A Novel Indoor Environmental Quality Assessment Method for Vernacular Bamboo Houses in Tropical Climates

Information from the abstract

Bamboo is extensively used in vernacular housing across Southeast Asia. However, limited research has examined the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and sound insulation of bamboo houses. This study aims to propose a new assessment approach for vernacular bamboo houses based on the LEED v4 IEQ criteria, whose application to vernacular architecture has been rather limited. As a first objective, field measurements were conducted in five houses located in southern Thailand to obtain thermal comfort, daylight performance and acoustic quality. One of the houses had modern brick-and-plaster walls (W1), whereas another four houses (W2–W5) were built with woven bamboo walls of different weaving patterns and thicknesses. A second objective consisted in performing IEQ assessments and life cycle assessments (LCA), also providing practical recommendations. The results show that woven bamboo walls provided higher indoor illuminance levels than brick walls, exceeding 300 lux between 09:00 and 15:00 h. Results from a bioclimatic analysis indicate that most indoor conditions were outside the thermal comfort zone, except in houses with W2 and W4 during early morning hours (00:00–05:30 h). Nevertheless, thermal comfort can be improved by increasing the air velocity to 0.4–1.0 m/s and by selecting a wall “gap density” of 4–6%. In terms of acoustic performance, all bamboo walls satisfied the LEED v4 requirement (≤45 dB), except wall W3 which had a high “gap density” (10%). The new approach can be used to assess and improve the comfort conditions in bamboo housing in tropical climates, thus supporting conservation strategies and promoting bamboo as a sustainable building material.

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Related topics: Bamboo properties and applications · Building Energy and Comfort Optimization · Hygrothermal properties of building materials