The thermal comfort analysis for the background climate has

The thermal comfort analysis for the background climate has been completed by the distinct assessment of wind environment at the reference site, Dublin Airport, since wind—representing one of the main differences between indoors and outdoors (Bosselmann and Arens, 1995)—is an influential parameter of bioclimate at open urban spaces. Airflow patterns have been modeled by ENVI-met software package, at Grand Canal Square created by Bruse and Fleer (Bruse and Fleer, 1998; Bruse, 2004).
Results and discussion
Conclusion Urban spaces in Dublin have become focal point of urban planning and renewal strategy. The emergence of cultural quarters, functions within the city, and in a broader perspective that of the public realm—contributed to the the original source of the city and to the shaping of its image. Cities use particular buildings, spaces as “icons” to distinguish themselves from other cities while at the same time attempting to provide an urban realm that can be perceived as similar as in other European cities: safe, clean, commercially orientated and providing a social mix (Lawton, 2008). In this competitive context, wind environment and thermal comfort receive often less attention during the routine design process compared to aesthetical and commercial aspects. The physical transformation of the urban spaces in Dublin happened also with no significant attention devoted to climatic characteristics and ambience that results from this transformation. Nevertheless, orientation, size and positioning of buildings, streets, vegetation type, size, emplacement, surface covering material choice all affect thermal and airflow characteristics that the pedestrians using urban spaces are exposed to. The example of Grand Canal Square demonstrates that within the protective urban tissue airflow intensity can be increased by the convoluted morphology of the urban quarter, compared to an open, obstacle free site. Great variation of wind velocities (4–5m/s) occur within short distances calling forth discomfort at some locations. The study also demonstrates, that wind conditions can be significantly improved by a relatively small intervention, namely by the introduction of a 2m high dense vegetation that acts as windscreen.
Acknowledgements The EMPOWER post-doctoral research project has been financed by the IRCSET—Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology.
The author acknowledges that preliminary results of the study have been published in the Proceedings of the PLEA 2011 (Szűcs and Mills, 2011).
Introduction Therefore, X-chromosome study primarily addresses the absence of a codified and detailed criterion in the evaluation and design of architectural spaces. Numerous studies on building structures that are resistant against threats have been conducted. Khairodin et al. (2007) focused on the impact of architectural elements on the vulnerability of structures against earthquake hazards. Fesharaki et al. (2011) investigated the importance of space organization in architecture as a passive defense and its variants. Gebbeken and Döge (2010) examined the geometry of buildings and the effects of the environment to prevent blast waves from reaching the building. Essentially, the peak pressures and maximum impulses were found to depend on the distance from the blast center, angle of reflected blast wave, and resistance against the waves. They also found that the structural elements of a building can also reduce the explosive charges. Barakat and Hetherington (1998) studied the blast effects on various building forms, such as cubic, cylindrical, hemisphere, and prismatic forms, and concluded that in addition to the structural components of the buildings, architectural forms can be effective in reducing the effects of explosion on buildings. Araghizadeh (2011) investigated blast-resistant office buildings in 2011 and presented 11 indices to evaluate these buildings. This study showed that the location of a building with respect to the ground level is one of the most important factors in reducing the impact of explosion.