THE IMPACT OF THE URBAN FORM ON HEATING, COOLING AND LIGHTING DEMAND OF CITIES
The impact of the urban form on the energy demand of buildings is difficult to quantify. Only very few software tools are available that calculate the influence of mutual shading of buildings and topography on the energy demand. Some dynamic building simulation tools consider shading situations, but are limited to calculations of a specified window surface area with a given horizon line and cannot be used to simulate an urban area. If lighting electrical energy is also considered, the simulations become more complex, as the sky models need to be realistically represented. As a result there is not much information available, how the total primary energy demand is affected by the specific urban form. In this work, generic urban forms have been classified with regard to their overall energy performance. For selected forms detailed simulations of heating, cooling and daylighting were carried out on a floor by floor level to consider precisely the shading situation from neighbouring buildings. The parameters chosen for the urban form variation include the site coverage (i.e. density) settlement and building typology (block structures, row houses, multi family houses, high rise etc. building age and thermal standard. To validate the different simulation tools used, a case study was carried out on the urban area Scharnhauser Park near Stuttgart, Germany, where energy consumption data are available for the whole settlement of 10,000 inhabitants. For a given urban situation detailed energy simulations were carried out and compared with measured consumption data. The models were then simplified to represent a more