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  |  Channel: Energy, Research Journals

SUSTAINABLE AND ENERGY EFFICIENT COMMERCIAL RETROFIT: Case Study of Perkins+Will Atlanta Office

09Existing buildings tend to undergo performance degradations, change in use, and unexpected faults or malfunctions over time. These events often result in significant deterioration of the overall system performance, inefficient operation and unacceptable thermal comfort conditions. However, a building does not have to be new to be efficient. Today’s leading building owners are retrofitting buildings,... Read more »

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Contribution
  |  Channel: Material Performance, Research Journals

TALL WOOD SURVEY: Identifying and Analyzing the Obstacles of Perception

Tall wood buildings are becoming increasingly prevalent around the world, and yet, they are conspicuously missing from the U.S. skyline. Antiquated building code restrictions have put the United States behind its Canadian and European counterparts, preventing the U.S. from even considering the use of wood as the primary structure in a tall building. Recent initiatives... Read more »

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Contribution
  |  Channel: Research Journals, Resilience

WEATHERING THE STORM: Mental Health and Resilient Design

The goal of this research project was to evaluate the relationship between resilient design strategies and their impact on the mental health of building occupants during a crisis event. We hypothesized that certain resilient design strategies were better suited to mitigate the negative effects on mental health, and, through analysis of this potential, be ranked... Read more »

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  |  Channel: Innovation Incubator, Labs

Successful Planning Strategies for Adding Cleanroom Capabilities to a Lab Project

Cleanrooms almost always have the largest impact on cost and schedule in terms of construction and operation for a lab project. New standards such as ISO 14644 will be voted on soon. If passed these standards may increase the impacts of both existing and new cleanrooms on laboratory facilities. This article outlines some key planning... Read more »

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Contribution
  |  Channel: Material Performance, Research Journals

APPLES TO ORANGES: Comparing Building Materials Data

Why does no digital platform attempt to present all performance and sustainability characteristics for building materials in a way that side by side comparison is possible? Is the breadth of data too difficult to model? If the data could be visualized, what would it reveal? This article describes a digital platform with criteria that represents:... Read more »

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Contribution
  |  Channel: Energy, Research Journals

URBAN MICROCLIMATES AND ENERGY EFFICIENT BUILDINGS

The challenges of a warm climate on urban buildings’ energy needs for space conditioning are discussed by assessing the impact of intra-urban microclimatic changes, also called urban heat islands (UHI). This article analyzes the results of a simulation study on the energy consumption required for heating and cooling a small office building within five intra-urban microclimatic conditions of... Read more »

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Contribution
  |  Channel: Design Process, Research Journals

URBAN MODELING WITH AGENT-BASED SYSTEM

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 »

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Contribution
  |  Channel: Design Process, Research Journals

OPTIMIZING SPATIAL ADJACENCIES USING EVOLUTIONARY PARAMETRIC TOOLS: Using Grasshopper and Galapagos to Analyze, Visualize, and Improve Complex Architectural Programming

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 »

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Contribution
  |  Channel: Energy, Research Journals

DESIGNED FOR PERFORMANCE: Research Methods in a Collaborative Studio Rethinking Modern Curtain Walls

The growing demand for high-performance buildings has pushed the architectural discipline to confront building performance as an integral part of design delivery, while increasing the necessity of collaboration between designers, building science experts, engineers, and manufacturers to find the best solutions to building performance challenges. At Kansas State University, a year-long research studio worked with professionals, consultants, and a... Read more »

Article
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Contribution
  |  Channel: Innovation Incubator, Research Journals, Resilience

SHRINKING WETLANDS, SINKING CITIES Why Preserving and Restoring Wetlands Can Help Save Our Coastal Cities

As the Earth’s climate changes and sea waters rise, the world’s many coastal cities must get creative to stay afloat. Levees, floodwalls, and other man-made infrastructure are enormous cost burdens that continue to be overpowered by super storms and severe flooding. Planners and designers around the country are exploring methods to make coastal cities more resilient to these... Read more »

Article
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Contribution
  |  Channel: Design Process, Research Journals

SIMULATION MODELING AS A LEAN TOOL FOR HEALTHCARE DESIGN: Determining Room Utilization and Staffing in the Emergency Department

This article outlines the use of operational planning and simulation modeling as a lean tool within Perkins+Will, to determine the room utilization and staffing for a large trauma center, based on current and projected volumes and turnaround times. A specific area of focus was the Resuscitation Rooms and their location within the emergency department (ED). In its most... Read more »