I chose the recommended Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve as my site. The abundance of greenery and wildlife will provide a perfect backdrop for the Learning and Exhibition Center and the integration with nature that I want to incorporate. Additionally, the mild climate allows for minimal strategies to maintain thermal comfort indoors, providing greater potential for energy savings.
From there, I began exploring different conceptual mass alternatives. Here is the first one (along with the solar analysis results):
With this first model, I wanted to start playing around with incorporating an atrium space that is connected to the outside. I made this one relatively flat and wide, so it has three floors.
In Insight, I played around with several of the factors, however, I found that the building orientation did not affect the performance of this model.
This is the second conceptual mass I looked at:
With this, I wanted to look at a more curvilinear structure. This one has less potential PV energy production compared to the other model, perhaps because this has less floor area per level, so it’s significantly taller.
After adjusting the factors in Insight to the same as the other model, this one has a lower energy usage and is closer to the Architecture 2030 goal.
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