Search results for " passive cooling."
showing 5 items of 5 documents
Analytical studies of the Sirocco room of Villa Naselli-Ambleri: A XVI century passive cooling structure in Palermo (Sicily)
2015
Abstract This work focuses on a passive cooling architecture particularly popular from the Renaissance in Palermo area, as building sumptuous suburban villas became a real hobby for the Sicilian aristocracy. A Sirocco room is an artificial subterranean construction, built close to a water spring in order to reproduce the pleasant conditions of freshness that could be experienced in a natural cavern. In these places, nobles used to spend their time with friends to escape from the hot summer. The room of Villa Naselli-Ambleri is nowadays the best preserved in Palermo thanks to its owners’ conservation care and it is unique for its cooling operating principle. The above-mentioned consideration…
Architectural technologies for life environment: passive cooling strategies in the architectures of the Mediterranean area.
2020
The Mediterranean area is a highly interesting place where various States, characterised by different people, histories, and cultures face. Reigns, religions, powers, state structures, people, nationalities, etc., everything seems to be extremely different and far. On the contrary, there are some cultural points that are much closer than they officially appear. Indeed, historically, the commercial trades between the various countries have always been highly intense and the Christian and Muslim reigns, even if in a continuous state of conflict, were reciprocally linked by deep (financial) interests. Therefore, that translated in a wide trade of goods that moved on the Mediterranean Sea acros…
The dammuso: constructive characters of the traditional stone buildings of the isle of Pantelleria (Sicily)
2019
Pantelleria, a volcanic island between Tunisia and Sicily, is characterized by a highly windy territory constantly hit by the sun. This harsh environment forced the inhabitants to build in an extremely effective way against the natural elements. This paper investigates constructive technologies, local materials, and phases of construction of the traditional rural houses, the dammuso, a Sicilian word meaning “vaulted-building”. It is a traditional passive cooling building characterized by a cubical shape covered by a vaulted-roof. This typology can be found almost everywhere in the isle, both old and pretty new, as the only one permitted. The minimum configuration unit is a cube made of bear…
Computer model and simulation of a traditional passive cooling ventilation system in a Modern building in Mazara del Vallo (Italy)
2008
Traditional and modern natural ventilation techniques have been integrated in a hybrid system for a retrofitting of public building in the city of Mazara del Vallo (Italy). The hybrid ventilation and air cooling system integrates a wind tower, an indirect evaporative heat exchanger, a ground cooling pipe network and ventilated façade. The first idea was to design a passive cooling system inspired to the typical wind towers of the Middle East, being the area very well ventilated. On the other hand, air humidity in summer is quite high and therefore the effectiveness of indirect evaporative cooling is quite low. For this reason, it was adopted a second passive cooling system consisting in a g…
The sirocco chambers: passive cooling structures in the XVI century Palermo area
2014
In the past centuries, the plain surrounding the city of Palermo saw the construction of tens of suburban manor houses, called villas, which were referred to as “places of delight” for the amenities they offered during the good season. These architectural machines were built by aristocrats to make living in the countryside more pleasant and to exhibit their families’ richness and power. Among the delights, the Sirocco rooms were very common in Palermo from the Renaissance, and especially beyond to the XVIII century. They were artificial subterranean structures, built close to a water spring in order to reproduce the pleasant conditions of freshness that could be experienced in a natural cav…