Design with the Sun

Gulf Coast Green 2017 invites currently enrolled students of architecture and related fields to participate in a design and performance charrette. Architecture is understood as the convergence of art and engineering, and this year’s competition is striving to merge solar/daylight performance and innovative design.  Students will be expected to provide a solution to a stated design question, exhibit their work on-site the day of the conference, and witness a performance testing of their design as part of the judging of the competition.

Participants were given a base model in 3ds format that is assumed to be located in Houston TX and has a predefined orientation. The students are then asked to propose a holistic shading solution for all glazed areas of the given model. The proposed designs should respond to certain performance requirements: eliminate direct sunlight during all year in order to prevent glare while at the same time maximize daylight availability within the space. The students can choose any modeling software they want and they are strongly encouraged to use computational simulation software in order to optimize their designs. Such software could include, but should not be limited to: DIVA, Ladybug/Honeybee, Sefaira, Revit Daylight, IESVE, Lightstanza.

1st Place Winners: Renee Justine C. Sampilo, Fredrick A. Lyons II, Reuben Cheeks

This study is investigating the tessellation of a parallelogram in order to discover a universal singularity of diffusing daylight and the reduction of direct sunlight. We have performed a test using the day lighting from the sun in order to study the amount of light diffusion by the shading device. The aesthetics stem from an optical illusion that uses a parallelogram to create the illusion of an isometric square.

Runner Up: Shelby Skinner and Carlos Arboleda

The project was centered on a sustainable innovative design that emphasized the pattern of triangular elements and a recycled weaving material. A heat gain study allowed us to place the weaving in targeted areas, which increased the energy efficiency and the building performance as a whole. The materials are locally sourced, allowing minimal pollution to be introduced into the environment.