I chose the Stanford Dish site due to the wide, open space and unobstructive land cover. This means I won’t have to worry as much about daylighting, and also gives me more creative freedom concerning the aesthetics of the building.
Looking at the psychrometric chart generated by Climate Consultant for climate zone 3, viable passive design strategies include sun shading of windows, materials selection (low/vs high thermal mass depending on time of year - but since active heating will definitely be needed as it comprises 29.9% of comfortable hours, maybe place a little more emphasis on low thermal mass materials for cooling during summer).
Since I am still using conceptual masses and haven’t yet specified building materials, I started utilizing solar paths to play with different building geometries and gage the effects on shadowing throughout the year. It makes sense to have a southern glass facade for natural lighting, but with a rooftop overhang to mitigate overheating during summer months. Below are 2 different designs with overhangs, with one having an atrium. I then used Solar Analysis to gage PV potential. Both designs have PV paybacks of 15-16 years (for rooftop surface), which is acceptable considering the building lifetime should be considerably longer. I am currently evaluating shorter buildings with a wider footprint (but still same GFA). My next step will be using Insight to compare EUI between these models.
