Holly Wasilowski Samuelson

Integrated Design Workflow and a New Tool for Urban Rainwater Management

Low Impact Development (LID) practices provide more sustainable solutions than traditional piping and storm ponds in stormwater management. However, architects are not equipped with the knowledge to perform runoff calculations at early design stage. In response to this dilemma, we have developed an open-source stormwater runoff evaluation and management tool, Rainwater+. It is seamlessly integrated into computer-aided design (CAD) software to receive instant estimate on the stormwater runoff volume of architecture and landscape designs. Designers can thereby develop appropriate rainwater management strategies based on local precipitation data, specific standards, site conditions and economic considerations. We employed Rainwater+ to conduct two case studies illustrating the importance of considering stormwater runoff in the early design stage. The first case study showed that integrating rainwater management into design modeling is critical for determining LID practice at any specific site. The second case study demonstrated the need of visualizing runoff flow direction in assisting the placement of LID practices at proper locations when the terrain is of great complexity.

Learning by playing – teaching energy simulation as a game

Being able to read thermal simulation results and to adapt ones design accordingly has become an essential skill for graduating and practicing architects. This article proposes and evaluates an innovative way of how this skill can be taught via a 90-min in-class exercise or ‘game’ based on DesignBuilder/EnergyPlus. The game was tested in a class of 47 architecture students who competed to generate the lowest energy use intensity (EUI) for an office building in Boston. Design upgrades were associated with a cost premium and the overall upgrade budget was capped. The EUIs of the 10 final submissions were 22–31% below the base variant. While student essays revealed a clear preference for game-based learning vis-a-vis conventional teaching methods, the authors further propose that the game nourishes the emergence of an energy modelling ‘culture’ within schools of architecture that may lead to enhanced communication between architects and energy modellers.

Analysis of a simplified calibration procedure for 18 design-phase building energy models

This paper evaluates the accuracy of 18 design-phase building energy models, built according to LEED Canada protocol, and investigates the effectiveness of model calibration steps to improve simulation predictions with respect to measured energy data. These calibration steps, applied in professional practice, included inputting actual weather data, adding unregulated loads, revising plug loads (often with submetered data), and other simple updates. In sum, the design-phase energy models underpredicted the total measured energy consumption by 36%. Following the calibration steps, this error was reduced to a net 7% underprediction. For the monthly energy use intensity (EUI), the coefficient of variation of the root mean square error improved from 45% to 24%. Revising plug loads made the largest impact in these cases. This step increased the EUI by 15% median (32% mean) in the models. This impact far exceeded that of calibrating the weather data, even in a sensitivity test using extreme weather years.