Influence of building design on thermal comfort of hawker centers in Singapore

Abstract

This study was conducted using field study and wind tunnel experiment. Field study on one typical hawker center was adopted to evaluate directly the thermal comfort conditions and to capture the building design elements which are likely to affect the thermal comfort in the actual environmental context. The field study included long-term micrometeorological measurement and short-term questionnaire survey. The long-term micrometeorological measurement recorded microclimate data including dry bulb temperature, wind speed and direction, relative humidity and solar radiation etc. The short-term questionnaire survey covered both the objective measurements and the subjective evaluations, which were conducted simultaneously. The objective measurements involve air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and globe temperature for semi-outdoor spaces. Wind tunnel experiment was carried out to stimulate wind effects on hawker centers, which included influence of wind on natural ventilation performance. The study explored the impacts of building design such as roof type, stall height and stall gap on the natural ventilation of hawker centers.