Arno Schlueter

Adaptive Distributed Robotics for Environmental Performance, Occupant Comfort and Architectural Expression:

The integration of adaptive distributed robotics in architectural design has the potential to improve building energy performance while simultaneously increasing occupant comfort. In addition, conceiving buildings as dynamic systems with the ability to adapt to the changing environments in which they exist, opens new aesthetic possibilities for designers. As the façade of a building is a common place to address issues of energy performance and occupant comfort, this paper presents a first prototype of an adaptive solar envelope (ASE). Its functions are to provide distributed shading, solar power generation through integrated photovoltaics, and daylight distribution. We describe the interdisciplinary design process, and illustrate the architectural possibilities that arise from a distributed systems approach. The ASE is expanded to work in parallel with an adaptive artificial lighting element. Rather than being preprogrammed, the systems adapt their behavior through interaction with the environment and building occupants. This adaptation to the users wishes is demonstrated successfully for the artificial light controller. We argue that with presently available technology and an increased exposure of architecture students and practitioners to adaptive design techniques, adaptive architectures will soon become a regular element of the built environment.

SoRo-Track: A two-axis soft robotic platform for solar tracking and building-integrated photovoltaic applications

We present SoRo-Track, a two-axis soft robotic actuator (SRA) for solar tracking and building-integrated photovoltaic applications. SRAs are gaining increasing popularity compared to traditional actuators, such as dc motors and hydraulic or pneumatic pistons, due to their inherent compliance, low morphological complexity, high power-to-weight ratio, resilience to external shocks and adverse environmental conditions, design flexibility, ease of fabrication, and low costs. We present the design, modelling and experimental characterisation of SoRo-Track. Finally, we demonstrate the suitability of SoRo-Track for solar tracking applications, which makes it a viable component for dynamic building facades.

Analysis of Georeferenced Building Data for the Identification and Evaluation of Thermal Microgrids

Retrofitting the existing building stock is among the most important objectives and imperative to meet societal goals to reduce primary energy demand and anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. District heating systems have proven to supply heat for buildings both energy and cost efficiently. Thermal microgrids (TMGs) can be understood as a subcategory of district heating systems: small scale, bidirectional, and potentially fed by different thermal sources. Given a suitable combination of loads, the number of and distance between buildings, they can offer economic and environmental advantages compared to the supply by individual heating systems per building. We present a novel method using data analysis techniques on georeferenced building stock data to identify suitable configurations of buildings that yield a cost-efficient TMG. For the identification, both semantic and spatial data from a database are combined using fuzzy logics and cost-benefit analysis. We apply the method using a case study featuring a database of 306 buildings potentially to be retrofitted. As a result, we can identify nine groups of 25 buildings that would form a microgrid featuring up to 17.4% cost benefits compared to an individual heat supply. This would save approximately 30% of the building-induced CO2 emission of the community.

Design Rationalization of Irregular Cellular Structures

Complex geometries found in nature are increasingly used as images and analogies for the creation of form and space in architectural design. To be able to construct the resulting complex building forms, strategies to handle the resulting production requirements are necessary. In the example of a design project for a Japanese noodle bar, a strategy for the realization of an irregular cellular spatial structure is presented. In order to represent its complex geometry, building principles relating to foam are applied to transform and optimize the design, which is based on hexagonal, cellular compartments defining the different interior spaces. The principles are converted into software code and implemented into a digital design toolbox to be used within a 3D-modelling environment. Utilizing the tools within the redesign process made a rationalization of the cellular structures possible without sacrificing the desired visual irregularity. The toolbox also enables the extraction of the cell geometry to support the generation of production documents. The result is the dramatic reduction of production effort to realize the complex cellular structures by keeping a maximum of design flexibility and desired visual appearance.

Urban and building multiscale co-simulation: case study implementations on two university campuses

The co-simulation of both urban and building-level models leverages the advantages of both platforms. It better accounts for the localized effects of surrounding buildings, geography and climate conditions while maintaining high-fidelity building systems representation. This paper describes the co-simulation process of the building and urban-scale models of two university campuses in Switzerland using EnergyPlus and CitySim. In the first case study, on-site measured performance data is compared to the co-simulation results. The second case study examines the results of the two engines. The results show that coupling of EnergyPlus with CitySim resulted in a −15.5% and −7.5% impact on cooling consumption and a +6.5% and +4.8% impact on heating use as compared to solo simulations.The co-simulation process was able to better model realistic conditions for heating, but not cooling in one case study. It was able to substantially reduce the discrepancies in prediction between the engines in the other study.

Sustainable architecture and human comfort through adaptive distributed systems

Distributed building systems have the potential to increase building performance toward zero energy / zero emission buildings in addition to raising occupant comfort. In this paper, we report on our concept and first prototype for a distributed facade system for power generation, reduction of heat gains and artificial lighting, and the creation of a new type of dynamic architectural expression. Rather than being preset, the components of the system interact with each other through the environment, as well with the user, in order to learn the optimal control policy from experience. This adaptation to the preferences of the occupant, together with the distributed approach results in an easy-to-use and easy-to-design system, which is necessary for conceiving sustainable buildings.

Hybrid AC/DC building microgrid for solar PV and battery storage integration

Dc power systems can integrate dc renewable generation, storage, and building electrical loads easier and more efficiently than conventional ac based systems. A key challenge for the successful market adoption of these systems is the integration with existing electrical loads and power grids in buildings. Hybrid ac/dc microgrids combine advantages of both ac and dc systems and may facilitate the integration process of dc power technologies into existing ac systems. In this work, the performance of a hybrid building microgrid coupling on-site PV generation with ac and dc loads of a residential building is investigated in simulation. An experimental dc network prototype, coupling PV electricity generation to LED lighting in a building, has been built and tested. Theoretical and experimental results are used for the design of a hybrid microgrid, planned to be implemented together with the PV system of a residential research building.

Assessing the performance and resilience of future energy systems at neighborhood scale

This study compares the performance and resilience of future energy systems at neighborhood scale. Four urban design scenarios of a neighbourhood in Switzerland are evaluated. The energy systems of each scenario are modelled in EnergyPro. EnergyPro allows simulating hourly exchanges among vectors of demand and supply in buildings and electro-mobility. The performance of energy systems is evaluated according to costs, energy and carbon intensity. The resilience of energy systems is evaluated according to short-term and long-term responses to an electricity outage. The performance and resilience of energy systems are constrained to options of energy storage and on-site generation. Similarly, these options are constrained to land-uses and patterns of consumption in buildings. This paper builds new knowledge about the impacts of plans of urban development on the performance and resilience of energy systems.

Integrated Sustainable Building Design In The Tropics: Case Study “Fabrica De Cultura”, Barranquilla, Colombia

This paper presents a case study of integrated sustainable building design in the tropics. In an interdisciplinary approach, we evaluated a series of strategies to increase the expected performance of a building prototype in the city of Barranquilla, Colombia. We created plausible architectural options, and used building performance simulation techniques to evaluate the feasibility of energy and water efficiency strategies. The aim was to develop close to optimal solutions to minimize the use of resources in the building while assuring high standards of comfort, an attractive return on investment, and an appealing architectural expression. As a result, four strategic bundles or sustainability concepts were seamlessly integrated into the architecture of the building. In comparison with a local school, the building achieves up to 93% of net energy savings and related emissions, 86% of water savings, and COP 144.5 million (USD 76,891.34) of yearly economic savings with a payback time period of 7.4 years. The results of this integrated approach successfully address the three pillars of sustainable development (i.e. social, economic and environmental) at the building scale and represent an exemplary case for the upcoming Colombian Green Building Code.