Design Journal Entry - Module 9

Your Design Journal entries for this module should highlight your design thinking and analysis results that influenced your decisions about:

Small update after weekly check in reflection and office hours: my mechanical model is having a lot of issues where Revit is getting the level heights wrong in placing elements. Which is why my flexi ducts and air terminals are still not resolved, in being able to place them at the correct height. I went to office hours and we concluded that we exhausted all the possibilities for what was going wrong, and that it must be an issue from Revit.

• your overall HVAC system strategy
• As Sao Paulo is a subtropical climate, it entails more cooling issues. It has high temperatures, humidity, so the predominant thermal load demand of buildings is for ambient air cooling. Overall, all the thermal mass I integrated within my building in the form of concrete walls, floors, etc. are meant to absorb heat in its hot climate. As the building will not be occupied most nights, as an exhibition space, the building can make use of night cooling. As the building has an unused basement, the HVAC system will make use of this underutilized space to provide cooling and heat to the entire building. I chose an air based system with multiple, decentralized units in my mechanical spaces on each level, as my roof is sloped and therefore not conducive for a whole air system atop it.
• your heating strategy and how you implemented it in your design
• The building won’t need much heating as it is within a subtropical climate, and receives lots of passive daylight within its light shafts and open curtain wall cafe up top.
• your cooling strategy and how you implemented it
• I have a cooling duct system in each floor, extending to the edges, extended to air handling unit in the center, set upon the edge of the stairwell at the end not in use. I have increased passive cooling in the form of increasing the ceiling heights to promote circulation. Other types of passive cooling within my building: thermal mass to absorb heat in the concrete material slabs, high ceilings to promote circulation, and the deep opening shaft along either side to reduce sunlight
• any special HVAC system challenges that you encountered
• I struggled to connect my systems perfectly, but did my best to create cohesive HVAC systems reaching each floor. I also struggled to align the duct systems within the roofs, as they are currently hanging a bit underneath the roofs. I had a lot of trouble implementing this module, as I had troubles with visibility of my heating systems on each floor, and understanding how they are being connected in Revit.