Study on the Wind Environment of the Architecture Communities: Traditional Typical Min Nan Human Settlements’ Case

Abstract

In contrast to the modern urban planning, which can be done in short period in terms of the spatial qualified design, the traditional tribe needs longer period in terms of the villagers’ sense of community. The selection of location, planning, and construction reveals the wisdom of the former people’s use of the resourceful life experience. First, the paper employs PHOENICS to simulate the wind environments of two most representative patterns of rural settlements in the southern area of Southern Fujian, China. This was made to compare the different conditions caused by settlements of various architectural groups. Second, the engineering and construction aspects of settlements—such as the width of roads and building structures—will be further analyzed and examined as case study in attempt to discover the favorable environmental factors for generating winds as well as the construction dimension of the settlement, such as the road width and the architectural design. Finally, the paper tends to conclude with an energy conservation strategy applied to the construction of modern communities which has low density and small group buildings.