One of the main decisions in this project was to design a building without air conditioning; it was one of the main challenges in this building design and in this climatic conditions. The main cooling strategies used in summer in this building are; (a) prevention of solar heat gain, (b) night ventilation and (c) ground cooling system.

(a) The building is very well insulated by outside, the windows have external shading devices which permit the user to have a total control of the incoming solar radiation;

(b) The building has a system of openings, which allows very easily the cross ventilation and upper openings which facilitate the use of nigh ventilation strategies, very efficient in this type of climatic conditions.

(c) A ground cooling system was built (Figures 7 and 8) and it consist in a set of 32 concrete pipes with 30 cm of diameter, buried at 4,5 m depth, beneath the lower basement (Figure 7). Will allows the air to flow from the inlet, placed at 15 m in front of the building, to inside the building. The air is cooled in these pipes, to a temperature near the ground temperature, and goes directly to the rooms in first and second floor, two pipes per room. The user in each room can control individually the incoming fresh air by opening the apertures or turning on a small fan. This system only affects directly the south part of the building, which is the more problematic in terms of heat. The north part of the building is naturally ventilated and less problematic.

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Fig. 8.Buried pipes for ground cooling.