A Non-steady State Test House: Design-Research on the Heterogeneous Interior
Liz Galvez, Professor
Architecture
Applications for Spring 2024 are closed for this project.
To address the phenomenon of extreme weather conditions in relationship with the increase in energy instability, I have tested a series of experimental ideas for managing interior environments through pavilions, installations, exhibitions and essays. These tests put forth architectures that engage environmental management through design tactics and with reduced reliance on electrically fueled thermal equipment. To translate this academic knowledge into real world conditions, I am bringing these ideas together in the construction of a full-scale environmental test-house in Michoacán, Mexico, that combines pre-electrified, passive building technology methods with innovative contemporary methods that propose alternatives to air conditioning. After construction the project will utilize a combination of recording thermal instrumentation paired with interviews and observations to record the measurements of specific conditions such as temperature and humidity in combination with user experience.
The test-house fuses the “utility core” with the “central hearth” to create a bold centralized “thermal mass” in the form of a cruciform that subdivides the cubic volume into four equal quadrants that can each be individually defined by unique, thermal and environmental conditions. I deploy a number of additional strategic, active heating and cooling methods. Simulated analysis of interior comfort technologies necessitates that building scientist abstract specific aspects of the environment. While, traditionally a series of “steady states” or particular conditions are devised to analyze how a specific aspect of the building is operating at a given time, this poses challenges towards the analysis of integrating hybrid technologies operating in synthesis as a greater whole. Hybridizing passive conditioning methods that form a heterogeneous interior present difficulty to “steady state” thermal analysis which may stunt wide-spread adoption. Building full scale structures that can be operated and be analyzed in a dynamic exterior environment will allow me to study aspects of time, both diurnal and throughout the yearly cycle. The nature of hybridity is complex and the abstraction needed to perform digital simulations inherently needs to operate in abstraction, isolating particular elements and the stoppage of time through the use of “steady-states” to simulate particular moments. Lastly, a built and living structure presents the opportunity to correct unforeseen errors through demolition and addition over time.
Qualifications: Personal Skills: Detail Oriented, Clear Communicator, Self-directed
Software Skills: Adobe Creative Suite, Rhinoceros, Rendering (Other)
Hours: 6-8 hrs
Related website: https://officeforexample.org/
Related website: https://officeforexample.org/