Environmental Science for Architects 2.

Project Brief. September 2014

K12ESA / K12ESM
Environmental Science for Architects 2
Project Brief: September 2014. BArch and MEng Students
Value: 10 Credits
Type: Individual Assignment

Introduction
Linked to your main Autumn semester design studio project, your K12TSA assignment
has asked you to chronicle, in a systematic manner both the process of tectonics
design and its realisation in a series of detailed drawings. Ultimately, you are
expected to demonstrate an understanding of the underlying structural and
constructional aspects of design, these informed (amongst other things) by
materiality, water / weatherproofing and thermal considerations.
The brief for Environmental Sciences for Architects 2 builds upon this Tectonics (and
Design Studio) assignment, focusing on the thermal behaviour of your buildings
envelope and the technologies and services that may be available to you in
providing a comfortable environment for occupants. As with the Tectonics
assignment, the process of design development and its realisation in a final design
product is absolutely essential. Ultimately we would like you to take your Tectonics
and Design Studio submissions and begin to explore their thermal performance in a
rigorous manner. As with your Tectonics exercise, this undoubtedly will involve
revisiting your proposal, assess its performance and through further iterations
converge on a solution / solutions that result in a strongly performing envelope (from
a thermal behavior perspective). From this development process you will be able to
identify appropriate technologies / strategies / services that can be used to provide
heat and / or coolth to your buildings. Note: this is an individual assignment. Whilst it is
appreciated that there may be some overlaps in project work (for example with the
South Africa unit), it is essential that the work presented for this project is individual
and is not common with people who you may be working with!

Aims and Objectives

The primary aim of this ESA/ESM submission therefore is for you to demonstrate:
an ability to set clear expectations / aspirations for your envelope design
within the context of current best practice (such as those outlined within the
various standards and regulations that govern the thermal performance of
buildings);

Environmental Science for Architects 2.

Project Brief. September 2014

an ability to develop a series of strategies that are appropriate for both the
prevailing climate and occupant group;
an understanding of how the process of materials selection, configuration
and final detailing affects heat flowing both in to and out of your buildings
envelope (including envelope heat transfer, ventilation, solar gains, internal
and metabolic gains and so on);
an ability to rigorously account for these flows, assess their relative importance
and explore them in detail using a range of analytical and technical
techniques;
an ability to reflect critically on the decisions you have taken in designing your
envelope and compare them with current best practice;
an ability to evolve your solutions in order to improve their thermal
performance whilst appreciating the other aspects that govern their design;
an ability to identify appropriate systems / technologies / services that, where
applicable, can help ensure the building is comfortable for its occupants
whilst minimizing overall energy consumption and carbon emissions.

The Brief
Quite simply, you will take the work you are doing / have done for both Tectonics and
main Design Studio housing / South Africa projects and focus in on its thermal
performance. You will show that you have / can develop a building envelope that
satisfies key performative requirements, namely (a) minimising excessive heat loss or
gains and (b) maximizing beneficial gains. You will show that you understand the
needs of the occupant and the driving forces that will affect the performance of the
building overall including the prevailing climate and how the building is programmed
/ intended to run. Finally you will demonstrate that you can, where appropriate,
propose a suitable servicing strategy for the building using appropriate technologies
/ systems.
The assignment focuses primarily on your core envelope elements; the walls,
windows, roof, floor, ceiling, doors etc. and expects you to demonstrate that you
know how to design and / or incorporate them properly into an appropriate
envelope specification where emphasis is on their thermal behaviour. Key
considerations MUST include:
Bespoke elements: How their materiality and configuration have been
selected / designed to minimise excessive heat losses or gains. As such you will
be expected to look critically at issues including appropriate materials
selection (for example basic materials properties such as their conductivities,
resistivities, thicknesses and so on), their configuration (including issues such as
structural and geometric bridging, thermal mass and so on) and their
realization to form a coherent, high performance envelope that suits the
context within which they are operating;
Proprietary / off the shelf elements: The rationale behind their selection (e.g.
with glazing you have numerous considerations including heat loss, solar
gains, daylighting and so on), their role within the envelope and so on;
Air movement / ventilation. How ventilation is controlled (adventitious /
purpose provided), how you design in appropriate strategies and how you
propose to design out unwanted ventilation paths through the envelope;
Benchmarking. How your envelope responds to the requirements outlined
within current / appropriate regulations / legislation, the components in that
envelope that contribute the most to meeting those targets, and the
components of the envelope that may be subject to redesign;
Lifecycle and product selection. That your envelope is designed in a manner
that respects wider environmental issues (such as embodied energy of
materials, recyclability and so on).

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Project Brief. September 2014

To perform such an analysis you need to understand the numerous factors that may
impact on the design of your envelope and the way it is operated. As such you need
to look closely at context including issues such as user needs / expectations (including
thermal comfort), how the building is intended to be operated, the prevailing
climate, resource availability and so on. Finally the lecture series will have introduced
numerous ways in which we provide energy to buildings for the purposes of heating
and cooling. Whilst we do not expect you to explore this part in significant detail, we
do expect you to propose servicing strategies that seek to ensure that the
occupant is as comfortable as possible whilst minimizing overall energy consumption
/ carbon emissions.

Demonstrating Performance
As is the theme of the lecture series, the rigorous demonstration (quantification) of
performance is key, not only as a means to demonstrate compliance with the various
regulations / standards currently in operation, but more importantly as a way to help
you evolve your design solution. If for example you have designed a wall to meet the
basic elemental u-value requirements from Approved Document L, no doubt you
can improve its thermal performance through alternative material selection, changes
to construction type / sequencing and so on thus striving to achieve best practice. As
such you need to perform the necessary calculations and benchmark them against
your performative targets (such as PassivHaus). If you are proposing air tightness as
being core to your design, you must clearly demonstrate how this is achieved across
a range of building components / junctions / intersections etc to ensure that the
building envelope is not perforated unnecessarily whilst additionally demonstrate how
your building will be ventilated.
All too often you will find that your proposed solution may not meet your performative
targets (or indeed fail on other fronts such as structural, water tightness, air tightness,
aesthetics and so on) and require further iterations. Eventually, through a process of
iteration and testing (e.g. calculation) you will converge upon a solution (or solutions)
that, in the main, fulfills your requirements. This process of iteration (design evolution)
and testing is key and must be core to your submission. It must be noted however that
it is not acceptable at this stage for you to use tools such as Ecotect in arriving at
these solutions. By performing the necessary calculations manually (and exploring
your design using graphical techniques), you begin to understand the importance of
key elements in the design of the envelope and how they contribute to its thermal
performance. As such any attempt to use packages such as Ecotect in this
submission will result in an automatic fail of the assignment. You will be introduced to
such packages at some point in your studies but the aim for now is for you to
understand the underlying principles, which such software utilises, and be able to
quantify your buildings performance manually.

Critical Appraisal
Iteration and testing (sometimes known as analysis, synthesis and appraisal) is key but
is best realized through a process of critical appraisal and reflection. In his book, The
Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action, Donald Schon refers to the
need to continuously reflect on your actions during the design process. Essentially this
boils down to some simple questions; What am I doing? Why am I doing it? What are
the impact of my decisions / actions? What am I going to do about it? How am I
going to take it forward? and is exceptionally important when dealing with the
design of buildings. Such critical appraisal and reflection is core to the
analysis/synthesis/appraisal paradigm where you do something, look at it closely (e.g.
through rule of thumb, calculation etc), make an assumption whether it is beneficial
or not (based on your investigation) and iterate it into a further solution.

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Project Brief. September 2014

To help frame this within context here are two examples.

(1
Your site is located in South Africa and your client wants you to design a
kindergarten. You specify an uninsulated timber framed tin roof as a covering for
the building as this is a common and readily available building material in the region.
You look at the climate data set and you realize that you have large amounts of solar
radiation falling on this roof for quite a significant part of the year. You look at who is
occupying this kindergarten and what they are doing and realize that you have
teachers and young children under this roof. How will the roof impact on them, their
thermal comfort, their learning, their health and wellbeing? The incident solar
radiation will probably result in the tin roof heating up quite significantly. If the roof is
painted black it will absorb a significant amount of solar radiation and re-radiate it
into the space below thus possibly overheating the space (and the occupants). You
may choose to naturally ventilate the space but the radiant field for the roof may be
so large and the external temperature may be so high that it is difficult providing any
comfort or local cooling to the occupants. So you may come to the conclusion that
a black painted tin roof is not ideal so you choose to paint it white (or use some kind
of solar reflective paint). Your assumption here is that it will act as a reflective
insulation layer and help reflect some of the solar radiation back to the atmosphere.
Your roof will probably not absorb as much heat but it will still potentially get quite
hot. What can you do? You could consider ventilating the roof using either wind
driven or stack processes. So any excess heat accumulating under the roof can be
ventilated out at roof level. You may still be left with a high radiant field below, which
might induce local thermal discomfort (due to thermal asymmetry). You look again at
the climate data and find that the area is subject to monsoon like conditions at
certain times of the day and year. The purpose of the space below is to educate
but how can a teacher teach when torrential rain is hitting this roof and the noise
below is interfering with the childrens ability to listen to him or her speak. What can
you do?????? How does your design move on from this?
(2) You are modifying an existing building therefore the footprint of the building is
fixed. You are turning this building into a series of small apartments therefore part of
your strategy is to minimise your surface area to volume ratio and as such reduce the
amount of heat you could lose from the envelope (such as you would do in high rise
or terraced house design). You set yourself a set of benchmark u-values to meet the
aspirations outlined in the PassivHaus standard. You decide to start looking closely at
your glazing to opaque element ratio as well as glazing specification (daylight
transmittance, solar transmittance etc) in the envelope to ensure that you have good
daylighting within your apartments and perform a series of calculations on natural
ventilation to ensure that you have good air quality also (although PassivHaus does
rely on MVHR systems). Following this you perform some quick solar gains calculations
based on available data to see what beneficial gains you might get. Moving on, you
concentrate on the materials that comprise the faade of the building and choose
mineral wool for your insulation layer. You design your faade and realize that you will
need so much insulation in the walls to achieve the PassivHaus benchmark that you
have significantly reduced your available floor space in your apartments. This affects
the feeling of space in the apartment and its rentable / saleable value. In response
you trawl databases and websites for high performance insulants and select one that
has a conductivity of 0.02 W/mK as opposed to mineral wools 0.04 W/mK. As such
you can halve the wall thickness therefore claim back some usable floor area.
Research however shows that this insulation product needs to be specified and
installed in a very particular way so as to maintain its thermal properties (as is
common with most high performance envelopes) therefore detailing becomes
exceptionally important. You need to minimize the potential of compromising the
thermal behavior of the envelope through poor detailing so you look closely at
thermal bridging and ensure that all junctions are detailed properly. From this you
iterate it into the next solution and perform the necessary calculations. However
when you look at the performance of the faade overall (both opaque and

Environmental Science for Architects 2.

Project Brief. September 2014

transparent elements) you notice that your area-weighted u-value is quite high, this
due to both the area and specification of the glazing elements. What do you do?
How do you ensure that you receive adequate daylighting (if you dont have
adequate daylighting you will need to turn your lights on and this will require energy.
It will also potentially feel quite dark and gloomy in your space). How do you ensure
that you receive adequate solar gains (these are giving you free heat when you
need it). How do you ensure that you maintain adequate air quality? What can you
do????? How does your design move on from this?
The point here is one of critical reflection during the design process, where you are
reflecting continuously on the decisions you are taking, appreciating their impact at
various levels and doing so in a manner that is rigorous. As you evolve your solution
you become more confident that your solution(s) is/are robust. This is key to the
success of this exercise that you can take design ideas, explore their impact,
perform the necessary (appropriate) calculations, learn from them and iterate them
into the next solution. It is also important that you make this critical reflection process
explicit in your submission.

The Assignment
Structured in a similar manner to your tectonics assignment, this assignment contains
four core phases:
Phase 1:
Statement of Intent [2 x A3 sheets. Maximum 500 words supported by
appropriate tables, images, analyses etc.].
The statement of intent is an important document and is used to outline your
aspirations / motivations for your project. It should be noted that these are your
preliminary thoughts and will no doubt mature as the project evolves. As such it will
contain:
1. Targets / Benchmarks: Some idea of what it is you are trying to achieve, and
more specifically some of the targets you are trying to achieve. So for
example if you say you are trying to design a building that tries to embody
some of the principles associated with PassivHaus, then you should clearly
articulate which aspects of this standard you are interested in and the targets
you propose to set yourself.
2. Context. The context and challenges within which your building sits. As has
been discussed, issues such as exposure to the prevailing climate (wind, rain,
sun, etc), user expectations and so on can fundamentally affect the
performance of your building. A systematic and targeted (i.e. relevant)
analysis of your site and where appropriate client is therefore invaluable.
3. Precedent. There is a wealth of information available to you that can help
inform the thermal design of your building (much of this is highlighted in the
recommended reading for the module). This may come in the form of
construction details, analyses of other buildings (focused case studies) etc.
Your statement of intent should therefore seek to analyse these to understand
how they work, what contributes to their thermal behaviour and so on. Note
we are not interested in calculations here this is about you demonstrating an
intuitive appreciation for how things work.
Phase 2:
Design Development [4 x A3 sheets. Maximum 750 words supported by
appropriate tables, calculations, images/drawings etc].
The manner in which you have evolved your envelope design (walls, floor, roof,
windows doors etc) is very important as it demonstrates the design development
process. As such you should demonstrate how the thermal considerations / behaviour
of your envelope is / has evolved at KEY stages in this design development phase. In
other words, you should be refining your ideas and in so doing using the knowledge

Environmental Science for Architects 2.

Project Brief. September 2014

gained from the Environmental Science lecture series in helping with this process. It is
expected that you will begin to clearly articulate issues such as materials properties /
specifications, insulation, thermal mass, air tightness / ventilation strategies /
managing gains and so on during this phase of the assignment. One would also
expect that you begin to consider any servicing requirements of your building at this
stage. It is also expected that you will perform at a basic level some of the
calculations that will help you develop your envelope solution (e.g. basic u-values,
solar gain thus helping with window sizing, etc). You should be reflecting on the
factors / aspirations outlined within your statement of intent and in so doing begin to
develop a critical analysis of your project, the decisions you have taken that appear
to work well, those not so well and those that will be subject to change / modification
etc. Please note that this is about considered design development whilst we do
expect a high degree of rigour, there is no need to perform highly intricate
calculations of your envelope at this stage. Please dont forget the importance of
rule of thumb during design development it really is useful in identifying strategies
that may work and those that are ultimately implausible.
Phase 3:
Design Reflection [2 x A3 sheets. Maximum 500 words supported by
appropriate tables, calculations, images/drawings etc.].
The third phase of the Environmental Sciences submission is to reflect on your project
to date and do so in a critical and rigorous manner. By this point your project will
have been reviewed as part of the Design Studio process and you will also have
submitted work for Tectonics. Importantly you will also have made most of your
critical decisions by this stage therefore you will be in a position to self reflect on what
you have done thus far. This reflection stage therefore expects you to clearly
document this reflection process from the perspective of the thermal behaviour /
performance of your design. You may find that your studio reviews have highlighted
certain issues to be aware of therefore requiring a revisit of either your initial design
aspirations or of your design itself. You will probably want a more in-depth
understanding of the thermal behavior of your building and this is an ideal time to
reflect critically on what you have done to date and how this can be taken forward
into a final design solution. For example you may have identified issues with thermal
bridging, with your ventilation strategy, with solar gains etc. which require further
systematic development / evaluation / calculation before finalizing them. This
reflection stage is therefore your chance to seek to understand what needs to be
done before your thermal design is finalized.
Phase 4:
Final Design [4 x A3 sheets. Maximum 1000 words supported by
appropriate tables, calculations, images/drawings etc].
Having reflected on your project, this final phase asks you to take two core parts of
your envelope and explore their thermal behaviour in a rigorous and critical manner.
Whereas the development phase has sought to use basic calculations for your
envelope design, this section sees you applying your knowledge into finalizing this
design and ultimately benchmarking it against your statement of intent that you set in
phase 1. You may choose for example to explore both a wall and a roof, roof and a
floor etc but your choice here should be considered carefully. You may consider for
example using your Heat Loss (Gain) Coefficients, areas and u-values as a means of
identifying those areas that need further exploration. It should be noted that to simply
re-specify an alternative window product is not enough here. If you choose to do
something like this, you have to demonstrate that you have considered the window
unit in its entirety (e.g. if we move from double to triple glazed units, not only will it
have an effect on the u-value of the window element but also on its solar
transmittance, daylight transmittance, ventilation performance etc).

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Project Brief. September 2014

Submission Requirements
The exact contents of the 12 x A3 sheets are entirely up to you. However they need to
clearly demonstrate a systematic, thorough and rigorous approach to design
development. Whilst it is appreciated that both Environmental Science and Tectonics
assignments overlap in key places, you must ensure that the work you present for
both is distinct; that is, work presented for one assignment cannot attract credits for
the other (no double counting of marks). That is not to say however that the drawings
you present for your tectonics assignment cannot be presented for the Environmental
Science assignment as they are core to both, however how you choose to notate
and analyse such drawings is key. Additionally this is an individual assignment and
any projects that show significant commonalities with colleagues undertaking the
project will be investigated under the Universitys academic misconduct policy!
It is expected that you will use the 12 x A3 pages and the associated word count
wisely. Calculations and tables do not form part of this word count and calculations
workings must be demonstrated where appropriate. You should use the word count
as the narrative that critically explores the results of your endeavours (the critical
reflection process). You will be expected to present several drawings outlining your
construction please ensure that these are fully annotated and dimensioned
however please also note that we do not expect you to produce fully scaled
drawings for this assignment (in the case of phases 2 and 3 you are expected to use
what you have produced as part of tectonics.in the case of phase 4 simple sketch
drawings of your envelope will suffice). It should be noted that a common mistake
from previous cohorts is to not provide appropriate graphical evidence. If you are
performing u-value calculations then please ensure you supply a drawing of the
construction sequence. If you are looking at solar gains then ensure that you at least
have a plan that shows orientation, external environment etc.
Please DO NOT explain the process of calculation.use the words to critique your
analysis / results! Also do not forget that you have set yourself targets in phase 1 of the
assignment, that these will possibly evolve / change, and that you must remember to
refer back to / reflect on them at all stages in the assignment.
Please ensure that the following information is contained on the title page of your
submission:

Surname, Forename, Student ID

Programme (BArch or MEng)
Unit Number [in the case of the South Africa Unit please clearly identify that
you are part of this unit]

In addition, ensure that each section (phase) is clearly identified, this supplemented
with a contents page at the beginning of the document.
Your submission must be accompanied by an electronic version of the work
submitted on CD / DVD. This electronic version must be a single PDF file no greater
than 20Mb in size. Additionally you will be required to upload a version of this to
Moodle / Turnitin by the deadline. Please name the file in the following convention
SURNAME_FORENAME_STUDENT ID

Submission Dates

Full Submission Deadline:

Monday 19th January 2015. 3:00pm. ESLC. 12 x
A3 sheets - printed and bound including Statement of Intent. 1 x CD / DVD
copy. Electronic submissions also to be uploaded to Moodle / Turnitin.

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Project Brief. September 2014

Assessment Criteria
As mentioned above, the project is structured as four interrelated components
namely a statement of intent, design development, design reflection and design
resolution / finalisation. You will be assessed therefore on how well you can identify,
rigorously explore and critically reflect upon the design of your projects envelope.
Remember that the envelope is key in modifying the prevailing climate and is
essential in helping to determine occupant comfort within the building. It modifies the
flow of energy through opaque elements, through transparent elements and of
course through openings. Additionally, you will be assessed on your ability to identify
appropriate technologies / systems / services that work in tandem with your
envelope strategy / strategies in order to provide a comfortable environment for your
buildings occupants. It may be that you do not need additional technologies /
systems to provide comfort and if this is the case then you must provide justification as
to why you have not provided such systems.
To successfully undertake this project you will need to understand the specifics of and
interrelationships between different components and how they affect energy flows.
You will be expected to look critically at heat transfer through the key parts of the
envelope (opaque, transparent etc), which parts of the envelope may be causing
you issues (such as thermal bridging etc), how your building is ventilated, how you
gain (or harvest) heat, how you control excessive gain and so on. You will be
expected to demonstrate that you understand which parts of your envelope may
give rise to issues (e.g. excessive heat loss or gains), how you can tackle these and so
on. And of course you will be expected to make an informed decision as to
appropriate systems / technologies that can be implemented to provide
comfortable conditions for the occupants of your building. Importantly you will be
expected to demonstrate that you have set yourself some goals / challenges from
the outset of the project that you will be working towards. Finally you will be expected
to show that you can resolve key issues in a rigorous manner.
By rigorously exploring your building from individual component to full system level,
you may identify strengths and shortcomings that could further improve its
performance. Specifically you will be assessed on:
1
your ability to identify options available to you and implement these within
an evolving design process
2
your ability to rigorously explore these using for example calculation, rule
of thumb and so on and reflect upon them within the wider context of the
buildings design (e.g. the relationship between solar gains, ventilation
and fabric performance, liveability, best practice, heating and cooling
systems etc)
3
your ability to clearly and critically explain how these work and how they
influence each other
4
your ability to identify key areas for improvement or further exploration,
once again in a manner consistent with criteria 1 to 3
5
your ability to identify benchmarks and exemplars of good practice and
explore the performance of your envelope within this wider context (e.g.
Code for Sustainable Homes, BREEAM, SAP, PassivHaus, Approved
Document L, etc)
6
your ability to communicate your ideas in a legible, coherent, relevant
and elegant manner,
7
your ability to critically appraise (or reflect on) your own work (mature
reflection on the strong and weak aspects of design will be valued
equally).

Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this assignment, students will demonstrate:

Environmental Science for Architects 2.

Project Brief. September 2014

1.

an understanding of the heat/energy flows that take place within

buildings and how they affect the operation of a building, its energy
consumption (and resultant carbon emissions) and occupant
comfort/satisfaction
an ability to account for these flows in a rigorous manner, assess their
relative importance, explore them in detail and reflect critically on them
using a range of analytical, technical and observational tools and
techniques
an awareness of the low-energy/energy efficient technologies/ systems/
approaches and how they may help offset the energy /carbon demands
associated with these flows
an ability to identify synergies between the flows and the
technologies/systems/approaches in a manner that is coherent, rigorous
and relevant to the context within which they sit
an ability to perform a basic energy/carbon audit of a building that
considers carefully points 1 to 4 of these learning outcomes
organisation skills and an ability to manage time carefully
an ability to interpret, manage, manipulate and communicate complex
and interrelated information in a manner that is appropriate, rigorous,
creative and legible.

2.

3.

4.

5.
6.
7.

Marking Guide
The following provides guidance as to what is expected for each marks band.
Letter
Grade
A+

Marks
Equivalent
78+

A
A-

75
72

B+
B

68
65

BC+

62
58

C
C-

55
52

D+
D

48
45

D-

42

Description
Excellent: As with very good with consistent evidence of substantial originality,
creativity and insight in identifying, generating and communicating appropriate
environmental science ideas which have been rigorously and critically appraised
with respect to the problem, solution and overall implications on the design
typology and other strategies.
Very good: As with good with frequent evidence of insight into the process and
demonstrates a clear and systematic approach to defining, analysing and
generating a response that is appropriate to the typology. Information /
evidence presented is critical, rigorous and reflective and of a level and style
appropriate to the discipline and the target audience.
Good: Demonstrates a robust understanding of the fundamental concepts
surrounding environmental science and shows a high degree of ability in
exploring and applying these concepts. Work convincingly presents a case,
provides coherent justification for the strategies and critically reflects on its
strengths, weaknesses and relationships with other strategies at play. Information
is communicated clearly.
Adequate:
Demonstrates an adequate understanding and application of
fundamental environmental science concepts. Develops an argument and
provides acceptable, critical and reflective justification for the strategies
presented. Communicates information and ideas adequately to the target
audience.
Comfortable Pass:
Demonstrates some understanding and application of
fundamental environmental science concepts. Develops an argument and
provides some acceptable critical and reflective justification for the strategies
presented. Can communicate information and ideas to the target audience.
Bare Pass: Demonstrates a superficial, partial or slightly faulty understanding of
environmental science and its exploration. Demonstrates a limited ability to
critically reflect on the decisions taken. Aspects of a students argument are
underdeveloped and / or unsupported.
Information is communicated
inconsistently and with a lack of clarity.

Environmental Science for Architects 2.

Project Brief. September 2014
F

38

FX

32
25

XZ
DNS

15
0
DNS

Fail (minor improvements): Demonstrates an awareness of environmental science

but with deficiencies in understanding and exploring these. Little evidence of
critical or reflective appraisal and workings are factually inconsistent
Communication of information or ideas is partially confused or incomplete.
Fail (major improvements): Demonstrates clear deficiencies in understanding,
applying or communicating the most basic of environmental science strategies.
Work shows a complete lack of rigour. Does not meet most or all of the basic
assessment criteria to pass.

Did not submit

Words of Advice
1. Design development. It is advisable for you to chronicle your design
development as you progress. A considerable part of this assignment rests on
the work you do up to your studio / tectonics review in December. You can
easily complete this as you go along (do not leave it to the last minute!).
2. Aspiration. Dont forget what it is that you have set out to achieve and make
sure you relate back to this at all stages. You should be ambitious from the
outset of your project and seek to produce solutions that exceed minimum
requirements.
3. Scope. The brief clearly expects you to demonstrate that you know how your
envelope comes together and how it informs heat / energy transfer in the
building. As such you need to tackle walls, windows, doors, floors, ceilings,
roofs etc and in so doing look at bespoke elements, proprietary elements,
ventilation, issues such as solar gain and so on.
4. Further reading. The lectures can only cover so much material and explicit
guidance is made to relevant documentation (such as CIBSE Guide A). It is
important that you familiarise yourself with the further reading as it will provide
answers to many of your problems. An extensive reading list containing
essential and recommended reading is available on Moodle.
5. Sketches. These are exceptionally important and help us establish the context
for your work
6. Calculations. To be used as a way of informing the design process. Provide
workings where appropriate.
7. Critical reflection. Ensure that whatever you do is critically appraised.

Notes for the South Africa Unit

It is important that you understand the climate within which your building sits as this
presents some interesting challenges for you. One challenge may be air tightness is
this desirable or necessary in this climate? If you are relying on natural ventilation to
cool the occupants / building during warm periods then air tightness becomes less of
an important issue. However if you plan to mechanically cool the building then air
tightness does of course become in issue (you dont want to be cooling down
unwanted hot air). If during the winter months you are entering a heating regime
then once again air tightness does become an issue (you dont want to be heating
up unwanted cold air). A similar debate can take place when looking at insulation
(and different insulation types including reflective insulation).
With respect to performance targets, it is important that you reflect on your design
properly. It is appreciated that the context within which your building sits may not
necessarily square with the performance targets outlined within UK and European
regulations however it is important to clearly outline yourself what your performance
targets (aspirations) are based on the context within which your building sits. You may
find these within S.A. regulations for example, or in building exemplars from the

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Environmental Science for Architects 2.

Project Brief. September 2014

region. You must remember that your object is to keep your occupants cool when it is
warm and warm when it is cool so what does your envelope need to do in order to
achieve this? From this you will be able to identify clear targets from which your
design will evolve and the servicing requirements needed to keep your occupants
comfortable.

Peter Rutherford & Robin Wilson. September 2014

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