ABSTRACT
Thermal comfort in buildings located in hot dry weather conditions is improved architecturally with the use of appropriate and adequate bioclimatic design principles. Relationship between bioclimatic design principles and indoor thermal conditions are studied on three selected faculty buildings in north east Nigeria: School of Environmental Technology, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi; School of Environmental Sciences, Modibbo Adama University of Technology Yola and Faculty of Sciences, Yobe State University Damaturu. Firstly, visual survey checklist is used to assess the rates of bioclimatic response on each building. Then the indoor thermal conditions and indoor user perceptions about the buildings were synchronously assessed through physical and subjective measuring instruments. The thermal variables were measured according to morning and evening sessions for three days in this study covering: indoor air temperature, indoor air relative humidity and indoor air velocity. It is discovered that the percentage of adequately applied principles (AAP) on the buildings had direct (1:1) relationship to the indoor thermal comfort conditions. When AAP is at a high of 40%, comfort votes about the measured thermal parameters in these buildings revealed about 50% of indoor space users to be thermally uncomfortable within the indoor spaces: (47% of indoor users were uncomfortable with the 31�C indoor air temperature; 43% of indoor users were uncomfortable with the 33RH% indoor air relative humidity but about 100% of the respondents were comfortable with the indoor air speed). The study concludes by proposing design concepts with integrated bioclimatic responses for the hot dry climate in designing buildings which is believed to upgrade the indoor thermal discomfort conditions for at least up to 80% of indoor space users in the study area.