37º IAHS World Congress on Housing: - Universidad de Cantabria

XXXVII <strong>IAHS</strong><strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> on HousingOctober 26 – 29, 2010, Santander, SpainCODE: 245EXPLORING MICROCLIMATE – BUILDING RELATIONTHROUGH AN EXAMPLE OF IRISH ARCHITECTURALHERITAGESzűcs Á., Olley J.School of Architecture, Landscape and Civil EngineeringUniversity College Dubline-mail: agota.szucs@ucd.ieKey words: microclimate, historic building, bioclimatic aspects, computational simulationAbstractLandscape and building, in an ideal case, form an ensemble and provide a pleasant place tolive for its users. Surrounding landscape affects to a great extent the characteristics of outdoormicroclimate created around the building, and the building also shapes outdoor microclimaticconditions. The subtle interaction between elements of landscape (i.e. water surfaces,vegetation, topographical formations) and design parameters of the building, such asdimension, orientation to sun and wind, shape, distribution and size of openings and buildingmaterials will be explored by the present research through a selected outstanding example ofIrish architectural heritage. Historic buildings represent great cultural value for today'sgeneration. They are accumulations of memories and meanings, teaching us lessons onbuilding design, ambiance, construction, and above all on the way of building integration intothe natural environment. In order to study on one hand englobing bioclimatic aspects into thebuilding and landscape design concepts, and the other hand the complex interaction betweenbuilding and microclimate, prevailing microclimatic conditions around the selected buildingwill be investigated by the means of computational simulation. In the spirit of exploring theevolution of microclimatic conditions from the eighteenth century till nowadays, historicmicroclimate will also be simulated computationally based on data gathered through historicdocument survey. The profound and meticulous microclimatic analysis is indispensable toobtain global understanding on the interrelation between the building and its immediateoutdoor environment, in particular when considering conservation or retrofitting of historicbuildings.37º <strong>IAHS</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> On Housing Science 137