Energy & Architecture

Project 1

Low Energy Building Analysis

This was a group project between two students. The aim was for us to choose a Low Energy or Net Zero building (international or otherwise) and prepare an infographical video discussing the building's environmental-friendly strategies and how they are implemented into its HVAC systems, building facade and so on - focusing on only one specific category to be explored in depth.

Our choice of building was the New Balance World Headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts, which had received a LEED Platinum certificationin 2016 and is first in America to achieve all possible credits in LEED's Indoor Environmental Quality category.

Reflection:

This was to say the least, a challenging project. I had issues communicating with my other groupmate throughout the whole duration of this project as they were largely inactive, and I had not planned out a timeline with mini-deadlines which would have assisted us greatly in completing each stage of the project consistently over time. I would have also given more time to the choice of building in retrospect, as most of the information we could obtain about New Balance's HQ was from only a handful of sites.

However, the bright side of this assignment was that I was able to brush up my skills in video editing and arranging information in a video format that would make it easily digestible and concise. Training my patience in working with other people could also count as another soft skill I learnt here. Despite the hardships face in this project, I did have quite a few takeaways as to what environmental strategies could be implemented in building and construction to create buildings that give back to the earth more than they take.

Project 2

Energy Audit E-Report

The second and final project in this module was an individual assignment, in which we had to create an e-report/audit of the energy consumption of our own home, followed up by proposing solutions to reducing said consumption or fixing any issues with regards to the environment of our own home (i.e. too much glare, high interior temperatures. etc).

Reflection:

After the last assignment, I was glad to be able to work on a project on my own without needing to liaise with others. it helped that my previous Architecture & Environment module had a similar assignment in which I had to collect environmental data about my own living space. Aside from collecting climactic data, the main task was recording the hours and capacity of energy usage of every device in my apartment. Having my senior's and peer's work to refer to helped me significantly in learning how to arrange the information in tables, and how to interpret the data. I learnt to display the data in regards to what hours of the day used the most energy, which appliances consumed energy the most, and what variables (such as occupant behaviour) may impact why the data appears as it does.

Overall, I think my time management for this project was better, and learning from past successful examples as to how to collect, arrange, and interpret data as well as how to display my analysis out was a massive help.

Reflection

In conclusion, through the various assignments, lectures and quizzes, I was able to gain a better understanding of why environmental strategies are important in today's world where the climate crisis is becoming an increasingly prevalent concern. I learnt the various ways people have been able to implement net zero strategies into modern architecture and what systems can be modified or upgraded to reduce energy consumption in a building.

Soft skills I learnt include learning to cooperate with other people in group settings, time management, recording and analysing data.