Beat the heat: How to achieve thermal comfort during heat waves in Sweden, inspired by architecture in countries with a warmer climate

Abstract

Extreme weather due to climate change will become more common in Sweden. Researchers at SMHI (the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute) have estimated that heat waves that previously occurred every 20 years in Sweden durig the summer, can occur every three to five years at the end of the century (SMHI, 2013). Apartments in Sweden is not adapted to theese high temperatures and will in many cases result inuncomfortable indoor climate. The elderly, young children, the sick and the disabled are particularly vulnerable to warmer indoor temperature and the issue has recently become a high priority among both property owners and authorities. There are ways to cool a residential building mechanically, such as air-conditioning, but research indicates that large amounts of energy will be needed to gain thermal comfort with theese solutions, which rhymes poorly with set climate goals. Therefore, we need to investigate other ways to counteract high indoor temperatures and see the issue from different perspectives at an early stage. By investigating architecture in countries with a traditionally warm climate, focusing on materials, floor plans, building solutions and user habits, this Master Thesis aimed to research whether there are any methods or design strategies that can be implemented in Swedish housing construction. The reference projects were selected freely based on design solutions and relevance, rather than from a specific country, wich enabled to investigate architecture in many different contexts. In my reserach i found that there were similarities among the different reference projects, even though they were built 1000 of miles apart. In many cases, the building design was so adapted to the conditions on the site that it was hard to transfer the strategies directly to a swedish context. While some strategies, like cross-ventilation and bright facade colors, could easily be applied.