Quantitative and creative design tools for urban design in cold and windy climates

In cold and windy climates, the quality of the urban spaces is severely challenged. A design process with a very high level of information regarding wind, sun, daylight and water from the earliest of the design process will help create the most optimized design. For the last couple of years, the Technical University of Denmark has had an initiative to combine the University’s existing knowledge, relevant for large scale physical planning, in new ways. Technical-scientific knowledge about traffic and transportation, water-management, snow drift, wind engineering, sun and daylight have prospered in academic ‘silos’ where little attention has been made in regards to architectural design processes. Simulation tools were developed that can render a larger amount of information available in a short time and thus can keep pace with an ongoing design process in an architectural studio. Bridging the gap between the design processes and the academic knowledge available is a focus area. The effects of climate change and a general higher demand for quantitative assessment of urban planning proposals in hard climatic locations have created a demand for research based design advice. The paper will present these ‘design tools’ and how they can inform an ongoing design process from the earliest of design phases and afterwards.