Evaluating the Impact of Transition spaces on the Indoor comfort conditions of a Naturally Ventilated Institution Building

Transition spaces connect between the interior space and the exterior environment and it acts as an intermediate or a third space. A well-designed transition space acts as a microclimate modifier for the interior spaces. The current study focuses on the role of transition spaces in creating a comfortable thermal environment in classrooms of an educational institute, located in a region with hot humid climate. The aim of the study is to investigate the impact of transition spaces upon the creation of indoor thermal comfort. For this study, the quantitative data was collected through field measurements in terms of air temperature on a typical summer day. Further, the field data was also collected from different orientations and various classrooms within the campus of the institution. Adaptive thermal comfort metrics was used to compare the performance on the built geometry. The spatial distribution of adaptive thermal comfort was simulated using IESVE software. Further, new scenarios were proposed and developed for the built geometry by altering the built parameters like aspect ratio and the depth of the transition space. The indoor thermal comfort performance of the proposed scenarios was compared with the existing conditions so as to establish a relationship between the built parameters and comfort conditions. A significant improvement was evident in the comfort level of indoor spaces, which suggest that the transition spaces optimize the indoor space comfort levels by reducing the indoor temperature by about 0.5°C to 2°C. Thus, the study proves that the changes in the aspect ratio and corridor width significantly impacts the indoor comfort. The current study outcomes can further help the designers to understand that the best efficient transition space has a positive impact upon a healthy learning space.