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Bioclimatic Design for Informal Settlements

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Sustainable Urban Development and Globalization

Part of the book series: Research for Development ((REDE))

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Abstract

In this paper, a review of the reasons hindering the use of bioclimatic design principles in informal settlements is attempted and the perspective of bioclimatic design in those contexts is discussed. Among the main candidate reasons is the habit of mind induced by the belief that informal settlements grow organically, so as to invariably end up being optimized for their functional tasks. Another reason lies in the very nature of bioclimatic design, which is based on integration, that can be perceived as too a “weak” guarantee of perspective features, not very suitable for competing with clear-cut and powerful strategies like active climatic control. A third reason is constituted by the technical challenges which are presently still posed by the environmental simulation of open and intermediate spaces, especially in hot climatic conditions. In this context, some promising research lines related to climatic control and passive cooling are identified in this text. Those approaches are likely to benefit from an integrated blend of practice and theory and may contribute to increase the attractiveness of bioclimatic principles for the rehabilitation of informal settlements.

If you find that you’re spending almost all your time on theory, start turning some attention to practical things; it will improve your theories. If you find that you’re spending almost all your time on practice, start turning some attention to theoretical things; it will improve your practice.

(Donald Knuth, computer scientist.) [In: Gonzalez-Gutierrez A (2007) p 99.]

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The most notorious example among many is that of the “conquest” of the cold north-east of the Japanese islands made by the traditional house type suited to the humid south-west.

  2. 2.

    The adoption of logograms on part of the Chinese Han dynasty (Boltz 1994) as well as the QWERTY layout of the typewriter keyboard (Norman 1998) is notorious example of that kind of dynamics.

  3. 3.

    Bioclimatic studies on shacks (Mathews et al. 1995, 1999), emergency shelters and low-cost prototypes (Crawford et al. 2005; Krüger and Laroca 2010) seem to be meeting more incentives: the former ones thanks to the low entry barriers related to the construction of the physical prototypes; and the latter ones due to their non-informal (professionally designed, and, in certain cases, professionally produced) nature.

  4. 4.

    Like, for example, the thesis that an architect should only be assigned small groups of dwellings, “small” architectural decision, so as to be given the possibility of reaching a deeper and fuller understanding.

  5. 5.

    In the proposed solution, the stairs to the second story are not placed above the stairs to the first one, and the façade on the street at the second story is not continuous. The result is that the enclosure constituted by the buildings around the courtyard becomes more and more opened to the outside (street and sky) with the height.

  6. 6.

    That of the ventilation through shafts is a solution that has also been investigated in other high-density contexts (e.g. Prajongsan and Sharples 2012), which is a clue of a growing awareness of a need.

  7. 7.

    Indeed, a passively cooled building is very often “served” by many kind of intermediate spaces (shaded, and/or ventilated, and/or wet, and/or in contact with the ground, and/or in view of the sky, etc.), often so much that even its indoor space may be considered an intermediate context between “outsides”.

  8. 8.

    This objective seems to be addressed at the moment by the only ESP-r tool (Beausoleil-Morrison 2002).

  9. 9.

    This objective is addressed by a minority of the main tools in use.

  10. 10.

    Integration is even more important for passive cooling that for passive heating, because in its case more strategies are usually into play.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Gian Luca Brunetti

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  1. Gian Luca Brunetti
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Correspondence to Gian Luca Brunetti .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy

    Agostino Petrillo

  2. Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy

    Paola Bellaviti

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Brunetti, G.L. (2018). Bioclimatic Design for Informal Settlements. In: Petrillo, A., Bellaviti, P. (eds) Sustainable Urban Development and Globalization. Research for Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61988-0_12

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