Saitabau Kumary: Adaptability of Buildings and Cities to High Temperature: A Thermal Resilient Assessment of Nairobi City

Supervisor: Dr Ronita Bardhan

Research overview:

Today many countries are grappling with high mortality rates associated with extreme weather events. Heatwaves stand as culprits, having claimed countless lives globally. This growing threat endangers millions, as climate change continues to amplify both the frequency and intensity of these occurrences. Meanwhile, the United Nations projects a significant increase in urban population, particularly in the rapidly expanding cities of the global south. This urban growth will intensify the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, worsening an already critical situation. These concerning trends raise a crucial question: How well are our buildings and cities equipped to shelter us from the increasingly frequent and severe heat events? This challenges the traditional approach of assessing the thermal comfort and energy performance of buildings and underscores the importance of adopting a resilience-based approach to counter these threats. My research aims to address this problem by developing a comprehensive quantification method that spans multiple scales, leveraging machine and deep learning techniques to identify vulnerable buildings and quantify thermal resilience for both current and future climates. This project will span different scales, from individual buildings to entire neighbourhoods in Nairobi. The goal is to develop a robust, user-friendly tool for assessing thermal resilience for tropical climates across these scales, providing a valuable tool for designing more resilient urban environments in the face of a warming climate.

Biography:

Kumary is a Kenyan-registered architect currently pursuing doctoral studies, funded by the Cambridge Africa Changemakers Scholarship Program. He earned his bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of Nairobi and later completed an MPhil in architecture and urban studies (Distinction) at the University of Cambridge, for which he received the Architecture Department's 2024 Alexander Pike Prize and the Wolfson College Jennings Prize. Before embarking on his academic pursuit, he practiced architecture in Nairobi, amassing extensive experience in architectural design and construction. He has also served as a graduate assistant at the University of Nairobi. His research focuses on leveraging machine and deep learning techniques to address the thermal resilience of urban environments. A glance at his architectural works is available at https://www.behance.net/Adenkumary.