Light and air
Ventilation grille
housing classroom office hotel hospital
An opening protected with bars, louvers or perforations, almost always above doors and windows or high on walls, that lets air through with the door closed.
What it solves
It keeps cross ventilation going day and night without losing security or privacy. In the tropics it lets out the heat that builds up under the roof.
Today
Place them high on opposite walls so air crosses and heat escapes. Include insect screens and louvers that block the rain.
Common mistake
Closing or removing them when installing air conditioning, which leaves the house without natural ventilation.
Tomorrow
A high, secure vent makes it possible to ventilate at night with doors and windows closed. Its design can also block street noise for better sleep.
Fact Cross ventilation works in rooms up to about five times the floor-to-ceiling height with openings on both sides. The outlet should be larger than the inlet.
Where it comes from
- 1Gothic Europe, Middle Ages
The transom bar that separates a high pane in doors and windows appears in Gothic churches to strengthen the mullions. - 2Buildings before air conditioning many countries, before the mid-20th century
Operable transoms over doors were common in houses, schools and offices for ventilating from side to side.
Masters
- Laurie Baker Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, India, 1971
He uses perforated brick walls, the jali, that let air and light through and block the sun. Next to a pond he creates a cooling system that shows how a perforated wall can ventilate an entire building.
See also
Also in Light and air
Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.