Abstract: The construction of a building may change the microclimate in the vicinity, and planning indicators in a master plan may directly affect the outdoor physical environmental quality in residential areas. An inappropriate plan for a site may accelerate wind and intensify vortexes over places on the pedestrian levels, which leads to an adverse outdoor environment. Therefore, the design of a cluster of buildings should not focus only on the buildings but also provide a good outdoor environment around the buildings. To tackle the problem of inadequate wind environment, the relationship between the building’s floor area ratio and height was identified in this study as the main planning indicator to be examined on its effects on the outdoor wind environment. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was hence developed to simulate the wind conditions generated by some typical site layouts with different values for planning indicators under relevant weather conditions, which were typical of those in Hangzhou, China. The simulated wind conditions are assessed using the wind speed ratio over the whole area of the building cluster at the pedestrian level. The effects on the local wind condition due to the varying of the planning indicators are discussed whilst considering the potential construction costs. The indicators resulting in better external conditions are highlighted in the conclusion as the recommendation which could be used as a rule of thumb by architects and planners at the master planning stage. The study disproves the common belief in the practice that a lower floor area ratio means fewer buildings and therefore greater external comfort. In fact, the higher the building, the greater the outdoor comfort wind zone for pedestrians. However, the increment in comfort area is limited to buildings extending from 25 to 30 levels.

Key words: Outdoor wind environment, Planning indicators, Building cluster layout, High-rise building

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