Abstract

The building sector amounts to about 40% of the world’s total energy consumption. In tropical countries like India naturally ventilated or mixed mode ventilated buildings would contribute in the reduction of energy consumption used for cooling the buildings. It is necessary for the architecture schools to educate the students on understanding the principles of natural ventilation and applications of various strategies in the design decisions. This paper summarizes the development of a water table apparatus for testing architectural design for natural ventilation, validation of its results, and its utilization in the classroom as a design evaluation tool for architecture students. The water table was constructed, and its performance was validated and simple metrics for evaluating natural ventilation performance were developed at CEPT University. A refined water table was constructed later to be used for classroom instruction at the C.A.R.E School of Architecture. The workshop there provided hands-on experience to test various design parameters, qualitative and quantitative analysis in design projects. The paper demonstrates the ease with which students are able to visualise and understand the effectiveness of natural ventilation and make the necessary design modifications.