EAL0140 Environmental Performative Architecture and Planning 2020-21

Tallinn University of Technology – Academy of Architecture and Urban Studies

Academic year 2020-21 - Fall semester – Study program EAUI71 - EAUI12/17 - 6 ECTS credits

Research Scientist Francesco De Luca, Lecturer Ioannis Lykouras

Thursday 14:00 – 17:15 - TalTech U03-405

 

Syllabus

Introduction

Contemporary cities alter local climate conditions, which significantly influence building occupant and pedestrians comfort. In the warm season, the increase of air temperature and surface temperature of buildings, pavements and streets decreases the comfort of people in public areas. At northern latitudes in urban environments, the exploitation of solar radiation during winter times can help increase the comfort of people, whereas building overshadowing and increased wind velocities can significantly increase discomfort due to low perceived temperatures hence specific urban design strategies are required.

Urban comfort, building interiors daylight and view out are strictly related and dependent from urban morphology, i.e. buildings size, orientation and distance. Architects and planners are urged to improve the environmental performance of buildings for occupants’ comfort and energy efficiency and the comfort and safety of urban environments.

Scope of the course is the realization of design proposals by students for a new urban district located in the quarter of Karjamaa in Tallinn. The new district will be a high-density cluster of residential and office buildings. The designed urban district will be architecturally sound and will fit the urban area and surroundings. The cluster buildings will receive enough natural illumination and the interiors will enjoy appropriate views to the outside. The public areas around and between the buildings will be comfortable and safe. Though it is a high-density district, green areas and open public areas will be integral part of the design proposal. No internal car circulation has to be designed inside the district.

The aim of the course is to introduce to the students the evidence-based method that drives design decisions through the performance analysis of buildings and environments and digital design tools. Evidence-based design permits to adopt the scientific method of investigation in architectural design and planning. In an architecture school it is important that students learn methods to design using objective data as input and evidence as outcome. The ability to incorporate credible evidence into design decisions is an indispensable skill for the future architects and planners.

 

Area

The area used for planning is located along the coast in the Karjamaa quarter, between Kalamaja and the Palassaare peninsula. It is located in a zone of the city with high potential of transformation, close to the Kalamaja quarter where other development along the coast are successfully being developed such as the Noblessner district. However, due to the previous naval activities, the planning area would require soil pollutant decontamination prior a real development as characteristic of brownfield areas in many European cities. The area is characterized by businesses activities such as maritime transport, ships repair, shooting range and warehouse buildings and large parking lots functional to the businesses. The area is visible in Figure 1. 

Figure 1. Part of the Kopli peninsula and the Karjamaa quarter where the design area for the new urban district is located (red border rectangle).

The red line represents the limit of the planning area that is a rectangle 548 m by 300 m in size. The buildings actually present on the area and in the vicinity are demolished for the planning of the new district. The area of the new urban district is visible in internet on Google Map at following link to https://www.google.it/maps/place/Reneko/@59.4564344,24.711066,2471m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x46929390124b07cf:0x106b182e13101121!8m2!3d59.4567675!4d24.70895?hl=it.  A 3D model of the area has been realized with Rhinoceros to be used by each group (Figure 2). It is possible to download it from the section Materials.


Figure 2. The 3D model to use for project development available for download. 

The course will be conducted as a design studio. It will consist of lectures, tutoring and team work to be conducted in the computer lab with the assistance of the lecturers. Most part of the work to finalize the project proposals will be conducted in the computer lab. The software used for design and simulation is available on the computers of the lab. Additionally, students can install the software on their own laptop if need to continue to work at home. Most of the software is free or has educational (free) licenses. The software used is: 

  • Rhinoceros/Grasshopper for parametric design (www.rhino3d.com). It is important to notice that the software Rhinoceros/Grasshopper has a free license for 3 months, thus it is recommended that students install the trial version of Rhinoceros for lesson 07 of 15.10 and not before, otherwise the software will stop working long before the exam period.
  • Ladybug Tools for solar access, view out and urban comfort analysis (www.ladybug.tools). The link to download the software is available from the page relative to the specific Ladybug software. The software is free.

It is possible additional software will be used during the course. The software used for rendering, image editing and presentation board layout can be any decided by students.

 

Teams

The projects will be developed by students in teams. Each team is composed by 2 students. In few cases 3 students can form a team. It is advisable that the teams are formed in a way that, if possible, one member has already skills in using the parametric software Grasshopper (and in case additionally skills in using the plug-in Ladybug Tools for urban comfort analysis).

 

Activities

The course is divided in different activities, each one with a specific outcome. During the different activities, there will be lectures and teamwork for the students to apply the techniques and methods learned during the lectures and to develop their design idea with the possibility to take advantage of tutoring. The course is organized in a way that the activities related to the use of software for parametric design and simulations will be carried on fully in the computer lab. Ideally the students will not have to carry on these activities at home, because the software Rhinoceros has a limited duration. All the other activities will have to be carried on at home as well as required by studio courses. The activities are.

  • Urban layout development - Activity in which the planning project is developed, its robustness and fitness verified with the lecturers. The urban layout development start with a project idea represented by bi-dimensional diagrams. The diagram express the possible linkage of the project idea to the site, surrounding urban morphologies or specific concepts. The three-dimensional urban idea is developed through generation of different alternatives using parametric design.
  • Parametric design of urban layout – Practical lectures about how to design parametric models of urban layout are given.
  • Parametric modeling of urban layout alternatives - Teams will develop urban layout alternatives using parametric design. The design outcome quality is assessed together with the lecturers. Validity and appropriateness is assessed not for every urban layout alternative but for the model that generates it on the basis of few cases.
  • Sunlight and view out analysis - During this activity lectures about solar access and view out simulations of urban models. The simulations will be used by the teams to assess the performance of urban layout alternatives with respect to standards. The scope is to produce a number of alternatives that meet the requirements and even perform better. Each team will select, also on the basis of the lecturers input, one final layout, among those that meet the requirements, to use for urban comfort analysis and final urban design proposal development.
  • Urban comfort performance analysis – After having selected one final layout each team will locate a snippet of the entire designed district, a small portion of the entire project, on which develop the public open area design. It must be an area between buildings where a public area as a square can be located. During this activity lectures about urban comfort analysis are given. The teams will perform the simulations and will use the results of the analysis to locate terraces, pedestrian paths, playgrounds, green areas, free time areas and entrances to surrounding buildings, features that constitute the public open area design.
  • Performance analysis presentation – During this activity lectures are given to students about how to properly present results of performance analysis for an architectural project. It will be important that project presentations will show how the performance analysis results have guided design decisions. During this activity, the teams will have the possibility to develop analysis presentation for the relative drawing boards.
  • Urban project and open area design + presentation – During this activity the teams will develop and finalize the urban design proposal and the open area design creating views with legends, callouts and graphics.

 

Requirements

The new urban district will have to meet qualitative and quantitative requirements. Qualitative requirements refer to the architecture and urban quality of the proposal.  The quality is assessed during the tutoring work with the lecturers and during the interim review. Quantitative requirements refers to the performance of the urban district and are the following:

FAR – Floor Area Ratio measures the density of the built environment (the ratio between the total built floor area and the design area). It is required to achieve a FAR of minimum 1.8 (update 19/11/2020). Residential buildings will be maximum 7 floors, office buildings maximum 14 floors (the required FAR and maximum number of floor need to be confirmed). Floor height used is 3m for both residential and offices.

Sunlight – The access to sunlight is an important requirement for buildings. An adequate quantity of sun light hours during specific periods guarantee healthiness of interiors, occupant indoor comfort and quality of interior architecture. All the buildings of the selected district will have to guarantee the following requirement based on solar access requirement of the European EN 17037:2018: 1) at least 80% of the total facades area must receive a minimum of 1.5 hours of direct solar access during March 21; 2) at least 80% among all the building facades must receive 50% of the solar access required by the standard (update 19/11/2020). A presentation of the standard is available from the section Materials.

View out – As stated by the new European daylight standard EN 17037:2018, view out, together with sunlight, is an important building performance that guarantee pleasantness and visual comfort of interiors. All the buildings of the selected district will have to guarantee a view out requirement based on the new European standard EN 17037:2018 (to be communicated). A presentation about the standard is available from the section Materials. It is required that at each façade of the new district has an average Sky Exposure (sky view) of minimum 20% (update 19/11/2020).

Urban comfort – For urban comfort analysis will be used the metric Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI - www.utci.org). UTCI express the perceived temperature of a pedestrian in a open area. The perceived temperature is due to different climatic conditions as air temperature, solar radiation, wind and humidity and takes into account the effect of built environment in modifying local micro-climate through shadowing, reflected radiation, own emitted temperature (surface temperature) and wind patterns modification. The UTCI model takes into account as well a person clothing model and physiological model. A scientific paper presenting the UTCI model is available in the section Materials. The chosen public open area will be tested for comfort during winter and summer. The results will give the indications to take into account for the design of the area. The urban comfort maps generated through analysis will indicate the comfortable open areas for sitting, walking and playing or the less uncomfortable and dangerous for building entrances and pedestrian paths.

 

Deliverables

The final presentation (exam) will be done by each team using 4 drawing boards (placard) of standard size A1 (594 mm width x 841 mm height). The number of 4 is mandatory and should not been exceeded. If necessary can be agreed with the lecturers to add 1 more drawing board. The content of each drawing board is standard and is the following:

1 - Diagrams for presentation of the project idea. Diagrams for presentation of the parametric design process for the generation of urban layout alternatives. Different urban layout alternatives used in performance studies.

2 - Sunlight and view out analysis on selected urban layout alternatives including data and charts that are used to compare performance.

3 - Planning design proposal of the selected urban layout among those that fulfill both sunlight and view out requirements. Architectural presentation using 3D views and general plan of the proposal (simplified asendiplaan).

4 - Urban comfort analysis result presentation for two period of the year of the selected open area design, with indication of the outcome that are used in the design. Presentation of the design of the open area using perspective/axonometric 3D views with callout and legends for localization of functions and features such as terraces, pedestrian paths, playgrounds, green areas and free time areas.

It is required to each group that the 4 drawing boards of the project are sent by email to course lecturers before the exam day in pdf format. The maximum file size for each A1 project board in pdf format is 5Mb. Together with the A1 boards is requested to deliver an A4 file in pdf format of all the project boards with a maximum file size of 1Mb.

 

Grades (updated 11.01.2021)

Project/group exam grades will be assigned in an objective way according to the method described hereinafter. However, a certain degree of subjective evaluation cannot be excluded. The course grades will go from 0 to 5 and will be the sum of partial grades given for the following sections:

1. Project idea and urban design quality – from 0 to 1. This section evaluates the quality of the project idea, the urban layout and its relation to the surrounding urban environment or to a specific urban design concept. It evaluates as well the relation of the urban design proposal with the project area and program. This section is relative to the material presented on the project posters 1.

2. Parametric model – from 0 to 1. This section evaluates how the project idea has been included in the parametric model and the efficiency of the parametric model to generate a number of different project variations. This section is relative to the material presented on the project boards 1.

3. Building performance simulations – from 0 to 1. This section evaluates to which extent the project meet the performance required of FAR, sunlight and view out (sky exposure) and the correctness in performing the performance simulation as presented in the course. This section is relative to the material presented on the project board 2 and 3.

4. Analysis results and requirements presentation – from 0 to 1. This section evaluates the analysis of the performance results for the selection of the final project urban layout, the correctness and completeness of the textual presentation of the performance requirements used in the course and the accuracy in the presentation of the simulation project diagram (3D views with false colors) using variation names/numbers, legends, title e.g. Sunlight Hour Simulation (or Analysis), abbreviations e.g. SEF for Sky Exposure Factor, and units e.g. %, h for hours. This section is relative to the material presented on the project posters 2 and 3.

5. Presentation – from 0 to 1. This section evaluates the quality and completeness of the whole presentation, through diagrams, drawings, charts and images of all the project posters. It evaluates as well the clarity of oral presentation with demonstration by students of the sufficient level of building performance knowledge acquired (relative to what presented in the course).

For the final grade will also be taken into account the quality of midterm presentations and participation in course. All the students of the same group will receive the same grade. Exceptions can be made for students of the same group with different level of participation in the course and showing different level of building performance knowledge relative to the aspects presented in the course.


Course Schedule

 

01 - 03.09 Thursday 14:00-17:15

Parametric design 1


02 - 10.09 Thursday 14:00-17:15

Parametric design 2


03 - 17.09 Thursday 14:00-17:15

Parametric urban layout design 1


04 - 24.09 Thursday 14:00-17:15

Parametric urban layout design 2

 

05 – 01.10 Thursday 14:00-17:15 (I L)

Formation of design teams - Design idea discussion 

Students exercise on parametric urban layout design

 

06 – 08.10 Thursday 14:00-17:15

Parametric urban layout design 3

 

07 – 15.10 Thursday 14:00-17:15 (I L) 

Parametric urban layout design discussion

Students exercise on parametric urban layout design

 

08 – 22.10 Thursday 14:00-17:15

Environmental analysis and design tools

Performance analysis – Solar access

 

09 – 29.10 Thursday 14:00-17:15

Performance analysis – Solar access compliance to daylight standard

Teamwork on parametric and performative urban layout design for solar access with tutoring

 

10 – 05.11 Thursday 14:00-17:15

Performance analysis – View out for daylight standard

Teamwork on parametric and performative urban layout design for view out with tutoring

 

11 – 12.11 Thursday 14:00-17:15

Performance analysis of urban layout alternatives for solar access and view out and results presentation

Teamwork on parametric and performative urban layout selection for solar access and view out

 

12 – 19.11 Thursday 14:00-17:15

Midterm review

Selection of open area and design idea discussion

 

13 – 26.11 Thursday 14:00-17:15

Performance analysis – Urban comfort

Teamwork on urban comfort performance analysis with tutoring

 

14 – 03.12 Thursday 14:00-17:15

Lecture performance analysis and urban comfort results presentation

Team work on open area design through urban comfort performance analysis results with tutoring

 

15 – 10.12 Thursday 14:00-17:15

Performance analysis result presentation

Teamwork on performance analysis result presentation, urban layout presentation and open area design presentation

 

16 – 17.12 Thursday 14:00-17:15

Final review


Information

For any information students can contact Francesco De Luca at francesco.deluca@taltech.ee and Ioannis Lykouras at ioannis.lykouras@taltech.ee


Materials

Through this sections materials useful for the course are available. They are links to download files to be used in the course, scientific work related to the design and simulation software used, urban design and performance design examples, websites useful for the course. Materials will be added during the course to this section.

 

Support material

>>>>> Link to Tallinn City repository (Ruumiandmed) where to download the source 3D model and dwg files.

>>>>> Scout. Parametric urban model for view, daylight, comfort and energy real time evaluation. 

>>>>> Estonian daylight standard EVS 894:2008/A2:2015.

>>>>> Presentation of the European daylight standard EN 17037:2018 by Jens Christoffersen.

>>>>> Paper - De Luca, F. 2017, From Envelope to Layout. Buildings Massing and Layout Generation for Solar Access in Urban Environments. In Proceedings of the 35th International Conference on Education and research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe (eCAADe), Rome, Italy, 20-22 September 2017, v. 2, 431-440.

>>>>> Paper - Bröde, P., Jendritzky, G., Fiala, D. and Havenith, G. The universal thermal climate index UTCI in operational use. Proc. of Adapting to Change: New Thinking on Comfort, Windsor, UK, 2010.

>>>>> The Grasshopper Primer by Modelab

>>>>> Course EAL0040 Urban Planning - Planning Project I Energy Efficient Urban Quarter - 2019-20 Student projects



Files and links for lectures and project work

>>>>> Rhinoceros 3D model of the urban area to use as project environment.

>>>>> Rhinoceros and Grasshopper files lecture 03 September 2020

>>>>> Rhinoceros and Grasshopper files lecture 10 September 2020

>>>>> Rhinoceros and Grasshopper files lecture 17 September 2020

>>>>> Rhinoceros and Grasshopper files lecture 24 September 2020

>>>>> Grasshopper files lecture 10 October 2020

Ladybug Tools - Information about the Grasshopper plugin Ladybug Tools can be found at the link www.ladybug.toolsIt is possible to download and install the software following the instructions from the Ladybug Tools website, that points to the website https://www.food4rhino.com/app/ladybug-tools (more detailed installations instructions can be found here https://github.com/ladybug-tools/ladybug-legacy/wiki/Installation-Instructions. When you download the software a large number of files is downloaded. Not all are needed for the course. Following there is a simplified procedure to download (from the course Dropbox repository) and install only the needed files.

1 - Download the folder ladybug0.0.69 (.zip archive), uncompress it and copy the folder (not only the content but the entire folder) in the User Object Folder that you can open from the Grasshopper menu File>Special Folders (see image below).

2 - Download the file Ironbug.LBHB_Legacy (.zip archive) uncompress it and copy it in the Components Folder that you can open from the Grasshopper menu File>Special Folders (see image below). 




3 -  Download the folder ladybug (.zip archive), uncompress it and copy the folder in the in the computer drive C so that the address of the folder is C:\ladybug.

Close Grasshopper and Rhinoceros and start again the programs. Now you have a fully functional latest version of Ladybug Tools.

If someone decided to download from the official food4Rhino website as soon as you have the .zip file do the following: right click on the .zip file and if blocked unblock it as show in the image below and after uncompress the .zip file. Then you could find the same folders and files I mentioned and you can copy them in the same Grashsopper folders.


>>>>> Tallinn weather file 

>>>>> Mesh edit file to copy in Grasshopper > File > Special Folders > Components Folder

>>>>> Rhinoceros and Grasshopper files lecture 22 October 2020

>>>>> Grasshopper file lecture 29 October 2020 (to use with the Rhinoceros file of the area)

>>>>> Grasshopper with urban patterns file used for analysis during lecture 29 October 2020

>>>>   Grasshopper files lecture 5 November 2020

>>>>> Excel file lecture 12 November 2020

>>>>> Excel file for performance chart - Updated lecture 19 November 2020

>>>>> Grasshopper custom components for reading results, building facades color coding and legend generation, and North sign localization.

>>>>> Rhinoceros map scale and North sign

>>>>> Example grasshopper file for Sky View Factor and Sun Light Hours legends and building colors



Student Works

>>>>> Link to access the works developed by the student groups for the final review.