OVERVIEW
There are three primary reasons to design a building for natural ventilation.
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Energy savings can be dramatic.
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Occupant satisfaction is usually very high.
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Indoor air quality is significantly better.
So why isn’t natural ventilation just a given in every design? It usually has more to do with perception than with physics.
Here you’ll find an in-depth look at the benefits of and barriers to natural ventilation as well as strategies for smart design.
IN-DEPTH
Filter results:
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Clean, Fresh Air: Getting What We Need
November 7, 2016Feature Article
Human health probably benefits from more fresh air than current ventilation standards require. But pulling in outdoor air can mean pulling in pollution.
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How Six Affordable Housing Projects Got to Green
October 6, 2017Feature Short
Stories of designers and developers who overcame the challenges of building affordable housing that is also green, sustainable, and healthy.
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Natural Ventilation: The Nine Biggest Obstacles and How Project Teams Are Beating Them
August 3, 2014Feature Article
Designers are reinventing the art and science of passive comfort control even where climate and culture favor mechanical systems.
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Do Living Walls Make for Cleaner Indoor Air?
May 26, 2017Product Review
Nedlaw Living Wall Biofilters do more than most green walls to remove VOCs, but it’s unclear that they provide a true fresh air supply.
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Designing for the Next Century's Weather
September 30, 2013Feature Article
How do you create a climate-responsive building in a changing climate? Brand new modeling techniques are helping us figure it out.
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Façade as Ventilation: Moving beyond Open Windows
March 8, 2017Product Review
AirFlow Panels supply air and recover energy on commercial building façades, improving air quality while reducing energy and space requirements.
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Design for Adaptation: Living in a Climate-Changing World
August 28, 2009Feature Article
Even if we stopped emitting greenhouse gases tomorrow, rising global temperatures would still bring major changes to the climate system and our way of life. This article offers solutions for designing buildings that not only mitigate our impact on the global climate, but also adapt to the changes that are coming-and those that are already here.
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Designing Natural Ventilation: Will the Breeze Follow Your Pointy Arrows?
January 29, 2015Webcast
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Tuning Today’s Building Designs to Tomorrow’s Climate
August 3, 2014News Analysis
A new modeling tool, WeatherShift, helps designers see how designs today can account for comfort, resilience, and energy needs decades down the line.
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Three Sources of Air-Pressure Problems in Buildings
May 5, 2014Primer
Air movement in and through buildings caused by pressure differentials has important effects on performance and safety.
