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Envelope as Climate Negotiator: Evaluating adaptive building envelope's capacity to moderate indoor climate and energy

abstract: Through manipulation of adaptable opportunities available within a given environment, individuals become active participants in managing personal comfort requirements, by exercising control over their comfort without the assistance of mechanical heating and cooling systems. Similarly, continuous manipulation of a building skin's form, insulation, porosity, and transmissivity qualities exerts control over the energy exchanged between indoor and outdoor environments. This research uses four adaptive response variables in a modified software algorithm to explore an adaptive building skin's potential in reacting to environmental stimuli with the purpose of minimizing energy use without sacrificing occupant comfort. Results illustrate that significant energy savings can be realized with adaptive envelopes over static building envelopes even under extreme summer and winter climate conditions; that the magnitude of these savings are dependent on climate and orientation; and that occupant thermal comfort can be improved consistently over comfort levels achieved by optimized static building envelopes. The resulting adaptive envelope's unique climate-specific behavior could inform designers in creating an intelligent kinetic aesthetic that helps facilitate adaptability and resiliency in architecture. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Environmental Design and Planning 2013

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:asu.edu/item:18091
Date January 2013
ContributorsErickson, James (Author), Bryan, Harvey (Advisor), Addison, Marlin (Committee member), Kroelinger, Michael (Committee member), Reddy, T. Agami (Committee member), Arizona State University (Publisher)
Source SetsArizona State University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeDoctoral Dissertation
Format207 pages
Rightshttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/, All Rights Reserved

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