Hodkinson Consultancy presents at International Low Energy Conference

One of our specialists, Olga Tsagkalidou participated in this year’s Passive and Low Energy Architecture conference in Los Angeles, presenting her research paper ‘Environmental Retrofit of the Unexploited Roofscape: Case Studies in Athens and Thessaloniki’, co-authored by A. Stanitsa and Dr. S. Yannas. Her research work was undertaken during her MSc degree at the Architectural Association School of Architecture.

The main theme of the conference was Cities, Buildings, People: Towards Regenerative Environments with hundreds of professionals and researchers attending from all over the world.

Olga’s paper focused on the rehabilitation of the neglected rooftops of Greek cities and its potential to play a key role in the development of urban heat island mitigation strategies. The impact of urban density, geometry, materials and vegetation were evaluated through fieldwork and simulations using EDSL Tax, Ecotect, ENVI-met and RayMan pro software. Design solutions were proposed to improve the rooftop microclimate and outdoor comfort conditions.

Figure: Applicable design intervention for the city of Thessaloniki (Source: Tsagkalidou, O. (2015). Environmental Retrofit of the Unexploited Roofscape of Thessaloniki. MSc Thesis. Sustainable Environmental Design Programme. AA Graduate School. London).