Building Envelope Features

Since the last design journal entry, I have added a green roof, the rooftops to the staircase the elevators, fixed the curtain panels so they are connected, and added the topo-surface. In addition, I have chosen my wall types and window/glazing parameters which I will expand later. Although I couldn’t figure out why this time rendering did not work at its “advanced” lighting settings…

Building seen from the Southwest corner

From the Northeast corner

Wall Surfaces

For exterior walls, I have decided to use a wall preset - EIFS on Metal Stud. The layers are shown below and it outruns the default options provided by Insight (by the way, I used Detailed Elements for material thermal properties, instead of schematic or conceptual types).

Windows & Glazing

For theall windows and curtain walls, I choose to use “Double glazing - 1/4 in thick - low-E/clear (e=0.05)” glasses. It provides good visual light transmittance and prevents too much heat absorption.

I did not use the skylights as a window but I do have a shaft that goes through the center of the building. It provides a lot of natural light for the building’s interior.

Shading

On the west of the building, I have made some shadings that prevents afternoon glaring. The following solar path is set for August 1st, and the simulation shows a lot of lights penetrates the building through the west. The shading has decreased the floor area on which the sunshine hit.

What’s worth noting is that the north side never receives sunlight, so I am trying to find places to add windows (on slanted walls) to increase air flow without admitting in too much heat. It is still under process since I cannot adjust the windows to the slanted walls without exposing the inside. So, I am exploring different options on websites such as BIM City.

Floor and Roof

• For the floor contacting ground, I am using an insulated concrete slab.

• Approximately 2/3 of the roof is a green roof, and another 1/3 is an empty slanted roof established for PV panels.

Energy Model

The building started out satisfying the ASHRAE 90.1 standard. After some adjustments, my building’s energy performance got closer to the ARCHITECT 2030 standards, and there is still room to improve.

The top 5 (+1) key factors for this stage are:

1. Plug load efficiency
2. Light efficiency
3. Roof construction
4. WWR Western walls
5. WWR Eastern walls, and
6. PV - surface coverage

To my surprise, the PV payback limit and efficiency do not change the performance significantly like when we analyzed other buildings:

In order to improve the energy performance further, I need to add more shading and change the glazing to triple Low-E because the aforementioned factors are hard to change based on my design.

Luminescence Analysis

I rendered 3 locations which are expecting high traffic on the 1st, 3rd, and 4th floor. The time is set at August 1st, 13:00, which is probably the brightest it could be during the building’s opening hours.

Zones near the ceiling and the shafts tend to be bright, which is normal and it indicates natural lighting.