Abstract Body

Nowadays, there is an increasing public awareness of the negative impacts that accelerating urbanization has on the environment. Green facade is an ecological architecture design strategy in the intense urbanization process that can respond to the environmental challenges.

The aim of this paper is to define ecological niches for green facades in a high-density residential neighbourhood through urban microclimate analysis. This study attempts to simulate the most accurate microclimates on the building facades and road pavement from two spatial scales—community and individual building through data organization and visualization using the software of Ladybug Tools and ENVI-met combination. The main parameters are daylighting, wind speed, relative humidity and surface temperature of the building facade. These parameters are derived from EnergyPlus Weather Data in the hottest week of summer.

This study compares the impact on the thermal environment of various building facades in high-density living conditions. Moreover, greening of facades provides a cooling mechanism on building elevations, it can minimize the heat island effect during summer. The potential of green facades is reviewed. The method is demonstrated by a case study in Baishizhou, which is one of the communities that has the highest density in Shenzhen, China. The results of these simulations show that 1. there is a big difference between the thermal environment of different building facades in the same climate condition; 2. green facades can contribute positively to the cooling effect on buildings.