Since the air temperature continues to rise, the purpose of building mass concept Solar Envelope has shifted significantly, with the major goal becoming to minimize sunlight penetration. As a result, producing shading on an urban scale is critical, particularly in tropical locations, for minimizing the Urban Heat Island (UHI) impact. The objective of this study is to propose the Tropical Responsive Envelope (TRE) concept as a passive design strategy through the mass form of high-rise buildings, as well as to propose a workflow framework so that architects can develop high-rise building masses that are in sync with the environment and can help to reduce the effects of UHI. This study selects two case studies in an area of high density with high-rise buildings in Sudirman, South Jakarta. This study employs field observation methods to explore the case studies’ existing conditions and computational digital modeling tools to generate TRE building masses and predict future microclimates in the two case study areas. The study found that the contribution of TRE to the urban microclimate in the case study area to achieve the specified indicators is still not significant, despite the fact that the mass performance of TRE tall buildings is better than the existing building mass in several aspects such as sunlight intensity, wind pattern, and UTCI categories that the building mass responds to. This study recommends implementing a TRE with a height of less than 100 meters in order to maximize the shade that accommodates the ground surface area and building facades. This research can be enhanced to illustrate future trends and efficient energy consumption by providing valuable solutions in suggesting new concepts that can alleviate the UHI phenomena.
Keywords: Urban Heat Island, Solar Envelope, Shading Envelope, Self-shading Envelope, Tropical Responsive Envelope
Author: Naufal Andi Irsyad – Architecture
