Enhancing Natural Ventilation in Buildings: The Integrative Role of Wind Catchers and Atriums, Insights from Ancient Mesopotamian Architectural Elements
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Atriums and wind catchers are architectural design elements that have been used to improve airflow inside buildings since first civilization in Mesopotamia. Previous studies have shown the various effects of wind catchers on increasing natural ventilation in buildings in different climates. This research problem is to discover the integration role of wind catchers and atriums in enhancing natural ventilation for buildings in a hot, dry climate. A school building design in Baghdad city was chosen as a case study. A proposed wind catcher were added to the building design in addition to the exist atrium and comparison were made to various effects on natural ventilation. The results demonstrated that the integrated of the wind catchers and atrium is an efficient ventilation system that contributes to the increased airflow average speed to 2.41 m/s, The achieved air velocity can generate thermal comfort with constant climatic conditions and temperature increases up to 31.5 degrees Celsius, according to CBE Thermal Comfort Tool for ASHRAE-55 for thermal comfort building.
DOI: 10.70516/778an593
Authors: Mohamed Hazim Alshakir, Susan abed Hassan
Institution: Nahrain University
Language: English
Topic: Wind and Air Flow Studies
Subfield: Environmental Engineering
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4405964545