Bioclimatic and vernacular design in urban settlements of Brazil

Vernacular architecture elements are often mentioned as examples of climate appropriate design. The self-building process has been described as belonging to vernacular architecture or "new urban traditional environments", but this new tradition must be qualified. The local new urban vernacular resulting from the self-building process in Brazil lacks some of the positive elements of many traditional buildings, especially praised for their intelligent solutions to climatic problems. The discussion made in this paper turns around the value given by self-builders to three important design elements of self-built houses in urban areas: verandahs, ventilation openings and vegetation. These factors are particularly important for thermal comfort in subtropical climates as found in the region of the city of Campinas, State of São Paulo, Brazil.

correct architectural elements. An appropriate new architecture for the urban poor should be based on bioclimatic design principles and the positive elements of the new urban vernacular. 0 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

It is well known that the energy saving in buildings is more than essential nowadays, considering the need for a more sustainable world, and a better natural balance. By this means, the contemporary buildings emphasize their relations with the natural environment, aiming for the saving of energy and natural resources. The lack of studies in thermal performance which also consider the matter of spatiality in buildings led the authors to develop this research. Spatiality, in this case, is understood as the relation between physical and visual permeability and the envelope, as well as the consequences to the integration, legibility and appropriation of the internal spaces. It will be considered the matter of visibility analysis of the space, as commented by Turner (2003, p. 657): “We might use visibility analysis to talk about morphological properties of the built environment, or to talk about how people can move or interact within the visible space, or to discover the significance of objects placed within that space.” The research was conducted using available software in the area of space syntax, Depthmap, and in the area of energy simulation, EnergyPlus. The sample of dwellings analyzed in the research, representative of the contemporary architecture of Natal/RN, was submitted to both spatial and thermal analyses with the aim of identifying if there are recognizable spatial patterns and how these patterns would relate to the number of hours of physical comfort obtained during the whole year, considering only the use of natural ventilation. Natural Ventilation is a very common bioclimatic strategy for building refrigeration in hot and humid climates. The authors of the research expect then to identify types of spatiality which would lead to better solutions for bioclimatic dwellings, considering both social (spatial) and thermal performance matters.

This paper presents a study, through simulation tools, of the relation between thermal comfort (on EnergyPlus) and spatial patterns (on Depthmap). The sample of dwellings analyzed, representative of the contemporary architecture from Natal-Brazil, was chosen in order to study how room distribution within a residence can be related to natural ventilation performance, a common bioclimatic strategy for tropical regions. Main results show that it was identified a tendency, which relates high integration, as well as connectivity, to low costs on refrigeration.

It is well known that the energy saving in buildings is more than essential nowadays, considering the need for a more sustainable world, and a better natural balance. By this means, the contemporary buildings emphasize their relations with the natural environment, aiming for the saving of energy and natural resources. The lack of studies in thermal performance which also consider the matter of spatiality in buildings led the authors to develop this research. Spatiality, in this case, is understood as the relation between physical and visual permeability and the envelope, as well as the consequences to the integration, legibility and appropriation of the internal spaces. It will be considered the matter of visibility analysis of the space, as commented by Turner (2003, p. 657): “We might use visibility analysis to talk about morphological properties of the built environment, or to talk about how people can move or interact within the visible space, or to discover the significance of objects placed within that space.” The research was conducted using available software in the area of space syntax, Depthmap, and in the area of energy simulation, EnergyPlus. The sample of dwellings analyzed in the research, representative of the contemporary architecture of Natal/RN, was submitted to both spatial and thermal analyses with the aim of identifying if there are recognizable spatial patterns and how these patterns would relate to the number of hours of physical comfort obtained during the whole year, considering only the use of natural ventilation. Natural Ventilation is a very common bioclimatic strategy for building refrigeration in hot and humid climates. The authors of the research expect then to identify types of spatiality which would lead to better solutions for bioclimatic dwellings, considering both social (spatial) and thermal performance matters.

Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture, 2018

This work presents an analysis for the rural vernacular dwelling (Culata Yovai), sited in the South America Guarani region, basin of Paraguay and Paraná rivers. Outdoor climate has conducted man to build along the time a habitat climatic responsive. Nowadays, studies in progress try to show how this vernacular typology can support new low-income house designs. The intent is to guarantee for new projects the socio-cultural image that people, coming from countryside to live in city outskirts, are accostumed. Also, to provide material improvements and functional adequation for a quality and healthiness. Natural ventilation is the main bioclimatic strategy during summer for thermal comfort, which influences the house characteristics. This is proven by calculation, and simulation with the CFX-ANSYS software. Thus, the analysis performed shows the real possibity to reconcile bioclimatism with the symbolic-cultural value represented by this vernacular architecture form. It is hopped that this study can be considered as a methodological contributition for new sustainable projects (materials, technics and services) of low-incoming houses in this Latin American region.

RESCUE OF A BIOCLIMATIC SINGLE-FAMILY RESIDENCE IN SOUTHER BRAZIL (Atena Editora), 2022

The architecture using bioclimatic principles and passive solar conditioning, although it was the object of theoretical and practical studies at the end of the 20th century worldwide, in the regional scope of the North of Rio Grande do Sul, even in the current context, presents few examples. of your application. The present work rescues a work from the mid-1980s, executed in the city of Passo Fundo – RS; it is a single-family residence whose conceptual premise was to provide thermal comfort to users with the lowest possible energy consumption. These concepts anticipated contemporary concerns about sustainable construction and energy efficiency. Within this proposal, natural means were used for air conditioning, water heating and lighting. In this article, the basic concepts adopted and their respective characteristics are recovered from a qualitative analysis, as well as from the perspective of the theoretical frameworks that guided its conception and execution as an interpretive research. Initially, the passive solar architecture is contextualized and its validations to the local climate context. For that, the local climatic characterization and the parameters and design strategies applicable to these characteristics are presented. From a scientific point of view, a way is pointed out to prove its as-built performance, adopting contemporary monitoring and simulation methodologies. Thus, even though the application was based on some empirical variables, given the limited availability of data and tools in the early 1980s, with the adoption of architectural principles using passive natural resources, the residence reaches a differentiated thermal performance in relation to that normally found for its complex climatic characterization, fully meeting the needs of users, contrary to constructive and architectural standards in which environmental comfort requirements are generally neglected, and only achieved with the insertion of partial active conditioning.

Sustainable urban development, especially in disadvantaged regions, has increasingly gained a major strategic priority. New settlements and urban regeneration programs have to achieve an improvement of social life quality, promote economic growth and increase environmental protection practices and proper use of local resources. In this framework, building environment development must exploit natural resources with responsible approach by using local materials and traditional techniques. In this end, indoor comfort and energy consumption have to match the territories needs. Low energy and passive heating/cooling techniques should be considered as a valid option in many building projects. The paper reviews some models evaluating thermohygrometric comfort in natural ventilated buildings, based on adaptive approaches. A focus is given on Mozambican building traditions, and, finally it proposes a case study where, by the recovery of Mozambican old traditions, a new healthcare facility is designed to be energy autonomous also including large use of natural ventilation.

Urban Ecosystems, 2014

Thermal bioclimate as a factor in urban and architectural planning in tropical climates-The case of Campinas, Brazil Loyde V. Abreu-Harbich, Lucila C. Labaki & Andreas Matzarakis Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by Springer Science +Business Media New York. This e-offprint is for personal use only and shall not be selfarchived in electronic repositories. If you wish to self-archive your article, please use the accepted manuscript version for posting on your own website. You may further deposit the accepted manuscript version in any repository, provided it is only made publicly available 12 months after official publication or later and provided acknowledgement is given to the original source of publication and a link is inserted to the published article on Springer's website. The link must be accompanied by the following text: "The final publication is available at link.springer.com".

This paper presents the results of an investigation on verandahs and self-built houses. The investigation is part of a continuing investigation on the self-built housing phenomenon in the region of Campinas, Brazil. In this study the verandah is singled out as a significant building element to attain environmental comfort. A field study, in five outlying areas of the city of Campinas, applied 76 questionnaires to families of self-built houses. A second study analyzed 64 floor plans of self-built houses, drawn from a previous investigation. Results show that the front verandah is less and less popular, but the back porch is still an important element for clothes washing and drying activities. The population recognizes the verandah's importance as a shading element, but self-builders today seldom incorporate this knowledge into the house design.