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Architecture & Engineering


Design
Perspectives
 By Clair Enlow
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March 19, 2003

Can a hotbed of green design live without air conditioning?

  • Some say Seattle provides the perfect environment for green design and construction to grow.
    • By CLAIR ENLOW
    Special to the Journal

    Imagine an indoor world of natural light, where tempered air moves by quietly, wafting excess heat away and bringing in breathable outdoor air every second. Imagine all this -- and the sound of seagulls, too -- in a high-rise, downtown office building.

    This is not a wide-eyed environmentalist's dream. New or retrofitted high rises with natural ventilation and no air conditioning exist in Europe, and it could easily happen in Seattle. Completely natural ventilation has not yet come downtown, but large new buildings near the city’s core are breathing freely now, and several more are under construction.


     
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