PurposeBiocontaminants represent higher risks to occupants' health in shared spaces. Natural ventilation is an effective strategy against indoor air biocontamination. However, the relationship between natural ventilation and indoor air contamination requires an in-depth investigation of the behavior of airborne infectious diseases, particularly concerning the contaminant's viral and aerodynamic characteristics. This research investigates the effectiveness of natural ventilation in preventing infection risks for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) through indoor air contamination of a free-running, naturally-ventilated room (where no space conditioning is used) that contains a person having COVID-19 through building-related parameters.Design/methodology/approachThis research adopts a case study strategy involving a simulation-based approach. A simulation pipeline is implemented through a number of design scenarios for an open office. The simulation pipeline performs integrated contamination analysis, coupling a parametric 3D design environment, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and energy simulations. The results of the implemented pipeline for COVID-19 are evaluated for building and environment-related parameters. Study metrics are identified as indoor air contamination levels, discharge period and the time of infection.FindingsAccording to the simulation results, higher indoor air temperatures help to reduce the infection risk. Free-running spring and fall seasons can pose higher infection risk as compared to summer. Higher opening-to-wall ratios have higher potential to reduce infection risk. Adjacent window configuration has an advantage over opposite window configuration. As a design strategy, increasing opening-to-wall ratio has a higher impact on reducing the infection risk as compared to changing the opening configuration from opposite to adjacent. However, each building setup is a unique case that requires a systematic investigation to reliably understand the complex airflow and contaminant dispersion behavior. Metrics, strategies and actions to minimize indoor contamination risks should be addressed in future building standards. The simulation pipeline developed in this study has the potential to support decision-making during the adaptation of existing buildings to pandemic conditions and the design of new buildings.Originality/valueThe addressed need of investigation is especially crucial for the COVID-19 that is contagious and hazardous in shared indoors due to its aerodynamic behavior, faster transmission rates and high viral replicability. This research contributes to the current literature by presenting the simulation-based results for COVID-19 as investigated through building-related and environment-related parameters against contaminant concentration levels, the discharge period and the time of infection. Accordingly, this research presents results to provide a basis for a broader understanding of the correlation between the built environment and the aerodynamic behavior of COVID-19.
Over the last fifteen years, apart from compulsory curricular studios, extracurricular intensive studios in architectural design (ISAD) have become a mainstream educational environment worldwide. ISADs cover an actual weight in non-formal architectural education. However, to date, there is no review on the methods, processes, or implementation of extracurricular ISADs. The field needs to enhance the visibility of workshop results with regular reporting of workshop activities to raise awareness among future professionals and the wider public. This review aims to make visible existing learning-teaching-experiencing environments and pedagogical conditions, practices, tendencies, and implementations in ISADs. The study follows three stages. It first conducts a scoping study to examine the research outputs on ISADs indexed in SCOPUS and Web of Science from January 1975 to September 2020. Second, it expands the workshop pool by including past ISADs reached via websites/papers. It codes each workshop with the codes and themes determined through the scoping study. Finally, it creates an interactive mapping detailing the following analysis: (1) Quantitative analysis of ISADs (Geographical distribution; outputs; principles, as elements creating the atmosphere and tactics); (2) Qualitative analysis to reveal the impact of workshop outputs on the interested stakeholders. The review suggests that ISADs, including their processes and outputs, contribute to the knowledge triangle in architecture by serving two fundamental roles: (1) A researchby-design activity to address socio-economic-ecological problems caused by the built environment; (2) A pioneering venture in improving the curriculum and practices of teaching and learning. Within the scope of the exigencies of the education field, this review uncovers the potential of ISADs in overcoming time-related, geographical, economic limitations; providing fresh perspectives on content and methods concerning architectural education; expanding the intellectual resources of students; enabling international collaboration between HEIs; breeding an experimental/flexible learning and research environment in the 1st and 2nd cycles to absorb ever-changing tools/methods promoted in professional/research sides of the field. This review provides the reader with an array of diverse teaching and learning practices on these non/informal grounds. The number of workshops included in this study is relatively small, therefore, researchers are encouraged to expand the number of workshops for further analysis.
Infectious aerosol dispersion poses significant infection risks (i.e., in classrooms due to dense and long occupancy. Natural ventilation is an effective strategy to reduce airborne infection transmission. The building-related parameters, particularly openings, determine the natural ventilation effectiveness in reducing contaminant dispersion, necessitating an inquiry due to complex dispersion and airflow patterns. This paper investigates the correlation between window height, natural ventilation, and COVID-19 dispersion. A simulation pipeline involving a parametric 3D design environment, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and energy simulations is developed and implemented on nine design scenarios representing different inlet-outlet heights of a free-running (no heating, cooling or mechanical ventilation) classroom. The inlet height and the inlet-outlet height difference have a considerable impact on indoor infection risk confirming that stack ventilation and the Bernoulli effect decrease indoor contaminant concentration. Proximity to openings does not ensure lower contamination levels. Proximity to the contaminant does not result in higher contamination levels.
The negative impact of the building industry has brought a critical emphasis on the performance-related tools and processes of architectural design. The integration of design and performance simulation has the potential to extend the decision-making capabilities of the architects. Amongst a number of performance parameters, wind-related measures are generally problematic for the design phase, due to the computational cost of predicting wind behaviour, the complexity of the urban context and the constantly changing airflow patterns. In this respect, this paper proposes the preliminary exploration of a design method towards integrating Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) coupled with energy modelling and parametric design tools for the wind-related design acts. As building performance is regarded as a design problem that necessitates a designerly point of view as much as a technical perspective, the method aims at providing visual, generative and accurate feedback regarding its potential to facilitate the architect’s designerly integration to the process and to provide a flexible design environment. The preliminary quantitative analysis conducted through a case study indicates the preliminary data flow through the design process.
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