high-rise buildings

AIVC's Ventilation Information Paper #47 gives guidance to perform a pressurization test in high-rise buildings and suggests new criteria to replace standard requirements when they cannot be met.

For an ideal building airtightness test, the pressure difference between inside and outside would be constant over time and uniform along the entire building envelope, so that each leakage is equally considered and that the test result does not depend on the test conditions. This is particularly challenging for high-rise buildings as they are more subject to strong stack effects: the temperature difference between inside and outside induces a pressure difference along the envelope directly proportional to its height.

In 2009 the regulatory framework and the business environment for the construction sector has changed significantly in order to reduce the CO2-emissions of existing and new buildings. New buildings have to be net-zero after 2020, some public buildings already after 2018. Several national Governments try to achieve a net-zero primary energy balance for the complete building stock until 2050 which is truly a grand challenge. In order to reach these goals two things have to be done: 

Air Quality at the height of skyscraper has not almost been cleared yet. Upper part of dwellings of tallbuildings at down town might intake inadequate outdoor air.

In the context of pressing and frequently conflicting environmental, economic and social policyobjectives, energy efficiency investment is repeatedly found to be a cost-effective and reconcilablecomponent of energy policies. High-rise residential buildings are a particularly salient issue in thisregard as their poor energy efficiency is regarded as a moderate to major problem by 18 out of 27housing ministries respondent to a Europe-wide survey.