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A collaborative team of architects, scientists and engineers from the University of Cambridge and MIT, supported by BP, have helped design an innovative new 'low energy' building in the heart of London that avoids the need for energy-greedy air conditioning, and cuts down carbon dioxide emissions.
Standard air-conditioned office buildings consume a lot of energy and produce 80-160 kg of carbon dioxide - one of the gases responsible for climate change - per square metre per year. The Cambridge-MIT Institute 'Low-Energy Buildings' research project, led by Professor Andy Woods at the BP Institute at Cambridge and Professor Leon Glicksman at MIT and funded by BP, is studying ways in which natural ventilation can be used instead, so that cool air can flow naturally through a building to cool and ventilate it. Professor Woods says, "The amount of carbon dioxide emissions from a well-designed, naturally ventilated building can be half that of air-conditioned building - around 40-70 kg of carbon dioxide per square metre per year."
The CMI researchers worked with the design team on UCL's new School of Slavonic and East European Studies in Bloomsbury, London, built in 2005. At the BP Institute at Cambridge University, experts in fluid-flow submerged a scale model of the building in tanks of water and pumped coloured fresh and salt water through it to simulate the movement of warm and cold air, and to see how it changed depending on where vents and windows were placed. They discovered problems with the planned ventilation system and, working together, were able to come up with an innovative, low-energy ventilation system for the building that would cool it down and yet still avoid the need for air conditioning.
Their input, into creating a low-energy ventilation system for such a large building in the hottest part of London, was invaluable says architect Alan Short, of Short and Associates.
"It's critical that you have different experts who come together and discuss solutions. The SSEES design team evolved the strategy with fluid flow scientists, acoustic engineers and building engineers in order to achieve an effective and practical solution," he added.
