Traditional Town Houses in Kyoto, Japan: Present and Future

Chiemi Iba and Shuichi Hokoi
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Chiemi Iba: Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto 6158540, Japan
Shuichi Hokoi: School of Architecture, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 5, 1-19

Abstract: Climate change is an important issue that affects energy consumption, causes health problems, such as heat stroke, and requires urgent countermeasures. Serious health problems, including cardiac arrest, often occur in winter in traditional residences in Japan. Cooling-heating energy is required to maintain a healthy thermal environment. Although energy efficiency standards for buildings have been introduced worldwide to reduce energy consumption and various passive energy-saving methods are being investigated, traditional residences still face difficulties in conducting renovations because of various restrictions, such as the conservation of historical or aesthetic values. In this study, these issues and their appropriate countermeasures were investigated for a traditional townhouse in Kyoto, Japan, “Kyo-machiya” (including its new form “Heisei-no-Kyo-machiya”). The potential of reducing heating and cooling loads was examined by conducting numerical analysis considering residents’ lifestyles. Field surveys of the indoor environment were conducted in both summer and winter. It was revealed that by optimizing the times and positions of opening and closing the windows and indoor partitions, the indoor air flow could be adjusted from both thermal comfort (cooling in summer) and discomfort (cold drafts in winter) perspectives, leading to improving the indoor environment without using energy.

Keywords: Kyo-machiya; indoor environmental control; environment adjusting space; natural ventilation; cold draft (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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