Sustainable housing in Vietnam: Climate responsive design strategies to optimize thermal comfort

Housing issue in Vietnam is still a big concern as in 2008, 72.2% of the existing housing was semi-permanent or temporary and 89.2% of the poor did not have a permanent shelter. As a response to sustainability, the global aim of this thesis is to develop design strategies toward comfortable, energy-efficient housing with acceptable building cost. Occupants’ thermal comfort is the key assessment criterion throughout the research.
First of all, the thesis develops a thermal comfort model for Vietnamese people living in naturally ventilated buildings through the data from field surveys around South-East Asia. This comfort model is then validated by survey data in Vietnam in 2012.
A new simple climate analysis tool is developed, used to analyze the climate of 3 regions in question and to draw preliminary design guidelines. A comprehensive study on climate responsive design strategies of vernacular housing in Vietnam is also carried out. The results to some extend reveal the remaining values of vernacular architecture and provide valuable lessons for modern applications.
Three most common housing prototypes in Vietnam are selected. Afterward a comprehensive framework is implemented to derive thermal performances of 3 typical housing types. Various techniques (in situ monitoring, building thermal simulation, CFD and airflow network model, numerical model calibration, parametric simulation method) are employed to improve the thermal performances and natural ventilation of these houses.
The sensitivity of building performance to the design variables is outlined by Monte Carlo-based sensitivity analysis. The thermal performances of the reference cases are optimized using the simulation-based optimization method and the most influential design variables. Optimization results show the best combinations of design strategies for each climatic region. The performances of the optimal solutions are compared with the references, providing an insight of the efficiency of this approach in building design.
Finally, the different objectives yielded in this thesis are summarized. The possible future extensions of this research are outlined.