Solutions of Climate Design for Outdoor Pathways(Case Study: Pedestrians of University of Kashan)

Open spaces and pathways are areas of urban environment that a part of the social life of the citizens and inhabitantsof a town flows in there. Therefore, it is important to design thermal comfort, make a chance for safe, comfortableand stable life at such spaces, especially in hot and dry climates with hard and harsh environmental conditions ofthese regions. Through many of the urban land uses, the universities are spaces that placed buildings and differentuses within its own. Thus, in order to make the appropriate weather and climate conditions for students, it's veryimportant to design of open spaces and pathways between the buildings such as pathways among colleges,residence halls, rest areas, and also places to pause. The present paper considering the importance of designof open spaces in this place, and aims to evaluate the thermal conditions of pedestrian streets and open spacepathways, and also to identify factors contributing in creating the appropriate microclimate in such spaces, dealwith the following questions:- How open spaces thermal comfort indices can improve the design of pedestrian pathways?- Is it possible to determine the thermal status of pedestrian streets by using the field sampling?- What approaches should be considered in design of open spaces for thermal comfort?The present study includes two parts: the first part is the collection of information based on field study and thesecond part is the analysis and evaluation of collected data. The field sampling was carried out in one of thecrowded pathways at the University of Kashan, located in Ravand region, at the peak of summer heat and wintercold - on December 13 and 14, 2012 and June 22 and 23, 2013- at four times, in morning, noon, evening andnight, by mobile meteorological devices that are able to sample temperature, humidity, wind and air pressure data.The selected direction, connect the entrance door to colleges, restaurant, mosque and male residence halls. Theweather conditions were compared in different parts of the path, after transfer of the obtained data from the fieldsampling to related tables by using the Excel program. Furthermore, thermal status of these points was evaluatedwith the help of most recent evaluation index of outdoor thermal condition that is called Universal Thermal ClimateIndex, and was compared with the psychometric graph with thermal zone defined by the mentioned index.The results obtained from these graphs besides indicate thermal condition of the path, determine requirementsof each point to reach optimal weather conditions. In addition, the results show that the available elements of theenvironment and its architectural space design how much is impressive in microclimate condition of the area. At theend, a general framework and appropriate solutions is provide for better organizing of the open spaces in the formof two crossing spaces and pause spaces by comparing the mentioned pathway with climate compatible pathwaysof the historical context of Kashan and by using the techniques applied in their design.... Keywords: Open Space Design, Radiant Temperature, Universal Thermal Climate Index, Pedestrian, OpenSpace Thermal Comfort