A New Series:
I am starting today a new series which I will call _ Findings _. In it I will show numerical findings about stuff. I will do measurements / collect data, then draw conclusions / find patterns.
How Much Space To Leave Between Buildings For Air
Motivation To Find The Numbers:
I live in a city called Karachi. Its a huge city with over 25 million inhabitants. Like all mega cities its has grown wildly in population during the past 4 decades (i.e. since 1980). As a result, and like all mega cities it has grown vertically in buildings, not much on surface area. Apartment buildings that used to never be over 4 floors above ground are now regularly 12 or so floors above ground. Also, old single family houses of one or two floors above ground have been broken down and converted into apartment buildings.
Karachi is very much near equator. Average temperature is between 30 and 40 degree celsius throughout the air except in very small, two weeks to one month, winter in which it drops to between 15 and 20 degree celsius.
The rise of buildings and fall of houses result in over dependence in air conditioners. While in my childhood in the usual 4 floors above ground apartment buildings fans were enough now you have to have air conditioner if you want to have peaceful sleep at night. Thats in a sea-port city. Moreover, houses and 2 to 3 floors apartment buildings that didnt even need fans now need atleast fans.
This dependence on electricity is ofcourse not sustainable given peak oil and general state of economy. Sooner or later the city and by extension all mega cities in world have to either perish or return to the old state of natural ventilation.
What Data Did I Gather:As stated above I am concerned about mega cities and therefore collected data from a mega city, the one that I could do detailed study of, my own city.
Inside the city I visited the old city area that still have some houses and upto 4 floors above ground apartments. I put close focus on cool areas and attempted to find what makes them cool. Is it greenry, distance from sea, oldness of building, water leakage etc?
I then isolate these factors from the most important factor in my eyes: space left between buildings. I did this by focusing on buildings which have these factors roughly same yet one building is considerably cooler than other.
Following are my conclusions.
