Adaptive[skin] - research of kinetic envelope systems

I saw this research about kinetic envelopes and thought it would apply to many of us, and primarily to Ashley Biren. Check out the link below:

http://www.evolo.us/architecture/adaptive-architectural-skins-and-dynamic-environmental-conditions/

Sentire Elementary School

Sentire Elementary School

Issue:

Building climates are typically controlled by centralized mechanical systems that lead to extensive energy consumption and lack individual control and diverse sensual experience of space.  Architects are required to satisfy eighty percent of the occupants, thus compromising the health and productivity of the remaining twenty percent.  Human comfort can enhance the experience of space, increase concentration and performance, and improve occupants’ health.  Consequently, human comfort affects the individual, the economy, and our society at large.   

Sentire Elementary School architectural context:

The Toronto District School Board advocates equitable and inclusive education.  Sentire Elementary School fosters equality and inclusion through its ambition to design spaces that are climatically comfortable to all occupants, in attempt to enhance students’ concentration and learning abilities.  Adaptive spaces will respond to various activities and their optimal weather requirements.  The school will visually demonstrate changing climatic conditions to foster students’ awareness and understanding of weather parameters, and to encourage them to playfully change their surroundings; thus increasing their understanding of the impact they have on the environment.

Sentīre (Latin)

·       Perceive, feel, experience

·       Think, realize, see, understand[1]

Site:

The Sentire Elementary School will be located in the emerging West Don Lands neighbourhood.  The West Don Lands Precinct Plan indicates that the community will have approximately 860 elementary school children, and that the building will be constructed when 250 children require school.  The Sentire Elementary School will be designed for 250 students, yet account for future expansion.  The plan calls for designs that foster innovation and creativity and for “smart” buildings and education.  The Sentire Elementary School will strive to meet these criteria through its form and materiality, and through its playful interaction between building and students that make invisible climatic phenomena visible. 

Client:

Toronto District School Board

Strategy 1:

Respond to the ideal temperature levels based on the human circadian rhythm and the type of activity taking place in each space.

Educational | architectural context:

Elementary school operates between approximately 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.  During this time the body is primarily in heat-gain mode, and students are generally most active.  Human comfort will depend on individual parameters such as metabolic rate and clothing, and on external parameters including temperature, air movement, and relative humidity.  The building can respond to students’ metabolic rate by adapting the climate, for example through reducing the temperature and increasing air movement after breakfast and lunch.  Furthermore, the building can respond to types of activity; higher levels of activity such as exercise and play require lower temperature and relative humidity than calm activities including studying and performing arts.

Tactic #1:

Organize the school according to the various activities and their corresponding climatic necessities. 

Tactic #2:

Create a relationship between spaces such that thermal conditions in one place can transfer to another as necessary.

Tactic #3:

Design the building’s form and envelope to utilize external weather conditions to reduce the building’s reliance on fossil fuels.

Strategy 2: Design spaces that adapt to several climatic requirements.

Educational | architectural context:

Several activities that require different climatic conditions take place in classrooms, such as studying and playing, and necessitate adaptive surroundings.  Teachers nowadays typically control a classroom’s climate by opening windows or managing the HVAC system.  Spaces can naturally adapt to the occupants’ needs based on the activity taking place; thus creating comfortable spaces both when teachers are and are not around. 

Tactic #1:

People produce varying degrees of vapor based on their activity.  Sensors that track the vapor level can change the climatic conditions of the space as necessary.

Tactic #2:

Provide a control panel that will override the sensors and condition the space based on a prescribed activity.

Tactic #3:

Utilize smart materials that respond to climatic stimuli.

Glass Panel Shutter System [Illustration]. dO|Su STUDIO ARCHITECTURE. Retrieved February 20, 2014, from http://www.dosu-arch.com/smartwindow.html

Tracheolis [Illustration]. dO|Su STUDIO ARCHITECTURE. Retrieved February 20, 2014, from http://www.dosu-arch.com/tracheolis.html#

Strategy 3: Visualize climatic conditions to stimulate a rich sensual experience.

Educational | architectural context:

Visualizing relative humidity, temperature, and air movement velocity will foster occupants’ awareness of interior climate and an understanding of their individual comfort level.  Building components can playfully react to climatic conditions to encourage students’ engagement with and transformation of the building.

Tactic #1:

Utilize smart materials that respond to climatic stimuli.

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[1] Latin definition for: sentio, sentire, sensi, sensus. (n.d.). Latin Definition for: sentio, sentire, sensi, sensus (ID: 34697). Retrieved February 20, 2014, from http://www.latin-dictionary.net/definition/34697/sentio-sentire-sensi-sensus

Atmosphere Habitat

NOVEL ARCHITECTURAL SENSES

Human comfort is determined by various climatic parameters, most importantly by wind, heat and humidity.  Construction standards require architects to conform to a prescribed atmospheric condition for each space to provide human comfort to most occupants.  Building climates are thus controlled by centralized mechanical systems that consume much energy, and lack individual control.  Architects must seek innovative methods of providing human comfort within the built environment.

People are unique, and therefore it is impossible to satisfy everyone with a homogenous climatic condition.  Architects have therefore established that an acceptable interior climate needs to agree with eighty percent of the occupants.  While this standard may seem reasonable, the plethora of information and technologies available today render it possible to include the remaining twenty percent. 

Human comfort can enhance the experience of space, increase concentration and performance, and improve occupants’ health.  Consequently, human comfort affects the individual, the economy, and our society at large.

The first area architects must reconsider is the exterior envelope.  Our hermetically sealed buildings do well to separate us from extreme climatic conditions, yet compromise the potential to reduce energy by utilizing exterior temperature, wind, and humidity when climate permits.  Biological systems, including our own skin, offer viable examples of envelopes that are able to simultaneously reject and embrace elements according to their desirability.  Building envelopes can further utilize climatic conditions to generate electricity and reduce the energy load of the building.

Secondly, architects must reconsider the organization of interior areas.  Energy flows through spaces to achieve equilibrium, warming colder areas and humidifying drier areas in the process.  Certain interior spaces are naturally humid and warm, including greenhouses and bathrooms.  These areas can provide necessary humidity and heat to adjacent spaces to achieve comfort.  Such a method will require architects to rethink the boundaries of each space to allow only the desired amount of humidity and heat to penetrate adjacent spaces.  Excess humidity can cause the building fabric to disintegrate and rot, and humans to develop sickness.  Biological organisms, including various plants, offer us examples of how to manage such boundaries.

Thirdly, architects should reconsider the sensual experience of climatic conditions.  Although our body does not provide us an accurate sense of the climate, it is able to identify whether a space is humid, dry, cold, or hot.  Greater understanding of climate can be achieved through employing materials that evidently react to specific parameters, for instance through changing colours or shape according to the humidity level and temperature of a space.  These materials will increase the perception of space and understanding of the individual’s comfort zone. 

Finally, architects must find ways to let individual control the climate of areas they inhabit for extended periods of time.  As our spaces become increasingly shared and open, it will not be possible to solve this problem by surrounding each individual zone with walls.  Areas would have to be climatically controlled via an open space.  Smart materials and technologically advanced sensors may be able to assist us in reaching this goal.

The study of biological organisms, smart materials and advancements in technology can contribute to the creation of responsive interior climates that are energy efficient, individually controlled, and which increase our sensual experience of space.