Project site
The location that I chose for my site is in Nanyuki, Kenya. Surrounding the site are major tourist attraction sites including Mt Kenya, Mt Kenya National park, Aberdare National Park and a number of wildlife conservancies. This makes it a perfect location for an exhibition space, in addition to temporary accommodations for visitors that visit the attraction sites. There aren’t many buildings surrounding the site and vegetation is mostly short grass and shrubs. This, in addition to the lack of buildings around the site will make it less challenging to provide spectacular views of Mt. Kenya and the surrounding wildlife conservancies. The site is also located next to Pelecan Reservoir which presents an opportunity when thinking about water collection, and irrigation of green spaces that will be a part of and around the building.
Below are some pictures of the site location from google earth and a few surrousing attractions:
Local climate condition
Nanyuki wasn’t one of the cities whose data was available, so i used Nyeri which is located in a similar climate zone as Nanyuki and experiences relatively similar weather. The climate in Nanyuki is tropical monsoon, with summers that are short, warm and mostly cloudy and winters that are short cool and partly cloudy. The temperature typically varies from 51 deg F to 76 deg F and is rarely below 47 deg F (Weather spark).
The psychometric chart shows that the top three design strategies are related to Internal heat gain, Sun shading of windows and Passive solar direct gain high mass respectively. This tells me that on the heating side, a lot of attention needs to be paid to internal loads (lighting, appliances and people), and the building envelope that related to the passive direct solar gain high mass. On the cooling side sun shading seems to be the most effective strategy.
The daylight hours and twilight hours in Nanyuki are very balanced as it is located on the equator. This is a positive thing when thinking about solar PV as source of energy for the building.
Analysis and building massing study
Option 1: Curved concept for views
This option was driven by my motivation to make the most of the amazing views that this site faces. Since I want the two upper floors to be accomodation for tourists, I want the occupants to enjoy views of the beautiful mountains, nature and wild life from any of the rooms. Even from the exhibition floor (level 1).
Solar analysis
The solar analysis is a little inaccurate because the weather station was more than 50 miles away. I am curious how this affected the results. Option 1 was predicted to produce about 438, 288 kWh/year with a ~19 paypack peiod. The solar energy output is lower than I expected so it is something that I would need to investigate further.
Rotating the building did not have a significant impact on the energy production which shows that oriention doesn’t have as much impact on energy production from solar panels.
Energy analysis
The energy use from option 1 is about 175 kWh/m2/yr which is higher than Ashrae 90.1 . From the analysis, plug load and lighting efficiency variations had significant effects on the energy use and would be things to watch out for.
Option 2: Tripple curved concept to maximize views further
Soalr analysis
Like in option 1, the solar analysis is a little inaccurate because the weather station was more than 50 miles away. I am curious how this affected the results. Option 2 is predicted to produce about 353, 981kWh/year with a ~25 paypack peiod. This is lower perfomance compared to option 1.
Rotating the building still did not have a significant impact on the energy production like in option 1
Energy analysis
The energy use from option 2 is about 240 kWh/m2/yr which is higher than Ashrae 90.1 . Once more, the plug load and lighting efficiency variations had significant effects on the energy consumption
Conclusion and comparison
Overall, option 1 leads to production of more solar pv energy which will help me get closer to achieving my net zero goal. The design also uses less energy than option B. I will be paying a lot of attention to plug loads and lighting design and fixture choices - these are also related to the internal loads which, as predicted by the psychometric chat, is a top design strategy for this climate, on the heating side. The graphs below show side by side comparison. I will be moving forward with option 1 and taking advantage of curvature to maximize views, whilst also paying attention solar analysis results and how that affect shading needs, glazing needs, etc. The design will most definitely change a lot but I think that this is a good place to begin.
