New Approach to Natural Ventilation in Public Buildings Inspired by Iranian's Traditional Windcatcher

Concern about global warming has resulted in a resurgence of interest in naturally ventilated buildings. Natural ventilation is increasingly being used in modern public buildings to minimize the consumption of non-renewable energy. It is an effective measure to improve indoor air quality. This paper explores the potential of using natural ventilation as a passive cooling system for public buildings like shopping malls. The characteristics of present public buildings are analyzed in terms of climate and technology. Based on the thermal comfort requirements for the people and the climate conditions in these spaces, the study found that it is possible to use natural ventilation to create a thermally comfortable indoor environment. Openings can, most of the time, be enough to cool the buildings. Even though use of an opening for ventilation of a space seems very simple, the flow that occurs in this situation is rather complicated. The amount of air going through the openings will depend on several items like size, type and location of the opening. This paper reviews wind driven ventilation designs with respect to traditional Iranian's Windcatcher. The windcatcher systems found to be an efficient way channel fresh air into the space. The context of the work was to improve the use of natural ventilation systems in buildings. The aim of this article is to find which should be the type, size and location of the opening to reach sufficient ventilation rates in modern spaces by use of methods that works in traditional Windcatcher.