Ziqi YuanYour Design Journal entries for this module should highlight:
- the design alternatives that you modeled and tested
- the results of the analyses and how they influenced your thinking about how to move forward
Use text , images, web links, movies... Whatever media works best to express your ideas!
Images of Your 3 Design Proposals
Paste screenshots of your 3 proposed building forms here...
Side-By-Side Comparisons of Your Analysis Results
Paste at least 2 screenshots showing the side-by-side comparisons of the analysis results for your 3 proposed building forms here…
Sun Hours
Daylight Potential
Your Recommendation for the “Best” Design Option
Create a few paragraphs outlining a brief explanation of why you chose this design option as the “best” after comparing your analyses of the proposals. Explain your reasoning and the tradeoffs that influenced your decision about which design option to move forward with.
Sun Hours
Proposal 2 has the smallest facades as it has a large area facing the southeastern open space, but its roof area is not as large compared to the other two due to its sharper roof shape shape. It has the minimum solar energy potential.
Proposal 1 has the best sun hours overall with its flat roof top. It has > 6000 SF roof area with 9+ hours of sunlight in summer and 5+ hours of sunlight in winter. While proposal 3 also has satisfactory long sun hours (> 4000 SF roof area with 9+ hours of sunlight in summer and 5+ hours of sunlight in winter), it has more facades due to its structure where lower levels get shaded by the middle level.
All of the three proposals have relatively small effects in terms of shading neighboring buildings since they are not very tall and the location itself does not block nearby buildings too much. The analysis results also show that the sun hours in New York is suitable for solar implemetation.
Daylight Potential
Similar to the sun hours analysis, proposal 2 has the least daylight facades because of its roof that allows more sunlight to reach lower levels. Proposal 1 is slighly better than proposal 3 with the reason noted above, but both of them have about half of total areas that are hard to provide reasonable sunlight (VSC < 15%). However, using glass for the exterials walls of proposal 3 could help with the situation. Proposal 1 can similarly has large open space area to alleviate the problem.
“Best” Design Option
With the above observations, proposal 3 is recommended as the best design option as it has relatively good tradeoffs with its unique shape. Its roof is suitable for solar implementation. It also has better sun hours compared to proposal 2. Moreover, the various sizes of the different levels can be utilized to obtain more sunlight, such as constructing glass platforms for the extra areas. It can also provide more unique outdoor interactive spaces.