Week 6

The group finished designing a computer model of the "pods" of the THMF in SketchUp.The rough draft of the final design report was started and plans to begin construction of a prototype were drawn up; after it was realized that the group was falling behind in the production of a prototype, as seen above. The group also realized that more research needs to be done with respect to placing a double facade on a building, in retrospect to how efficient a double facade would be.

This week was mainly spent doing research, which can be found in the Information/Resources tab as well as in the papers linked to in that section. Further detail was added to the design ideas, which can be found in the Design Description tab.

Week 5

The group looked over the various simulations made. They also added in a model of the Amtrak Cira Center as the building to which the facade will be added. At this point the group was still considering a double layered glass facade, placing the flowers inside the "chimney" of the facade. This facade could then be used to help cool or heat the building through convection. At first they thought that the convection current between the two panes of glass would allow the façade to remain in a more "open" position in hotter conditions. The cooling effects of the convection would allow light to enter to building yet filter the heat of solar radiation. However, they later reconsidered and decided to place the pieces on the outside of this double-skin facade. Doing this would allow the design, now called the Transformative Heat Monitoring Facade (THMF) to monitor the heat, rather than the amount of light. The facade would close when the facade was too hot and allow the convection current to recover.

 This image shows the facade piece from the front completely closed.

Here is another piece partly opened:

 This is another view of a section of the facade almost completely open.

This is an image of the facade pieces at various stages behind the outer layer of glass and affixed a certain distance from the existing windows, made before considering the benefits of monitoring heat instead of light.

Week 4

The group began to do more in depth research about their design, investigating similar designs and how their design is or is not superior. Some group members also began to make simulations and 3D models of the facade using Google Sketchup.

The group members did not have much experience with this program, and making this three-dimensional shape was a bit difficult. Eventually member was able to have some measure of success, though the group was unable to make a video of the transformation, as they had wanted. Instead three stages of the movement (open, partially open and closed) were made in order to give viewers an idea of what would be happening.

We also found a video of a model of a similar design in which the movement was directed from the center rather than the corners.

However, we kept our design as directed from the corners, as this allows us to have a very simple mechanism for operation. The facade can be mounted at the corners on a square frame, and the rods of this square frame can rotate to move the leaves/petals of the different parts. These rods can then be connected to the building with a second set of rods.