This paper presents a systematic evaluation of the impact of the built urban context on the cooling energy performance of buildings subjected to extreme hot weather conditions. The proposed approach combines building energy modeling with an extensive parametric variation and statistical analysis scheme. It provides a direct quantification of inter-building shading on energy performance, with an emphasis on the cooling demand patterns for buildings of different types and sizes. Results show that the combined effects of urban context height, distance, and orientation can lead to significant reductions in cooling demand, reaching up to 26% for total cooling loads and 24% for peak cooling loads. The observed savings are particularly notable for residential buildings, making them an ideal target for urban development strategies that aim to leverage inter-building shading effects for energy conservation purposes. Moreover, an in-depth analysis of peak loads illustrates how the density and compactness of the urban form can be used as passive design strategies to reduce the load, and hence, the size of air conditioning systems. Finally, the paper explores how to translate the gained knowledge to design guidelines, bridging the gap between theory and practice.

中文翻译：

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城市建筑环境作为炎热气候下建筑物的被动冷却策略


本文系统地评估了城市建成环境对极端炎热天气条件下建筑物冷却能源性能的影响。所提出的方法将建筑能源建模与广泛的参数变化和统计分析方案相结合。它提供了建筑物间遮阳对能源性能的直接量化，重点关注不同类型和规模建筑物的冷却需求模式。结果表明，城市环境高度、距离和方向的综合影响可导致制冷需求显着减少，总冷负荷高达 26%，峰值冷负荷高达 24%。对于住宅建筑来说，观察到的节能效果尤其显着，使其成为旨在利用建筑物间遮阳效应达到节能目的的城市发展战略的理想目标。此外，对峰值负荷的深入分析说明了如何利用城市形态的密度和紧凑性作为被动设计策略来减少负荷，从而减少空调系统的尺寸。最后，本文探讨了如何将所获得的知识转化为设计指南，弥合理论与实践之间的差距。