Karen Kensek

Building Information Modeling in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction: Emerging Research Directions and Trends

Currently, the architecture, engineering, and construction industry is facing enormous technological and institutional changes and challenges including the proliferation of information technology and appropriate application of sustainable practices. The 21st century engineer and architect must be able to deal with a rapid pace of technological change, a highly interconnected world, and complex problems that require multidisciplinary solutions. This paper focuses on research directions and trends around building information modeling (BIM) through interdisciplinary endeavors: how BIM research topics could be explored; their relevancy; and their potential future impact. It identifies BIM research topics that are considered to be important to a wide range of practitioners and future practitioners, both architecture and engineering students. It also assesses the relevance of current research projects to the industry and categorizes future BIM research topics. It aims to formulate research ideas and methodologies to pursue them and to explore how an industry/academic partnership for exploring exciting research opportunities could be established.

Augmented Reality: An Application for Architecture

Virtual reality (VR) can be used as a powerful, three dimensional method to interface with computers. By wearing a head mounted audio-visual display, position and orientation sensors, and tactile interface devices, one can actively inhabit an inclusive computer generated environment. Another area of computing that has seen substantial progress is mobile computing. With computing devices diminishing in size and with options like wireless networking, a user is no longer limited to his physical desktop. Augmented reality (AR) works on similar principles as virtual reality. Yet, unlike VR where the user is immersed in a completely virtual environment, augmented reality overlays virtual objects and data on the real world. This is usually achieved using see-through head mounted displays and tracking devices. The critical problem with present augment reality systems is the lack of real-time speed and accurate tracking. Because we are overlaying information over the real world, small errors in tracking information are easily detected by the human eye. Considerable experimentation and research is currently underway surrounding the use of VR in the architectural design process. Architecture will also be affected as AR based systems become more powerful. Augmented reality based systems combined with wearable computers will become powerful new tools with a wide range of applications for architecture. This paper describes an augmented reality system as a facility management tool.

Shading Mask: a teaching tool for sun shading devices

Sun shading devices, either as parts of a building or separately placed from a building facade, affect natural lighting and ventilation, solar gain, and overall building performance. The role of sun shading devices or solar radiation control systems is taught at every school of architecture. Yet, only a few architecture students, architects, and designers have applied them to reduce glare, control light intensity, radiation, and minimize cooling load on their projects. Using a well-designed computer program to teach, and re-teach when necessary, the use of sun shading devices is more understandable, clear, and interesting than reading a book on the same topic. Having a readily available tool would also encourage architects and designers to use the shading devices as a method of conserving energy and lowering operating cost in the buildings that they design. Visual Basic 3.0 was chosen as the development language for this Windows-based program. SHADING MASK uses Edward Mazrias rectangular sun path diagrams as a basis. The program explains basic theory of solar control; generates sun path diagrams; allows the design of overhead, side, and eggcrate shading devices; calculates solar angles and shading masks; and provides case studies of actual buildings.

An interactive Web-based teaching tool for simplified 3D analysis of solar rhythms

This case study presents the World Wide Web as an appropriate medium for architectural teaching. The prototypical tool VRSolar uses simple programming and existing Web resources to help in the teaching of topics related to the movement of the sun and its effects on the built environment. Using JavaScript, this tool is capable of generating real time Web content in html and VRML based on user input. Accessible on the Web from within a standard Web browser, this tool calculates the solar positions of any location on earth and indicates the solar access to a given site in the form of a three-dimensional Web page, which the user can view, navigate through, and animate.

Computer generated solar envelopes in architecture

This paper offers a description of the development and potential uses of a tool that generates solar envelopes for architecture and planning. Work on the concept of the solar envelope was begun almost 30 years ago by Ralph Knowles. While the ideas proposed by Knowles have been widely published, practical application of the theories has been slow, partly because of the difficulties of visualising and calculating the solar envelope. This paper recapitulates the incremental steps from early hand-modelling techniques, and describes in detail the current interactive computer-based tool for solar envelope generation. The use of the computer program in the studio environment is described and compared with the original hand-based methods.

TEACHING VISUAL SCRIPTING IN BIM: A CASE STUDY USING A PANEL CONTROLLED BY SOLAR ANGLES

ABSTRACT Programming and scripting can be used to activate a 3D parametric model to create a more intelligent and flexible building information model. There has been a trend in the building industr...

Supple Skins: Considering the Relevance, Scalability, and Design Strategies for Façade System Resilience

Resilience has become the umbrella term for the ability of the built environment to resist and respond to a broad range of natural and man-made disasters. Typically, these address a spectrum of issues in the built environment at the scale of urban habitat. Exploring the significance of resilience with respect to building systems and especially the building skin presents an opportunity to examine façade systems from a different perspective and reveals unexpected links between the physical scales that comprise buildings and urban habitat. Design considerations (principles, factors, and strategies) for resilient façades are then proposed.

Reflectivity and specularity of building envelopes: how materiality in architecture affects human visual comfort

ABSTRACT Highly reflective and specular building envelopes have become widely adopted not only for aesthetic reasons, but also to increase building energy savings and improve occupant comfort. However, they can also make significant and sometimes unintended impact outside the building envelope. Reflected sunlight from highly specular building envelopes can cause discomfort glare to people outside buildings. A human subject study was performed in an outdoor research setting. High dynamic range imaging was used to capture exterior glare scenes and to visualize glare sources in the field of view. Collected subjective evaluation data and captured glare scenes were statistically analysed to prove the existence of exterior glare problems. Perceptible and disturbing glare levels were experienced by the participants, and strong correlations were found between visual discomfort and excessive sunlight reflections from specular building envelopes. Exterior glare scenes were also documented in downtown Los Angeles to explore existing problems.