Passive Cooling Strategies
Architectural methods for keeping buildings cool without mechanical systems, using massing, materials, ventilation, and shading.
Passive cooling strategies reduce or remove the need for air conditioning by shaping a building to manage heat, airflow, and solar gain. Designers use thermal mass, orientation, shading devices, cross-ventilation, and vegetation to moderate indoor temperatures in hot climates. The approach draws on vernacular building traditions as well as contemporary performance analysis.Member work under this topic examines how these principles appear across climates, from double roofs and gabion walls in North Africa to layered brick and laterite in coastal India and courtyard-based houses in Vietnam. Projects also consider wind-driven form, sheltered public spaces, and the tradeoffs between cooling performance and spatial or material concerns.
