A study of residential development : with particular reference to indoor and outdoor natural ventilation of medium density houses in hot-humid tropical climate

Abstract

As well as an increase in population some economic factors have resulted in state governments of Australia fostering an increase in the ratio of higher-density residential housing. Under the new policy, some new residential houses have been built to medium densities in some new subdivision areas of tropical cities. The new policy to increase building density not only influences the future urban form in some cities but also influences the future urban environmental conditions. In hot-humid tropical climate condition, the medium density residential houses could cause poor indoor and outdoor natural ventilation conditions. By predicting the indoor and outdoor natural ventilation potential of selected sample residential houses by using the wind tunnel and the computer program, this thesis explored the potential for poor indoor and outdoor natural ventilation of medium density residential houses in a new subdivision area of tropical city Townsville in Australia. As the residential houses are low budget houses, the methods to predict the indoor and outdoor ventilation of residential houses should be a low cost and affordable for residential housing development design. To estimate the indoor and outdoor natural ventilation of a number of residential house in a medium building area, the methods should be simple, efficient and practicable for residential house development design. Through this research the writer developed some low cost, simple and efficient methods for estimating the indoor and outdoor natural ventilation conditions of residential houses.