4.432/4.433 Modeling Urban Energy Flows: Towards Resilient Cities and Neighborhoods

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1 4.432/4.433 Modeling Urban Energy Flows: Towards Resilient Cities and Neighborhoods Department School of Architecture and Planning (Course 4) Time / Location Instructor Teaching Assistant Prerequisites TR 9:30-11:00, Room (Lecture) R 11:00-12:00, Room (Lab) Carlos Cerezo, Instructor, Architecture (ccerezod@mit.edu) Nathan Brown, PhD Candidate, Architecture (ncbrown@mit.edu) 4.401/4.464 or Permission of instructors Basic knowledge of Rhinoceros/Grasshopper 1. Simulated annual energy use in Boston s Back Bay (Cerezo, Bemis, Reinhart 2016) Course Description The United Nations estimates that the number of city-dwellers worldwide will grow until 2030 at a net rate of about two million per week. In parallel, greenhouse gas emissions are at an all-time high, and unless dramatically reduced, we will experience an increase of more than 2 C in global mean temperature, along with unmanageable sea level rise and more frequent extreme weather events. In response to those global challenges, city governments world-wide have developed ambitious long-term GHG emission reduction targets such as 60% by 2025 (San Francisco) or 80% by 2050 (New York City and Boston). Given that buildings are responsible for 40% or more of most countries GHG emissions, strategies on how to improve their energy and resource efficiency are an integral component of any municipal sustainable development plan. While reducing energy and emissions is necessary for producing a sustainable and resilient built environment, it is just one aspect of many that need to be addressed in a holistic approach to urban design and planning. Neighborhoods also need to offer healthy and comfortable indoor and outdoor spaces, and support diverse means of transportation. This becomes especially relevant during catastrophic energy system failures, when access to electricity, heating or cooling might not be available. To face these situations, neighborhoods and buildings need to be designer with resiliency in mind, and integrate distributed energy storage and renewable generation. How can architects, urban designers and planners account for these diverse issues in their urban projects? Date: 22 January 2018 Page 1

2 To address this question, the primary objective of this class is the study and simulation of energy and material flows in and around groups of buildings for a specific climate, and their impact on key environmental performance indicators such as building energy use, access to daylight, indoor and outdoor thermal comfort, and walkability. In particular, students will learn how to quantify the impact of future climates and local microclimatic effects such as shading from neighboring buildings, localized wind patterns, and the urban heat island effect (UHI) on these environmental indicators. Additionally, and depending on the selected case studies, more complex analysis metrics will be reviewed throughout the semester, including real estate economic viability, electric micro grid performance or hydroponic urban farming production. The course will provide tools to explore how decisions regarding urban form, density and use will affect these performance metrics, particularly useful for students interested in design, planning and policy. The course is designed with a hands on approach, focused on metrics and tools rather than on theoretical knowledge. Throughout the term, students will work in groups of 3 or 4 and apply the presented contents to develop a neighborhood design proposal for a given site in either Boston (MA) or San Juan (PR). Examples from previous course projects can be found at the MIT Sustainable Design Lab website. The class is open to all members of the MIT community. While not strictly required, previous exposure to building technology (through classes such as 4.401/4.464 and 4.424J/ 2.52J), design and/or urban planning will become assets, since we will be working at the interface of these three fields. The instructor will ensure that all groups are well balanced and have members representing all disciplines. 2. Daylight and density in New York (Saratsis, Dogan, Reinhart 2016) Learning Objectives At the end of this course, students will be able to: Evaluate new or existing neighborhoods regarding key environmental performance indicators including: energy consumption, material consumption, daylight hours, indoor/outdoor comfort, thermal resilience, energetic autonomy and neighborhood walkability. Run computer simulations for these metrics, based on 3D models generated in Rhinoceros and using MIT s Urban Modeling Interface ( Understand urban microclimates and future weather scenarios, as well as their impact on building heating, cooling and ventilation needs. Test urban design interventions and zoning regulations, to improve these performance metrics at the scale of a neighborhood or district. Date: 22 January 2018 Page 2

3 Course Format The class format will consist of two weekly 90 minute lectures and a 60 minutes lab session. Work for the class will be divided into a series of homework assignments that successively build up to a mixed-use neighborhood proposal for one of the two selected sites in Boston (cold climate) or San Juan (hot climate). In each proposal students will be asked to accommodate one to two hundred residential and commercial buildings, and develop a plan for public spaces, use distribution, and systems. A key task for all groups will be the use of digital analysis methods to build a convincing argument as to why a particular proposal deserves to be called 'sustainable' or resilient. All homework will be developed also in groups, and will start by exploring performance at the scale of the block. The instructor and members of the Sustainable Design Lab will closely work with all student groups on defining overall project goals and specific deliverables. Possible questions students will be able to explore are: What urban building massing solutions ideally balance a good access to daylight with an annual building energy use reduction? Is natural ventilation an option throughout the year in Boston or San Juan? Will it still be in option in 2080 with predicted temperature increases? For how long can a neighborhood stay energy-autonomous if the electric grid fails, by using renewable generation and storage? Is it possible to create a mixed use net zero community in a cold climate like Boston? How many hours can buildings maintain safe temperatures in San Juan, if air conditioning is not available after a catastrophic hurricane such as Maria? How can we write zoning regulations for urban environmental performance? 3. Hourly demands and solar generation for a class project (Hopkins, Barbour, Sun, Littlefield 2017) Course Requirements Attendance and active participation in all lectures and labs is mandatory. Timely completion of all assignments is also required. Assignment types, due dates and grading weights are listed below. Presentations for the semester long project will be graded based on the clarity of the project s objectives, originality and inner logic of the design, sophistication of analysis techniques used and comprehensiveness of the final design. Date: 22 January 2018 Page 3

4 Assignment/Requirement Due Date Grade Weight Active participation in class - 10% Ass 1 Project goals & urban layout study Feb 15 5% Ass 2 Protoblock daylighting Mar 22 5% Ass 3 Protoblock energy Mar 1 5% 1 st Presentation Protoblock design concept Mar 8 15% Ass 4 Solar PV and storage Mar 22 5% Ass 5 Thermal comfort and future climate Apr 12 5% 2 nd Presentation Resilient neighborhood concept Apr 19 15% Ass 6 Urban zoning rules Apr 27 5% Final Presentation Neighborhood proposal May 10 25% Ass 7 Neighborhood package May 17 5% Software and Tools Throughout the course, we will be using a Rhinoceros/Grasshopper-based urban modeling environment called UMI as well as a series of compatible, third party Grasshopper components. UMI enables urban designers to model new and/or existing neighborhoods regarding operational energy, embodied energy, daylight, thermal comfort and neighborhood walkability. Selected UMI modules can be used in Grasshopper for parametric urban design analysis and optimization. Detailed software installation instructions and support will be provided in class and during lab. Additional custom tools will be prepared when required during the course depending on student needs for the semester projects. The specific programs used are: Rhinoceros 5.0 ( Grasshopper 3d ( UMI 3.01 beta (Will be provided via the course website) Diva for Rhino 4.0 ( Academic Integrity As in any other MIT course and especially in a research context, plagiarism and cheating are not acceptable. Never turn in an assignment that is not your own work, or products that do not include your work as part of team. If required, please familiarize yourself with the MIT Academic Integrity Handbook that can be downloaded from References A course reader will be provided at the beginning of class along with additional materials and publication references that will be posted weekly on the course web site. Date: 22 January 2018 Page 4

5 WEEK TUESDAY LECTURE ( ) THURSDAY LECTURE ( ) THURSDAY LAB ( ) ASSIGNMENT (due date *) 1 Feb 6 / L01 Course introduction Feb 8 / L02 Previous Projects Feb 8 / Software tools and UMI 2 Feb 13 / L03 Daylight: Metrics and calculation methods Feb 15 / L04 Daylight: Urban modeling and zoning approaches Feb 15 / UMI daylighting module A1 / Site goals and layout (Feb 15) Protoblock analysis Feb 20 / No class, Monday schedule due to Presidents Day Feb 27 / L06 Energy: Urban modeling, calibration and occupants Mar 6 / L08 Environmental urban regulations and zoning Feb 22 / L05 Energy: Thermal calculations and simulation Mar 1 / L07 Natural ventilation: Metrics and basic modeling Mar 8 / Student Presentation I - PROTOBLOCK Feb 22 / UMI energy module A2 / Protoblock daylighting (Feb 22) Mar 1 / Natural ventilation module A3 / Protoblock energy (Mar 1) Mar 8 / Student Presentation I - PROTOBLOCK (continued) 6 Mar 13 / L09 Solar PV panel modeling and net zero buildings Mar 15 / L10 Material LCA and building carbon emissions Mar 15 / PV module and UMI LCA 7 Mar 20 / L11 District energy supply and storage systems Mar 22 / L12 Energy autonomy and micro grids (GUEST TBD) Mar 22 / UMI supply module A4 / Solar PV and storage (Mar 22) 8 Spring Break (Mar 26-30) Neighborhood analysis Apr 3 / L13 Thermal comfort and outdoor space modeling Apr 10 / L15 Climate change and weather morphing Apr 5 / L14 Heat risks and thermal resilience (Cedeno) Apr 12 / L16 Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect Apr 17 / No class due to Patriot s Day Apr 19 / Student Presentation II - NEIGHBORHOOD Apr 24 / L17 Walkability, bikability and parking May 1 / L19 Urban data gathering and visualization (GUEST TBD) Apr 27 / L18 Real estate development value (Turan/Chegut) May 3 / L20 Developing UMI modules: Food production (Benis) May 8 / Meeting with groups May 10 / Student Presentations III - FINAL PROJECT Apr 5 / Outdoor thermal comfort module Apr 12 / Weather file morphing with WWG and UWG Apr 19 / Student Presentation II - NEIGHBORHOOD (continued) A5 / Thermal comfort resilience (Apr 12) Apr 27 / UMI mobility and finance A6 / Zoning rules proposal (Apr 27) May 3 / Intro to coding in UMI May 10 / Student Presentation III - FINAL PROJECT (continued) May 15 / L21 Post mortem & the future May 17 / No class A7 / Neighborhood package (May 17) * Unless otherwise noted, assignments have to be submitted to Stellar by 9.30 AM on the due date, or by 11 PM the day before for the final presentation. Date: 22 January 2018 Page 5