Modern houses with ventilated facades and roofs

The mechanical ventilation systems are the ideal option for breathing air of the highest quality indoors and also for achieving greater energy efficiency in our homes and buildings. However, for us to dispense with traditional air conditioning systems, it is also necessary to have good thermal insulation in the home and take advantage of natural ventilation. How can we achieve this? Many modern houses bet on ventilated facades and ventilated roofs, a great help to benefit from the natural effects of the wind.

First of all, we should understand the importance that natural elements such as ventilated roofs and facades with chimney effect can have on the energy efficiency of a home. If we are looking for a completely efficient home that eliminates energy costs in air conditioning, the main options we can take are:

1. Thermal insulation. It is not only about air not leaking through the windows and doors from the outside into the rooms, but also that the walls and ceilings are made of insulating materials. Good sealing ensures that climatic conditions do not affect homes.
2. Mechanical ventilation systems. By using them, it is possible to cut air conditioning expenses and even dispense with traditional air conditioning and heating systems. If they include heat recovery units, they can blow conditioned air at little cost other than that of the fans.
3. Natural air conditioning systems. From the orientation of the facade and the architecture considering the position of the sun, it is possible to use the climate of each region to naturally temper the indoor spaces of a building. The placement of awnings to block the sun in summer and allow rays to penetrate in winter is one option. But the most efficient solutions are those of natural air passage, such as roofs and ventilated facades.

In simple terms, we could say that the installation of roofs and ventilated facades is like clothing to buildings in winter. The ventilated facade serves as clothing and the roof as a hat. They protect the interiors from the harshness of the outside, except that in this case, they are clothing and hats that work in both summer and winter.

In both cases, it is about an air chamber that is installed throughout the roof or wall. They are roofs of ceramic, stone, or wood that are essentially a wall leaving a space with the building's wall. Thus, an air chamber is implanted between both walls.

How to build modern houses with ventilated roofs and chimney effect

Both the ventilated roof and the facade are capable of retaining heat in winter and not letting the cold pass, which in the case of facades is considered chimney effect. Naturally, without spending anything at all on energy.

The benefits of using roofs and ventilated facades are:

• The problem of humidity is eliminated, which in addition to damaging our homes and making temperatures more unbearable is a harmful phenomenon for humans.
• Direct contact with the sun in summer is avoided, thus cooling the interiors in warm months. There is also no direct contact with winter's harshness.
• In most situations, during summer and winter, it will not be necessary to use traditional air conditioning systems.

However, one of the challenges to pursue in the installation of ventilated facades is how to maintain visibility from inside the building. Normally, the installation of the facade is sought where fewer windows are necessary. In the case of the ventilated roof this problem is lesser because it is installed on the roof of the house.

One example to avoid this is in the modern houses that use terrazzo and leave spaces for windows in these systems. The photo above belongs to a project carried out in Denmark with slate, an element that has gained much strength for ventilated facades and for roofs, and was installed throughout the structure.

The ventilated facades and roofs are easier to install in medium-sized houses. In these cases, one can opt to leave two walls with large windows and cover the other two walls with ventilated facade. This way, the problem of windows is solved.

It is more complex to install this type of systems in large buildings, as while modern houses have a limited size, this is not the case for large apartment blocks. In these cases, it is difficult to leave two walls without windows for the installation of ventilated facades. Something also negative occurs with ventilated roofs in large buildings: they only provide an improvement to one or two floors, those closest to the ceiling, but their effect is much lower on the rest of the floors if it is a very tall building.