Apparatus and method for improving air quality in street canyons
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Solution Overview
Problem
Urban street canyons, characterized by tall buildings on both sides of narrow streets, create microclimates that trap air pollutants, leading to poor air quality due to inadequate dispersion of pollutants, which current design guidelines and green infrastructure fail to effectively mitigate.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a double skin façade (DSF) on buildings with mechanical ventilation to enhance air quality by driving air contaminants from the street level upward, utilizing CFD and wind tunnel simulations to optimize pollutant dispersion and removal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If street plantings and conventional green infrastructure are implemented, then aesthetic value and basic air filtration are improved, but they are insufficient to mitigate air pollution in urban street canyon configurations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from conventional ground-level green infrastructure to a vertical dimension by implementing double skin façades on building exteriors. This vertical integration allows the building envelope itself to become an active air treatment system, capturing and processing pollutants in the street canyon environment where conventional horizontal plantings fail to provide sufficient mitigation.
Solution Approach 2:
The double skin façade system performs multiple functions simultaneously: it provides thermal insulation, natural lighting, and crucially, air pollution mitigation through integrated biofilters. This multi-functionality allows a single architectural element to address both building performance and urban air quality issues that conventional single-purpose green infrastructure cannot resolve.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If buildings are designed with conventional single skin façades, then construction simplicity is maintained, but they cannot actively mitigate air pollutants in the streetscape
Solution Approach 1:
The façade is segmented into two distinct skins with an intermediate cavity, allowing independent optimization of each layer. The outer skin handles weather protection and the inner skin integrates with building systems, while the cavity provides space for air flow and biofilter integration. This segmentation enables the complex air mitigation function to be achieved through coordinated simple components.
Solution Approach 2:
The biofilter system is nested within the double skin façade structure, utilizing the cavity space between the two skins. This nesting approach allows the air treatment function to be embedded within the building envelope without requiring additional external infrastructure, thereby managing complexity through integrated design rather than additive systems.
3Quantity of substance
If narrow street configurations are maintained for urban density, then land use efficiency is improved, but air exchange between street level and above roof-level is restricted
Solution Approach 1:
The double skin façade acts as an intermediary system between the street-level pollutant source and the upper atmosphere. It captures pollutants at the building interface and facilitates their removal through the cavity and biofilter systems, mediating the air exchange process in narrow street configurations where direct ventilation pathways are blocked by adjacent buildings.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The DSF technology effectively enhances air quality in urban street canyons by improving pollutant dispersion and removal, addressing the trapping of pollutants in microclimates and providing a design intervention that complements green infrastructure.
Implementation Method 1
at least one mechanical ventilator positioned adjacent or near the upper end of the DSF; when the at least one mechanical ventilator is in an operating mode, it drives movement of air in an upward direction toward the upper end of the DSF causing movement of air contaminants from the lower end of the DSF to the upper end of the DSF
Data Source
AI summary
A double skin façade (DSF) for a building is disclosed. The DSF has a first façade, a second façade, and a gap extending therebetween. Movement of air is driven in an upward direction toward an upper end of the DSF, causing movement of air contaminants from a lower end of the DSF to the upper end of the DSF, and thereby enhancing the air quality of the street canyon by removing air contaminants from a street level adjacent the building. Also disclosed is a building having a DSF, and a method of enhancing air quality in a street canyon by constructing a DSF on a building.