Location: Wisma REHDA
Group Members: Te Li Theng, Garnette Robert, Oois Zhi Qian, Crystallina Alecia
Before all else, the primary function of an architecture is to create a space with optimum comfort level for its occupants. One of the approach to achieve that is to instill passive design strategies into architecture. Passive design does not require mechanical heating or cooling. Buildings that are passively designed take
advantage of natural climate to maintain thermal comfort. This project is the research on the thermal performance of a building in relation to its passive designs.
Identifying the passive design of the building is the first step. After having a site visit to verify the passive design, thorough research and analysis come next. Most of the analysis are done through digital software such as Autodesk Ecotect and Autodesk Vasari. The digital simulations provide information on the efficiency of the passive design in specific to the site. The simulated data and the calculated data explain the effect of insulation, thermal mass and air movement on thermal performance of building.
Research Poster
Working with digital software to simulate data for the first time proves to be very confusing and frustrating. The software itself is simple in essence, however, exposed to unknown software without any tutorial beforehand results in unnecessary time loss. Online tutorial are scarce and unreliable as the software are not quite widely used. Application of the passive design into Architectural Studio project prove to be quite a problem as the studied passive design in this project is not entirely suitable to the given site. Different solutions are used to reenact the same function of the studied passives designs.
