Conference Agenda

The favela is a pressing reality in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, concentrating around 10% of its population. Despite the public investments and its higher consolidation status, the favela still lacks some urban infrastructures and services. In addition to that, housing is a key topic both due to the social dynamics embedded and to the poor environmental conditions found indoors, mainly caused by overexposure, under performative building fabric and inefficient openings. From this context, how would it be possible to develop practical and replicable design strategies for the self-built houses’ facades, environmentally informed in favelas in Subtropical Climates? The method articulates fieldwork, analytical simulations and prospective exercises that culminate on the construction of a 1:1 prototype entitled “Everyday House”, in the second largest favela in the city of Sao Paulo, “Favela de Paraisópolis”, with the aim of evaluating the strategies’ impact and promoting its replication within and outside of the local community.

This study challenges the misperception that natural ventilation cannot be used as a passive cooling means in Mexico City due to the air pollution and demonstrates that free running conditions can indeed be achieved by passive design strategies. These were tested in a refurbishment project of a brutalist office building in the city, where the high thermal mass of the building was exposed, while natural and night ventilation as well as exterior solar control were implemented as the most relevant passive strategies. As thermal comfort and ventilation was achieved by passive means, electric energy used for this purpose was reduced up to 98% dispensing the need for an HVAC system; in addition, after enhancing daylight, installing LED lighting, and substituting inefficient appliances the total electric energy consumption dropped up to 46%, from 114KWh/m2 to 61KWh/m2. Finally, the relationship between indoor air quality, human comfort, and passive strategies was investigated, correlating the outdoor air quality with the climate. The study revealed that it’s possible to integrate natural ventilation strategies without compromising the interior air quality if the diurnal Ozone trend is followed and enabled between 8pm and 11am when the air quality tends to be classified as “Good”.

Under this study, office buildings spread across Mumbai were chosen for Post Occupancy Evaluation of indoor environment quality. Parameters evaluated were - Temperature, Humidity, PM2.5, VOC, CO2 and illumination. While rest of the parameters were found to be compliant to ISHRAE 10001:2016.- the two most important office indoor environment quality problems in Mumbai were PM2.5 and CO2 levels -Both these parameters were found to be in excess of the benchmarks specified in standards. Indoor CO2 concentration often exceeded 1000 ppm during working hours, indicating inadequate supply of fresh air. PM 2.5 levels were 2-3 times of the benchmark value of 0.1-25 μg/m³.

Cluster Redevelopment is a new concept in the city of Mumbai. Its regulations were laid down by the government in 2009. The concept of cluster redevelopment encompasses a group of buildings defined by a boundary as specified by the municipal authority (in this case, Mumbai), which may be dilapidated or approved for redevelopment. The study analyses the effect of cluster redevelopment in the form of renewal of old group of buildings as compared to refurbishment or restoration - on energy consumption. The methodology includes methods of assessment to determine increase or decrease in energy consumption in cluster redevelopment based on different criteria such as carpet area of the units, building envelope and its architectural elements. Results show that as the area and number of units increase the Energy consumption increases and the EPI (energy performance index) decreases as compared to the base case. The energy consumption per unit area declines by 29% in the proposed cluster redevelopment as compared to the original settlement. It is recommended that although new development is spacious and provides more light and ventilation, aspects such as glass type, traditional architectural features and consumer behaviour are critical in the reduction of energy consumption