Microclimatic Zoning as a Basis for Bioclimatic Design of Low-Rise Urban Housing in South-Eastern Kazakhstan

Purpose. The study develops a microclimatic zoning approach for low-rise urban housing in South- Eastern Kazakhstan that links regional climatic assessment with early-stage architectural decisions. Methods. The research combines comparative climatic analysis of Almaty, Konaev and Taldykorgan with graphic-analytical interpretation of urban morphology, ventilation potential, solar exposure, green-blue infrastructure and topography. Climatic background data and spatial layers were synthesized through common criteria to identify dominant microclimatic conditions. Results. The analysis shows that a broadly comparable sharply continental climate produces different local patterns because each city has a distinct combination of terrain, development intensity, openness, vegetation, water influence and airflow. Five recurrent analytical conditions were identified: windexposed, moderately protected, stagnant-air/heat-accumulation, green-cooling and terrain-dominated areas. Their value lies not in prescribing fixed architectural forms but in diagnosing the environmental priorities of a site. The proposed sequence translates climatic and spatial information into microclimatic zoning and then into early-stage design priorities concerning protection, permeability, solar control, landscape integration and terrain response. The comparative application to three cities demonstrates that the method preserves local climatic specificity while maintaining a common analytical sequence for cross-case interpretation. Conclusions. Microclimatic zoning can function as an intermediate architectural-climatic layer between generalized regional climate data and detailed building-level simulation. The method is context-sensitive and transferable as an analytical sequence, while the spatial zoning itself remains city-specific and requires subsequent validation through field measurements and numerical modelling