Arch 125: Intro to Environmental Design

Winter 2015: Project #1

Residential Lighting Studies Assignment 20%

Problem statement:

"Our modern neighbourhoods use a variety of housing types whose origin dates from the early modern period of design. This legacy has left us with varying conditions of "quality" in our neighbourhoods as a direct result of building spacing, interstitial space and access to natural light."

The purpose of the project is to understand the effect building spacing, orientation and placement as they affect natural lighting and access to light. This also changes the quality of life in the residential environment/neighbourhood. Residential neighbourhoods of varying building types (single family, multi family, apartments, etc.) all have a need for a certain quantity as well as quality of light. The closeness of buildings also impacts aspects of community, greenspace, privacy and general issues of sustainable design.

The parameters of the project require that you document in plan and section, then construct a simple model of a neighbourhood of specified size, of specified materials at a specific scale; bring the model to the class seminar where it will be “tested” and compared with other strategies.

This is generally a 5 person project, however there are 83 students in the class so this makes for 15 groups of 5 and two groups of 4. Nothing larger or smaller.

A. PRESENTATION PART ONE - POWERPOINT:
Brief powerpoint documentation of the case study (this is going to require a bit of research in addition to referencing the specific pages in Sherwood so I recommend getting on it right away – check out periodicals/old journals from the time period, etc. for the information)
Include:
- overall floor plan(s) of the residential development
- site plan of the development
- unit plans (so we can see layout at a larger scale)
- site section
- building section (just solid line type design sections, no materials noted).

B. PRESENTATION PART TWO - PHYSICAL MODELS - ALL AT 1:200 SCALE:
Physical models will be tested on the heliodon for solar conditions and light access for winter and summer conditions in class. Please research and find out the latitude of your case study so that we may set the heliodons appropriately.

Physical Model Materials and Construction Technique:
· Thin brown cardboard or millboard and foamcore.
· Although I expect a certain level of craftsmanship to be demonstrated in the models, these are working models.
· VERY IMPORTANT: Make the buildings able to be detached from the ground plan and moved about. I would like to be able to experiment with different spacings of these buildings in order to “play” with the light access and quality of space. Note the original orientation on the model (north arrow please). We will rotate the models to see how the orientation impacts solar access. Is East/West better than North/South?? We might even want to combine buildings from different projects into a larger neighbourhood. How does Group A’s Tower cast shadows on Group D’s single family houses??? This is about learning through research as well as experimentation.

C. PRESENTATION PART THREE:
Each group will present their case study in class and be prepared to discuss the pros and cons of this type of housing with respect to issues of lighting, natural ventilation, privacy, community space, sustainable neighbourhood issues. You will be expected to make a formal presentation on the following points, and provide documentation to support:
- is the spacing of the development adequate to provide good solar access for either passive heating or daylighting?
-if not, how would you modify the development to improve the solar access
-what improvements need to be made to the site plan or siting of the building to improve its sustainable sites potential?
-is the floor planning of the units good for natural ventilation?
-if not, how might you amend the planning to improve passive design performance?
-does this development address solar shading for the buildings?
-if not, propose a system to control solar access in the summer, while admitting solar heat in the winter

PRESENTATION AND DUE DATE:

In class, Wednesday, February 4, 2015. We will use the heliodon and fixed light source for the testing. YOU WILL HAVE A MAXIMUM OF 8 MINUTES FOR YOUR ENTIRE PRESENTATION. IF YOU RUN OVER, YOU WILL BE CUT OFF.

Please note your sources for images and information on the last slide of your ppt (bibliography).

Brown millboard is fine. Neatness counts, but you need not put in a great amount of intricate detail. I like to see where windows and balconies are (cut out not drawn on) so that we can appreciate how the sun penetration works. If there is a high degree of repetition in your housing study you need not cut out all of the windows, just a representative portion for testing. Obviously, courtyards need to be clearly shown.

PPTs will be linked below so you can all reference these for the middle studio project.

p# in Sherwood:

TYPE 3: PARTY WALL HOUSING

TYPE 4: BLOCK HOUSING