Holistic Approach towards a Sustainable Urban Renewal: Thermal Comfort Perspective of Urban Housing in Kigali, Rwanda

Urban upgrading programs are implemented to enhance the living conditions in a city. However, the concept of to what extent the life of the targeted communities is improved remains contested and fluid. The purpose of this study was two-fold. First, it evaluated for the first time the indoor thermal conditions in the three main urban housing types in Kigali and analyzed whether the ongoing urban renewal takes into consideration occupant thermal comfort. Second, alternatives to improve thermal performance of urban housing were investigated and recommendations were given. Results indicate that modern urban housing performed significantly greater compared to other housing types, especially during daytime. Indoor thermal conditions in the planned low-income housing were no better—and, in fact, were slightly poorer—than in the informal settlement from which households were to be relocated. Through design parameter optimization, the indoor thermal conditions in the planned low-income housing were improved by 85.5% in the daytime hours and 71.2% in the nighttime hours. These findings are valuable to officials in resettlement programs by providing insights to improve urban dwellers’ living conditions from a wholistic prospective. This can assist related parties in mitigating project failure often caused by local resistance to resettlement.

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