HVAC System Strategy
I placed a HVAC central unit on the roof of my building in a central location. The ducting was then brought down into the second floor and then down to the first floor, through the mechanical rooms on each floor. The number of airflow terminals were calculated based on the HVAC load analysis required for each room’s space occupancy. I designed my ducting to be generally wider than taller in order to minimize the amount of ceiling height that would lost with taller ducts.
I placed the supply ducts above the return ducts to avoid conflicts/clashes. My strategy was to place air terminals next to windows when possible to counteract convective currents that occur in these locations and create a more comfortable environment for the user.
I placed zone controllers in a few strategic locations, namely for each cluster of private offices, some of the exhibit areas, and some of the conference rooms. This allows for more precise and efficient control of the temperature in some of these more need-based spaces.
Heating Strategy and Cooling Strategy
The analysis I ran on my building indicated that I would need to focus more on the cooling side rather than heating. Thinking about the function of a large building space like this, this makes sense. Having lots of people coming through to view exhibits, eat and drink in the cafe, and work in offices and conference rooms means there will be added heat load in addition to the heat from the environment itself.
Other strategies to increase cooling in the building could be through adding water features indoors, adding more shading around the building through plants/vines/trellis systems, and/or adding plants indoors.
HVAC System Challenges
Some challenges included joining certain elements together, specifically in ensuring that all elements were at the correct elevation to be successfully joined. Also, since my building is not uniformly laid out, this presented a challenge in creating a routing plan for my ducts and air terminals. In some of the office spaces, for example, the area was quite small to successfully place an air terminal from above. This could have been potentially been resolved by exploring other heating type options, or sizing the rooms slightly differently to accommodate HVAC equipment.
When checking for clashes in the coordination view, there were a few instances where the HVAC system intersected with structural elements.
View of coordination model: https://acc.autodesk.com/model/viewer/projects/96f8eb0f-46d0-4f91-a236-0ea912f00020/model-set/59691809-2b6b-48aa-801e-4892814e929b/models
(used a pre-communicated extension)