Design Ideas - Xuhuan Zhao

Journal Entry For
Module 1 - Design Inspirations & Big Feature Ideas

The bay area is known for its good weather, including cloudless sky and the lack of rains, throughout the year. Therefore, I would like to maximize the daylight inside the building with a lot of opening and skylight. In this way, we may reduce the energy consumption to maintain the brightness inside the building. On the other hand, creating too many openings may result higher energy consumption to maintain the comfortable temperature. I found it interesting to study what’s the trade off and where is a optimal point.

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I have also read through articles (https://insideclimatenews.org/news/28072022/inside-clean-energy-solar-windows/) about how the PV panels may be hidden inside the windows/curtain walls to generate energy. It would be interesting to put this kind of product to a sustainable exhibition center.

I want to have an accessible roof (maybe green roof) where people may enjoy the view looking down towards the Stanford Campus. At the same time, I want to have the first floor somewhat faded into the nature nearby and fade the idea of inside/outside building. I would like to take advantage of good weather and wind to minimize the energy needed for that part.

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In terms of the shape, I don’t want the building to be too organic. The Stanford Campus has the Richardsonian Romanesque style, so this exhibition center shouldn’t standout and be drastically different from the rest of the campus building. I think the below image of Exhibition Center of Shimao Shenzhen is a good example that represents a modern center that shows elegancy but also fits into the regular rectangular building category.

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