High-rise residential building enclosure: adaptive strategies for Hong Kong's projecting bay windows

Abstract

This paper quantifies environmental parameters for the projecting bay windows of existing high-rise residential buildings in Hong Kong during the warm summertime season. Field measurements conducted over a typical summer week provide an empirical measure for air temperature and humidity variations found on the lower, middle, and upper floors, as well as horizontally across the bay window enclosure of a typical cruciform high-rise residential building. The collected field measurements are used to calibrate a base thermal model for simulation studies. Analytic work included in this paper encompasses airflow and insolation studies, along with associated thermal simulations. The resultant data provides a range of benchmarks for passive design strategies for retrofitting existing bay windows in high-rise residential buildings according to variations in urban density and associated sky exposure. New adaptive designs are proposed and quantitatively evaluated for thermal performance and cooling load reductions.