Alpha Yacob Arsano is a PhD candidate in Architecture and Building Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Alpha is an Ethiopian architect with a great interest in maximizing passive building strategies in different climatic conditions. She studies the potential of natural ventilation in buildings, thermal comfort of occupants and effect of climate change in various climates around the globe. Before coming to MIT for her Master’s study, Alpha was an academic fellow at Transsolar Energietechnik, a climate engineering consultancy firm in Stuttgart, Germany. She had studied architecture at the Ethiopian Institute EiABC in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and did an internship at the architectural firm Allmann Sattler Wappner in Munich, Germany. Alpha has developed a digital design tool named CLIMA+ that can inform building owners, architects and engineers at an early design stage. CLIMA+ is a prototype implemented to bring environmental elements into built structures and aims to take maximum advantage of the resources from the natural environment. The underlying mission is to promote the design of buildings that use less air-conditioning systems and consume less energy leading to a more sustainable and healthy environment.

2017 SMARCHS Thesis: CLIMA +: An Early Design Natural Ventilation Prediction Method