Search results

Title: Incorporating the Structure of Tall Buildings within an Architectural Form Generation Process
Creator: Almusharaf, Ayman M.
Date: 2011-05-04, 2011-05
Description: Traditionally, the development of tall buildings’ forms was a direct product of a close and meaningful collaboration between the architect and...
Show moreTraditionally, the development of tall buildings’ forms was a direct product of a close and meaningful collaboration between the architect and structural engineer. This was particularly evident in Chicago during the Modern Era in the architectural design of tall buildings, which provided the key ingredient of architectural form–structure interaction. The quest for iconic, individualistic forms during the Postmodern Era, however, has led to the shift away from the traditional format. New approaches to design began to overemphasize aesthetics and style while paying less attention to structure and the rigorous discipline it requires. In such approaches, issues pertaining to structure are typically addressed after the fact – that is, after the architectural form is well articulated – which necessarily limits the structural design role to solving the problem rather than integrating the structural solution into the architectural concept. This has resulted in an apparent disconnect between architectural form and structure in contemporary tall buildings. To address this disconnect, this research proposes a methodological digitallybased design approach that permits direct and concurrent interaction between the structural and formal design considerations pertaining to tall buildings during the conceptual design phase. Such an approach builds on the generative capabilities offered by available parametric/associative systems and the added potential of integrating them with structural analysis and evaluation tools. Through such integration, a performance feedback loop has been initiated to guide the iterative, parametric form development. Demonstration of the design approach has been carried out based on a number of design scenarios. Such demonstration illustrated the tool’s potential for assisting architects in realizing their conceptual ideas not only visually, but also structurally and materially. The process developed in this research yields architectural forms that respond positively to structure without in any way jeopardizing the visual intent of the architectural concept. The research concludes by remarking on the validity of the proposed approach, highlighting the research’s achievements, addressing the research’s limitations, and proposing directions for future research.
Ph.D. in Architecture, May 2011
Show less

Title: ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY IMPLICATIONS OF DOWNTOWN HIGH-RISE VS. SUBURBAN LOW-RISE LIVING: A CHICAGO CASE STUDY
Creator: Du, Peng
Date: 2015, 2015-12
Description: This research is focused on quantitatively investigating and comparing the environmental and social sustainability of people’s lifestyles in...
Show moreThis research is focused on quantitatively investigating and comparing the environmental and social sustainability of people’s lifestyles in terms of embodied energy, operational energy use, and overall satisfaction with their quality of life in both downtown high-rise and suburban low-rise living using Chicago, IL and a surrounding suburban area of Oak Park, IL as a case study. Specifically, in both cases, the study seeks to evaluate factors such as the embodied energy of the materials that comprise buildings in each location; the predicted and actual monthly energy consumption of the homes; travel via all modes of transport including automobile, public transport, walking, and biking; and the embodied and operational energy of the infrastructure to support each mode of transportation. In addition, this research also engages with the individual building occupants, including single individuals, couples, and families, in a large subset of downtown and suburban Chicago households to directly evaluate perceptions of their life satisfaction and sense of community, which offers a unique direct comparison between dense high-rise and suburban low-rise living. The findings of the study show that downtown high-rise living in Chicago accounts for approximately 58% more life-cycle energy per person per year than Oak Park low-rise living, on average, contrary to some common beliefs (best estimates were ~260 and ~165GJ/person/year, respectively). Building operational energy was estimated to be the single largest contributor of the total life-cycle energy in both the downtown high-rise and suburban low-rise cases, followed by vehicle OE. The findings of the study also show that downtown high-rise residents were associated with higher life satisfaction than suburban low-rise residents when controlling for demographic differences in the research sample. Residence type was not found to be associated with sense of community when controlling for demographic differences, and the factor that was found to be significantly associated with sense of community was household size in the research sample. Also, accessibility and safety were found as the strongest predictors of overall residential environment for individuals.
Ph.D. in Architecture, December 2015
Show less

Title: EVALUATION OF TALL OFFICE BUILDING FORM TO ENHANCE WIND ENERGY PRODUCTION IN BUILDING INTEGRATED WIND TURBINE, A PERFORMANCE BASED APPROACH FOR EARLY DESIGN STAGE
Creator: Abdolhossein Pour, Farid
Date: 2014, 2014-12
Description: A newly emerging way to promote sustainability in the built environment is through the incorporation of wind power within buildings, resulting...
Show moreA newly emerging way to promote sustainability in the built environment is through the incorporation of wind power within buildings, resulting in minimum transmission losses (distributed generation). However, the effectiveness of the proposed solutions are seriously dependent on early integration with the architectural design process. Wind power is considered a potential renewable energy source in tall buildings due to the possibility of accessing greater wind velocities at higher altitudes. In addition, airflow patterns around buildings are considerably influenced by a buildings’ geometric characteristics. Hypothetically, proper modification of building form can turn this unstructured phenomenon in to a massive concentrator effect, capable of boosting power production in tall buildings with an integrated wind turbine (BIWT). These aerodynamic modifications are typically evaluated via CFD simulation or wind tunnel testing. However, these methods are too expensive and time-consuming to analyze all annual fluctuations of local wind regimes (velocity, direction, and density) and is therefore inappropriate for use in early design stages when architectural concepts quickly evolve. As a result, existing wind analysis techniques are often used under simplified conditions (steady state analysis, single velocity, and angle). This approach simply disregards the wide variety of other criteria influencing “BIWT annual energy output” including fluctuations of local wind regimes, and surrounding urban terrain roughness. This research seeks to address the issues indicated above, and proposes a performance based parametric design tool, primarily for the early design stages when architectural concepts evolve rapidly. The automated output delivers real time assessment of BIWT potential energy enhancement for each alternation of the concept, as well as analysis of multiple BIWT typologies simultaneously. The parametric tool employs hourly weather data, different terrain condition mathematical models, and two databases of CFD measurements to approximate annual energy enhancement as result of BIWT geometrical transformations. The tool develops a decision mechanism to find the best BIWT typology and optimum angle, based on the long-term local climatic trends and adjacent terrain context. The outcome of this dissertation is an automated parametric tool which addresses all above indicated difficulties associated with incorporation of current wind analysis method and the architectural design process of BIWT.
Ph.D. in Architecture, December 2014
Show less

Title: REVISITING MODERNIST MASS-HOUSING: RESIDENTS AS ACTIVE AGENTS OF CHANGE
Creator: Shah, Nadia
Date: 2021
Description: In this PhD research, I have examined the modernist approach of mid-20thcentury mass housing projects against the backdrop of post-colonial...
Show moreIn this PhD research, I have examined the modernist approach of mid-20thcentury mass housing projects against the backdrop of post-colonial nation building and the need for housing refugees through resettlement projects after World War II. In this epoch most of the refugees were accommodated in newly decolonized nation states that were struggling to create their national identity as ‘modern'. It was at this critical moment in history, when the West assumed the paternalistic role of development of the so-called ‘Third World’, the ‘Global South’ or the ‘Underdeveloped Nations’, that they defined what is 'modern' using Western standards of ‘normalcy’. Aboard this international development project, architectural modernism’s response was to ‘generalize problems’ and provide ‘normative prescriptions’ as solutions based on rational models. I have reviewed the timeline of modernist ideas that led to mass housing and the associated notion of ‘normalization of space,’ presenting three scales used to organize society: regional planning, land use zoning, and mass-produced architecture, as a prescriptive process. I have examined architecture’s ‘normalization’ as a source of conflict for nation states in their process of national identity formation. I argue that the pedagogy of both modernism and late modernism, presented cultural distinction as an intermediary condition that was subject to change. In particular, modernist architecture engaged with the “concept of normalcy” for the formation of a modern society through spatial and physical organization. Using the case study of Pakistan, I present how this notion was at odds with Pakistani nationalism, since the country was created on the premise to house a traditional society. I have used the example of the Greek architect, Constantinos Doxiadis and his trajectory of late modernism for solving the global housing crisis after World War II. For this purpose, I present the case of a particular post World War II refugee resettlement project called Korangi Town in Karachi Pakistan. This case is studied in the light of modernist planning and architectural models to examine what was proposed, designed, and predicted by this professional architect and how Korangi Town has evolved in the past sixty years. The objective is to see how the new normal architecture and planning standards of the West were received in the non-Western culture? The case study of Korangi Town reveals that the residents of a locale may organize themselves along cultural and ethnic lines, deviating from implemented prescriptive and normative solutions. The changes that the residents made to their built environment through the processes identified as ‘appropriation’, ‘adaptation’ and ‘expansion’ in the dissertation are interpreted as the signs of their active agency. The residents’ agency emerges to reshape their built environs to meet their cultural and individual needs, but most of all their economic needs. These observations show that rather than being passive recipients of ready-made and prescriptive solutions, the residents were active agents in adjusting and adding to their environment. Inhabitants’ active agency needs attention by the planning and architecture professions to assure that environments intended for them have their meaningful input. This dissertation raises questions about how these professions can support this active agency from the beginning and through the planning and design processes.
Show less

Title: CONNECTIONS BETWEEN FINE ART AND SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE PTRS IN THE PERIOD 1660-1850
Creator: O'donnell, Kathryn E.
Date: 2013, 2013-05
Description: This dissertation investigates connections between scientific illustration in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (PTRS) and...
Show moreThis dissertation investigates connections between scientific illustration in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (PTRS) and fine art in the period from 1660 to 1850, comparing three science illustrations from approximately 100-year intervals, 1667, 1775, and 1839, with fine art images of Van Dyck, (1641), Wilson, (1774), and Constable, (1831). My assessment consisted of an objective visual analysis of the science and fine art images using Wolfflin’s comparison pairs, an analysis of the compositional and external art influences in the science images, and an evaluation of the science images related to period art theory. My research found that the science images do reflect period fine art elements, to a degree, but they are not expressive statements of fine art. My research revealed increasing aesthetic influences in the scientific images from 1667 to 1839, suggesting that the incorporation of fine art elements in these science images, and the increased use of illustrations in PTRS articles, may reflect a growing awareness of the significance of images in scientific argument.
PH.D in Technical Communication, May 2013
Show less

Creator: Hassan, Ahmed Ali
Date: 2017, 2017-05
Description: Bio-polymeric materials derived from renewable biomass have successfully replaced conventional materials in many applications. Despite...
Show moreBio-polymeric materials derived from renewable biomass have successfully replaced conventional materials in many applications. Despite covering 10-15% of the current global plastic market, the application of the Bio-polymeric materials in the field of building facades has hitherto been limited. Unlike the conventional façade materials, Bio-polymeric materials can lessen the carbon footprint of the building façade significantly, reduce a considerable percentage of heat loss, and contribute in alleviating the amount of C&D waste dumped in landfills each year. This will help in saving the natural resources, conserving landfill spaces, decreasing pollution rates, and reducing the overall building weight and energy consumption. Accordingly, this research aims at developing a revolutionary lightweight building façade panel, made from Bio-polymeric agri-based materials, to replace the curtain wall glass and aluminum panel in office buildings, and to assess its impact on the environment, the building energy consumption, thermal performance and structural stability. To achieve that, the research discusses in the first place the potentiality of employing these materials while exploring the main physical and environmental challenges they may confront when introduced to the building facades realm. Secondly, the research adopts rigorous selection criteria to facilitate proposing innovative opaque/transparent materials capable of handling all the environmental, thermal, optical, functional, and economic considerations of the building facade. Thus, 1236 state-of-the-art Bio-polymeric materials have been exposed to a strict methodical screening process through structured quantifiable constraints. MCDM methods have then been employed to enable sorting and ranking the resulted set of candidates considering their order-of-preference in achieving the aforementioned performance criteria. Finally, computational simulation tests have been carried out to ensure that the BioEnclos© Façade Panel satisfies all the energy and building code requirements in terms of heat transfer, energy performance, optical properties, and structural behavior. Consequently, the simulation findings have demonstrated the great capabilities the BioEnclos© Façade Panel can provide to the future of the building façades. Through its several options, the BioEnclos© Façade Panel can reduce the weight of the entire building façade by a range of 43-53%. It also can improve the façade’s thermal resistance and energy savings by a range of 31-52%. In addition, it can maximize the visible light transmittance through the façade’s assembly by a range of 15-31%. Moreover, the BioEnclos© Façade Panel can be commissioned in different colors/textures with good UV radiation resistance, self-extinguishing abilities, exceptional 50-70% reduction in CO2 emissions, and multiple end-of-life options.
Ph.D. in Architecture, May 2017
Show less

repository.iit

Search the repository

Pages

Pages

Query