Urban Form and Thermally Comfortable Pedestrian Streetscapes in Post-COVID Mendoza, Argentina

SOSA, MARÍA BELÉN; CORREA, ERICA N.; CANTÓN, M. ALICIA

New York

Simposio; International Perspectives on the Future of Architecture and Urbanism in the Post-COVID Age -; 2021

The Epidemic Urbanism Initiative (EUI)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPewITSiSj8 (presentado online)Since the pandemic the way to use outdoor spaces in cities has changed. The walkable distance to daily activities is a commodity that not always has been contemplated by city shapers. A well-design streetscape that considers, beyond other factors, the microclimatic conditions of a city can help to promote and increase the walkability. In this sense, urban form results a powerful tool to achieve more livable communities in the post-COVID age. Particularly in arid zones, where the extreme weather conditions in summer decrease the use of outdoor spaces. In Mendoza Metropolitan Area, Argentina, our research group has developed a series of urban design proposals, at neighborhood scale, in order to reduce the outdoor air temperature in the summer season. The design proposals have combined three strategies to reduce urban warming: urban form, albedo, and trees. The form strategy considers neighborhood pattern, street and sidewalk width, street orientation, and building height. The albedo strategy improved the values of the exposed materials. And the tree strategy consider the implantation distance and the forestall magnitude. The neighborhood air temperature was obtained by microclimatic simulations in ENVI-met software adjusted with in-situ microclimatic data from three reference points in Mendoza. The results shown it is possible improve the outdoor thermal conditions, increase the walkability and reduce the car and public transport dependency by applying some design strategies. But the biggest challenge in order to improve urban thermal conditions is promote and generate proper urban regulations adapted to regional scale.