CLIMATE CHANGE, BUILDING DESIGN, AND THERMAL PERFORMANCE

This paper presents the results of a recent research effort involving an actual urban development project for the city of Vienna. The project developers requested scientifically-based information concerning future microclimatic changes in the development area and their potential ramifications for the thermal performance of the projected buildings. To address this inquiry, simulation models were generated to compute the buildings' thermal performance both for the current and projected climatic conditions. Thereby, alternative building designs (specifically, various surface design options) were considered in view of their mitigation effectiveness vis-a-vis climate change projections. The results help providing qualified evaluations of such building design features.