SARC 223: You may Want to say that a Number of Design options were Assessed in terms of their Effect on People’s Ability to use the Space for the Specific Visual Purpose: Human Environmental Science Report, VUW, New Zealand

Assignment3: Daylighting and Acoustics

1. Introduction

Briefly give some description of what this report is about. This does not need great detail! For example, you may want to say that a number of design options were assessed in terms of their effect on people’s ability to use the space for the specific visual purpose(s).

A brief description of your site, location and use of your building. Clearly identify your selected zones (location & use), dimensions and characteristics. An annotated site location plan/diagram and scale building plan could effectively communicate this.

This should only be a few sentences.

I am responding to the visual and acoustic qualities of my residence at 179 Ohiro road, Brooklyn. I want to utilise the natural light to reduce the need for artificial lighting. Lighting is a major energy output for our property currently. My living room needs a vibrant light to bring more life to the space whilst my bedroom light needs to be versatile to encompass a range of moods. My property shares a wall with our neighbours so I will need to insulate the acoustics of the space as well.

2.  Evaluation of existing conditions

2.1. Sun and Shading

• Revisit the sun and shadow studies of your internal zones that you completed in Rhino of Sketchup in the last assignment and compare these to you best performing base model from the last assignment. Remember to carefully consider the time of year and day you analyse these in relation to the current or proposed use of the space.
• Analyse these images and discuss how much natural light is available to your space and the effect conditions such as orientation, window size and external obstructions may have on this.
• Relate these discussions to any observations and insights you may have from inhabiting the space.

2.2. Artificial Lighting

• Provide a plan of the current artificial lighting provided within the space, detailing the exact specifications of the lights and location.
• Using simple calculations, find the area of illuminance from each light and the lux of this. Map this on the above plan.
• Discuss the characteristics of light these provide and how they relate to the use in terms of activity and time. How does their use relate to the amount of natural light available in the space?
• Relate these discussions to any observations and insights you may have from inhabiting the space. Consider the comfort of the artificial lighting.
• From these explorations, identify the key issues from the artificial lighting within the space.

2.3. Acoustics

• Calculate the reverberation time within the space using Sabine’s formula.
  • Document and reference the absorption coefficients of the materials within the space.
  • Clearly show your workings.
  • Note limitations this formula may have.
• Calculate the STC and background noise of your space using Insul
  • Identify any notable exterior or interior sources of sound and the dB of these (this could be measured or justified using a source).
  • Clearly document your Insul inputs, including the transmission loss of walls, windows, and doors.
  • Visually display the resulting background noise in a graph
• Discuss the results from the above calculations and relate this is any observations and insights you may have from inhabiting the space. Additionally, discuss speech intelligibility in relation to observations and theory.
• From these explorations, identify the key acoustic issues of the space.

2.4 Thermal Performance Review

From your previous assignment, briefly summarise the thermal performance and findings of your solutions sets.

3.Aims of Design intervention

3.1. Performance Goals

Based on your examination of your zones and readings on visual and acoustic comfort:

• Note the type of building/spaces and how they are expected to be used.
• Describe the ideal visual and acoustic qualities for these. Use clear, informative, qualitative descriptions of how the spaces should feel to the user.

3.2. Performance Criteria

• Convert the above goals into MEASURABLE (numeric) ATTRIBUTES for acoustics, artificial lighting, and daylighting:
  • Acoustics should include reverberation time, PNC and STC. Consult NZS 2107:2000 and literature to determine these.
  • Artificial should include Minimum Working Plane Illuminance and Uniformity from AS/NZS 1680
  • Daylight should include Daylight Autonomy (DA), and Useful Daylight Index (UDI). Consult AS/NZS 1680.1:2006and literature to determine these, remembering the minimum performance nature of standards.
• Remember to include specific times, tasks, areas, and the plane that these will be measured where appropriate in the above criteria.

4.Establishment of Daylighting Base model

4.1. Modelling Strategy

Using diagrams and the below table, explain and document the modelling strategy and assumptions of your base model. Report the dimensions of your space, objects, transmissivity of glass, wall reflectance, outdoor obstructions, etc. We recommend this to be your best performing solution set from assignment two to enable you to consider the implications daylighting may have on thermal performance and the heating system required.

What limitations might this base model have? Clearly identify how and why you have simplified your model zones to focus on the design issues you wish to explore. Remember to consider how you might model outdoor obstructions.

Variable		Specification and reference/justification if required				Variable	Specification and reference/justification if required
Weather File
Window Design		N	E	S	W	Window Shades	N	E	S	W
Window “dimensions” as window to wall ratio						Wall thickness
Window “dimensions” in common						Shade depth
Window height						Window shade count per facade
Sill height						Window shade orientation
Single or multiple windows
Building Dimensions						Daylight Analysis
Length of N-S facades on the unrotated building						Distance of calculation grid from the floor
Length of E-W facades on the unrotated building						Ceiling reflectance’s
Height of building						Wall reflectance’s
E-W facing length of zone 2 facade						Floor reflectance's
Rotation of building relative to north in degrees						Shade reflectance’s
Number of rooms						Ground reflectance’s

4.2. performance of base model

• Utilising the above discussed modelling strategy and the new grasshopper script, simulate the daylighting performance of the base model to produce a DF and UDI calculation grid across the space.
• Using script to determine what type of heating system would be required within this space.
• Bringing together your knowledge of the sun available onsite, results from the base model, daylighting and thermal design/performance: discuss the daylighting issues of the space. Discuss the implications the consideration daylighting may have on the heating requirement and If applicable, discuss this in relation to your experiences of the space. Suggest ways you may address these issues.

4.3. Quality Assurance

• Describe the measurement process used to take physical illuminance measurements.
  • Include date, time, and conditions when the measurements were taken (make sure that the interior lights are off!).
  • Provide a diagram of the space with your measurement points and justify why you have taken measurements at these points.
• Compare your measured Daylight Factor (DF) calculated using your physical measurements with the DF calculated by your simulations, and report as a quality assurance measure.

5.  Design Interventions

5.1. Description of Daylight Design Strategies

Based on your analysis of the light available onside, theory and current performance of the space describe 3 daylighting strategies to alter the building performance for the better. A suggested approach could be to explore one element in each strategy, such as roof reflectance's, shade reflectance’s or building orientation. Using the grasshopper script this can be iterated quickly- aim to find the point of best performance.

For each of 3 design interventions (at least):

• Identify the issue that the strategy is addressing.
• Justify why each should improve the situation based on the theory of daylighting design.
• Clearly show what the strategy is, where it is, and how it should work (utilise tables and diagrams).
• Translate your design sketches into building properties and inputs into the grasshopper script e.g. reflectance’s, glazing areas, orientation, dimensions, shading, etc.). Only the differences from the base model need to be stated.

5.2. Evaluation of design strategies

• Present your results on annotated sketches of the building, compared to the base model. Include the DA, UDI and heating system requirement.
• Evaluate their effectiveness in relation to your performance criteria.
• Compare and contrast the options to each other in detail using numbers.

Do not place the options on successive pages – the results are difficult to understand. Place them instead side by side. Consider how tables and annotations can clearly communicate comparisons.

Again, remember to consider factors such as people movement, surrounding uses, the visual experience and sense of space as well as comfort.

5.3. Acoustic Considerations

Based on the previous examination of acoustics within the space, literature, and the identified issues, suggest how the acoustic performance of the space could be improved.

• Diagram this out and discuss how this will affect your selection of parameters in the solution set. This could be adjustments such as selection of materials with specific qualities, adjusting the makeup of the wall, changing the window area or shape of the space.
• Justify your selection with calculations and/or references to literature and theory.

5.4. Analysis of Design lesions and Solution Sets

• Analyse the design strategies you have explored to improve the daylighting performance of your building.
• Report two solution sets that combine the learnings of your individual design strategies, daylighting, thermal and acoustic performance:
  • One a radical intervention with maximum daylight (i.e., maximise your DA).
  • The other a compromise meeting all design requirements (i.e., maximise your UDI).
• There is the possibility to iterate these in the grasshopper script to find the best balance between design options. Document the characteristics of these in detail and their results.
• Identify the major components of the building that are contributing to its daylight performance; carefully discuss the relationship between construction/form and performance.

5.5. Artificial Lighting

Based on the previous examination of the artificial lighting provided in the space, literature, and the identified issues, suggest how these could be improved.

• Outside of daylight hours, develop a proposed lighting plan that better considers comfort factors, reporting on the specific type of lights (e.g., name, Wattage, lumen output, etc.). Discuss why this is appropriate, using calculations and sketches to justify, and how it contributes to the enjoyment of the space.
• Consider where and how much artificial lighting is actually needed during hours of daylight. Propose specifically how the artificial lighting layout could change to meet this for greater energy efficiency.

Consider how visual communication tools could help you.

6.   Conclusions

This is where you review your designs and propose a better understanding of the design options to achieve a high-quality outcome for users of your zones.

• How comfortable is the existing space, and what are its issues?

Based on your analysis of your design options, what would be the best course of action to take? How effective will it be? (e.g., will it solve all visual and.