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Architecture vocabulary · Sustainability and Environment

Cross ventilation

Meaning in architecture, with examples

nounCommon term

In architecture, cross ventilation means: Natural ventilation in which fresh air enters through openings on one side of a space and leaves through openings on the opposite side.

In Turkish: çapraz havalandırma

How it is used

A key passive cooling strategy, especially for housing in hot climates. Dual-aspect flats, with windows on two opposite sides, allow cross ventilation; deep single-aspect plans do not. Also written cross-ventilation.

Example sentences

  1. Every flat is dual-aspect, so all of them get cross ventilation.

  2. The section shows how cross ventilation cools the classrooms at night.

Common collocations

  • allow cross ventilation
  • natural cross ventilation
  • dual-aspect flats
  • stack ventilation
  • passive designDesign that keeps a building comfortable using the sun, wind, shade and the building's own form and materials, so it needs little mechanical heating, cooling or lighting.
  • orientationThe direction a building, room or facade faces in relation to the sun, wind, views and the street.
  • courtyardAn open-air space surrounded fully or partly by walls or buildings, used to bring light, air and privacy into the heart of a building.
  • sectionA drawing of a building cut vertically from top to bottom, showing the floors, ceiling heights, roof, stairs and how the inside spaces relate to each other.

More terms: Sustainability and Environment

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