{"id":859933,"date":"2026-09-25T07:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T07:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/859933\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T07:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T07:46:11","slug":"we-wanted-to-prove-we-didnt-need-air-conditioning-the-airport-cooled-by-natural-ventilation-green-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/859933\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We wanted to prove we didn\u2019t need air conditioning\u2019: the airport cooled by natural ventilation | Green building"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the arrivals terminal at Roland Garros airport on R\u00e9union<\/a> island, visitors are greeted by floor-to-ceiling windows framing the lush green mountains of the French Indian Ocean territory.<\/p>\n

What they may have also expected was the icy chill of air conditioning; this island just off Madagascar sits in the tropical zone to the south of the equator. But instead, the terminal is cooled by a light tropical breeze, the result of natural ventilation built into its unique design.<\/p>\n

The genesis of the project was in 2016, as part of a wider effort by airport management to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions. Marc Delano\u00eb, who was then leading the airport\u2019s environmental and energy team, was determined from the beginning that the new arrivals terminal, which was being built completely from scratch, would not use air conditioning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took on the responsibility to prove to my management that not using air conditioning was feasible,\u201d said Delano\u00eb, now the airport\u2019s sustainable development director. \u201cSo, from the start, we never thought of this building having air conditioning being an option. It was a risky bet, but the further we went with our studies, the more we realised that we were right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ceiling fans with a 7.5-metre diameter help to circulate the air. Photograph: Studio Lumie\u0300re<\/p>\n

The roof of the terminal, which opened in 2024, curves upwards from each of the rectangular building\u2019s long sides in gentle waves. But, instead of meeting in the middle, the roofs end abruptly to form a \u201ccanyon\u201d. The creation of an area of low pressure funnels wind into the building through vents on each side that are adjusted depending on the weather conditions.<\/p>\n

Ceiling fans with a 7.5-metre (24.6ft) diameter help to circulate the air. In the 30C (86F) humid heat of R\u00e9union\u2019s wet summers, which last from around November to April, the resulting breeze reduces the perceived temperature by four to five degrees, to almost the same level usually set for air conditioning.<\/p>\n

Less air is allowed to flow in during the island\u2019s dry winters, when the coastal daytime temperature falls to 25C and below. During a cyclone, the entire building is closed up.<\/p>\n

The building\u2019s lead architect, AIA Life Designers, said it wanted to challenge the assumption that adjusting temperature was the only way for humans to cope with heat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is precisely this pitfall \u2013 understanding summer comfort solely through the lens of indoor temperature \u2013 that we want to dismantle, a pitfall that traps us in the logic of air conditioning as the only answer to comfort requirements,\u201d said \u00c9ric Bussolino, the firm\u2019s engineering and environment director.<\/p>\n

Since opening two years ago, the airport has saved \u20ac150,000 a year in energy bills. Photograph: Studio Lumie\u0300re<\/p>\n

\u201cOur objective is to maintain an indoor air temperature identical to the outdoor temperature while generating an airflow of 1 metre per second to reduce the perceived temperature for passengers.\u201d<\/p>\n

AIA, chosen for its expertise in designing airport buildings, partnered with a local architect, Olivier Brabant, who had the necessary expertise of designing buildings for the island\u2019s tropical maritime climate, Delano\u00eb said.<\/p>\n

Local architects were already using natural ventilation on the island, in everything from offices and libraries to a university amphitheatre<\/a> designed by Brabant. \u201cWe simply had to change the scale,\u201d Delano\u00eb said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to channel the air, play with the elements \u2026 That\u2019s exactly what our ancestors did on La R\u00e9union,\u201d he said. \u201cThey built houses according to the direction of the wind, with a central corridor, and they opened the windows or closed the doors depending on the amount of air that they wanted to let in. If they were cold, they closed them; if they were hot, they opened them.\u201d<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up to Down to Earth<\/p>\n

The planet’s most important stories. Get all the week’s environment news – the good, the bad and the essential<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Building the arrivals terminal cost \u20ac75m , of which \u20ac15m went on a new baggage sorting system and \u20ac60m on the building, said Delano\u00eb. Since opening two years ago, the airport has saved \u20ac150,000 a year in energy bills, he said. AIA said this amounted to savings of about 60% compared with an air-conditioned building, while carbon emissions were lower by a factor of eight.<\/p>\n

Aerial view of the airport. The island sits in the tropical zone to the south of the equator. Photograph: Studio Lumie\u0300re<\/p>\n

Delphine Robert, who leads the local tourism board\u2019s welcome team, works in the terminal once a week and said she preferred it to other offices.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very airy. It\u2019s comfortable \u2013 a lot of light, the ventilation is optimal,\u201d she said. \u201cI find it better working in this building, because I am often sick. And that\u2019s the result of air conditioning, which is very strong in offices. So that\u2019s why it\u2019s more pleasant to work in a building where the air circulates, but it is natural.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lessons from the terminal\u2019s natural ventilation will be harder to apply in large, polluted cities in mainland Europe, said Delano\u00eb. \u201cYou will concentrate the pollutants inside \u2013 it doesn\u2019t work,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are lucky, we are on an island, there is no pollution around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continental Europe, which is struggling to adapt to heatwaves being made ever more severe by the climate crisis, would also have to eschew air conditioning to make use of natural ventilation, Delano\u00eb said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is that if you have air conditioning at home and you have air conditioning in your car, when you get to the office, if you don\u2019t have air conditioning, you\u2019re going to be hot, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is to say that if you reduce air conditioning throughout your life \u2026 when you get to 30 degrees in the office, you won\u2019t be hot. In La R\u00e9union, people are used to 30 degrees.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the arrivals terminal at Roland Garros airport on R\u00e9union island, visitors are greeted by floor-to-ceiling windows framing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":859934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-859933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=859933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}