Abstract
Decreasing energy consumption and adapting to environments have become the mainstream architectural design concepts in response to the recent urban heat island effect and climate changes. The Passivhaus (i.e., passive house) concept, which was developed in Germany, has been promoted in Europe and North America. Similarly, green building policies have been implemented in Taiwan to promote resource efficiency in constructions and to reduce their impact on the environment and human health. Passivhaus are also being promoted in Taiwan. In urban planning, considering the relationships between buildings and the environment before implementing Passivhaus and green building policies enhances energy efficiency and environmental adaptation. Typically, natural ventilation is inadequate in urban environments. In addition to building layouts, natural indoor ventilation is affected by outdoor street environments. In street and indoor environments with poor ventilation, exhaust gas and pollutants can persist and jeopardize human health and comfort. This paper discusses the effect of building layouts on street and indoor ventilation. According to the results, the height-to-width ratio of a street is negatively correlated with its ventilation but positively correlated with indoor ventilation. Two types of building layouts, namely parallel and staggered layouts, were examined in this study; differences between their effects on street and indoor ventilation were nonsignificant.
