Architecture

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Back of the Envelope Calculator

By Shraddha Marathe posted on Thu, 2010-01-28 15:52 , 1290 reads, 2 comments

http://www.ecw.org/project.php?workid=12&resultid=...

Created by Energy Center of Wisconsin

You might be pondering these questions:

- What happens to cooling costs if I double my roof insulation?

- Does lighting efficiency also affect heating energy?

- Does it cost a lot to keep my building open longer?

- What if my building was made of glass?

- How much CO2 will this building produce annually?

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(2 comments)

Google Earth now has detailed facades from Street View (select cities only)

By Ken Goulding posted on Fri, 2009-11-20 16:12 , 344 reads, 1 comment

http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2009/11/buildin...

Google has used imagery from Street View to add high-res facades to buildings in five California cities: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Franciso, Berkeley and Stockton. This kind of facade mapping works best for solid street walls without much articulation. The mapping is not always perfect, but the results are still impressive (and provide a good sense of the quality of the urban fabric).

You can browse these cities in Google Earth or check out the video below:

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(1 comment)

Design Inspirations: The Creative Process

By Steven Wilson posted on Thu, 2009-10-29 11:11 , 1063 reads, 0 comments

The third in the fall Design Dialogue series, this presentation challenges our current design process and conventions. The hour long discussion was led by a panel representing architecture, interiors, urban design, and landscape architecture.read more

Attachments:

Design Dialouge_Oct_FINAL-with notes.ppt

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Wind turbines with low visual impact

By Ken Goulding posted on Fri, 2009-10-23 14:14 , 258 reads, 1 comment

http://www.thepowercollective.com/ridgeblade.htm

"RidgeBlade addresses the issues associated with traditional micro-wind generation technologies. The unique design means it can reliably produce electricity in low or variable wind conditions whilst creating very little visual impact. This means that it is suitable for locations including urban houses, rural buildings and environmentally-sensitive sites such as National Parks."

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(1 comment)

The Shades Don't Need to be Down!

By Meredith Elbaum posted on Fri, 2009-08-07 09:42 , 774 reads, 2 comments

In open floor-plan office buildings once an interior shade is lowered it often remains down because no one has ownership of the shade. Lowered shades limit views to the outdoors and available daylight and consequently increasing electric lighting loads. Alternatively, though while expensive, mechanized interior shades can optimize daylight and views and alleviate the problem. We can offset the The added cost of the mechanical shade can often be offset by not installing shades on the north facade where there are few hours they are needed and with long-term energy savings.read more

Attachments:

North_Facing_Windows_Interior_Shading_Assessment.ppt

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(2 comments)

Ecotect Daylight Reality Check

By Meredith Elbaum posted on Fri, 2009-08-07 08:38 , 568 reads, 1 comment

Computer simulation models can be very valuable tools but how accurate are they? Sasaki uses Ecotect and Radiance for daylight analysis and wanted to make sure the data we were looking at was accurate. We took light level readings in an enclosed room in our office and then modeled the same space in Ecotect and compared the two. We concluded that the Ecotect model seems to provide an acceptable first order estimate of interior light levels due to daylight. The full report is included here.

Attachments:

ECOTECT DAYLIGHT REALITY CHECK.pdf

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(1 comment)

Programming a Napkin Sketch

By Ken Goulding posted on Thu, 2009-07-16 16:51 , 689 reads, 2 comments

While building programming is an integral part of the architectural design process, it's seldom given a high priority until fairly late in the game. We wanted to bring programming discussions to the table even as early as the napkin sketch and created a simple tool to do so.

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(2 comments)

Are you REALLY using Geothermal Energy?

By Steve Benz posted on Thu, 2009-07-16 07:47 , 1077 reads, 1 comment

SO you want to include geothermal energy on your building project!

I remember when I was a kid watching the nightly news. Off the coast of Iceland, the Atlantic Continental Rift was tearing the world apart, and hot magma was spewing forth to create the new island of Surtsey. Night after night on TV we saw nature's fury--incredible sources of energy from within the earth itself--unleashed to demonstrate just how powerful geothermal energy can be.read more

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(1 comment)

Energy Benchmarking Projects

By Meredith Elbaum posted on Fri, 2009-06-19 11:03 , 522 reads, 1 comment

As a helpful exercise to get a sense for how we are doing at reducing energy in our building projects, Sasaki created this chart to show the trends in building performance as determined through energy modeling. The chart shows the types of building projects and their projected energy performance above a "average" building of the same type. The goals from the 2030 Challenge are shown as a comparison point for how these projects track against those targets.

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(1 comment)

About ideas.sasaki.com

Sasaki Associates is an interdisciplinary firm of 300 professionals. Our founder, Hideo Sasaki, instilled the firm with a passion for critical thinking and open inquiry. In this spirit we created ideas.sasaki.com, to share our ideas and process with our colleagues, clients, and anyone else interested in our work. We hope you are inspired to engage us in further conversations about the topics you see here. Email us at ideas @ sasaki.com for more info

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