RESEARCH ARTICLE

Breathing architecture: Conceptual architectural design based on the investigation into the natural ventilation of buildings

  • Anastasia D. Stavridou
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  • Division of Hydraulics and Environmental Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece

Received date: 30 Sep 2014

Accepted date: 02 Mar 2015

Published date: 20 Jul 2015

Copyright

2014 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

This study explores architectural design by examining air, fluid mechanics, and the natural ventilation of buildings. In this context, this research introduces a new way of dealing with the process of architectural synthesis. The proposed way can be used either to create new architectural projects or to rethink existing ones. This study is supported by previous investigation into the natural ventilation of buildings via computational and laboratory simulation (Stavridou, 2011; Stavridou and Prinos, 2013). The investigation into the natural ventilation of buildings provides information and data that affect architectural design through various parameters. The parameters of architectural synthesis that are influenced and discussed in this paper are the following: (i) inspiration and analogical transfer, (ii) initial conception of the main idea using computational fluid dynamics (digital design), (iii) development of the main idea through an investigatory process toward building form optimization, and (iv) form configuration, shape investigation, and other morphogenetic prospects. This study illustrates the effect of natural ventilation research on architectural design and thus produces a new approach to the architectural design process. This approach leads to an innovative kind of architecture called “breathing architecture.”

Cite this article

Anastasia D. Stavridou . Breathing architecture: Conceptual architectural design based on the investigation into the natural ventilation of buildings[J]. Frontiers of Architectural Research, 2015 , 4(2) : 127 -145 . DOI: 10.1016/j.foar.2015.03.001

Outlines

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