Natural ventilation in a typical Mexico City building

The Engineering Tower is a ten-story building, which includes a six-story office block in Ciudad Universitaria, in the south of Mexico City, and has been fully operational for the last twenty years. Passive design is eminently sustainable in the use of water and energy and in the control of comfort. The building includes a central atrium, which induces a permanent air current, generating all the necessary air changes without mechanical assistance. Occupants have adopted practices to operate windows in a manner that ensures a satisfactory interior comfort temperature, resulting in highly sustainable year-round thermal and comfort operation. A database of air temperature and humidity on various floors and offices, as well as outside, has been recorded since the beginning of commercial operation, confirming some of the best architectural practices, such as proper porous external skin performance, induction of vertical currents in the atrium and air flow controls to limit air exchange with the environment. A mathematical model is proposed that correlates the main parts of the building and their energy flows, and the results are compared with measurements from several years. It is proposed that the model, which is appropriately validated, will allow architects to design future buildings in a similar climate, with the same degree of sustainability. Overall, the study validates the use of an atrium to provide year-round passive comfort