fall 2005
ARC 560/696:
Advanced Design: The University of Texas at Austin 2005 Solar D House
Texts
- Solar Decathlon: UTSOA/CMPBS Building Workshop-Report, June 7, 2002.
- Solar Decathlon 2002: The Event in Review, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), DOE/GO-102004-1845, June 2004
- Solar Decathlon 2005 Workshop, Washington D.C., June 2003
- UT Solar Decathlon 2005 Report, School of Architecture, The University of Texas at Austin, August 2004
- www.solardecathlon.org
- www.ar.utexas.edu/utsolard
Objective
The objective of this studio is to investigate the application of building systems that may be utilized to design and construct environmentally responsive architecture. Building systems will be studied as the integration of low entropy technologies that contribute to green architecture. Building systems also include the principles, conventions, standards, applications, and restrictions associated with the manufacture and use of existing and emerging construction materials and assemblies and with their effect on the renewability of the environment. An important raison deter of green architecture is that progressive technological capability uniquely offers solutions to the serious emerging challenges of energy and sustainability. New and improved materials, structures, energy concepts, etc. have a special role to play. It is therefore important for contemporary architecture to embrace cutting-edge technology, which thereby becomes a strong design and form shaping force.
Process
The course will link the theory and practice of sustainable design and planning with the intention of familiarizing the student with the salient issues of green architecture, including: 1) the green imperative, philosophy and resource trends, 2) thinking tools and the use of dynamic models, 3) hands-on building 4) integration and design build and 5) building system post-occupancy analysis. The goal is to re-establish the continuity and inter-relationship between the process of conceiving, making, and using the building and landscape, and to empower designers to refine environmentally responsive architecture.
The 2005 Texas Solar D House
The students will spend the major part of each studio in the field, sketching, fabricating, testing and hands-on assembly, disassembly and documenting the solar decathlon project. The final outcome of the effort is on of an operating demonstration project. This project will be reconstructed in working order on the National Mall in Washington D.C. and operated in October 2005.
Hands-On Studio
More and more of our knowledge in a contemporary society is mediate, less and less is immediate. Much of our knowledge of buildings is grounded in differentiated knowledge without proper grounding in action and immediate experience.
To provide for a pedagogical method to link architectural theory to practice many "green building" groups are emphasizing, "hands-on" building workshops as a method of grounding building design knowledge in action and immediate experience. In this way the students are able to evaluate the performance of design decisions. Hands-on learning seeks to re-establish the continuity and inter-relationship between the processes of conceiving, making, and using buildings. In Sam Mockbee's words, "its the importance of making and thinking at the same time."
For both students and professionals there is little information available that documents the physical performance of existing buildings. Typically buildings have been presented based upon the stated intent of the design team. Published photos or drawings represent the building at the completion of construction. The "hands-on" process fosters a pedagogical approach that encourages faculty and students to discover how buildings really work as they are constructed and occupied. Through observation, iresearch and data gained by designing and then building the design, students discover lessons on the success and failure of different design approaches. Analysis of the material observed in the field, along with comparisons to values derived by model studies, computer simulation and rule-of-thumb calculations, gives students an opportunity to assess whether the stated design intent has been achieved and to understand and describe the variety of ways occupants actually experience a building.
"Hands on" workshops argue in favor of experiential knowledge over abstract knowledge. While experiential knowledge is an essential component of what students need, it lacks an understanding of the critical agency required of design professionals. At its worst, a "hands-on" pedagogy could be reduced to the merely vocational or to the accumulation of tacit knowledge. Vitruvius saw a danger in a too narrow focus of an architect's education and stressed that an architect's education must involve both practice and theory based on the premise that "architects who have aimed at acquiring manual skill without scholarship have never been able to reach a position of authority to correspond to their pains, while those who relied only upon theories and scholarship were obviously hunting the shadow, not the substance...In all maters, but particularly in the holistic study of architecture, there are these two points: the thing signified and that which gives it its significance."
The holistic approach to design with climate requires the ability to distinguish "know how" from "know why." The key to developing this ability is found in the root work of education, educe, which means "to bring out, elicit, develop, from a condition of latent, rudimentary, or merely potential existence." It is important not only to understand the relationship of the parts to the whole, but also to understand the implications: from different points of view and in different contexts--the process of "what if" that is integral to improving the quality of design with climate. This level of understanding involves both disciplinary and interdisciplinary learning. It is this area that the solar decathlon studio experience is especially potent as the forum in which disciplinary knowledge and interdisciplinary understanding take place.
Evaluation Criteria
The evaluation criteria used in the studio will be based on the keeping of a site journal, and design projects in presentation form that emanate from the journal relating how the building systems used in the solar decathlon will be explained to others via the solar decathlon website, newsletter and hard copy display and in the actualization of these design ideas in the on-site construction of the solar D house on the UT campus.
The importance of a journal helps the creator in organizing their thoughts and keeping a record of where you have been and where you are going as an architect. It is assumed that some type of framework or organizational system is put forward, which combines things like methodologies, graphic support, time lines, discoveries, proposals, quotes, notes from readings and other ideas. The learning process afforded by the field recording experience has open been responsible for the student developing significant architectural contributions in later life. The actual medium for this site journal is open and could be on computer, website, or hand crafted or yet some other form.
The design projects in presentation form are meant to involve the student in documenting the design projects. The framework can be as provocative on one wants but it must be inclusive.
All sketchbooks and design documentations will be put on public display in the Solar Decathlon office library in Washington D.C. with the best work placed on the constant play office monitor via the office computer, the website and the daily printed newsletter in Washington D.C. Individual journals and design documentations will be evaluated in the following manner:
- Rigor—daily records kept in orderly, trackable manner so that one can understand how decisions were made relative to individual and group activities.
- Content—organized referencing of products, vendors, specifications, life cycle impact information, websites, etc.
- Innovative thinking—system of thinking with support drawings, photos, or models relative to how parts fit into the whole from sub-component to assembly, which in turn responds to the building sub-system and finally the building. Your understanding of building systems will be evident from how this is designed and structured.
The Ten Solar Contests
The Solar Decathlon consists of ten contests that encompass all of the ways in which people use energy in their daily lives, at work, at home and at play. Each contest is worth 100 points, except for the Design and Livability contest, which is worth 200 points. You are asked to review the enclosed schedule and sign up for one of the team tasks.
- Design and Livability
- Design Presentation and Simulation
- Graphics and Communication
- The Comfort Zone
- Refrigeration
- Hot Water
- Energy Balance
- Lighting
- Home Business
- Getting Around
- Each team should review the National Renewable Energy Lab/Solar Decathlon Website to determine the rules for each contest, how the contest is to be evaluated and how the UT solar D team will go about documenting compliance and how we have good on to create if not excellence at least commotion!
- Each team should design a set of electronic files (PDF file) that graphically, Verbally, and/or numerically documents the achievement of their area of Investigation.
- Each team should prepare the electronic files for:
- Printing hard copies for display the visual display in Washington D.C.
- To be used for the printing of the hand-out in Washington D.C.
- To be used for updating the solar decathlon website in both Washington D. C.
- and in Austin
- Each team should prepare a final report of their documentation for a progress report in August 2005.