The Effect of Climate Considerations in Generating House Façade in Erbil City

Abstract

Many factors affect the architectural design process and the building's overall design including culture, location, economy, religion and others. climatic factors are one of the most influential which have a significant impact on building design. Purpose: Due to the rapid urbanization and housing projects, the role of the effect of the climatical factors has been neglected during the design process, which makes the householder intervene in the house façade. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the kind of interventions that have been done to reduce the negative impact of climate factors and then to evaluate the efficiency of each type the intervention. Subject This research is limited to the investment housing projects in Erbil City, and it was conducted in the Andaziyaran project which is located in the north part of the city. Design: This study conducted a pilot study and demonstrated a post-occupancy evaluation POE questionnaire to identify the climatical factors which lead to these innervations, then, the most influential factors were identified which were solar radiation, rainfall, and dust storms.  analysing models were created for six houses using Rhinoceros which is 3D modelling software, one model before the change and the other after the change. Measure: To obtain data from the analyzing models, the Grasshopper plugin, ladybug tools, and butterfly were applied. Result: The result indicated that the façade interventions significantly reduced the negative impact of climate factors and contributed to a more climate-considerations facade.  Therefore, climate considerations should receive more attention in the early stage of the design process.