Close Hauled – Preparing Arhcitects for the Energy Transition
Cover and Book Design Yoshiki Waterhouse Editor Ria Stein Printed in the USA Copyright 2023, Building Technology Press All rights are reserved. No part may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means without permission in writing from the publisherr. Copyright for all photos are owned by the authosr unless otherwise noted in the figure caption. Additional copies of Clsed Hauled are available from http://BuildingTechnologyPress.com
Close Hauled Preparing Architeccts for the Energy Transition Christoph Reinhart, eds. Tarek Rakha, eds. Alpha Arsano Dorit Aviv Salmaan Craig Timur Dogan Jeff Geisinger Ali Irani Alstan Jakubiec Nathaniel Jones Ulrike Passe Siobhan Rockcastle Holly Samuelson Stefano Schiavon Dan Weissman
Table of Contents Introduction 9 Changing Architectural Education Close Hauled Symposium How to use this Book Teaching Requirements The Studio and beyond Site and Climate xx C1 Climate Quiz (C) xx C2 Climate Driven Design (D) xx C3 Direct Shading Study (C) xx C4 Net Zero Feasibility Study (D) xx Light xx Photometry Study (C) xx Digital/Physical Heliodon (D) xx Daylight Validation (C) xx Daylight Massing (D) xx Visual Comfort (D) xx Electric Lighting Design (D) xx Luminaire Design(D) xx
Air and Thermal Comfort xx Experiencing Thermal Comfort (C) xx Indoor Air Quality (C) xx Heat Box (C) xx Natural Ventilation Potential (C) xx Energy xx Baseline Model Setup (D) xx EUI Study (D) xx Simulation Game (C) xx HVAC xx HVAC Residential (C) xx HVAC Commercial (D) xx Index xxx
7 Preface Welcome to the Close Hauled – Preparing Architects for the Energy Transition, a handbook for teaching building science fundamentals to architecture students. ...background and thanks ... We have made every effort to ensure that the information presented is accurate and relevant. Should you nevertheless find any errors, typos or have divergent opinions, I welcome you to share them with us at tito@mit.edu and rakha@design.gatech.edu. Christoph Reinhart and Tarek Rakha, editors December 2023 Fig 1.1 MIT’s Mashnee on the Charles / Maschnee Dedication, May 2019 [image rights] Photo: Sue Charles
9 Introduction The climate crisis is upon us with many parts of the world experiencing heat waves never seen before, flooding, cold spells, and drought. These natural disasters politically destabilize affected regions, lead to heartbreaking human migration, displace whole cities and irreversibly destroy natural habitats. To avert even greater tragedy, we need to keep global temperature rise as low as possible, ideally below 2.0ºC compared to preindustrial levels. To reach this goal, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) tells us that we have a remaining global carbon budget of 930GtCO2e until 2050 at which point the global economy must become carbon neutral.1 This means that any use of fossil fuels for has to be reduced to the point at which various carbon sequestering techniques balance remaining emissions. The building sector can be divided into two segments, existing buildings and new construction. The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that the global built area is going to double over the coming 30 years with the bulk of new construction happening in Africa and Asia (Fig 1.3). Given that the current fraction of net zero buildings within the existing building stock is vanishingly small, it follows that we can only reach carbon neutrality by 2050 if – following a ramp up until period until 2030 – the retrofitting rate jumps from 1% to 5% per year and all new buildings become carbon neutral in terms of both their operational and embodied energy use for construction, maintenance and decommissioning (Fig 1.4).2 In summary, we cannot afford to design a single building today that is not net zero ready. What may have sounded like a fantasy just a decade ago, is becoming today’s societal imperative. What do these observations mean for the field of architecture? We are facing a trifecta of challenges: We need to build and retrofit more and faster, the resulting buildings must be carbon neutral and their interiors have to provide healthy indoor environments as outside conditions become more extreme – if not outright hostile – to human wellbeing. To accomplish these titanic tasks, architectural practice needs to adopt immediately by advocating for more sustainable construction practices, questioning for each potential new construction project whether it could instead be accomplished by reusing existing space and providing clients attractive and cost-effective low carbon design solutions. This is a key moment for the profession to either rise to the challenge or descend into insignificance. One could argue that past complacency has already led to other groups Fig 1.2 Shark Fins, student project of an office building in Seattle, WA (M Fernandez Feraud, E Willmer-Shiles and S Herb ) [Placeholder]
10 leading the way towards more sustainable construction. In today’s public imagination, a high-performance building in North American features an on-site photovoltaic system that powers energy efficient appliances and a heat pump for conditioning the interior all year round. Architecture plays a subordinate role in this picture with potentially negative but generally accepted consequences for the quality of built spaces which are primarily valued in terms of their floor area. In this reality, developers are a must while architects are optional. Changing Architectural Education Architecture firms of all sizes, interested in becoming agents of change for the energy transition, need the skills to implement net zero ready design concepts. They can acquire these skills via continuing education and hiring qualified recent graduates, preferably both. Obviously, schools of architecture need to train their graduates to satisfy this demand. This book provides concrete guidance on how to do so. The target audience are university-level instructors who teach climate-driven design including daylighting, thermal comfort, and operational energy use as part of a professional architecture degree program. To maximize impact on the overall pedagogy of a school, the pursuits of a dedicated building science educator needs to be actively supported by a sympathetic department head and studio instructors. 21 13 14 17 11 6 23 37 55 37 29 58 21 12 44 63 461 bn m2 total floor area in 2050 North America Latin America India China European Union Other advanced economies Africa Other emerging economies 226 bn m2 new built until 2050 235 bn m2 existing floor area in 2017 Fig 1.3 The global building stock is projected to double in size by 2050 (Figure: R. Weber)
11 The book provides recommendations on how to enrich a school’s building science curriculum without necessarily expanding its allotted teaching time within the overall professional arhcitecture egree program. One could argue that – given the severity of the climate crisis – architectural curricula should be reorganized and make more space for sustainable design education. Given that the consensus-finding process to implement such changes would take up valuable time and energy, we describe changes that can be implemented today and that demonstrate the benefits of engaging building science education. Obviously, this approach does not preclude a larger curriculum reorganization. The main part of the book consists of of 21 exercises that can be seamlessly integrated into required introductory classes on building technology that are taught in architecture schools across North America to satisfy National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) requirements. The exercises are divided into concept and design exercises that complement in person or asynchronous lectures. The exercises are further orgnaized into five categories, Site and Climate, Light, Air and Thermal Comfort, Energy and HVAC (Fig 1.4). Some of the exercises build on each other. Design exercises can be combined into an overall environmental concept of a building for a semester long class or studio project. The time required for the different exercises is adaptable and can range from 20 minute in-class 20 15 10 5 Emissions from the built environment [GtCO /yr] 667 GtCO by 2050 340 GtCO by 2050 2020 2030 2040 2050 0 Year Scenario “Business as usual” Renovation rate 5%/yr; carbon-neutral new construction by 2030 Fig 1.4 Predictions for GHG emissions from buildings based on “business as usual” and more ambitious scenariosxx
12 Site & Climate Light IAP & Thermal Comfort Energy HVAC HVAC Residen�al (C) HVAC Commercial (D) Climate Quiz (C) Solar Calcula�ons (C) Net Zero Feasibility (D) Photometry Study (C) Digital/Physical Heliodon (D) Daylight modeling (C) Daylight Massing (D) Visual Comfort (D) Electric Ligh�ng Design (D) Luminaire Design (D) Baseline Model (D) EUI Study (D) Simula�on Game (C) Experiencing Thermal Comfort (C) Indoor Air Quality (C) Heat Box (C) Natural Ven�la�on Poten�al (D) Integrated Model Light Diary (C) Builds on Informs Fig 1.5 Overview of concept and design exercises [Placeholder]
13 activities between lecture segments to week-long take home assignments. Proponents of the flipped classroom model can also extend them into engaging, prolonged in class activities. Concept exercises reinforce theoretical content from a previous lecture. They usually have an immediate, experiential dimension such as comparing one’s personal thermal comfort sensation against established standards, comparing a photo of a shadow cast by an object against a simulation or doing some detective work in one’s home to understand how the building is conditioned. Design exercises consist of a series of steps that can be applied to any building design project to explore a certain sustainability aspect. Example design exercises test whether it is realistic for a building with a given program and size be on-site net zero, develop a daylight massing model and check whether parts of a building can be naturally ventilated. Design exercises are initially conducted once within the context of an introductory building science class but our ambition for them is to be both simple enough to be repeated in a design studio and rigorous enough to be applied in professional practice. Many of them are enabled by the ubiquitous digitalization of architectural design and seamless integration of environmental performance simulations into popular design environments. These innovations have put sustainable design analysis workflows – from daylighting and glare to thermal comfort and operational building energy use – within reach of architecture firms of all sizes. Close Hauled Symposium The concept and design exercises presented in this book were compiled during a two-day symposium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, entitled Close Hauled, on September 14/15, 2023 (Fig 1.6). Close hauled is a sailing maneuver where a sailboat travels as closely as possible towards the direction of the wind (Fig 1.1). It provides a vivid image of the earlier described challenges that humanity faces today. Symposium participants were mostly building science educators form a variety of North American schools of architecture, bound together by a desire to inspire students for their field of study and empower them to pursue "evidence-based" sustainable architecture. Evidence-based design means that students back up their claims of how a given project design functions with quantifiable environmental performance metrics such as the number of occupied hours when a naturally ventilated space is overheated or the percentage of workspace with a view to the outside. Such an analysis should be weaved into a larger design narrative rather be presented on its own. This approach is further described in the project narrative section below. While the wider field of sustainable building design includes questions of embodied energy use and structural efficiency, the 2023 Close Hauled symposium and this book focus on climate driven building design, daylighting and electric lighting, operational energy use, thermal and
14 comfort and indoor air quality. Within these topic areas, the focus lies on content and activities that would realistically be covered in a one or two semester introductory class. The exercises could and hopefully will be expanded over time to more advanced topics and other building science domains. Example syllabi from participants are provided under the Resources section of this chapter to help the reader putting together their own. How to read this Book We encourage the reader to think of the manuscript as a cookbook with recipes that can and should be adapted to different class sizes, teaching styles and instructor preferences. The authors themselves also expect to change their own versions of the exercises over time to keep their teaching content fresh and contemporary. All exercises were previously tested by one or more of us and found to work well for our particular schools and academic programs. To help the reader pick form the different exercises, estimates of the required effort level for both the teaching team and students are provided along with the any equipment or software requirements. Apart from the underlying CAD tools such as Rhinoceros 3D, the environmental performance plugins discussed in this book are freely available for Fig 1.6 Close Hauled symposium at MIT on Sep 14/15 2023
15 educational use. Some concept exercises require environmental sensor for temperature, humidity and illuminance. For those cases, guidance is provided what sensors to pick including a list of low cost options and ways to pool resources for larger classes. To support planning for NAAB accreditation, related criteria are listed as well. Practical Considerations To avoid too much disruption to previously taught classes, reader may decide to only try out a few new exercises every year. For simulationbased design exercises, it is crucial to note that the teaching team must be intimately familiar with the performance metrics, capabilities and limitations of any environmental design software used in their class. This need has become even more acute today as many environmental design tools are now deceptively simple to use. Before 2020, running a reliable annual daylight simulation based on the Radiance light backward raytracer for a single space could take hours and the user had to carefully set simulation parameters to the design problem under investigation. Modern environmental design tool hide this complexity and speed up the simulations via a combination of engine improvements and machine learned models. The simulation-based design workflows described in this book have been vetted by the authors and can be applied to the type of design problems described in the exercises. However, when students want to engage more deeply with a subject matter and design (for example) a wind catcher using a simulation engine that cannot handle increased geometric detail, the instructor has to know the tool's limitations and discuss them with the student. Without proper guidance, the students will not just “figure it out” and instead apply simulation workflows incorrectly. Acquiring this knowledge this takes time and effort. It is therefore a good idea to start with the basic simulations, such as the direct shading study and simple thermal model upgrades such as improved insulation and glazing units. The Studio and beyond One of the key benefits of the hands-on attitude towards sustainable design promoted by the various exercises is that it liberates designers from oversimplified rules of thumb, trigger new design ideas through productive constraints, and elevate fact over dogma. For this process to unfold, emerging and practicing architects need to understand the underlying physical phenomena, know how to interpret simulation results, and (critically) be open to change their designs based on the feedback received. However, simulation novices often struggle translating what they learn in class into studio or practice. This situation then leads to elaborate renderings in lieu of – rather than in combination with – careful quantitative evaluations. To expand evidence based design beyond the classtherefore takse careful coordination between building science and studio instructor. In an upcoming symposium we will plore how this can be realized.
16 Addtional section to write: • Selecting a tool and building trust (“Does it look possible? Does it look right?”) • Descritpion of skills sets neded by the instructor • Setting up an exercise: problem statement/ gamification: Project Memo: create hypotheses, test, demonstrate), add interpretive question at the end: loose points if you do not interpret results Resources edX MOOC References
17 1 IPCC remain carbon resources 2 R. Weber, C. Mueller and C. Reinhart, Building for Zero, The Grand Challenge of Architecture without Carbon, published on October 8, 2021; http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3939009 , last accessed May 2022
19 Climate Quiz Overview This exercise is introduced after students have learnt about the different environmental variables in a climate file, how to visualize the information via climate charts as well as the underlying fundamental physics. The goal of the exercise is to guide students in reading and understanding climatic data to implement climate-appropriate design strategies. This skill set is a prerequisite for designer’s to start creating spaces that maximize comfort and resilience while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Through an engaging in-class game, students practice reading climatic charts, such as a sun path diagram, psychrometric chart, radiation map and wind rose. During the game, they have to match a set of climate charts to a set of cities. The process helps them to identify key climate features that characterize a given climate. An optional home work extension is to compare two climate files, one of the which they are personally familiar with, side-by-side. Setup Preparation The instructor prepares anonymized climate boards that comprise key climatic charts for 5+ locations. The names of the corresponding cities is provided separately. A example board is shown in Fig C1.2. Fig C1.1 Caption (Figure: J. Doe) [Placeholder]
20 In-class Exercise Grups of two students are given printouts of the five climate board plus the list of cities and compete which group manages to first match climate data and cities. Solutions are submitted to the instructor on paper. In addition, students are asked to record their answers in a google form by the end of the climate quiz which should last aobut 15 min. Post Exercise Review Before discussing the answers, the instructor visualizes a summary of everybody's matching to trigger a conversation and discuss which climates or charts were confusing and why. In the example in Fig C1.3, everybody got Anchorage correct but students confused Phoenix and Nairobi since they focussed on the psychrometric chart but did not crosscheck the sun path diagram. - learn how to access and use the widely available climate files. - develop the skill to describe and translate climate information into building design strategies. CLIMATE BOARD Climate 1 2 3 4 . . . Fig C1.2 Example climate boards for several cities (Figure: J. Doe)
21 Resources CBE Clima tool https://clima.cbe.berkeley.edu/ and documentation: https://cbe-berkeley. gitbook.io/clima/ Climaplus web app http://climaplus.net Climate Studio: https://www.solemma.com/climatestudio Climate Consultant: https://www.sbse.org/resources/climate-consultant Exercise Files: https://www.sbse.org/resources/understanding-climate-design-game References Potential Extension Description...
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