Above-ground multi-level car parks in large shopping centres are highly amenable to hybrid ventilation applications, particularly those centres with retail shops at the lower levels and car parks at the higher levels. The higher level car parks allow the benefit of higher wind velocity and better dissipation of car exhaust emissions than at ground level; at the same time, larger perimeter wall opening area can be used without affecting the aesthetic feature of the building.
A client was pleased with the performance of a recent building designed and built with low energy objectives on the "mixed mode" principle. When the time came to build another building he appointed the same design and construction team and challenged them to suggest cost effective improvements to the environmental features of the original building. The team developed a "shopping list" of potential energy use reducing features that included chilled slabs, which could be cooled by both a cooling pond and mechanical refrigeration. Fortuitously the site had sufficient space for a cooling pond.
The design of mixed-mode ventilation and comfort cooling systems have taken another step forward with the construction of the Centre for Mathematical Sciences in Cambridge - the new home for the mathematical genius Stephen Hawking. But how energy efficient are the buildings likely to be?
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