Designing the urban microclimate

This doctoral thesis presents research on the integration and transfer of knowledge from the specialized field of urban microclimatology into the generic field of urban design. Both fields are studied in order to identify crosslinks and reveal gaps. The main research question of the research is: How can the design of urban neighbourhoods contribute to microclimates that support physical well-being and what kind of information and form of presentation does the urban designer need in order to make design decisions regarding such urban microclimates? This question consists of two parts, which are addressed separately in the first two parts of the dissertation.

Answering the main research question, it can be concluded that various aspects relating to the morphology, materialization and landscaping of urban neighbourhoods can be employed to create conditions for a distinctive microclimate; urban microclimates often deviate substantially from the regional climate, and even vary within a few meters. Designing urban microclimates needs to be done with care as they affect the physical well-being of people significantly. In order to be able to do this, the urban designer needs information that ties in with his/her way of working and cognitive process. However, expert knowledge from the field of urban microclimatology does not fulfil this requirement and needs to be translated to information for urban design purposes. Aiming to give direction to this translation and facilitate the dissemination of expert urban microclimate knowledge to the urban design process, this research proposes a framework for a design-decision support tool. Requirements for the framework were derived from both the field of urban design and the field of urban microclimatology. A tool created according to the proposed framework will enable urban designers to practice climate-sensitive urban design, and, thus contribute to the physical well-being of people.