Sustainable urban development: Design guidelines for warm humid cities

Variations in climate affect living conditions, the quality of urban areas and comfort in indoor and outdoor spaces. These in turn, are related to energy demand in buildings, the role and use of vegetation as well as requirements for urban infrastructure. However, urban design often ignores local requirements as a result of global trends and international influences. This paper presents a case study of urban design guidelines for warm humid climates, based on the analysis of climatic variables and comfort requirements. Warm humid climates require new urban design approaches in the present situation of rapideconomic and social development in the context of increasing globalization. The potentialand intensity of outdoor space use can be increased through appropriate urban design, while unsuitable solutions have a long term negative impact. The design guidelines presentedstress the link between problem definition, objectives and proposed design solutions to make the reasons for design recommendations explicit. © 1998 E. & EN Spon.