Research to Inform Thermal Comfort

In 2019, I led a research project to understand building design and construction practices in Leh, India. The research is informing the design decisions of 20+ buildings.

Role

HF Researcher & Architect

Tools

MS Office, Photoshop & Miro

Collaborators

  • Architects

  • Engineers

  • Urban planners

  • Subject matter experts

Organization

Madhav Joshi & Associates

Key Activities

  • Research Goals Definition

  • Literature review

  • Contextual Inquiry (observations & interviews)

  • Documentation & actionable recommendations.

Duration

3 months

Overview

Madhav Joshi & Associates is an architectural design and research firm in Pune, India, renowned for their contextual design practice. I joined the firm as a Design Researcher and Architect.

One of the projects I collaboratively spearheaded was the design of a student hostel building in Leh, India. Leh is distinguished by its unique geography, culture, and its extremely cold and dry climatic conditions.

The student hostel building was slated to be one of the first structures in the larger campus planned in Leh. Given that we were designing the inaugural building, we lacked readily available information about the local context, including the people and existing buildings in Leh. Hence, we initiated the project by conducting a discovery research study to fill knowledge gaps and comprehend how various factors influence architectural design and construction decisions.

The client agreed to support the research activity after we explained how the insights gathered would inform the design of numerous buildings planned for the campus.

Research Goal

The overarching research goal was to understand how extreme weather conditions, topography, and culture affect architectural design and construction decisions. However, for this case study, let's focus on one research goal:

To understand the effect of extreme weather conditions on design and construction for thermal comfort in Leh.

The Research

I.Studying the documented buildings.

Architectural features such as window openings and building orientation influence the thermal comfort in the building.

Therefore, to identify characteristic architectural features of buildings in the Leh region and get familiar with the scope of work, I conducted a desk study of three buildings. Desk research pinpointed features that needed further research.

Img 1. Classroom at Druk Padma School

Insights for desk researcher

Img 2. Passive heating in toilets at Druk Palma School

  • To maximize the heat gain from the Sun, the longest side of the building faces South (the direction with maximum sunlight throughout the year).

  • The South side of the building has the maximum number of window openings to maximize heat and light gain from the Sun (solar radiation).

  • To capture and retain the heat from the Sun (solar radiation), the buildings' south faces are painted black.

II.Observing the buildings at scale.

Going beyond the sample set of documented buildings was important to identify any features that we might have missed and to understand what features can work at scale. Therefore, we decided to conduct a rigorous in-person observational study of the buildings and their occupants.

Img 3. Thiksey monastery & village

Img 7. Trombe wall in local building(s)

Img 8. Trombe wall under construction

Img 4. Building with Trombe wall, Solarium & glassroom

Img 6. Glassroom in old construction

Img 5. Glassroom in new construction

Insights for observations

  • Residential buildings often have a feature called Trombe walls on their southern side. These walls, typically built for rooms used at night, capture heat during the day and release it at night.

  • Buildings with large mass have glass rooms; that is, they have openings on the south and east faces to enhance the penetration of the sun and maximize heat gain.

  • A few of the buildings have a Solarium on the south facade. A Solarium traps the heat of the Sun, facilitating the growth of plants and maintaining indoor humidity and temperatures.

II.Understand the buildings with occupants.

Investigating various features that influence thermal comfort wouldn't be fully beneficial without understanding the user experience behind it. Consequently, during observations, we chose to engage in informal interviews with the occupants. Upon conversing with over 15 individuals, we discovered:

Img 9. Interactions with local(s)

Img 11. Typical 2 storied house in Leh

Img 13. Modern kitchen with central stove

Insights from user interviews

Img 10. Interactions with local(s)

Img 12. Rooms planned for thermal comfort in summer as well as winter.

Img 14. Traditional kitchen with central stove & exhaust

  • Most of the houses have two levels and two living spaces. The upper-level living space is used in the summer, whereas the lower-level living space is used during winter.

  • The smaller room size and fewer openings (reduced exposure to elements) in the lower-level living space facilitate easier temperature control.

P1: "We start moving our stuff downstairs in November. You see, the wood that I require to heat up and maintain the smaller room below is less compared to this room. The thicker walls and few openings also help in keeping the room warm."

  • Houses with livestock have bedrooms right above the livestock rooms on the lower level. The heat from the livestock helps maintain the temperature in the bedroom.

P6: "It is easier to stay in upper floor bedrooms in winter compared to the living room because it is warmer. Why is it warmer? I'm not so sure."

  • The kitchen and the living area are the most habitable spaces during winter days as there is a consistently lit fire at the centre of both, which keeps the rooms habitable.

User quotes

P:8 "During the winter, we keep the thab (wood-burning stove) alive all day long. My wife uses it to cook our food, and my parents enjoy soaking in the warmth it provides."

III. Uncovering the construction practices with subject matter experts.

With all the data points gathered through previous research, I decided to interview six subject matter experts (building designers from the Leh region) to understand:

  1. The efficacy of the identified features in achieving thermal comfort.

  2. To uncover any other features & construction techniques used to achieve thermal comfort.

Img 15. Contextual interviews with subject matter expert

Img 17. Thermally insulating adobe bricks

Img 19. Thermal insulator in external walls

Img 22. Trombe wall heat retention block

Img 16. Contextual interviews with subject matter expert

Img 18. Adobe bricks in construction

Img 20. Thermal insulators in walls

Img 21. Trombe wall details

Insights from subject matter expert interviews

  • Using thermacol between the thickness of external walls is one of the newest techniques to moderate the temperature inside the building.

  • Most of the buildings use adobe brick (straw + sand + clay) as a construction material because it has excellent thermal properties.

P4: "What you cannot see is the magic of the adobe brick on the roof and the wall... they are excellent insulators."

P3: “When the external temperature in winter is -5 degrees, inside temperature is between +10 to +15 degrees.

P4: “Recently, we have been using thermacol sheets in the external walls as insulators. With it, we have projected that we would need less energy to keep the building warm in winter. “

  • Trombe walls have two components. A glass façade and a wall made of high heat retention material is set at some distance from the glass facade. The glass façade locks in all the radiation from the sun, and the wall absorbs it to release it later at night, ensuring thermal comfort.

  • Phase change materials like wax are used in Trombe walls to increase the heat retention capacity.

  • In summer, the Trombe wall can heat up the interiors to inhabitable temperatures. To avoid that, a projection above the Trombe wall is provided that shades it from Sun and reduces heat gain.

Subject matter expert quotes

Research Outcome

Field Architects and I documented the insights we gathered in the form of a playbook – a shareable artefact (under NDA) similar to the one below –

Research Impact

The research we conducted had a multi-level impact, as follows:

Impact on the project (students’ hostel)

  • The research we conducted and the artifact we crafted helped the team and me make informed design decisions.

  • Our design team had little to no convincing overhead with the client, as the design decisions were backed by research conducted with them.

  • We, Madhav Joshi & Associates, were able to achieve the estimated budget targets as we heavily incorporated local techniques for achieving thermal comfort.

Impact on the business

  • Impressed by the research work and the design outcome, the client offered multiple different projects on the same campus.

Impact on a larger scale 

  • The playbook we produced is helping other architects to inform their design decisions.

  • The playbook is also being used by HIAL & SECMOL as a reference book to teach the upcoming batch of architects and contractors in the Leh region.

Key Takeaways

01

Involving stakeholders in the research process achieves quicker buy-in on the research insights and design decisions.

02

The ability to redirect stakeholders to appropriate resources is key to a successful professional relationship.

03

Training other disciplines on how to conduct research can reduce the amount of time, effort, and money put into a research activity.