The ecological design considerations are focusing on the built environment and the living process of the building. It considering the environment impact in designing building, and integrating ecological responsive design methods. While the traditional Chinese building shared the same design philosophy. Our ancestors are really concerning the connection between their living space with the broader environment, not only in the time they occupying the building, but also when they construct and demolish it. They use the word "harmony" to describe this relationship with the environment, and consider it as the high-quality pursuit of life. Wooden building has been a major building type in China for thousands of years, however, over 40 thousand traditional Chinese building has been demolished in the past 30 years, most of them are wooden buildings. Since the steel, concrete and other emerging materials has become the major materials for the modern building, wooden building seems to step down from the stage of history. Not until in recent years, wooden building come into people’s view again, it’s increasingly appeared in all over the world and take part in a major role in mordent architecture. Since the wood is a sustainable and renewable building material, and a good carbon sink, it is more environmental friendly than steel, concrete or some other building materials. The wooden building has a great potential to discover its ecological benefits and as a carrier of traditional Chinese culture. In seeking the development of wood as a building material, and the future of sustainable buildings, I integrate the theory with practice that human population is growing rapidly, the high-rise wooden building might be a best solution for this quest. I expect to explore the application of wood in high rise building’s envelope and structure, integrate the wood with other material to expand its performance, emotionally and reality connect the traditional Chinese culture and people’s memory of the land to the present day.

by David Luke Cronin. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 148-156). / Investigation into The Dynamics of Waste Air Dispersal from High-Rise Residences --- p.i / Acknowledgements --- p.ii / Abstract --- p.iii / Contents --- p.iv / List of Illustrations --- p.viii / Preface / Chapter 1. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1. --- The Development of Building Technology in Response to the Forces of Wind and Water --- p.2 / Chapter 1.1.1. --- Roman concrete --- p.3 / Chapter 1.1.2. --- Requirement for a stronger mortar --- p.5 / Chapter 1.1.3. --- Discovery of an improved mortar --- p.5 / Chapter 1.2. --- Development of Wind Engineering --- p.7 / Chapter 1.3. --- Computational Wind Engineering --- p.10 / Chapter 1.4. --- Development of Building Regulations concerning Ventilation and Light in Hong Kong --- p.14 / Chapter 1.4.1. --- First building regulations --- p.15 / Chapter 1.4.2. --- Chadwick's enquiry --- p.17 / Chapter 1.4.3. --- First requirement for windows in rooms --- p.18 / Chapter 1.4.4. --- Public Health Ordinance --- p.19 / Chapter 1.4.5. --- Building Ordinance --- p.20 / Chapter 1.4.6. --- Plot ratio regulations and natural ventilation --- p.22 / Chapter 1.5. --- Plot Ratio and Site Coverage --- p.23 / Chapter 1.5.1. --- Gross Floor Area (GFA) --- p.24 / Chapter 1.5.2. --- Cruciform tower --- p.27 / Chapter 1.5.3. --- Re-entrant --- p.30 / Chapter 1.6. --- Summary --- p.35 / Chapter 2. --- VENTILATION OF RESIDENTIAL DWELLINGS AND THE REMOVAL OF AIRBORNE WASTES --- p.37 / Chapter 2.1. --- High-rise Buildings in Hong Kong and Ventilation --- p.37 / Chapter 2.2. --- "Climatic Conditions in Hong Kong, and the Requirement for Air-conditioning" --- p.38 / Chapter 2.3. --- Typical Practice in Hong Kong High-rises --- p.40 / Chapter 2.4. --- Source Ventilation --- p.42 / Chapter 2.5. --- Traditional Recommendations for a Tropical Climate --- p.42 / Chapter 2.6. --- Building Regulations Concerning Ventilation of Residences --- p.43 / Chapter 2.6.1. --- Hong Kong Government building regulations --- p.43 / Chapter 2.6.2. --- UK building regulations --- p.44 / Chapter 2.6.3. --- US building regulations --- p.46 / Chapter 2.7. --- Summary --- p.47 / Chapter 3. --- MODELLING OF WIND FLOW AROUND BUILDINGS --- p.48 / Chapter 3.1. --- Summary of CFD Methods for Air Flow around Buildings --- p.48 / Chapter 3.1.1. --- Validation of the k-ε model for wind pressures on buildings --- p.50 / Chapter 3.2. --- Atmospheric Boundary Layer --- p.50 / Chapter 3.3. --- Use of Wind Tunnels to Predict Wind Effects on Tall Buildings --- p.52 / Chapter 3.3.1. --- Local wind climate --- p.53 / Chapter 3.3.2. --- Pressure study --- p.53 / Chapter 3.3.3. --- Aeroelastic study --- p.54 / Chapter 3.3.4. --- Wind environment study --- p.54 / Chapter 3.4. --- Architectural Aerodynamics --- p.54 / Chapter 3.4.1. --- Reynolds number --- p.55 / Chapter 3.4.2. --- Pressure coefficient --- p.56 / Chapter 4. --- PREDICTION OF OUTDOOR POLLUTION AND AIR QUALITY --- p.57 / Chapter 4.1. --- Computer Modelling of Pollution Dispersion --- p.57 / Chapter 4.2. --- Exhaust Dispersion from Buildings - Distance Dilution Model --- p.59 / Chapter 4.2.1. --- Wall exhaust discharges in residential ventilation --- p.59 / Chapter 4.2.2. --- Acceptable levels of kitchen exhaust in the outside air --- p.62 / Chapter 4.2.3. --- Distance dilution model with corrections for building size --- p.62 / Chapter 4.3. --- Gaussian Plume Model --- p.63 / Chapter 4.4. --- Wind Tunnel Models of Pollution Dispersion in a Built-up Area --- p.65 / Chapter 5. --- INDOOR AIR QUALITY - COOKING FUMES --- p.67 / Chapter 5.1. --- Local Exhaust Ventilation and Efficiency of Pollutant Capture --- p.67 / Chapter 5.2. --- Indoor Pollution due to Cooking Stove Smoke --- p.68 / Chapter 5.3. --- Cooking Oil Detected in Hong Kong Air --- p.69 / Chapter 6. --- THEORETICAL BACKGROUND: RELEVANT ASPECTS OF CFD USED IN THIS STUDY --- p.71 / Chapter 6.1. --- Mathematical Model --- p.71 / Chapter 6.2. --- Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes Equations --- p.71 / Chapter 6.3. --- SIMPLE method --- p.74 / Chapter 6.4. --- Wall Shear Stress Calculations --- p.75 / Chapter 6.5. --- Wall Boundary Conditions for k and ε --- p.77 / Chapter 6.6. --- Species Calculations --- p.77 / Chapter 6.7. --- Thermal Transfer --- p.78 / Chapter 6.8. --- Grid System and Boundary Conditions --- p.81 / Chapter 6.8.1. --- Geometry and grid --- p.81 / Chapter 6.8.2. --- Boundary conditions --- p.85 / Chapter 6.9. --- Natural Convection Flows --- p.85 / Chapter 7. --- MODELLING PROCEDURE --- p.87 / Chapter 7.1. --- Dispersal of Exhaust Air from Kitchens --- p.87 / Chapter 7.1.1. --- Kitchen range hood exhaust rates --- p.87 / Chapter 7.1.2. --- Exhaust air release rates modelled --- p.88 / Chapter 7.1.3. --- Initial approximation of dilution in the re-entrant --- p.89 / Chapter 7.2. --- Modelling of Waste Heat Dispersal from Air-conditioning Units --- p.90 / Chapter 7.2.1. --- Typical air-conditioner energy figures --- p.90 / Chapter 7.2.2. --- Representation of condenser heat in a CFD model --- p.92 / Chapter 7.2.3. --- Approximation of temperature increase --- p.94 / Chapter 7.3. --- Representation of the High-rise Tower --- p.94 / Chapter 7.4. --- Power-law Profile: Increasing Wind Speed with Height --- p.95 / Chapter 7.5. --- Wind Tunnel Verification --- p.97 / Chapter 7.5.1. --- Wind velocities and pressures --- p.97 / Chapter 7.5.2. --- Wind tunnel prediction of contaminant dilution --- p.98 / Chapter 7.6. --- Summary of Simulations --- p.99 / Chapter 7.6.1. --- Kitchen exhaust air dispersal --- p.100 / Chapter 7.6.2. --- Air-conditioner waste heat dispersal --- p.100 / Chapter 8. --- DISCUSSION OF RESULTS --- p.102 / Chapter 8.1. --- Wind Patterns in the Re-entrant --- p.103 / Chapter 8.1.1. --- Wind into re-entrant --- p.104 / Chapter 8.1.2. --- Wind at 90° to the re-entrant --- p.104 / Chapter 8.1.3. --- Re-entrant on the leeward side of the building --- p.105 / Chapter 8.2. --- Exhaust Air Concentration --- p.112 / Chapter 8.2.1. --- Wind into re-entrant --- p.113 / Chapter 8.2.2. --- Wind at 90° to the re-entrant --- p.113 / Chapter 8.2.3. --- Re-entrant on the leeward side --- p.114 / Chapter 8.3. --- Temperature Increase in the Re-entrant --- p.121 / Chapter 8.3.1. --- Wind into the re-entrant --- p.122 / Chapter 8.3.2. --- Wind at 90° to the re-entrant --- p.123 / Chapter 8.3.3. --- Re-entrant on leeward side --- p.123 / Chapter 8.4. --- Summary of Findings --- p.130 / Chapter 9. --- NATURAL CONVECTION MODELLING --- p.132 / Chapter 10. --- CONCLUSIONS --- p.136 / Chapter 10.1. --- Waste Air --- p.136 / Chapter 10.2. --- Waste Heat --- p.138 / Chapter 10.3. --- Implications --- p.139 / Chapter 10.4. --- Suggestions --- p.140 / APPENDIX A: SIMULATION CASE DEFINITIONS / Chapter A.1 --- Definitions used for all simulations --- p.142 / Chapter A.1.1 --- Boundary Conditions used in all simulations --- p.145 / Chapter A. 1.2 --- Equations used in all simulations --- p.145 / Chapter A.2 --- Simulation of Wind Flow around the Building --- p.145 / Chapter A.3 --- Air-conditioner Waste Heat Dispersal Simulations --- p.146 / Chapter A.1.1 --- Additional boundary conditions used to represent air-conditioners --- p.146 / Chapter A. 1.2 --- Additional equations used --- p.146 / Chapter A.4 --- Exhaust Air Dispersal from Kitchens --- p.147 / Chapter A.1.1 --- Additional boundary conditions used to represent air-conditioners --- p.147 / Chapter A. 1.2 --- Additional equations used --- p.147 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.149 / Books --- p.148 / Papers --- p.149 / Other Sources --- p.152 / Notes --- p.153

This thesis aims to investigate the relationship between the provision of spatial order and perceived sense of community in high-rise housing developments in Korea from a socio-spatial and architectural perspective. It also considers relationships between the perception of neighbourhood, provision of facilities, design aspects, and socio-economic characteristics and sense of community. The study uses a questionnaire survey as the main research instrument conducted across four case studies in Bundang new town, in metropolitan Seoul, Korea. Two of the cases were selected as having a high provision of spatial order and the other two low provision according to the concepts of Altman (1975) and Newman (1972, 1975). Quantitative analysis is carried out using the Kruskal-Wallis/Mann-Whitney test and Spearman???s rank correlation to identify differences and correlations between cases. The results indicate that there is no clear evidence that a sense of community has a direct relationship with the provision of spatial order in the selected cases. However, in the high provision cases outdoor common spaces appear to have a role in contributing to social interaction. Among Buckner???s (1988) three sub-variables of his concept of neighbourhood cohesion, ???neighbouring??? appears to be more associated with the provision of spatial order rather than ???attraction-to-neighbourhood??? or ???psychological sense of community.??? A greater number of opportunities for social interactions occur in an intermediate space located between private dwelling units and public open space in cases with a high provision of spatial order. However, this is likely to be due to the location of shared facilities and their frequency of use. In terms of the relationship between design and a sense of community, ???landscaping??? was found to be the most important variable, followed by the ???design of streets/footpath??? and ???facilities for children???, ???parking???, and ???recreational activities???. Despite the lack of a clear relationship between design and a sense of community, a strong demand was found for improved outdoor amenity and greater provision of facilities. Socio-economic status appears not to be a significant factor directly influencing the sense of community however, age and the existence of children are associated with the perception of neighbourhood.

Welcome to CityPlace. Thirty-five hectares of formerly unoccupied rail-lands in downtown Toronto are currently undergoing a transformation into an instant neighbourhood. Eventually, CityPlace will be the home to over 15,000 people within 23 buildings, sequestered by the Gardiner Expressway on its southern border and by the still functioning rail-lines on its northern border, it is truly an island of suburban stacked living which is at once surrounded and yet at a distance from downtown Toronto. In CityPlace we are witnessing what the Belgian philosopher Lieven De Cauter describes as the rise of the capsular civilization. Impossible to ignore, condominiums have become the dominant form of new housing in the city of Toronto; a process that has been driven by demographics, political imperative and most of all by the pursuit of profits in the high-stakes game of real-estate development. But lost in this torrent of development is a genuine dialogue about the city we are building. This thesis explores the current state of condo development in downtown Toronto; from the myriad of political, economic and physical factors that have led to Toronto’s vernacular condo typology to the marketing onslaught that targets the base consumerist hyper-individual within all of us and aims to hide the fact that these buildings are more similar than distinct. From the optimistic aims of a city council which seeks to achieve civic benefits from increased density, to the cynical de urbanizing and social polarization that the type typically brings into the downtown. The thesis explores the promise of downtown condominium living and the hybridisation of programme that accompanies the rising real estate values of the downtown core. Programmatic promiscuity and complexity are exploited to bring different user-types from the outside city into the tower. With its unique vertical properties and inherent density, the residential high-rise tower presents new opportunities for urban collective spaces. From introvert to extrovert, the new condo becomes a catalyst for urbanity in the instant neighbourhood of CityPlace.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-122). Also available in print.

As part of the EU project Energy Efficient Demo Multiresidential highrise Building (EE-highrise), this thesis work evaluates and changes the Slovenian Eco Silver House (ESH) high rise building model in order to see if it can be classifiable as a passive house in different European regions. The purpose of this thesis work was to evaluate if the ESH could meet the European and Swedish passive house classification in Sibernik, Ljubljana, Lund, Östersund, Sundsvall and Kiruna. The purpose was also to make a sensitivity analysis of different energy efficiency measures in the energy performance of the building. This analysis was conducted to understand which of the selected energy efficiency measures made the most significant improvements in the results. The measures included in the sensitivity analysis were the building envelopes wall insulation thickness, changing the window frames, altering the ventilation air duct length and width as well as increasing the air duct insulation thickness. Finally, simulations with solar panels on the roof of the ESH were carried out. For the European passive house classification, the study involved constructing the model in the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) and simulating each region and energy efficiency measures separately. PHPP is however made specifically for verifying buildings according to the European passive house standard. So the demands for the Swedish passive house classification cannot be calculated in the PHPP simulations. Because of this, the data available through PHPP was used to manually calculate the Swedish passive house requirements. The results showed that the original ESH model, was only passive house certifiable according to the European classification in Sibernik. When including the additional energy efficiency measures it was possible for the ESH to become passive house certifiable in Lund, Ljubljana and Sibernik. The Swedish passive house classification results suggests that the ESH may be passive house certifiable in Lund. Also, with additional energy efficiency measures the ESH may meet the passive house requirements in Sundsvall and Kiruna. However, all the passive house classification parameters could not be considered in this study. Accordingly, additional analysis are required to draw final conclusions on whether the ESH building could meet the Swedish passive house certification in the different Swedish climate zones. The conclusions drawn were that all the energy efficiency measures contribute to reducing the primary energy demand, heating demand and the heating load. However, these same energy efficiency measures would at the same time increase the cooling demand. Because of this, it was discussed that specific regional models should be made. Because some regional models might benefit from not including the energy efficiency measures used in this thesis at all. They might instead benefit from finding and implementing energy efficiency measures that reduce the cooling demand.

Throughout multiple dense, tropical, urban contexts, high rise residential environments have created a sense of social detachment, where public and private green spaces do not often exist. It is through these varieties of green spaces that social interaction is encouraged, and without these social activities taking place, this vertical community becomes almost a meaningless entity within the urban realm. The issue being addressed within this thesis is the scarcity of public and private green spaces within our high density tropical urban fabrics that help to create a sense of community. The majority of dense urban settings that we inhabit today do not include the resources of easily accessible public and private green spaces for the majority of their dwellers. According to the Trust for Public Land organization, the average dense urban setting contains less than ten percent green space for every seventy thousand acres of land use. The goal of this project is to architecturally create an innovative residential high rise design by incorporating public and private green spaces throughout its structure, circulation, and tropical design elements. The design will begin to encourage interaction and promote a more cohesive living environment amongst its users. The design project will incorporate and deal with topical/ecological issues as well as sociological matters throughout the design process. Through this approach, by answering some of the imperative questions such as, how will community life be encouraged, how can we incorporate natural vegetation within a vertical context and how can we implement sustainable vii systems, the possibility of multiple, properly proportioned public and private green spaces will begin to push forward the ideas that are being addressed throughout this thesis. The constructive effects of such an articulated architectural contribution to a dense tropical urban setting will include improvements to physical and psychological health, social communal advancement, ecosystem development, as well as biodiversity systems. The important outcome of this architectural advancement in residential high rise design will be to improve the vertical community through the variety of incorporated communal and private green spaces as it begins to set precedence for future existing context in communal growth.

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

The following thesis investigates parametric thinking and evolutionary solving principles in the creation of a framework for residential high rise design. Site specific parameters such as site access (pedestrian and vehicular), views, acknowledgement of neighbours, or climatic, such as natural day lighting and ventilation, should be used to inform the design. Parametric software is used as a tool to generate designs dynamically. With the help of an evolutionary solver component, the design potential is augmented by generating multiple iterations which are analyzed for their success or failure in an effort to provide an appropriate response within the context of the site. The framework is tested on a site located at the corner of Duplex Avenue and Eglinton Avenue West in Toronto, Canada.