Investigation of Indonesian Traditional Houses through CFD Simulation

Modern buildings in Indonesia rely mostly on artificial lighting, heating, cooling and ventilation. It means more energy is used to drive mechanical appliances, and presumably not sustainable. Meanwhile modern buildings consume much energy, traditional architectures are known as the source of knowledge for sustainable, energy efficient and climate responsive design. Noticeably, one of the differences between modern and traditional buildings in Indonesia is shown in their strategy to provide thermal comfort to the user. Traditional buildings use natural ventilation, but modern buildings use mechanical air conditioning. By focusing on wind-driven ventilation, the study aims to investigate natural ventilation strategy of Indonesian traditional house, and their potential improvement to be used in modern Indonesian buildings. Three traditional houses are studied in this research, representing west, central, and east Indonesia. The houses are Lampung traditional house, Javanese traditional house, and Toraja traditional house. CFD simulation is conducted to simulate wind-driven ventilation behaviour and the temperature of the buildings. Concisely, the wind-natural ventilation of case study houses is potential to provide thermal comfort inside the houses. However, the strategy still can be optimized by adding some other passive design strategies: sun-shading; vegetation; or buildings arrangement in the traditional dwelling. Consideration about the roof's shape and windows position to the roof is important as well to create a uniform air distribution.