Building Science 1 | rachelhonportfolio

BUILDING SCIENCE 1 (BLD 60803)

The module is an introduction to the factors that affect the thermal performance of buildings. Its aim is to facilitate students to create acceptable designs which are sustainable. For example, minimizing the use of mechanical cooling systems and makes comfortable. The emphasis is on creating acceptable indoor thermal conditions thus minimizing the use of space heating and cooling.

PROJECT 1: CASE STUDY- ANALYSING PASSIVE DESIGN STRATEGIES

This project assigned student to form a group with six person and do the analysis about the passive design of a building. Therefore, the group is required to choose a building which located at Singapore or Klang Valley which contained two passive design strategy for tropical climate. My group had selected Nanyang Technology University (NTU) which located at Singapore as the building that we need to study and analyse.

There are a lot of passive design which can be found at NTU. Firstly, the form and design of NTU. The form of NTU is designed to to trap the cool air and reduce the building exposed from the sun. Other than that, there is a small pond which placed at the center of NTU. It used to increase the cool air. Furthermore, low-E glass with double glazing and concrete act as the main material for the whole building as they belonged to passive design. The most important part of NTU will be the green roof. Green roof not merely provide an aesthetic outlook, it also absorbs heat. Thus, we will feel comfortable when we are inside the building.

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Through this project, I had learnt to identify the environmental conditions related to site conditions and climate. At the same time, I also have enhanced my knowledge about the effects of the sun on the thermal performance of buildings and the effect of insulation, thermal mass and air movement on thermal performance of buildings. Other than that, we also had learnt to use two softwares (Revit and Vasari) to draw and find out the sun path and wind flow which may affect to the building. Time is required and taken to learn this two softwares as we didn't learn that before. However, I think both softwares can help us a lot in our future. Moreover, I also felt that passive designs are interesting and it acts as an important role to a building. Therefore, I have applied some of the passive designs into my design of Design Studio 3 to enhance the cooling and improve the comfortable in my design.

Follwings are the two boards of this project.