The Development to New Urban Design Approaches with the Wind Tunnel Snow Simulation for Northern Regions

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An urban design which reduces snow problems is one of the most important approaches in heavy snow and cold climate cities. In this paper, the author evaluated the urban design for the new Wakkanai Station redevelopment project in Hokkaido, Japan. It is important to clarify how to apply urban design principles to protect areas within winter climates. Therefore, a question is addressed that do the blocks after infill developments provide desirable environment against snow, or not. The purpose of this paper is to answer this question and clear to understand the desirable block images for reducing snow problems (snowdrifts and snow blow) on its surrounding public spaces on infill developments in Winter Cities. Author studied the differences of the snow problems between "before" and "after" the infill developments consisted of medium-rise buildings in Downtown Sapporo on snow simulation tests using wind tunnel.On this snow simulation tests, snow problems in the blocks and streets were improved after the infill developments. One of the main reasons of the observations is considered that the little variation of the building heights reduces snow problems on the public spaces in the blocks. For making the desirable spatial images in Winter Cities, the blocks have to be consisted of medium-rise buildings and unified the heights of buildings. The infill developments with medium-rise buildings with unifying building heights are effective against snow problems in downtown area, and making the desirable special block design for Winter Cities.The results of this simulation will be reflected in the station redevelopment planning and design of this project. This urban design study with snow simulations might provide the most progressive approach.