Design strategy for low-energy ventilation and cooling within an urban heat island

The implementation of passive down-draught cooling (PDC) in a substantial building is a world first. The PDC technique won the CIBSE Environmental Initiative of the Year Award in 2006; the work was submitted by the IESD. The School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) building has won other awards for both its engineering and its architecture (see RA5 Esteem). The PDC strategy is the practical culmination of IESD research work begun in 1997 in an EU FP5 project (Scientific Co-ordinator, Lomas). The technical content of this paper builds on four earlier papers, all published since January 2001, which flowed from that EU project: “Bowman NT, Eppel H, Lomas KJ, Robinson D and Cook MJ, Passive downdraught evaporative cooling - I: Concept and precedents, Indoor and Built Environment, Vol 9, No 5, pp 284-290, (2001), ISSN 1420-326X”; “Cook MJ, Robinson D, Lomas KJ, Bowman NT and Eppel H, Passive downdraught evaporative cooling - II: airflow modelling, Indoor and Built Environment, Vol 9, No 6, pp 325-334, (2001), ISSN 1420-326X”; “Robinson D, Lomas KJ, Cook MJ and Eppel H, Passive down-draught evaporative cooling: thermal modelling of an office building, Indoor and Built Environment, No 13, pp 205-221, (2004), ISSN 1420-326X”; and insights gained from writing “Lomas KJ, Fiala D, Cook MJ and Cropper PC, Building bioclimatic charts for non-domestic buildings and passive downdraught evaporative cooling, Building and Environment, Vol 39, pp 661-676, (2004), ISSN 0360-1323”. Lomas wrote the paper, Woods (Cambridge) provided some experimental results