Environmental Building News: Natural Ventilation

Naturally ventilated buildings can achieve higher occupant productivity, improved indoor air quality and significant energy savings. Designing for natural ventilation, however, can be a challenge: how much air flow can be achieved depends highly on the weather conditions, as well as on the building geometry, orientation, massing and opening location, and in order to maximize the potential of natural ventilation’s benefits, it is critical to select a ventilation strategy early in the design.

Paula Melton of Environmental Building News published an article exploring the challenges of incorporating natural ventilation into building design and what strategies project teams use to overcome them. “Natural Ventilation: The Nine Biggest Obstacles and How Project Teams Are Beating Them” explores a range of topics concerning successful natural ventilation strategies such as; the perceived unpredictability of the strategy, comfort issues, limitations and cost. Alejandra Menchaca, Ph.D., one of our building scientists contributed insights into the strategy as well as PAYETTE’s design process and its commitment to sustainable design.

Melton’s full article is available on the Building Green website.