BALCONY GEOMETRIES PERFORMANCE AS WINDCARRIERS INTO LIVING SPACE ; CASE STUDY: APARNA SIWALANKERTO

In majority, housing flats use natural ventilation to cope with humid tropical climate in Indonesia, which requires airflow to achieve thermal comfort. One of the potential architectural element in delivering air into the living space of vertical buildings is balcony. But in reality, balconies in Indonesian housing flats are only functioning as façades, and have not optimized their potential as windcarriers, which partially cause air discomfort in living space. This study examines the performance of balcony geometries as windcarriers into living space through simulation by Ansys Workbench CFX 2021 on Aparna Siwalankerto as a case study. It was found that balcony with more well-ordered wind receiving planes could carry wind into the living space best, in terms of both speed and distribution, as such in this study was the symmetric pentagonal balcony. Still, between the two aspects, wind distribution determines balconies performance, rather than wind speed.