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Airshaft/lightwell in a building in Lombardy, Italy. In architecture, an airshaft, also known as a lightwell, is typically a small, vertical space within a tall building which permits ventilation of the building's interior spaces to the outside. [2] The floor plan of a building with an airshaft is often described as a "square donut" shape ...
A core may also serve a key structural role in a building, helping support it and acting as a load-bearing structure with load-bearing walls. [1] [2] Cores in office buildings tend to be larger than those in apartment buildings because office buildings need to handle more traffic with an increased number of elevator shafts. [3]
Mechanical floors are generally counted in the building's floor numbering (this is required by some building codes) but are accessed only by service elevators. Some zoning regulations exclude mechanical floors from a building's maximum area calculation, permitting a significant increase in building sizes; this is the case in New York City. [1]
The mechanical component of MEP is an important superset of HVAC services. Thus, it incorporates the control of environmental factors (psychrometrics), either for human comfort or for the operation of machines. Heating, cooling, ventilation and exhaustion are all key areas to consider in the mechanical planning of a building. [4]
Fox Plaza features a unique HVAC system where a large vertical air shaft is located in the core of the building. The air shaft begins below the building as an outdoor, cooler air intake pushing air to each floor's fan room, and on the roof is located an exhaust for stale air. Such system design utilizes stack effect. [14] [15]
Old Law Tenements are commonly called "dumbbell tenements" after the shape of the building footprint: the air shaft gives each tenement the narrow-waisted shape of a dumbbell, wide facing the street and backyard, narrowed in between to create the air corridor. They were built in great numbers to accommodate waves of immigrating Europeans.
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If the service core (which contains the elevator shafts) becomes too big, it can reduce the profitability of the building. Architects must therefore balance the value gained by adding height against the value lost to the expanding service core. [10] Many tall buildings use elevators in a non-standard configuration to reduce their footprint.