Outdoor Ventilation and Ground Coverage: Exploring a Climate Centric Approach to Building Byelaws for Multi Storied Apartments in Bhubaneswar

Abstract

Bhubaneswar with a warm and humid climate and with humidity much higher than the comfort level requires an enhanced natural ventilation to achieve long term quality of life. The building code which regulates the fabric of the city at present follows a standardized set of regulations governed by National Building Code of India and is developed without giving much consideration to climate. Ground coverage is an important parameter which regulates the footprint of the blocks and allows natural ventilation to buildings as well to outdoor. At present, Bhubaneswar does not prescribe a ground coverage for its apartments and completely dependent on FAR control. As a result, the developments consider quite high ground coverage in certain areas. This particular research focusses on analyzing the current situation of multi storied apartments and proposes a few climate centric recommendations for the byelaw. To examine the situation and arrive at a strategy, a simulation study has been carried out by altering the ground coverage and building orientation of a multistoried apartment consisting of 5 residential blocks to analyze the effect of natural ventilation. The study inferred that, building layout and orientation in relation to wind direction plays an important role for natural ventilation in the outdoors. A climate centric byelaw ideally should consider both while formulating its building code.