How much can design improve outdoor comfort?

Transsolar New York hosts an extern from MIT every January. This year our extern Nathaniel Johnson studied a very simple question: how much can design improve outdoor comfort in different parts of the U.S.?
The answer, of course, is a lot! Nate’s results show that the highest potential for increased outdoor comfort – both in the winter and summer – is in climate zones in the middle of the continental US, from the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast across to the southern Midwest and Southwest. The charts below show that 40-50% of the summer and winter that would have been uncomfortable can be made comfortable through design interventions such as improved ventilation, shading, and misting in the summer, and solar access and wind protection in the winter. Outside of this band, most U.S. climates show the potential to make at least an additional 20-30% of the summer and winter comfortable through design.

Read our full white paper here and thank you Nate!