Combined “Solar Architecture” studio and theory courses - fourth year undergraduate elective distribution
Solar Control/Shading/Solar Exposure
This topic is a critical one especially at the urban scale. It can determine whether open spaces can and will be used in both winter and summer time as public spaces. On the one hand, should be exposed to winter sun and on the other should be shaded in the summer in order to improve the thermal comfort of the users. Moreover, at the building scale, south facades should be exposed to winter sun to obtain the passive solar heating, while the roofs, or other parts of the building envelope, with hot water solar collectors or PV cells, should be exposed to the sun the whole year round, in order to achieve their full potential. In the preliminary analysis of the project shading evaluation is performed in order to identify the most appropriate areas for winter comfort (those exposed to the winter sun most of the time). Once these areas are identified they are thoroughly designed so they can fit better the whole year long shades for summer).
Since this project is located in a distressed neighborhood (see item 1), as part of the revitalization of the area an important goal was to provide well exposed open areas in winter to allow people enjoying their stay outside. This project proposes several open spaces for different activities (street café, playgrounds, sitting, etc) so both students and existing community have the opportunity to interact in different ways.
Recent studies we performed in our faculty conclude that exposing 30-40% of the open spaces area can provide the exposure requirements for both buildings and open spaces. The design of this project followed this recommendation.
As part of the solution in some locations the first floors were removed, so the adjacent open spaces could be exposed to the low winter sun, while shaded by the building from the high summer sun.
The original buildings main facades are east/west oriented, as at the time of the construction of these buildings people believed that for the Israel climatic conditions the breeze coming from North West is more important than the sun. However, the west sun is very disturbing in summer afternoons, on top of losing the passive solar heating from the south. Therefore, the additional structures face North South, and provide passive solar energy also.
|
