Urban Shape and Energy Performance: Evaluation of The Typical Urban Structures of Prague

Abstract

European cities had been developed historically as compact and dense structures, where the specific urban microclimate was achieved through the arrangement of the units of the urban pattern. The energy flows, such as transportation energy and the heating or cooling energy, were reduced. With the further development of the cities, the various urban morphologies came to place and the city energy demands grew. One of the ways of reduction of such demand is the creation of compact urban pattern, which is exposed to the maximum of solar radiation and potentially may reduce the heating demands of the buildings. The energy, which is received by building, is defined by its shape and orientation and the compacity depends on its geometrical properties, such as surface to volume ratio and the plot coverage. Within the study the various urban morphologies of Prague are tested in order to find the most energy efficient ones. The urban structures are selected according to their geometrical shape and include the urban blocks with different proportions, perimeters and site coverage ratio, dense medieval streets and minimalistic buildings of the socialist period. The computer simulation and analysis were performed using the models extracted from the virtual Google Earth model of Prague. During the process of evaluation of samples the relation between the urban morphology and such parameters as plot coverage, surface to volume ratio and the incident solar radiation was established and potentially higher energy efficient structures were indicated.