Climate-responsive resident ial buildings in India. Just a drop in the ocean?

All around the world, cities enhance their economic, cultural and social attractiveness increasing population and infrastructures. In a global context of climate change, the urban area’s environmental footprint and sustainability need to be investigated and monitored, in the attempt to find strategies to reduce negative effects. Concerning climate changes, recent world climate reports stress the increasing severity and duration of heat waves. These increases will likely be more strongly felt in urban areas due to the urban heat island effect (UHI) that leads cities to have higher air and surface temperatures compared to rural areas. Pollution plays a negative role that is not only difficult to control but also affects health and aggravates heat-related climate change impacts. UHI effects and heat waves are likely to increase future energy demand. In the United States, for example, an estimated 3% to 8% of annual electricity use is required to reduce UHI effects (Ruth and Gasper, 2008). To face rising temperatures there often is no other solution than using air-conditioning. That leads to a vicious circle, as massive air conditioning has been shown to increase UHI effects up to 1 °C (Hallegatte et al. 2008). Moreover, the expansion of the air-conditioning market has increased the electrical energy consumption and peak power demand (Givoni 1994; Chiesa et al. 2014). This trend has an important effect on the GHG since the emission factor for electricity consumption is high, as shown for Europe in the specific technical annex to the SEAP template (European Commission, 2010). While the developed countries seem to increasingly engage such issues, developing countries have to face the challenges of a fast growing population and increasing economic activity with a lower availability of basic infrastructures and a relatively young capital of skills and knowledge. The air-conditioning market in emerging countries is rising quickly, with a 70% growth in the past 5 years (Dalkin Industries, 2015). Indian big cities show all the above-mentioned problems: pollution, extreme temperatures and increasing use of A/C together with a general and exponential growth of energy consumption. The rapid economic development of India means an increase of the standards of living and expectations of the middle classes. Per capita consumption is exploding due to the rising equipment rate fueled by the motivation to reach comfortable conditions (Fernandes, 2006), namely those that are considered “basic” in Western countries (A/C, washing machine, dishwasher, laptop, refrigerator). This leads to serious environmental but also functional problems, i.e. energy shortages that can affect thousands and even millions of people, as happened in July 2012 (over 300 million people affected). To date, a ferocious construction rhythm and qualitatively poor and climate-inadequate architectural solutions characterize the building sector in India. Residential buildings mostly share the same typology, with thin walls, lack of shading systems, and lack of insulation especially on the roof. They are vulnerable to the high tropical temperatures and to extreme climate event, harboring at the same time a rising demand for better levels of thermal comfort coming from the middle classes. For that reason, they are quickly shifting toward total dependency on air conditioning, with consistent effects on energy consumption, health and urban climate.