A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF CURRENT BIOCLIMATIC LANDSCAPE DESIGN APPROACHES

In the contemporary landscape architecture, the development of bioclimatic design approaches in projects and studies appeared and evolved in the last 20-30 years, yet although some principles date back to the ancient gardens of the Middle East. Bioclimatic landscape design has been developed in order to improve the relationship between human habitats and the natural environment as well as to ameliorate the microclimate influence on human health and comfort. The approach is focused on analyzing and comparing five recent bioclimatic landscape analysis and design projects from several cities located in different climatic zones of the world, including hot arid areas (New Cairo, Egypt; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Be'er Sheva, Israel), hot humid areas (Guangzhou, China) and temperate humid zones (Utrecht, the Netherlands). The research aims to identify, evaluate and compare methods of analysis, design and implementation used in each case study. The results of the study indicate the main factors involved in the development and implementation of projects in bioclimatic landscape architecture, presenting the impact of the proposed interventions on the bioclimatic variables. The conclusions set out the major principles and methods used in bioclimatic landscape design, underlying the benefits of woody vegetation, the most significant controlling factor of the microclimate in most geographical areas.