After successful completion of the course, students are able to
to understand the fundamentals connected to the challenging relation between buildings, facades, and microclimatic conditions (both in and around buildings). The in part problematic interdependencies between these different parts, the increasing impact of urban heat island and climate change effects require a reaction in the way we design buildings. It is a critical necessity that architectural design encompasses the energy efficiency of the building’s envelope in both construction and operation. Moreover active energy systems that might be integrated have to be considered. These considerations have to be conducted in both generation of new buildings and retrofit of the existing building stock. Participating students train in this design studio to critically assess different aspects of retrofit of existing structures (e.g. facades). Furthermore the design and construction of innovative façade systems will be trained.
Climate-change related and urban-heat-island-driven overheating of cities is an increasing global .challenge. Given the high degree of surface sealing in European cities (including Vienna), the overheating problem gets even more severe. Although governmental bodies already started to react in building codes and standards, there is a large demand for solutions: Architects will be required to include the overheating issues in their architectural designs already as a basic design parameter. It will be necessary to react to these issues with state-of-the-art technologies and innovative ideas. Overheating mitigation will become a central goal in designing built structures. Greening of flat roofs is already stipulated by the building codes in Vienna, and the required integration of façade greening for new buildings is a matter that will be included in one of the next novellas of the building codes. However, the question remains how to deal with the historic building stock that forms the majority of European cities centers.
This design studio is coupled with the Master of Building Science’s Project Course and will work on questions such as:
- How can the public space be used to positively influence the urban microclimate in an efficient fashion?
- How can specific urban micro-landscapes / Courtyard structures be utilized to positively influence urban microclimate and microclimate in built structures?
In interdisciplinary teams, consisting of 1-2 architects and 1 Building science student we will start with a comprehensive analysis of an existing built structure and the prevailing requirements toward UHI and CC mitigation. Thereby, technical and esthetical aspects have to be considered, as well as the necessities of monument protection. Pliant / Greenary integration will be of high importance, as well as utilization of state-of-the-art tools for simulation and early-stage design support / design evaluation via digital tools.
