Natural Ventilation in a Smart Building

The design of non-domestic buildings which adopt a purely natural ventilation strategy is now commonplace in many parts of the world, and increasingly this strategy has been shown to be viable in city centers as well as ‘green field’ locations. However, the adoption of natural ventilation in tall buildings is less common. This is not surprising in view of the potential risks to a successful design. This paper explores the basic principles strategic options for natural ventilation of tall buildings, Base Isolation, and refers to prominent examples which have adopted a ‘mixed mode’ approach. The prospect of purely naturally ventilated tall buildings is considered in terms of the envelope design. The paper concludes that in terms of designing the envelope and its openings, the challenges for tall buildings are greater than for low rise, primarily because the potential magnitudes of the driving forces become greater and their relative magnitudes can vary over a wider range. Segmentation offers the least risky approach for envelope design of non-residential tall buildings provided the aerodynamic effects can be reliably accounted for. Tall buildings may also lend themselves to some forms of innovative envelope.