Features of the Building Envelope
Locations and Properties of Wall Surfaces
The building features an exterior wall with wood on metal studs and a wood shake finish layer to provide a rustic look and feel to the building. The exterior wall has an R-value of 57.4 and absorptance of 0.7. Additionally the building has a green roof over the majority of the roof area which provides both thermal mass and building cooling effects. This green roof will be an active part of the exhibit hall as guests can walk beside it on the way to different exhibit halls. The lower floor uses predominantly this wall surfaces combined with windows as it is mostly exhibit halls and offices while the upper floor also utilizes a curtain wall. I had the exhibit halls encased in the wood shake wall as I felt that a curtain wall would be too distracting for an exhibit hall. The curtain walls have Triple glazing - 1/8 in thick - low-E/low-E/clear (e = 0.05) glass to ensure energy efficiency and reduce solar heat gain when possible. The curtain wall is located at the center of the property so guests can enjoy the view and eat at the café/bar bathed in natural sunlight and warmth.
Locations and properties of the window, glazing, and skylight surfaces
Windows were placed very carefully and purposefully at this exhibit hall. The curtain walls mentioned above provide the most amount of windows and views in the entire property to wow viewers as the first walk inside. For the exhibit halls, windows were placed high above to maximize wall space for art exhibits and to reduce background “noise” to make the sole focus the room itself. These windows provide the opportunity for daylighting while not being distracting. Where there was an opportunity for windows without compromising the exhibits I made sure to add them. This is shown through the windows in the gift shop to allow shoppers to take in the view while they are browsing different gifts. It also provides daylighting to this area. The office section below has the most windows as it creates a more wholesome workspace. Large operable windows are placed in the offices and conference rooms to provide better comfort and natural ventilation. It also provides daylighting to the office and unbelievable views.
Locations of shading features
Shading was achieved in a variety of ways on this property including roof shading and light shelves. The upper and bottom floor roofs have an overhang on the south facing side to allow for shading during the summer and sunlight during the winter. The curtain walls on the upper floor have light shelves to both deflect direct sunlight and bounce it further into the room to allow for more daylighting effectiveness. There is no shading on the sides of the building as this sunlight is encouraged to enter through the high windows in the exhibit halls.
Solar Analysis
Due to the shape of the building and the amount of exposed roof, the potential for solar at this property is extremely encouraging. A payback of 2.5 years is definitely something worth considering for this project and the right step in the direction of ZNE.
Insight Analysis
Baseline:
At the baseline benchmark comparison the building is performing decently well at below the ASHRAE 90.1 but not nearly low enough for the goals of my overall building energy consumption.
BIM Parameters:
When adjusting all of the settings to the values I put in my Revit model the results are drastically different. We see that the building shows an EUI of 0.38 which is very close to the ZNE goals of this project!
Maxed Out Parameters:
Without changing certain parameters such as WWR or aspects that will change the overall design of the building, there is still some energy efficiency gains to be made. The changes I made to the previous model are included below:
The final benchmark comparison shows that we have negative EUI which achieves my project goal of ZNE. The items above are things to focus on in the next design updates so that the building is performing to its peak capabilities.
