Natural ventilation strategies for cooling purposes in the rural vernacular architecture of Cyprus

Abstract

The reuse of vernacular dwellings is a sustainable approach, not only because it leaves a small ecological footprint, as opposed to the construction of new buildings, but also because the passive bioclimatic design features of vernacular buildings result in better indoor thermal comfort and in the reduction of energy consumption. This study investigates natural ventilation strategies for cooling purposes in traditional buildings, using exclusively the technique of cross ventilation. The main objective of the present paper is to quantitativelyinvestigate the effectiveness of various naturalventilation strategies, ie., daytime ventilation, full-day (24-hour) ventilation and night ventilation, in the rural vemnacular architecture of Cyprus. In this framework, a field researchstudy was conducted in a representative traditional dwelling in the village of Kapedes, Nicosia, in order to assess the aforementioned ventilation strategies during the hot, summer season. The results show that night ventilation is the most effective strategy for passive cooling in traditional dwellings during the hot summer period, compared to the two other ventilation strategies. The analysis provides evidence that night ventilation reduces indoor temperatures and, consequently, improves the indoor thermal environment of the following day.