Week 2

Pre-Session Activities

Reflections on Readings: 'Design for climate' by Chris Reardon and Paul Downton

After reading this article, I understood the importance of thoroughly analysing and comprehending our local climate. Only then we can provide effective passive solar design strategies, which could potentially eliminate the existing energy requirements for heating and cooling (40% of household energy consumption). However, I do not believe that this is as straightforward to implement. 

1. How can we reduce heating/ cooling loads in existing homes?

2. There is a widespread misconception that passive solar design incurs more upfront costs, where in reality lower operational costs would offset this.

Another noteworthy problem we are facing is that thermal simulation software only take into account physiological comfort, whereas physiological comfort (radiation, air movement, conduction) is often overlooked. This in itself is often problematic, as psychological comfort plays a huge role in how comfortable we perceive our surroundings to be. Only if we recognize the importance of taking into account psychological thermal comfort, we can fully minimize heating/ cooling needs. One example I can spontaneously think of is that of windows. Very often in winter we feel more cold if we sit in front of a poorly insulated, single glazed window oriented south, or we feel overheated when we sit on the same window that is position north during summer (if there is no shading device). We would still feel psychological uncomfortable due to the radiant heat/cooling of that window, even if physiological parameter such as room temperature are within comfort range. 

Reflections on Readings: “All-glass facades won't exist in sustainable cities” by David Baggs

The reason why we see so many "glass box" buildings is because views are very much sought after, therefore raising the value of residential and commercial properties. Building with a large area of glazing are problematic in two ways: glass can be tinted to a darker tone to reduce outward reflectivity and glare but this causes overheating of internal spaces, yet if the glass is made reflective enough to minimise solar gain and resultant overheating, the problem is rogue reflections towards the exterior. 

The issue with tinted glass facades do not end here. They also absorb more heat, which is later radiated into the atmosphere. Radiant heat perception plays an integral role in our psychological thermal comfort, thus lowering the Indoor Environmental Quality.

So called "glass box" buildings, where thermal comfort is severely comprised, continue to plague many highly urbanised areas within Australia. If, however, we look at more recent examples such as 1 Bligh Street, we are also presented with viable solutions that compromise neither views nor indoor thermal comfort. We see this in the use of smart glass (low-e, double glazing, minimal tint with low reflectivity), along with smart external shading solutions.

In-Session Activities

We are introduced to the concepts of climate, microclimate, thermal comfort and bioclimatic design. Surely, the more we are able to understand these concepts well, the better we would be able to produce climate conscious designs, which would encompass passive solar strategies and lower overall energy consumption. What I think is really quite important to consider is that the climate is gradually changing. After 10, 30, 50 years, etc. our climate would not be the same as it is now. Summers will get hotter, winters might get shorter, rainfall might be more extreme, etc. and we need to be aware of this change in climate when we make our designs. 

Post-Session Activities

Reflections on readings: "Adaptive Comfort: Passive Design for Active Occupants" by Christhina Candido

"Building occupants are not simply passive recipients of their thermal environment, like climate chamber experimental subjects, but rather they play an active role in creating their own thermal preferences. Contextual factors and past thermal history are believed to influence expectations and thermal preferences. Satisfaction with an indoor environment occurs through appropriate adaptation."

- de Dear and Brager

With the advent of modernism and technology, a substantial amount of buildings, especially older ones, have been relying on HVAC systems to provide indoor thermal comfort. This also means that rather than the architect designing self-sufficient, climate conscious, low-energy consumption buildings, the responsibility of creating indoor thermal comfort has at large been shifted to the mechanical engineer. 

However, as resources are also becoming scarce and expensive. there is an increased awareness of how unsustainable and harmful the reliance on HVAC systems really is. Nowadays, there is a desire to create naturally ventilated buildings with minimal cooling/ heating loads. With this understanding, our approach to indoor envrionmental comfort has also changed. We must recognise that user behaviour, user thermal experience and expectations, and various other subjectivities, play an important role in how indoor thermal comfort is perceived, and that our building design strategies must take into account psychological thermal comfort.

Assignment 2.1 brainstorming for ideas

It is very important to define the scope and framework of my assignment, as well as the approach. I want to develop a manual or guideline in how improve whatever that my scope focuses on. There are two ways I could approach this. Either I focus on a certain building typology (e.g. school, hospital, library) or I focus and isolate a certain building component (e.g. glazing, atrium, courtyard, green roof).

If I were to focus on a building typology, I would like to do more research on government owned and operated waste treatment facilties in Hong Kong. I can imagine developing a manual that could be a guideline for building sustainable future waste treatment facilities with minimal energy use.

If I were to focus on a particular building component I would be very much interested in doing research on atrium spaces within high rise buildings. To study the effects that atriums have on indoor environmental comfort/ quality, ventilation, lighting and energy consupmtion, which help me develop a manual on designing sustainable atriums in different contexts.