The method of meteorology data analyzing for climatic architectural design

One of the primary stages of climatic architectural design is the knowledge of the environmental conditions and meteorology data analyzing according to human thermal comfort and usage of building material. Nowadays access to meteorology data of all Iran meteorology stations is available on the website of the Iran meteorology organization. Therefore every architect who feels himself/herself responsible for the effect of design on environment and energy demand can easily analyze the data if he/she has reliable awareness of how to do it and how to convert it to architectural principles. This article introduces the methodology of analyzing meteorology data for architectural needs. How to choose the meteorology station for a site design is the first step of this process. It is important to pay attention to the four climatic layers that are macroclimate, mesoclimate, local climate and microclimate. The feature of the topography of the site and its neighborhood help architect to find out the microclimate changes comparing to the meteorology data. Choosing the meaningful period of the yearly data for the meteorology station is the second step. The effect of the global warming on the site design will be observed on the graph of the yearly temperature changes in different years. The graph of the heating and cooling degree days in the all yearly data of the station will show the heating and cooling needs changes in recent years. If the global warming has affected the place, it is better to choose ten to fifteen recent years data for analyzing process instead of a long term period (even if the station has more than 30 to 50 years data). After choosing the station and the period of the time, it is necessary to draw the important graphs of the climatic phenomena that will affect the design decisions. Relationship between temperature and humidity is very important on the thermal sensation of human body. There are several indices prepared for this requirement. One of the best indices that will show this effect on human body and the recommended design considerations simultaneously is “Building Bioclimatic Chart” proposed by Givoni. Besides it is one of the most reliable building thermal comfort indices. Therefore this index and the method of how to use it is introduced here. Using temperature and relative humidity, thermal condition in the building is analyzed by this index. At the next stage the drawing method of “climatic needs calendar” and “wind calendar” for a period of a sample year is introduced as a conclusion of the thermal condition in the building. How to analyze these two calendars to achieve design strategies is introduced here. Being familiar with these calendars and the way of their analyzing is a simplified and fast method of extracting the design principles without being involved with difficult calculations of thermal comfort formulas. At the end the method of grasping the complimentary design strategies according to other meteorology data - such as precipitation, freezing, dew point, heating degree days and cooling degree days, sunshine hours and sky condition - would be explained. It is hopeful that this information will give a reliable method to architects for making better decisions in climatic design concepts.