Ventilverlusten

Ventilverlusten is a term used in speculative urban science to describe a hypothetical failure mode of large-scale building ventilation networks, in which interactions among ducts, fans, sensors, and control systems produce emergent air-flow patterns and local climatic anomalies within a city or large facility. The word combines ventil- from ventilation with loss (-verlust) to indicate a systemic loss of intended airflow control. It is not a standard engineering diagnosis, but a conceptual framework used in fiction and theoretical discussions to examine how automated ventilation might behave under stress.

In the fictional and analytical usage, Ventilverlusten refers to the buildup of pressure differentials when parts of a network are blocked, degraded, or miscalibrated. Under certain thresholds, a cascade of vent failures can cause rapid exchanges between indoor and outdoor air, generating gusts, swirling eddies, temporary warm or cool pockets, and sometimes visible air-haze in crowded spaces. The phenomenon is used to explore resilience: how control algorithms respond, how redundancy and monitoring mitigate risk, and how occupants adapt to abrupt air-flow changes.

In literature and media, Ventilverlusten has been employed as a metaphor for dependency on centralized climate control and for the fragility of urban infrastructures. Researchers in world-building discussions treat it as a thought experiment illustrating complex systems behavior, rather than a confirmed real-world phenomenon.

Related topics include urban meteorology, building performance, HVAC resilience, and complex systems theory.