Outdoor comfort for schoolyards in Egypt: From design parametrization to performance assessment

Okasha, Reem 2024. Outdoor comfort for schoolyards in Egypt: From design parametrization to performance assessment. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Schoolyards are essential outdoor spaces where children engage in activities critical for their physical, cognitive, and emotional development. Schools have the potential to act as regenerative cells within their communities. Enhancing outdoor thermal comfort (OTC) in schoolyards can enhance health and wellbeing, encourage outdoor activities, and contribute to mitigating heat island effects in neighbourhoods. Addressing OTC in schoolyards is particularly important in the context of rising global temperatures and urban heat stress, which pose significant risks to children’s health and learning. However, OTC remains underexplored in school design, especially in hot climates, where inadequate shading and impervious materials worsen heat stress. In Egypt, the General Authority of Educational Buildings (GAEB) implements standardised public-school prototypes, overlooking regional climatic variations, despite recent designs incorporating passive features such as courtyards. This highlights the need for evidence-based approaches to integrate performance-based criteria in early-stage school design. This thesis addresses these gaps by developing a fit-for-purpose digital workflow to assess and enhance OTC in public schools, particularly in hot-arid climates. The workflow combines parametric modelling and OTC performance simulation to evaluate the interplay between school geometry, site, and climate. A key contribution lies in converting GAEB prototypes and regulations into parametric base models, enabling systematic exploration of design alternatives. The workflow’s flexibility also supports evaluating additional performance measures, such as daylighting and building energy efficiency. Applying the workflow demonstrated the significant influence of school building geometry on schoolyard microclimates, revealing a complex interplay between building shape, orientation, aspect ratio, courtyard geometry, and school size. The findings highlight the limitations of traditional design approaches based on generic recommendations, rules of thumb, and continuous parametric optimisations. They also emphasise the critical role of OTC performance simulations in quantifying the impact of design alternatives, improving thermal conditions, and informing early-stage design decisions. Additionally, the workflow serves as a diagnostic tool for identifying thermal issues in existing school infrastructure. By addressing spatial and temporal variations in OTC, this research offers actionable insights, including prioritising building shade in early design stages, integrating targeted mitigation strategies, optimising courtyard geometry relative to school size, and establishing climate-responsive design guidelines for specific climatic zones. These insights support the development of safer, more comfortable, and resilient schoolyards in hot climates.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Schools > Architecture
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	10 April 2025
Last Modified:	11 Apr 2025 09:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/177564

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