The focus of Dorit Aviv’s Master’s Thesis (M.Arch 2014), Cool Oculus uses a dynamic form, similar to that found in a Hoberman Sphere, to match radiant and downdraft evaporative cooling strategies to diurnal cycles. Dorit won a Tides Foundation grant to work with Assistant Professor Forrest Meggers at Princeton University’s Andlinger Center to develop her project into a passive cooling system prototype.

When installed, the structure acts as a downdraft evaporative chimney during the day, using natural convection to draw evaporatively cooled air from the top through the structure. At night, the structure opens and allows the slab below to radiantly cool through a radiant exchange with the desert night sky.

We look forward to collaborating with Dorit on the build!