The cooling energy consumption on tropical climate represent approximately 40% of the energy bill of tropical coastal hotels. This impact affects the economy of countries like Dominican Republic, which recognizes its value and its determined to invest in more sustainable strategies to mitigate this challenge along with the constantly increasing menace of climate change. In order to provide a solution, a comparative research study in combination of on-site experience and computational design is made to discover if the merging of passive design strategies with sustainable materials alone is sufficient to reduce the cooling energy demand to 50%.

Earth, Wind, and Fire (EWF) is a natural ventilation system developed by Dr Ben Bronsema for office buildings in the Western European climate. Powered by nature: ground temperature & gravity for cooling, wind for energy generation & ventilation, and sun for the heat and natural draft, this system claims not only to use little energy but also naturally purifies while humidify/dehumidify the air. No study has been done to see the performance of the system in a warmer climate, such as Tokyo. This thesis intends to answer that question.The dynamic duo of EWF: air supply system called Climate Cascade (CC) and air exhaust system called Solar Chimney (SC) are sized and calculated using 2 separate Excel models, from which the key parameters are identified, and design choices can be made. It was clear that as Tokyo’s temperature is warmer than Amsterdam’s, the focus needs to be given to cooling rather than heating. The challenge: space is limited in Tokyo hence the proposal of making SC a plug & play unitized system.Armed with a case study integrating EWF into a relatively new 10-story medium-sized office building in Tokyo, the study explored and compared 4 different systems: the existing energy-conscious VRF system, conventional VAV system, EWF with a chilled ceiling, and EWF through chilled beams.In conclusion, EWF can contribute to energy reduction (40%) without compromising thermal comfort in comparison to the conventional VAV. Regarding VRF, further research needs to be done to properly simulate EWF with HR in the dynamic simulation software used. Moreover, EWF contributed to ventilation energy reduction in all cases evaluated, as well as improving thermal comfort.

The cities of the 20th and 21st century have gone through an era of unbridled expansion, seizing an immeasurable amount of land and resources from across the globe. To secure a resilient and sustainable urban environment, the city is forced to revisit its networks, systems and land-use. Especially with the growing trend of urbanization. One of these systems, which lies at the core of the daily operations of the city is the energy network. Large amounts of ener-gy are transported through power cables from large plants towards to their final destination, the end-user. However, with upcoming demand for renewable ways of energy production, and the increasing availability of ‘clean’ production methods, the city has the potential of becoming its own generator.
Taking this stance, the confrontation with existing policies, methods, trends, can be sought; creating oppor-tunity for local production and storage of heat/electricity within the cities limits. In so doing, seeking integration with public and private program, and therefore tightly grounding it within city districts and urban life. By nestling into local communities and providing new program, the local production has the objective to create a broad support for sustainable energy.
The techniques available to produce energy in a renewable and sustainable way are becoming increasingly more verifiably reliable alternatives. To be able to shorten the chains towards a more decentralized system, the city itself has to critically assess its scales and densities, and look for opportunities where renewable energy production can take place. Within the public eye, and with minimal loss of energy due to transportation, which is especially detrimental for district heating solutions. The framework proposed in this thesis therefore aims to combine the ap-propriate scale of the city with the proper scale of the production method to create symbiotic solutions.

The architect here, has a unique position in being able to work on the infrastructures of the future as infrastructures will overlap increasingly more with the urban tissue. Moving away from the traditional infrastructures which rely on exactitudes and centralized systems, the decentralized systems will aim to adopt a multifaceted approach, integra-ting infrastructural, social and operational systems. In so doing, local and regional opportunities for energy producti-on can be seized creating a tailored solution to the demands of the area, aiming to support its demand with renwa-ble energy. Architecture in this will take the position of innovator and integrater, embedding new approaches to infrastructures within the urban fabrics of the future.