Originally Posted by
liamrugby
Having been involved in the opening of T5 (albeit the supply chain so clearly not an expert), I do remember having it explained that air circulation around the floors is a fundamental part of the building design. I also vaguely remember a comment around the temperature control system, which i believe for the main section of the terminal relies heavily on passive air circulation rather than pure AC, effectively becoming useless in the rare case of sequential days over a certain temperature - although i can't remember the source of this so it may well be codswallop..
Given how frequently T5 is badly overheated even when it's cold outside, I can only assume that critical outside temperature is about 5C.
Most memorably I have been in T5 in winter when it was actually snowing outside and the building was still uncomfortably hot.
In terms of opennes, I don't think that things like the T5 GF drink chillers having their hot air exhaust into the lounge in front of the chiller is very smart. I am surprised it is not ducted out of the building or a cold water loop used to dump the heat outside.