Monday, September 21, 2009
Basic modelling tutorial
So this was my first attempt at moddeling in Ecotect. Was fairly straight forward, similar interface to sketch-up.
I Startet by creating volumes called 'zones' by entering xyz co-ordinates.
I named each zone
and went on to insert openings in each zone. Each fenustration has pre-assigned properties that when performing thermal analysis, affects the corresponding zones.
and went on to insert openings in each zone. Each fenustration has pre-assigned properties that when performing thermal analysis, affects the corresponding zones.
Next I put a pitched roof on each zone.
At this point I tried to visualise the model and look at the sun path diagrams. The program then proceeded to freeze up and subsiquently crash. So I lost my model, however this first tutorial showed me how easy this program is at doing initial analysis on a simple model.
Ecotect tutorial
Today I will be doing a series of Ecotect tutorials from the sq1 website.
Here is a link to the first one I will complete. I will post some screenshots once completed.
http://www.squ1.com/archive/ecotect/tutorials/model-simple-house.htm
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Architects and Solar House Day
4 September 2002
‘Developing a house type that maximises solar energy has been at the forefront of architectural endeavour in New South Wales’, said Ms Caroline Pidcock, President of The Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) NSW Chapter.
Commenting on the inaugural Solar House Day that is being held on Sunday 8 September, Ms Pidcock noted that it was way back in 1982 that the RAIA first gave an architecture award to a solar house.
Designed by architects Gareth Cole and Penny Rosier the house in Pennant Hills was called the Solar G2 and was commended by the jury for its ‘forceful commitment to solar technology as a major contributor to architectural design’.
Ms Pidcock noted that since then many architects have designed hundreds of solar houses across Australia, a more recent example are the Four Horizons Eco-lodges that were designed by Lindsay Johnston to rely completely on solar energy for all their energy needs and that succeeded well enough to win the Premiers Award in 1999.
‘and in this year’s architecture awards the jury found the range of buildings that reduce energy demands is widening,’
She pointed out that two very different building types were given awards, one that uses the technique of burying part of the building to minimise energy usage and the other in the hot, dry inland climate that uses dramatic ‘shower towers’ to provide down-draft evaporative cooling.
According to Ms Pidcock the future development of these types of buildings are at a critical stage with the drafting of new codes affecting energy ratings in housing by the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB).
‘We must not prohibit fabulously innovative housing models with overly restrictive codes,’
‘It is better to spend more time carefully working through the details to ensure that the best set of measures is developed that will not only lift but encourage innovation and research in this critical area of building development,’ said Ms Pidcock. ENDS
4 September 2002
‘Developing a house type that maximises solar energy has been at the forefront of architectural endeavour in New South Wales’, said Ms Caroline Pidcock, President of The Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) NSW Chapter.
Commenting on the inaugural Solar House Day that is being held on Sunday 8 September, Ms Pidcock noted that it was way back in 1982 that the RAIA first gave an architecture award to a solar house.
Designed by architects Gareth Cole and Penny Rosier the house in Pennant Hills was called the Solar G2 and was commended by the jury for its ‘forceful commitment to solar technology as a major contributor to architectural design’.
Ms Pidcock noted that since then many architects have designed hundreds of solar houses across Australia, a more recent example are the Four Horizons Eco-lodges that were designed by Lindsay Johnston to rely completely on solar energy for all their energy needs and that succeeded well enough to win the Premiers Award in 1999.
‘and in this year’s architecture awards the jury found the range of buildings that reduce energy demands is widening,’
She pointed out that two very different building types were given awards, one that uses the technique of burying part of the building to minimise energy usage and the other in the hot, dry inland climate that uses dramatic ‘shower towers’ to provide down-draft evaporative cooling.
According to Ms Pidcock the future development of these types of buildings are at a critical stage with the drafting of new codes affecting energy ratings in housing by the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB).
‘We must not prohibit fabulously innovative housing models with overly restrictive codes,’
‘It is better to spend more time carefully working through the details to ensure that the best set of measures is developed that will not only lift but encourage innovation and research in this critical area of building development,’ said Ms Pidcock. ENDS
Friday, September 18, 2009
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Cellophane House - Prefab components
Cellophane House encompasses the architects’ beliefs in a holistic approach to design: allowing architecture to grow out of its opportunities and constraints. It is a material moment of equilibrium that surrenders itself to any and all entropic forces that may come its way. At its core, the project is no more than a framework from which a designer or client creates an enclosure using a virtually infinite palette of off-the-shelf entities, a veritable model of customization. Through simple modifications, the house can adapt to a range of site conditions, as well as to material, textural, and color options as required by the budget and tastes of the client.
Cellophane House, a four-story, single-family structure, makes no claims to permanence. The structural frame of the house is made entirely of off-the-shelf structural aluminum, upon which materials are collected rather than fixed. This allows the materials not only to retain their identity as discrete elements, but also to be disassembled instead of demolished, and eventually to be recycled instead of wasted.
A myriad of seamless sustainable strategies are remarkably integrated, inconspicuous, and unselfconscious. As designed for the exhibition Home Delivery at The Museum of Modern Art, the house has the ability to operate entirely off-grid.
The entire structure is modeled using building information modeling (BIM), a digital visualization tool that automatically and simultaneously tracks needed materials based on a set of required tolerances, a process also known as parametric modeling. The house is fabricated off site and its numerous components, both volumes and individual pieces, are hauled to the site by truck.
The Cellophane House acknowledges, if not insists, that architects need not reinvent infrastructure. It is the architect’s role to procure and edit the material options, acting as a bridge between the vast array of unconfigured building materials and the temporal, sustainable moment that happens when a house is assembled. That the firm received the coveted AIA Architecture Firm Award in 2008 reveals that such research increasingly engages a larger sector of the architectural profession.
Founded in 1984, KieranTimberlake Associates is an award-winning and internationally published architecture firm based in Philadelphia
Cellophane House, a four-story, single-family structure, makes no claims to permanence. The structural frame of the house is made entirely of off-the-shelf structural aluminum, upon which materials are collected rather than fixed. This allows the materials not only to retain their identity as discrete elements, but also to be disassembled instead of demolished, and eventually to be recycled instead of wasted.
A myriad of seamless sustainable strategies are remarkably integrated, inconspicuous, and unselfconscious. As designed for the exhibition Home Delivery at The Museum of Modern Art, the house has the ability to operate entirely off-grid.
The entire structure is modeled using building information modeling (BIM), a digital visualization tool that automatically and simultaneously tracks needed materials based on a set of required tolerances, a process also known as parametric modeling. The house is fabricated off site and its numerous components, both volumes and individual pieces, are hauled to the site by truck.
The Cellophane House acknowledges, if not insists, that architects need not reinvent infrastructure. It is the architect’s role to procure and edit the material options, acting as a bridge between the vast array of unconfigured building materials and the temporal, sustainable moment that happens when a house is assembled. That the firm received the coveted AIA Architecture Firm Award in 2008 reveals that such research increasingly engages a larger sector of the architectural profession.
Founded in 1984, KieranTimberlake Associates is an award-winning and internationally published architecture firm based in Philadelphia
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