KieranTimberlake Architects develops new wireless sensors to measure building performance under highly specific real conditions, and use the data to inform design decisions.
Traditionally, we make design decisions based on assumptions regarding building performance and behavior. We tend to use regional climatic data—relying, for instance, on the information collected at an airport weather station to predict temperatures at the center of a city, a vastly different setting. These assumptions do not account for the spectrum of real conditions a building will experience over its lifetime within the specific micro-climate of a particular site.
Compared to the degree of sensitivity with which human beings can monitor our bodies—including our degree of warmth, rate of breathing, etc.—our ability to monitor our built environments is extremely limited. Conceiving of each building as a living organism, KieranTimberlake executed several monitoring experiments over the past six years, with the goal of gaining real feedback to inform design.
Commercially available sensors were used to understand the temperature fluctuations between layers of experimental materials in wall assemblies; to discover temperature, relative humidity, and ambient conditions for a specific site; to determine thermal resistance in existing masonry envelopes; and to gauge the temperature and moisture content of a concrete foundation.
This data was applied to calibrate energy models, to make informed decisions about building orientation and massing, and to devise strategies for daylighting and natural ventilation.
These experiments proved to be especially relevant to building retrofits, where even with the highest performance modifications, energy use rises due to the addition of systems like air conditioning and lighting. However, the work revealed the shortcomings of currently available sensor technology. Problems included loss of data during power outages, malfunctioning equipment, and inefficient data download and battery replacement. The current cost per data point is also prohibitive. Finally, while sensors can generate data, they do little to support decision-making. In order to synthesize the data, we needed software to associate sensor data with environmental phenomena as well as building and occupant behavior, and to locate information within a model (BIM).
With these goals in mind, teh architects initiated the development of new sensor by creating an easy-to-install, plug-and-play network that could receive data wirelessly for viewing in a web interface. Also software tools to analyze the data was developed. Over a period of twenty months, a series of prototypes were assembled and a series of field tests were carried out in their office and buildings.
Source: KieranTimberlake Website