March 28, 2008

ULRIKE PASSE is an assistant professor of architecture at Iowa State University. She teaches comprehensive design studio and courses on environmental forces and control systems. She is a licensed architect and recently was elected as a member of the Bund Deutscher Architekten, the German equivalent of the FAIA.

By Ulrike Passe
Natural or hybrid ventilation and green design in architecture are strongly related. Good air quality is as essential to comfortable living as thermal comfort. Both can be achieved with thorough spatial design strategies in most climates. A recent research report conducted by the National Institute of Standard and Technology indicates the enormous energy-saving potential of these modes of building operation for low to mid-rise commercial office buildings in the U.S. Similar possibilities exist for the residential market. The study and a growing number of precedents in Europe also indicate the need for different ways to build and a change in user-building interaction to make these strategies successful, as the relationship of energy and air is complex.

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