Global cooling demand in buildings reflect the need for better building design approaches to better integrate cooling decisions at early stages. A critical review of existing design processes followed by practitioners in practice suggests that the pre-design phase and the schematic design phase of any building are the two crucial phases in any architectural practice where information about a building’s purpose, site, local micro-climate, client’s expectations, and local legislations influence the building’s overall shape, internal layout and morphology. The study will contribute in the future design of non-residential buildings through development of an early-stage conceptual design process that caters to the requirements of experts involved in designing of buildings and the end-users. The study would develop a building design process to improve the thermal resilience of non-domestic buildings using ventilative cooling solutions through qualitative (surveys, interviews) methods and dynamic thermal simulations.

Publications:
Design frameworks for ventilative cooling: Perceptions from building design practitioners in Ireland and the United Kingdom