Plea2004 - The 21th Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture.

Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 19 - 22

September 2004 Page 1 of 3

Thermal Comfort of Urban Spaces in the Hot Humid

Climate
Noor Hanita Abdul Majid
1
Department of Architecture and Environmental Design, International Islamic University of Malaysia,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Phone: 603-20565292 Fax: 603-20564864
e-mail: hanita@iiu.edu.my, ciknit@hotmail.com

ABSTRACT: Urban space is the most important part of town and cities, where greatest amount of
human contact and interaction takes place (Lynch, 1984). The environmental conditions of theses
spaces in relation to comfort have been the prevailing issue in discussion of climate change and
urban environment. However, there are very few researches conducted in relation to urban spaces in
hot humid tropical climate. This topic has been studied by Noor Hanita (2000), where investigations
were done to evaluate the microclimate conditions of plazas adjacent to tall buildings (PATB). This
paper describes the experiments done at several sites in Kuala Lumpur that presents results in form
of modified Predicted Mean Vote (PMVm) developed by the author. The predicted votes are based
on Fanger’s PMV index that is correlated to Thermal Sensation Votes (TSV) from outdoor field
experiments done at the PATBs in the hot humid climate. These results are analyzed in relation to
geometry and orientation factors, which were identified as major contributors to the thermal comfort
condition of urban spaces in the hot humid climate.

Conference Topic: Comfort and quality of indoor and outdoor spaces, Case studies
Keywords: urban space, thermal comfort, hot humid climate

INTRODUCTION 2. DESCRIPTION OF URBAN SPACES

Many urban spaces in contemporary cities like Kuala
Lumpur are designed without addressing the climate.
These spaces are developed with little consideration
of environmental factors such as wind direction, sun
intensity and temperature and neglected the
importance of orientation and geometry factors. As a
result, many uncomfortable outdoor spaces were
provided without adhering to people’s comfort and
physical needs.
The negative effect of the built environment and
particularly urban spaces on human comfort in
outdoor spaces has led to a number of studies related
to bioclimatic issues. In the case of Malaysia, the
most important factors that affecting the human
comfort of people in urban spaces are high level of
temperature, solar radiation and humidity, which are
the characteristics of the hot humid climate like
Malaysia. Therefore, climate considerations in
Malaysia, particularly in Kuala Lumpur, must be
related to minimize hazards from tropical storms and
floods, minimize thermal discomfort from the intense
sun and heat, provide adequate shade for outdoor
spaces and take advantage from the prevailing
breezes.
2.1 Plazas Adjacent to Tall Buildings in Kuala Lumpur
This paper describes studies done at plazas adjacent
to tall buildings (PATB) as a type of urban space in
Kuala Lumpur. PATBs were selected due to the sheer
impact of tall building on the surroundings, i.e. urban
spaces. Plazas on the other hand have become a
popular typology of urban space introduced in
Malaysia since 1980’s. The field experiments
described in this paper were conducted at Daya Bumi
Plaza (DBP), Selangor Dredging Plaza (SDP),
Menara Tun Razak Plaza (MTRP), Public Bank Plaza
(PBP) and ING Plaza (INGP). The PATBs mentioned
represented the few existing plazas in Kuala Lumpur
based on typologies suggested by Md Najib and Noor
Hanita (4). These typologies were developed on the
basis of orientation and geometry criteria. Many
studies done has attributed orientation and geometry
as the major contributor to outdoor thermal comfort
(Emmanuel(1); Bosselmann et.al.(2) and Shaviv &
Capeluto, (3)). This paper will analyse comfort in
orientation and geometry of the PATBs. Table 1
showed the PATBs according to the orientation and
geometry typologies.
Plea2004 - The 21th Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture. Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 19 - 22
September 2004 Page 2 of 3

Table 1: PATBs according to the orientation and Table 2: Climatic Parameters at the PATBs
geometry typologies

4. DESCRIPTION OF METHODS

The thermal comfort conditions at the PATBs are

evaluated based on a Modified Predicted Mean Vote
to predict the outdoor conditions in the hot humid
2.2 Climatic Context
climate. This prediction method was developed from a
study conducted by Md Najib & Noor Hanita(5). The
Malaysia has an hot humid climate with high
modified Predicted Mean Vote (PMVm) was a result
temperatures and wet months all year. Its
of correlation performed on PMV (Fanger (7))
unpredictable weather changes due to the cloud
measurements to the Thermal Sensation Votes (TSV)
cover. The Malaysian sky is cloudy while the solar
from human subjects at field experiment conducted at
radiation is filtered but still strong and can produce
the hot humid outdoors. The correlation between the
glare.
two votes showed that PMV has over predicted the
TSV.
The climate of Kuala Lumpur (latitude 3°08’N,
longitude 101°44’E) is characterizes by high
The PMVm results were measured at two stations at
temperature and humidity, where the air temperatures
all PATBs. The two stations are representative of
range from 32°C during day to 22°C during nighttime.
exposed and shaded areas in relation to direct
Normally, humidity is very high, which is more than
sunlight. As shading is an important factor that
75% daily. The Meteorological Service Station of
contributed to thermal comfort in the hot humid
Kuala Lumpur recorded a range between 55%-99%
climate, measurements from the two stations were
during the day. The hottest period of the year are
recorded. The stations are marked as Station A for
recorded during the months of March to May.
exposed areas and Station B for shaded areas (Noor
Hanita (6)).
Winds are generally low-variable speed and become
the most important aspect that influence in mitigating
5. RESULTS
the oppressive hot and humid for the people in
Malaysia. Generally, in Kuala Lumpur the mean
The frequency analyses done by Tanabe et. al. (9)
surface wind speed varies between 1.1 to 1.6 m/s
and Sharples and Malama (8) was adopted for the
(Wind speed data from 1974-1998). The climate of
analysis of the field experiment results. This analysis
Malaysia is rather oppressive and humid for the
indicated the occurrence of the comfort votes through
people but severe heat stress is rare.
out the field experiments. These analyses enable one
to deduce which PATB orientation and geometry
produced comfortable conditions. Tables 3 and 4
3. THE FIELD EXPERIMENTS
showed the frequency results and the cumulative
percentages of PMVm at all PATBs.
The field experiments were conducted for five days at
all PATBs. The duration of data collection was
Table 3: Distribution of PMVm at Station A (All
approximately eight hours during daytime at each
PATBs)
location. Table 2 summarizes the experimental
conditions at the PATBs during the field
measurements. The range of measurements was
described for air temperature, air velocity and relative
humidity.
Plea2004 - The 21th Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture. Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 19 - 22
September 2004
Table 4: Distribution of PMVm at Station B (All
PATBs)
As expected the percentage analyses indicated that
there were biases towards the warm side of the
PMVm scale. These thermal conditions reflect the
outdorr conditions of the hot humid climate. The
tables also suggested that at the shaded areas, the
PMVm were inclined towards comfort. At Station A
60% of the PMVm fell under the comfortable range,
while at Station B there is an increase of 10% of
comfortable votes.
Another analysis performed on the PMVm results
were the frequency analysis in relation to the
orientation and geometry of the PATBs. Table 5 noted
the frequency of comfort votes that fell between –1 to
+1 of the PMVm readings.
Table 5: Frequency Analysis of PMVm in relation to
Orientation and Geometry
Station A have fewer comfortable votes in comparison
to Station B at all PATBs except for PBP. This
condition might be dued to the similar conditions at
both stations at the PATB. The condition is
uncontrollable due to the geometry and orientation of
PBP. The PATBs at Northwest-Southeast and a
combination of Northwest-Southwest and Northwest-
Southeast orientation showed high votes in the range
Page 3 of 3
of comfortable PMVm. At Station B, the PATB with
Northwest-Southeast and a combination of
Northwest-Southeast and Northeast-Southwest
orientation showed high votes of comfort. The PATB
at INGP also experienced high frequency of comfort
due to its geometry.
CONCLUSION
Thermal comfort measurements at the PATBs were
done using the PMVm. The performances of the
PATBs were assessed in relation to orientation and
geometry typologies. From the assessment, some
PATBs were found to perform reasonably well in
comparison to others. The assessment results
indicated that the most favourable orientation is the
combined diagonal position of Northwest-Southeast
and Northeast-Southwest while; the most favourable
geometry is the plaza underneath a tall building.
REFERENCES
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“Shadow Umbrella” for the Thermal Comfort
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Architecture Science Review, 36(4): pp 25-36.
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(1997).”Urban Form and Climate: Case Study of
Toronto html at www.clr.utoronto.ca.
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