Organizational Unit:
School of Architecture

Permanent Link
https://hdl.handle.net/1853/70770
Research Organization Registry ID
Description
Previous Names
Parent Organization
Parent Organization
Organizational Unit
Includes Organization(s)
ArchiveSpace Name Record
https://finding-aids.library.gatech.edu/agents/corporate_entities/1120

Filters

2010 - 2016 36
36
36
Reset filters

Settings
End date: 2016 × Start date: 2010 × Item Type: Publication × search.filters.applied.f.resourcesubtype: Thesis ×

Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 36
Thumbnail Image
Item

Solar shift: A perspective on building energy performance under haze pollutions in China

2016-05-31 , Jia, Yiyuan

The severe haze pollution in China has arisen concerns among the public and government officials, due to its impacts on pubic health, visibility, climate and agriculture. To augment these findings of the negative impacts of haze pollution, this study investigates the “solar shift” effect due to haze pollutions and the potential (unreported) impacts on buildings’ energy performance in China. This study takes the aerosol optical depth (AOD) as a measure of the solar blocking effect of haze pollutions. By plugging in the measured and projected AOD data in solar models, three weather files for Beijing are developed that represent different haze pollution for the following scenarios: the 2014 situation, the optimistic projection of 2050 (2050A) and the pessimistic projection of 2050 (2050B). Together with the TMY, these weather files serve as the boundary conditions in building energy modeling practices. The results indicate the district heating energy consumption under the 2014 aerosol emission levels would increase 5 % compared to the current practice using TMY weather file. In the pessimistic scenario where we assume to keep the current pace of aerosol emissions, the district heating energy would increase 10 %. The current ASHRAE design day sizing method would assure the heating load being met under all possible scenarios investigated in this study.

View
Thumbnail Image
Item

Towards modeling of retrofit processes

2015-08-05 , Szymkiewicz, Paul M.

Energy retrofits can be executed by a building owner with or without the supervision of a third-party agent. We define process models to capture third-party energy retrofit inspection activities, and refine, augment, and generalize those models to then examine the impact of third-party retrofit inspections. Buildings included in the study vary considerably in type, and so do retrofit programs applied to those buildings.

View
Thumbnail Image
Item

HVAC operation uncertainty in energy performance gap

2015-05-19 , Wang, Yijia

This study aims at a preliminary characterization of system operation uncertainty. It bases this on an analysis of the energy consumption of 6 existing buildings on the Georgia Tech campus. The analysis is speculative in nature.

View
Thumbnail Image
Item

Thermo-hygroscopic envelope to support alternative cooling systems: speculative feasibility study in a small office building

2014-09-02 , Marshall, Marionyt Tyrone

The thesis explores the technical feasibility of an alternative method of decoupling air-conditioning systems function within the context of ecological issues. The system is a variant of dedicated outdoor air systems to separate dehumidification and cooling in air conditioning equipment. The project specifically investigates locating these components within the building envelope. Placement in the envelope moves the systems closer to fresh air and offers architectural expression for components that are normally out of sight. Designers, engineers, building science, mechanical, structural, biologist, and architectural engineers ideally as agents offer beneficial improvement to the system. The reduction in size of components into the building envelope offers risk. The thesis design space uses historical works, biological analogues, and past work to ground the technical understanding of the topic. Specific use of biological inspired design realizes translation from other systems to improve the alternative decoupled air conditioning system. The thesis develops prototype models for lighting analysis and for sensible and latent heat calculations. Psychrometric charts serve as tools to understand the thermodynamic air-conditioning process in conventional direct expansion vapor compression and solar liquid desiccant air conditioning systems. Data, models, and sketches provide tools for improvements to the 'thick' building envelope. Finally, the diagrams translate into functional decompositions for modifications to improve the system. The thesis probes the constraints in the areas of cost, fabrication, and technology that may not yet exist for selective improvement rather than a barrier to development of the thesis.

View
Thumbnail Image
Item

Sustainable energy in military base design & layout

2016-05-10 , Campbell, Ira Lee, Sr.

The purpose of this study is to exlpore the possibilities of power generation using human and mechanical means. This paper will introduce alternative means, methods, and procedures for the implementation of cutting edge technologies to address the energy needs for today and the future. Further, this project will serve as an aid in the development of a base camp facility layout optimization system by understanding the proximity relationships between base camp components, developing a facility layout domain, and comparing generated layouts to existing models and camps.

View
Thumbnail Image
Item

Digital representation and constructability of minimal surfaces in concrete

2015-07-27 , Keskin, Zeynep

This thesis investigates minimal surfaces in design and researches their potential for constructability in concrete through the creation of physical prototypes with the design of two mold making processes, one being sacrificial and the other reusable. The study starts by acknowledging that minimal surfaces have been extensively explored in the field of differential geometry for decades. In spite of the availability of geometric definitions which provide the basic background for digital model generation (which in this text is assumed to be equal to design itself), minimal surfaces inspired very few people in their architectural design. This study attempts to look into the wider implications of minimal surfaces for architecture by taking up the challenge of designing and realizing various processes of mold making for the fabrication of such surfaces in concrete. Throughout this study, a gradient of complexity in the definition and digital modeling of minimal surfaces will be included as well as a variety of production methods in a research and fabrication based process, in order to investigate the correlation between what can be designed and what can be produced. I shall begin with a historical survey of the constructability of surfaces in thin shell concrete to provide background information for the reader. This chapter on the evolution of concrete structures presents a compilation of selected projects to illustrate the progress of thin shell construction throughout the history of architecture. It is here that I review what happened, why, and who made it possible. I draw heavily on published scholarly studies as most of the selected projects are cornerstones of the evolution of architecture and have been discussed by many others. Here, I simply attempt to remind the reader of the achievements of these projects in order to justify why investigation of the constructability of minimal surfaces may be the next step in the evolutionary process. After this section, the mathematics of surfaces in the complex plane is discussed based on information retrieved from many excellent resources. Here, the intention is to acquire information related to descriptions of various minimal surface types in differential geometry in order to be able to generate their representations in the digital environment. It would have been impossible to generate digital representations of minimal surfaces without the knowledge acquired through these descriptions. The last section provides a comparison of ruled surfaces and minimal surfaces meant to reveal the similarities and differences of such surfaces with regard to the principles of digital representation and fabrication. It provides insight into various fabrication techniques and materials to illuminate the design of a making process in which the goal is to know and control every parameter regarding both the design and fabrication of an object. The discussion of the design of a making process for a complexly shaped object provided in this part is followed by discussion of casting prototypes in concrete. In that section, the subject matter is the design and testing of various mold making techniques for the production of concrete prototypes of a selected minimal surface geometry. This section presents an increasing complexity of mold making from a sacrificial mold to a reusable mold.

View
Thumbnail Image
Item

Rethinking the work space

2015-05-15 , Duncan, Rebecca

The idea of the open plan workspace has been a popular model for office design since the 1960’s. The openness was thought to encourage collaboration and group thinking while also allowing for more supervision and a more flexible space overall. This model, however, is too instrumental. It neglects the fact that the modern workplace is a setting not just for work but where we spend a significant part of our public life. We enact presentations of self in the workplace, enter into planned and unplanned transactions, forge networks, create group identities, and at times withdraw from the public eye for contemplative work and for refuge. In the open-plan model, every activity becomes a ‘front stage’ activity where people always feel as if they are constantly putting on a performance. The model does not adequately address other needs. This holds particularly true in the creative professions where more seclusion is needed in order to produce innovative ideas. This thesis offers a new model to think about the workplace by taking the school of architecture as an example. The work is in two parts. The first, an analytical study of 10 schools, drawn from a larger sample of 26, shows that despite many innovations in form-making, schools of architecture have followed this model of the open plan workspace closely, particularly in the way studio spaces are designed. As a result activities like enactment of self, expression of identities, negotiation and encounters, and withdrawal from social life happen in ad hoc and re-purposed spaces. The second part offers a design response to this condition by proposing an intervention for one of the most well known schools of architecture and one that embodies a logically extreme version of the open plan idea, Crown Hall. This intervention, which proposes radical changes to the interior organization of Crown Hall while respecting its conceptual form and broad design intent, illustrates how a modern workplace can offer a space that allows the full complexity of the drama of daily life to enfold in a workplace setting.

View
Thumbnail Image
Item

Application of the functional scenarios method on alternative settings

2016-05-09 , Bushehri, Yousef

Goals of this study are to set up the frame-work for analyzing residential buildings using the functional scenarios method and to tests the applicability of the method on large scale projects. The metrics for the analysis are based on guidelines for designing spaces that promote healthy aging. In addition, the study was providing an opportunity to developing and refined the method. The result of the analysis determines that the functional scenarios method is applicable to large scale buildings as effectively as smalls scale buildings; design configurations can be extracted from the results of the analysis to inform future designs. The limitations of the analysis are due to the available resources. Opportunities for continued work include 1) developing standard ways of representing the results of the analysis; and 2) developing a systematic approach for extracting design configurations based on the research questions asked.

View
Thumbnail Image
Item

How modest, incremental site-driven interventions differ in their impact on slum upgrading from iconic projects

2015-05-20 , Rodas, Mario Rene

Urban informal settlements have increased dramatically over the last decades throughout major cities in developing countries. Post war industrialization, increased economic opportunities and social freedoms continue to drive urban-to-rural migration despite of the challenging living conditions in this context. As an example of this phenomenon, approximately 20% of Rio de Janeiro’s six million inhabitants live in the city’s favelas (shanty towns) or other types of informal settlements. Despite physical proximity, rigid class segregation maintains strong physical and social boundaries between the formal and informal city. On the one hand favela residents suffer from a marked social stigma mainly due to the violence and crime associated with local or exterior drug traffic wars in their communities - suggesting the need for top-down "solutions." On the other hand, some scholars are increasingly celebrating the entrepreneurialism of the slums' informal economies and self–organized communal structures, suggesting that successful improvements must be incremental and community-driven. This thesis asks how modest, incremental site-driven interventions differ in their impact on slum upgrading from top down iconic projects. The thesis identifies current strategies of slum upgrading through analysis of both theoretical proposals by scholars and contemporary built projects. The thesis proposes that a hybrid blend of these strategies will address multiple audiences and goals and better guide practitioners on how to intervene and design within these types of spaces. The multiple goals focus on the provision of social integration, self-organization and economic opportunities which will result in bettering the quality of life of the people who live in these communities. This hybrid combination of community networked strategies and iconic gestures is tested and applied in a design proposal for the Complexo da Maré favela compound in Rio de Janeiro.

View
Thumbnail Image
Item

Counter-spaces and notation machines

2015-04-29 , Shivers, Christina Nicole

The modern American city is organized into a multitude of spaces based upon function and use. These organized spaces dictate a prescribed behavior and social awareness resulting in a landscape of ill-fitting and awkward territories existing in opposition to one another. An unintended byproduct of these collisions is the counter-space. Akin to slag, sludge and waste resulting from modern industrial processes, the counter-space is the left-over and neglected space of the city resulting from the ever increasing hegemony of society. Hidden within plain site, abandoned and unused, these spaces exist everywhere. This thesis seeks to understand and reveal these counter-spaces and their subsequent populations within the city of Atlanta in order to bring an awareness to the design of the city for all populations. The spatial-temporalities of counter-spaces will be understood through a de-territorialization of representation through notation and mapping. Through this act, a “cartography of events” will be created for each counter space using series of notation machines in which temporal stimuli from each counter-space site will be used as inputs for the machines.

View