Passive Cooling of Buildings

Level_HowLevel_DetailedFoundation_AdaptationFoundation_MitigationTopic_Passive designFoundation_Justice & inclusivityTopic_Biodiversity & non-humansTopic_Carbon design
Written By Ioannis Lykouras

PASSIVE RESILIENCE

Recorded by Sofie Pelsmakers, images by Essi Nisonen and Veera Saastamoinen

KEY READINGS 

  • Brian Ford, Juan A. Vallejo, and Rosa Schiano-Phan. The Architecture of Natural Cooling. Taylor and Francis

  • Gething, B., Puckett, K., Design for Climate Change, RIBA

  • Lechner, Norbert, and C. Wallace. Heating, Cooling, Lighting : Sustainable Design Methods for Architects. Fourth edition. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley

  • Pelsmakers, S., Donovan, E., Hoggard, A., Kozminska, U., Designing for the climate emergency, a Guide for Architecture Students, RIBA

  • Pelsmakers, S., The Environmental Design Pocketbook, RIBA

  • Huw Heywood, 101 Rules of Thumb for Low Energy Architecture, RIBA

  • Cooling buildings sustainably in Europe: https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/cooling-buildings-sustainably-in-europe

  • Kimpian, J., Hartman, H., Pelsmakers, S. Energy, People Buildings: Making Sustainable Architecture Work, RIBA

  • Yearly and seasonal wind direction checker, for example: www.windfinder.com

  • Solar angle (altitude and azimuth) calculation tool, for example: www.suncalc.org

INSPIRATIONAL BUILT EXAMPLES

  • HHS architects/Jourda and Gilles Perraudin, Mont-Cenis Academy, Herne, Germany

  • Joao Filgueiras Lima, Sarah Kubitschek Hospital, Salvador, Brazil

  • Kamal el-Kafrawi, windcatchers in University of Qatar, Doha, Qatar

  • Laurie Baker – Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, India

  • Haworth Tompkins, Everyman Theatre, Liverpool, UK

  • Utzon, Can Lis, Majorca, Spain

  • Francis Kere, Gando Primary School, Boulgou Province, Burkina Faso

  • The Vauban, Freiburg, Germany 

  • Architype Architects – The Enterprise Centre, Norwich, UK

  • Mike Reynolds, Earthships, New Mexico, USA

  • Studio Bark, Nest House, UK

  • Hassan Fathy, the house of Muhib Ad-Din Ash-Shāf’ȋ Al-Muwaqqȋ, Egypt

  • Geoffrey Bawa, Ena de Silva House, Colombo, Sri Lanka

  • Charles Correa, Tube Housing, Ahmedabad, India

  • Bearth and Deplazes, Vineyard Gantenbein, Switzerland

PASSIVE COOLING OF BUILDINGS

You must always prioritise passive cooling strategies before considering active cooling. Key passive cooling strategies that you should include in your project at the building scale:

•       Ensure all sources of overheating are tackled first and risks minimised.

•       Green and blue infrastructure at different scales.

•       Social infrastructure and provision of ‘cool zones’.

•       Reducing internal heat gains and understanding occupant behaviour.

•       Building design that reduces the need for cooling through greenery, efficient fabric, reflective surfaces, solar shading, purge ventilation, self-shaded built form and courtyards, thermal mass and careful window design.

Ensure climate justice as part of any passive and active cooling approach: everyone has the right to access cool spaces in summer.

Ioannis Lykouras
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