IES Consulting provided their CFD expertise to perform a pedestrian comfort analysis for this landmark apartment development at Carrickmines in Dublin.
IES Consulting were commissioned to investigate the potential impact of wind movement on pedestrian comfort for this proposed Strategic Housing Development in the Carrickmines region of south-east Dublin.
Designed by Henry J. Lyons Architects, the proposed development (which has just recently been approved by An Bord Pleanála) comprises 482 apartments, a childcare facility, gym, and a local shop. The development will span 7 blocks of varying heights, including one landmark twenty-two storey building. Meanwhile, two basement levels will provide car parking, bin stores, bicycle parking ancillary service plantrooms and circulation areas.
Externally, the development includes landscaping, public, private and communal open space, a new pedestrian and cycle bridge to the western side of the site, and a new pedestrian cycle crossing to the South. The proposed buildings also include the provision of private open space in the form of balconies and winter gardens to all elevations.
To determine pedestrian comfort and safety across the site, IES Consulting performed virtual wind tunnel analysis and annual average wind speed for Casement Aerodrome near Dublin. The simulation results were combined with the Dublin weather data to determine annual local air speed distribution of the site. Statistical analysis was performed on this dataset to check compliance against Lawson’s Pedestrian Comfort criterion, a commonly used criteria to assess wind comfort at ground level.
Through their analysis, IES Consulting were able to demonstrate that the design, together with proposed mitigation measures, showed good compliance with the requirements of Lawson’s Comfort/Safety Criterion. The study also enabled the consultants to advise on amendments to the layout of landscaped elements, which were found to contribute to accelerating wind speeds across certain areas of the site, to ensure that the design stayed within the required comfort and safety thresholds.