Best Window Placements For Cross Ventilation

When we decided to buy our first property to flip we knew we needed to be conscious of creating a controlled natural ventilation and allow for cross ventilation to help keep the house greener and healthier. A controlled natural ventilation is the intentional displacement of air that flows through guided openings that can be a window or door. We knew we needed to help stimulate healthy wind movement for the inhabitants and yet in order to do so we needed to strategize ideal locations for window sizes and placements.

We were extremely lucky to be working with a property that was flanked by two other properties on the east and west side. Typically, windows should be placed on the north and south side of a house. This placement prevents strong sunlight from flowing through eastern or western placed windows, especially during the warm summer months. Late in the afternoon, a house can become excessively hot when the heat of the sun is on the western side of house.

The house at Constitución originally had an inefficient layout. There were walls everywhere creating a labyrinth effect. You’d walk into one room and reach a dead end, but no, wait, it’s not a dead end and rather an almost secret dark entrance to the… bathroom? This causes the natural ventilation from wind to get clogged and prevent a consistent flow.

Walls certainly needed to come down. The original entrance prevented direct south to north air flow over a large area of space. The entry room surrounded by walls and the air flow was simply stagnant. Once we came through we decided that we needed to redesign the entire layout of the home and the most impactful decision we made was to knock down the north and east entry walls. This opened up the space so we were able to create the perfect cross ventilation.

As we get more and more aware of the environmental impacts of energy use and the damage it does to our world, the idea of natural ventilation becomes a more attractive method. It naturally helps reduce energy use, it is cost saving, it creates a comfortable indoor climate, and it supports an acceptable indoor air quality.

We hope you like what we’ve done with the space so far! It’s coming along for sure and we’re excited to show you final before and after pictures.