The Environmental Impact of Tall Buildings at Pedestrian Level: Design guidelines for urban regeneration in the climatic context of Istanbul
The world population has increased in the last few years, and more of the words’ population lived in urban areas rather than rural places. Because of that, the need to develop high-rise building construction is justified by the growing demand for commercial, public, and residential buildings and the lack of free spaces. In addition to that, the growth of tall buildings significantly affects the urban micro-climatic conditions of the terrain and the importance of activities at street level between the spaces of tall buildings. Based on that, it is essential to investigate how tall buildings affect the environmental performance of tall buildings and the quality of the open spaces in terms of height and form of the buildings, the distance between them, and the ground floor design of high-rise buildings. The aim of this work is to understand the environmental impact of tall buildings on the pedestrian level in the urban environment of Istanbul inside the context of the existing commercial area to create more comfortable, liveable, and attractive spaces around high-rise buildings. Findings in this research indicate that the application of environmental strategies such as pilotis, canopies, winter gardens, mezzanines, and vegetation can generate improvements on the pedestrian level between tall buildings. Furthermore, the findings strongly propose that each scenario create a different influence on its immediate environment for pedestrian comfort and including these strategies can achieve outdoor comfort for 90% of the year.
Keywords: Tall Buildings, Pedestrian Comfort, Urban Micro-climate, Urban Ground Conditions.
