Conference Agenda

To explore a comprehension of daylight knowledge and its impact on visual perception, two surveys have been carried out in 2016-2018 among architecture students (so far 500 responders involved). This paper presents findings from the second survey which was conducted in six European countries. Based on the earlier outcomes obtained from the first questionnaire, the revised survey’s goal was to analyse in more detail a link between a perception of daylit spaces perceived by the students and by the experts. The ultimate goal was to verify daylight knowledge’s impact upon the visual perception.

As a result of such large investigation, three clear trend lines can be distinguished: i) the mood seems to be related to the perceived comfort rather than the sun/sky condition; ii) the judgments expressed by the experts and the non-experts are congruent (confirming the outcome of the earlier study); iii) the lack of knowledge about daylight metrics and regulations was noticeable as well as the difficulties with an implementation of daylight analysis outcomes into the design process. The outcomes highlight a necessity of introducing a comprehensive daylight education into the architectural programmes.

The building sector amounts to about 40% of the world’s total energy consumption. In tropical countries like India naturally ventilated or mixed mode ventilated buildings would contribute in the reduction of energy consumption used for cooling the buildings. It is necessary for the architecture schools to educate the students on understanding the principles of natural ventilation and applications of various strategies in the design decisions. This paper summarizes the development of a water table apparatus for testing architectural design for natural ventilation, validation of its results, and its utilization in the classroom as a design evaluation tool for architecture students. The water table was constructed, and its performance was validated and simple metrics for evaluating natural ventilation performance were developed at CEPT University. A refined water table was constructed later to be used for classroom instruction at the C.A.R.E School of Architecture. The workshop there provided hands-on experience to test various design parameters, qualitative and quantitative analysis in design projects. The paper demonstrates the ease with which students are able to visualize and understand the effectiveness of natural ventilation and make the necessary design modifications.

There are pressures to showcase adoption of green buildings in universities for several reasons, including, demonstrating leadership, aligning with sustainability vision of the university and “walking the talk”. New generation learning and teaching spaces are moving away from the model of didactic teaching and learning towards two-way

teaching and learning models. While university buildings are incorporating such new teaching and learning models into their buildings, there is little or no evidence that green teaching spaces are actually supporting student learning outcomes. In comparison, the literature is rich with post occupancy and thermal comfort studies undertaken in green

office spaces. This paper presents a case study of a green building in a Victorian university in Australia. The building was considered to be an example of Australian excellence and has received a number of awards. Using one classroom in the building, the researchers monitored the temperature, relative humidity, and CO2 levels in this classroom during

a two week peak period of a summer intensive program. The findings suggest that this particular classroom did not always provide comfortable conditions for teaching and learning. More research is required to draw definitive conclusions.

It has been argued that buildings have evolved and adapted well in their response to social and economic context but have increasingly become indifferent towards local climate, completely relying on energy-consuming add-on systems to provide for occupant comfort. It doesn’t help either that contemporary energy standards encourage a similar idea of first thermally isolating the occupied spaces from the environment and, only then, employing efficient active systems for space conditioning. This paper illustrates a course structure where students and faculty collectively explored and discovered the potential of an integrated configuration of envelope and energy systems that positively interacts with exterior environment and enhances indoor comfort conditions with minimal energy use. The focus of this paper is to present how a critical approach of understanding climatic design principles can be developed through reverse synthesis of exemplary built examples. With a focus on occupant comfort and energy use, the students explored the potential for environmental response to different climates using a deconstructed version of a known existing building as inspiration to reference new designs.