This paper tries to give a reasonable description of the state of the art of the Belgian building stock with regard to ventilation. The Belgian research projects on ventilation in buildings, which were carried out recently, enable a precise overview of the quality of the Belgian building stock to be gained. It shows that airtightness varies a great deal from one building to another. Very leaky as well as very airtight buildings are frequently found. Notable is the near absence of controllable ventilation provisions.
The paper presents the development of a ventilation scheme for a large bus station and passenger interchange in Bilbao, Spain. The main objective of the design was to ensure that pollution free conditions could be achieved within an enclosed waiting area that opened up on to, and was surrounded by, a semi-enclosed pick-up space, where there could be large number of buses with their engines running. Initial thoughts were to use natural ventilation, architectural and other constraints made this impossible so mechanical ventilation became necessary.