Stack Ventilation Strategies in Architectural Context: a Brief Review of Historical Development, Current Trends and Future Possibilities

Man has used the stack ventilation strategy for centuries to ensure comfortable indoor environment in their buildings. Today, in the conditions of the denser built environment and the need for deep-plan buildings seems inevitable, the application of stack ventilation strategy has become more important, especially when the natural cross ventilation has limited functions. However, realizing the fact that this strategy is very dependent on indooroutdoor temperature differential, many innovative elements, devices and strategies based on this ventilation concept have been developed to overcome the weaknesses of this strategy, particularly in terms of its reliability and applicability in the modern building. Therefore, concerning about the potential and current limitations of this ventilation strategy, this paper presents a brief overview on various aspects of stack ventilation, covering its historical development, recent innovation and application trends as well as future possibilities for its further development.