Evaluation of natural ventilation in traditional Japanese dwellings and its possibilities of transposition.

This paper deals with the relationship between the characteristics of ventilation and the architectural features on three types of Japanese houses representative of the recent historical evolution in the building of dwellings: a traditional well ventilated house in a rural area, a typical postwar house with a central corridor and a multi-family house of high air-tightness in an urban area. The investigations were carried out based on 3-D numerical air flow simulations with realistic wind conditions. The results obtained by the simulations were correlated with peculiarities of the site and architectural features of the building to explain the observed indoor ventilation behaviors of the houses. Some observations are made in the conclusion for taking ventilation into account in an overall environmental approach, based on criteria for real comfort and constraints related to different life styles.