Your Design Journal entries for this module should highlight:
- the design alternatives that you modeled and tested
- the results of the analyses and how they influenced your thinking about how to move forward
Use text , images, web links, movies... Whatever media works best to express your ideas!
Images of Your 3 Design Proposals
Design 1 - Circular shape
Design 2 - Stacked and offset angular
Design 3 - layered stack
Paste screenshots of your 3 proposed building forms here...
Side-By-Side Comparisons of Your Analysis Results
Sun Hours analysis comparison
Daylight potential comparison
Your Recommendation for the “Best” Design Option
Create a few paragraphs outlining a brief explanation of why you chose this design option as the “best” after comparing your analyses of the proposals. Explain your reasoning and the tradeoffs that influenced your decision about which design option to move forward with.
Design 1 with the stacked circular yield the best performance out of the 3 proposed building design. The Sun Hour Analysis demonstrated that design 1 in general have more than 7.3 hours of sun during the summer time, while the concave part in design 3 only gets 0.6 - 1.5 hours. Although the stacked angular in design 2 seems to have a decent sun hour performance, the overhang blocked quiet a lot of sun for the floor below. Similarly, due to the higher sun hour provided in design 1, it also yield a higher daylight potential in comparison to the other 2 designs. The higher the sun exposure is, the more natural light in the interior space, which can help achieve sustainability by using less artificial lights and lower electricity usage. The mirrored layers in design 3 shows a direct relation of light and building structure; top part is offset and exposed to the sunlight, therefore higher sun hour and daylight potential. On the other hand, the bottom part is resided inward so less lighting offered.
Personally I like the form in design 1 the most in addition to the overall better performance. The flat roof can be transformed into green roof with interactive features for the user. Not only will it provide more characteristic, but also further reduce heat gain during the summer time and heat loss during winter time because of the landscape insulation. The curvature of the building also helps with wind factors. However, one major downside of circular building is that they tend to cost more in construction and also take longer time.