Why Ventilation Design is Important?
Before Urbanization and Industrialization in Bangladesh there was no need of Mechanical Ventilation to maintain sufficient air circulation in the room. Even now this can be seen in the Remote rural areas where people are living comfortably without fans. The Southern Breeze is pleasant and comfortable enough in Bangladesh to keep the whole house well ventilated. But in the busy cities like Dhaka, where the structures are crammed together obstructing natural wind flow, architectural design principles need to be incorporated to provide proper ventilation in the space. On the other hand, ling ago, natural raw materials like clay, mud and hay were used to build the houses, which allowed flow of fresh air from all directions, since the walls were porous. The use of reinforced concrete now insulates the rooms thus, Ventilation in today’s homes has become more important than it was for homes that existed long ago.
How to Ventilate the Spaces: Cross Ventilation
In the City we all live in in pre-designed and constructed high-rise apartments. Some of us have a piece of land which we handover to developers. In these cases, we often emphasis on luxurious interior design and often overlook whether the layout offered by the developer or the design of the apartment we are choosing to live in, incorporates the principles for properly ventilating the rooms. So, how do we check that? The most important factor regarding this matter, when choosing an apartment or accepting a design from a developer or architect, is to confirm about Cross Ventilation.
Cross Ventilation is also known as Wind Effect Ventilation since the idea is to use wind-driven effect to ventilate the home and to keep them cool. There needs to be pressure differences between one side of a building and the other. Air is drawn into the building on the high-pressure (or upwind) windward side and is drawn out of the building on the low-pressure (or downwind) leeward side. The windward side flow of the wind causes the required introduction of natural air in the rooms, thus providing ventilation. There are different types of Cross Ventilation and to understand if a room has cross ventilation, you can crosscheck with the following diagram:
