Natural ventilation in residential buildings in the context of the pandemic: a systematic literature review

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on society worldwide, resulting in millions of deaths and significant consequences in various areas, including economic, social, and emotional, as well as highlighting the importance of natural ventilation and air quality in buildings. Considering this context, the following literature review aims to understand the impact of natural ventilation studies in multi-family buildings in light of the new housing requirements imposed by the pandemic. The research seeks to identify the contexts studied, including climate and land use patterns, and examine the specific objectives of each. Additionally, it investigates the methods and tools used in these studies. The information was collected from four scientific databases between 2020 and 2023. After analyzing and applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 18 articles met the objectives of the review. Studies with an emphasis on indoor air quality (IAQ) were identified, using methods such as questionnaires and investigations into the transmission of COVID-19 through natural ventilation in buildings. However, most studies adopted an approach based on analyzing ventilation through simulation using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The conclusions highlight the agreement between residents' opinions and the results of environmental simulations but emphasize the lack of studies on the influence of the built environment on the availability of natural ventilation in multi-family buildings, pointing to a promising area of research.