computational design, data, and architecture.
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Team: Professor Brad Bell, Adam Heisserer, Alexei Dukov, Khang Nguyen, and Tenaj Pinder.
The building envelope consolidates a number of contradictory performance criteria. (Maximize views while minimizing heat transfer. Allow heat gain during cold weather, and avoid it during warm weather). Traditionally, these issues have been met with static facade systems because moving parts require additional energy and are prone to mechanical failure. These challenges can be overcome by embedding the needed responsiveness in the material itself. A thermally activated bimetal surface placed within two panels of insulated glass can be designed to block sunlight when necessary, with no added operational energy or digital technology.
This facade prototype was developed as part of the UT Arlington Digital Architecture Research Consortium between 2013-2014 with Professor Brad Bell, Adam Heisserer, Alexei Dukov, Khang Nguyen, and Tenaj Pinder.
Prototype 1.0
The first prototypes were built with thermally active bimetal that bends when exposed to direct sunlight. The bimetal is composed of two layers of metal that expand at different rates when heated.
Fixed to a 3D printed joint, the metal fins remain unbent and parallel at room temperature, and curl into a more horizontal position when heated. On a south-facing facade, this allows for more solar heat gain from low-angle morning or winter sun when temperatures are typically colder, while preventing solar heat gain from high-angle mid-day or summer sun when temperatures are typically warmer.
The fins bend on the axis perpendicular to the glass to maintain exterior views. A drawback of other bimetal shutter systems is that views are sacrificed when the system is active.
Prototype 2.0
The following prototypes improved the rotational ability of the system by using bimetal coils to actuate the system rather than bimetal fins. This allows the fins, now a non-bending component, to be made from a thin-gauge aluminum cut with a CNC mill. They are rotated by a wire suspended from the coil at the top of each column of fins. This allows about 70 degrees of rotation, an improvement from the previous prototype.
Prototype 3.0
In this iteration, the wire is wound continuously from a disk attached to the center of the bimetal coil, to a disk attached to the center of the aluminum fin. With a higher gear ratio, the fins rotate more actively and consistently.
The aluminum fins are cut flat, and then pressed in a wooden mold to create indentions along the center of the fin. They can then rotate to a more vertical position without colliding with the vertical support. The ridges along the length of the fin also provide rigidity, allowing them to be made from thinner aluminum.
Prototype 4.0
This prototype excludes any wire or vertical support in order to decrease points of failure and increase visual transparency. One end of a central axis is adhered to the glass itself, creating a thermal bridge to the bimetal coil that directly rotates the fin when heated. The drawback of this system is the difficulty of calibrating the desired rotation to the temperature, and the misalignment of the fins.
Team: Alexei Dukov, Adam Heisserer, Professor Brad Bell
This project is a brise soleil cast in hydrostone, and an exploration of two-sided molds. Modularity allows for the repetitive, consistent fabrication of interchangeable units, and an easy assembly process. Material efficiency is emphasized by minimizing the section depth and utilizing a reusable two sided mold. Both the daily cycle and annual cycle of sun angles are considered to produce geometries that mitigate direct sunlight, perform as a light shelf, and maintain exterior views. Modeled in Grasshopper 3D and Rhino.
UT Arlington CAPPA architecture digital fabrication.
Team: Lake Flato Research Program. Adam Heisserer, Corey Squire, Heather Holdridge.
A visualization of a year of building energy use, recorded with a SiteSage Powerwise energy monitor and graphed in a radial calendar with Grasshopper and Rhino 3D. Building performance data from Lake Flato Architects projects.
This is one floor of an office building in San Antonio. The eMonitor was installed in February, and a clear 5-day work week pattern is visible.
The same building as above, for 2018. There was some kind of monitoring error in June, when certain circuits stopped recording data.
This is from one floor of a large office building in San Antonio. An inefficient electric reheat system is causing high heating loads during winter months. An unusual period from July to September shows some kind of change in thermostat set points or something else that may have been left on overnight.
This house in Long Island, NY has a distinctive color range, indicating the colder outdoor temperatures compared to the other Texas projects. This is a part time home, mainly used in the spring and late summer of this year. The energy use is low when it’s not occupied.
Rather than energy use, this calendar shows energy production from a solar array at a small pavilion in North Texas. Cloudy days interrupt solar production, and there are more daylight hours in the summer.
This is the energy use for a small pavilion in North Texas. The highest energy is from well pumps being used during rain events. In this way, this calendar is roughly the inverse of it’s solar energy production calendar.
This is an office building in San Antonio. A 5-day work week pattern is clearly visible. Everyone goes home at exactly 6 pm, and something strange is kicking on at 3 am every Wednesday morning.
This is a net-zero energy house in San Antonio. This calendar indicates when the house is consuming more energy than it is producing. The calendar is empty during daylight hours when the solar array is producing more energy than is being used, creating the hollow band through the middle.
This is a 100 year old house in San Antonio. Energy use is low, and a regular pattern of occupancy is visible. Heating and cooling loads stand out compared to the shoulder seasons.
This is data from the same house, showing only appliances.
This is data from the same house, showing only lighting loads.
This is a net zero energy house in remote West Texas. It’s used occasionally, for a few days at a time. Energy use is relatively low and predictably tied to occupancy.
This is a part time home near Austin, Texas. Cooling loads in the summer are high.
Everywhere I've been: life paths recorded in Google Earth and mapped with Grasshopper 3D.
North America
This is a Grasshopper script that identifies the areas of a building with views to the outside. A views calculation is often done manually, which can be extremely time-consuming for large projects with unconventional floor plans. Automating this process saves time and provides a way to quantify the quality of views in a building beyond the typical pass/fail criteria of LEED certification.
A line is drawn connecting the corner of each window to all visible wall vertices. When a line is tangential to a vertex, it is project on to the next wall.
The endpoints of each of these lines are then joined into a single polyline that designates the view shed from the corner of each window.
This process is repeated for each window corner and all view sheds are compiled with transparency, revealing the gradient in quality of views.
