Environmental performance of a naturally ventilated city centre library

To tackle climate change it is essential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. To this end, it is important to reduce the energy demands of buildings. The Frederick Lanchester Library at Coventry University, UK, incorporates natural ventilation, daylighting and passive cooling strategies. By using lightwells and perimeter stacks to supply and exhaust air, it can be adequately ventilated by natural means despite its deep plan form and sealed façade. This paper gives a brief overview of the Library’s design and the main cooling and ventilation strategies. Temperature and energy consumption data from the two most recent years of continuous operation are presented and the building’s performance is compared to the original design criteria and good practice guidelines. The data indicates that the building uses under half the energy of a standard air-conditioned building and yet, in summer, can keep the interior comfortable and up to 5 K below ambient.