Sustainable Environmental Design Projects & Analyses

The aim of this project was to create appropriate environmental conditions for occupant activities. In other words, its objective was to deliver a building with thermal comfort and air quality indoors and outdoors. It is based on passive design techniques for heating, ventilation, cooling and daylighting. Using as building precedents the lessons of the vernacular architecture strategies in Santiago de Compostela, I tried to create a live-work environmental with thermal comfort conditions employing passive design strategies. The main objective was to create an indoor and outdoor environment with dynamic response over daily and seasonal cycles. The exploration of strategies that would enhance environmental quality and occupant comfort were at the heart of this project. Santiago de Compostela is located in Galicia, a region located in northwestern Spain, and  is renowned for its historic centre which is a designated UNESCO world heritage site. Its Latitude is +42.88 (42°52’48”N) and its Longitude is -8.54 (8°32’24”W), while  its altitude is  is 367m. The main strategies adopted in this project was, firstly, to reduce the rate of heat loss and to increase the gain from sunshine in order to shift the heating balance point to a lower value, and, secondly, to use the performance of the “Galleria”, which has positive effects in winter.