Site Planning for Coolth

About this pattern

Cool Winds

*Site planning for coolth requires mapping prevailing winds; cool winds in summer and cold winds in winter.

*Using tree planting to direct cool winds and block cold winds, can create turbulence on both sides of solid barriers. This contrasts with open canopy and open fencing, where the wind can pass through without turbulence. Groves of trees, rather than rows, effectively channel prevailing winds and achieve greatest density of canopy when species are mixed.

**Canopy Density is increased when trees are crowded; crown branching changes with crowding, providing shorter primary branches and more than twice the volume of other branches. The branching is flatter and crown volume is bigger.

*** Sun/Shade

Site planning for coolth also requires a sun/shade analysis for 9.00am, 12.00pm, 4.00pm throughout winter & summer.

Winter sunlight is best achieved with deciduous trees. The quality of shade depends on trees’ attributes including leaf area; high branch density; multiple canopy layers; canopy transmissivity; canopy size and projection and canopy ventilation.

Pattern Conditions

Enablers:

• Channelling summer winds to cool open space can reduce temperatures & humidity.  Blocking winter winds facilitates warmth;
• Summer shade is increasingly essential, as is winter sun.

Constraints:

• Tree management to achieve healthy growth and arboriculture care to prevent falling branches is essential.

Commoning Concerns

Access:  open access for public open space; wheelchair access under trees in groves is a dilemma, as it will inhibit soil and root health.

Use: recreation, wildlife corridors, shelter, carbon capture, O₂/CO_2. 

Benefit: human comfort, environmental contribution.

Care: essential arboriculture, irrigation, fertilization.

Responsibility: Local Government, Corporate Body of Building owners, communities.

Ownership: Corporate Body of Building owners.