A “design process” includes many steps needed to design and construct a built environment. This includes everything from initial data-mining and schematic design all the way through to construction and post-occupancy evaluation. As built environments become more complex, building performance demands increase, and work schedules compress, project teams need to be more effective and efficient at every stage of this process.
Goals Net Zero Site Energy Design and Incentives (NZSEDI) is a design performance modeling process for achieving net zero site energy projects using photovoltaic and solar thermal water heating systems with financial incentives. The system serves to inspire interest in early net-zero building design for architects. NZSEDI will collect data for renewables in the United States for federal... Read more »
This article describes research on using local interactions to generate intricate global patterns and emergent urban forms. An agent-based system (ABS) is used to optimize an urban network and construct the micro-level complexity within a simulated urban environment. The author focuses on how agent-driven emergent patterns can evolve during the simulation in response to the “hidden hand” of... Read more »
This article documents the use of Grasshopper and Galapagos (Rhino plugins) as analytical tools to graphically represent and optimize the adjacency requirements in programmatic spaces. The resulting three-dimensional spatial diagrams are evaluated based on evolutionary fitness, which within this research context is defined as minimizing the numerical value of the total distance of all interconnected programmatic elements. This... Read more »
Early in the development of the design for the Tinkham Veale University Center, the team determined that the west-facing glass wall of the Commons space presented challenges to the usability and conditioning of that space. The team proceeded to explore several options to control solar heat and light gain, including electrochromic glass, internal sun shading,... Read more »
This paper discusses unique design of the Rush University Medical Center Edward A. Brennan Entry Pavilion, specifically focusing on the sustainable strategies considered and investigated during the design as well as the technical aspects. The first part of the article reviews background information about the Rush University Medical Center and its Entry Pavilion, while the... Read more »
