upper right). In this particular week,
the combined passive strategies accomplished a 38% in energy requirement.

Figure 3. Simulation of bioclimatic design features. Visualization of energy performance

of passive solar strategies compared to a Base Case in Boston, MA climate (cool/temperate,
partly sunny). (1) heating energy required, (2) passive solar contribution, (3) thermal mass
contribution, (4) roof heat loss, (5) heat loss various other surfaces. Donald Watson and
Keith Harrington, 1979. Unpublished manuscript.

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The example in Figure 3 was part of a larger research project that compared a variety of
bioclimatic features, singly and together, in twenty U.S. cites. [6] The results supported
several conclusions. Firstly, the relative effectiveness of any particular bioclimatic design
technique is more than additive, that is, when combined they supported larger efficiencies in
performance that when used singly. Secondly, when compared in different climatic zones,
the rank order of most effective strategies changed—perhaps obvious, but worthy as
confirmation that each climatic region has its own most appropriate design techniques. But
finally, the difference between one top strategy and another was for the most part not so far
ahead of others that there is any one answer. Designers have a choice, within a set of high
performing strategies and techniques.

These findings are supported by a selective tabulation (Table 2), with results of the twenty
city comparisons (simulated for a full year, compiling TMY data (as available in 1984). For
the four cities shown in Table 2, representative of different U.S. climates, the heating energy
requirement is shown in blue and cooling in red. The “boxed” option indicates the most
effective technique for combined heating and cooling energy for each location. In the case of
Boston, the passive solar and super-insulation options are approximately equal and either
one represents a 40% reduction of energy required compared to the Base House. The same
strategies achieved more that 46% reduction in Seattle, 62% in Los Angeles, whereas none
of the solar options outperformed an 18% improvement achieved simple outside insulated
block wall in New Orleans. While such results are “imagined,” that is, the result of
assumptions made in computation, they indicate the value of simulation to help understand
the thermodynamics of climate, building design options, and resulting comfort and energy
requirements.

Table 2. Comparison of a bioclimatic options in four U.S. climates. Watson and

Harrington, 1979 (Reference 6)
BASE CASEEARTH TROMBE BLOCK PASSIVE SUPER
[1] BERMS [2] WALL WALL SOLAR INSUL.
[3] [4] [5] [6]
BOSTON 39.0 [7] 36.1 25.2 36.8 20.0 19
5.2 [8] 4.8 6.6 3.4 6.6 7.4
NEW ORLEANS 4.4 3.9 .7 1.6 1.1 1.0
15.9 15 21.4 15.2 17.7 18.9
LOS ANGELES 6.3 5.6 .3 1.8 .8 .7
2.4 2.4 3.0 2.0 3.3 3.6
SEATTLE 28.8 26.5 20.4 26.8 16.4 11.5
1.5 1.4 1.6 .5 1.7 2.3
All cases have shading and natural ventilation to reduce cooling load.
[1] BASE CASE R13 walls, R20 roof, 12% glazing
[2] EARTHBERMS 4 ft. high on E, N, and W walss
[3] TROMBE WALL 12” concrete w/ R5 nightshade unvented
[4] BLOCK WALL insulated on exterior
[5] PASSIVE SOLAR R20 walls, R3o ceiling, 24% glazing, R5 nightshade
[6] SUPER-INSULATION R40 walls, R50 roof, R5 nightshade.
[7] Heating energy required in Btu.
[8] Cooling energy required in Btu.

Climatic data for computer simulation for locations worldwide are available on the web. In
regions of the world where extensive climatic data are not available and where—for
example, data are limited only to monthly averages of temperature and humidity—the
available data may not be coincident and must be interpreted with caution.

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BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN Principles and Practices Donald Watson 9

TMY summaries contain simultaneous climatic data for all 8,760 hours in a “typical” year.
Available for airport locations, mostly in the United States, each file contains one complete
year of hourly data, including direct (beam) solar radiation, total horizontal solar radiation,
dry-bulb temperature, dew-point humidity, wind speed and cloud cover. Electronic files of
climatic data for most U.S. locations (major airports) are available through various sources
on the web from NREL. [7] Over 500 stations worldwide are available on the Energy Plus
website. [8]

Several papers by Arens [9, 10] describe techniques to interpolate multiple TMY3 data sets
for locations “in between” airport locations to adjust them to match substation monthly
means, or modify them further to account for the building-site surroundings.

Climate consultant is a computer-based program that can be downloaded at no cost from

the web. [11] Part of a career-long project of UCLA Professor Emeritus Murray Milne to
develop public domain energy design tools [12], the software plots weather data, including
temperatures, wind velocity, sky cover, percent sunshine, beam and horizontal irradiation. It
uses these data to create psychometric charts and plots hourly data in the above-mentioned
zones that indicate timetables of bioclimatic needs, sun charts showing times of solar needs
and shading requirements. It includes 3-D plots of temperature, wind speed, and related
climatic data cross-referenced to bioclimatic design practices presented in Watson and
Labs. [13]

Figure 4 represents a typical bioclimatic chart generated by Climate Consultant. It displays

an annual summary for Minneapolis and in the upper left, the percent (hours per year) that
bioclimatic categories are effective.

Figure 4. Climate Consultant display of the Building Bioclimatic Chart for Atlanta, GA
USA (Milne and Li, 1994) http://www.energy-design-tools.aud.ucla.edu

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BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN Principles and Practices Donald Watson 10

5 BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN PRACTICES

Each locale has its own bioclimatic profile, sometimes evident in indigenous and long-
established building practices. Bioclimatic design techniques can be set forth as a set of
design opportunities [adapted from Reference 9]:

• Wind breaks (winter): Two design techniques serve the function of minimizing winter
wind exposure
- Use neighboring landforms, structures, or vegetation for winter wind protection.
- Shape and orient the building shell to minimize winter wind turbulence. (Figure 5)

Figure 5. Sea Ranch, California. Landscape planting, roof slopes and fencing designed for
wind protection. Esherick, Homsey, Dodge and Davis, Architects and Planners with
Lawrence Halprin, Landscape Architect.

• Thermal envelope (winter): Isolating the interior space from the hot summer and cold
winter climate, such as:
- Use attic space as buffer zone between interior and outside climate.
- Use basement or crawl space as buffer zone between interior and grounds.
- Centralize heat sources within building interior.
- Use vestibule or exterior “wind-shield” at entryways.
- Locate low-use spaces, storage, utility and garage areas to provide climatic buffers.
- Subdivide interior to create separate heating and cooling zones.
- Select insulating materials for resistance to heat flow through building envelope.
- Apply vapor barriers to the warm side of building envelope assemblies to control
moisture migration.
- Develop construction details to minimize air infiltration and exfiltration.
- Provide insulating controls at glazing.
- Detail window and door construction to prevent undesired air infiltration.
- Use heat reflective (or radiant barriers) on (or below) surfaces oriented to summer sun.
- Minimize the outside wall and roof areas - ratio of exterior surface to enclosed volume.

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(Figure 6)

Figure 6. Simplified building shapes compared for ratio of exterior surface to

enclosed volume. Watson and Labs, 1983. (Reference 13)

• Solar windows and walls (winter): Using the winter sun for heating a building through
solar-oriented windows and walls is provided by a number of techniques:
- Maximize reflectivity of ground and building surfaces outside windows facing the winter
sun.
- Shape and orient the building shell to maximize exposure to winter sun.
- Use high-capacitance thermal mass materials in the interior to store solar heat gain.
- Use solar wall and roof collectors on equatorial-oriented surfaces.
- Optimize the area of equatorial-facing glazing.
- Use clerestory skylights for winter solar gain and natural illumination.
- Provide solar-oriented interior zone for maximum solar heat gain, with solar control for
shading in overheated periods. (Figure 7)

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BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN Principles and Practices Donald Watson 12

Figure 7. Solar windows walls. Keck + Keck, Architects developed solar design principles
in the Chicago area in the 1930s. Their designs—in this example a prototype prefab homes
for Green Ready-Built Homes—included large south-facing glass, exposed masonry floors
with hypostyle (warm air radiant) heating, interior masonry walls, interior curtains and
exterior shading. PHOTO: William Keck, Architect

• Indoor/outdoor rooms (winter and summer): Courtyards, covered patios, seasonal

screened and glassed-in porches, greenhouses, atriums and sun spaces can be
located in the building plan for summer cooling and winter heating benefits.
- Provide outdoor semi-protected areas for year-round climate moderation. (Figure 8)

Figure 8. Protected courtyard. Buli Khelam Ihakhang Monastery, Bhutan. In the

Himalayan tradition of building, a enclosed courtyard with sun exposed adobe walls and
windows, creates a wind protected microclimate, permitting a temperate planting regime to
flourish within, in contrast to high mountain climatic conditions of its locale. PHOTO: Donald
Watson

• Earth-sheltering (winter and summer): Techniques such as banking earth against the
walls of a building or covering the roof, or building a concrete floor on the ground, have
a number of climatic advantages for thermal storage and damping temperature
fluctuations (daily and seasonally), providing wind protection and reducing envelope
heat loss or gain (winter and summer). These techniques are often referred to as earth-
contact or earth-sheltering design:

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- Use slab-on-grade construction for ground temperature heat exchange and thermal
storage.
- Use earth-covered or sod roofs.
- Recess structure below grade or raise existing grade for earth sheltering. (Figure 9)

Figure 9. Earth-covered home. New Canaan CT, USA. 1986. The design combines south-
facing windows with light shelves to extend daylighting and provide summer shading,
skylighting, and earth-sheltering. PHOTO: Donald Watson, FAIA, Architect

• Thermally massive construction (summer and winter): Particularly effective in hot

arid zones, or in more temperate zones with cold clear winters. Thermally massive
construction provides a “thermal fly wheel.” Absorbing heat during the day from solar
radiation and convection from indoor air can create comfort if it is cooled at night, if
necessary through nighttime ventilative cooling (if air temperatures fall within the
comfort zone).
- Use high mass construction with outside insulation and nighttime ventilation techniques
in summers.
- For selected climates (hot dry), select high-capacitance materials to dampen heat flow
through the building envelope. (Figure 10)

Figure 10. Thermal mass appropriate for hot dry climate. Indigenous adobe block
construction, with roof and window overhangs to shade and protect the walls. Tahono
O’Odham Nation, Papago Indian Reservation, Arizona. PHOTO: Donald Watson

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BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN Principles and Practices Donald Watson 14

• Sun shading (summer): Because mid-day solar altitude angles are much higher in
summer than in winter, it is possible to shade windows from the sun during the
overheated summer period while allowing it to reach the window surfaces and spaces in
winter. Providing summer sun shading does not need to conflict with winter solar heat
gain.
- Minimize reflectivity of ground and building surfaces outside windows facing the
summer sun.
- Use neighboring landforms, structures, or vegetation for shading summer sun.
- Shape and orient the building shell to minimize exposure to summer afternoon sun.
- Provide seasonally operable shading, including deciduous trees.

• Natural ventilation (summer and seasonal): Natural ventilation is a simple concept by

which to cool a building.
- Shape and orient the building shell to maximize exposure to summer breezes.
- Use “open plan” interior to promote airflow.
- Provide vertical airshafts to promote “thermal chimney” or stack-effect airflow.
- Use double roof construction for ventilation within the building shell.
- Orient door and window openings to facilitate natural ventilation from prevailing summer
breezes.
- Use wing walls, overhangs, and louvers to direct summer wind flow into interior.
- Use louvered wall openings for maximum ventilation control.
- Use roof monitors for “stack effect” ventilation. (Figure 11)

Figure 11. Shading and ventilation strategies. Built in an era well before air-conditioning,
plantation manor houses such as the 1827 San Francisco Plantation House, New Orleans,
combined a range of strategies for natural cooling in hot humid climates zones, including
open understory and porches, cross-ventilation, and roofs designed to induce ventilation by
thermal updraft. PHOTO: Robert Perron

• Plants and water (summer): Several techniques provide cooling by the use of plants
and water near building surfaces for shading and evaporative cooling.
- Use planting next to building skin (provided it does not interfere with ventilation).
- Use roof spray or roof ponds for evaporative cooling.
- Use ground cover and planting for site cooling.

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BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN Principles and Practices Donald Watson 15

- Maximize on-site evaporative cooling. (Figure 12)

Figure 12. Evaporative cooling strategies: Public courtyard. Seville, Spain. The streets
and passages of the city combine courtyards, gardens, and a landscape rich with planting
and water fountains. PHOTO: Helen Kessler

The importance of documenting performance

Simulation is a design tool, most appropriately used during the early design phases when
alternate design techniques are considered. Simulation is not necessarily a means to predict
actual performance. Design knowledge requires post occupancy evaluation after a building
is built and occupied.

To compare performance with pre-design simulated expectations requires careful monitoring

of on-site weather conditions. Variations of use, user behavior and factors as simple as how
operating temperature controls are adjusted, will account for greater variation than climate
alone.

A post-occupancy survey was undertaken to assess 84 solar homes built with assistance of
a Solar Grant Program in Connecticut. [14] A grant of $5,000 was offered to assist owners of
existing homes to retrofit solar features, or, to incorporate into new construction. Solar
features could include south-facing windows and skylights, thermal mass (Trombe wall),
sunspace, and window insulation, as well as active solar Domestic Hot Water systems. The
survey asked what problems were notable after from one to five years of occupancy, and of
these what problems could be corrected and what could not. (Table 3)

Table 3. Extract from Consumer Survey of 84 solar homes. Watson, 1988. (Reference 14)
PERCEIVED PROBLEMS % Able to correct % Not able to correct
Glare 14 02
Excessive humidity 12 01
Condensation on windows 10 11
Keeping glass clean 26 07
Stagnant odors 10 00
Fading of furniture, walls, coverings 05 10

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Lack of privacy 11 05
Drafts 07 04
Rooms cool down too fast 12 06
Not warm enough 07 02
Extreme temperature swings 10 06
Weatherstripping or caulking maintenance 10 00
Covering sloped windows/skylights 05 04
Assured solar access 00 01
Zoning restriction (solar panels) 00 01
Building code restrictions (retrofit) 01 01
Mechanical/Electrical failures 02 00
Overall satisfaction with program 98 02

6 BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN OF ATRIUMS AND WINTERGARDENS

Atriums offer many energy design opportunities, depending upon climatic resources, to
provide natural heating, cooling, lighting and plants. It is necessary to establish clear design
goals, defining the opportunities and liabilities of solar heating, natural cooling and
daylighting choices. Provisions for healthy planting and indoor gardens can be combined
with atrium design, which enlarges the design criteria to include healthy conditions for plants
as well as people.

The atrium concept of climate-control has been used throughout the history of architecture
and in indigenous building in all climates of the globe. Suggested by its Latin meaning as
“heart” or an open courtyard of a Roman house, the term atrium as used today is a
protected courtyard or glazed winter garden placed within a building. Modern atrium design
incorporates many architectural elements—wall enclosures, sun-oriented openings, shading
and ventilation devices, and subtle means of modifying temperature and humidity—
suggested by examples that derive from the courtyard designs of Roman, early Christian
and Islamic buildings, and 19th-Century greenhouses and glass-covered arcades of Great
Britain and France.

Atriums offer many energy design opportunities: first, comfort is achieved by gradual
transition from outside climate to building interior; second, designed properly, protected
spaces and buffer zones create natural and free flowing energy by reducing or by
eliminating the need to otherwise heat, cool, or light building interiors. Depending on climatic
resources and building use, the emphasis in atrium design has to be balanced between
occupancy and comfort criteria and the relative need for heating, cooling, and/or lighting.

The atrium can work as an energy-efficient modifier of climate. The first step is to establish a
clear set of energy design goals appropriate to the specific atrium design. The resulting
solution will depend upon its program (whether for circulation only, or for longer term and
sedentary human comfort, and/or for plant propagation and horticultural display).

Solar heating
If heating efficiency alone is the primary energy design goal of the atrium, the following
design principles should be paramount:

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H1 To maximize winter solar heat gain, orient the atrium aperture (openings and glazing) to
the equator. If possible, the glazing should be vertical or sloped not lower than a tilt
angle equal to the local latitude.

H2 For heat storage and radiant distribution, place interior masonry directly in the path of
the winter sun. This is most useful if the heated wall or floor surface will in turn directly
radiate to building occupants.

H3 To prevent excessive nighttime heat loss, consider an insulating system for the glazing,
such as insulating curtains or high performance multi-layered window systems.

H4 To recover the heat that rises by natural convection to the top of the atrium, place a
return air duct high in the space, possibly augmenting its temperature by placing it
directly in the sun. Heat recovery can be accomplished if the warm air is redistributed
either to the lower area of the atrium (a ceiling fan) or redirected (and cleaned) to the
mechanical system, or through a heat exchanger if the air must be exhausted for health
and air-quality reasons.

Because a large air volume must be heated, an atrium is not an efficient solar collector per
se. But the high volume helps to make an overheated space acceptable, especially if the
warmest air rises to the top. If the atrium is surrounded by building on all sides, direct winter
sun is difficult if not impossible to capture except at the top of the skylight enclosure.
However, by facing a large skylight and/or window opening towards the equator, direct
winter solar heating becomes entirely feasible.

In cool climates, an atrium used as a solar heat collector would require as much winter
sunlight as possible. In overbright conditions, dark finishes on surfaces where the sun
strikes will help reduce glare and also to store heat. On surfaces not in direct sun, light
finishes may be best to reflect light, especially welcomed under cloudy conditions. In most
locations and uses, glass should be completely shaded from the summer sun. Although not
practical for large atriums, in some applications greenhouse-type movable insulation might
be considered to reduce nighttime heat loss.

Natural cooling
Several guidelines related to the use of an atrium design as an intermediary or buffer zone
apply to both heating and cooling. If an unconditioned atrium is located in a building interior,
the heat loss is from the warmer surrounding spaces into the atrium. In buildings with large
internal gains due to occupants, lighting, and machines, the atrium may require cooling
throughout the year. If one were to design exclusively for cooling, the following principles
would predominate:

C1 To minimize solar gain, provide shade for the summer sun. According to the particular
building-use, the local climate and the resulting balance point (the outside temperature
below which heating is required); the “overheated” season when sun shading is needed
may extend well into the autumn months. While fixed shading devices suffice for much
of the summer period, movable shading is the only exact means by which to match the
seasonal shading requirements at all times. In buildings in warm climates, sun shading
may be needed throughout the year.

C2 Use the atrium as an air plenum in the mechanical system of the building. The great
advantage is one of economy, but heat recovery options (discussed above) and

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BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN Principles and Practices Donald Watson 18

ventilation become most effective when the natural airflow in the atrium is in the same
direction and integrated with the mechanical system.

C3 To facilitate natural ventilation, create a vertical “chimney” effect by placing ventilating

outlets high (preferably in the free-flow air stream well above the roof) and by providing
cool “replacement air” inlets at the atrium bottom, with attention that the air stream is
clean, that is, free of car exhaust or other pollutants.

The inlet air steam can be cooled naturally, such as accessed from a shaded area. In hot,
dry climates, passing the inlet air over water such as an aerated fountain or landscape area
is particularly effective to create evaporative cooling. Allowing the atrium to cool by
ventilation at night is effective in climates where summer nighttime temperatures are lower
than daytime (greater than 15F difference), in which case the cooling effect can be carried
into the next day by materials such as masonry (although, as a rule, if the average daily
temperature is above 78F (25.5°C), thermally massive materials are disadvantageous in
non-air-conditioned spaces because they do not cool as rapidly as a thermally light
structure). The microclimatic dynamic no different than that evident in the Indian teepee—
when stack ventilation is possible through a roof aperture, the space will ventilate naturally
even in the absence of outside breezes, by the driving force of heated air. If air-conditioning
of the atrium is needed but can be restricted to the lower area of the space, it can be done
reasonably; cold air, being heavier, will pool at the bottom.

While there is apparent conflict between the heating design principle to maximize solar gain
and the cooling design principle to minimize it, the sun does cooperate by its change in its
apparent solar position with respect to the building. There are, however, design choices to
be balanced between the requirements for sun shading and those for daylighting. The ideal
location for a sun shading screen is on the outside of the glazing, where it can be wind-
cooled. When the outside air ranges about 80F (26.7°C), glass areas —even if shaded—
admit undesired heat gain by conduction. In truly warm climates, a minimum of glazed
aperture should be used to prevent undesired heat gain, in which case the small amount of
glazing should be placed where it is most effective for daylighting. Heat-absorbent or heat-
reflective glass, the common solution to reduce solar heat gain, also reduces the illumination
level and, if facing the equator, it also reduces desirable winter heat gain.

In temperate-to-cool climates, heat gain through a skylight can be tolerated if the space is
high, so that heat builds up well above the occupancy zone and there is good ventilation. In
hot climates, an atrium will perform better as an unconditioned space if it is a shaded but
otherwise open courtyard.

Daylighting
In all climates, an atrium can be used for daylighting. Electric lighting cost savings can be
achieved, but only if the daylighting system works; that is, if it replaces the use of artificial
lighting. Atriums serve a particularly useful function in daylighting design for an entire
building by balancing light levels—thus reducing brightness ratios—across the interior floors
of a building. If, for example, an open office floor has a window wall on only one side,
typically more electric lighting is required than would be required without natural lighting to
reduce the brightness ratio. An atrium light court at the building interior could provide such
balanced “two source” lighting. An atrium designed as a “lighting fixture” that reflects,
directs, or diffuses sunlight, can be one of the most pleasing means of controlling light.

The following principles apply to atrium design for daylighting:

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BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN Principles and Practices Donald Watson 19

L1 To maximize daylight, an atrium cross-section should be stepped open to the entire sky
dome in predominantly cloudy areas. In predominantly sunny sites, atrium geometry
can by based upon heating and/or cooling solar orientation principles.

L2 To maximize light, window or skylight apertures should be designed for the predominant
sky condition. If the predominant sky condition is cloudy and maximum daylight is
required (as in a northern climate winter garden), consider clear glazing oriented to the
entire sky dome, with movable sun controls for sunny conditions. If the predominant sky
condition is sunny, orient the glazing according to heating and/or cooling design
requirements.

L3 Provide sun-and-glare control by geometry of aperture, surface treatment, color, and

adjustable shades or curtains. Designing for daylighting involves compromise to meet
widely varying sky conditions. What works in bright sun conditions will not be adequate
for cloudy conditions. An opaque overhang or louver, for example, may create
particularly somber shadowing on a cloudy day. Light is already made diffuse by a
cloudy sky, falling nearly equally from all directions; the sides of the atrium thus cast
gray shadows on all sides. For predominantly cloudy conditions, a clear skylight is the
right choice. Bright haze will nonetheless cause intolerable glare at least to a view
upwards. Under sunny conditions, the same skylight is the least satisfactory choice
because of overlighting and overheating. The designer’s choice is to compromise.
Unless the local climate is truly cloudy and the atrium requires high levels of
illumination, partial skylighting can achieve a balance of natural lighting, heating, and
cooling. Partial skylighting (that is, a skylight design that occupies only a portion of the
roof surface) offers the further advantage of controlling glare and sunlight by providing
reflecting and shading surfaces to the view, such as by the coffers of the skylights.
Because it is reduced in light intensity and contrast, a surface illuminated by reflected
light is far more acceptable to the human eye than a direct view of a bright window
area. Movable shades for glare and sun control provide a further means of balancing for
the variety of conditions. This can be provided simply by operable canvas or fiberglass
shades.

The design principles for heating, cooling, and daylighting can be applied according to
building type and local climate. In the northern climates, particularly for residential units or
apartments that might be grouped around an atrium, the solar heating potential
predominates, while the natural cooling potential predominates in the southern United
States. In commercial and institutional structures, natural cooling and daylighting are both
important. In this case, the local climate would determine the relative importance of
openness achieved with large and clear skylighting (most appropriate for cloudy temperate-
to-cool regions) or of closed and shaded skylighting (most appropriate for sunny warm
regions). While no single recommendation fits any one climate, the relative importance of
each of the design principles is keyed to different climatic regions in Figure 13.

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BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN Principles and Practices Donald Watson 20

Figure 13. Appropriateness of bioclimatic principles for atrium design. Watson, 1982.
(Reference 15)

Garden atriums
Plants have an important role in buffer zones. If the requirements of plants are understood,
healthy greenery can be incorporated into atrium design and contribute to human comfort,

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BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN Principles and Practices Donald Watson 21

amenity and energy conservation. Plants, however, when uncomfortable, cannot move.
Major planting losses have been reported in gardened atriums because the bioclimatic
requirements were not achieved. A greenhouse for year-round crop or plant production is
intended to create spring-summer or the growing-period climate throughout the year. A
winter garden replicates spring-summer conditions for plant growth in wintertime by
maximizing winter daylight exposure and by solar heating. Plants need ample light but not
excessive heat. Although it varies according to plant species, as a general rule planting
areas require full overhead skylighting (essentially to simulate their indigenous growing
condition). Most plants are overheated if their roots range above 65F (18.3°C). Their growth
slows when the root temperature drops below 45F (7.2°C). As a result, a greenhouse has
the general problem of overheating (as well as overlighting) during any sunny day and of
underlighting (in intensity and duration) during any cloudy winter day.

If the function of the atrium includes plant propagation or horticultural exhibit (replicating the
indigenous climate in which the display plants flower), then clear-glass skylighting is needed
for the cloudy days and adjustable shading and overheating controls are needed for sunny
days. If the plant beds are heated directly, by water piping for example, then root
temperatures can be maintained in the optimum range without heating the air. As a result,
the air temperature in the atrium can be cool for people, in the 50F (10°C) range, with the
resulting advantage of providing a defense against superheating the space. People can be
comfortable in lower air temperatures if exposed to the radiant warmth of the sun and/or if
the radiant temperature of surrounding surfaces is correspondingly higher, that is, ranging
above 80F (26.7°C). Lower atrium temperature offers a further advantage to plants and
energy-efficient space operation because evaporation from plants is slowed, saving water
and energy (1000 Btu are removed from the sensible heat of the space with each pound of
water that evaporates). Air movement aids plant growth, if gentle and pervasive. Air
circulation reduces excessive moisture build-up at the plant leaf and circulates CO2, needed
during the daytime growth cycle. The requirements for healthy planting and indoor
gardening can thus be combined with energy-efficient atrium design for benefit of both
plants and people. (Figure 14)

Figure 14a Solar greenhouse and wintergarden, Nature Center, New Canaan, CT USA.
Donald Watson, FAIA and Buchanan Associates, Architects. 1984. PHOTO: Robert Perron

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BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN Principles and Practices Donald Watson 22

Figure 14b Cross-setion and bioclimatic design features.

ILLUSTRATION: Marja Watson

7 LARGER SCALE APPLICATIONS

Bioclimatic design principles and practices are not limited to small scale buildings alone. The
physical basis of passive heating and cooling dynamics are somewhat constrained to near-
envelope zones, subject to dimension of spaces in and around the building perimeter.
However, these can and should be integrated with larger scale mechanical strategies of air-
movement, preheating and ventilation.

Daylighting techniques are scalable and can be applied to exterior envelope, skylighting and
atrium (light shaft) options. The history of buildings from 19th century indicates possibilities,
while improved glazing, shading and insulation increase options for natural lighting that
apply to large buildings.

Figure 15 diagrams the site and building opportunities for energy collection, storage and
distribution that may be integrated as combined passive and active means of bioclimatic
design.

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BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN Principles and Practices Donald Watson 23

Figure 15. Large Building opportunities for microclimatic design integration. Watson,
1989. (Reference 16)

A number of studies serve to document 1980s and 1990s applications of passive solar,
daylighting, and related bioclimatic elements in larger scale buildings. Burt Hill Kosar
Rittelmann/Min Kantrowitz Associates, 1987 [17] provides a summary report, including
several years of performance data, post-occupancy evaluation and user surveys of 20
medium to large scale buildings assisted by U.S. Department of Energy Passive Solar
Commercial Demonstration Grants. The grant program provided design and research
assistance for building owners who had projects underway, but no so far advanced that they
could not incorporate significant innovative approaches to energy conservation.
William M.C. Lam, 1986 [18] provides a detailed discussion of sunlighting large buildings,
including performance documentation of case studies and lessons learned. Several related
projects involved faculty and students of Schools of Architecture in courses that undertake
post-occupancy evaluations of completed buildings, monitoring all building energy, including
air quality and daylighting, providing an archive of critical building assessments. [19]

8 FUTURE DIRECTIONS: BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN AT THE URBAN SCALE

A wealth of studies address microclimatic impacts at the urban scale, described as

“bioregional design” by the Olgyays (Reference 2). Perennial topics have included solar
access, evident in early 20th Century studies related to daylighting and solar access for light
and health, as well airflow and ventilation. Urban heat island effects have been addressed
by studies of the effect of vegetation and “cool roofs.” The prospect of climate change and
extreme weather has, in recent years, added increased concern for design for resilience,
mitigation and adaptation to extreme weather, including flooding, drought, and increasing
global warming. While full discussion of these topics is well beyond the scope of this article,
a few selected references indicate foundation studies and future directions.

Solar access

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BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN Principles and Practices Donald Watson 24

Solar geometry. Studies by Ralph Knowles [20] undertaken over several decades with
students at University of Southern California have developed the notion of assuring solar
access to buildings, for sun tempering, daylighting and solar collection. His studies have
demonstrated that solar access can be guaranteed in most urban areas while keeping within
conventional medium to medium-high density Floor to Area Rations (FARs) (all but very high
rise districts). (Figure 16 a and b)

Figure 16a. Solar Envelope for a medium density neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Figure 16b. A possible mixed-use community conforming to the solar envelope.

PHOTOS: courtesy of Ralph L. Knowles.

Bioclimatic data at the urban scale

Baruch Givoni [21] compiles a broad survey of urban bioclimatic data and design
applications, with emphasis on measured data, along with discussions of challenges of data
measurement at the urban scale.

Table 4 shows averages of air and surface temperatures measured at a height of 1 m (3.3
ft.) around noontime on the UCLA campus during a sequence of several clear days in
summer. The lowest temperatures were in a space between a line of high shrubs and a wall
of a building.

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BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN Principles and Practices Donald Watson 25

Table 4. Average air and surface temperatures measured during a sequence of several
clear days in summer. Givoni, 1998 (Reference 21)
Location Air Surface Temperature
Air Surface
Temperature F Temperature Temperature
F °C °C
Parking lot 79 122 26.1 50.0
Open plaza 78 107 25.6 41.7
Shaded walk 76 80 24.4 26.7
Grass lawn 75 88 23.9 31.1
Behind shrubs 74 73 23.3 22.8

GIvoni’s research and overview points to opportunities and need for continued research at
the urban scale, supporting an approach to urban planning based on bioclimatic analysis
and design. (Figures 17 and 18)

Figure 17. Pocket Park, New York City. Paley Park creates a small area of respite, with a
cooling microclimate created by evaporative cooling, shading and wind protection, while
water fountain sound helps neutralize urban clamor. PHOTO: Donald Watson

Figure 18. Urban forms that respond to bioclimatic influences: solar orientation,
summer ventilation, natural vegetative shading and winter wind protection. After Givoni,
1998. (Reference 21)

Urban air quality

Studies of wind at the urban scale have considered force of winds for structural and exterior
envelope design, as well as for wind-tunnel (accelerating force of winds at constrained
building openings), as well as aerodynamic shapes to induce natural ventilation. Models for
such studies have included scaled wind tunnels, flow models, and full scale mock-ups
exposed to simulated wind forces. (Figure 19)

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BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN Principles and Practices Donald Watson 26

Figure 19. Wind tunnel with smoke tracing to study wind effects of building form.
PHOTO: Donald Watson

Studies by Anne Whiston Spirn [22] have utilized research on urban wind effects to propose
design strategies to reduce pollution in city streets and public ways, principally by opening
building forms to less constrained airflow. (Figures 20 and 21)

Figure 20. Strategies to improve air quality at the urban microclimatic scale.
Anne Whiston Spirn. (Reference 22).
A - Street canyons lined with building of similar height, oriented perpendicular to the wind
direction tend to have poor air circulation compared to B.
B - Street canyons lined with buildings of different heights and interspersed with open areas
have better air circulation.
C - To promote air circulation in street canyons, step buildings back from the street, increase
openings and vary building heights.
D - To promote air circulation in street side arcades, design them with high canopies and
airflow outlets.

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BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN Principles and Practices Donald Watson 27

Figure 21. Comprehensive Plan to improve air quality. Stuttgart, Federal Republic of
Germany. Public gardens and open space atop the cities hills and hillside canyons are
preserved as vegetated public stairways and watercourses. They funnel nighttime cool
airflow to the center city streets and downtown parks. PHOTO: Courtesy of Dr. Michael
Trieb, Urban Planning Institute, University of Stuttgart.

Resilience to natural disaster

Climate change is evident in global warming, extreme weather and storm events, flooding
and drought. The line of influence that climate had upon design is in a sense reversed.
Design now influences climate in the way that buildings, infrastructure, cities, along with
agricultural and industrial practices have in fact been executed without regard for bioclimatic
impacts.

The natural landscape that has evolved in response to climate and water regimes over
millennia had adapted to long-evolving patterns of rainfall, aridity, heat and cold. Historical
flood conditions were accommodated within the watershed ecology and its co-evolving
plants and animals. When those patterns are disrupted and the natural landscape is altered,
flooding risks and disasters increase, as much a result of human actions as natural
occurrence.

While the prospect of sea level rise is undefined as to extent and time, the recent incidence
of historically unprecedented natural disasters has impelled some nations and regions to
undertake programs of adaptation and mitigation. The Netherlands has undertaken a 100-
year plan to address flooding by an integrated and phased set of improvements to dykes,
removals and elevations of buildings in increased flood plains, and abandoning the most
exposed risk area to natural recovery. In Japan, where spring flooding from mountains has
resulted in flash floods in densely populated urban areas that have built up in floodplain
areas, the range of actions also include “super-levees,” which essentially reconfigure land
along river floodplain, while increasing floodable zones that can hold floodwaters during
peak floods, while making them available for temporary use at other times, easily evacuated
in case of emergency. (Figure 22)

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BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN Principles and Practices Donald Watson 28

Figure 22 Super-levees constructed in Japan to respond to flood risk. Watson and

Adams (Reference 23)

Watson and Adams, 2010 [23] propose an extension of bioclimatic design to include design
for resilience, to adopt precautionary principles in design of buildings, communities and
cities. Resiliency describes the capacity to respond to stress and change of climatic
conditions. Resiliency is evident in natural systems in strategies to adjust to variable and
extreme conditions. Characteristics of resilient systems include buffering, storage,
redundancy, self-reliance, decentralization, diversity, energy conservation, rapid adaptability
and replacement. (Table 5)

Table 5. Mimicking lessons of nature for resilient design and construction

Principle from nature Application to resilient design
ABSORPTION watershed planning and design (reservoirs, retention ponds, green
roofs)
BUFFERING breaks, riparian buffers, rain gardens

CORE PROTECTION zoning, decentralization, self-reliant subsystems

DIFFUSION meanders, wetland and coastal zone landscape, open foundations

STORAGE CAPACITY aquifers, wetlands, reservoirs, cisterns

REDUNDANT CIRCUITS green infrastructure, wildlife corridors, and multiple service routes
WASTE/NUTRIENT RECOVERY:sustainable stormwater design and waste systems
RAPID RESPONSE smart grid, early warning, emergency responsive systems

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BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN Principles and Practices Donald Watson 29

9 SUMMARY

Bioclimatic design is based on analysis of the climate, including ambient energy of sun,
wind, temperature and humidity. Bioclimatic design utilizes passive and ambient energy
sources to achieve human comfort through building design and construction, including
heating, cooling and daylighting techniques. Derived from regional and local conditions and
opportunities, bioclimatic analysis and design provide both a knowledge base and an
inspiration for architecture and sustainable design.

A present day challenge is climate change, which portends to increase the severity and
period of warming, or overheated, conditions. Climate and weather uncertainty and warming
trends should be anticipated in building design to be adaptive by a balance of techniques for
heating and for cooling. The challenge to reduce and eliminate where possible the use of
fossil fuels for carbon reduction further supports the passive design strategies of bioclimatic
design, for its combined advantages of comfort and health, environmental well-being, and
resilience to extreme weather.

The enlargement of bioclimatic design to design for resilience is a necessary response to

the increased severity of natural disaster. The science of building and urban climatology can
fully inform steps to remediate flooding and other risks, so that the natural ecology of
regions is returned to its role in moderating extremes and sustaining the diversity of species.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author is indebted to Murray Milne, Baruch Givoni and the late Kenneth Labs, as well as
those who work is cited in the text and illustrations, all of whom contributed immeasurably to
the development of the authors’ work described in this article.

REFERENCES

[1] Fitch, James Marston and Paul Siple, editors. 1952. AIA/House Beautiful Regional
Climate Study. Originally published in AIA Bulletin 1949-1952. Ann Arbor, MI:
University Microfiche
[2] Olgyay, Aladar and Victor Olgyay. 1957. Design with Climate. Princeton: Princeton
University Press
[3] Givoni, Baruch. 1976. Man, Climate and Architecture. London: Applied Science
Publishers. 2nd Edition
[4] Milne, Murray and Baruch Givoni. 1979. “Architectural Design Based on Climate,” in
Donald Watson, ed. Energy Conservation Through Building Design. New York:
ARB/McGraw Hill
[5] Arens, E., R. Gonzales, and L. Berglund. 1986. “Thermal Comfort Under an Extended
Range of Environmental Conditions.” ASHRAE Transactions. Vol. 92. Part 1. Atlanta:
ASHRAE Publications
[6] Watson, Donald and Keith Harrington. 1979. “Research on Climatic Design for Home
Builders.” In G. Franta, editor, Proceedings of the 4th National Passive Solar
Conference, Boulder, CO: ASES Publications

[7] NREL, 1996. “TMY-2 Typical Meteorological Year Climate Data Files.” National
Renewable Energy Laboratory. http://rredc.nrel.gov:80/solar/old_data/nsrdb/tmy2/
NOTE: If this web address changes, e-mail: <[email protected]>

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[8] Energy Plus website. U.S. Department of Energy.

www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energyplus/weather.html (accessed September 1,
2010)
[9] Arens, Edward A, et al., 1980. “Geographical Extrapolation of Typical Hourly Weather
Data for Energy Calculation in Buildings” http://escholarship.org/uc/item/7pc2q3vx
1980. National Bureau of Standards Building Science Series 126. Available at:
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/7pc2q3vx
[10] Arens, E., et. al.,1985. “SITECLIMATE: A Program to Create Hourly Site-Specific
Weather Data” http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3j62w3nm, Proceedings,
ASHRAE/DOE/BTECC Conference on Thermal Performance of the Exterior
Envelopes of Buildings III, Clearwater Beach, FL. pp. 91-108.
Available at: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3j62w3nm
[11] Milne, Murray. 1997. Energy Design Tools. Department of Architecture and Urban
Design. University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Web page:
http://www.aud.ucla.edu/energy-design-tools (accessed September 1, 2010)
[12] Milne, Murray and Yung-Hsin Li. 1994. “Climate Consultant 2.0: A New Design Tool
for Visualizing Climate.” Proceedings of the 1994 ACSA Architectural Technology
Conference. Washington, DC: Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture
Publications
[13] Watson, Donald and Kenneth Labs. 1983, revised 1993. Climatic Building Design.
New York: McGraw-Hill
[14] Watson, Donald. 1988. “Solar Mortgage Subsidy Program Occupant Survey.” Energy
Division, Office of Policy and Management, State of Connecticut
[15] Watson, Donald. 1982. “The Energy Within the Space Within.“ Progressive
Architecture. July 1982
[16] Watson, Donald. 1989. “Bioclimatic Design Research” in Karl W. Boer, editor
Advances in Solar Energy: Annual Review of Research and Development Vol. 5
Boulder, CO: American Solar Energy Society
[17] Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates / Min Kantrowitz Associates. 1987. Commercial
Building Design: Integrating Climate, Comfort, and Cost. New York: Van Nostrand
Reinhold
[18] William M.C. Lam. 1986. Sunlighting as Formgiver for Architecture. New York: Van
Nostrand Reinhold
[19] Vital Signs. Prof. Chris Benton. www.arch.ced.berkeley.edu/vitalsigns;
Agents of Change. Prof. Alison Kwok.http://aoc.uoregon.edu
[20] Knowles, Ralph L. 2006. Ritual Houses: Drawing on Nature’s Rhythms for
Architecture and Urban Design. Washington, DC: Island Press. Also: Knowles, Ralph.
L, “The Solar Envelope.” 2003, in D. Watson, editor, Time-Saver Standards for Urban
Design. New York: McGraw-Hill. 2003
[21] Al Hemiddi. 1991. “Measurements of Surface and Air Temperatures Over Sites with
Different Land Treatments. Proceedings PLEA 1991 Conference. Seville, Spain. Cited
in: Givoni, Baruch.1998. Climate Considerations in Building and Urban Design. New
York: Van Nostrand Reinhold; Also: Givoni, Baruch, “Urban Design and Climate.”
2003, in D. Watson, editor, Time-Saver Standards for Urban Design. New York:
McGraw-Hill. 2003
[22] Spirn, Anne Whiston. 2003. “Better Air Quality at Street Level: Strategies of Urban
Design,” D. Watson, editor, Time-Saver Standards for Urban Design. New York:
McGraw-Hill. 2003. Also: Moudon, Anne Vernez. 1987. Public Streets for Public Use.
New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
[23] Watson, Donald and Michele Adams. 2010. Design for Flooding and Resilience to
Climate Change. New York: John Wiley

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