Glenn Katz
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
Paste screenshots of your 3 proposed building forms here...
Almost circular shape with 5 floors and small ledges. Has taller bottom floor to have a big open area when you first enter the building
Boxy shape with built in overhangs and possible terraces. This design has 8 floors and gives more opportunities to get creative with the ledge space.
This building has a unique shape with a large bottom floor. It is very tall with 9 floors and promotes good views.
Side-By-Side Comparisons of Your Analysis Results
Paste at least 2 screenshots showing the side-by-side comparisons of the analysis results for your 3 proposed building forms here…
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.
Solar Rooftop Potential:
-Maximizing the energy that can be produced by solar panels is a main goal I want to prioritize in my project so I chose to analyze the potential. This will help me be as close to zero net energy as possible
-Proposal 1 has the greatest rooftop area with the highest solar potential. The big flat roof that takes up almost the entire building site gives us the biggest space to place photovoltaics.
-Proposal 2 has the second best performance if I choose to put panels across all the different floors. I am not sure how this affects the buildability with the infrastructure that is required for solar pv so this is something to think about. I also might turn some of the ledges into terraces or gardens instead of using the space for panels.
-Proposal 3 does not have a very big roof and most of the ledges could barely fit any panels. How ever if I were to put panels on the bottom ledge it would likely promote the use of solar pv since it will be seen by those in the building from most floors. This is a cool idea I might incorporate in my final design. No one sees solar panels very often since they are hidden away on roofs and this could be a cool idea to promote and inspire for sustainability
Daylight Potential:
-Another goal is to maximize the amount of sun that can enter the building to limit the use of artificial lights and reduce energy consumption.
-Proposal 3 has the most daylight potential because no part of the building is shading another part of it. Where as the other two have some amount of built in “overhangs”. The height of the building also increases the potential since it is taller than the surrounding buildings and does not experience much shading.
-Proposal 1 is a close second and the gradual turn of the building brings in more light from more angles. Another aspect that would help increase daylight potential is if I kept the circular shap but added an atrium in the middle. This would let in more light through the middle of the building to ensure it is not just the outer walls that have a high potential. This idea of an atrium could be a design aspect that I use in my final version.
-Proposal 3 blocks light in some areas but also brings sunlight in more towards the middle of the building in certain floors. This could be used instead of an atrium to illuminate the middle of the building if its angled the right way and doesn’t shade itself
Sun Hours
-The irradiance my building gets its also important for solar energy. It is also important to make sure my building isn’t causing another to perform worse by blocking the sun.
-The buildings perform very similarly when looking at the side the sun hits. However if we look at it from the Northeastern angle we can see how they differ.
-Proposal 3 has the greatest area with the best sun hours. Barely any part of it is in the darker shade. However, due to its height it shades the building next to it. I could fix this by making it wider and less tall. This is something to keep in mine in my final design.
-Proposal 1 has the second best sun hours due to its circular shape. It also doesn’t block the surrounding buildings.
-Proposal 2 has the most dark colored area and also has it on the side facing the sun due to the ledges. This is not the most ideal choice.
After analyzing the buildings with different focus areas. The design I think my building will be the most like is Proposal 1. It doesn’t interfere with the performance of the other buildings, and has good performances overall. I would like to add more atriums to bring in more natural light towards the middle of the building since it has a large diameter right now. I also might make it more of a hexagonal shape and less circular for the sake of buildability and optimizing space inside. I also may make the ledges slightly bigger for terraces or gardens. The main reason why I chose Proposal 1 over 3 was the rooftop potential. Although I do like the idea of having the pv panels visible to promote green buildings, there is not enough space overall, to produce the amount of energy we need. I also do not think it is visually as appealing as the other options.