Junghans’ low-carbon humidity control prototype on exhibit at 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale
Taubman College faculty member Lars Junghans’ work with Belgian architect Steven Schenk to produce a low-carbon system for controlling building humidity is included in this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale as part of the Belgian Pavilion’s Building Biospheres exhibit.
Built from bio-based hempcrete — a porous mixture of hemp and lime — Junghans and Schenk’s device reduces a room’s humidity by absorbing it through capillary condensation and drying by high air velocity produced via solar chimney; as solar radiation is absorbed by the chimney’s darkened, external surface at the top of the duct, it creates an updraft that increases air velocity. This drying effect on the surface then causes moisture in the capillaries of the hemp to move from the room-facing surface to the backside of the porous wall.
“This principle is causing an ongoing dehumidification effect for the room if the air velocity and/or solar radiation is high,” Junghan says.
The idea is to provide an alternative to traditional methods of dehumidifying buildings, which typically require large amounts of energy used to power air conditioners or chillers.
Junghans, who is an associate professor of architecture at Taubman College, and his team developed the basis for the device while studying the moisture absorption of different materials for their 22/26 Midwest research project. Others involved in developing the passive dehumidification device were Lisa Mandelartz Shenk and Hai Jie Tan, of Shenk Hatori Architects, and U-M students Srihitha Nimmagadda and Pranavi Gudi.
Test walls were built in Belgium and at the Liberty Research Annex in Ann Arbor, and photos and illustrations of the samples are included in the pavilion.
The Building Biospheres pavilion explores the potential of plants in architecture beyond aesthetics. Featuring more than 200 plants, the pavilion showcases how plants can be used to create comfortable interior environments while reducing dependence on artificial heating and cooling systems.
The Venice Architecture Biennale runs through Nov. 23. For more on Building Biospheres, read this article at Dezeen.
