A Theory And Method Of "Solar Adaptive" Urban Design

Solar insolation is an important factor affecting the quality of urban environment.In the long history of urban development,people have gathered kinds of wisdom of utilize the solar insolation to create a better environment.After the industrial revolution,in order to solve the contradiction between high-density urban environment and public health,solar insolation specifications in some countries including China was published.The form of mandatory regulations affected the urban form.Objectively speaking,the solar insolation specification satisfies the basic solar insolation requirements of a large number of residential buildings in the process of rapid urbanization.However,with people’s increasing requirement to improve the quality of the residential environment,the current national solar insolation regulations expose some deficiencies in the control of the urban form.For example,in China,there are three shortcomings:First,excessive control over multi-storey residential buildings leads to the prevalence of "parallel cities" in China;second,there is no relevant control of public spaces.The basic solar insolation requirements of square or streets are not guaranteed by laws and regulations.Third,the lack of effective control over the distance between high-rise buildings has caused that the "City of the Thousand Towers"becoming a typical morphological feature of our cities.Among them,the solar insolation problem of high-rise buildings is most serious in contemporary cities,the Solar-blocking phenomenon in public spaces is also mainly caused by high-rise buildings.Compared with multi-storey residential buildings,the high intensity of high-rise building development results in less possibility for improvement.Therefore,this article mainly focuses on the issue of solar insolation in high-rise buildings,focusing on the four core issues:the underestimation of the range of high-rise building’s shadows,the occlusion of the outdoor public space,the impact of the potential of the surrounding land development,and the high-rise building itself is over-exposure of solar radiation.The theory of "Solar Adaptive" urban design was proposed to break through the single concept of solar insolation time based on the theory of complex adaptive system.This study compared different block forms from the perspective of outdoor thermal comfort and building energy consumption.The research object extends from residential buildings to outdoor public spaces,attempt to comprehensively analyze the effects of solar insolation on the quality of the urban environment from an overall perspective.Based on the Grasshopper a visual programming software to construct a solar radiation adaptive system,six core programs are established to support the above research and design,including the solar radiation distribution analysis,generation of "Solar Envelope?",generation of "Solar Channel",building average energy consumption analysis,outdoor UTCI analysis,and generation of "Solar Adaptive" block form by the method of multi-objective research.First,the "Solar Envelope" and "Solar Channel" technologies were proposed for the management and control of urban morphology.The technology of "Solar Envelope" can ensure the fairness of solar insolation among the adjacent urban blocks.This technology is applicable to general areas of the city."Solar Channel" technology is conducive to the city’s high-density central areas to fully utilize land value while still able to obtain a certain degree of solar insolation.Then,through the study of the solar insolation in outdoor public spaces,suggestions of the orientation of city squares and streets and the height of surrounding buildings were proposed.This study is conducive to optimizing and adjusting the shape of urban outdoor space.Subsequently,the research on the building organization model of the solar radiation adaptive unit was conducted.Parametric modeling was used to exploring the "Solar Adaptive" indexes including distribution of solar radiation,building energy performance and outdoor thermal comfort in different block forms.First,the study of tower blocks,panel blocks and courtyard blocks of different heights and different orientations shows that the courtyard block is selected as the basic "Solar adaptive" block model.Further research is based on courtyard-buildings.Analysis of courtyard-style building variations from the aspects of enclosure,local height and angle to achieve the optimal balance between the building intensity and solar insolation.Based on the above studies,this paper explores two methods of adapting urban design,the first one uses the "Solar Envelope" technique to control the maximum building volume of one plot.The diversity of urban forms is based on the shape difference of the plot itself;the other method is based on Octopus a technological tool that studies the potential of urban design in courtyard-style buildings through multi-target search.At the end of this paper,the proposed amendments to the Solar Regulations are proposed.In order to deal with the uncertainty of future urban,the primary purpose is not to establish a new set of rules to strengthen Solar management and control,but to further understand the multiple effects of Solar insolation on the quality of the urban environment and explore urban design methods which is more environment friendly and energy-saving.What the writer pursues is the "Solar adaptive" city form which presents the coexistence of order and agility,constraint and freedom.