Architectural Technology Commons^™

Quantitative Assessment Of Sun Louver Design Performance, Alexis Severson, Khaled Mansy, Tom Spector, John Phillips, Jeanne Homer

Building Technology Educator's Society

Conventional wisdom holds that carefully designed exterior louver systems tuned to a building’s earth latitude and its glass wall’s compass orientations do a better job of regulating sunlight than interior louver systems due to the intuition-friendly observation that exterior systems reflect or shade the sunlight before it ever enters the building. A multi-criteria, multi-variable analysis performed on a 3600 SF multipurpose space came to different conclusions. The results showed that when accounting for such design criteria as carbon footprint, glare, optimal daylighting and solar heat gain of the interior, tuned exterior louvers perform well against some measures but fared poorly …

Free-Form: The Adversarial Role Of Materials In Automation, Genevieve Baudoin, Bruce Johnson

Building Technology Educator's Society

Beyond allowing students to create physical models of complex geometry they would be unable to produce by hand, how can 3D-printing become relevant to studio and in practice? This paper will discuss the underlying dilemma confronting materials in studio education, particularly in the United States. Materials are, in many ways, foreign to the studio process, and this is compounded by the addition of a “foreign” technology, such as computer-aided manufacturing. Materials are more often seen as an aesthetic selection, and their adversarial role (the way in which materials can be unpredictable, counterproductive, and even belligerent) in construction is not essential …

Assessment Of Deep Façade Retrofit Solutions For Housing, Ming Hu

Building Technology Educator's Society

Knowledge and research tying the environmental impact to operating energy efficiency improvement is a largely unexplored area in higher performance retrofit projects. It is a challenge to choose the façade renovation option that represents the optimal trade-offs among different performance objectives. This paper aims to test a multi-objective envelope optimization method to quantify and compare the deep retrofit façade techniques and their induced environmental impact. An integrated life cycle energy (LCE), life cycle assessment (LCA) and thermal comfort model (TCM) framework is proposed and used. Seven building façade retrofit options were studied to evaluate the operating energy saving, embodied energy …

Volumetric Envelopes: Precast Elements In Building Envelopes, Niloufar Emami

Building Technology Educator's Society

By supplanting survival with comfort, the environmental technologies ultimately increased the dependence of the building design on form and materials, particularly those of its ‘envelope.’ The emphasis on form and materials is best seen in the Brutalism Architecture where the “honesty in structure and material” is exhibited through the envelope. Brutalist is relevant to today’s digital fabrication techniques where materiality and fabrication methods are integrated with the realized building elements. For example, looking at 3D printed concrete, parallel and continuous layers of concrete placed on top of each other can be an indicator of the method, whereas seeing a smooth …

Soft Rock Studio: Exploring A “Soft Systems” Approach To “Artificial Rock”, James Forren

Building Technology Educator's Society

This paper discusses a study aimed at shifting disciplinary norms in construction materials. The study, conducted in a graduate level design-build studio, approached precast concrete construction through the lens of “artificial rock”: a composite material that can use cement, sand, aggregate, and reinforcing supplements and alternatives like flax, calcium carbonate, pyrolyzed biomass, soil, alginates, gelatin, and bacteria. Taught as “The Soft Rock Studio”, the course positioned artificial rock within the larger conceptual framework of “soft systems” - adaptive, networked part-to-whole relationships engaged in feedback loops with the environment.

The Soft Rock Studio designed and prototyped components and assemblies for an …

Recruiting Engagement Through Readings + Media In Architectural Technology Education, Carmen Trudell

Building Technology Educator's Society

The Architectural Technology Fundamentals course has always included reading assignments – usually chapters from a textbook loaded with technical information, data, and a bit of history. In 2020, underpinned by historic shifts in expectations for architectural education, we took a critical look at our teaching and targeted the reading assignment as an opportunity to teach with equity and about equity. The readings have consistently ranked as the least effective learning mode, falling well behind the lectures, hands-on activities, and exams. After unsuccessfully attempting to promote engagement with the readings through quizzes, written outlines, and summaries, we took an entirely different …

Animate The Assembly, Mary K. English

Building Technology Educator's Society

Architects rely on drawings. We learn, teach, and communicate through drawing. We use them to tell the story that they are trying to tell. Over the history of architectural drawings, their definition encompasses a wide variety of approaches. As architects and educators, it is essential to draw from this variety of approaches to develop drawings that communicate as we want them to.

My research of technical drawings is shared with students in both building technology and studio classes to show them that their drawing explorations are rooted in a long history of creating drawings that illustrate technical and tactile information. …

Building Structure In The Context Of Architectural Theory: A History/Theory Course On Technology In Architecture, Christina Mccoy

Building Technology Educator's Society

Building technology is intertwined with the history of architecture. Through any cultural movement, architects chose an approach to the technical aspect of how a piece of architecture is constructed. Sometimes, this is simply an aesthetic approach to conceal or express. Often, it is more complex. Other times building technology is a key aspect in the development of architectural style. Engineers may not often consider this, as they are preoccupied with making technology work, not seeing it in the context of a greater, cultural expression. However, if we accept that, like art, architectural style is an expression of a zeitgeist, the …

Labor Movements: From The Specifications Of The Panama Canal To Robotic Patents, Federico Garcia Lammers, Jessica Garcia Fritz, Nathanial Krueger, Joseph Kenny, Rebecca Woytassek

Building Technology Educator's Society

This paper is part of an ongoing collaboration between architecture faculty and students. The paper highlights two student projects from a recent research studio focused on the link between regulatory documents (specifications, laws, codes, patents, etc.) and the political territories that connect building technology with the movements of construction labor. Each project interconnects two types of movement: (1) physical movements of people, materials, and machines (2) political movements and colonial structures of power. The former are visible and have limited durations, while the latter are seemingly invisible but with enduring consequences. The contemporary effects of these movements are latent in …

Frei Otto’S Pneumatic Experiments For Humanitarian Design, Rob Whitehead

Building Technology Educator's Society

This paper will explore the intersection of building technology and humanitarian design-science research by looking at Frei Otto’s pneumatic experiments. The purpose of the study is to contextualize our contemporary demands for humanitarian design work by reflecting upon the manner by which Otto integrated an ambitious design ideology with an elevated and innovative technical acumen. Constraining the investigation to Otto’s work, particularly his relatively unknown early work with pneus, provides a useful exploration of design-science approach that connect design and technology—an approach that is useful to understand for contemporary pedagogical applications.

Otto himself connected his career to humanitarian work. Shortly …

Commodity And Delight: A Case For A Qualitative Basis For Environmental Technology Instruction, James Leach, Kristin Nelson

Building Technology Educator's Society

Throughout history, human beings have lived in environments of sensory richness and variation. Outside of modern buildings and urbanized landscapes, the thermal, luminous, and acoustic environments of the natural world shift and change seasonally, diurnally, and from moment to moment. Established research points to links between the kind of multisensory environmental variation experienced in the natural world, and positive impacts to human physiological and psychological wellbeing. Unfortunately, modern design standards and comfort guidelines, and the built environments designed to meet them, permit only a very narrow acceptable range of variation in sound, light and temperature levels. This rigid control of …

Zoologijos Sodas, Arjun Elvis Urbonas, Dara Lin, Jesus Ramirez Zambrano, Samantha Ung, Robert Milkovich, Jakob Olsen, Azuolas Skucas

Architecture

50'x50' glass house in Palm Springs.

Design And Culture: A Transdisciplinary History, Maurice Barnwell

Purdue University Press Book Previews

Design and Culture: A Transdisciplinary History offers an inclusive overview that crosses disciplinary boundaries and helps define the next phase of global design practice. This book examines the interaction of design with advances in technology, developments in science, and changing cultural attitudes. It looks to the past to prepare for the future and is the first book to offer an innovative transdisciplinary design history that integrates multidisciplinary sources of knowledge into a mindful whole. It shows design as a process that expresses goals through values and beliefs, functioning as a major factor in contemporary cultural life.

Starting with the development …

Take Heart School, Quentin John Porter

Architectural Engineering

Journeyman International, also known as JI, is a non-profit organization that groups together design and construction students with organizations looking to build humanitarian projects around the world. This pairing is beneficial for both the organization because they get free design and construction expertise, as well as for the students who get real-world experience. The Take Heart School is a planned school and grounds for the region of Migori Kenya. Take Heart Africa is a fair trade store with all profits going to help the impoverished communities of Kenya. The three-acre site will have a school with eight classrooms, offices, a …

Artist’S Tools: Reverse-Engineering Of Prototypes, Mi Tsung Chang

Open Educational Resources

Outputting the digital blueprint into a final fast prototype is important, but inputting a hand-made sculpture into the computer is as important in the creative process. There are many high-tech electronic devices that can help the artist generate form from his/her sculpture quickly. This process is called “reverse engineering of prototypes.” Touch Probes (Contact Method) The concept of the touch probe involves a measuring tip attached by several limbs with rotational joints. The design of the joints and limbs determines the reach of the touch probe. The measuring tip of the touch probe is used to measure the exact coordinates …

Digital Modeling: Theories And Techniques, Mi Tsung Chang

Publications and Research

In the process of architectural design, modeling is an important process in achieving design perfection. In the world of computers, it is very easy and productive to produce 3d model. As a matter of facts, modeling is the easiest way to produce rendering. Designers shouldn't limit themselves to their modeling skills, but should acquire enough sills to achieve whatever shapes and forms they can possible imagine. This is an article about methods and techniques to achieve the process of form makings.

The Effect Of Straw Bale On Thermal Performance Of Buildings In Hot And Arid Regions, Riyadh City As A Case Study, Waleed M. Abanomi

Emirates Journal for Engineering Research

A huge amount of energy is consumed by buildings in Saudi Arabia to cool indoor spaces particularly during summer season. In this regard, attention should be given to the environmental design strategies in the design of buildings during the early stages in order to minimize the cooling load inside buildings. This research considered using straw bale as one of the passive solar design methods that could protect buildings envelope from the harsh outdoor environment. This research assesses the effectiveness of using straw bale as an insulator by conducting field experiments. Two experimental chambers were built to achieve the experiments. The …

Computational Design Of Nonlinear Stress-Strain Of Isotropic Materials, Askhad M.Polatov, Akhmat M. Ikramov, Daniyarbek Razmukhamedov

Chemical Technology, Control and Management

The article deals with the problems of numerical modeling of nonlinear physical processes of the stress-strain state of structural elements. An elastoplastic medium of a homogeneous solid material is investigated. The results of computational experiments on the study of the process of physically nonlinear deformation of isotropic elements of three-dimensional structures with a system of one- and double-periodic spherical cavities under uniaxial compression are presented. The influence and mutual influence of stress concentrators in the form of spherical cavities, vertically located two cavities and a horizontally located system of two cavities on the deformation of the structure are investigated. Numerical …

Additive Manufacturing Applications: From Personal Protective Equipment To Sustainable High-Performance Construction Systems, Nicholas Van Son

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

Additive Manufacturing (AM) (3D-printing) is still an emerging technology, and many of its applications have yet to be explored; all the while, we still use age-old industry methods in a variety of fields. This research investigates the potential for AM to serve as a solution to the problems presented in these methods. With the support of UTK’s Office of Research, the following research focuses on two main objectives: improving the ergonomics, effectiveness, and production of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and improving the sustainability and structural performance of large-scale construction systems.

The first objective came as a response to the COVID-19 …

Technological Augmentation: Creating A Public Center For Making, Timothy Hardeman

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

We live in an era where technology is driving forward at an unprecedented pace. We have access to tools, materials, and processes which weren’t even conceptualized 50 years ago. 3D printing, CNCs, and Laser Cutters allow us to create incredible designs, and at affordable prices. We have carbon fiber, advanced composites, and modern alloys.

But where do we experience these things? In a classroom? Through screens as we read about these intangible leaps in technology? Why don’t we have a place where we get to experience these things first-hand, and experiment with our own ideas about how they could be …