A Review of Thermal Comfort Assessment Methods in Heritage Buildings
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26905/icgss.v9i1.16389Keywords:
Method, Assessment, Thermal Comfort, Building, HeritageAbstract
Heritage buildings are architectural structures renowned for their historical, cultural, social, or architectural significance, often preserved due to their association with pivotal historical events, distinctive architectural styles, influential figures, or enduring cultural traditions. Beyond these attributes, heritage buildings are also recognized for their ability to provide effective thermal comfort to its occupants through passive cooling strategies. This capability reflects centuries of learning and adaptation, with these buildings designed to harmonize with their surrounding environment to ensure optimal comfort for their users. The unique thermal characteristics of heritage buildings have garnered significant interest from researchers, prompting numerous studies on their thermal performance. This article reviews journal articles that investigate thermal comfort in heritage buildings globally. The articles were identified through searches on platforms such as Google Scholar, Mendeley, and Publish or Perish, followed by a selection process that resulted in 40 articles being included in the review. The primary aim of this review is to identify the thermal comfort assessment methods commonly employed in research on heritage buildings and to examine the correlation between these methods and the types of studies conducted. By systematically categorizing and analyzing the methodologies used in the reviewed articles, this study offers a comparative evaluation of their relevance and effectiveness in the context of heritage buildings. Moreover, it seeks to understand how different assessment approaches align with specific research objectives and environmental contexts, thereby providing insights into the suitability of each method for various research frameworks. The findings indicate that four primary methods are employed in the reviewed journal articles: literature reviews, physical surveys and measurements, questionnaire surveys, and computer simulations. Among these, physical surveys and measurements are the most frequently used, appearing in 31 articles, followed by computer simulations in 25 articles, questionnaires in 15 articles, and literature reviews in 7 articles. In some cases, these methods are used exclusively, while in others, they are applied simultaneously in the same research.
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