Design and Technology KS2: How to create a ventilation system

BBC Teach > Primary Resources > Design and Technology KS2 > The Dengineers

LAUREN: 'Today's Dengineer is ten-year-old Dilara from Leeds.'

DILARA: Please Dengineers, I really need help. I'm half Turkish but I don't get to go there as much as I'd like so I'd like to have a den in my back garden to bring it to me instead.

SATWINDER: You like drinking tea? Yeah? Great so we're gonna have somewhere that you can make tea. Maybe we could have a little hatch that opens up and then you can serve tea to your friends? How does that sound?

DILARA: Really good.

TONY: We really want to capture the smells and aromas of Turkey so we've had this idea of kind of a spice wall. It'll be really nice that when you open the door of your den it kind of evokes the spirit of Turkey, like transporting you there.

LAUREN: 'Tony and Satwinder's plans have been given the big tick from Dilara. 'They've designed a vibrant mosaic tiled exterior 'to her Turkish teahouse 'with a front door that doubles as a serving hatch.

LAUREN: 'On the inside Dilara will have tea-making equipment, 'an aromatic wall of spice, 'and a cool chillout area, complete with traditional Turkish lighting.

LAUREN: 'I catch up with Tony and Satwinder to discuss the engineering challenges 'behind keeping the temperature of this den just right.'

LAUREN: Here in the UK it can, on occasion, get quite warm can't it? So I was just wondering, how are we going to make sure that Dilara's den doesn't get too hot inside?

SATWINDER: Well we've actually borrowed from the principles that architects use in Turkey.

TONY: So the two main things that we focussed on was controlling the sunlight and the ventilation. So thinking about the ventilation first, if Dilara's got say five mates in there, just that amount of body heat, it's going to get warm inside so it's important that we ventilate the space.

TONY: So this is a model of the den and what we've done is we've created a door at the back and a door at the front which allows air to circulate all the way through.

14 00:01:50:12 00:01:54:16 LAUREN: So instead of the air getting trapped in that space it's got somewhere to travel. Is that right?

TONY: So the warm air always wants to move out to the cooler air and then that draws in cooler air and creates this movement and that's what ventilation is.

JOE: -'By employing a two door ventilation system, 'Tony and Satwinder have ensured that on hot days 'warm air won't get trapped inside the den, 'meaning that Dilara and her friends will stay nice and cool.'

SATWINDER: The second principle is how we deal with sunlight. So if you imagine, this is the sun here, rising in the east coming around to the south and then setting in the west.

SATWINDER: For our den we've made sure that we haven't got any windows on the south side because the more sunlight that comes into a building, the hotter it's going to get.

TONY: So what happens in Turkey is they often have windows up quite high but we've not got much height because it’s a den. So what we've done is we've placed our window flat on the roof like that which then means that there's no direct sunlight coming in.

LAUREN: So getting the light come through but not necessarily the heat of that sun peering on through.

TONY: Yep, spot on.

LAUREN: Is that right?

SATWINDER: That's it.

TONY: That's right yep.

LAUREN: So it's a special kind of window. Could call it a Satwindow. Hey? Hey?

THEY LAUGH

Presenters Lauren Layfield and Joe Tracini and The Dengineers team help Dilara from Leeds create a Turkish-style den.

They investigate the engineering challenges behind keeping the temperature inside the den just right.

They focus on controlling the sunlight and the ventilation.

They demonstrate how having a door at the back and the front of the den allows air to circulate all the way through and avoids any warm air getting trapped.

To deal with sunlight potentially overheating the den they have no windows in the south side of the den and add a roof window that provides light, but avoids any direct sunlight.

Teachers Notes

This could be used to introduce the process of design, and as a prompt for class discussion and learning in areas such as initial research, designing and making a structure.

They could investigate how a ventilation system works, and look at how countries in warmer climates use simple techniques to keep a building from overheating.