Architectural Strategies and Solutions | NATURAL AIR CONDITIONING DESIGN
CONTEMPORARY CASE STUDY
#C2
LYCÉE FRANÇAIS CHARLES DE GAULLE
ENVIRONMENTAL PRINCIPLES
DAMASCUS, SYRIA.
to respect environmental context and landscape to benefit of natural and climatic resources to reduce pollution and waste materials to contribute to human health and welfare to reduce natural hazards effects
Architect: Ateliers Lion Associés, Dagher Hanna and Partners, 2008
SOCIO-CULTURAL PRINCIPLES
author Adelina Picone
to protect the cultural landscape to transfer construction cultures to enhance innovative and creative solutions to recognise intangible values to encourage social cohesion
SOCIO-ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES to support autonomy to promote local activities to extend building's lifetime to save resources
to optimise construction efforts
The project is located in Damascus, on one of the hills of the Mezzah area, higher than the rest of Damascus. The site slopes gradually up from south-east to north-west, and in the extreme north-western side the slope becomes rather steep. The area is surrounded by residential blocks in the east and south and a hospital in the north. The Lycee is a campus with a capacity for 900 students, designed to develop a school concept integrated with the local climate conditions. The aim was to realize a sustainable prototype-project without artificial air conditioning, using only natural ventilation, cooling, and the play between light and shadows. The school complex is made up of small buildings, two-storey patio structures each giving onto a small and sheltered garden. It applies a low-technology solution for ventilation and conditioning of the rooms using local materials as a modern interpretation of the traditional architecture. Syria has a dry desert climate with hot days and cold nights. Wind-assisted solar chimneys are used to drive natural cross-ventilation through the classrooms, thanks to the gardens which are able of creating the micro-climate, feeding cool air into the ventilation system. The chimneys are faced with a polycarbonate sheet to trap solar radiation and enhance the stack effect. During the day, outdoor intake air comes either directly from the shaded micro-climate of the courtyards or is per-cooled using miniature earth ducts made up of pipes embedded in the ground floor slab. During the night, the thermal mass of the chimney releases heat stored during the day and continues to draw air through the open windows and the earth ducts. Cool night air flushes the classrooms, cooling down the thermal mass and providing comfort for the following day.
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Exterior views of the lycéee of Damascus (photo: A. Goula).
Plants and sections of the lycéee of Damascus with the representation of air flows (drawings: Ateliers Lion, Paris, France).