Inicio  /  Sustainability  /  Vol: 3 Núm: 11 Par: Novembe (2011)  /  Artículo
ARTÍCULO
TITULO

Climate Responsive Design and the Milam Residence

Carl Fiocchi    
Simi Hoque and Mohammad Shahadat    

Resumen

Energy conservation and efficiency is an essential area of focus in contemporary building design. The perception that the designers of buildings during the Modernist period of architecture ignored these principles is a false one. The present study, an examination of Paul Rudolph?s Milam Residence, a masterpiece of American residential architecture, is part of a larger project endeavoring to create a knowledge base of the environmental performance of iconic modernist homes. A critical examination of the Milam House allows insight into specific design characteristics that impact energy efficiency and conservation. Located in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, the Milam Residence was constructed in 1962. It was the last of a series of Florida residences designed by Rudolph, Chairman of the Department of Architecture at Yale University (1958?1965). The structure?s form is strongly related to its location on a subtropical beachfront. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the building?s solar responsiveness. Specifically, we examine design strategies such as orientation and sunscreening and their effect on daylighting, shading, and heat gain. The analysis is based on parametric energy modeling studies using Autodesk?s Ecotect, an environmental analysis tool that allows simulation of building performance. While the initial target of the program was early design, the program allows the input of complex geometries and detailed programming of zones, materials, schedules, etc. The program's excellent analyses of desired parameters are augmented by visualizations that make it especially valuable in communicating results. Our findings suggest that the building, as built and situated on the site, does take advantage of daylighting and solar shading and does so in both expected and unexpected ways.

 Artículos similares

       
 
Joshua Amuzu, Bubu P. Jallow, Amos T. Kabo-Bah and Sidat Yaffa    
Global Climate Change is one of the dire challenges facing the international community today. Coastal zones are vulnerable to its impacts. An effective approach with long-term prospects in addressing climate change impacts is it?s mainstreaming into deve... ver más
Revista: Hydrology

 
Qiong Li, Zhicai Luo, Bo Zhong and Hao Zhou    
Evapotranspiration (ET) is a critical component of the water cycle, and it plays an important role in global water exchange and energy flow. However, accurate estimation and numerical simulation of regional ET remain difficult. In this work, based on the... ver más
Revista: Water

 
Miguel L. Navarro-Ligero, Luis Miguel Valenzuela-Montes     Pág. 364 - 379
The emergence of complex and long-range environmental challenges, such as climate change, have drawn attention to issues and limitations of traditional planning approaches, methods and techniques. Thus, new tools are needed to frame old questions from di... ver más

 
Rosemary Kennedy, Laurie Buys and Evonne Miller    
Dwellings in multi-storey apartment buildings (MSAB) are predicted to increase dramatically as a proportion of housing stock in subtropical cities over coming decades. The problem of designing comfortable and healthy high-density residential environments... ver más
Revista: Sustainability

 
Jorge Fernandes, Carlos Pimenta, Ricardo Mateus, Sandra Monteiro Silva and Luís Bragança    
Solar passive strategies that have been developed in vernacular architecture from different regions are a response to specific climate effects. These strategies are usually simple, low-tech and have low potential environmental impact. For this reason, se... ver más
Revista: Buildings