Ancient Cooling, Heating Practices Coming Back Around in Sustainable Building Design

Fresh ideas about improving apartment living and operations through sustainable building design have been circulating throughout multifamily energy discussions in recent years. Apartment designs are always changing to improve operational efficiency while blending the latest styles with building techniques that speak out from the curb. Inside, smooth lines and curves along with warm colors may set a relaxed mood but quickly fade into bold accents as tastes change. Building engineers go through similar swings and don’t always rely on new, cutting edge designs to reach their ultimate quest of operational efficiency. They sometimes look back in the closet for inspiration. One thing for certain: What goes around comes around.             One of the latest is passive heating and cooling which, simply, is taking advantage of sun exposure to maintain comfortable building temperatures.  For centuries, homes and other buildings have been heated and cooled by what nature provides, rather than relying on machines. Many ancient cities depended on constructing structures and positioning them to take advantage of sunlight, darkness, wind patterns and other weather-related factors to maintain temperature control. Well before HVAC systems, homes were designed to capture winds to cool in the summer and warm through fireplaces placed to obtain the best possible draft. Similar passive heating and cooling designs are being incorporated in building sustainability designs in multifamily as operators look to achieve maximum building efficiency to reduce the load on energy-powered HVAC systems. Bioclimatic design re-emerging to lower operation costs Peter Chan, who is Fairfield Residential’s Director of Ancillary Services, has seen a resurgence of interest among multifamily sustainability practitioners in such older architectural practices. Bioclimatic design – which uses ventilation, air flow and natural patterns of the sun...