Gresham City Hall has a terrible summer overheating problem on it’s west-facing offices. Students were asked to create shading devices for a typical window and examine how it affected both the exterior appearance and the interior environment in their second assignment.
GREEN FACADES: Luxuriant growth by Bill Kirkwood |
BOX VARIATIONS Oblique Slats by Jon Deleonardo |
ORGANICALLY INSPIRED Crystal Boxes by Drew Krauss |
 Shading Vines by Jason Bauer |
 Skewed Brise-Soleil by Kate Kandell |
 Mega Shade Structure by Casey Kent |
 Sculptured Slats by Ellen Hagen |
 Vertical Sails by Sina Meier |
 Waving Strips by Adina Tudorache |
 Framed Sculptural Strips by Tony Walsh |
 Slithering Strips by Zach Prowda |
 Organic Visor by Kat Martenson |
SHADING WEST-FACING FACADES
– Some view needs to be sacrificed to block the low afternoon summer sun. A vegetative solution such as quick-growing deciduous trees could work well with Gresham’s green image.
– Multiple components can work together. Combination of vertical and horizontal elements blocks better than only one direction.
Blinds for a limited time can supplement external shades.
– Shades that open at the top and raise from the bottom can optimize daylighting while blocking glare
SECONDARY DESIGN IDEAS
– To reduce lighting costs add skylights in open offices near the corridors
– Thin-film PhotoVoltaic Laminates could be used to shade the southern and western exposures : gresham nano-solar as a demonstration project for a local business
– Aesthetically, color could relieve monotony of repetitive units. For example, a color gradation over the whole facade would unify and activate the building appearance.
DESIGN PROCESS IDEAS
– quick iterations with simple tools gave good design feedback about shading effectiveness/ As a first pass, simple cardboard fins around a rectangle with a sun path + gnomon to locate the light source OR Sketchup interactive sunpath worked well for identifying effective components.
– Show whole elevation to understand the composition