LAUSR

Abstract Synthesis of architecture and nature is highly reputed as a sustainable approach to overcome dominant built environment challenges, such as indoor air pollution, occupant’s health burden, mechanical ventilation energy consumption as well as the separation between people and nature in urban life. Plants have numerous benefits for indoor spaces, including bioremediation of air contaminants-which promotes the quality of indoor air, drops mechanical ventilation demand, and consequently reduces energy consumption. In this research, a Double Skin Facade (DSF) system is introduced, incorporating Azolla as a natural air purifier in order to absorb occupants’ bio-effluent and also contribute to providing fresh air for indoor spaces. Moreover, the CO2 reduction capacity of Azolla within the DSF as a natural air purifier and its subsequent effects on mechanical ventilation size and the heating/cooling loads is investigated. The challenge for developing the idea of simulating plants activities’ effect through a quantitative method is there are no software or calculating methods that recognize plants as indoor “air purifiers”, therefore, phytoremediation effects on HVAC operation and energy sector have been remained concealed so far. The novelty of this research is attributed to integrating Azolla fern-a hydroponic plant, into building’s components for indoor air bioremediation and establishing a new assessment protocol for integrating greenery’s effect on HVAC loop in which the performance of the DSF incorporating Azolla as a natural air purifier is evaluated through “Indoor Air Quality” and “Ventilation Rate” procedures, which are acknowledged as practical engineering methods for specifying air exchange demand through mechanical equipment. It is observed that within the VR procedure, DSF with Azolla aids in sequestering indoor CO2, while within the IAQ procedure it results in reducing the building’s air exchange demand rate and consequentially, decrease the building’s overall energy consumption. Furthermore, the cooling effect of employing Azolla as natural shading component within a DSF cavity is assessed through applying its latent heat capacity into facade thermal convection/conduction, versus aluminum blinds with the same size and spacings to computationally evaluate the thermal benefits of plants for mitigating cavity/interior spaces overheating. Results are presented demonstrating this effect on “Indoor Sensible Cooling Rates” in 4 different configurations.