Passive and Low Energy Cooling of Buildings
About this book
Passive and Low Energy Cooling of Buildings by Baruch Givoni, published by Van Nostrand Reinhold in 1994, stands as one of the most thorough and practically oriented technical references on the subject of non-mechanical building cooling. Spanning 458 pages, the book is addressed primarily to building designers — architects and engineers — who work in hot climates and seek to reduce or eliminate the dependence on mechanical air conditioning through intelligent application of passive and hybrid cooling principles. Givoni approaches the subject as both a researcher and a practitioner, grounding his analysis in physical principles while maintaining a consistent focus on applicability in real design conditions.
The book opens by establishing a conceptual framework for thinking about passive cooling. Givoni distinguishes between two broad objectives that any designer must pursue: first, minimizing the amount of heat that enters or is generated within a building during hot periods; and second, using natural heat sinks — ambient air, the upper atmosphere, evaporating water, and underground soil — to dissipate whatever heat does accumulate. This two-stage logic structures the entire work and gives the reader a coherent mental map for navigating its many chapters.
The section on minimizing heat gain addresses the architectural variables most directly under a designer's control. Building layout, the orientation of principal rooms and facades, the sizing and placement of windows, the design of external shading devices, the color and reflectivity of envelope surfaces, and the strategic use of vegetation around the site are all examined with specific attention to their quantitative effects on indoor temperatures. Givoni does not treat these as general principles to be invoked loosely; instead he draws on measurements and field data to characterize how much difference each variable makes under different climatic conditions, giving practitioners a basis for informed trade-offs rather than vague guidance.
The largest and most technically detailed portion of the book concerns the various passive cooling systems themselves. Ventilative cooling — the use of natural airflow through buildings to remove heat — is examined in depth, with attention to the driving forces of wind and thermal buoyancy, the influence of building form on cross-ventilation, and the conditions under which ventilative cooling can and cannot achieve comfortable indoor temperatures. Givoni is notably careful to distinguish climates where ventilation is an effective cooling strategy from those, particularly very hot and humid regions, where it may be insufficient or even counterproductive by introducing warm external air.
Radiant cooling receives detailed treatment as a strategy particularly well suited to hot, dry, and semi-arid climates with clear night skies. Givoni explains how buildings can lose heat by long-wave radiation to the cool upper atmosphere at night, and how this nocturnal cooling can be captured in the thermal mass of the building fabric to provide daytime comfort. The conditions favoring this approach — low humidity, clear skies, high diurnal temperature variation — are discussed with precision, as are the architectural configurations that best exploit radiant exchange.
Evaporative cooling is addressed across several chapters that cover both direct and indirect systems. Givoni discusses the traditional building forms — such as wind-catching towers combined with water features — that have been used for centuries in arid regions of the Middle East and Iran, and he extends this analysis to contemporary design applications. He also describes an innovative passive cooling tower system he himself developed, in which fine water droplets are sprayed downward within a shaft topped by a wind-catcher, producing cooled, humidified air that can be distributed through a building without mechanical fans.
The performance of such systems is analyzed in terms of achievable temperature reduction and humidity addition under varying climatic conditions. The use of the earth as a passive cooling source is treated as a distinct strategy applicable where soil temperatures at moderate depths remain significantly lower than summer air temperatures. Givoni examines earth-contact construction, buried-pipe systems for pre-cooling ventilation air, and earth-sheltered building forms, assessing each in terms of expected temperature benefits and the climatic and soil conditions that favor their application.
A concluding section extends the discussion to the cooling of outdoor spaces — courtyards, streets, and urban open areas — recognizing that the thermal environment immediately surrounding a building has a powerful influence on its indoor climate. Shading structures, water features, paving materials, and vegetation are evaluated as tools for moderating outdoor temperatures and reducing solar heat loads on adjacent buildings. Throughout the book, Givoni is attentive to the limits as well as the possibilities of passive cooling.
He avoids overpromising, consistently noting that passive systems are effective within certain climatic envelopes and may need to be combined with low-energy mechanical assistance in extreme conditions. This intellectual honesty, combined with the breadth of climatic types addressed — from hot-dry desert climates to hot-humid tropical conditions — makes the book a durable reference applicable across a wide range of geographic contexts. For practitioners seeking a technically rigorous foundation for climate-responsive cooling design, Passive and Low Energy Cooling of Buildings remains an essential resource.
Sources consulted: Open Library (openlibrary.org); Amazon.com product description; ScienceDirect passive cooling research literature; Scribd document listing; Ghent University Library catalog record; SCIRP reference database.