Hybrid versus labyrinth ventilation and night cooling

Building integrated geothermal energy systems promise to reduce the energy consumption of the built environment. The passive building concept is the present trend in energy efficient sustainable dwellings. Within the passive building concept every effort is made to minimize the energy use. The ventilation capacity of many of these passive houses with hybrid ventilation systems is critical. Energy saving and sustainability is very important but not at the risk of endangering health of the occupants. This was the starting point for a new approach inspired the vision to see the building as s tree, which led to an alternative concept: the active house concept. By using ground air collectors, labyrinth foundation, murocauster and hypocauster, the whole building envelope, its construction is thermally activated by natural pre-cooled air in the summer and natural pre-heated air in winter by using the soil. A first design is presented to illustrate the concept.