Quantifying low-income group housing forms using socio-architectural and geometric parameters. A novel socio-architectural analysis for sustainable slum rehabilitation policy. Efficient geometric and spatial arrangement can improve the quality of life in low-income settlements. Use of computational fluid dynamics to investigate form-based wind flow characteristics for improved indoor environment.
This study presents results from an experimental investigation of the severity and sources of household air pollution across two low-income housing archetypes in Mumbai. Experimentation was carried out in Dharavi-one of the world's largest slums-and two nearby communities representing Mumbai's current slum resettlement scheme. Household surveys were conducted to understand aspects of occupant behavior that impact indoor air quality. Multi-pollutant logging sensors were installed inside units and in nearby outdoor locations to measure concentrations of particulate matter (PM 2.5 ,) and CO 2 .While rehabilitation architecture and gas cookstoves are often assumed to provide higher indoor air quality than in traditional slums, field monitoring and occupant behaviour surveys demonstrated that indoor pollution levels were consistent across the two typologies even after infrastructure enhancements and ubiquitous gas cookstove usage. Indoor PM 2.5 measurements ranged between 150-300 μg/m 3 , substantially higher than World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. PM 2.5 indoor/outdoor (I/O) ratios spiked during cooking periods but were otherwise less than 1.0 in over half of logged instances in rehabilitation units, highlighting the role of particle deposition phenomena and ambient-sourced PM 2.5 in indoor environments. To minimize the impact of both indoor and outdoor pollutant sources while respecting culturally-normative occupant behavior, this study points to the need for architectural design guidelines and enhanced indoor air quality interventions.
This study intends to optimise the interior layout of two low-income multi-rise tenement designs that would provide effective indoor environmental quality (IEQ) over the breathing zone. A variety of interior layouts were generated for both space constrained tenement units by introducing and varying interior architectural parameters and their respective design variables such as partition wall, cook-stove and furniture location. The study initiated with in-situ sensor development coupled with a stepwise simulation based framework involving sampling based parametric modelling followed by CFD simulations and multi-objective optimisation. Air velocity, temperature, and pollutant concentrations were considered as surrogate measures of IEQ. The research finally delivered two varying interior design layout with optimised design variables that would deliver indoor air quality within comfort range over the breathing zone in nat-vent conditions. Dearth of sustainable design strategies is a major dead-spot in habitat planning policies of India and needs urgent attention. This data driven research heuristics if applied through building design guidelines would help the architects, building engineers and urban planners to design and rejuvenate slum and low-income habitats by imbibing the environmental sustainability aspect in habit design policies.
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