Living Void: Passive Environmental Control Strategy for Sustainable High-Rise Architecture

Abstract This article introduces the Living Void, a passive environmental control strategy for sustainable high-rise architecture. Urban tall buildings consume a large share of global energy, especially for climate-control systems, motivating new passive design approaches. We adopt a mixed-methods approach combining architectural case-study analysis and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to evaluate the performance of integrating a central vertical void (the “Living Void”) as a natural climate regulator in a tower form. Two exemplar designs – a conventional tower and a Living Void tower with a calibrated internal shaft – are analyzed under representative climate loads. CFD results show that the Living Void markedly improves natural ventilation: a void tuned to roughly two-thirds of the building height optimises stack-effect circulation and yields about 20–30% higher ventilation rates, significantly lowering peak interior temperatures. For instance, maximum internal temperatures were reduced by up to 4.5°C compared to the conventional model. These data-driven findings are interpreted within architectural theory, proposing that designed emptiness can function as an active “living” system rather than mere absence. The Living Void concept thus offers a replicable framework for architects and engineers, advancing sustainable design theory by reframing emptiness as a generative environmental apparatus.