Volume V, Issue IV, April 2016 IJLTEMAS ISSN 2278 – 2540 www.ijltemas.in Page 1 Bio-climatic Design Strategies for Buildings in Delhi, India Ar. Abdul Halim Babbu 1 , Ar. Mohd. Firoz Anwar 2 1 Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi-110025, India 2 Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi-110025, India Abstract— Building sector plays a vital role towards energy efficiency and energy conservation. In India, building sector accounts almost 35% of the country’s energy consumption. Building sector has been growing rapidly and is expected to increase five folds from 2005 to 2030. This rapid growth presents a challenge as well as an opportunity to design energy efficient buildings and to conserve energy for sustainable development. Energy usage in buildings has been increasing with climate change. Bioclimatic design has enormous potential in minimizing energy usage in buildings and minimizing carbon dioxide emissions. New Delhi being the capital city has witnessed tremendous building construction activities in and around the city. This paper focuses on various bioclimatic design strategies for building design in a composite climate like Delhi. Number of factors which affects thermal comforts i.e. temperature, humidity, rainfall, wind etc has been analyzed to arrive at performance specifications. To address the seasonal requirements which are often contradictory in composite climate, a weighing system, known as Mahoney Table has been used to assess the relative importance of conflicting requirements. The objective of the study is to devise different characteristics of architectural components i.e. layout of the building, spacing, air movement, size of the openings, position of openings, protection of openings, thermal capacity and insulation of walls, roofs and external features of buildings in Delhi. Keywords— Bio-climatic design, Thermal comfort, Energy Efficiency, Sustainable development, Mahoney Table I. INTRODUCTION uilding sector plays a vital role towards energy efficiency and energy conservation. Due to rapid urbanization and population growth, India has tremendous opportunity in building sector which presently accounts almost 35% of the country’s energy consumption. Building sector has been growing rapidly and is expected to increase overall constructed area approximately five folds from 21 billion square feet in 2005 to 104 billion square feet by 2030. This is a challenge as well as an opportunity for the building sector in India. As the building sector will grow, the amount of greenhouse gases emissions will also be more. As per report “India: Green house Gas Emissions 2007”, India ranks 5th in aggregate GHG emission in the world, behind USA, China, EU and Russia in 2007. Even the Current rate of GHG emission would cause further warming of the globe and would create many problems and challenges in future. There is a serious need to control the greenhouse gas emission. India has been addressing the climate change through its national policy. United Nations has also been supporting global efforts to address climate change through its various policies. Since, building sector consumes a significant amount of energy; there is need in building sector to integrate energy efficiency and energy conservation for sustainable development. Energy can be conserved to a great extent with the use of Bio-climatic design strategies. Orientation of building plays a vital role in achieving energy efficiency of the building. With proper orientation of the building, the total solar radiation received by the building can be minimized in summer and maximized in winter for composite climate like Delhi. Composite climate are neither consistently hot nor dry, nor warm and humid, which pose difficult task for the designers, as set of solutions for one season may not be satisfactory for the other season. The objective of this paper is to critically analyze all the parameters which affect thermal comfort and to formulate design standards for the composite climate. Finally, this paper aims to provide detailed recommendation for climate responsive energy efficient building design in terms of layout, spacing, air movement, size of the openings, positions of the openings, protection of the openings, specifications of walls, floors, roofs and other external features of the building. For the purpose of systematic analysis of various climatic data, and to arrive at the detailed building component specifications, Mahoney table has been used. Mahoney table is a series of tables devised by C Mahoney. Initial part of the table records essential climatic data and identifies humidity group. Next table is used for the diagnosis of the climatic data and provides thermal stress and humidity indicators. Last two tables provide specifications of various components of the building. II. CLIMATIC ZONES OF INDIA As per IS 372-1978 “Guide for Heat Insulation of Non- Industrial buildings”, India has been divided into four climatic zones i.e. (1) Hot and Arid Zone (2) Hot and Humid Zone (3) Warm and Humid Zone (4) Cold Zone. Some discrepancies B