Urban Design Guidelines for Shophouses: A Temperature Modification Approach

In many developed countries, the commercial district is filled by the high-rise building, but in the city of a developing country like Medan, Indonesia, the commercial area is characterized by shophouses typology. The absence of urban design guideline for the shophouses area causes the low- quality design of the districts and makes many environmental problems, such as the increasing of micro temperature. This paper seeks to apply some of the current design principles that the literature suggest about how to improve urban microclimates through design intervention to reduce temperatures in a densely built up commercial areas. The research will demonstrate this in the case of Medan through a focus, primarily on the “ubiquitous “shop-house” which is the dominant type in the buildings typology observed in commercial areas of Indonesian cities. The research methodology used is a combination of primary data collected through a visual survey. Next, the study collected temperature measurement to get a particular condition in temperature modification. In the end, the study formulated the design guidelines, which related to the evidence to contemporary, relevant design wisdom.