Bioclimatic analysis is using an understanding of climate to inform building design strategy. The analysis is sensitive to the climate file used and especially sensitive to the rainfall data used.
Bioclimatic analysis is also a reasoned understanding of traditional or vernacular architecture and why it is so.
Architects find bioclimatic analysis useful as it can provide early directional substance to what form and grammar a building should take in order to respond to fundamental climatic demands. Engineers can use bioclimatic analysis to understand the demands climate imposes on a building and potentially long term climate change effects.
Bioclimatic analysis thus feeds directly into the conception phase of design.
Bioclimatic issues are diverse and complex; deriving appropriate responses can therefore prove difficult.
It should be noted that this analysis cannot know details of any specific site nor specific local details as it is based solely on weather data; it does however provide that often hard to define overall perspective.
The analysis provides a summary of climatic characteristics followed by a suggested list of built form responses starting at the macro scale and working down in scale through building form and details.
